McCleary Theatre Movie Guides, 1950s

Phone photo 90

This McCleary, Washington gravel lot was once home to an old-timey movie theater and later auction hall-- the one I described in the microcomic Pop. 1075 posted Sept. 10. The building burned down around 2003, I think. The grey sky and giant mudpuddles are the norm around here. That hill in the background is probably crawling with mountain beavers.

Pop. 1075

In the mid-1980s Paul Curtis was active as a cartoonist and publisher in Saegertown, Pennsylvania. He produced a series called Micro-Comics, little comix about 3.5 inches high, drawn by a wide variety of artists. Reading a packet of these tiny comix was like eating potato chips. You would find yourself reading one after another until your head was full.

I got my turn to contribute to this fun series with #125. It was drawn in 1986 and published in 1987. In June 2005 I reprinted 5 copies on green card stock as the 1st Danger Room Reprint Ed.

The story told in Pop. 1075 is basically true. By the time the comic was published I had returned to McCleary and was rediscovering the town. The theater/auction hall in the story burned to the ground, cause unknown, about 2003-2004.

The concept of using real stories from rural Southwest Washington as story material for comix was expanded in the Bezango WA 985 books I wrote about 8 years ago.