Underground Comics Surface in Pullman

I can't remember where the author of this article was based. Here's what the AP version looked like as published by the Register-Guard in Eugene, Oregon, August 20, 1989. By this time the organized collection was already 5 years old but apparently the concept of comix in research libraries was still considered worthy of journalistic interest.

Cutters for Underground and Newave Comix Publishers, WSU Comix Collection : Incorporating Cutters Assigned by MSU (With Some Modifications)

1st edition, 1993, unknown number of copies, perhaps it was a print-on-demand. Enlarged digest size.

Special Fandom House Edition, 1994, 10 copies.

This was a publication designed for comix librarians and was likely sent to all the academic libraries with comic collections at the time.

Some definitions:

WSU is Washington State University, where I worked as a librarian and faculty in mid-1980s.

MSU is Michigan State University, home to one of the world's largest collections of comic art.

Cutters are part of the call number formula for the Library of Congress Classification (used by most academic libraries). Although a cutter is a descriptive term, it is named after Charles Ammi Cutter (1837-1903).

The WSU inputting project was my personal effort to record the WSU comix collection into an online catalog long after I left that place.

The WSU comix collection is explained in the introduction of this scanned book. Apparently the collection today is not totally cataloged. The collections of English prof. Paul Brians and the late collector Lynn Hansen are inventoried, but the titles I have collected for WSU have yet to be fully processed, although I did manage to get 1700 of them cataloged online and access can be gained by looking in the WSU catalog under "comix collection."

MSU librarian (and City Limits Gazette subscriber!) Randy Scott literally wrote the book on how to catalog comix. This cutter list was basically a supplement to his excellent work.

WLN: First known as the Washington Library Network, then Western Library Network, then just WLN. I was a WLN employee, and proud of it, from 1988-1991. This organization was taken absorbed into OCLC in 1999.

Ed Kukla was a WSU rare book librarian who assisted in providing advice for processing and preserving the comix. John Guido was the head of WSU Rare Books, and in a pivotal position to buck the prevailing conservative winds and stand by the decision to create the comix collection. He's the real reason the collection exists. May he rest in peace. Laila Vejzovic was a librarian who arrived at WSU after I left and was very active and enthusiastic in building and marketing the comix collection. I never met her but we talked on the phone and corresponded once in awhile. Gary Usher and the late Jay Kennedy are two important names associated with comix bibliography.

The two lists are interesting in that the underground publisher roster is much shorter. Many of the Newavers complained that the underground publishers became very closed to new artists, relying on a proven star system of just a few names. But the rise and development of photocopy technology opened up the self-publishing game for a whole new generation of cartoonists, as evidenced by the much longer list of Newave publishers.

My cutter book serves as sort of a directory of underground and Newave comix publishers up to 1993. It was compiled on an electric typewriter.

Counter-Culture Comix : a Look at Newave and Underground Literature

Hard to believe, but in less than six months after I left Washington State University's employment for greener pastures, WSU staged a huge exhibit on the Newave and undergound comix in their collection.

The exhibit ran from November 3-December 19, 1986, making it probably one of the very earliest academic presentations on Newave comix. I remember the exhibit included Cranium Frenzy #5, Natural Functions, and Storm Warnings.

There was a panel discussion when the exhibit opened. The participants included cartoonists Michael Dowers, Maggie Resch, Leonard Rifas, myself, English faculty Paul Brians (donor of the original box of undergrounds that started the whole collection), and librarian Ed Kukla. As I recall, Leonard was an old hand at this kind of thing and blew everyone else out the water with an excellent set of slides (before the days of power point).

Bruce Chrislip was also invited to speak, but he couldn't make it. So he provided a life-size cardboard drawing of himself. We set it up in a chair and played the cassette tape he provided of his presentation. The part of the tape I remember most was when Bruce was almost finished and than said, "Any questions? Yeah, you in the back ... Oh, I'm glad you asked that ..." and then proceeded with a bit more info.

Librarian John Guido coordinated with us cartoonists. A very nice young woman named Marilyn Sandmeyer prepared the exhibit itself. She very politely asked me not to kill off Morty the Dog.

The program cover and poster was reprinted from The Tragedy of Morty, Prince of Denmarke Act 3.

Maryhill Museum Comix Exhibit

Well, I can retire from comix now. My work has been displayed at Maryhill.

This morning I visited the Maryhill Museum near Goldendale, Washington to see the "Comics at the Crossroads" exhibit, featuring cartoonists from Washington and Oregon. Awhile back they asked me to submit some original drawings but since I didn't have any art to loan, I just gave them a bunch of my old comix. My Tragedy of Morty series, which was my interpretation of Hamlet, was displayed as if it was something museum worthy. Everything has come full circle.

Back in the mid-1980s, when I drew that particular 5-part 200 page run, I was also attempting to establish an academic collection of Newave, small press, and self-published comix at Washington State University in Pullman, where I was a librarian and member of the faculty. In those days our brand of comix did not hold the exalted place in the art establishment they do today. An English Dept. faculty named Paul Brians had earlier donated a box of rare underground comix to WSU that had sat languishing in the rare books area, and I offered to enhance this collection through my Newave contacts. Hundreds, perhaps 2 or 3 thousand comix poured in from my comrades. John Guido, the Rare Books librarian at the time, raised his eyebrows, but he stuck by me in the face of criticism from the hoity toits and nervous Nellies. Paul started the collection, I gave it a jump-start, but it is to John Guido's memory, may he rest in peace, comix researchers owe their thanks.

When collector Lynn Hansen died in 1995, his librarian father, Ralph, made sure the collection went to WSU, increasing the holdings by a significant amount and making the school a major stopping place for anyone interested in our brand of comix.

But if you would've told me in 1985 that my little photocopy comix would be on display in Maryhill a quarter century later, I wouldn't have believed it.

To be fair, my stuff was the oldest comic art at the show, and I think I was the only one who wasn't displayed as a framed artist with original art. So I was presented more as a relic. A prehistoric comix artist, a native Washingtonian who was active here self-publishing before all the hip invaders discovered this corner of the world. A dinosaur. The Neanderthal who scrawled on the walls of caves. And that's fine with me. Although my work has been in art exhibits before, I must admit I have a few problems with comix as gallery art. That will become evident as I post more work on this blog.

The list of artists in the show is a virtual who's who in Washington-Oregon cartooning. But I was surprised to see Valentino in there. I didn't know he had moved to Portland. He was in the Newave in the very early stages, and was just starting to become a commercial name about the time I discovered the network in 1981. So we overlapped and corresponded a little bit back then. I couldn't make it to the exhibit opening where the artists showed up and was sorry to miss this fellow old guy who attended the same invisible college.

A Rodin exhibit was in another part of the Museum. It included a number of his late drawings, which, fittingly, I would consider cartoons in the original sense of the word.

Thanks to Steve Grafe of Maryhill for coordinating the show.