The Comix Files: Anonymous 2

This anonymous letter from 1988 included a torn out shred from the Feb. 17, 1988 (exactly 26 years ago today!) issue of the East County News, our local weekly newspaper. I believe this article was kicking off the East County Comix strip I drew for that paper for nearly two years. 

The reproduced panel "Repeat after me, 'Question authority!'" panel was originally used, I believe, in the Cooper Point Journal, student newspaper for The Evergreen State College. Libertarian Socialist might sound like an oxymoron, but that comes the closest to describing my political philosophy.

As a result of watching too many demonstrations at Evergreen, I grew to hate megaphones. After awhile I concluded that anyone using them was a hustler. Hence, this cartoon panel, which I still love.

But the irony is missed by many. The following anonymous writer was apparently arrested as a result of protesting the WPPSS nuclear plant here in Grays Harbor County. And it never went online. Whoever you are, thank you! for helping to stop that insane project.

Here was her cartoon response:

Morty Comix # 2590

Morty Comix # 2590 was slipped into a copy of our free local weekly and returned to a newspaper stand under a James Abbott mural in a restaurant in Elma, Washington

Morty Comix # 2457

Morty Comix # 2457 was left in the freebie local weekly distribution box between the Library and Post Office

Morty Comix # 2436

Morty Comix # 2436 accompanied me for dinner at an Elma, Washington restaurant. I placed the comic inside an issue of our local weekly, The East County News, which had a cover article about a former neighbor of mine being arrested and charged with embezzling a big chunk of change from the City of McCleary, where she was employed. Then I returned the newspaper to the "Free" area. Someone will get a special comics section of the paper! This was the same newspaper that used to run my East County Comix strip.

Morty Comix # 2409 - # 2415 Watercolor Series

Morty Comix # 2409 through # 2415 can be called the Watercolor Series. Before I post these things, they will require some explanation since the final products came out even weirder than normal, and even I will admit that is saying a lot.

Last year when Colin Upton told me "Color is for the weak," I really knew what he meant. So call this a moment of weakness while I was on a staycation.

First, I tied a string between a young elm that is sharing some kind of leaf disease with all the other elms in my yard, and a tree from the Southeast called, I think, the Devil's Walking Stick. This was a tree my Dad, may he rest in peace, gave me to plant. When a guy from Alabama fixed my garage roof a few years ago, he asked why I had this big weed in my yard on purpose.

Then, using some of the very same clothespins I employed in the Bezango WA 985 art exhibit at Batdorf and Bronson in Olympia several years ago, I hung up seven blank sheets of letter size typing paper.

What I was about to do has been on my mind for quite some time. A year ago, maybe more, maybe less, I had purchased a cheap watercolor set and a suction-cup toy gun. I laid them out with a styrofoam cup filled with water on an issue of our local weekly newspaper, the East County News.

I dipped the suction cup end in water and after that in the watercolor set. Then I took aim and fired at close range. I did this over and over, for about 30 minutes.

Yes, here's a case where a gun is really a tool for something good. The "gun is a tool" argument is frequently repeated by the gun crazies. In my situation, I was making something fun. But the real gun is a tool for one thing: wounding or killing someone. And that is not good. 

Here's the ironic part. I dislike guns and think the National Rifle Association is full of paranoid rightwing nutjobs with a penis complex. Oops, I was being quadruple redundant there. My review of Bowling for Columbine in Cheaper by the Dozen 6 pretty much summarizes my mixed feelings on firearms.

Anyway, here's an example of the results of my efforts. This sheet of paper eventually became Morty Comix # 2410 after I finished with it. You'll see.

Sarah happened to be here when I was performing this act of art, wondering what the Hell I was doing as I failed to explain what I was up to while she was visiting. So she took this photo since she is a journalist. I apparently did not inherit my Willis grandfather's deadeye aim when he had his famous 1931 shootout, killing two people and taking three bullets himself and living through it. Even at this close range, I still missed several times.

When this orgy of watercolor violence was over the toy gun was no longer functional. I'm sure members of the NRA can appreciate how Freudian that is. I had to throw all the supplies away.


At any rate, now you have the background on the next round of Morty Comix.

Larry of McCleary and Other Characters

1st edition, February 1989, 47 copies, grey cover, enlarged digest size.

2nd edition, April 1989, published by Eastern Grays Harbor Historical Society, McCleary Museum, 60 copies, grey cover, enlarged digest size.

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

In the late 1980s I tried my hand at a comic strip in our regional weekly, The East County News. I wanted to create a strip with a local appeal, capturing some of the quirks that made eastern Grays Harbor County a bit, er, different that the rest of western Washington.

The strip continued for another 10 months after this collection was published. The remainders were assembled in an issue of Retreads, I think. We'll see when we get there.

From reading the strips you would correctly conclude I had become a new parent in this period of time. 1988 to be exact.

Trivia:

Page 4, strip 1: This was also reprinted in Cartooning Washington.

Page 4, strip 3: I also used this line in Write-In Morty the Dog for Mayor!

Page 6, strip 2: Olympia, the Legislative Building, and the hills in the background where McCleary sits.

Page 7, strip 2: Elma, 7 miles away from McCleary, used to have annual festival honoring the lowly slug. For some strange reason it never really took off. Shelton, of course, is a town full of roughnecks and buffoons, not like genteel McCleary at all.

Page 13, strip 13: Yelm is near Olympia and home to J.Z. Knight, a mystic who has apparently become wealthy channeling the spirit of "Ramtha," a warrior from long ago. From the film clips I've seen, I suspect she grabbed the idea from the Hitchcock film Family Plot, as she does a pretty good Barbara Harris imitation.

Page 16, panel 1: I originally used this line in one of my comix from the 1970s, but I can't remember which one right now.

Page 17, panel 2: Our Shetlands did this to our trailer when I was growing up on the farm.

Page 18, panel 1: You have to see the slugs around here to believe them.

Page 20: We have two nuclear power cooling towers standing tall and ugly in this region. They have never been used (Thank God!) and remain standing today as monuments to the folly of man. This story has the unfortunate acronym of WPPSS.

Larry of McCleary