John E and Newave Comix in the News!

Our old friend from Newave Comix days, John E of Kansas, was featured in a news article covering comix yesterday in the Hutchinson News by reporter Kristen Roderick.

It's available online too. Don't know for how long. Here's a LINK.

City Limits Gazette # Je me souviens (Aug. 1992)

Logo by Maximum Traffic, Ed Martin joins Dark Horse, Bil Keane Watch, Civic Karma in McCleary, CLG reader profile of Mark Campos, Michael Dowers returns to Seattle, John E. becomes a father, Bruce Sweeney's Underground Station with logo by Jerry Riddle, The Fallacy of California Redemption Value by Lynn Hansen.

City Limits Gazette # ... (March 1991)

News on John E., a Walt Rodgers drawing, Bruce Chrislip's Cartoonists City column, Clay Geerdes responds to Chrislip, bad cover versions of Across the Universe, All My Loving, and All You Need is Love. The very last sentence on page 4 is a bit chilling since my fellow listed major WSU Library comix collection donors are no longer with us.

Outside In # 11

1st edition, 1984, 150 copies on white cardstock.

2nd edition, March 1984, 20 copies on white cardstock.

3rd edition, 1984. Seattle, Washington : Starhead Comix, regular stock white paper.

T.S. Child, Tracy Thore, Jamie Alder, John E., Donald V. Cook, Gary W. Cooper, Bob Lewis.

Jamie died last year in March.

Gary Cooper, the university faculty mostly known as a collector, once paid a delightful visit here to Casa Esteban in McCleary.

Something Funny's Going on at WSU Library

I'd characterize this as fluff piece. It's from the Lewiston Tribune, April 15, 1991, five years after I stopped working at WSU. Lewiston, Idaho was not far from Pullman, home of Washington State University.

Notice the covers of then ultra rare titles Reader's Digest X and Ill Comics in the photo. It's also amusing that out all those titles to choose from the author highlighted One Normal Guy Talking With a Nut.

He also mentioned John E.'s hilarious President's Proctologist, one of my favorite comix of all time.

Newave Reader

1st edition was available as a print-on-demand title, I bet there are probably 100 copies out there.

Special Micah edition, December 28, 2001, 3 copies, parchment cover.

In attempting to put together a history of the Newave comix movement, I gained permission from various participants to reprint essays and interviews. The inside cover lists the original sources of the material from Jay Kennedy, George Erling, John E.'s interview with Jim Ryan, Tim Corrigan's interview with Jane Oliver, and my own writing from City Limits Gazette and J.R. William's Fun House.

Clay Geerdes, on the other hand, didn't want me to reprint anything of his. Instead he generously provided me with a wonderful essay just for this book. It was later reprinted in the recent Fantagraphics Book, Newave! the Underground Mini Comix of the 1980s.

Clay was very enthusiastic about this project and wanted me to make it a series. If his health had held up I think he would've been happy contributing original writing to each issue. As it was, I felt very fortunate to have this great document where he looks back and really ties things together.

Likewise, I think I could've roped Jay Kennedy into providing original essays if this title had been a series. It would've appealed to his frustrated librarian side. Once again, I'm lucky to have what I have here.

Including the great George Erling was a no-brainer if you want to study the history of Newave. Jane Oliver was an important figure to include since she was one of the pioneers in making this boy's club less of a boy's club. And the incredible Jim Ryan was always one of my favorite artists to come out the Newave, one of our very best.

Morty Comix #1413

Our Newave Kansas comrade John E. was perusing through the sunny slopes of yesterday and found this thing in a box, apparently in his garage while surveying for possible water damage.

Morty Comix took all sorts of forms, but I have no memory of creating this one. It measures 17 x 10 cm. and has uneven margins. The reverse is signed and states "2/4/86, Pullman, WA."

The material is some kind of layered card paper. Looks like I used a razor to cut through the top single sheet of black to create this image.

Thanks for loaning this, John! Makes me wonder if I made any others in this fashion.

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.

From Tokeland to Topeka

John E. is a Kansas-based artist of all trades. Writer, musician, painter, and fortunately for us, cartoonist. In the Newave heyday, he had a comix anthology serial featuring various cartoonists called Mumbles. Today he is better known by his full name, John Eberly.

This jam was conducted through the mail. I published 60 copies in 1985, and I believe they were on ivory colored card stock. As far as I know, it has never been reprinted.

The resulting book was one of the more unusual specimens I've published. The folded product measures 11 x 7 cm. There are no staples as the entire comic is one folded sheet. Two 7 cm. cuts were made perpendicular to the center of the shorter border of the letter-sized paper.

I've included scans of both sides of the unfolded sheet, as well as a phone photo of the minicomic itself to illustrate the oddness of the collation.

Hitchhiking was a more common way for us young guys to see the country in the 1970s than it is today. John and I recorded a few of the pitfalls of this mode of travel. The Hole Man was my nod to our fellow Newaver, the most excellent cartoonist Par Holman of Sandy, Utah.

Tokeland, by the way, is a small community on the Washington coast. It is home to our state's oldest hotel, the Tokeland Hotel. I've stayed there several times. The word "funky" comes to mind when I think of the place. It has a ghost, and for awhile a cat named Hunter (pictured here) who would "knock" on your door, strut right in, and let you know you were staying there at his pleasure. Tokeland is very vulnerable to rising ocean levels.

Anyway, I always thought this was a charming little work and one of the better jams I've had the pleasure to be part of.