Stevetreads # 4

1st edition, 1988. Chico, California : Jeff Nicholson. White cover, regular digest size.

Jeff's final issue of this series. But, as we shall see soon, Stevetreads was sort of a draft for a bigger project he published a little later.

The jam with Seattle author Edd Vick, I think, is the only artwork here that has not previously been posted on this blog. We drew it during one of his visits to McCleary and he later published it in his Fantoons. Edd is a thoughtful and gentle person, and a wonderful conversationalist as both guest and host.

The Rise and Fall of Morty the Dog

1st edition, 1987, Seattle, Washington : Starhead Comix, 200 copies. white gloss cover, regular digest size.

2nd edition, 1992, Ocean Shores, Washington : Starhead Comix, white cover, regular digest size.

1st Danger Room Reprint edition, August 2005, McCleary, Washington : [The Fool on the Hill]. 5 copies (4 red, 1 blue), regular digest size.

When Michael Dowers published the 2nd edition he gave the outside covers a bit of red and changed the content of the inside and outside back cover. I must've drawn "Famous Taxi Scene" sometime between 1987 and 1992.

Hey, here's an eyeball joke I posted on OlyBlog last month. Apparently only pupils of puns get this one:

I know this rich guy named Arthur. He has a morbid fear of going blind. So he buys eyeballs to keep in stock at the eye bank just in case. He has so much money he can afford to hire a group of people just to take care of his stored eyeballs. They have a special room only they can enter, and on the door it says: "Arthur Eyes Personnel Only"

Retreads 10

1st edition, November 2005, 25 copies, white cover, regular digest size.

Trivia:

Page 6: I'm told I fell down some stairs when I was a small child in Spokane. This is a frequent dream image for me.

Page 12-13: This supposedly really happened to the brother of a friend of mine.

Page 18-19: Hey, you draw cartoons! Draw some posters for us! It'll only take a minute!

Page 20: A real knee-slapper in academic philosophy departments. I think the original art is still around here somewhere, but the felt tip is fading fast.

Page 21: The cataloger cartoon has made the rounds since it was originally published in PNLA Quarterly. I have seen it taped up on cubicle walls of catalogers from Ocean Shores, Washington to some little town in southeast Ohio. That copy of AACR2 is soon to be replaced by a new set of rules called RDA. We librarians love our acronyms.

Page 22-23: Two drawings of Wayno's character, Howie.

Retreads 7

1st edition, 1986, Pullman, Washington, 50 copies, orchid cover, enlarged digest size.

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

This would be the last issue of this run for 19 years. I'm sure I had some good reason for putting it in stasis for so long, but the original intention of this action has managed to escape my memory banks. The not remembering thing going on in my cranium seems to be a common occurrence these days. And yet yesterday I was recalling the obnoxious theme song of TV show called "Little Leatherneck" that aired only once, on July 29, 1966.

Trivia:

Page 9: I later learned we actually had a guy run for Governor here in Washington State named Henry Joseph Snively in 1892.

Page 9-20: I'm not an atheist. I believe in God. Today I happen to believe God looks like a giant cat. Tomorrow God might take another form. I think God must have a sense of humor given all the jokes played on us by life circumstances. But I don't believe in religion. Obviously.

Page 23, panel 4: Charles Dickens.

Page 26-27: Although I'm not a big reader of fiction, the Big Three for me in American literature during my college years were Vonnegut, Kesey, and Brautigan. In the 1980s I had the joy of hearing Vonnegut speak in person, and had a chance to converse a little with Kesey. Never did see or meet my fellow Washington State native, Richard Brautigan.