Morty Comix # 2451

Morty Comix # 2451 was left behind a mysterious black box in an Olympia, Washington coffee joint.

When I was a kid this place was a variety store and back in the left corner there sat a beautiful and functional soda fountain.

In 2007 this place exhibited all my pages from Bezango WA 985 as a 2-month gallery show.

Morty Comix # 2409 - # 2415 Watercolor Series

Morty Comix # 2409 through # 2415 can be called the Watercolor Series. Before I post these things, they will require some explanation since the final products came out even weirder than normal, and even I will admit that is saying a lot.

Last year when Colin Upton told me "Color is for the weak," I really knew what he meant. So call this a moment of weakness while I was on a staycation.

First, I tied a string between a young elm that is sharing some kind of leaf disease with all the other elms in my yard, and a tree from the Southeast called, I think, the Devil's Walking Stick. This was a tree my Dad, may he rest in peace, gave me to plant. When a guy from Alabama fixed my garage roof a few years ago, he asked why I had this big weed in my yard on purpose.

Then, using some of the very same clothespins I employed in the Bezango WA 985 art exhibit at Batdorf and Bronson in Olympia several years ago, I hung up seven blank sheets of letter size typing paper.

What I was about to do has been on my mind for quite some time. A year ago, maybe more, maybe less, I had purchased a cheap watercolor set and a suction-cup toy gun. I laid them out with a styrofoam cup filled with water on an issue of our local weekly newspaper, the East County News.

I dipped the suction cup end in water and after that in the watercolor set. Then I took aim and fired at close range. I did this over and over, for about 30 minutes.

Yes, here's a case where a gun is really a tool for something good. The "gun is a tool" argument is frequently repeated by the gun crazies. In my situation, I was making something fun. But the real gun is a tool for one thing: wounding or killing someone. And that is not good. 

Here's the ironic part. I dislike guns and think the National Rifle Association is full of paranoid rightwing nutjobs with a penis complex. Oops, I was being quadruple redundant there. My review of Bowling for Columbine in Cheaper by the Dozen 6 pretty much summarizes my mixed feelings on firearms.

Anyway, here's an example of the results of my efforts. This sheet of paper eventually became Morty Comix # 2410 after I finished with it. You'll see.

Sarah happened to be here when I was performing this act of art, wondering what the Hell I was doing as I failed to explain what I was up to while she was visiting. So she took this photo since she is a journalist. I apparently did not inherit my Willis grandfather's deadeye aim when he had his famous 1931 shootout, killing two people and taking three bullets himself and living through it. Even at this close range, I still missed several times.

When this orgy of watercolor violence was over the toy gun was no longer functional. I'm sure members of the NRA can appreciate how Freudian that is. I had to throw all the supplies away.


At any rate, now you have the background on the next round of Morty Comix.

Bezango WA 985 #1

First published Oct. 28, 2001, 25 copies with a yellow cardstock cover.

The 2nd, revised edition was published November 28, 2001, 27 copies, yellow cardstock cover.

3rd ed., June 2002, 15 copies, blue cover.

Starting in August 2002 and lasting for a brief time, this was a print-on-demand comic. Apparently printed in a variety of colors. I have no idea how many are out there.

The 1st Danger Room Ed. of June 2005 had 5 copies (1 each in blue, red, yellow, pink, green).

All editions are digest size.

Parts of the series were converted to the stage in August 2002 (info on this was covered in an earlier post).

In June-July 2007 the entire run was exhibited at Batdorf & Bronson, a coffeehouse in downtown Olympia, Washington. Issues 1-4 in June, issues 5-8 in July. Garden stakes were hung in a horizontal manner, clotheslines were then stretched along the stake, and pages from the book were attached to the lines with clothespins.

Although some of my comix comrades might not consider this title to be true comic art, I still think of the Bezango WA 985 series as one of my favorite comic productions. The communication still requires the interaction of text and graphics.

Basically I drew most of my material for this series from the exploits and tales of my fellow residents of Southwest Washington State, a corner of the world that really has yet to be discovered and fully wrecked by the rest of the country. The town of Bezango is a composite of many places and people up here.

I was a little worried that some of the subjects of this series, or their relatives, might be upset about all this. But to my amazement, very few people recognize themselves even though all the other readers know exactly who I'm writing about.

The reason the 2nd edition is revised, as far as I can tell, is that I lopped off the last sentence on page 17.

The original art was drawn with a #1 lead pencil in a very tiny size. Then it was considerably enlarged. The enlarged drawing was then detailed in felt tip or #1 lead pencil.

The characters on pages 6-7 were very real people I knew. The fellow on page 6 was also one of the topics in my Evergroove Trivia history on OlyBlog (pt. 15). The actor who portrayed him on the stage was eerily accurate in his imitation of this man who he could never have known in person.