Morty Comix # 2351

Morty Comix # 2351 was left on the counter at of one those many places in Olympia where you wait 10 minutes for an overpriced cup of coffee. Getting a cup of coffee in that town is much more complicated than it needs to be. See my Bezango column in Olympia Power & Light, August 11-September 22, 2010 for an alternative.

Morty Comix # 2323

 

Morty Comix # 2323 was left in a a copy of the most recent recent issue of Olympia Power and Light, in one of the many places this great biweekly is available. 

Morty Comix # 2315

Morty Comix # 2315 was deposited at a free publication area of a popular downtown Olympia coffeehouse/fair trade gift shop.

Morty Comix # 2297

Morty Comix # 2297 was left in the free publications area of an Olympia, Washington bookstore

Bezango: Overheard in Olympia

Olympia Power & Light # 50 (December 28-January 10, 2012)

You old Newave Comix folks will enjoy this domino effect. As I stated in this column, the whole idea for this piece came from our colleague Susan Catherine and her Overheard at America's Lunch Counters minicomix from the 1980s.

I see by the inset the editors of OP&L plan to co-opt this and use it as a mini-regular feature in the future. There's a lesson here for all us aging Newavers as we qualify for senior discounts at various fast food outlets. Something we did three decades ago when we were all on the cutting edge can still carry some clout in places today we could never have predicted. Funny how life works.

Susan drew a self-portrait I used on the cover of Outside In #7 and I'm posting it here to give her due credit.

OlyGhostBusters

Just stumbled across the OlyGhostBusters website. The focus is on the "Lady in White," the ghost who is alleged to roam the campus of South Puget Sound Community College in Olympia, Washington. The site reprints my "Ghosts and Love" article from Olympia Power and Light March 24-April 6, 2010 and includes a brief interview which was via email, as I recall.

The Legend of the McCleary Coulda-Been Crater

From Olympia Power & Light, September 7-20, 2011.

I still have the old fellow's fishing pole and a little stand he made.


The Legend of McCleary

Bezango: Ted Bundy-- Elected Official?

Olympia Power & Light # 39 (July 27-August 9, 2011).

Ted Bundy was not only politically active in Olympia, he was a rising star in the Washington State Republican Party. It is chilling to consider the potential of how far he could've gone in government policymaking if his campaign shenanigans had not been uncovered.

4 Panel Breakup Draft

Last year I drew a strip for Olympia Power & Light entitled "4 Panel Breakup."





While finally cleaning out my studio I discovered the discarded library card I used to quickly jot down the initial concept. And now I seem to have lost the draft version again, but at least the thing got scanned.

Bezango: Big Boom!

Olympia Power & Light, May 4-17, 2011.

A photo of my cousin, Patty, back in the 1960s. She was visiting us from Vancouver, Washington and we set her up on the tractor. In the background to the right is the hill where the dynamite was planted. Patty is sitting not far from where the huge piece of wood landed. This should give you an idea just how far that chunk of the stump sailed through the air.

Bezango: Oly High, 1970s

Olympia High School humanities faculty, ca. 1971-1972:

Hugh Moody, Jim Coomes, Gary Gerst, Art Lowman, Don Webster, Irene Kaufman, Dave Mesojednik, Don Martin, Tilford Gribble, and Ray Arnold as the dragon.

Olympia Power & Light, April 20-May 3, 2011.

Embedded Bezangos

Sasquatch (Olympia Power & Light, June 16-29, 2010) posted with Sasquatch Comix # 1

On Comics (Olympia Power & Light, June 2-15, 2010) posted as Bezango On Comics

On Top of the World (Olympia Power & Light, February 24-March 9, 2010) posted with Washington State Legislative Building

Isthmus Time (Olympia Power & Light, May 19-June 1, 2010) posted with Bezango WA 985 # 4

Bezango: The World's Fair and the Gayway

Olympia Power & Light, March 23-April 5, 2011

J.P. Patches and Gertrude are still around, I'm happy to say. There is a mistaken belief that Matt Groening based Krusty the Clown on J.P., but down in Portland they had their own live kid show host, another clown named Rusty Nails. I used to watch Rusty when I visited my cousins in Vancouver, across the Columbia River.

Matt and Lynda Barry and I used to talk about J.P. and Rusty quite a bit. It was during the time we were together in college that I interviewed J.P. in person, and both of my fellow cartoonists were hungry for the details. Lynda also grew up as a Patches Pal.

I must say having seen both J.P. and Rusty, there was no comparison. J.P. had the magic, Rusty did not. I'm convinced Krusty is Rusty.

Bezango: Local History in a Crossword, Oh Yeah!

Olympia Power & Light, March 9-22, 2011

Crosswords are a lot harder to create than I thought. Some day I want to try and make a crossword testing the player's knowledge of Newave comix trivia.

Bezango: A Love Story of Sorts

Olympia Power & Light, February 9-22, 2011

Isabella really exists, although she doesn't really announce the product out loud. Other than that detail, this is pretty much a true story.

OK, perhaps a few other points were, er, embellished for dramatic effect.

Bezango: Adventures in Time and Capitol Way (Pt. 2)

Olympia Power & Light, January 12-25, 2011

Bezango: Adventures in Time-- and on Capitol Way

Olympia Power & Light, December 1-14, 2010

I still miss Kay's Chop Suey.

Bezango: On Being Hairy in Olympia

Olympia Power & Light, sometime in late 2010.

To sidetrack here. That 1963 Studebaker Lark was less than a decade old when this Polaroid was snapped. Back then the speed on SR 8 was 70, which meant everyone bombed along at 80. The Lark had a V8 engine in a little body so that baby flew. Also, I loved the fact the ignition was on the left side for us southpaws!

Bezango: Rutherford B. Hayes Slept Here, Oct. 1880

Olympia Power & Light, sometime in October, 2010

It's a big deal whenever a President visits the Oly area. The last sitting President to come to these parts was Harry Truman, although Gerald Ford visited Lacey when he was Vice-President in 1974.

The only President to visit McCleary was Franklin Roosevelt. He drove slowly through here waving at citizens in an open car while passing through to visit the Coast. All the schoolchildren lined up to cheer, but anti-union Henry McCleary ordered his workers to stay away.

Bezango: Revisiting Woody

Olympia Power & Light, August 11-September 22, 2010

My second column featuring Woodrow "Woody" Barker. One of my all time favorite columnists was Chicago's Mike Royko. He created a character called "Slats Grobnik" as a foil for the old days compared to the modern. Woody is the Slats for my corner of the world.