Our Story This Far # 2

Another interesting piece of original art Marc Myers sent our way was my contribution to Our Story Thus Far # 2.

The artwork measures 27 x 17 cm., is drawn with nonphoto blue pencil and felt tip pen. The paper is still the crappy kind I used, but in deference to Brad Foster, who published this thing, I actually used a ruler in the panel pencils, but not the final ink.

This ambitious comix jam, published by Foster under the Jabberwocky Graphix logo, was published in 1985. My page is dated 1983, so apparently rounding up all these crazy cartoonists for this mammoth project was no picnic.

The multitude of Newave artists in this series is impressive. My own page (36) followed that of page 33, Jane Oliver; page 34, Kevin Eastman; page 35, Peter Laird. I introduced Morty the Dog into the narrative and it was fun to watch how the following artists drew him.

I believe this series is still available from Jabberwocky. A must-have collection for any student of the Newave years, and fun to read even if you just like comix.

Amused to No End

The appropriately entitled Amused to No End (Brad's idea, I think) was a full length comix jam with Brad Foster, who published it under his Jabberwocky Comix label in Irving, Texas on what we Newavers called an "enlarged digest" format-- meaning legal size folded once. He used high quality smooth finish paper. Although the work has a 1986 date, according to my files it turned out to be distributed in January 1987.

I always thought of Brad and I as sort of bookends in the Newave comix movement. Both of us are from the same generation. We were quite prolific in the 1980s (although Foster was by far the most active), we loved the whole self-publishing game, the comix genre, and were very involved with the national social networking of this group of artists. Remember, this was long before Internet, so we relied on telephone and postal service.

And the comix themselves. In many ways these jams were a way we got to know one another and also hone our public persona.

Foster was much more professional in his approach to these comix. He would draw on fine paper, I used the cheapest I could find. He used rulers, I didn't. He used ink, I used felt tip. Our motives and subject matter were generally very different as well. His intricate penwork has earned Brad the Hugo Award more times than I can count. Our differences account for some of the comic tension. As with our first full length jam, we mutually agreed people find abuse to be funny and gave each other permission to throw pies in a clown war.

Interesting in this comic that for once some other artist is trying to kill off Morty the Dog other than me!

Trivia: The wraparound cover looks like the pencils were by both of us, but the inks were all Brad, no question. Page 3: 'Gators and caimans have long been one my favorite animals to draw. Page 6: My frequent use of mangled song lyrics in comix is a direct influence of my years of reading Mad in the 1960s. Page 9: One of the reasons Brad Foster is so fun to read. Lots of nice comic touches in one big panel. Page 15: A classic Foster mechanical invention.

Page 22: Brad and I didn't actually meet in person until a decade or more after this comix was drawn. He was in SeaTac, Washington at a convention as the guest of honor. He said I was more cheerful than he expected. Somehow I had the impression he thought I walked around all day dressed in black, morosely exclaiming, "To be is to die."

Page 23: I can actually remember the moment I followed Brad on this page. I was letting out a loud and long eeeeevil laugh.

Page 28: Brad's carpet cleaning remark is a reference to our earlier jam, One Normal Guy Talking With a Nut.

Scanned and posted with permission from Brad Foster.

The Almost Complete Collected Morty Comix

The prolific Brad Foster, easily one of the major figures in the Newave movement, honored Morty Comix by publishing this collection in Oct., 1984. Like many other of his Jabberwocky Graphix publications, the printing quality and paper stock was a cut above what we photocopy groundlings were used to.

Personally I think was Brad must've been a bit nuts to collect, compile and edit this thing. But I believe we broadly cover this topic in a Foster/Willis jam I'll post in the future called One Normal Guy Talking With a Nut.

This comic had a white cover and guts, with a spine measuring 28 cm. Brad published a special 1 copy edition with blue guts, and this is the one I've scanned. Catch his handwritten inscription after the introduction. You'll probably have to click on the image and enlarge it a couple times to read anything.

Trivia: Ronson Rabbit on page 8 was a character in comic books I drew in my childhood. The woman at the bottom of page 14 really existed. She died earlier this year. Page 16: Fred with the worms was also a real person. I can't recall where and why he used this line, but it was apparently a pretty funny backstory. The song on page 22 anticipates another future Foster/Willis jam, Amused to No End.

Several of Morty the Dog's relatives are presented here: Aunt Trixie, Uncle Barko, Uncle Fido, cousins Col. Canine, Mildeworth, Otto, Bosworth, and 2nd cousin Roger. Also seen are historical figures: Emperor Julian and Gerald Ford.