$300 - "No Cigar" Original Art

The original art to a story, "No Cigar." First published, I think in Cartoon Loonacy around 1985-1986.

Features Morty the Dog, the Big G, and even old SW.

This story was reprinted in Retreads 7.

12 pages on light bond stock. 11.5 x 9 in. Felt-tip on nonphoto blue pencil. Not exactly in pristine condition, I'd rate it fair to good. There are no rips, paste-ups, and aside from some dabs on p. 10, no other use of whiteout I can see.

Three hundred smackaroonies will pry this away from me.

$300 ppd.
Check or money order to
Steve Willis
PO Box 390
McCleary, WA 98557-0390

Or order through PayPal

Also check out my other items for sale!

$25 Sale - Retreads 1

Retreads, 1st edition, 1983, Olympia, Washington, 46 copies, salmon cover, enlarged digest size.

Contains reprints from miscellaneous sources, 1976-1983, including the earliest known drawing of a dog called "Mortie."

In excellent condition.

 $25 ppd
Check or money order to
Steve Willis
PO Box 390
McCleary, WA 98557-0390

or order through PayPal

Same Old Stuff!

A comic so obscure I don't even own a copy, although I do have an image of the cover. This was published August 1981, when I lived in Seattle, and only 10 copies exist. I think the leaves were in legal size and they were loose in a portfolio. And I think it consisted of reprints, anticipating my later Retreads series.

Dirt, October 1989

"Kill the Artists" translated and published in the October 1989 issue of a Greek zine that has a title apparently translated as "Dirt." Looks like it was published in Ptolemaida, Greece.

The English version was reprinted in Retreads 9.

Bezango: Ghosts and Love

Olympia Power & Light March 24-April 6, 2010.

Typo alert: "Washington State Academy" is supposed to read "Washington State academic."

The illustration was originally on the cover of one of Max Traffic's issues of Buzzizyk and reprinted in Retreads 14. Is that heart flying away, or, coming in for a landing?

If you are into ghost hunting and sightings in the Olympia area, the colleges seem to be the places to start. I understand that in addition to The Evergreen State College and South Puget Sound Community College, there is another ghost (a monk who committed suicide? Did I get that story right?) over at Saint Martins University in Lacey.

Morti Resurrectus

While rummaging through a trunk to begin scanning the oversize items for this blog, I ran across the original art of "Morti Resurrectus" by George Erling, Jim Ryan, Bruce Chrislip, and J.R. Williams.

This is from the mid-1980s and initially appeared in, I think, Cartoon Loonacy. Later I responded with a four-panel page (reproduced here but not the original).

These three pages also appeared together in Retreads 4.

Stevetreads # 3

1st edition, 1987. Chico, California : Jeff Nicholson. White cover, regular digest size.

The number of copies for the 3rd and 4th issues of this series isn't recorded in my list, but I would assume the count is low since the first two issues had a grand total of 3 copies per issue.

The name Stevetreads was a play on my Retreads title, a series devoted to reprinting items printed hither and yon into one collection (I smile as I recall Ted Bolman wanted to start yet another play on this called ReTeds, which I hope he did). Several of the pieces Jeff reprinted were actually reprints of reprints. But in this issue there was something different. Half the book was filled with new work.

Jeff had acquired several pages of unpublished jam comix between Dale Luciano and myself. This was the in-print debut for the cover art and all work from the "Memories" page to the end. These were later reprinted in 1994 in Dada Gumbo Morty.

Retreads 14

1st edition, December 2005, 25 copies, white cover, regular digest size.

The final issue of this series so far.

There is a strong possibility there will be no issues in the near future for couple reasons. First, I have not been very active as a cartoonist in the last few years. Retreads was a place where I gathered up my comix work that has been published hither and yon. Since 2005 my showbiz energy has been more in the text arena: online at OlyBlog and in hardcopy at Olympia Power and Light.

Secondly, I stopped keeping bibliographical track of my work after October 2007. Since I'm a professional catalog librarian by profession, naturally I kept a running list of all my work for decades. But in 2007 I decided to stop in order to present future bibliographers who give a damn the joy of the hunt for locating the work of my senior years as I slide down the back forty toward oblivion. Hint for an obscuro one: toggle on the logo at the online The Jim and Frank Podcast to catch fellow Washingtonian Pat Moriarity and myself.

Retreads 13

1st edition, December 2005, 25 copies, white cover, regular digest size.

Trivia:

Cover, etc.: There are several images here from the final Morty Comix of the 20th century. Some of them were drawn in Kent, Columbus, and Worthington, Ohio during a business trip in November 1999. Interesting these should surface as I prepare to visit the Buckeye State again next month, but this time for fun-- SPACE!

Page 7: This was an unfinished story originally comprised of perhaps 4 pages. After I decided not to complete the thing I turned it into a Morty Comix.

Page 11: The gentleman with the flute is a portrait of John Barcellona and was used on a poster for an Olympia, Washington concert.

Page 12-13: A guide to Morty Comix originally compiled for OlyBlog.

Page 16-17: Clay Geerdes talked me into interviewing myself, but obviously I wasn't really in the mood at the time.

Page 20: In addition to this newspaper ad I also painted a big sign in color for Salt Creek Farm that had the same basic design as this panel. You can find the owners of this farm on pages 21-23 of How Two Ex-Presidents Went Up My Nose.

Pages 22-23: I miss Loafers in hardcopy and enjoyed drawing covers for them.