Delayed Stress Syndrome Funnies

Apparently part of this comic was drawn when I still lived in Seattle and the remainder was finished after I moved back to Olympia, yet again but for the last time, in mid-1982. The first edition carries as the place of imprint, "Olympia & Seattle, Washington."

It was definitely printed in Olympia. The printshop was run by a local big fish in small pond, a conservative Republican who ran his own weekly newspaper. His employees had a pretty low opinion of this here comic and let me know they thought it was a complete waste of their energy. It wasn't the only time I've had a printer cast asparagus at my work while accepting my money.

However, in this case there was a very unique factor. I think I ordered something like 50 copies and here's what I got for the price: 48 copies of the covers, and 273 complete sets of the guts! Someone goofed in my favor. Unfortunately, all their printing was pretty crappy. But for the first five editions all I had to do was print a new cover as I could afford to print.

1st edition, October or November 1982, Olympia & Seattle, Washington, 48 copies, creme or goldenrod cover, enlarged digest size.

2nd edition, January 1983, Olympia, Washington, 64 copies, yellow cover, enlarged digest size.

3rd edition, May 1983, Olympia, Washington, 68 copies. blue cover, enlarged digest size.

4th edition, February 1984, Pullman, Washington, 50 copies, green cover, enlarged digest size.

5th edition, May 1984, Pullman, Washington, 43 copies, salmon cover, enlarged digest size.

Print-on-demand, 1996, unknown number of copies, regular digest size.

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

The main story is pretty pretentious, but I did enjoy writing the way the dialogue made transitions from one panel to another. The idea of a mentally unstable President making a deliberate silly face in a public speech actually became reality later in the 1980s when old Ron the Con did precisely that.

Omnia Mutantur and Scrap Race to Acropolis were later published as individual minicomix by One Man Studio (Chris Bors), Ithaca, New York.

Eternities of Darkness

This minicomic is the 2nd part of the Cranium Station DMZ trilogy (see earlier post for a more complete history).

First published by Dada Gumbo in 1984. Unlike Cranium Station DMZ, I don't believe this also had a digest-sized version published as well.

The scanned copy here is from the 2nd ed., published by Starhead in 1992.

The June 2005 1st Danger Room Reprint Ed. had a print run of 5 copies (green covers, yellow guts).

Trivia: The title is a line from Nabokov: "The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness." Cover: I'm told I fell down some stairs and was seriously injured when I was a very small child while living my native city of Spokane, Washington. The experience must've burned into my bank of memories I can't remember but still access, since the image of falling down steps is one that keeps showing up in my work. There is another not so subtle secret message embedded in the comic. Page 4, Tony Dow was the actor who played Wally, older brother to Beaver. Page 9, I occasionally use the name "Jubby" for different characters in my comix. I just like the sound of it. Page 11: I had the honor of interviewing J.P. Patches and met Gertrude in 1975. Two great guys who I'm sure influenced my cartooning to a great degree.