Frank Lloyd Wrong!

Sarah sent me an email concerning this house for sale in McCleary, Washington and one of the most entertaining real estate pitches it has been my pleasure to read. This dwelling always fascinated me as I walked by it occasionally.

The realtor used the term "Frank Lloyd Wrong" to describe it. Brilliant! Why anyone in Western Washington would construct a building with a flat roof is beyond me. I spent 8 years of my upbringing in a flat roof mobile home out here, so I know of what I write firsthand. We had lots of buckets!

Legal Marijuana in Washington State: a Case Study

 

The ol' wacky tobacky is now legal in the Soviet of Washington since we spoke as a people in a popular vote initiative in 2012. But, along with Colorado, being groundbreakers we are experiencing some tribulations. All the local governments are now forced to grapple with this issue. Personally, I figure it'll be a great economic shot in the arm for our ailing state.

Here in McCleary, population around 1600, where a wooden bear sits on top of City Hall, our local officials are discussing this topic. Needless to say they are predictably cautious and status quo. Morty the Dog reporter Sarah has supplied us with some interesting recent public documents regarding this issue:

http://www.cityofmccleary.com/vertical/sites/%7B6900A7D9-59CE-4612-823A-FA3E5F25F431%7D/uploads/Council_Packet_11-20-13_merge.pdf  

It seems to me a really bold and visionary municipal government would take this opportunity to run and be first in line to collect the enormous revenue that will be realized from this endeavor. But McCleary does not have bold and visionary leadership at this time. Instead, we have the same old sick and tired, play-it-close-to-the-vest, paternalistic, good ol' boy pattern that is killing us. You can hear crickets in the heart of our business district. The bank is gone. The only tavern is gone. The pizza place is gone. The pharmacy is gone. The hospital is gone. The veterinarian is gone (which I really miss). This town has no active public phone. We are dead.


The legal marijuana thing provides McCleary with an enormous economic opportunity but I have to accept the fact that my town is presently led by timid people. In the past McCleary had real visionary and inspirational leadership, I even made a video about it.  Those days are long gone.

Taking an Important Call

Sarah came by yesterday while I was on the phone and snapped some shots. My call had some sort of problem with the line.

Don't step in the raccoon poop!

Comix Anniversaries in 2013

 

50 years ago, 1963: President Kennedy is assassinated. Lee Harvey Oswald, JFK's alleged assassin, is shot on live TV by Jack Ruby.  I was in grade school and later documented an eerie follow-up in a 2001 minicomic entitled LHO.

40 years ago, 1973: My first obscuro pre-Newave comic, Gimmie Comics # 1, is cranked out on a mimeograph.

30 years ago, 1983: I publish my first 8 page 14 cm. minicomic, Sasquatch Comix # 1. 1983 also marked the very first issue of Morty Comix, which I believe was sent to Hawaii. Other comix published that year: Limbolympia, Sasquatch Comix # 2-5, Retreads # 1, Bonafide Child Innocence # 1, Cranium Frenzy # 4, The Big Picture Picture Book, Outside In # 1-9, As I Recall the 'Sixties, Tragedy of Morty Prince of Denmarke Act 1. Plus there were a number of reprints (called "editions" by collectors) and contributions to various comix with others.

20 years ago, 1993: Most of the year was taken up with editing City Limits Gazette, where I served as editor from Feb. 1991 to Sept. 1993. Also involved with some exhibits, short contribs, a televised lecture called The Wild World of Obscuro Comix, a jam with Max Traffic called Flying, and another with Pat Moriarity in Big Mouth # 3. Bruce Chrislip records our mutual experience with Robert Crumb in Paper Tales # 1.

10 years ago, 2003: By 2003 this old dog was slowing down considerably. Cranium Frenzy # 10, at 60 pages, remains my most recent full length comic book. Will I ever produce another full-length comic? I don't know the answer to that.

2013, what to expect: I'm working on more creative ways to distribute Morty Comix and documenting the process on this blog. Once Ron and Louise are finished with me in the making of their NW cartoonist documentary Bezango WA it is my intention to fully return to my hermit existence here in the hills of the Washington Coastal Range and begin a new phase of my comix art. I have no idea where the lines will lead me.


The last couple years have seen me out and about as a cartoonist in classrooms, panel discussions, performances, conventions, and I even hosted a Mini-Comics Day here in McCleary (which was quite fun!), but we true Mossbacks can only take so much of the sunlight of attention and social interaction.


However, as we all know, Fate has a way of screwing up our plans and sending us places we never expected to visit. I'm enjoying this blog very much (thanks Sarah for making this possible when you set me up in 2010 with your technical know-how) and for now it remains a fun venue for creative expression and provides a medium where my old prehistoric photocopy work can find a new audience.     

Morty Comix # 2409 - # 2415 Watercolor Series

Morty Comix # 2409 through # 2415 can be called the Watercolor Series. Before I post these things, they will require some explanation since the final products came out even weirder than normal, and even I will admit that is saying a lot.

Last year when Colin Upton told me "Color is for the weak," I really knew what he meant. So call this a moment of weakness while I was on a staycation.

First, I tied a string between a young elm that is sharing some kind of leaf disease with all the other elms in my yard, and a tree from the Southeast called, I think, the Devil's Walking Stick. This was a tree my Dad, may he rest in peace, gave me to plant. When a guy from Alabama fixed my garage roof a few years ago, he asked why I had this big weed in my yard on purpose.

Then, using some of the very same clothespins I employed in the Bezango WA 985 art exhibit at Batdorf and Bronson in Olympia several years ago, I hung up seven blank sheets of letter size typing paper.

What I was about to do has been on my mind for quite some time. A year ago, maybe more, maybe less, I had purchased a cheap watercolor set and a suction-cup toy gun. I laid them out with a styrofoam cup filled with water on an issue of our local weekly newspaper, the East County News.

I dipped the suction cup end in water and after that in the watercolor set. Then I took aim and fired at close range. I did this over and over, for about 30 minutes.

Yes, here's a case where a gun is really a tool for something good. The "gun is a tool" argument is frequently repeated by the gun crazies. In my situation, I was making something fun. But the real gun is a tool for one thing: wounding or killing someone. And that is not good. 

Here's the ironic part. I dislike guns and think the National Rifle Association is full of paranoid rightwing nutjobs with a penis complex. Oops, I was being quadruple redundant there. My review of Bowling for Columbine in Cheaper by the Dozen 6 pretty much summarizes my mixed feelings on firearms.

Anyway, here's an example of the results of my efforts. This sheet of paper eventually became Morty Comix # 2410 after I finished with it. You'll see.

Sarah happened to be here when I was performing this act of art, wondering what the Hell I was doing as I failed to explain what I was up to while she was visiting. So she took this photo since she is a journalist. I apparently did not inherit my Willis grandfather's deadeye aim when he had his famous 1931 shootout, killing two people and taking three bullets himself and living through it. Even at this close range, I still missed several times.

When this orgy of watercolor violence was over the toy gun was no longer functional. I'm sure members of the NRA can appreciate how Freudian that is. I had to throw all the supplies away.


At any rate, now you have the background on the next round of Morty Comix.

Morty Comix # 2404

Morty Comix # 2404 was drawn on a notepad given to me as an incentive to subscribe to the magazine Golf Digest, which is very strange since I have never played golf and have no desire to learn. In fact, the whole world of sports strikes me as incredibly and expensively absurd, but I recognize I am very much in the minority view here in America and realize millions find joy and meaning in this activity. This is a major part of the human experience most people find very important but has somehow escaped me. I just don't get it. But I'm OK with being a freak in this regard.

Sports have appeared in my comix. In my book Dog of Dawn Dog of Dusk I highlighted the historical sport of Dog Butting, introduced to me by my friend Bob Richart, who was featured in an altered way as a character in the story. Also in State of Beings # 5 I proposed my new baseball team, the Stationary Pus-Filled Pancakes.

Sarah introduced me to Robin Williams' great take on golf a few years ago. The fact I have a healthy dose of Scottish blood made me laugh even harder.

Page 2-3 of this Morty Comix came from two leftover old post-its I had from Morty Comix # 2394, which were affixed to an outside door almost two weeks ago and were, incredibly, still there when I drove by  today even though the weather here has been rainy and windy!

Anyway, since someone in my town has seen fit to take down anything I put up on the Post Office community bulletin board, rip it into shreds and throw it away, I decided to tuck this Morty Comix behind the bulletin board. I know who the perpetrator is and I highly doubt she follows this blog, so I think this one will survive her strange and unvoiced hostility to my work.

McCleary is kind of a weird place. I tried to capture the culture in my Bezango WA 985 series. We enable our many local eccentrics and that adds to the surrealism.

Mini-Comics Day in McCleary, Pt. 1

Yesterday I hosted the McCleary site for National Mini-Comics Day at our local Community Center. During the first hour, from 9-10, I was totally alone, listening to whatever creature it was that was living in the wall or ceiling of the building. Knowing my time might be crunched as the day went on, I used the opportunity to put together my minicomic for the day.

There should be a name for those strands of paper that are a byproduct of trimming newly printed minicomix. When I mentioned this later, I think Jim Gill suggested "mippitts."

So, this is is one the fastest minicomix I have ever produced, exactly 44 minutes from conception to the finished 10 copies. It is untitled.

The greeting table, including promo material for the Olympia Comics Festival, to take place June 2!

The first contingent arrived at about 10 from Seattle! Paul Tumey and his son Reid, Frank Young, and Jim Gill. I was thrilled to finally meet all of them in person and grateful they made the long trek to the hills for this.

All three of the cartoonists above have known each for a long time since they first met in their native Southeast U.S. I loved the way they fit together when they talked. It was like listening to well practiced tag-team comedy with a real mutual respect and affection.

Paul Tumey and I first corresponded back in 1990. Paul can be counted among one of the more thoughtful cartoonists I've known, like Joe Zabel, Scott McCloud, Hank Arakelian, and several others. He has several websites, my favorite being Screwball Comics.

Frank Young is a very funny fellow with a thousand voices. Also, he is a former editor of the Comics Journal and is juggling enough blogs to qualify him as a circus act.

Jim Gill and I have been corresponding since 1996. He was the first person to ever post a Morty Comix on Internet. Plus, and I cannot say this about anyone else I know, he actually knew someone who was eaten by an alligator!

Frank and Jim have a website called The Jim and Frank Podcast, and if you think radio comedy is dead, you need to visit this site first.

As the day progressed more people trickled in. I think we had a grand total of a dozen people in the six hours of the event. In the background of this shot you can see Bothell, Washington cartoonist/filmmaker Ron Austin and his partner Louise setting up as part of a project they have in mind. I met Ron last week at Evergroove's 40th Anniversary.

Bryan and Amy collate and staple a minicomic that was really wonderful. Part of the whole idea of this event was to attract non-comix artists to the art form, and these two created a very nice work entitled This is the Story of Ludwig. My brother's modesty prevents him from giving me permission to post it, but maybe one day he'll relent. I'm serious, I think these two put together an elegant little 8-pager. At least WSU will get it, so it won't be entirely lost.

Hey, if I can sing "I haven't seen my underpants in weeks" in public, which I did in Elma after this event (as Jim Gill can bear witness), certainly this mini can be shared with the world. But, I'll respect Bryan's wishes.

Figuring out the logistics of printing back-to-back pages on my copier can be maddening. I loved how Frank lapsed into one of his comic radio voices while figuring it out.

Jim posted a nice short bit on YouTube where I talk to three brothers about how to construct a minicomic.

On some levels this event was a success since we had a lot of energy from creative artists who also happened to be nice people. Sarah popped in (and traded stories with Jim about being former residents of  Port Townsend), but apart from the two of us, no one else from McCleary showed up. And I have to admit I was disappointed none of the locals bothered to come. But, this is far from the first time I have felt like a literal voice in the wilderness out here, so I can roll with it.

There was some talk as we wrapped up that maybe next year in the 2013 Third Annual National Mini-Comics Day, a happening might take place in Seattle and I could go up there. I would love that! But at least in 2012 the tiny hamlet of McCleary can now officially take a place in the history of Mini-Comics Day!

I'll be posting the comic art results of our creative efforts in the next chapters. Plus, there will be a surprise participant from McCleary's sister city in Ohio-- Cincinnati, home of goetta!

Mini-Comics Day Prep

Mini-Comics Day is almost here!  I took the afternoon off and went to City Hall to pick up the key to the Community Center. Then I found Sarah and brought her with me for set-up since she graciously offered to help. Somehow that seems fitting since she was the one who set this blog up in the first place, so this whole thing in McCleary really traces back to her!

A tip to those of you coming from other places. We are about 25 minutes from Shelton, 30 minutes from Oly, 40 minutes from Aberdeen, 60 minutes from Centralia, 90 minutes from Seattle, 2+ hours from Portland, 6 hours from Spokane my birthplace, 9 hours from Redding, California if you drive like a bat out of Hell, and a stone's throw from Bezango. Keep in mind Memorial Day weekend traffic to the Coast will be thick.

These tables are not the greatest for acting as a drawing surface. Be sure to bring a drawing board or pad. I'll be using a clipboard.

I'll be providing a photocopier, a very funky paper cutter, a longneck stapler, some old dry gluestick, colored paper, pencil sharpener and a few other things. Bottled water will be there too, as well as some "fine" music on old sound cassettes. heh-heh.

This is also the venue where the Man in the Morty the Dog suit appeared in the late 20th century.

The Community Center resides next to the McCleary Cemetery, originally started by the Knights of Pythias in 1912 and then given to the town shortly after McCleary incorporated in 1943. Here is the headstone for one of the many Greeks who lived here in the early days, Christ Pappas, 1882-1956.

 A rare thunderstorm followed these clouds a few minutes later.

I returned home to start hauling out my dusty comix-making tools. Meanwhile, Charlie and Dreamer had an epic wrestling match next to the equipment I gathered in my living room.

New from Rex Velvet, Seattle Super Villain

Illustrious Seattle Super Villain, Rex Velvet takes his Seattle anti-hero campaign on a viral goose chase! Play your part in ridding all major cities of their useless superheroes!

(Check out the Super Villain's car collection.)

Super Villain Rex Velvet Compilation

Seattle's New Supervillain

As some of you might know, Seattle has several real-life superheroes, including Phoenix Jones, who was active in protecting Truth, Justice, and the American Way in today's May Day violence.

Well, apparently Seattle now also has a supervillain: Rex Velvet. Morty the Blog's founder, Sarah, told me on the phone this evil genius is now running amok and she sent me this link.

I see Rex Velvet is using the required purple and green colors associated with supervillains. I say, more power to him! The bad guys are always much more interesting than the heroes in comic book land and I am so happy this little drama is taking place here in Washington State! I love living here! 

Washington, My Home!

Our Own Arab Spring: UC Davis

What is really chilling about this video is how nonchalant the officer appears to be as he pepper sprays peaceful demonstrators. Almost as if he is simply watering the flower garden, but as Sarah pointed out he is actually watering the garden that will grow the seeds of radical change as normal Americans are utterly horrified. Those are our children on the frontlines.

This is wrong. This is unAmerican.

For what it's worth, we've seen this before. The system is broken and needs an overhaul. And no amount of pepper spray is going to prevent that from happening.

To Our Comrades Back East

We realize summer has been sort of a bummer for you guys. First, horrible heat, then an earthquake, and now a hurricane.

All we have to complain about in terms of Mother Nature out here in the coastal Pacific Northwest this season is the unusual lack of real summer this year, since we've had mostly rain and overcast most of the time. Pretty mild in comparison to your trials.

Sarah and I have you in our thoughts.

The Dust Settles

This blog is now a year old, and it seems a fitting time to change gears. The frenetic pace at which I have been scanning and posting primary documents of the Newave Comix era as well as my own work will be slowing down.

I want to start getting back in the comix creation game. Thanks to this blog the bulk of my old printed work has been caught up to this online technology, so now I feel reset with this modern a-gogo world and ready to make comix again.

Besides, I still owe art to Maximum Traffic and Dan W. Taylor, and getting the next Morty the Blog jam together.

It has been a singular experience reacquainting myself with all the works that have been posted here in the last year. This blog is only possible because of the efforts of the Fabulous Sarah, who set it up and made it run. Thank you Sarah!

I'll still try to post at least a photo every day, and continue to scan and share odd drawings, articles, etc. as I find them. I'm not stopping, I'm just going to walk instead of run.

A look at Lighten Up! by Joe Sumrall

Above: samples from Joe's book.

Although this title is no longer available from Bear & Company, I thought I'd give it a rare review in this blog. Sarah managed to track down a copy of Joe Sumrall's Lighten Up! : a Book of Enlightened Humor (1990) and I just finished giving it a read.

Sumrall has been mentioned earlier in this blog. My fellow local cartoonist was murdered almost two decades ago and this case remains unsolved. He should not be forgotten.

In Lighten Up!, Sumrall employs a fairly traditional cartoon drawing style. He uses lots of shading film and has a careful line style in his chiefly one-panel gags. You don't sense this guy is really cutting loose and getting wacky.

But the subject matter he covers is far from conventional. Joe intended his cartoons to be enjoyed by an audience familiar with some basic New Age premises. In 1990 this group was a much smaller subculture than it is today. It is also not a movement that strikes me as having a great sense of humor, and I can't help but wonder if Sumrall's attempt to bridge cartoon gag comedy with the spiritually esoteric was frowned upon by those who were attempting to institutionalize these philosophies into cults or profitable ventures. Such charlatans don't mind being the object of scorn, but being laughed at is another matter.

The closest work I can compare this to is the film Stuart Saves His Family by Al Franken. By poking fun at a take-themselves-serious subculture from within (in Franken's case, the 12-step movement), an awkward dynamic takes place that requires an acquired taste.

Lighten Up! stands as an oddity in the cartoon world, which makes it all the more interesting to read. But not in funny har-de-har-har way.