50 issues of City Limits Gazette in Mortyshop!

And none of them are creased in the middle. Check it out at Mortyshop.

SOLD!!

Sampler of Minicomix Available in Mortyshop!

A grab bag of a dozen minicomix, most with very limited print runs, are now available in Mortyshop.

Xenophobic Knives and Other Love Songs, Pt. 2.
Starhead Comix 1990 [i.e. 1991]

Morty Comix # 1882
1st OlyBlog Reprint ed., 2006. 10 copies printed

Raining Quills Pt. 2
Starhead Comix, 1990.
Wayno, Steve Willis, David Tosh, Stanley, Mark Daniel

The Wrong Foot
1st ed., August 2001, 32 copies printed

Throwback
1st ed., July 1998, 21 copies printed

Asteroid 1997 XF11
1st danger Room Reprint Ed., 2005, 5 copies printed

Sasquatch Comix # 1
1st ed., 1983, 67 copies printed

Cranium Station DMZ
1st ed., Dada Gumbo Press, 1984

Sasquatch Comix # 4
1st ed., 1983, 55 copies printed

Sasquatch Comix # 2
1st ed., 1983, 52 copies printed

Why Are We Here?
1st ed., Rodgers' Books Press, 1986, 1000 copies printed
11 cm. 8 p. "mido comic"
Jam with Walt Rodgers, Jim Ryan, Brad W. Foster, Steve Willis, Matt Feazell

Sasquatch Comix # 5
1st ed., 1983, 73 copies

Outside In # 1-10, 12-13 Available in Mortyshop

Outside In # 1-10, 12-13. All 1st editions. 1983-1984. Every one of them is an 8 p. minicomic printed on white cardstock. Printrun of 150 copies for each issue.

SOLD!!

Little Snowjob Now in Mortyshop!

Hey, it's starting to get difficult to keep Mortyshop in stock. This morning we have added our only available copy of the 1986 jam with Marc Myers, Little Snowjob. Check it out in Mortyshop.

New Mortyshop item: As I Recall the 'Sixties--SOLD!

A single copy of the 1st edition (1983) of the minicomic As I Recall the 'Sixties has just been listed in Mortyshop.

Update: SOLD!

State of the Morty Blog, 2/26/11

Still trying to post something every day, and as I look at the pile of material yet to be shared (I originally typed "shred" by accident. Hmmm), there is lots more to do in the scanning and posting department.

We've been slowly making material available via the Mortyshop. The funds we get through sales and the donation button are being poured back into other comix projects. Right now I am looking into the possibility of publishing the 5-part, almost 200 page Tragedy of Morty, Prince of Denmarke as a single volume squarespine paperback in the original legal size enlarged digest.

Of course the big excitement around here is in the preparation for attending SPACE in Columbus, Ohio next month! Sarah is going to remain here in Mortyville to keep the cats fed and the blog warm while I go Back East, so she shall remain a mysterious and shadowy figure, the power behind the blog.

We Rode With the Clowns could be called our first Morty the Blog comic. I'm gathering material for the next one and already have contributions from Harry Bell, Bruce Chrislip, Bob Vojtko, Anvil, and Roldo. Want to climb aboard? Send me a random drawing! The more the merrier.

Here are some interesting numbers, demonstrating we remain very obscure:

Total number of visitors so far: 10,503
43% of you use Firefox, 41% IE, 8% Safari.
81% use Windows, 12% Mac.

Top ten posts:

McCleary Time Capsule, 1943-1963

about that Donate button

Brad Foster Has Lit the Fuse

City Limits Gazette: Sample Discussion

End of the Earth and Turn Left

Strange and Unbelievable, but Real and True! I Inherit Over 5 Million Bucks From June Pointer!

City Limits Gazette: Lynn Hansen Interview

Newave Reader

Mr. Crawford Raises Herfords, Too

Brave New Nazis of the Inland Empire

Where the readers are from, the top 10 states:

Washington
Utah/New York (tie)
Texas
California
Oregon/Ohio (tie)
Minnesota
North Carolina
Pennsylvania

Top 10 countries:

USA
South Korea
Spain
France
Poland (mostly spammers, thanks a lot guys)
Germany
Canada
United Kingdom
Russia
Malaysia (more spammers)

Top Referring Sites:

Facebook
OlyBlog
Comics Reporter
The Jim and Frank Podcast
Midnight Fiction
The Magic Whistle

The minicomic Dante's Coat gets plenty of hits I assume from people trying to find a real life product that matches the overcoat of a character in the Devil May Cry game named Dante, or at least that's what I gather since the term "Dante's Coat" is one of the most popular here.

Anyway, I'm still having a blast and I hope you readers are enjoying this too. Many thanks to the Fabulous Sarah for making this particular place of pixels a reality.

Hegel & Jekyll Original Art in Mortyshop, ca. 1983-1985

Before

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After

Read all the sordid details in the Mortyshop write-up.

Update: SOLD!

Sasquatch Comix 1-5 in Mortyshop!

The only complete set of the 1st edition (1983) I have available for sale of Sasquatch Comix has just been posted in Mortyshop.

Update: SOLD!

Project ELF - Eliminate Legal-size Files

OK, so it has been a very long time since I went to a print shop to have one of my comix reproduced. And the experience has given me yet another in a growing number of Rip Van Winkle moments.

30 years ago we generally had three sizes of photocopied comix. There was the minicomic, those little 8 pagers which were letter size folded twice and cut; regular digest size, which was letter size folded once; and enlarged digest size, which was legal size folded once.

Throughout the 1980s I published a lot of comix in enlarged digest size, and eased into regular digest size by the 1990s.

So when I decided to use the original enlarged digest master copy to reprint some old comix from the 1980s for the Mortyshop I discovered legal size is, as one printer told me, "obsolete." In fact, trying to find legal size card stock for the covers of these things was a lost cause. The four print shops I approached don't even have it. The covers of these reprints had to be cut from larger paper, which, of course, made printing them much more expensive.

Then I learned about this thing initiated as a cost saving measure called Project ELF (Eliminate Legal-size Files) and pushed by the Association of Records Managers and Administrators. This apparently started in the 1980s (at the same time I was happily publishing in legal size) and has grown into an accepted standard since that time.

Meanwhile, Sarah has tracked down a place where I can order legal size card stock online.

In the meantime, it is weird to see printers more vexed over the form of my material than they are over the content. That's new.

Natural Functions now in Mortyshop!

Reprinted from the original quarter-century-old master copy! 36 pages plus a Morty Comix tossed into the deal. The most beautiful print job this comic has ever had. Check it out at Mortyshop!

Natural Functions was posted here January 22.

Natural Functions

1st edition, February? 1986, 60 copies, orchid cover, enlarged digest size.

2nd edition, April 1986, 30 copies, orchid cover, enlarged digest size. (The version scanned and posted here)

Available as a print-on-demand, 1994, as part of the Reprint Series. Regular digest size.

Special Fandom House edition, 1994, 20 copies, regular digest size.

1st Danger Room Reprint edition, July 2005, 5 copies (1 blue, 4 yellow), regular digest size. (Wraparound cover example scanned and posted here)

This comic will soon be available in the Mortyshop, 50 copies from the original master copy, enlarged digest size.

"How Cats Got That Way" is up there on the list of my most popular stories, judging by how many times it has been reprinted and commented on. It is true that I'm really much more of a cat person than a dog guy. Ironic considering the name of this blog, eh?

I don't have anything against dogs, in fact I like them a lot. But cats are self-contained furry enigmas. They don't fetch, they don't do well with collars, and they don't need to go for walkies. They say they are too cool for those trifles. I live with four cats and sometimes at night I swear I can hear them in the next room chanting, "Cats rule! Dogs drool!" They all love Sarah and call her by name, but I'm known to them as "Mr. Food Giving Man."

This comic was dedicated to my buddy Ahab, who lived to be 10 years old. I found a photo of him sitting in the bathroom sink about the same year this comic was drawn, when he was around four years old. He was very slovenly, liked to eat potato chips, and had the most beautiful cat voice I have ever heard. He had so many ailments that the vet told us he was going to build a new wing to his clinic and name it after Ahab.