Senior comic creator bill morrison Working with Zup Launching his first crowdfunding campaign for his creator-owned book, Roswell little green men!
The Beat reached out to Morrison to discuss the inspiration behind the project, the creative process behind his book, and what he hopes fans will take away from flipping through the book.
Diego Higuera: What prompted you to bring this project to fruition now?
Bill Morrison: Well, this question has been on my mind for years since I left the program to move on futurama. I always wanted to come back and resurrect it, but I never did. One thing gets in the way, and then another. But the biggest inspiration is that every time I do a convention or a store signing, I almost always have at least one person come up to me and ask when I’m bringing Roswell back. This has kept me going over the years and keeping it as one of those projects in my head that I think there are still people who want to see. Now we have crowdfunding, which is a convenient way to launch something, put it in front of the public and see if there’s still interest.
Higuera: That’s great. I assume you’ve received a lot of feedback on this as well. Especially working with Zoop and everyone, I think there must be people hungry for this.
Morrison: The response has been very good. This particular book that we’re about to publish will be the first collection of all of Roswell’s existing material to date, including all the bongo stuff, as well as some of the independent stuff that I’ve done with Roswell. Some are never seen posters, some are new. You know, if it releases and people dig it, then that will lead to a new ongoing series.
Higuera: What fans can expect from this series roswell, little green men?
Morrison: I created several Roswell pieces for independent books a few years ago, including one by Dan DeCarlothis Archie Artist, originally published in black and white, will be published in color for the first time. I also did a four-page essay for a book called spark generator That’s how I got the idea for Roswell. That will be there, plus, I’ve written a few stories over the years that would be part of an ongoing series if that happened. One of them was a story I wrote for a Halloween special issue, and I contacted Jack Davis Ask him to do the cover.
So I have an original piece of Jack Davis that has never been seen before. Mark Schultz Working on a brand new poster. I have one too Eric Powell Posters never seen during the original Roswell campaign. So there’s definitely some good stuff from my cartoonist friends that I’m seeing for the first time. This is just the first time all Roswell materials have been put together in one package. We did a Roswell trade paperback at Bongo, but it only included the first three issues, plus what we had in The Simpsons Comics, so it will contain all of that material, plus the stuff I just mentioned.
Higuera: Why a zoo?
Morrison: This is really great and works for me. I had never done a crowdfunding project before and everything Zoop provided made it very easy. I really don’t, or at least, I don’t feel like I have the time to achieve what I have accomplished in terms of rewards and such. Zoop handles all of that, so that’s appealing to me, and so far it’s been really great.
Higuera: Can you tell us more about the previously unseen posters featuring Jack Davis, Eric Powell, and Art Balthazar?
Morrison: Yes, by Jack Davis, it’s a Halloween story, and one of the scenes involves Roswell, Julian, and Jasper, the three main protagonists, entering this strange nightclub run by ghouls and ghosts. The scene shows the three of them sitting at a table, along with a fanged waitress who is a typically creepy Jack Davis character. So I’m very excited about that. I love Jack Davis’ designs. i like him for crazy monster party 1967 movie. It’s harkening back to that; it has that vibe. Art Balthazar, he did a poster when I was doing the original Roswell for Bongo.
I have created back cover posters featuring guest artists such as Dan DeCarlo. Chris Youngbar, and Mike Manley. I even commissioned art but when futurama It came along, it consumed all my time, and I had to put Roswell on hold. That particular piece had been sitting in a drawer, out of sight and never painted. I haven’t discussed it with Art yet whether he should do the coloring himself or let me handle it. But everything will be in color, including Eric Powell’s work. His work is a beautiful black and white ink drawing of Julian and Roswell. We might present it as is, or I might ask Eric to color it for me.
Higuera: It’s awesome and it’s interesting because now when people think roswellthey might view it as a niche or older comic. You really don’t see comics like this anymore. like you mentioned Crazy Monster Partysuch plans are rare these days. So it’s exciting to see this project making a comeback and generating enthusiasm. How do you feel?
Morrison: It feels really good. The landscape of comics has changed a lot, and competition between different genres is fierce. There’s a wealth of young adult material exploring a wide range of interests, so people are excited about it roswell Really inspiring. It risks getting lost in the mix with all the great content, but I hope people see it as something unique and interesting – not just for the original audience, but for a whole new audience. I really hope people enjoy it.
Higuera: How did the collaboration with DiCarlo come about?
Morrison: marvelous. Dan and I became good friends through Roswell. I’m a big fan of his art, and when I started writing this book, I reached out to him and said, ‘Hey, I’m a big fan of his art and I’m writing this book called roswell, little green men. I was wondering if you’d be willing to make a poster for it. He responded, “Send me some copies so I can look at it and I’ll let you know.” So I did that and he sent me a note back. It was so flattering – he said he’d be happy to do a poster, but only if he could do pencils and let me ink, because he thought my inks were really great.
It’s incredible to be complimented by someone like Dan DeCarlo, a professional I admire so much. At the time, I wouldn’t say I was a beginner, but I was pretty new to comics, and it was an amazing feeling to be praised by a legend like him. We developed a friendship as a result.
Later, when I was working as an editor at Bongo, I hired Dan to do layout. The first thing I asked him to do was a Treehouse of Horror story, which I wrote just for him. It is a parody of I’m a Teenage Frankenstein involving characters from the Simpsons universe, as well as a parody of the Archie character. I needed teenagers in the story, so I created doppelgangers for Reggie, Archie, Betty, Veronica, Jughead, Moose, and others. Dan painted it and it turned out great.
When he stopped getting work from Archie, I hired him to write more stories for Bongo. He does a lot of the layout because he’s a great storyteller. We had artists who could draw the characters on the models, but they weren’t good at laying out the story, so they worked from Dan’s layout.
During that time, I was asked to do a standalone Roswell story. I didn’t have much time to draw it in pencil, but I knew Dan could use the piece, so I asked him if he wanted to draw it and I would ink it again. We work together and it’s fun. The original version had a light-blocking film, like Zip-A-Tone, that was kind of screen-blocking, so it wasn’t colored. But this time, it will be in color for the first time.
Higuera: As a co-founder of Bongo Comics, how do you see their influence on Roswell’s work?
Morrison: Well, it was through Bongo that I became a writer and editor. I started writing Simpsons comics even before Bongo, when we had The Simpsons Illustrated Magazine. This was the genesis of comics, with each issue having a full page of comics. This led to the one-off comic book The Simpsons Comics and Stories, and due to its success we launched Bongo. That was a real formative time for me. I always thought of myself as just an artist and didn’t really think of myself as a writer. But in my early years I had the opportunity to work with The Simpsons Illustrated Start writing.
I wrote a story in Simpsons Comics and Stories, and it was my first story that was longer than three pages—I think it was about eight pages long. Then, in The Simpsons Comics #6, I wrote my first full-length story. Like I said, this is a growth period. After the first year at Bongo, when Steve and Cindy Vance left, they asked me to be editor, which was another milestone. I had never been an editor before, but this opened up a lot of opportunities for me. I had to supervise and train young writers to create stories for us, and if I had time, I would often write the stories myself. I also draw covers and the occasional story, so it’s been a great experience.
In the mid-1990s, Matt Groening Give some of us at Bongo a chance to create our own books. It took me a while – maybe a few years – to figure out what I wanted to do, but eventually, I came up with the idea for Roswell. Matt liked it, so we started publishing it. It was such an amazing time, going from someone who just thought of himself as an artist, to getting all these opportunities to write, edit, and ultimately create his own books and characters. This is truly extraordinary.
Higuera: Moving on, what do you think has been the most rewarding aspect of working on this project so far?
Morrison: This actually has to do with the fans’ reaction. When you write or draw a comic book, it goes out into the world, and a lot of times, you don’t get much back. You just move on to the next project. Unless you spend a lot of time trawling the web for reviews, or if you work for a publisher that gets a lot of fan mail and forwards it to you, you’re not going to really hear back from people. That’s why conferences and in-store signings are so important. These are places where I can get feedback on what I do, whether it’s positive or negative.
When that happens, it’s incredibly rewarding. It’s a bit like the difference between a film actor and a stage actor. Stage actors get instant feedback—they know immediately whether they succeeded or failed based on the audience’s reaction. But for film and television actors, and especially comic book artists and writers, feedback isn’t always easy. So it’s great when you get a positive reaction from fans. It can help you satisfy and influence the way you complete your next project. It definitely affects the way you move forward.
Higuera: Is there anything else you would like to say to your fans at the end?
Morrison: Thank you for sticking with me all these years. I want to give a special thank you to everyone who has asked about Roswell and when it will be back. I’m so happy to finally say it’s back and your long wait is over!
To learn more about this project, be sure to check out the event on Zoop!
