Morty Comix # 2685

Mortry Comix # 2685 was slipped into a gap between the floor molding/trim and the wall in a dark corner in the upper loft of the dining area of Centralia's Olympic Club. My grandfather, Bryan McDowell, pretty much made this joint his second home back in the 1930s-1950s. He basically "owned" a pool table that was closest to the big woodstove.

Phone photo 1521

 

The Olympic Club woodstove and poolroom, Centralia, Washington

From what I have been told, my grandfather basically lived at a pool table here in the 1930s-1950s. He "owned" the table closest to the stove (although I'm sure that original table has long since passed on).  This place was pretty much a seedy dive when I first visited it in the 1970s, but it has since been McMenaminized just like the Spar in Olympia and many other Washington/Oregon local icons. This place includes a family dining area in a room where I formerly observed old guys in fedoras smoking cigars and playing cards. The Wm. Hoss building is next door to the McMenamins complex.

Crackpots and Visionaries

Crackpots and Visionaries was a cardset giveaway as part of a 1992 fund drive for WFMU radio in New Jersey.

The cartoonists in this project: Byron Werner, Drew Friedman, Carel Moiseiwitsch, Stephen Kroninger, Hank Arakelian, Roy Tompkins, J.R. Williams, Steve Willis, Joe Coleman, Mark Beyer, Gary Panter, Charles Burns, J.D. King, Harold S. Robins, Julie Doucet, Jim Ryan, Scott Cunningham, Mark Newgarden, Steven Cerio, Carol Lay, Mack White, Doug Allen, Lennie Mace, Sean Taggart, Krystine Kryttre, Richard McGuire, Glenn Head, Jayr Pulga, Ned Sonntag, Jim Woodring, Peter Bagge, Mary Fleener, Jonathon Rosen, Jimmy Piersall, and Kaz.

As tempting as it might be to say the title of this set concerns the cartoonists themselves, it actually refers to the content. Hank Arakelian gave us a list to choose from of various names throughout history. We then drew a portrait, and WFMU supplied the biography on the flip side of the card.

I chose William Jennings Bryan. His career from being a Populist champion and presidential candidate in his 30s to ending up as a Bible-thumping creationist clown at the Scopes Trial is a fascinating and sad descent. But through it all he was always an amazing political actor and showman.

Hank didn't particularly care for my portrait of Bryan. He thought the image was too simple-- not busy enough. But he used it anyway and I was glad to be included in the company of so many great cartoonists. I have an uncut sheet of all the cards on display in my studio.

Bryan also had an indirect role in our family names. His first, and most highly charged, run for President was in 1896. Out in the silver fields of Colorado and Nevada he was practically a God. It was in August of that campaign that my grandfather, William Jennings Bryan McDowell, was born in Ouray, Colorado, a silver boom town.

My great grandfather, Ben McDowell, had dragged his whole family up there from Illinois in the 1880s as he chased silver and gambled away two fortunes (so they say). Several of his brothers lived there too. Ben deserted the family and spent his last years chasing gold in Cripple Creek, Colorado.

Meanwhile, my grandfather's name was shortened to Bryan. The labor violence he witnessed during his formative years turned him into a lifelong Socialist in political philosophy.

The McDowells were never big on preserving family history. About 30 years ago down in Centralia, Washington one of my Mom's cousins gave me a big puffy Victorian era McDowell family photo album, saying "Here kid, I'm not into all this gynecology stuff."

Lots of pics of Ouray, plus some from the Midwest, including tintypes. We think my great grandfather Ben is in a group portrait with his brothers in one shot (nothing is marked), probably the one on the upper left.

And today the name Bryan lives on through my brother.

Sort of strayed here, eh?

Bonafide Child Innocence #1

1st ed., 25 copies, February or March 1983, Olympia, Washington, white.

2nd ed., 30 copies, March 1983, Olympia, Washington, white.

3rd ed., 67 copies, June 1984, Gilbert, Minnesota, HSC, white.

1st Danger Room Reprint Ed., 5 copies, July 2005, McCleary, Washington, yellow.

All printings are in regular digest size.

This was my smartass jab at the at-the-time very popular stick comix genre. I had mixed feelings about publishing this in the first place, but someone had to say something. So I did. A few people quietly thanked me.

Actually I can fully understand the reasons why stick figure comix can be a good thing, especially when articulated by Matt Feazell, a great cartoonist who, by the way, accepted my critique most graciously and like a grownup.

Personally, my favorite in this genre can be found online, at the accidental art site, Stick Figures in Peril.

The originals of Bonafide Child Innocence were drawn either in Spokane, Washington, where I was born, or in Olympia, where we moved when I was a little squirt. The source of the drawings was a ledger my mechanic grandfather in Centralia, Washington kept. In it he has notations like "Model A Ford Pump," and latest date I can find is 1944. It measures 30 cm. high, and the back cover reveals it was one of the few things to survive our house fire on the farm in the mid-1960s. And it is packed with narrative cartoons I drew before I knew how to read.

Another childhood item I have acquired is a face drawn on wood. Actually, it was on a piece of furniture my Father had built, a coffee table with a box shelf. I remember drawing the face on this table and getting caught by my Mother, who informed I was going to be in Big Trouble once my Father came home from work. But in fact he was delighted. You see, they thought I was sort of "slow," since I wasn't talking, walking, eating, thinking, etc. at the same rate as other kids. So any spark of artistic expression was seen as, "Hey, he's not a complete moron! Yay!"

The incident helped spur me to draw more, but my Mom made sure that from then on I had paper. She even captioned some of the stories for me! See, now you can blame my parents for these comix.

The table was rediscovered almost five years ago after my Dad died and we were cleaning out the farm, preparing to sell the place. It was stashed in a corner of the basement, but not in very good condition. I managed to save the panel with the drawing on it, and here it is!