Cryogenic Comix # 36

Cryogenic Comix # 36
Copyright (c) 2019 Steve Willis

Felt tip on a sketchpad, Burlington, Vermont, Sept. 1979.


Sometimes I wonder what would've happened if I had stayed in Burlington and not returned to Washington State.

Phone photo 3134

I love my sprayer

I want to elect it Mayor

It would clean up City Hall

We need to elect it next fall.

The George H.W. Bush Song

George H.W. Bush is still alive

But in a pretty bad way

He never got my vote

But I'm going to give him a pass

And wish him well.

The Martin Van Buren Song

Martin Van Buren's first language was Dutch

His favorite game was politics

He loved it very much

He was so ambitious

His feet were a-itchin'

He was America's first modern politician

Ol' Marty always said he worked for the public good

Problem was

No one knew where he stood

It probably would've helped him

If his positions had been firmer

Maybe the voters might not have made him

Another single termer

Theodore and Jennie Hoss

Printed: T.R. Williams, Centralia, Wash.

I have been told this is a photo of my great-grandparents, Theodore and Jennie (Reeves) Hoss, on their wedding day, Feb. 20, 1890.

Theodore Jacob Hoss was born in Wisconsin in 1863. Part of his childhood was spent in Nebraska. The Hoss family arrived in Washington Territory in the mid-1870s.

Theodore and Jennie were a power couple. She "became the leader in every group she joined," according to one family member. The Red Cross and the GAR were two groups where she was active, and she was indeed the State Chair of the GAR for a year.

He was a progressive Democrat who was a frequent candidate in a conservative Republican county. Occasionally he'd get elected to a city or county office. His runs for the legislature were not successful.

How radical was he? As the Democratic nominee for US Congress in 1918 he stood for equal wages for equal work for men and women. That was pretty radical.

But he was also a successful businessman and had a role in starting Centralia's first electric utility and streetcar line. Theodore died in 1947.

Theodore and Jennie are buried in Centralia's Pioneer Cemetery

Phone photo 2943

"Write-in JOE For Mayor of McCleary"

Ku Klux Klan - Ancestor of the Tea Baggers?

Dear readers:

My jaw dropped when I ran across this incredible front page article in the Oct. 27, 1922 issue of The Walla Walla Valley Spectator, where the Ku Klux Klan is treated as if they were like the local garden club. And we're not talking about the Deep South here, this is in Prescott, Washington. Yes, good ol' Blue State progressive Washington that has legalized pot and Gay marriage and has never voted for a Bush for President.

What really struck me as I read through this was how much the Klan spokesman sounded like one of today's Tea Party proponents.

I love Eastern Washington. I was born there. My most prolific period as a cartoonist took place there in the 1980s. It sickens me that it also has a strong element of fear-based people willing to swallow the nonsense of the Klan, "Neo" Nazis, and Tea Baggers, all birds of a feather in my thinking.

Perhaps that good, patriotic, pious Christian, that man who spreads the word of God, the Rev. Burger, was really from the Church of the Nazirene.

Yours,
A Member of the "Adverse Element."

A TV Political Ad You Don't See Every Day

Jeff Wagner is running for Mayor of Minneapolis

This ad has some elements of Dadaism

Click here to see the ad

The Rutherford B. Hayes Song

His friends, they called him "Ruddy"
But he got his hands all muddy
When he stole the election from Tilden
And we almost had Civil War 2 instead of nation buildin'

But Ruddy Hayes
You weren't so bad
You were the best President from Ohio that we had
Now I realize that's not sayin' a lot
But sometimes you've got to work with what you've got

He promised to serve only one term
Healing the nation's epiderm
He didn't drink booze, he had a big beard
And his relationship with his sister was kinda weird
 
But Ruddy Hayes
You weren't so bad
You were the best President from Ohio that we had
Now I realize that's not sayin' a lot
But sometimes you've got to work with what you've got

He had progressive views on race
As an ex-president he was not a waste of space
He helped the disadvantaged, what do you think of that?
If he were here today he'd be a Democrat

But Ruddy Hayes
You weren't so bad
You were the best President from Ohio that we had
Now I realize that's not sayin' a lot
But sometimes you've got to work with what you've got

A Town Filled With Characters From Morty Comix

In the last 3 decades I have drawn 2,666 Morty Comix. Usually they average 4 portraits per issue. That means just in this series I have created 10,664 faces.

So

I wondered if all these characters came to life and formed a city, what local place would be close in size? The answer: Sedro-Woolley, Washington.

When I think of Sedro-Woolley, I think of William Morley Bouck, the radical Grange man who lived there. And this is a good thing.

Here was my intro to Bouck in OlyBlog:

When William Morley Bouck ran for Washington State Governor in his final bid for public office [1936], the most colorful part of the old Granger's career was behind him. Carlos A. Schwantes called him, "A complex man who publicly delighted in goading the rich and powerful and clearly hoped to lead American farmers into a brave new world." Farmer, family man, teacher, renegade Grange Master, a radical arrested on conspiracy charges, Congressional and Vice-Presidential candidate, Bouck has attracted the attention of many historians and writers, including Nirvana's Krist Novoselic.

So right now Sedro-Woolley gets to be the honorary Morty Comix town, even though I have never sent or hidden one up there ... yet.

Morty Comix # 2627

Morty Comix # 2627 was slid behind a decorative panel on the entrance to a now defunct restaurant in Tumwater, Washington. Since I placed this Morty Comix, vandals have torn off the panel on the left. In fact, it seems pieces of this building are destroyed on a daily basis by marauding gangs of defunct restaurant destroyers.

This particular building has a place in Washington State history. It was the headquarters of Jazz musician Red Kelly and his OWL (Out With Logic - On With Lunacy) Party, which ran for all the statewide offices in 1976.

Morty Comix # 2558

 Morty Comix # 2558 went through quite a few hurdles to determine where this was going to be sent.

 Charlie assisted me in preparing the materials for this task. Buster sat by and supervised.

 The comic was placed in a plastic bag which was tied to a string.

The other end of the string was clamped with a clothespin, ever so precariously, on a ceiling light.

Puzzle pieces of these 50 United States of America were placed at random under the hanging comic
 

A foam dart gun was employed. It took only three shots to bring the plastic bag down. When it landed it had covered or partially covered Indiana, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Virginia.

Now we enter the presidential arena. I rolled a 7 with the dice. Andrew Jackson was our 7th president. Vermont, New Hampshire, and Virginia do not have a county named after President Jackson, so back in the puzzle box for them.

Then I rolled a 5 and 2 and decided to keep the states that voted for the presidential winner in 1952. But Texas, Tennessee, Indiana, and South Dakota all voted for Eisenhower.

So then I rolled a 4 and a 4. I got so excited at this juncture that one of the little cubes fell to the floor.

In 1944 South Dakota and Indiana picked the loser, Tom Dewey, so back in the box they go.

 So, in keeping with the presidents, I turn to my bowl of Lincoln pennies.

So I drop pennies on a presidential gallery. Both Texas and Tennessee have Polk counties, neither have a Fillmore or Pierce County.

Jackson is another draw, however Martin Van Buren is honored with a county name in Tennessee but not Texas.

 23 cents later the winner is determined to be Van Buren County, Tennessee.

As it turns out this county has only one incorporated city, Spencer. This town is the same size as right here in little old McCleary, Washington, so in a way I'm sending this comic to a sister city in Tennessee. I found a business there that includes retail crafts, so awaaaaaay we go!