We Rode With the Clowns-- Now Published

1st edition, February 2011, 200 copies, salmon cover, digest size.

I've stuffed and addressed the envelopes of contrib copies for the artists and our two faithful patrons of the Morty arts who have sent donations for the cause. The copies will be sent out on Monday.

Once again I want to especially extend thanks to Brad Foster who not only was the first to volunteer, but also spread the word I was looking for contributors.

The following artists have sent me images for the next one: Anvil, Harry Bell, Bruce Chrislip, Roldo, and Bob Vojtko. It's a great start and I hope more of you out there will send me a drawing.

We Rode With the Clowns

Here's a preview of the short digest jam comic I was badgering all you guys about. I'll be taking it to the printer this week and sending out contrib copies. I plan on distributing it as a freebie both in the mail and in person. I'm a bit rusty and in many ways am relearning some of the drawing and printing tricks.

Thanks to Steven Stwalley, Maximum Traffic, Ed DeVore, Chelsea Baker, Harry Bell, Roldo, Bob Vojtko, Brad W. Foster, and Bruce Chrislip!

Bruce sent me enough drawings to last awhile, but if any of you readers out there want to participate in future comix I'm game for creating more of these. If nothing else it is great to meet you new folks and wonderful to see the Oldwavers are still drawing!

One Normal Guy Talking With a Nut!

1st edition July 1985, Pullman, Washington : Kage Comics. Letter size cardstock stapled at margin.

2nd edition, 1985, Pullman, Washington : Kage Comics. Letter size cardstock stapled at margin.

Available as a reprint-on-demand title, 1994, regular digest size.

Clint Hollingsworth originally published this in a format that makes it difficult to scan, so you Morty the Blog readers are stuck with my posting the digest size version, which is unfortunate given the amount of fine detail work by Brad Foster. Also you'll need to extra enlarge the images to read the thing.

My personal copy is the 2nd edition and it is pink. I don't know if Clint used different colors in his printings. As a note to you bookpeople, Newave collectors tended to regard printings as editions, something that was more or less institutionalized in the network by Jay Kennedy in his Official Underground and Newave Comix Price Guide.

Clint's original editions included some extra material: Foster's short pieces "The Button" and three whimsical illustrations, and my story "A Glimmering Ray of Despair." These extras were all excluded from the print-on-demand version.

This was a very enjoyable jam with one of the most prominent artists associated with the Newave comix movement. Sending this thing back and forth between Washington State and Texas was like a long game of chess with a master. We made attempt after attempt to trap each other in this visual gamesmanship.

Brad and I are from the same generation and shared a somewhat parallel development as cartoonists, growing up with shared influences. We also, and I think I can speak for Brad here, found the Newave network to be a great outlet for our artistic freedom and expression. An outlet that was fairly unique at the time.

With those things in common, the differences were in the details. And we had fun with those differences in this jam.

Step Right Up!

Almost there. I need two more volunteers from the audience to contribute to the minicomic idea I first posed on December 15, and then was given a big shot in the arm by Brad Foster promoting it last week.

Here's the lineup of great contributions so far: Brad Foster, Roldo, Bob Vojtko, Harry Bell, Chelsea Baker, and Bruce Chrislip.

Several other artists have indicated an interest (including some amazing Oldwavers I'd love to coax into the project) and if I get more than two additional contributions, that's fine. I'll find a way to change my original plan or I'll just start a second book. Once again here are the specs:

One idea I have is to invite 8 or more artists to send me a page for a minicomic with a random image or images. I'd put all the pages together and form a story. It builds and expands the concept of the minis I drew with Dale Luciano at Dada Gumbo. If you're interested send me a page via email or snail mail. It has to be clean enough so I can show it to my aging mother but crazy enough to make my grown daughter roll her eyes and wonder when her Dad is ever going to grow up.

Brad Foster Has Lit the Fuse

Awhile back I asked for contributions for a minicomix jam. Here's what I posted on December 15:

Also, I'm thinking of putting together some new minis. One idea I have is to invite 8 or more artists to send me a page for a minicomic with a random image or images. I'd put all the pages together and form a story. It builds and expands the concept of the minis I drew with Dale Luciano at Dada Gumbo. If you're interested send me a page via email or snail mail. It has to be clean enough so I can show it to my aging mother but crazy enough to make my grown daughter roll her eyes and wonder when her Dad is ever going to grow up.

Well, Brad Foster has sent in the first drawing via email attachment! I need 7 more comix artists to send me an image. Help force me out of my lethargy and get me back to the drawing board, jump into this comic and send me a drawing. It can even have a word balloon with a random piece of dialogue if you like.

Our Story This Far # 2

Another interesting piece of original art Marc Myers sent our way was my contribution to Our Story Thus Far # 2.

The artwork measures 27 x 17 cm., is drawn with nonphoto blue pencil and felt tip pen. The paper is still the crappy kind I used, but in deference to Brad Foster, who published this thing, I actually used a ruler in the panel pencils, but not the final ink.

This ambitious comix jam, published by Foster under the Jabberwocky Graphix logo, was published in 1985. My page is dated 1983, so apparently rounding up all these crazy cartoonists for this mammoth project was no picnic.

The multitude of Newave artists in this series is impressive. My own page (36) followed that of page 33, Jane Oliver; page 34, Kevin Eastman; page 35, Peter Laird. I introduced Morty the Dog into the narrative and it was fun to watch how the following artists drew him.

I believe this series is still available from Jabberwocky. A must-have collection for any student of the Newave years, and fun to read even if you just like comix.

Amused to No End

The appropriately entitled Amused to No End (Brad's idea, I think) was a full length comix jam with Brad Foster, who published it under his Jabberwocky Comix label in Irving, Texas on what we Newavers called an "enlarged digest" format-- meaning legal size folded once. He used high quality smooth finish paper. Although the work has a 1986 date, according to my files it turned out to be distributed in January 1987.

I always thought of Brad and I as sort of bookends in the Newave comix movement. Both of us are from the same generation. We were quite prolific in the 1980s (although Foster was by far the most active), we loved the whole self-publishing game, the comix genre, and were very involved with the national social networking of this group of artists. Remember, this was long before Internet, so we relied on telephone and postal service.

And the comix themselves. In many ways these jams were a way we got to know one another and also hone our public persona.

Foster was much more professional in his approach to these comix. He would draw on fine paper, I used the cheapest I could find. He used rulers, I didn't. He used ink, I used felt tip. Our motives and subject matter were generally very different as well. His intricate penwork has earned Brad the Hugo Award more times than I can count. Our differences account for some of the comic tension. As with our first full length jam, we mutually agreed people find abuse to be funny and gave each other permission to throw pies in a clown war.

Interesting in this comic that for once some other artist is trying to kill off Morty the Dog other than me!

Trivia: The wraparound cover looks like the pencils were by both of us, but the inks were all Brad, no question. Page 3: 'Gators and caimans have long been one my favorite animals to draw. Page 6: My frequent use of mangled song lyrics in comix is a direct influence of my years of reading Mad in the 1960s. Page 9: One of the reasons Brad Foster is so fun to read. Lots of nice comic touches in one big panel. Page 15: A classic Foster mechanical invention.

Page 22: Brad and I didn't actually meet in person until a decade or more after this comix was drawn. He was in SeaTac, Washington at a convention as the guest of honor. He said I was more cheerful than he expected. Somehow I had the impression he thought I walked around all day dressed in black, morosely exclaiming, "To be is to die."

Page 23: I can actually remember the moment I followed Brad on this page. I was letting out a loud and long eeeeevil laugh.

Page 28: Brad's carpet cleaning remark is a reference to our earlier jam, One Normal Guy Talking With a Nut.

Scanned and posted with permission from Brad Foster.