The John F. Kennedy Song

They had all of us little Boomers shoved in portable buildings

Long metal boxes

When we filled the schools.

And we played and made noise and had fun.

But one day our teacher had us line up

In straight and neat little rows

And she told us President Kennedy

Wanted us to be be physically fit.

So we started doing jumping jacks.

And I remember thinking

"Hey, I thought President Kennedy was supposed to be a good guy.

What's up with this crap?"

Comix Anniversaries in 2013

 

50 years ago, 1963: President Kennedy is assassinated. Lee Harvey Oswald, JFK's alleged assassin, is shot on live TV by Jack Ruby.  I was in grade school and later documented an eerie follow-up in a 2001 minicomic entitled LHO.

40 years ago, 1973: My first obscuro pre-Newave comic, Gimmie Comics # 1, is cranked out on a mimeograph.

30 years ago, 1983: I publish my first 8 page 14 cm. minicomic, Sasquatch Comix # 1. 1983 also marked the very first issue of Morty Comix, which I believe was sent to Hawaii. Other comix published that year: Limbolympia, Sasquatch Comix # 2-5, Retreads # 1, Bonafide Child Innocence # 1, Cranium Frenzy # 4, The Big Picture Picture Book, Outside In # 1-9, As I Recall the 'Sixties, Tragedy of Morty Prince of Denmarke Act 1. Plus there were a number of reprints (called "editions" by collectors) and contributions to various comix with others.

20 years ago, 1993: Most of the year was taken up with editing City Limits Gazette, where I served as editor from Feb. 1991 to Sept. 1993. Also involved with some exhibits, short contribs, a televised lecture called The Wild World of Obscuro Comix, a jam with Max Traffic called Flying, and another with Pat Moriarity in Big Mouth # 3. Bruce Chrislip records our mutual experience with Robert Crumb in Paper Tales # 1.

10 years ago, 2003: By 2003 this old dog was slowing down considerably. Cranium Frenzy # 10, at 60 pages, remains my most recent full length comic book. Will I ever produce another full-length comic? I don't know the answer to that.

2013, what to expect: I'm working on more creative ways to distribute Morty Comix and documenting the process on this blog. Once Ron and Louise are finished with me in the making of their NW cartoonist documentary Bezango WA it is my intention to fully return to my hermit existence here in the hills of the Washington Coastal Range and begin a new phase of my comix art. I have no idea where the lines will lead me.


The last couple years have seen me out and about as a cartoonist in classrooms, panel discussions, performances, conventions, and I even hosted a Mini-Comics Day here in McCleary (which was quite fun!), but we true Mossbacks can only take so much of the sunlight of attention and social interaction.


However, as we all know, Fate has a way of screwing up our plans and sending us places we never expected to visit. I'm enjoying this blog very much (thanks Sarah for making this possible when you set me up in 2010 with your technical know-how) and for now it remains a fun venue for creative expression and provides a medium where my old prehistoric photocopy work can find a new audience.     

Favorite Movie Quotes: The Missiles of October

"Do you believe that over a month ago I designated this week as National Prayer Week?"

Phone photo 1958

John F. Kennedy and Change we can believe in

$25 Sale - Original Art - Cranium Frenzy # 6, p. 9

 

Cranium Frenzy # 6, page 9

Medium # paper measure 35.5 x 28 cm. Nonphoto blue pencil with felt tip finishing lines. Drawn in 1990.

$25 ppd
Check or money order to
Steve Willis
PO Box 390
McCleary, WA 98557-0390

Or order through PayPal

Buttons - Presidential Campaign - 2008

Obama '08, Change We Can Believe In

Buttons - Presidential Campaign - 1960

Progress for All

Forward with Kennedy

Not an original. On the curl it states: Kleenex Tissues '68

Favorite Movie Quotes: Nixon

Nixon talks to a portrait of JFK: "When they look at you, they see what they want to be. When they look at me, they see what they are."

[Reviewed in Cheaper by the Dozen 41]

And yes, I actually do have an autographed copy of Six Crises signed by Tricky Dick when he was running for Governor of California in 1962. He was apparently up here for the Seattle World's Fair (Century 21 Exposition) around that time so maybe that's how a copy came to be found in a local used book store in the 1970s.

Much to my horror as an old 1972 McGovern volunteer, I discovered some years ago Nixon and I are probably distant cousins connected through the Trimmer family of New Jersey and then Ohio.

Favorite Movie Quotes: JFK

"Well that's the real question, isn't it? Why? The how and the who is just scenery for the public. Oswald, Ruby, Cuba, the Mafia. Keeps them guessing like some kind of parlor game. Prevents them from asking the most important question: Why? Why was Kennedy killed? Who benefited? Who has the power to cover it up? Who?"

Favorite Movie Quotes: Executive Action

"Yeah, I got his rifle. It's a 6.5 millimeter Italian Carcano. It shoots high and to the left, and the bolt sticks. Christ, the Italians quit making these 25 years ago! They called it 'The rifle that never hurt anyone-- on purpose'."

LHO

LHO was published May 5, 2001. It had a print run of a whopping 26 copies (5 blue, 2 red, 4 green, 7 pink, 8 yellow).

The 1st Danger Room Reprint Ed. of June 2005 had 5 copies (2 pink, 3 yellow).

This minicomic was drawn with a #1 lead pencil.

I know it is fashionable these days to believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, but the circumstantial evidence of the assassination being a group effort seems too big to ignore for me. But that doesn't mean I don't have a sense of humor about conspiracy theories, as evidenced (I hope) with this work.

The story is basically true, except for a few details. Since there are people who will believe and quote everything they read (Wikipedia is a good example of a very bad reference source in popular use and frequently cited) I feel obliged to spell out some things. There really was an aquarium fellow and he did indeed look like Oswald, but I believe he had teeth. There was no Texas Book Depository box in his house. The person I knew who lived in his house later was actually living in the house next door, but she told me the new resident in her neighbor's house found tons of discarded aquarium stuff in the place.

And by a coincidence, not a conspiracy, the real-life fellow who looked like Oswald died shortly after this comic was first published.

As I Recall the 'Sixties

The parallels between the 1860s and 1960s have long fascinated me. Those of us who grew up in the 1960s sometimes think that particular bubble in time was unique. But was it really? The captions could easily fit the 1960s, but the etching-like illustrations of the 1860s are also appropriate.

Now get set for a long printing history only of interest to comix fans. And I'm sure the following is not complete. There are some printings in my own files that I can't explain, account for, or guess at their origin:

One of my more reprinted minicomix. First published in Pullman, Washington in 1983, 75 copies.

The 2nd ed. was published by Robert Stump in Hopewell, Virginia in 1984.

In 1994 I had a large catalog of titles I would print on demand and each work had a "Reprint Series" statement. An unknown number of copies of this minicomic were printed and sold.

Also in 1994 25 copies (blue cardstock) were printed for the "Media, Communication, and Culture" program, South Puget Sound Community College (SPSCC), Olympia, Washington.

And again in 1994, 20 copies were printed as a "Special Fandom House Ed." for a distributor in Colorado.

In 1997 As I Recall the 'Sixties was reprinted in Maximum Traffic's enormous comix anthology, Truth Be Known, published in Butler, Pennsylvania.

38 copies were printed in 1998 for Mike Murray's history class at SPSCC (13 gray, 23 blue, and 2 blue without edition statements)

40 copies (20 green, 20 blue) were printed for Mike Murray's class in Feb. 1999. One of these was later posted on OlyBlog (July 2007)

The comic was included among several others as part of an exhibit of my comix at SPSCC July 5-Aug. 12, 1999.

The "KHW Ed." of Oct. 21, 2002 consisted of a grand total of 5 copies (4 green, 1 white).

The last hardcopy versions were published as 1st Danger Room Reprint Ed. in June 2005. Five copies (4 blue, 1 pink).