Help Build a New Comix Zine!

Bruce Chrislip, Colin Upton, Blake Werts

SPACE 2011, Columbus, Ohio

Our friend Blake Werts has either lost his mind or is a visionary (I'm going with the latter, but he might wind up in the former after a year or two of this project!). 

Please take a look at this news release and give Blake some feedback. I have already contributed an essay for the first issue:

 January 18, 2014

Charlotte, NC


Greetings mini comix fan,

It all started when I made a half-joking proclamation to Dan W. Taylor, "We
should start a mini comix news zine!" Dan wasted no time responding, more or
less, with "Blake, that sounds like a great thing for YOU to do.." Fast
forward a few years and I still have the itch. This idea was mentioned in an
email exchange with Richard Krauss, and next thing I know I was getting both
words of encouragement and lots of great suggestions on how we could make it
happen. Would it be possible to recapture some of the "paperNet" of years
past? I won't be so bold as to say we'll rebuild the sizable networks that
congregated around Clay Geerdes' "Comix World/Comix Wave" or Bruce Chrislip
and Steve Willis' "City Limits Gazette," but I'm excited to give it a try.
All I need is a little help from you..

Below you'll find a few questions to gather current information. It will be
compiled and published in our first few issues. Then, as you create new
material, or have updates that you'd like to share with the community, just
let us know and we'll help spread the word. Also planned are interviews,
biographies, histories, artwork, and maybe a few surprises from Steve
Willis!

Please help us get this started by answering the enclosed questionnaire and
returning it to me as soon as you get a chance. Of course, you can email
your responses to me at bwerts@vnet.net if you'd rather.

Much appreciated!





D. Blake Werts
12339 Chesley Drive
Charlotte, NC 28277



Please answer and mail/respond to:

        D. Blake Werts

        12339 Chesley Drive

        Charlotte, NC 28277

        bwerts@vnet.net



1. What's happening? Are you currently active in cartooning or any other
creative endeavors?


2. Do you have any new comix or zines available? If so, what are the details
(size, page count, cost)?


3. Do you have any older comix or zines available? If so, what are the
details (size, page count, cost)?


4. Will you consider trades?


5. Best way to contact you? Postal mailing address? Email address?


6. Besides this newsletter, how can readers keep up with your work? Are you
are active online?


7. What would you like to see in a newsletter / zine about mini comix?


8. Any announcements you'd like to make?


9. Would you be willing to contribute a spot cartoon or cover artwork for an
issue?


10. Any other mini comikers we should contact?


-----------------------------------

Intro to Mini Comix by Blake!

[Above: Blake shows a photo of the legendary Clay Geerdes as portrayed in the Michael Dowers book, Newave!]

Our old friend Blake has just released a 35 minute introduction to minicomix on YouTube.

It is quite an experience to see a comix movement one was a part of be treated as an exciting period in comic art history. Blake tracks the Newave Comix movement from the comix ancestors of the 1960s up to the 1980s.

To this day I still proudly classify myself as a Newave Cartoonist.

Go Blake! Thank you for recognizing the importance and spark of our comix genre!

Update: Blake follows this up with an addendum: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jamUb7Grhc0

Treasury of Mini Comics, Vol. 1

A box of contributor copies of Treasury of Mini Comics, Volume 1 arrived in the mail today. It's a thick little guy, 848 pages but only 16.5 cm. high. Fantagraphics is selling it for $29.99.

Edited by Michael Dowers, the artists and writers included are Dowers, Leonard Rifas, Justin Green,  Gary Arlington, Jim Siergey, Larry Rippe, Richard Krauss, Lori-Ann Reif, Bob Vojtko, Clark Dissmeyer, Par Holman, Macedonio Garcia, Matt Feazell, Matt Howarth, Rick Bradford, Steve Willis, Ronald Russell Roach, Bruce Chrislip, Edd Vick, Brad Johnson, Tim Corrigan, David Miller, Colin Upton, Robert Pasternak, David Lee Ingersoll, Glen Ingersoll, Roberta Gregory, John Porcellino, Dylan Williams, Tom Spurgeon, Erik Reynolds, Molly Kiely, Blair Wilson, Jim Blanchard, Chris Cilla, David Lasky, Jim Woodring, Marc Bell, Rupert Bottenberg, Ron Regé Jr., Leela Corman, Karl Wills, Onsmith, Travis Millard, Mark Campos, Nate Beaty, Peter Thompson, Fiona Smyth, Carrie McNinch, Mark Todd, Esther Pearl Watson, Mark Connery, Billy Mavreas, Andy Singer, Noah Van Sciver, Kelly Froh, Aaron Norhanian, Max Clotfelter, Marc J. Palm, David Heatley, Laura Wady. 

For you regular Morty the Blog readers, the Willis piece reprinted here was Brave New Nazis of the Inland Enpire, which was first published in 1985. There is also a nice summation of the Outside In series.

Unlike Michael's previous Newave book for Fantagraphics, which had the same format, this book is not just concentrated on one slice of time. It is a testimony to how enduring the 14-16 cm. minicomc genre has become. Somewhere, Clay Geerdes is smiling.

Olympia Comics Festival 2012, pt. 13

My final bit on the Oly Comix Fest.

All the comix, business cards, and brochures that were traded or given to me will go to the Washington State University Comix Collection, the oldest academic collection of underground, Newave, and small press comix on the Pacific Coast. This library collection was started long before comix were considered acceptable by the mainstream in the early 1980s, even by other librarians. As a result, WSU holds many rare titles from the pioneer days of self-publishing, as well as early works by cartoonists who are now internationally famous such as Matt Groening, the Teenage Turtle guys, Chester Brown, etc. Anyone on the West Coast who has an academic interest in the subject of the history of self-published or underground comix will have to visit this collection. There is no other public place in Ecotopia that can come close in terms of broad coverage.

The Oly Comix Fest really has roots in the old Newave Comix movement. God bless you Clay Geerdes. 

Comix Wave 83 (Feb. 1990)

Clay Geerdes gives a brief report on my 1989 visit to Berkeley.

Newave Comics Survey, Book 2 / by Dale Luciano

I reprinted Dale Luciano's landmark Newave Comics Survey as one of my print-on-demand titles 1994-1996.

The Survey was reprinted into a set of four digest sized books. This particular segment was originally serialized in Comics Journal 96 (March 1985) to 99 (June 1985) and includes profiles on: John Edgar, George Erling, Everyman Studios, Matt Feazell, Brad Foster, Tom Foster, Bill Fugate, Steve Gallacci, Macedonio Manuel Garcia, Rick Geary, Wayne Gibson, Clay Geerdes, Jerry Goebert, Vernon Grant, Grass Green, Doug Hansen, Gary Hardmann, R.C. Harvey, Max Haynes, Mike Hill, Par Holman, John Howard, Doug Holverson, Matt Hoawrth, Jeff Huch.

Also includes a long interview with Clay Geerdes.

Comix Wave Index 1983-1993 / compiled by Gary Usher

Another work by Gary Usher, one of the great bibliographers of Obscuro comix.

This title was one of my print-on-demand offerings 1994-1996, so there is no telling how many copies exist. I'd hazard a guess at somewhere between 50 to 100.

City Limits Gazette # Harry & Lena ride the Jell-o jitney (Sept. 1993)

Logo by Sasa Rakezic, we reach 90 subscribers, a nice note from Andrew Ford, San Diego report by Wayno, Sean Wilson and Steve Lafler on the drug thing, Letter from Yugoslavia by Sasa Rakezic, Cincinnati philanthropist David Chrislip drops big bucks on CLG, Clay Geerdes with Clark Dissmeyer and Marc Myers, CLG reader profile of Randy Reynaldo, Bruce Sweeney's Underground Station with logo by Spain Rodriguez, Jeff Snee describes the pain of kidney stones (I defy you to find another comix zine that carried a news item like this!), CLG reader profile of Steve Lafler (turns out that's J.R. Williams pictured with him), Obscuro Press 1972 by Gary Usher, CLG reader profile of Jonathan Tegnell, Tim Erenata responds to deep-sixing the NEA, Bil Keane Watch by Bruce Sweeney - Maximum Traffic, CLG reader profile of Ricardo Nancy McJacksonstein, I announce the next issue of CLG will be my last.