Bezango WA 985 #1

First published Oct. 28, 2001, 25 copies with a yellow cardstock cover.

The 2nd, revised edition was published November 28, 2001, 27 copies, yellow cardstock cover.

3rd ed., June 2002, 15 copies, blue cover.

Starting in August 2002 and lasting for a brief time, this was a print-on-demand comic. Apparently printed in a variety of colors. I have no idea how many are out there.

The 1st Danger Room Ed. of June 2005 had 5 copies (1 each in blue, red, yellow, pink, green).

All editions are digest size.

Parts of the series were converted to the stage in August 2002 (info on this was covered in an earlier post).

In June-July 2007 the entire run was exhibited at Batdorf & Bronson, a coffeehouse in downtown Olympia, Washington. Issues 1-4 in June, issues 5-8 in July. Garden stakes were hung in a horizontal manner, clotheslines were then stretched along the stake, and pages from the book were attached to the lines with clothespins.

Although some of my comix comrades might not consider this title to be true comic art, I still think of the Bezango WA 985 series as one of my favorite comic productions. The communication still requires the interaction of text and graphics.

Basically I drew most of my material for this series from the exploits and tales of my fellow residents of Southwest Washington State, a corner of the world that really has yet to be discovered and fully wrecked by the rest of the country. The town of Bezango is a composite of many places and people up here.

I was a little worried that some of the subjects of this series, or their relatives, might be upset about all this. But to my amazement, very few people recognize themselves even though all the other readers know exactly who I'm writing about.

The reason the 2nd edition is revised, as far as I can tell, is that I lopped off the last sentence on page 17.

The original art was drawn with a #1 lead pencil in a very tiny size. Then it was considerably enlarged. The enlarged drawing was then detailed in felt tip or #1 lead pencil.

The characters on pages 6-7 were very real people I knew. The fellow on page 6 was also one of the topics in my Evergroove Trivia history on OlyBlog (pt. 15). The actor who portrayed him on the stage was eerily accurate in his imitation of this man who he could never have known in person.