Bezango WA, a Work in Progress

The film can be viewed at THIS LINK

Ron Austin and Louise Amandes have released a 25 minute "work in progress" version of their Bezango, WA documentary about cartoonists in the Pacific Northwest. My fellow native Boomers will enjoy seeing that Bob Cram is still in the game! Although this is presented as a draft, the preview can be considered a fine mini-documentary by itself.

Paul Tumey, "Wotta Rube!"

 Paul Tumey with original art by Rube Goldberg

 Paul holds a copy of The Art of Rube Goldberg

Paul in Abrams NYC office working on the book with Goldberg's granddaughter, Jennifer George, and fellow book contributor Carl Linich.

Paul Tumey sends news and photos telling us about the new book The Art of Rube Goldberg, to be released by Abrams in mid-November. Amazon has the ordering information.

Paul is one of a half dozen essayists in this book. For those of you who don't know, Mr. Tumey maintains an excellent website devoted to the art of screwball cartoonists, with Rube Goldberg being the chief screwball.

 

I had the pleasure of meeting Paul in person when he braved the wilds and along with some other screwballs attended the McCleary Mini-Comics Day a couple years ago. Here's part of the group pictured in Elma, where we ate dinner: taken by filmmaker (Bezango, WA) Ron Austin with Jim's camera: L to R: Jim Gill, Morty the Dog, Paul and Reid Tumey, Frank Young.

 

Morty Comix # 2605

Morty Comix # 2605 was hidden in a piano bench in a home in Butler, Pennsylvania. But the residents are wise to me now and have already discovered this one.

Morty Comix  # 2378 was also hidden in a piano bench in Oly last year, and the deed was filmed by the Ron and Louise and used in the Bezango film promo.

Morty Comix # 2528

Morty Comix # 2528 was drawn on the top portion of a letter-size sheet of paper and then cut down to the size of a narrow strip. It was then rolled up into a tight coil and placed inside an empty plastic gumball bubble.

Later, at the McCleary Laundrymat, in McCleary, Washington, I noticed an opening in the metal chair frame that looked just the right size for the ball. So I dropped it in. Sounded like it made quite a journey before it landed to a stop in there.

This is the same laundrymat where Morty Comix # 2482 was deposited last December and recorded on film by Ron Austin and Louise Amandes for the Bezango WA documentary. Not too many weeks after our visit, someone plowed their car through the front doors (maybe the driver was all excited about hunting down another Morty Comix!). Obviously, the place has since been repaired.

Bezango WA Interview with Ron Austin

The TESC blog, The Evergreen Mind recently posted a nice interview with filmmaker Ron Austin about the Bezango WA documentary.

Also included in the post is the entire panel discussion (apparently) starring Matt Groening, Craig Bartlett, Drew Christie, Tommy Thompson, Megan Kelso, Ruth Hayes and yours truly from last May!

Thanks to Louise Amandes for directing me to this great blog.

Morty Comix # 2483

It was getting really cold, wet, and dark. So Ron, Louise and I raced to film this distribution of Morty Comix # 2483 for the Bezango WA documentary before we all froze to death. The target was the display of the ancient horse-drawn fire engine and the second oldest locomotive in Washington exhibited in McCleary's Beerbower Park. In recent years, this park attraction has been enhanced during the holiday season by festive lights.

Here's a phone photo I took last year of the same site at night. It has a sense of fun and I like it.

So I managed to slip Morty Comix # 2483 into a crack of one of the supporting logs holding up the roof. It used to be this display was out in the open, but sometime in the late 1980s/early 1990s this chain link cage was constructed to protect the relics.  Ron and Louise filmed the whole episode.

After this freezing event we returned to the warm and comfy confines of Steve's Acres of Cats. Ron and Louise conducted another interview with me. Well I hope you come and see me in the movies, then I’ll know that you will plainly see the biggest fool that ever hit the big time, and all I gotta do is act naturally.

It looks like Ron and Louise and I will have at least one more caper in the very near future before their filming is complete.

Morty Comix # 2482

Morty Comix # 2482 was left under a pile of freebie ad sheets in a laundrymat in McCleary, Washington. Filmmakers Louise Amandes and Ron Austin recorded the event for possible use in their documentary, Bezango WA. It was a caper.

Morty Comix # 2477

Morty Comix # 2477 will be sent to whoever pledged 60 bucks to the Bezango WA movie kickstarter campaign.

I am putting it in a special envelope with a Morty portrait recognizing the occasion. For you collectors, I should point out the Morty Comix series is rather unusual in that it is not the oldest issues from almost 30 years ago that are super rare, it is the newest set from number 2279 onward that will be the most difficult to track down. This series is Obscuro Comix in action for real. Quite liberating from my point of view.


I'm offering two more issues for the campaign and there are still a couple days left to pledge. Ron and Louise are creating a great project worthy of support for anyone who enjoys the comic art form.

New Bezango WA Kickstarter Promo

Ron and Louise are over 2/3 of the way to their kickstarter goal! Click on the link and see their new promo, which includes footage of Morty Comix # 2378 being distributed.

Bezango WA Kickstarter!

Check it out! A feature film about cartooning in the Great Pacific Northwest! Great promo film at the link:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1230569287/bezango-wa

Also see Ron and Louise's website:

http://bezango.blogspot.com/

Bezango, the Film

Ron Austin and Louise Amandes have just created a blogspace centered around their upcoming film:

Bezango, an Anthology of Pacific Northwest Cartoonists.

Here's the mission statement: Bezango is a film, and website, documenting prominent Northwest cartoonists. The project chronicles the history, struggles, and evolution of the local cartoon industry.

Morty Comix # 2414

 Before

 After

Morty Comix # 2414, part of the Watercolor Series, was inserted into a menu at a restaurant in Forks, Washington, where I met filmmakers Louise Amandes and Ron Austin for breakfast.

As I was stuffing the menu, Ron asked, "Aren't you worried someone is going to kick your ass?"

Well, as a matter of fact, yes. Particularly in the town of Forks, which had a much different reputation before the national media discovered this place. In the 1970s, we hitchhikers knew this was a town never to get stranded in.

Ron's question is a good one. This method of distributing Morty Comix could easily cross some legal/social boundaries if I am careless. Maybe I have even already crossed some. I am sure in some cases my distribution actions have been recorded by security cameras. But as we saw with Morty Comix # 2407 a security guy appeared to enjoy discovering the comic.

This is a blending of graphic and conceptual art. The rules of the game reveal themselves as we play. I'll try to be a bit more playful than those old Jack T. Chick comics I used to find in phone booths, but in many ways his method of distribution helped inspire me on this project.

If the old mailed Morty Comix drove completist collectors crazy, this new set, starting with Morty Comix # 2279,  will be extra hard to find and I must say there is some satisfaction in that.

But at some point I'll stop and allow this certain slice of Morty Comix to be incredibly hard to collect and then move on to something else.