Saturday, January 1, 2011
Morty the Dog # 1
Do not be misled by the numbering. This is actually the second of a three issue run.
The first issue was Morty the Dog # nothing, released in an odd oblong minicomic format.
Issue # 1 was printed in April, 1987 and consists of reprints from Natural Functions, Tales From the Timewalker, Starhead # 9, and Shin Kage.
This was one of my few nationally distributed comix. I think Michael intended it to be a quarterly. It is now a fairly common visitor on eBay. Notice Michael's recognition of the famous black and white glut of the mid-late 1980s in his intro.
I notice that on the inside back cover advertisement, I'm the only artist listed who is still above ground today. Little shudders like that creep into my cranium on a more frequent basis these days as I reacquaint myself with these old comix. I never knew Sloan, sad to say, but Big Daddy Roth and I had sort of an interesting connection. I covered it in a minicomic called Musical Chairs.
Nils Osmar, who has an ad on the back cover, is a Seattle artist, writer and nice guy I met a few times at those comix get-togethers Bruce Chrislip used to host up there before he skeedaddled back to Ohio. Nils is apparently still active in Seattle and has a webpage worth visiting.
The panel in the first story where the scientist shows Morty the Starhead Comix on display under museum glass was sort of how I felt seeing the Tragedy of Morty on display in Maryhill Museum last October!
Labels:
Big Daddy Roth,
Black and white comix glut,
Bruce Chrislip,
Maryhill Museum,
Michael Dowers,
Morty the Dog,
Morty the Dog # 1,
Nils Osmar,
Ric Sloan,
Starhead Comix