Morty Comix # 2606

Morty Comix # 2606 was hidden behind a poster of Multnomah Falls, held in place by a magnet on the fridge in a home in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Morty Comix # 2603

Morty Comix # 2603 was placed behind a wonderful silkscreen poster created by Mike Q. Roth. The poster is hanging in a home in Butler, Pennsylvania. Roth is one of the co-creators of the work Building a Better Robot.

Obscuro Bezango Exhibition, Aug. 2-Sept. 1, Pittsburgh PA

Poster created by the amazing Jim Siergey

Morty Comix # 2529

Morty Comix # 2529 was slipped behind a poster in a defunct phone booth in the back hallway of a restaurant in Montesano, Washington. Note the surveillance camera in the final photo. I am sure that many of my adventures in distributing Morty Comix have been recorded by these grainy little devils.

Mini-Comics Day in McCleary, pt. 12

When I went to the Post Office to take down the poster now that the event is over, I see my poster-ripper-upper friend was back at work.

Apparently a "Free speech for me but not for thee" Puritan type. Or just someone with a lot of unresolved anger.

Weird.

Work Study Student Recruitment Posters, The Evergreen State College Library

Drawn ca. 1986-1988.

Woofer the Psychic Dog

This play has been mentioned a few times in this blog before. Now it's time to haul out the posters.

Note the name Ken Lonergan on the credits. He went on to be nominated for the Academy Award-- twice, and the Pulitzer once. But I'll always remember him for being part of the NYC cast that appeared in the performance in Olympia, Washington in 1988.

Wanted! Horseman!

And speaking of Crimewatch, be on the lookout for this desperado-- Horseman!

Ten Seconds in the Life of Fenwick Green

Little did I know that when I drew three little panels for Cranium Frenzy # 3, those lines on paper would inspire my brother to write a play called Ten Seconds in the Life of Fenwick Green.

The image was also used on a few posters promoting the play, starting, I think, in 1989. It was also used on a t-shirt.

Mad Hatters Tea Party International

From about 1971 to 1974, I teamed up with a bookdealer and cartoonist from Victoria, B.C. named John Newberry to form a political entity called the Mad Hatters Tea Party International. John was a couple years older than myself and we shared an interest in the role of comix in the political process.

As the MHTPI we created silk-screened posters, mimeo broadsides, and even an ad in the Daily Olympian. This particular broadside was printed on legal size paper using the same mimeograph machine I used to print Gimmie Comics # 1 in 1973.

Lost Loves & Might Have Beens

A poster for a NYC performance for one of Bryan's plays, 1987.

Letters From Waldo

Another poster for a play by my brother, Bryan Willis. This one in New York City, 1988.

David George

When I returned to The Evergroove State College as an employee 1986-1988 I became acquainted with a student who was another cartoonist named David George. He frequently signed his name DaVid.

His work had a strong Deadhead theme, and many of his projects never saw the light of day. But he did produce several posters, some self-published comix and an irregular newspaper called the Evergrateful and as well as The Evergreen Free Press. The poster shown here is from 1987.

He was a petite person with an intense manner under a quiet veneer. We stayed in touch in the 1990s through infrequent correspondence. He lifted Morty the Dog quite a bit out of my comix and used the mutt's image in several published works. Sometimes without permission, I might add.

Anyway, David came to a horrible end around 2003. Here is a narrative from Crime Time News:

Friday, March 26, 2004

DAVE THE DEADHEAD IS DEAD

Olympia, WA - When David George didn't show up at the Oregon County Fair last July, his friends knew something was wrong. The artist made it a ritual to come and paint signs in his own trademark eclectic style. Everyone familiar with the fifty-one year old batchelor also knew he smoked a little dope and had followed his favorite band, the Grateful Dead, all over the world.
For a while Dave designed and sold t-shirts at concerts. That is how he and lead guitarist, Jerry Garcia, became friends. It was Jerry who invited Dave to accompany the group when they played in front of the pyramids in Egypt. Dave even carried a pebble he had picked up there in his pocket.
About a week after the fair, a dismembered body was found and a week after that it was identified as most of David George. Police got several breaks in the case and soon arrested two men, Mert Celebisoy, 21, and Joseph D'Allesandro, 19. As often happens, the accused quickly turned on one another. Both agreed, though, that the death was the result of an argument over drugs. Each claimed to be driving a car when the other stabbed Dave, who was sitting in the passenger seat, five times with a hunting knife.
Forensic evidence revealed the dead head was alive when he was stuffed into the trunk and that he bled to death there. After leaving the body where it lay for several days, the pair hatched a disposal plan. Dave was taken to a vacant home where he was cut to pieces using an electric saw. The body parts were then shoved into black trash bags and placed back in the trunk. The killers then drove to another property where they used a wheelbarrow to carry the bags to a shallow grave.
Thursday morning a jury in Olympia convicted both men of murder. Friends of the deceased hope that before sentencing is imposed the two will tell them where to find Dave's missing left arm and head.

Posted by: Don / 1:08 PM

Oly Comix Fest Poster / Drawn by Angelica!

Hey, that dog in the "Workshops" panel of this poster looks vaguely familiar!

Hope to see you there, o comix comrades! Saturday, May 21.

Historically Patrick, Frank and/or Chelsea have managed to twist my arm and get me to participate in some way or another, and this year is no exception. Apparently in Oly Comix Fest 2011 I'm handing out some weirdly named award.

Check out their webpage for more info.

Bootleg

A poster I drew for the 1989 production of Bootleg, a play written by my brother.

The content of this dramatic work was partly based on the exploits of the Willis family concerning their activity in distilling illicit booze and then employing a very libertarian philosophy in the free market distribution of said product, both in Dickenson County, Virginia and in Pacific County, Washington.

Henard Adventures

Although commercial advertising illustration isn't my deal, I have been known to draw images for the enterprises of my pals. Such was the case in 1983 for Henard Adventures. The contact here was Doug Hendrickson, the same Doug you can read about in How Two Ex-Presidents Went Up My Nose!

My scanner can't handle that obsolete old legal size, so here's a Henard poster in two pieces. In some ways this drawing was sort of a rough draft for the Woofer the Psychic Dog image I drew three years later. I can't remember why I used the name "Arnie Schwartz" when I signed my name. I made up a lot of different names back then.

As anyone who knows me well will tell you, the real humor behind this poster is that I am among the most sedentary of people. If I were a club joiner, the Diogenes Club would be the one for me.

The Bulletin Board

When this was erected in 1986 it was clean and empty. But instead of removing old items, I just stapled over them. Soon I had to get a staple gun to attach paper to this bulletin board.

I guess the layer of paper is well over an inch, maybe two, in some spots. Lots of comix material buried in there, newspaper articles, posters, drawings by my daughter Rose when she was little, etc. etc.

Sometimes I would use it as a tool in creating a new comic. I'd photocopy the art, then staple it on this board, and stand back to evaluate how the different panels worked as a unit. Those working drawings are still in there too. Here we can see some images from We Rode With the Clowns.

One piece I wish I hadn't put in there is an original page by Jeff Nicholson, who sent me a brief visual narrative of his visit here in the late 1980s. Another buried treasure is Ken Kesey's autograph from the time I talked with him-- probably circa 1987.

So I continue to add stuff to this board. After I croak some archaeologist can carefully peel back the layers and mark comix eras via the paper strata.

Steve Willis Archives v. 4

1st edition, March 1991. Chico, California : Onward Comics. 50 copies. Blue cover, regular digest size.

This final volume of the set is an enlarged version of Stevetreads # 4.

Now, which one of us is going to badger Jeff Nicholson enough to convince him it is time for his return to the comix medium?