Geographic Newave/Underground Comix Index: Alabama-California (Orinda)

Shortly after Jay Kennedy released The Official Underground and Newave Comix Price Guide (1982) I went through it and re-sorted the geographic information by hand. Remember, this was long before Internet. I was interested in the demographics and regional distribution of this thing of ours. Plus, I am a librarian. This is what we do.

This was all hammered out on a manual typewriter, probably in 1982. I'll be posting this in parts. It has never been distributed in any form.

Jay's list, of course, was not complete, but he made a very good effort. If you hit the tag for the Official Underground and Newave Comix Price Guide you'll see some folks had issues with the publication. Jay is gone, and so is his biggest critic, Lynn Hansen. I liked them both very much and still miss these two guys.

In 1982 I didn't expect to outlive these two good men, but here I am, still around even though I am among the most sedentary of humans. The guy I list as my family doctor died several years ago. I smoke cigars and don't exercise. Fate has given me the task of being a relic and bloviating about the past of an obscure art movement, passing the torch to the students of the esoteric. So here I am blogging for you.

And, as Vonnegut said, so it goes.

This will be a long list, so you comix historians keep checking in. 

WSU Comix Collection Finding Aid

This must be something posted just within the the last year. I stumbled across a list of comix I gathered, 1966-1997, for the Washington State University Comix Collection! Looks like you can see the bibliographic entry on their online catalog by clicking the highlighted LC classification call number.

In the past they have provided a list for the Lynn Hansen Comix Collection and the Paul Brians Comix Collection.

WSU also mentions: "Unprocessed collections (please contact us for access information): Further Steve Willis collections (MS 2009-15); Clark Dissmeyer collection (MS 2009-18); Joseph Shea collection (MS 2009-19, MS 2010-01); Jeff Zenich collection (MS 2009-20)."

Riddle at Rosebud

Up here in the McCleary neighborhood the oldtimers called "Arkie Hill," there was a closeknit group of neighbors in the late 1990s who held frequent social gatherings including progressive dinners, potlucks, barbeques, etc.-- and role playing murder mystery games.

The boyfriend of one of our neighbors introduced us to these games, and we held several murder mystery parties using commercially produced products. My then-wife and I decided to write our own game, Riddle at Rosebud, inspired by the so-called "Roswell Incident" and the mysterious fate of our friend, Lynn Hansen.

We wrote this in late 1998. It was performed in real life only once, in my living room by 8 people on January 9, 1999. And it was a lot of fun.

I am unable to reproduce the accompanying cassette tape, or provide photos of the participants in costume, but they were something to behold.

Nowadays I am the only person left from that crowd still living on Arkie Hill. People move, die, get divorced, have surly talking frogs grow out of the top of their craniums. Life happens.

Jim Jarvis, who played Lon Odure, provided his own re-election poster and booze tickets!