Outside In # 1

1st edition, 1983, 150 copies on white cardstock.

2nd edition, December 1983, 20 copies on white cardstock.

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

Created with the intention of starting a visual directory of self-portraits.

The first issue featured Hank Arakelian, Clint Hollingsworth, Brad Foster, Tucker Petertil, Jean Turnbow, Mark Hopkins, and Jon Turnbow (now known as Strongbow)

The cover was an accident. I loved Hank's drawing and thought he sent this as his self-portrait right after I sounded the call. But it turned out he sent the graphic to me just to do it and didn't consider this a self-portrait. Yet it works and was the perfect illustration to kick off the series.



Hank's original still adorns my studio wall. My poor studio. Right now it looks like the Tasmanian Devil has paid it a visit.


Mark Hopkins is someone I've known since the third grade. He is one of the greatest natural born artists I've ever seen. While the other kids were drawing crude figures during art time in school, Mark would be creating an image that looked like a lost Van Gogh painting. Here's a photo of Mark and I in Santa Barbara, California, April 1, 1976 as we hitchhiked together down the West Coast. Mark's on the right. A lot of people thought we were brothers.

Cranium Frenzy # 4

1st edition, spring 1983, Olympia, Washington. 74 copies, cherry cover, enlarged digest size.

Available as a print-on-demand title, 1996, regular digest size.

1st Danger Room Reprint Edition, June 2005, 5 copies, yellow cover, regular digest size.

Easily the most unusual issue of this series to date.

To start with, the cover was a linoleum block print using an oil-base color. I remember all those covers hanging to dry from clothes lines in the studio, making the room look like a used car lot. The subsequent printings did not have original block print covers.

The other unique part of this issue had to with the contributors. Nine other people had artwork in this comic: Robin Coder-Willis, Lee Norton, Anina Sill, Kevin Sill, Dean True, Jon Turnbow, Petrina Walker, Stevie Webb, and Kevin Wildermuth.

Kevin W. created the stamp seen in the upper right-hand corner of the cover. Except for Turnbow, all the other artists in the book were not involved with cartooning. In this comic he used the name "T. Warp." Jon is better known today under the name Strongbow.

For various reasons, I'll just be scanning and posting my own work here.

In a lot of ways my 1983 story also fits our current era.

Olympia Film Society Art Auction

OK, I have a copy of the catalog, but am unable to post it here. And apparently it isn't online yet.

It is scheduled for Oct. 1. Keep checking the OFS website for updated info.

There are two of us local comix guys in there. Jon Strongbow's entry is described thusly:

Jon Strongbow has donated an homage to
the Broadway Market and movie theater
that once existed in Seattle. The Masai
dancers are men who in leaping experience
weightlessness which is akin to flying.
Mantis is a mythological being who may
have created the entire human race.
http://www.jonstrongbow.com/

It's in color. I don't know the dimensions or medium.

Jon and I go way back to but it has been many years since we've seen each other. I think I last saw him at the Starhead farewell party in Ballard about 1997.

Here's the entry for yours truly:

Steve Willis is a librarian who also writes comics.
He has donated 5 new issues of Morty Comix to
the auction. Read about the series at Olyblog:
http://www.olyblog.net/guide-morty-comix

http://www.mortydog.blogspot.com/

The Cap Theater has also been one the venues for the Olympia Comix Fest for several years. In fact, Peter Bagge and I had a nice little forum on politics in comix there just a few months ago.