The Wild World of Obscuro Comix

This is a VHS videorecording of a lecture I gave at a community event in Olympia, Washington, December 1993, sponsored by South Puget Sound Community College (SPSCC). It is not on YouTube, and I'm sort of a klutz with the online video-to-computer graphics, so you are stuck with still shots taken by my phone while the thing is playing on my bulbous antique television set.

Actually I'm scheduled to give another local presentation much like this one in April except the focus will be more on Puget Sound artists in the prehistoric era of self-publishing, when we used to make our drawings on clay tablets and send them to each other via the Woolly Mammoth Express.

This video was included in my Cheaper by the Dozen reviews on OlyBlog. Here's what I wrote about it on September 7, 2008:

The Wild World of Obscuro Comix (Piece of My Mind) / directed by Steve Whalen (1993, VHS). Steve Willis. Originally presented as part of SPSCC's Piece of My Mind series. When I played this the cats left the room, my companion claimed she was, er, "tired" and needed to sleep, the house itself snored and even I got drowsy. This was me 15 years ago giving a lecture about the evolution of comic art leading to "Newave" or "Obscuro" comix. I was a college faculty at the time, so it is very lectury. I'm using an overhead projector, which gives you an idea of how exciting this is. When I gave this talk at the Olympia Community Center I had no idea it would be broadcast over and over on TCTV for a year. Otherwise I would've combed my hair. Only the most esoteric of comix historians would be interested in this presentation. I say "Um" a lot, which I tend to do in front of cameras. This video might still be available at SPSCC, otherwise, you are out of luck. Heh-heh. Bil Keane, City Limits Gazette, and Morty the Dog get a special mention. The first thing I noticed when viewing this was back then I had thick hair and a thin body. Now I have thin hair and a thick body.