Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

Tag: Yellow Submarine

Bill Morrison — Lives In A Yellow Submarine, Too (2)

Original Art and The Artists

The Beatles Yellow Submarine Graphic Novel, 2018

At IDW, we made an enthusiastic and energetic effort to publish this Beatles Yellow Submarine Graphic Novel.  Gave it the “college try” as the old cliché goes. Or “full court press” to employ another common phrase.

But it wasn’t meant to be. Titan picked up the rights (Maybe it was the British connection) and ended up with a fun graphic novel, brilliantly and lovingly penciled by Bill Morrison and inked by Andrew Pepoy and Tone Rodriguez.

This page features all four Beatles, the sub itself (multiple times), and key protagonist “Old Fred.” Minus a blue meanie or two, what’s not to like?

Jose Delbo — Lives In A Yellow Submarine

Original Art and The Artists

Commission, based on artwork from The Yellow Submarine, (originally February 1969)

Coming up faster than I would like to acknowledge is the 55th anniversary of the (1968) release of the wild and wonderful Beatles’ Yellow Submarine animated feature film.

Gold Key (Western Publishing) published the adaptation of the film and charged 35 cents(!) for a copy, partly due to size (64 pages), and partly due (I assume) to steep licensing fees. It was the most I ever paid for a new issue of a comic book at the time. (Marvel and DC annuals were 25 cents.)

Jose Delbo nailed the film’s psychedelic aesthetic perfectly; I’ve never seen an actual original page from the adaptation, so I assume the pages were either destroyed or ended up in a Beatles archive somewhere, waiting to be rediscovered.

In the meantime, Jose’s great commission (undated, probably early 2000s) will do quite nicely.