Starhead Presents # 1

1st edition, 1986, Seattle, Washington : Starhead Comix. Traditional comic format.

I believe this was my first nationally distributed comic, published during the start of the Great Black and White Glut of the 1980s.

50 copies included a hand drawn Morty Comix inside the front cover. The range was # 1641-1690.

A physical oddity: the cover is made of the same newsprint material as the guts.

This was later re-released by Starhead in 1992 under the title Morty the Dog in the Shadow of the Rainbow.

I'm also including the promotional material Starhead's Michael Dowers assembled for marketing to comic dealers.

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South Sound Places

South Sound Places : a Guide to Olympia, Lacey, Tumwater & Thurston County / by Nancy Patterson. 1st ed. Olympia, Wash. : Four Seasons Pub., 1993.

Nancy asked me to illustrate the chapter headings, which were then compiled into a grid for the cover.

Some of the subjects on the cover include:

Samuel Thurston. I agree with the notion Thurston County should be renamed McLoughlin County after Dr. John McLoughlin.

The Legislative Building on the Capitol Campus.

The Old Capitol Building.

The Evergreen State College.

Mount Rainier, which I can see from my office window on clear days.

Tumwater Falls. Most famously known as being on the label of Olympia Beer. A fellow high school classmate of mine once swam behind the falls and grooved out in a cave behind the water. He was back there long enough for rescue teams to start forming, wondering what happened to him. I attended Olympia High School, just a few blocks away from the brewery. The Oly Brew work whistle and the smell of hops on hot days was part of our high school experience.

Phone film 1

Charlie flips out

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State of the Morty Blog, 2/26/11

Still trying to post something every day, and as I look at the pile of material yet to be shared (I originally typed "shred" by accident. Hmmm), there is lots more to do in the scanning and posting department.

We've been slowly making material available via the Mortyshop. The funds we get through sales and the donation button are being poured back into other comix projects. Right now I am looking into the possibility of publishing the 5-part, almost 200 page Tragedy of Morty, Prince of Denmarke as a single volume squarespine paperback in the original legal size enlarged digest.

Of course the big excitement around here is in the preparation for attending SPACE in Columbus, Ohio next month! Sarah is going to remain here in Mortyville to keep the cats fed and the blog warm while I go Back East, so she shall remain a mysterious and shadowy figure, the power behind the blog.

We Rode With the Clowns could be called our first Morty the Blog comic. I'm gathering material for the next one and already have contributions from Harry Bell, Bruce Chrislip, Bob Vojtko, Anvil, and Roldo. Want to climb aboard? Send me a random drawing! The more the merrier.

Here are some interesting numbers, demonstrating we remain very obscure:

Total number of visitors so far: 10,503
43% of you use Firefox, 41% IE, 8% Safari.
81% use Windows, 12% Mac.

Top ten posts:

McCleary Time Capsule, 1943-1963

about that Donate button

Brad Foster Has Lit the Fuse

City Limits Gazette: Sample Discussion

End of the Earth and Turn Left

Strange and Unbelievable, but Real and True! I Inherit Over 5 Million Bucks From June Pointer!

City Limits Gazette: Lynn Hansen Interview

Newave Reader

Mr. Crawford Raises Herfords, Too

Brave New Nazis of the Inland Empire

Where the readers are from, the top 10 states:

Washington
Utah/New York (tie)
Texas
California
Oregon/Ohio (tie)
Minnesota
North Carolina
Pennsylvania

Top 10 countries:

USA
South Korea
Spain
France
Poland (mostly spammers, thanks a lot guys)
Germany
Canada
United Kingdom
Russia
Malaysia (more spammers)

Top Referring Sites:

Facebook
OlyBlog
Comics Reporter
The Jim and Frank Podcast
Midnight Fiction
The Magic Whistle

The minicomic Dante's Coat gets plenty of hits I assume from people trying to find a real life product that matches the overcoat of a character in the Devil May Cry game named Dante, or at least that's what I gather since the term "Dante's Coat" is one of the most popular here.

Anyway, I'm still having a blast and I hope you readers are enjoying this too. Many thanks to the Fabulous Sarah for making this particular place of pixels a reality.

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Snake Skin

1st edition, 1994, presented as a print-on-demand comic, regular digest size. I would guess there are anywhere between 50 to 100 copies out there.

This was originally drawn as a contribution for Iron Moose # 3 in 1984.

Although I have mentioned elsewhere in this blog I thought this tale was influenced by Dr. Seuss' Yertle the Turtle, I cannot deny it is also reflection of my years of working in traditional bureaucratic hierarchies.

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Reality Cartoons

A gallery of fascinating yet disturbing images.

And here.

Here, too.

This one is all Crumb.

They just keep cranking these things out.

Must ... escape ... before I squander ... arrgh ... entire ... morning ...

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Olympia, Washington, near the BroHo

Six Mazes

1st edition, Aug. 26, 2001, 18 copies, all yellow, regular digest size.

1st Danger Room Reprint edition, June 2005, 5 copies, all green, regular digest size.

This book has some mazes. Six of them to be exact. Hence the title, Six Mazes.

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Sinking Islands & Other Stories

1st edition, 1992, Seattle, Washington : Starhead Comix. Enlarged digest size. The "Sinking Islands" portion of the cover was printed in color and pasted on.

1st Danger Room Reprint edition, July 2005. 5 copies, blue cover. Enlarged digest size.

Trivia:

The script of "First Line" is comprised entirely of the opening sentences of various books. What I love about the bibliography is that Michael Dowers obviously used one of those exciting new dot matrix printers to initially print it, giving this a real period piece feel.

"The Parade" is one of my personal favorites, describing a state of being that seems to be perpetual and never settling for me.