$25 Sale - Little Snowjob

Little Snowjob, 1st edition, 1986, with a printrun of only 40 copies! Jam with Marc Myers, 1 folded sheet, blue letter size folded to 11 x 7 cm. Very rare.

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

or order through PayPal

SOLD!

Little Snowjob Now in Mortyshop!

Hey, it's starting to get difficult to keep Mortyshop in stock. This morning we have added our only available copy of the 1986 jam with Marc Myers, Little Snowjob. Check it out in Mortyshop.

We Celebrate Marc Myers Week!

We've been down with the flu the last few days. Yesterday I felt so rotten I didn't even make my run to the McCleary Post Office.

But today I'm a little better, so I went to good old PO Box 390. It's near the door on one of the bottom rows in the phone photo.

What I found in there was an amazing package sent as a gift to Sarah by Marc Myers. When I recently contacted Marc to gain his permission to post our jam Little Snowjob, he offered to send me some original art and a bunch of Morty Comix he had been saving all these years. When I read his email out loud, Sarah piped up, "Well, maybe you don't care, but I want them!" And now she has a thick pile original work, thanks to Marc's generosity.

As fate would have it, part of the art he sent included the cover and first story from Cranium Frenzy #5 -- little did I know when I posted that comic this morning I'd be looking the original art later in the day! What are the odds?

Since I have very little of my own original art, especially from the 1980s, this is a real time capsule. It measures 29 x 23 cm., is drawn entirely in various felt tip pens on very crappy paper, the kind that used to aggravate Brad Foster during our comix jams. I used a nonphoto blue pencil, which you might be able to detect in enlargements here, but the pencils are fairly rough and were only outlines.

And, I can't find a single place, not even in the pencils for the panels, where I used a ruler!

Page 10 has a couple notes in the margins in blue pencil. The top left has: "Re-insert through left eye." The lower left corner has: "Freed when balloon goes."

I'll be scanning even more stuff from Marc. This should be declared Marc Myers Week here at the Morty the Blog!

Little Snowjob

It took awhile to track him down, but Marc Myers was finally located, contacted, and has given his permission to have this minicomic jam scanned and posted.

This is one of the more unusual jams in my experience. Marc came clear from Nebraska and stayed as our house guest during a snowy time in Pullman, Washington in early 1986. We sat at a table and passed this back and forth. Living in an isolated spot like Pullburg made it a rare treat to draw with another comix comrade in person and not via the Postal Service.

The title was one of those beautiful accidents. We both came up with a different word in secret, and then let Dada combine them. Marc came up with Little, I with Snowjob. When we put them together I remember laughing with delight. And, I believe I did go to get hamburgers in a snowstorm, as Marc wrote in the caption.

The comic was printed on both sides of a single letter-sized sheet and then folded with no cuts. The folded finished product measured at 11 x 7 cm. I have provided a scan of both sides of the side to display the way it was pasted up.

I published the 1st ed. in early 1986, 40 copies. My copy is blue.

Little Snowjob was offered as a print-on-demand title for awhile in my Reprint Series, starting in September 1994.

Marc has been one of the more overlooked and least understood of the Newave cartoonists. Rather ironic considering he embodied so many of the qualities we liked to champion. His work was totally original, he had no commercial motives, and he was ultra obscure. His print runs made mine look like Newsweek or Time. He was more of a visual artist than a storytelling cartoonist, frequently using collage techniques.

No history of the Newave comix movement would be complete without seriously considering the work of Marc Myers.

I always enjoyed his sense of humor. One time in 1983 he wrote to me about box elder bugs in the Cornhusker State. That is not an insect we see around here, so I asked him what sort of insect this was. Next thing I know he sent me one, taped to the back of his Selective Service notice, with a notice "Box Elder Bug (Dead)."

In Pullman, I recall Marc could do a pretty dead on imitation of Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau. He even had the hat, I think.

Marc and I also jammed on Morty Comix #1430, 1431, 1433, 1439. Along with Pullman cartoonist Clint Hollingsworth, the three of us produced Morty Comix #1432.

The Minicomic Experience

For more than a month I've been scanning and posting a ton of work in the minicomic format. All of my solo minis, so far as I know, have been included. Almost all the jams have been in here as well.

Finding all the Raining Quills artists will continue to be a challenge, but I have managed to post two issues here. Hank Arakelian, if you're reading this, drop me a line.

One artist I have yet to track down is Marc Myers, one of the more gifted Newave artists. In 1986 he visited Pullman and stayed with us for a few days. During that time Marc and I produced a mini called Little Snowjob. I would love to post it here, but I need his permission. Marc, wherever you are, please contact me.

There are many other minis where I contributed a page or two, or an essay. Brad Foster's Stuff series was one of my favorite places to be a guest. And I haven't even mentioned Outside In yet (Illustration above is Morty and I, from Outside In #2, in 1983). But all will be revealed over time.

I like the mini format, and especially used it in Century 21 as age shortened my attention span and energy level. Right now I'm working on a full length story, but find myself not really driven. So I might return to minis as the venue of choice.