Olympia Comics Festival 2019

As you can see my little 20th century Toyota Corolla was filled with so many Morty Comix that I consider it a major victory that I made it to Olympia without being pulled over. Driving on the back streets helped.

Those white bags in the center, next to Max Clotfelter, was my table. In all between the expo portion and handing them out at the wedding, I gave away about 250 Morty Comix.

With this project finished I will be moving on to to truly diabolical art scheme, also using Morty Comix. 

I'll keep this blog up for another week or two, then it returns to hibernation where only a few trivia hunters in the Diogenes Club come to occasionally visit. If you are comix historian and still want to have access to this blog let me know and that can be arranged.

See you on June 15th at the Olympia Comics Festival!

See you on June 15th at the Olympia Comics Festival! Celebrate Marisha and Casey's wedding and take home some free art!

Olympia Comics Festival June 15, 2019

I'll be giving away nearly 300 Morty Comix at the Olympia Comics Festival at the Olympia Community Center on June 15, 2019. The comix are wedding favors on the happy occasion of the wedding of Marisha Kay and Casey (Danger Room) Bruce.

https://olycomicsfest.tumblr.com/Exhibitors

A little more than half of the Morty Comix are in the "traditional" 4-page format. Each issue is one-of-kind original art. The series dates back to Feb. 1983. The rest of the Morty Comix are 3-dimensional "installation pieces" given away in wedding white bags.

I hope I can fit them all in my little 20th century compact car (see photos of giant plastic tubs and boxes, as well as a ton of loose bags). We might have a clown car situation here.

The issue number range is between # 2900-3200, created between Aug. 2018-Mar. 2019. Hope to see you there!

Happy Day After National Donut Day!

I hope the Timberland Regional Library realizes what a gem of a librarian they have with Kelsey Smith. She has become a regular figure at the Olympia Comics Festival, promoting reading and creativity through comic art. In 2012 she passed around a moveable feast of a jam comic. I got in it early but never saw the final results until recently.

The roster of artists is quite diverse: Jason Shiga, Steve Willis, Carter Welliver, Dominic Moreschi, Rhett Nelson, Harper, T.A. Nelson, Tom Dillon, Alex Paul, Lily, Brittany Dalberg, Anna Boyle, Phung Lu, Greg, Fiona Avacado, Aaron Brassea, Shannon Wheeler, Tim Basaraba, Greg Hatcher, Corin See, and Forrest Johnson.

Kelsey gave me permission to scan and post this. She told me there are still copies available if you ask at the Olympia Timberland Branch.

Morty Comix # 2391

Morty Comix # 2391 was left in an unused plastic slot at the Tumwater Post Office

That big cardboard box on the counter is full of comix about to mailed to the Washington State University Library Comix Collection

The most recent additions to this shipment came from the Olympia Comics Festival!

A Frank Talk on the Olympia Comics Festival

Frank Hussey of the Danger Room was the subject of an interview about the origins and purpose of the Olympia Comics Festival broadcast online on Discover Thurston!

Some nice shots of the expo in this very brief piece, including a few seconds where Shannon Wheeler endures my questions.

Olympia Comics Festival 2012, pt. 13

My final bit on the Oly Comix Fest.

All the comix, business cards, and brochures that were traded or given to me will go to the Washington State University Comix Collection, the oldest academic collection of underground, Newave, and small press comix on the Pacific Coast. This library collection was started long before comix were considered acceptable by the mainstream in the early 1980s, even by other librarians. As a result, WSU holds many rare titles from the pioneer days of self-publishing, as well as early works by cartoonists who are now internationally famous such as Matt Groening, the Teenage Turtle guys, Chester Brown, etc. Anyone on the West Coast who has an academic interest in the subject of the history of self-published or underground comix will have to visit this collection. There is no other public place in Ecotopia that can come close in terms of broad coverage.

The Oly Comix Fest really has roots in the old Newave Comix movement. God bless you Clay Geerdes. 

Olympia Comics Festival 2012, pt. 12

Olympia Comics Festival 2012, pt. 11

Triple book signings at the Danger Room with Mike Allred, Jason Shiga, and Shannon Wheeler. Casey Bruce is the retail moderator.
 
I hope the City of Olympia appreciates what a treasure it has in the Danger Room.

Olympia Comics Festival 2012, pt. 10

 http://www.floatingdockcomics.com/

http://hugohouse.org/content/zapp

My apologies to those tables I was not able to catch due to being too late or having technical problems. I managed to get the last couple as they were folding up.

Olympia Comics Festival 2012, pt. 9

Filmmakers at work.

Ron Austin and Louise work together as they set up to interview me as part of a project they are working on. We had to find a quiet corner of the Olympia Community Center as the Fest raged on. Part of the preparations involved Ron manhandling a decapitated mannikin.

Notice how Louise has improvised using a trash can in place of a tripod. I was impressed! Not only do these two have an equal and warm partnership, but the three of us sure spent a lot of time laughing pretty hard. So much so it was only with a tremendous effort of willpower that I could keep a straight face while being questioned when filmed.

Olympia Comics Festival 2012, pt. 8

Beautiful work by http://theseframesarehidingplaces.com/

Flying Dodo Publications

Max Clotfelter, Kelly Froh

The most photogenic pair in the Fest!

Darkslinger Comics

Students from Madison Middle School had a table with comix and fiction. I was so happy to see this. The torch of creativity is kept alive and these kids are lucky to have such visionary teachers.

Drawing comix helped keep me sane as I was growing up (no wisecracks, please) and the adults who encouraged me to continue this activity as part of my personal development were essential in my evolution as an artist. It was all quite informal in those prehistoric times, even in college. There was no such thing as classes in cartooning.

My departed friend Steve Charak would've been all over this if he was still alive, but it has only been in very recent history comix have become an accepted part of academia, on any level.


So I salute Madison!  What a great way to combine drawing and writing education.

And, I went to grade school at Roosevelt, so I feel an Eastside kinship there.

http://newlevant.tumblr.com/

The photo of John Doe, her neighbor in orange, was one of several that unfortunately didn't turn out

Chelsea Baker at the Timberland Regional Library table

http://www.artbureau.org/