The Comix Files: Bruce Bolinger

Nicktown, Pennsylvania cartoonist Bruce Bolinger was a subscriber to City Limits Gazette in the early 1990s. He contributed a great logo that was topical at the time-- the US Postal Service wanted the public to vote on whether to have a stamp with young or old Elvis.

Bruce also agreed to be interviewed. In both contributions he supplied CLG with beautiful originals inked on Denril.

Through a series of events one could not make up, I received a cold call in this era from one of my cartoonist heroes from the 1960s Mad days, Don Martin, due to Bruce's doing. We had a very strange and funny conversation. His wife Norma got on the line as well. Too long to explain here, but maybe I'll make it part of a stand-up routine next time I'm invited to speak at a comix deal. 

Anyway, it was an honor to have a cartoonist as accomplished and talented as Bolinger on board CLG to give the joint some class.

Morty Comix # 2684

Morty Comix # 2684 was left in a stack of broadsides advertising an event in celebration of The King's birthday. They were on a counter at a coffee bar at the entrance to a downtown Olympia, Washington grocery store.

Here's a LINK to the Elvis Dash if you are interested. Looks like a fun photo op!

Elvis Sings Bacharach

Any Day Now

Morty Comix # 2564

 

Morty Comix # 2564 was left at a place I've been before, as documented in Phone Photo 752. This restaurant in Kalama, Washington has the kind of booth seats where the cushion sits on top of a hollow box. If you contort yourself just right, you can drop off something, say, a Morty Comix, into the hollow area under the booth seat where it probably won't be found for years.

This joint had a couple playing cards (Ace of Diamonds, Ace of Hearts) on the ceiling with names and Oct./Nov. 2011 dates on them. The waitress told me they were there all this time as a residue of some act given by a magician, who had made a whole bunch of cards mysteriously stick to the ceiling.

By the way, this is a great place to stop if you are on I-5 and hungry between Oly and Portland.

Life in Bezango!

 

Buttons - Popular Culture - 1980s

I've Seen Elvis

On the curl: BUTR-770267(c)RPP,Inc.

Buttons - Popular Culture - 1980s

 

I'm Still Dead

Elvis

Favorite Movie Quotes: Bubba Ho-Tep

"Here I was complainin' about loss of pride and how life had treated me, and now I realized-- I never had any pride. And much of how life had treated me had been good. The bulk of the bad was my own damn fault. Should've fired Colonel Parker by the time I got in the pictures. Old fart had been a shark and a fool, and I was even a bigger fool for following him. If only I'd treated Priscilla right. If I could've told my daughter I loved her. Always the questions. Never the answers. Always the hopes. Never the fulfillments."

[Reviewed in Cheaper by the Dozen 12]

Phone photo 752

Kalama, Washington

Fun in Acapulco

A weird "half-comic" named in honor of the movie starring Elvis, who happens to be a character in the first story.

1st edition, September 1982, Olympia, Washington, 30 copies, pink cover, enlarged digest size.

2nd edition, August 1984, Alamogordo, New Mexico, 30 copies, white cover, enlarged digest size.

1996, print-on-demand, regular digest size.

1st Danger Room Reprint Edition, July 2005, 5 copies, pink cover, regular digest size.

The story "Tomorrow is Yesterday" was reprinted in Portland Underground Comix # 3 (Portland, Or. : Pastime Pub. Co., 1983)

I have always liked the cover of this one. The rest of the comic comes across as sort of a crazy quilt of ideas linked together with a fraying string of consciousness.

Inside back cover, panel 4. That's a self-portrait.

The back cover is entirely true, except for maybe the final panel.

ZZZZZZ Elvis!

This jam with Mike Honeycutt was published by Starhead Comix in Seattle in 1985. Mike was one of the Tennessee artists who came into the late Newave with Bob X and XNO. They had a regional brand of comix with a flavor of grotesque surrealism and rich, energetic visuals.

I was a Beatles guy, so Elvis to me was always sort of a sad and comical figure. His deification by a significant portion of the world still puzzles me to this day. For Honeycutt, who lived in Elvis country, this must've been an extra strange comic in which to participate. But I'm glad he did.

Pod Meets Morty the Dog

This jam with the amazing Tennessee cartoonist Bob X was published in 1986 by Starhead Comix. I can't recall how the whole thing came about. It could've been instigated by Bob, myself, or Starhead's Michael Dowers.

Bob's crowded, hectic style really filled up the comic visually and gave it some juice, which was nice since I'm pretty much a minimalist. The use of shading film must've been all Bob, since I haven't used the stuff since the 1970s. I think Bob was also the one who set up the nice centerspread layout.

Notice the nod to our cartoon comrade John E. in the first panel.

Pod and Morty are two characters who should probably not hang out together too often. There aren't enough National Guard soldiers around to handle the two of them combined.

Scanned and posted with permission from Bob X.