Ambergris

Ambergris was first published July 14, 2001, 40 copies on yellow cardstock. Six more copies, also on yellow cardstock, were printed as the 1st Danger Room Reprint Ed. in June 2005. In fact, the copy scanned here is one of those. The edition statement is on the last page. Both editions were published right here in McCleary, Washington. It was also scanned and presented on OlyBlog in 2007.

During the first few years of Century 21 I stopped hand lettering several of my stories as an experiment. It was an attempt to put an emphasis on the writing and I thought the typescript letters looked more formal.

Also, after a life threatening surgery in 1995, I found that my drawing hand had lost quite a bit of steadiness. For awhile I was using #1 lead pencils as my drawing tool, as I did here in Ambergris. For many years the felt tip pens picked up on my shaking hand like a seismograph and I found the #1 lead pencil to be steadier. I also enjoyed the texture of the line it made and how grainy it appeared when the image was enlarged. My drawing hand has since regained enough steadiness where I can use felt tip again.

The little guy in the story who is singing is a character I invented in the 1970s while a student at The Evergroove State College in Olympia, Washington. He has yet to be named. Using poetry and song in my comix is one of my joys.

As with many of these scanned images, you will have to click on each one to read the text without squinting.