Mortymail 5/9/12

OK, I admit I have become a terrible correspondent to those of you who contact me via USPS. And I have been for a number of years. Burnout is liberating yet guilt-inducing.

Anyway. It is not my intention to make this a regular feature of Morty the Blog, but I thought I would report on some of the stuff I get in the mail before I send it off the to the Washington State University comix collection. In no way is this making up for Richard Krauss basically suspending Midnight Fiction, and I am not reviewing. If you are looking for a networking place, send your comix to Rick Bradford at Poopsheet.

I let my mail pile up quite a bit before I even look at it. Then I get out the jack-knife, slice those babies open after they have collected dust for a week or more, and mostly pay bills while some old movie is in the VCR. Yes, you heard me, I said VCR. Occasionally some comix stuff slips in there.

Here's what arrived this week:

Kel Crum sent me his latest, Scribbles. I'd like to know how he found legal sized paper to print this work in the classic enlarged digest size which I loved. I finally got to meet Kel at SPACE last year and admired his performance skills during the comix reading show.

Bruce Chrislip sent me a big packet of material. Included were copies of a couple jams from SPACE 2011. I found his reprint (20 years later) of Thurber of Ohio to be especially wonderful. Before Bruce and I left SPACE in Columbus last year to head for Cincinnati, we visited the Thurber House. I really enjoyed visiting the home of one great Ohio cartoonist while accompanied by another great Ohio cartoonist.

I hope one day Bruce and Joan Chrislip return to Washington State.

And finally, our old Newave comrade, Gary Fields, sent this great version of Morty the Dog! 

I love it!

Midnight Fiction Going Into Hibernation

One of the treats of Saturday mornings, besides not having to commute to work, is visiting Richard Krauss' Midnight Fiction site, where I can catch up on news about this thing of ours. In addition to being a really nice guy and fellow Pacific Northwest comix artist, Richard has provided a real service to those of us who publish our own work. He has extended the Newave philosophy into the 21st century.

When I was at SPACE last year I was asked more than once: Is Richard Krauss really as nice as he seems?  And of course the answer was a big YES, based on my in-person contacts with him.

Today's installment has some news, which I'll abbreviate:

"An assignment for a class in Dreamweaver, with content fueled by Newave comix pages, soon took on a life of its own with comix, reviews, small press news, interviews and special features. MidnightFiction.com has served the small press scene nearly every week, since Oct. 2006."

"It's been a good run, but I'm ready for a break ..."

"I'll continue to keep the site online as a resource, but after next week ... MF.com will for the most part be on hiatus."

I left out all the individuals he thanks. For that I suggest you visit his site.  

Having edited City Limits Gazette for nearly three years, I can totally understand Richard's reasoning. And my deal was only bi-weekly! Five and a half years, weekly, of Midnight Fiction is a very good show.

So thank you Mr. Krauss for providing a major contribution in telling our story to the world at large. You done good and my Saturday morning ritual will take awhile to get used to the void. In the meantime, I hope your newfound free time is used in endeavors you find creative, original and expressive.

Pastime Publications

Students of Pacific Northwest comix history need to read Richard Krauss' article on Pastime Publications, the publishing house run by Marcus Reed in Portland in the early 1980s.

See it in Richard's Midnight Fiction site.

Bruce Chrislip's SPACE Report

My old friend Bruce Chrislip filed his report on the 2011 SPACE experience in today's Midnight Fiction website.

In what must sound like an oxymoron, that was a short long weekend for me. It all went by so fast and furious. At least Bruce's report proves it wasn't a wild dream.

Also, I want to start a magazine for those us non-Buckeyes who are overly fascinated by a certain Cincinnati sausage and call it Goetta Life.

Above: Bruce and Joan, my wonderful hosts, presiding over the Cincinnati version of the Bottled City of Kandor. Shortly after this photo was taken I was introduced to Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory-- and I had only been in town for an hour or so!

State of the Morty Blog 12/2010

So far so good.

Today I'm putting my studio back together after the double interruption of a gas heater that flooded and having my incredible wonderful daughter paint the inside of the house.

In the meantime Sarah has been setting up a way for us to start making some reprinted comix available. I've identified a couple titles I'd like to start with. Thanks to our patrons of the comix arts, making the first print run should be no problem.

The blog has gained a small but regular audience, not unlike my comix. We're averaging about 1500 hits a month from all over the world. We're still in a little subculture secret corner, even online.

At some point I had to make a decision whether or not to put more focus on networking. But I've been there before when I edited City Limits Gazette. Also, there are already some great websites covering us obscuro comix artists, notable among them are Poopsheet and Midnight Fiction.

The current phase of this website, scanning and posting old comix, has a finite life. Eventually I'll cram everything in here. I admit there are a few comix I'm still debating whether or not to post since they are so bad, and there are cartoonists I've jammed with that I can't locate for permission to post, but aside from that this website should be as about a complete portfolio of my published work as possible.

Then what? We'll see.

Giant-Size Mini Comics

You can find my reprinted work in issues #1 (August 1986, edited by Larry Marder), #3 (December 1986, edited by Jay Kennedy) and #4 (February 1987, edited by Paul Curtis). Published by Eclipse Comics.

To be selected for this series by three editors of this caliber was exciting but also, for some reason, sort of intimidating. For a lot of readers of mainstream comic books, this was their first exposure to the world of Newave/Obscuro/small press comix.

Richard Krauss has a nice summary of the four-issue run of Giant-Size Mini Comics over at his Midnight Fiction website.