A Town Filled With Characters From Morty Comix

In the last 3 decades I have drawn 2,666 Morty Comix. Usually they average 4 portraits per issue. That means just in this series I have created 10,664 faces.

So

I wondered if all these characters came to life and formed a city, what local place would be close in size? The answer: Sedro-Woolley, Washington.

When I think of Sedro-Woolley, I think of William Morley Bouck, the radical Grange man who lived there. And this is a good thing.

Here was my intro to Bouck in OlyBlog:

When William Morley Bouck ran for Washington State Governor in his final bid for public office [1936], the most colorful part of the old Granger's career was behind him. Carlos A. Schwantes called him, "A complex man who publicly delighted in goading the rich and powerful and clearly hoped to lead American farmers into a brave new world." Farmer, family man, teacher, renegade Grange Master, a radical arrested on conspiracy charges, Congressional and Vice-Presidential candidate, Bouck has attracted the attention of many historians and writers, including Nirvana's Krist Novoselic.

So right now Sedro-Woolley gets to be the honorary Morty Comix town, even though I have never sent or hidden one up there ... yet.

Morty Comix - 30 Years, a History and Guide

30 years ago I started a comix series. It was called Morty Comix and little did I know where it would take me. In 1983 it was a comix sideshow, and today it is my main venue for artistic expression on several levels.

Here's the guide I wrote for Morty Comix as it appeared on OlyBlog, July 17, 2007:

[Warning, unless you are into alternative and obscuro comix, the following essay will contain references that might seem esoteric and remote. This article (now slightly revised, 12-1-07) was originally written in Apr. 2002 for the White Buffalo Gazette (WGB):]

Morty Comix started in Feb. 1983 with several motives in mind. First, it gave me a way to loosen up my drawing hand. Second, it was a way to drive completist collectors crazy. The basic Morty Comix was a blank index card folded in half with four original drawings. They were numbered in sequence, dated and signed. I attempted to include an issue in each piece of correspondence. Here are some answers to questions you probably didn't want to ask about this series:

The first issue was drawn in Feb. 1983 in Olympia, Wash. It was sent to the now legendary Ron "Gato" Vicens in Hawaii. I won't call #2195 the final issue, since I consider this title to merely be in stasis, but this was drawn in late 1999 and sent to Jeff Zenick in Florida. It was reprinted in WBG in June 2000.

There are four distinct subsets. #1-1000 (Feb. 1983-Mar. 1984), #1001-1225 (Jan.-June 1985), #1226-1760 (Sept. 1985-Sept. 1986), and #1761-2195 (Apr. 1, 1989-Nov./Dec. 1999).

In addition to the blank index card format, other issues were drawn on library waste cards, large sheets of butcher paper, cardboard, foam, styrofoam, and wood. Some issues were produced as puzzles, #1446 and #1500 are 80 pages thick. One issue (sent to Tim Corrigan), was burned into a large sheet of plexiglass. Another (sent to Bob X), was drawn in the sand at Ocean Shores, Wash. and sent as a photo. #1641-1690 were drawn on the inside covers of copies of Starhead Presents #1

Other artists participated in a few issues. Bruce Chrislip jammed on a few, although the exact numbers have been lost. Marc Myers jammed on #1430-31, 1439. Clint Hollingsworth and Myers and I drew #1432. John E. (John Eberly) with #1467, and #1730 was a 4-way effort, which included Ted Bolman, Michael and Keenan Dowers. #1433 was a Marc Myers solo.

Chris Bors took his copy of #1025 and (with my permission) reproduced it as a minicomic with a 50 copy run. #1882 and #2173 were drawn to be published, the first from Starhead Comix and the second by myself (50 copies). #2058 and #2114 have been "published" online at minicomic.com [2007 note, the URL is now dead].

Morty Comix have been sent all over the world. They have found their way to at least 4 libraries (NY State Library, Michigan State U., Washington State U., and Wis. State Historical Society). #1702 was attached to a string on a helium balloon in 1986 and was last seen high in the sky heading west from McCleary, Wash. Five issues were sent at random to other guys named Steve Willis. Lynn Hansen held the record for having been sent the most issues (70). He died in 1995 and when his comix collection was donated to WSU, it can be assumed the Morty Comix were in there as well. Other major Morty holders were John Eberly, Michael Dowers, Brad Foster, and Jay Kennedy. Minnesota collector Joe Schnide, by my reckoning, has managed to accumulate the largest collection of any living collector [2007 note, eBay bidder Albert Law seems to usually win the auctions when Morty Comix show up, so he must be up there as well by now], although WSU is where you'll still find the highest concentration. There are 13 issues I sent but cannot account for.

In 1984 Brad Foster published a large collection of this series in The Almost Complete Collected Morty Comix, culling from the 1983 and early 1984 issues. Somehow Brad managed to talk several people into loaning him their copies. Morty Comix have also been published in: Inside Joke, Acme Subheroes, Mini Haha Komix, Monthly Independent ..., Scratchez, Misc. Comics, City Limits Gazette, American Leather, Over the Wall, Small Press Comics Fanola, Mashuga, Small Press Comics Explosion, Morty the Dog, Upperground, Industrial Toilet Paper, Maximum Traffic, Bezango Obscuro, Damn Weird Comix, White Buffalo Gazette, and, Cartoon Loonacy.

Although Morty Comix didn't exactly start a genre, it did inspire a number of short-lived responses from other artists such as: Par Holman, Paul Cartmill, Richard Wayne, Roldo, Chester Brown, Jim Ryan, Clint Hollingsworth, Maximum Traffic, George Erling, Marc Myers, Hank Arakelian, Gary Usher, Larry Weir, Jamie Alder, Jim Waltman, and Bruce Chrislip. They had titles like: Dawg'on'it Comix, Jimix, Le Morte Comix, Maori Comix, More "Tea"? Comix, Morfy Comix, Mormony Comix, Neon Paisley Dino Attack on Morty Comix, Nivlem Comix, Non-comic Comix, Nonmorty Comix, Psuedo-Morty Comix, Puppy Chewed Comix, Shorty Comix, and Ytrom. The only other artist I am aware of to seriously undertake creating multiple issues of an original hand-drawn series was Ted Bolman, who started Nauga Comix in, if I'm not mistaken, Jan. 1986. I'm not sure if Ted is still drawing this title, but he was up to #294 last I saw. Most of the Nauga Comix I have seen appear to have more of a storyline and are drawn with more planning and care than my dash-offs.

Morty Comix was sort of a statement that original art (at least my original art) is not some sacred collectible thing, but merely the residue of a compulsion that is freely sent to anyone who I was in contact with. In the last decade it was harder to keep up, and I didn't always have issues to send. They were messages in a bottle. It is fun to track them and see where they wind up. So it is with considerable irony I have seen them sell for as much as $50 each on eBay. Sure, it is out of my control now, but Jeez, what will these things be worth after I croak? Will I ever bring this thing out of stasis and start subset 5? Not for awhile, if ever. The 21st century and I are not really getting along too well so far, and somehow I feel I'm protecting Morty Comix by keeping it forever in the amber of the 20th century.

Now to the Update: 

In the summer of 2010 an insidious co-worker named Shawn Moriarty convinced me to produce some more Morty Comix as a benefit for the Olympia Film Society. And so the disease was reborn.

Morty Comix # 2258 was really the first of my online random versions. Morty Comix # 2279 was the point where I started leaving them as art bombs on a regular basis. Morty Comix # 2403, I think, is when I began sporadically using random methods of choosing where to send an issue to spontaneous addresses via the U.S. Postal Service.

And now, for you unfortunate souls who want to collect this series, here is my list of Morty Comix distribution. Note that I originally kept track by name, then by number. Then I just stopped recording the info since they were tracked right here on Morty the Blog. I love the fact the most recent issues will be the most difficult to collect!  Obscuro Comix Forever!

There are many notes made in non-photo blue on these sheets as I attempted to track the location before I gave up due to the hopelessness of it:

Favorite Movie Quotes: The Candidate

"Marvin, what do we do now?"

Mentioned in Evergroove Trivia pt. 17 on OlyBlog

Phone photo 882

Olympia, Washington: The Fetid Lake of Doom bordered by the "Isthmus," upon which stands a tall building locals call "The Mistake By the Lake." In the background is Budd Inlet, site of the famous 1976 Sea World whale controversy. Also the former home of the Mothball Fleet.

Phone photo 865

Just one soldier in the Army of Slugs that occupy my yard

This should be the official mascot for Washington West of the Cascades. Check out the "Sluggy" game on page 12 of Mukey the Mutant Membrane, or the "Jobbo and Bonobo" story in OlyBlog.

What's My Line? The Missing Piece

When I posted my What's My Line? series a few months ago, I noted one was missing. It surfaced during the studio cleanup.

This line was submitted by an OlyBlogger known as Spareshoes.

Selected Quotes From Ed Wood's Plan 9 From Outer Space

with an introduction by Michel Jolivet. I have no idea what sort of print run this had, but it couldn't have been very many copies. This was hammered out on my old typewriter in May 1988.

I later reviewed Plan 9 From Outer Space as part of my Cheaper by the Dozen film reviews for OlyBlog. Here's what I said:

Plan 9 From Outer Space / directed by Edward D. Wood, Jr. (1959, VHS). Bela Lugosi, Vampira, Tor Johnson, Gregory Walcott, Mona McKinnon, Duke Moore, Tom Keene, Carl Anthony, Paul Marco, Dudley Manlove, Joanna Lee, John "Bunny" Breckinridge, Lyle Talbot, Criswell, Conrad Brooks, Tom Mason. "Can you prove that it didn't happen?" Don't you hate it when you enjoy what you think is a nice little secret and then everyone finds out about it and it gets to be a big deal? That's what I experienced with Ed Wood movies in general and this one in particular. There is a natural evolution for Woodians. First, you laugh at his movies, then you slowly start to realize the guy really was a true visionary. A conceptualist. A genius. His work was totally unique, there was no other director like him. But as you reach these last stages of Wood enlightenment, the rest of the world is just starting to discover him-- and they laugh. And if you try to explain the gifted side of Wood and his masterpiece, Plan 9, no one will take you seriously. Wood first came to my attention in the early 80s when this movie was touted inaccurately as "Worst Film of All Time" in the book "The Golden Turkey Awards." Then I fell in with a wild crowd of bassoon players, which included a veterinarian in Burien who showed cassettes on Beta and a librarian who had a lawnmower that was previously owned by Mason Williams, and we watched Ed Wood movies with morbid fascination until all hours. Those were the days, before Tim Burton mainstreamed Ed. Plan 9 was Wood's attempt to lift the veil on the government's secrecy concerning UFO activity. Through the aliens, the brutal every-man-for-himself and ignorant nature of our modern American society is revealed. What makes this movie so interesting is that Wood built the whole thing around a few minutes of footage of Lugosi, right before Bela's death in 1956. In the course of telling the story Wood asks the audience to suspend expectations of several natural consistencies, like day and night going back and forth in the course of a few minutes, different actors playing the same character, scars that move around, etc. The cast is wonderful. Wood must've been a very gifted director to bring out such unique and spirited performances from his actors. They might not be polished, but they have spark. Since Wood didn't really believe in more than one take, you are watching some pretty spontaneous and improvisational moments on the screen. Plan 9, watch it once and laugh, watch it twice and think.

Olympia, Washington : a People's History / edited by Drew W. Crooks

Published by the City of Olympia in 2009 as part of celebrating the 150th birthday of Washington State's capital city. Local historian Drew Crooks edited a history of the place with each chapter by a different author, making this an anthology.

The chapter on the history of The Evergreen State College was really a boiled down version of my extended history on OlyBlog written in 2005-2006 called Evergroove Trivia.

Difficult to scan, I apologize for the poor visual quality.

The Mystery of "Kid" Swanson

This article on Jimmy "Kid" Swanson was also posted on OlyBlog in 2006.

And the mystery remains.

This is a figure in the history of McCleary, in the history of Washington State boxing, and in the history of African Americans in the Pacific Northwest who deserves to be the subject of more research.

Sine

A short history of the now extinct town of Sine, Washington. I had also posted this in 2006 on OlyBlog under the title The Brief Town of Sine, Washington.