The Ulysses S. Grant Song

My great great grandfather

Rode with Custer

In the Civil War

He was a Wolverine.

Cold Harbor, Wilderness

He was there at Appamattox

When the Rebs called out "No more!"

His name was Frank

Calvary private was his rank

And he never minced his words

Just to suit yer

He lived to 1916

And told everyone he could

That he considered Grant

"A Drunken Butcher."

 

 

Evergreen Lecture

Last night I had fun talking with a classroom of 40 plus students in "The Women's West" program taught by Jolie Sandoz and Ann Storey at The Evergreen State College. My talk, which was a bit rambly, attempted to tie together the threads of the Baby Boom, the history of Evergreen, and Newave Comix and the creative freedom afforded by photocopy technology. Most of the students were in their 20s, the same age I was when I attended Evergroove.

I printed up special TESC editions (75 copies each) of Write-In Morty the Dog for McCleary Mayor, Dante's Coat, Ambergris, To Touch the Face of Larry,  and As I Recall The 'Sixties, as well as a sample of Bezango WA 985.

For you bibliographic completists, the above minis also had a blue test copy, except for To Touch the Face of Larry, which had two copies. I used the lecture opportunity to promote Mini-Comics Day in McCleary and who knows? Maybe we'll see some future cartoonists come out of this.

I had a blast and this was the first time I have given an academic lecture in several years. This was also my first time talking to an Evergreen audience, and it was sort of strange delivering this in a building that didn't exist when I was a student there. They were a good group, very attentive and asked good questions. We even had a drawing exercise.

Thanks for having me over, fellow Geoducks!

New Mortyshop item: As I Recall the 'Sixties--SOLD!

A single copy of the 1st edition (1983) of the minicomic As I Recall the 'Sixties has just been listed in Mortyshop.

Update: SOLD!

Steve Willis Archives v. 3

1st edition, March 1991. Chico, California : Onward Comics. 50 copies. Blue cover, regular digest size.

This contains the same material as Stevetreads # 3 (1987) but has a been a bit rearranged.

Stevetreads # 3

1st edition, 1987. Chico, California : Jeff Nicholson. White cover, regular digest size.

The number of copies for the 3rd and 4th issues of this series isn't recorded in my list, but I would assume the count is low since the first two issues had a grand total of 3 copies per issue.

The name Stevetreads was a play on my Retreads title, a series devoted to reprinting items printed hither and yon into one collection (I smile as I recall Ted Bolman wanted to start yet another play on this called ReTeds, which I hope he did). Several of the pieces Jeff reprinted were actually reprints of reprints. But in this issue there was something different. Half the book was filled with new work.

Jeff had acquired several pages of unpublished jam comix between Dale Luciano and myself. This was the in-print debut for the cover art and all work from the "Memories" page to the end. These were later reprinted in 1994 in Dada Gumbo Morty.

Teaching Comix

Some time during my stay in Pullman, Washington (1983-1986) I was asked to give a class for junior high school (now called middle school) pupils about comic art. That started a whole sub-career for me of presenting lessons on comix technique and/or history to students from Kindergarten to college.

My favorite classes are for children from preschool to about 2nd grade. Generally speaking, the magic of comic art is still captivating for them. We cartoonists can communicate so well with this group of kids in classroom settings because we ourselves have never fully surrendered the kid within us to the outside world. Look at all the Oldwavers who are still active. We are now in the 55+ crowd, making us Senior Citizens in the eyes of Burger King and the Pre-Paid Cremation Services folks who send me junk mail (how do they find me? It's rather unsettling) , yet we still put a lot of energy into drawing funny pictures and being playful with lines on paper.

It probably helps that we are also the Boomers, the generation with the never ending adolescence.

I notice that around 3rd grade the children begin to ask about how to make a living at the cartoon game. The practical considerations begin early.

My most memorable presentation was to my daughter's 4th grade class. This is a very small town and most of the kids already knew me. At the end of the talk one little boy asked me to sing my underpants song, which of course I sang loud and proud. It has the tune of "She'll Comin' "Round the Mountain" and goes like this:

Oh, I haven't seen my underpants in weeks
Oh, I haven't seen my underpants in weeks
Oh, I haven't seen my underpants
Haven't seen my underpants
I haven't seen my underpants in weeeeeeeks!

All the girls covered their ears, except for my daughter, who crawled under her desk.

I don't know how many classes I've given over the years, but quite a few, including some at South Puget Sound Community College in Olympia, where I sometimes would print out special editions of As I Recall the 'Sixties not only as an example of how to make your own comix, but also for a couple history classes.

If you haven't already, I'd encourage my cartoonist comrades out there to take any opportunity you can to teach or talk about comix to your community. It's been my experience that people are predisposed to have fun when they know cartoons will be the topic presented, and who knows, you might awaken the sleeping cartoonist within one of the attendees.

The photo attached here is from a video of a cartoon class I gave at Lincoln Elementary, Olympia, Washington, April 17, 1987. That's Odd Dog on the easel.

As I Recall the 'Sixties

The parallels between the 1860s and 1960s have long fascinated me. Those of us who grew up in the 1960s sometimes think that particular bubble in time was unique. But was it really? The captions could easily fit the 1960s, but the etching-like illustrations of the 1860s are also appropriate.

Now get set for a long printing history only of interest to comix fans. And I'm sure the following is not complete. There are some printings in my own files that I can't explain, account for, or guess at their origin:

One of my more reprinted minicomix. First published in Pullman, Washington in 1983, 75 copies.

The 2nd ed. was published by Robert Stump in Hopewell, Virginia in 1984.

In 1994 I had a large catalog of titles I would print on demand and each work had a "Reprint Series" statement. An unknown number of copies of this minicomic were printed and sold.

Also in 1994 25 copies (blue cardstock) were printed for the "Media, Communication, and Culture" program, South Puget Sound Community College (SPSCC), Olympia, Washington.

And again in 1994, 20 copies were printed as a "Special Fandom House Ed." for a distributor in Colorado.

In 1997 As I Recall the 'Sixties was reprinted in Maximum Traffic's enormous comix anthology, Truth Be Known, published in Butler, Pennsylvania.

38 copies were printed in 1998 for Mike Murray's history class at SPSCC (13 gray, 23 blue, and 2 blue without edition statements)

40 copies (20 green, 20 blue) were printed for Mike Murray's class in Feb. 1999. One of these was later posted on OlyBlog (July 2007)

The comic was included among several others as part of an exhibit of my comix at SPSCC July 5-Aug. 12, 1999.

The "KHW Ed." of Oct. 21, 2002 consisted of a grand total of 5 copies (4 green, 1 white).

The last hardcopy versions were published as 1st Danger Room Reprint Ed. in June 2005. Five copies (4 blue, 1 pink).