Morty Comix # 2404

Morty Comix # 2404 was drawn on a notepad given to me as an incentive to subscribe to the magazine Golf Digest, which is very strange since I have never played golf and have no desire to learn. In fact, the whole world of sports strikes me as incredibly and expensively absurd, but I recognize I am very much in the minority view here in America and realize millions find joy and meaning in this activity. This is a major part of the human experience most people find very important but has somehow escaped me. I just don't get it. But I'm OK with being a freak in this regard.

Sports have appeared in my comix. In my book Dog of Dawn Dog of Dusk I highlighted the historical sport of Dog Butting, introduced to me by my friend Bob Richart, who was featured in an altered way as a character in the story. Also in State of Beings # 5 I proposed my new baseball team, the Stationary Pus-Filled Pancakes.

Sarah introduced me to Robin Williams' great take on golf a few years ago. The fact I have a healthy dose of Scottish blood made me laugh even harder.

Page 2-3 of this Morty Comix came from two leftover old post-its I had from Morty Comix # 2394, which were affixed to an outside door almost two weeks ago and were, incredibly, still there when I drove by  today even though the weather here has been rainy and windy!

Anyway, since someone in my town has seen fit to take down anything I put up on the Post Office community bulletin board, rip it into shreds and throw it away, I decided to tuck this Morty Comix behind the bulletin board. I know who the perpetrator is and I highly doubt she follows this blog, so I think this one will survive her strange and unvoiced hostility to my work.

McCleary is kind of a weird place. I tried to capture the culture in my Bezango WA 985 series. We enable our many local eccentrics and that adds to the surrealism.

Mini-Comics Day in McCleary, pt. 12

When I went to the Post Office to take down the poster now that the event is over, I see my poster-ripper-upper friend was back at work.

Apparently a "Free speech for me but not for thee" Puritan type. Or just someone with a lot of unresolved anger.

Weird.

Mini-Comics Day!: Someone Does Not Want You to See This Poster

Here in McCleary the Post Office bulletin board is the central form of text communication. I have been putting up posters daily heralding the coming of Mini-Comics Day, and daily someone has been taking them them down, ripping them up, and throwing them in the garbage. It seems aimed pretty much at just this event as compared to other posters on the bulletin board.

And here I thought I was pretty much washed up as a cartoonist and self-publishing advocate, but apparently I still have the power to offend, so that feels good. I cannot even begin to guess why anyone would do this with such discipline. It is nice to know I can still get under the skin of some intolerant person. Most artists want to inspire people, but we cartoonists were born to step on toes in this ungentlemanly art, so this very targeted vandalism makes me feel like I'm doing my job.

Strike a blow for fun and creativity and come to the McCleary Community Center on May 26! If you don't feel like drawing anything, come and cheer on those who are willing to risk expressing themselves on paper. An event like this has never taken place in the entire history of McCleary, so come be a part of history.

Morty Comix # 2324

Morty Comix # 2324 joined other public announcements at the McCleary Post Office bulletin board

Phone photo 1283

Morty Comix # 2312

Morty Comix # 2312 was left on the bulletin board of the McCleary Post Office

Morty Comix # 2300

Morty Comix # 2300 found a home on the McCleary Post Office bulletin board.

Morty Comix # 2283

Morty Comix # 2283 was tacked up on the bulletin board of the Post Office right here in little old McCleary, Washington

Space Cat

An enormous drawing probably made in the 1990s. I left it down at the local United States Post Office last Sunday. Exactly why and when it was originally produced, I cannot recall.

Phone photo 509

That weird slot of space between the McCleary U.S. Post Office and McCleary Library

Phone photo 466

Post Office, McCleary, Washington

Morty Comix # 2271

I think this one was left on the local Post Office wall here in McCleary

Morty Comix # 2268

Drawn on sticky pads in Yakima, Washington

Left in the McCleary, Washington Post Office

Phone photo 338

McCleary Library and Post Office in the background

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!

What th--- ?!

This was mailed from Marrickville, NSW, Australia. It was addressed to the corporation above, in Hillarys, Western Australia.

So how did it wind up being delivered in McCleary, Washington, USA 98557?