Steve Willis Archives v. 3

1st edition, March 1991. Chico, California : Onward Comics. 50 copies. Blue cover, regular digest size.

This contains the same material as Stevetreads # 3 (1987) but has a been a bit rearranged.

Stevetreads # 3

1st edition, 1987. Chico, California : Jeff Nicholson. White cover, regular digest size.

The number of copies for the 3rd and 4th issues of this series isn't recorded in my list, but I would assume the count is low since the first two issues had a grand total of 3 copies per issue.

The name Stevetreads was a play on my Retreads title, a series devoted to reprinting items printed hither and yon into one collection (I smile as I recall Ted Bolman wanted to start yet another play on this called ReTeds, which I hope he did). Several of the pieces Jeff reprinted were actually reprints of reprints. But in this issue there was something different. Half the book was filled with new work.

Jeff had acquired several pages of unpublished jam comix between Dale Luciano and myself. This was the in-print debut for the cover art and all work from the "Memories" page to the end. These were later reprinted in 1994 in Dada Gumbo Morty.

Washington State Legislative Building

Snapped a phone photo of the main building on the Washington State Capital Campus in Olympia recently, right before a dark and swirling storm.

Not too long ago I wrote a piece concerning the dome for Olympia Power & Light # 7 (Feb. 24-March 9, 2010) and thought Morty the Blog readers might want to read it as a bit of comix ephemera.

The comic I make reference to in here was Random Reflections, 1976.

Sasquatch Comix #5

The final entry in the Sasquatch Comix series.

The 1st ed. was printed on white paper in 1983, probably in late February or early March 1983 in Olympia, Washington. It had a run of 73 copies.

The 2nd ed., also on white paper, also published in Olympia, had a run of 54 copies in June, 1983.

The 3rd ed. was published June 1984 in Hopewell, Virginia by Robert Stump.

In the 1994 print-on-demand compilation, the cover of this minicomic was also used for the cover of the digest anthology.

Yes, this is basically a true story. My friend Elissa, who now lives in Seattle, can verify all this. Some details in real life that differ from the published version-- We are not dogs and Sasquatch doctors did not see me at the conclusion. But I was acquainted with a Dr. Robert Norton.

And instead of the Grub Harbor County Sheriff and crew that were totally drunk, it was several Grays Harbor County deputy sheriffs, the jail matron, and others in the staff who were totally drunk. And they did indeed lay the whole "search party" line on us. When we left early the next morning, that crowd was still there-- pretty wrecked and hung over!

Yes, I used to chew that Copenhagen garbage. Don't ever get hooked on that stuff, kids. Quitting it is pure Hell.

By the way, when my family moved to the farm which we went on to own for 40 years, I spent my childhood running around these Northwest jungle woods with the little grizzled dog who came with the place. He was gruff, floppy eared, and probably would've smoked cigars if I let him. We became best buddies and in many ways he was the original Morty the Dog. The previous owners named him Blackie, so the name stuck. I'm including a photo of us during my farm kid years.