Olympia Comics Festival June 15, 2019

I'll be giving away nearly 300 Morty Comix at the Olympia Comics Festival at the Olympia Community Center on June 15, 2019. The comix are wedding favors on the happy occasion of the wedding of Marisha Kay and Casey (Danger Room) Bruce.

https://olycomicsfest.tumblr.com/Exhibitors

A little more than half of the Morty Comix are in the "traditional" 4-page format. Each issue is one-of-kind original art. The series dates back to Feb. 1983. The rest of the Morty Comix are 3-dimensional "installation pieces" given away in wedding white bags.

I hope I can fit them all in my little 20th century compact car (see photos of giant plastic tubs and boxes, as well as a ton of loose bags). We might have a clown car situation here.

The issue number range is between # 2900-3200, created between Aug. 2018-Mar. 2019. Hope to see you there!

Morty Comix # 2569

Morty Comix # 2569 was slipped behind a poster in front of the Danger Room, Olympia, Washington.

A Frank Talk on the Olympia Comics Festival

Frank Hussey of the Danger Room was the subject of an interview about the origins and purpose of the Olympia Comics Festival broadcast online on Discover Thurston!

Some nice shots of the expo in this very brief piece, including a few seconds where Shannon Wheeler endures my questions.

Olympia Comics Festival 2012, pt. 11

Triple book signings at the Danger Room with Mike Allred, Jason Shiga, and Shannon Wheeler. Casey Bruce is the retail moderator.
 
I hope the City of Olympia appreciates what a treasure it has in the Danger Room.

Olympia Comics Festival 2012, pt. 2

Two SWs, Shannon Wheeler and Steve Willis

I like this gig where the Danger Room guys assign me the task of interviewing great cartoonists at the Olympia Comics Festival. I used to interview and document cartoonists a lot during my City Limits Gazette days and didn't realize how much I missed that aspect of mixing librarianship with comix until the last couple years when I got roped into helping out in Oly.

This was probably one of the most seamless interviews in my experience-- mostly due to Shannon's impressive self-awareness as an artist and his willingness to speak frankly. I didn't feel like I had to pull nails out of this guy. He is a very modest, likeable, thoughtful and talented artist with a good stage presence. We really clipped along and covered a lot of ground in short time. Shannon is a cartoonist who has gone through a fascinating evolution in the last couple decades and is well worth following.

[Photo taken by Casey Bruce]

Olympia Comics Festival is Coming!

Whiteboard by (I hope have this right) Avery in the Danger Room advertising the Olympia Comics Festival! I have been given the assignment and honor of being the MC at the Shannon Wheeler discussion at 2 pm.

The Weekly Volcano Interviews Frank Hussey

Alec Clayton of The Weekly Volcano interviewed Frank Hussey of Olympia's Danger Room in preparation for the TESC 40th anniversary cartoonists panel. The piece is available online!

I had a great time at the event! After the panel discussion Matt and I were filmed together outside by Evergreen staff talking about TESC. Not sure when or where that will eventually surface. I understand the panel discussion was recorded as well.

Vote Danger Room!

Hey gang, it's time to rally behind our favorite comic shop, Olympia's Danger Room in the KING Evening Magazine's poll of the "Best of Western Washington."

Give them a vote at this link.

Frank and Casey support our kind of comix, not only through their shop but also in their involvement in the Olympia Comix Fest. Let's give them some support back. They are underdogs here, mostly due to demographics since Oly is much smaller than Seattle or Tacoma.

Deadline is October 9th, but vote now!

Olympia Comics Festival 2011 Report, Pt. 5

Neo Trash Comix

Bad Breath Comics and Swellzombie

With Sprinkles, a new Alaska transplant!
Welcome to Olympia!

Three troublemakers from Portland who I hope to meet again soon
Ian Sundahl is the Mike Hill of the West Coast


Profanity Hill


Only a half hour to take down.
Frank from the Danger Room in the foreground

Comix from the Fest I'm sending to the WSU collection

A Visit to the Danger Room

That's Casey on the left, Frank on the right. These are the Danger Room guys. They love comix and have a section of shelves set aside just for us obscuro cartoonists, helping to get our comix out there without permission from the big publishers and distributors. They are both also keen observers of comix as social indicators.

As you can see by the photo, Frank is the chief storyteller, armtwister and Sam-I-Am here. Somehow he talked me into providing the store with Danger Room Reprint editions of over 120 titles in 2005. Actually, he also talked me into finally attending the Oly Comix Fest, and hey, I like green eggs and ham! I do, I like them, Sam-I-Am! So you can thank Frank for reviving all those titles and getting me out on the local comix scene in person.

The 2005 Danger Room Reprint editions are no longer available there, but I do supply them with copies of the recent material I've printed like Dog of Dawn, Dog of Dusk and Natural Functions.

Yesterday I dropped off a couple copies of We Rode With the Clowns and took these photos.

The Danger Room is also where I first met Chelsea Baker, another cartoonist who migrated to Oly in order to attend the Evergroove State College. Not only is she one of the organizers of the Oly Comix Fest, but she also contributed to We Rode With The Clowns. You can find her cartoons in Olympia Power and Light, a local biweekly.

201 4th Avenue West
Olympia, WA 98501-1003
(360) 705-3050

Olympia Comics Festival 2011 Website

Looks like the folks at the Danger Room in Olympia, Washington have retooled the Olympia Comics Festival website.

Also they have named a date: May 21st, 2011, and already have a special guest lined up: Megan Kelso.

Check it out at: http://olympiacomicsfestival.org/

2/19 Update: Looks like it was Chelsea who has updated the site! Nice work!

Bezango "On Comics"

Olympia Power & Light is a biweekly paper in Olympia, Washington. It started up last December. I have an irregular column in there called "Bezango." If you look closely at the logo, you'll see a picture of Morty the Dog running. Editor Meta Hogan supplied that one. I could never place the source until I scanned and posted The Almost Complete Collected Morty Comix, and now I realize she found that image from the cover of that monograph. It works.

Since I had to haul out this newspaper to check the graphic, I might as well scan and post it. OP&L issue #14 (June 2-15, 2010) was the special comics issue, published in conjunction with the Olympia Comics festival. This column about cartooning was actually written about 6 months before. Olympia cartoonist Chelsea Baker convinced me to contribute a new 2010 work ("4 Panel Breakup") and Meta, I think, gave readers a sneak peek of page 2 or 3 of a new Morty story that may or may not ever get finished and/or published.

Danger Room News

The Danger Room, an Olympia, Washington comix shop has been around for well over a decade. The store has been a champion and promoter of self-published, small press, and alternative comix. Olympia's annual comics festival, hosted by Danger Room, has been unusual in that it is artist-centered. The vender tables are frequently manned by the creators themselves.

When Frank worked there he even talked me into reprinting special Danger Room editions of my old comix to put up for sale! And I did it! (in print runs of 5 copies each. No, none of those comix are there now) This guy must be a hypnotist.

Anyway, according to an email I just received from an employee, it is now official that Pat and Kendra have sold the Danger Room to former employees Frank and Casey. Should be interesting to watch how this impacts Oly's amazing evolution as a comix center.

Thanks Pat and Kendra (and Chelsea!) for your efforts. And best of luck to Frank and Casey.