1st edition, May 1981, Olympia, Washington : The Evergreen State College, Arts Resource Center. Enlarged digest size.
The issuing number 1 would indicate this was originally intended to be a serial publication, but unfortunately this is the lone issue so far as I know.
Published two years after I graduated from Evergroove, I found out about the existence of this book by accident and managed to get my hands on the last copies for sale at the campus bookstore.
It is interesting this was published before Jay Kennedy coined the term "Evergreen Mafia" as a reference to the group of TESC cartoonists from the 1970s. This comic is possibly the earliest recognition in print that Evergroove was really forming some sort of comic art legacy.
Although it is a decent roundup of the various artists from 1971 (when the school opened) to 1981, the editors overlooked four cartoonists who should be included in any compilation of TESC comix artists of that era: Kathleen Meighan, Dana Leigh Squires, Maggie Resch, and a guy I didn't know well but really loved his work, Flicky Ford.
As I read this book again I'm struck by the fact that we were all so young and obviously spinning off of older artists we admired as we struggled to define our own style. None of us seemed fully formed yet-- except for maybe Craig Bartlett.
Trivia:
Cover: Craig Bartlett, who I consider one of the greatest cartoonists to emerge from Evergreen, must've arrived right after I graduated. I never had the pleasure of meeting him. This guy landed on campus as an already accomplished artist. His work shows a strong Gilbert Shelton influence.
The steam tunnels actually do exist under the TESC campus. I was down there several times in the 1970s.
Page 1: The political correctness of Evergroove was one of Matt Groening's favorite targets, as evidence by his vegetarian dog.
Page 5: The guy in black in the last panel is a portrait of Gary May.
Page 6, top of p. 7: Lynda Barry was into fine arts and wanted to be an art teacher when I first met her in 1974. These early cartoons demonstrate she was far more confident with her writing side than her newfound comix artist self. Shortly after these were published Lynda's subsequent comix looked like she admired the style of National Lampoon cartoonist Randall Enos as a starting place to quickly create her own unique voice in comix.
Page 8-top of p. 10: Watching the student reaction to the cartoons of Charles Burns under the editorship of Matt Groening was my first real exposure to how intolerant certain elements of Evergreen's Leftists could be. It was at this point, around 1977, TESC's utopian Libertarian Left started to get shoved aside by the Authoritarian Left, and an era had ended. At least the authoritarians made good targets for cartoonists.
Page 10: "The Family Irkus," apparently a Burns and/or Groening piece, is one of the funniest single panels in cartoon history for my money.
Page 16-19: An excellent story by Craig Bartlett. The Trojan plant, so graciously constructed by those crafty Oregonians right on the Columbia River on the Washington border, was torn down a number of years ago.
Top of p. 21: Tucker Petertil still lives in Olympia. He continues to create art, which can be seen in gallery shows, and writes a popular music review column for Olympia Power and Light.
Page 22-27: The Crumb-influenced cartoonist Jim Chupa was by far the most popular and well known cartoonist at TESC while he was active at the school. His work was very topical and a great snapshot of Evergroove's history in the mid-1970s.
Page 30-33: T.J. Simpson was my neighbor for awhile in 1978-1979. He was from, as I recall, Bangor, Maine and had a great Mainiac accent. John J. Bagnariol, the subject of his cartoon, was known around Olympia as an arrogant jerk in the State House who treated local people in the service industry very badly, demanding special treatment due to his high office. His conviction and subsequent imprisonment by the Feds for being guilty of being a sleazeball in the Gamscam sting operation was welcome news to most of us.
Back cover: Classic Groening.
Any idea what became of T. J.?
ReplyDeleteI've had no luck locating him.
No idea. Last time I saw him was about 1982. He was still in Oly at that time, living across the street from the Old Washington Jr. High. Rumor had it that he went into teaching, but you know how gossip works, so who knows?
ReplyDeleteThanks. Love this blog.
ReplyDeleteI saw his father's obit (in Bangor) online and it said: "son T.J. of California"
I find it hard to believe a guy with so much to say hasn't spoken online.
Speaking of gossip, I remember the Steam Tunnels and all the intrigue surrounding them. Isn't that where they filmed parts of "Eat the Sun"?
The underground scenes of Eat the Sun were filmed in the steam tunnels and the aboveground scenes in California, I believe. Back in the 1970s it was much easier to sneak into the steam tunnels and make a caper out of it. I recall Malcolm Stilson's guru character in the movie saying, "If they're old enough to pee, they're old enough for me."
ReplyDelete