Morty the Dog Who Walks Like a Man!

1st edition, Seattle, Washington : Starhead Comix, 1987. Color cover, 18 cm. spine. Newsprinty paper.

1st Danger Room reprint edition, July 2005, 5 copies (4 pink, 1 green), regular digest size.

1987 was one of several years where I was convinced I had "retired" from comix. But as Clay Geerdes accurately predicted at the time, "You'll be back. No cartoonist ever retires."

According to the intro inside the cover, this story was really drawn in 1986 for another publisher who left the scene before I finished the piece. And now, a quarter century later, I can't even begin to remember who that would-be publisher might be.

I've had short comic stories printed in anthologies that were translated into Finnish and Portuguese, but so far as I know, this is my only stand-alone comic book that has been translated and published in another language, in this case-- Greek. Michael Dowers made all the arrangements. I posted Mopti on December 30, 2010 if you want to compare the English and Greek versions.

This comic has most of my usual texture tricks, except there is one additional bit that might be unique to this story. The fridge on the 1st panel of the 5th page of the story has a piece of patterned cloth acting as shadow texture.

Here's some real trivia, especially for you cataloger librarians out there. The background of the 2nd panel on the 6th page of the story are modified delimiters used in MARC records for the now extinct WLN bibliographic utility. I have used this symbol in a few other stories.

It is interesting that Morty has been in a few comix where he is a political candidate. Still, no matter how weird my stories might be where this is a premise, none of them can compete with the surrealism of his real life run for McCleary Mayor in 1999.

Morty the Dog vol. 2

Another compilation of reprints but the title moved up in the world since vol. 1 when it gained an ISSN.

Published in the spring of 1991, Peter Bagge wrote the intro for this one. He paid me a visit here in McCleary not too long before this was printed, and I can see the experience of stepping into Rural Land left deep emotional scars on his urban soul. Actually, it was pretty funny, and he is always an entertaining speaker and writer. I was honored to have such a prominent cartoonist introduce the comic.

Last summer Peter and I appeared together to talk about politics and comix at the Olympia Comic Fest.

Mopti

This is the Greek translation of Morty the Dog who Walks Like a Man, originally published in 1987 by Starhead Comix. This version was published later that same year. It measures 21 x 15 cm.

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

Michael Dowers of Starhead Comix made an arrangement with a publisher in Greece. I have no idea who actually translated it, or even if it was actually printed in Greece or the USA. But I love the fact the sound effects remain in English.

Mop Ti