Evergreen Lecture

Last night I had fun talking with a classroom of 40 plus students in "The Women's West" program taught by Jolie Sandoz and Ann Storey at The Evergreen State College. My talk, which was a bit rambly, attempted to tie together the threads of the Baby Boom, the history of Evergreen, and Newave Comix and the creative freedom afforded by photocopy technology. Most of the students were in their 20s, the same age I was when I attended Evergroove.

I printed up special TESC editions (75 copies each) of Write-In Morty the Dog for McCleary Mayor, Dante's Coat, Ambergris, To Touch the Face of Larry,  and As I Recall The 'Sixties, as well as a sample of Bezango WA 985.

For you bibliographic completists, the above minis also had a blue test copy, except for To Touch the Face of Larry, which had two copies. I used the lecture opportunity to promote Mini-Comics Day in McCleary and who knows? Maybe we'll see some future cartoonists come out of this.

I had a blast and this was the first time I have given an academic lecture in several years. This was also my first time talking to an Evergreen audience, and it was sort of strange delivering this in a building that didn't exist when I was a student there. They were a good group, very attentive and asked good questions. We even had a drawing exercise.

Thanks for having me over, fellow Geoducks!

State of the Morty Blog, 2/26/11

Still trying to post something every day, and as I look at the pile of material yet to be shared (I originally typed "shred" by accident. Hmmm), there is lots more to do in the scanning and posting department.

We've been slowly making material available via the Mortyshop. The funds we get through sales and the donation button are being poured back into other comix projects. Right now I am looking into the possibility of publishing the 5-part, almost 200 page Tragedy of Morty, Prince of Denmarke as a single volume squarespine paperback in the original legal size enlarged digest.

Of course the big excitement around here is in the preparation for attending SPACE in Columbus, Ohio next month! Sarah is going to remain here in Mortyville to keep the cats fed and the blog warm while I go Back East, so she shall remain a mysterious and shadowy figure, the power behind the blog.

We Rode With the Clowns could be called our first Morty the Blog comic. I'm gathering material for the next one and already have contributions from Harry Bell, Bruce Chrislip, Bob Vojtko, Anvil, and Roldo. Want to climb aboard? Send me a random drawing! The more the merrier.

Here are some interesting numbers, demonstrating we remain very obscure:

Total number of visitors so far: 10,503
43% of you use Firefox, 41% IE, 8% Safari.
81% use Windows, 12% Mac.

Top ten posts:

McCleary Time Capsule, 1943-1963

about that Donate button

Brad Foster Has Lit the Fuse

City Limits Gazette: Sample Discussion

End of the Earth and Turn Left

Strange and Unbelievable, but Real and True! I Inherit Over 5 Million Bucks From June Pointer!

City Limits Gazette: Lynn Hansen Interview

Newave Reader

Mr. Crawford Raises Herfords, Too

Brave New Nazis of the Inland Empire

Where the readers are from, the top 10 states:

Washington
Utah/New York (tie)
Texas
California
Oregon/Ohio (tie)
Minnesota
North Carolina
Pennsylvania

Top 10 countries:

USA
South Korea
Spain
France
Poland (mostly spammers, thanks a lot guys)
Germany
Canada
United Kingdom
Russia
Malaysia (more spammers)

Top Referring Sites:

Facebook
OlyBlog
Comics Reporter
The Jim and Frank Podcast
Midnight Fiction
The Magic Whistle

The minicomic Dante's Coat gets plenty of hits I assume from people trying to find a real life product that matches the overcoat of a character in the Devil May Cry game named Dante, or at least that's what I gather since the term "Dante's Coat" is one of the most popular here.

Anyway, I'm still having a blast and I hope you readers are enjoying this too. Many thanks to the Fabulous Sarah for making this particular place of pixels a reality.

Dante's Coat

40 copies of Dante's Coat were printed Feb. 15, 1999. Half were red, half were pink.

The five 1st Danger Room Reprint Ed. copies (June 2005) had 3 pink and 2 yellow copies.

I might be wrong but I believe this was drawn with a #1 lead pencil.

Some would say this stands as my most autobiographical work. Wise guys.