Fifteen Heart Attacks, p. 20-21, by Mike Hill!

The Fifteen Heart Attacks online jam lives on! One of my favorite ever cartoonists, Mike Hill, who lives in Western Pennsylvania (a part of the country I have learned to love), contributed the following. Thank you Mike for climbing aboard!

Phone photo 3083

“From there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere!” 

--Dr. Seuss

Postcard - Athens, Greece

"Athens - Partial View and Lycabette."

1970s

What an amazing place Greece must be. It is somewhat disconcerting that Morty the Dog has actually been there while I remain stateside. I would love to visit someday.

The Richard Nixon Song

Richard Milhous Nixon

Resigned in disgrace

The best thing about him?

It was easy to draw his face!

[Below: Nixon meets Morty the Dog in Cranium Frenzy # 9]

John E and Newave Comix in the News!

Our old friend from Newave Comix days, John E of Kansas, was featured in a news article covering comix yesterday in the Hutchinson News by reporter Kristen Roderick.

It's available online too. Don't know for how long. Here's a LINK.

Phone photo 2734

Morty the Dog image (from the comic Flying) used as a birthday cake decoration!

Phone photo 2685

Morty stencils by Max Traffic

Butler, Pennsylvania

Obscuro Bezango Show 5

A large piece of foamboard in the front window was open for graphic expression by gallery attendees

Buttons - Comic Art - 2013

A Morty image from Flying, button produced by Max Traffic

Fifteen Heart Attacks, p. 13-17

The Fifteen Heart Attacks jam is now online. I've set up a special page for it. The most recent contribution is by our friend in Chicago, Jim Siergey, who followed the setup created by Max Traffic.

My immediate goal before leaving for the Obscuro Bezango show next week is to add one more page to this ongoing effort.

Happy May Day!

Morty Comix # 2526

Morty Comix # 2526 was drawn on the skin of my right hand (I am left-handed) and Hettie breezed by to inspect the artwork before I washed it off. This might mark the first time Morty Comix was presented as body art, although it was very temporary. I suspect this is as close as I'll ever come to a tattoo, an adornment which has become a widespread fad for the last couple decades but I must confess is an art form I find unappealing. I'm not knockin' it, it just isn't my deal.

Why? Because I see the creation and consumption of art as ever evolving. Something that captivates me at age 18 will become lame and stupid by the time I am 35, 40, 50. Plus, and believe me I know, our bodies change shape like silly putty as we hurtle through time. And that changes the presentation of the tattoo.


I understand there are at least two people running around out there in the world with Morty the Dog tattoos, although I have not seen them. One of them gained his Morty body graphic long before tattoos became hip. That was a real radical leap and I do respect him for that. But what if I subsequently had suffered a severe head injury and became a member of the Tea Party or the NRA and allowed Morty to be an icon of these hater un-American movements that stand for nothing but fear, greed and ignorance?


But, that being said, apparently the late great underground cartoonist Greg Irons, an artist I admire very much, was a tattoo artist in Seattle working in the city at the same time I was a graduate student at the University of Washington over 30 years ago. And this was before tattoos became fashionable for middle class kids. Back then, the radicals got tattoos, but these days the radicals don't get them. If I had known Greg was in town I would've been very tempted to get an Irons tattoo. The guy was the Durer of our time, a gifted artist, and a big influence on my own cartooning. I loved his work.

As I recall, Bruce Chrislip (who was hosting), Michael Dowers and I were downing a beer or two (er, or more) next to Lake Union late 1984 when Bruce gave us the news Greg had been killed by a bus in Thailand at age 37. It's not fair. We were robbed of several more decades of work by a great artist. Very funny Mr. God, thanks a lot!    

$475 - Original Art - Cranium Frenzy # 7

19 pages of all the original art for Cranium Frenzy # 7 is for sale at $475

Starring Morty the Dog, Mukey the Mutant Membrane, Snoodle B. Clapsaddle and a talking lawnmower, this story was first drawn and published in 1994. The art is blue pencil and felt tip on card stock, 35.5 x 28 cm. A couple word balloons have a dab of whiteout. The artwork is in excellent shape and has held up well for being nearly 20 years old.

$475 ppd
Check or money order to
Steve Willis
PO Box 390
McCleary, WA 98557-0390

NO LONGER FOR SALE
 

Mort Drucker

This year for Christmas my Mom gave me a book of selections from the pen of Mad cartoonist Mort Drucker. When I asked her how she knew I was a fan, she replied, "Are you kidding? I remember how you loved his work when you were growing up!"

It's true. I started reading Mad during the JFK years, and two of the magazine's artists in particular were a major influence for me, Don Martin and Mort Drucker.

A master of caricature, Drucker has a gift for capturing the character of celebrities and politicians like no one else. Widely imitated but always without equal, I have yet to see a would-be Drucker who doesn't look forced. The work of the original Mort looks effortless and graceful. And fearless.

Drucker was the one who usually drew the movie parodies that included songs "sung to the tune of ...," a device I loved when I was a regular Mad reader and later employed frequently in my own comix.

I do not believe Mort Drucker was a factor in the naming of Morty the Dog, unless it was subliminal.

Anyway, this a great book and well worth tracking down. Published 2012 by Running Press.

Deep Thinks Animation

A bite-sized animation by John Eades. This one is an adaptation of a one-pager I drew in the mid-1980s. If I'm not mistaken I think this first appeared in a comic published by Steve Lafler, and has been reprinted a few times in different places. Jay Kennedy even made a little sculpture of Morty based on this drawing.

Morty Comix # 2497

Morty Comix # 2497 needed to be sent somewhere out of the routine, and at random. So here's what I did.

 I took a long piece of wood out of the carport and set it up as a ramp in my living room.

 

  Then I went back to the studio and blew dust off my old World Book Encyclopedias.

This is the 1961 set. I purchased these for 4 bucks at a garage sale here in McCleary about 20 years ago, I think. 

Since I rarely go in my studio, Charlie timidly tried to enter the room-- a place he knows he isn't supposed to be.

Then I located an old toy car of mine, dating back to the late 1950s. A rare survivor of our 1965 house fire. I used this car as a model for Morty the Dog's vehicle in a few pages of Cranium Frenzy # 1 (1981)

The encyclopedias were arranged at the bottom of the ramp according to the thickness of the volume so all together they sloped down.

 I let go of the car at the top of the ramp.

 In an exciting moment it raced down, and came to rest on four different volumes.

 

And those volumes were H, J-K, L, and Q-R. That means Hawaii, Kansas, Kentucky,  Louisiana, and Rhode Island.

  

So I suspended the ramp above the floor a few inches and placed the four volumes underneath. Then I situated wooden blocks on the top, two above each book.

 The contraption was seasoned with catnip. Yes, I was going to enlist the help of the Fabs.

Dreamer was first, and actually he quickly chose the winner by knocking the blocks on one of the tomes right away.

 Then Buster had to have a turn, but the blocks he knocked over missed all books.

 Charlie came over and just enjoyed the catnip.

Hettie, meanwhile, just watched the whole exercise, regarding it as a silly waste of time. In many ways she is the smartest one in this house.

 The winner was Rhode Island!

Rhode Island is our 13th state. So I picked the 13th largest city there, North Kingstown. In looking at a map I liked the sound of Spink St., but had to settle for a nearby address I could verify, which turned out to be a bank on a street with a much more boring name. So I am sending this Morty Comix to that bank, care of the "Art Director."

This February will mark the 30th anniversary of Morty Comix. I have sent them all over the world. But this might be the first time one has landed in Rhode Island.