Cartoon Simple

[illustration by Paul Tumey]

Morty the Blog readers need to check Jim Gill's new website, Cartoon Simple.

It brings to mind the advice I got from Seattle Post-Intelligencer cartoonist Ray Collins in 1977: if you want to be a great cartoonist-- study poetry. Say a lot with just a few lines. Then he politely told me my work was very bad. And it was. But I got better, in part because of what I learned from Ray.

Nelson Bentley, William Stafford, Ken Kesey, Richard Brautigan: I sought out the Pacific Northwest poets and writers. Authors who described the world I lived in. It made a difference in my comix.

Grays Harbor County Rain

On a clear day I can see the foothills of the Olympics from my front yard. But we don't get a lot a clear days here in Grays Harbor County, Washington. Mostly we get rain. A lot. And this is why we are called "The Evergreen State." At least on the western side. Today my front yard visibility is about 4 blocks.

I am guessing this constant rain, which keeps many of us inside most of the year, is a major contributing factor to why so many cartoonists come from the Pacific Northwest.

The best description of our climate I have ever read came from Ken Kesey in Sometimes a Great Notion. I note that recent immigrants to our corner of the world don't mind the rain so much as the constant overcast and lack of sunlight.

But this is Washington, my home, wherever I may roam. This is my land, my native land, Washington, my home. I was born in Spokane, but raised on the wet side, so I consider myself a true trans-Cascade Washingtonian, loving both sides of this great state.

The Bulletin Board

When this was erected in 1986 it was clean and empty. But instead of removing old items, I just stapled over them. Soon I had to get a staple gun to attach paper to this bulletin board.

I guess the layer of paper is well over an inch, maybe two, in some spots. Lots of comix material buried in there, newspaper articles, posters, drawings by my daughter Rose when she was little, etc. etc.

Sometimes I would use it as a tool in creating a new comic. I'd photocopy the art, then staple it on this board, and stand back to evaluate how the different panels worked as a unit. Those working drawings are still in there too. Here we can see some images from We Rode With the Clowns.

One piece I wish I hadn't put in there is an original page by Jeff Nicholson, who sent me a brief visual narrative of his visit here in the late 1980s. Another buried treasure is Ken Kesey's autograph from the time I talked with him-- probably circa 1987.

So I continue to add stuff to this board. After I croak some archaeologist can carefully peel back the layers and mark comix eras via the paper strata.

Retreads 7

1st edition, 1986, Pullman, Washington, 50 copies, orchid cover, enlarged digest size.

1st Danger Room Reprint edition, July 2005, 5 copies, blue cover, enlarged digest size.

This would be the last issue of this run for 19 years. I'm sure I had some good reason for putting it in stasis for so long, but the original intention of this action has managed to escape my memory banks. The not remembering thing going on in my cranium seems to be a common occurrence these days. And yet yesterday I was recalling the obnoxious theme song of TV show called "Little Leatherneck" that aired only once, on July 29, 1966.

Trivia:

Page 9: I later learned we actually had a guy run for Governor here in Washington State named Henry Joseph Snively in 1892.

Page 9-20: I'm not an atheist. I believe in God. Today I happen to believe God looks like a giant cat. Tomorrow God might take another form. I think God must have a sense of humor given all the jokes played on us by life circumstances. But I don't believe in religion. Obviously.

Page 23, panel 4: Charles Dickens.

Page 26-27: Although I'm not a big reader of fiction, the Big Three for me in American literature during my college years were Vonnegut, Kesey, and Brautigan. In the 1980s I had the joy of hearing Vonnegut speak in person, and had a chance to converse a little with Kesey. Never did see or meet my fellow Washington State native, Richard Brautigan.