"Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting, That would not let me sleep: methought I lay Worse than the mutines in the bilboes. Rashly, And praised be rashness for it, let us know, Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well, When our deep plots do pall: and that should teach us There's a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will,--"
1st edition, 1985, 50 copies, blue cover, enlarged digest size.
I have two copies, for sale at $25 each. They are in very good condition with some very slight wear on the covers. The guts are in excellent shape (I wish mine were!)
Check or money order to
Steve Willis
PO Box 390
McCleary, WA 98557-0390
I'm continuing to excavate material as I clean out the studio. Here are several random drawings from notes, letters, and other ephemera, mostly centered from 1977 to about 1983. The academic quarter drawing of an unnamed Morty is one of his earliest appearances, probably in 1978. I included it in a letter and it was never published. A blue card has a draft of Ofeelya from my Tragedy of Morty series. A 1977-drawn two panel view of Seattle anticipated my one-pager for the Seattle Star years later. I think the final page had something to do with one of my brother's plays and is the only piece from Century 21.
The thickest of the 5-issue set. The cover was later used as a poster image for Washington State University's Counter-Culture Comix exhibit.
The last panel on page 25 is one of the funniest lines in the entire series. This came from Lynn Hansen. Lynn was visiting me in Pullman, Washington from his home in Idaho Falls, Idaho at the time I was drawing this particular part of the story and he suggested this ad lib.
This five issue series (a book for each act) was started in Spring 1983 when I lived in Olympia and I brought the project with me across the state to Pullman when I moved there in June/July. The final act was finished at the start of 1985, meaning the whole thing took me over a year and half to draw.
Hamlet is my favorite play. Shakespeare threaded a lot of humor in this tragedy and I wanted to bring that out.
Keeping all five acts in print at the same time was not easy. The 12 copy print run of the 8th edition must've been some effort to top off a complete set.
Someday I want to publish all five acts under one cover. When I do the book will be just about 200 pages.
The final image on the above scroll can be ignored. Somehow my current self-portrait slipped in there.
1st edition, March 1991. Chico, California : Onward Comics. 50 copies. Blue cover, regular digest size.
This one contains a couple pieces new to this blog.
"The Day I Wore Bruce Chrislip's Tie" was originally published in John E.'s Mumbles # 4, I think. Rather fitting this is being scanned and posted on the eve of Bruce and Joan hosting my visit to SPACE later this month. As time has passed I have come to regard this story to be every bit as pretentious and overly dramatic as the art gallery types I make fun of. The term "cringe-worthy" comes to mind when I read it today-- obviously created at a time when I would occasionally lapse into Drama Boy mode. But I do like the panel of Bruce holding his clip-on tie.
Second, the little ad for The Tragedy of Morty, Prince of Denmarke was a bit of self-promotion that had escaped my memory.
