The Comix Files: Chris Bors

Chris Bors was a cartoonist, publisher, and l'enfant terrible from Ithaca, NY when we corresponded mostly from 1985-1988. He briefly surfaced again in 1994. He had a gift for organizing projects involving many cartoonists, providing us with some some anthologies and group portraits of the era. He also (with my permission) republished/repackaged several of my comix.

Delayed Stress Syndrome Funnies

Apparently part of this comic was drawn when I still lived in Seattle and the remainder was finished after I moved back to Olympia, yet again but for the last time, in mid-1982. The first edition carries as the place of imprint, "Olympia & Seattle, Washington."

It was definitely printed in Olympia. The printshop was run by a local big fish in small pond, a conservative Republican who ran his own weekly newspaper. His employees had a pretty low opinion of this here comic and let me know they thought it was a complete waste of their energy. It wasn't the only time I've had a printer cast asparagus at my work while accepting my money.

However, in this case there was a very unique factor. I think I ordered something like 50 copies and here's what I got for the price: 48 copies of the covers, and 273 complete sets of the guts! Someone goofed in my favor. Unfortunately, all their printing was pretty crappy. But for the first five editions all I had to do was print a new cover as I could afford to print.

1st edition, October or November 1982, Olympia & Seattle, Washington, 48 copies, creme or goldenrod cover, enlarged digest size.

2nd edition, January 1983, Olympia, Washington, 64 copies, yellow cover, enlarged digest size.

3rd edition, May 1983, Olympia, Washington, 68 copies. blue cover, enlarged digest size.

4th edition, February 1984, Pullman, Washington, 50 copies, green cover, enlarged digest size.

5th edition, May 1984, Pullman, Washington, 43 copies, salmon cover, enlarged digest size.

Print-on-demand, 1996, unknown number of copies, regular digest size.

1st Danger Room Reprint Edition, June 2005, 5 copies, pink cover, regular digest size.

The main story is pretty pretentious, but I did enjoy writing the way the dialogue made transitions from one panel to another. The idea of a mentally unstable President making a deliberate silly face in a public speech actually became reality later in the 1980s when old Ron the Con did precisely that.

Omnia Mutantur and Scrap Race to Acropolis were later published as individual minicomix by One Man Studio (Chris Bors), Ithaca, New York.

Scrap Race to Acropolis

This originally appeared as a story in Delayed Stress Syndrome Funnies (1982) and was repackaged in minicomic form by One Man Studio (that One Man being Chris Bors) in Ithaca, New York in 1985.

In other repackaged works like this, Chris usually had a print run of 50, so I'll guess Scrap Race to Acropolis has about the same number.

I'll explain more about the background of this story once we get to the original publication.

Omnia Mutantur

Omnia Mutantur means, loosely, "All things change," so there's no use Roman around a Latin dictionary to find the definition of this term.

Heh. "Roman around" ... get it?

Anyway, this is yet another example of a story repackaged for the mini format. This one originally appeared in Delayed Stress Syndrome Funnies in 1982. One Man Studio (Chris Bors) in Ithaca, New York printed up 50 numbered copies in 1985. Chris apparently hand colored each one. The portrait on the back wasn't part of the original story and I can't quite place the source for it.

Here, let me actually get out of my chair and go check. It'll be the most exercise I get all evening.

[SW leaves. In the background are sounds of vault doors opening, empty suits of armor crashing on ground, cats yowling, and then SW giving a shout, "A-HA!!"]

OK, I'm back. And who was that who just described my actions in the square brackets? Weird.

Anyway, that last page on Omnia Mutantur was originally the illustration on the inside of the front cover (or what library catalogers would call "P. [2] of cover") of the above mentioned 1982 monograph. So that solves that little problematic question.

Next.

Morty Comix #1025

These little Morty Comix were drawn as one-of-kind originals and I tossed them as freebies into many pieces of correspondence I had back in the 1980s.

Chris Bors (One Man Studio, Ithaca, New York) took one of the copies I sent him and printed up 50 numbered and hand colored copies in 1985. Although Morty Comix were frequently reprinted as a part of larger books, this is the only case I know of where someone printed a Morty Comix intended as an original art giveaway and made it into a published stand-alone minicomic.

The 1st Danger Room Reprint Ed. in June 2005 had 1 white and five pink copies. They were not colored, but Bors' shadings were reproduced.

I have no idea where the writing from the last page came from. Perhaps it was a line someone was saying on television while I was drawing.