Morty Comix # 2501

Morty Comix # 2501 was deposited in an empty distribution box for The Stranger on the Westside of Olympia, Washington

Twisted Conundrums

1st edition, February 2001, 15 copies, orchid cover, regular digest size.

1st Danger Room reprint edition, June 2005, 5 copies, blue, regular digest size.

This is a great example of how my work can be recycled over and over, seemingly without end.

This was originally a column around 2000 in the weekly Seattle tabloid The Stranger. Well, I think it was. They sent me checks for each one, but I never did see them in print myself.

Some of the situations I used in comix prior to the column. In this book most of the drawings were cannibalized from my stories in the past.

Many of these columns were collected and given yet another life in OlyBlog, where I continue to occasionally add a few.

People who are around me a lot are now to trained to roll their eyes and groan in pain after hearing me open a sentence with the line, "What would you do if ..." But hey, that's how cartoonists think.

I say Conundrums. Rick of OlyBlog put together the collection under Conundra. The Guardian has a nice discussion on this difference.

Twisted

Cranium Frenzy # 9

1st edition, February 1998, 65 copies, grey cover. All editions are regular digest size.

2nd edition, February 1998, 60 copies, pink cover.

3rd edition, May 1998, 30 copies, salmon cover.

1st Danger Room Reprint Edition, June 2005, 5 copies, yellow cover.

I'm pretty sure at least 95% of this comic was drawn with #1 lead pencils. I might've used felt tip for the solids. The original art, I think, fell between one of my filing cabinets and the wall several years ago. Right now my studio is in disarray from flooding (long story), so perhaps I'll be forced to find this art again as I put things back together in the next month or so.

Trivia:

Page 1+: This "what if" question later became part of a series of one weird conundrum after another that was published in Seattle's The Stranger and also in OlyBlog. In the latter case there is audio.

Page 5: It took a lot of out loud practice, much to the consternation of my family and friends, to finally nail down how to spell out these laughs in comic form.

Page 8-10: Room 237 has a special place is cinema.

Librarians and comix never used to mix much. But in the last decade or so people in our profession have decided it's OK to laugh at ourselves instead of being so defensive.

Yes, that's my 1998 self-portrait.

Page 12, panel 1: Oh how I long to hear the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing "I Haven't Seen My Underpants In Weeks."

Page 13+: Perry Como died a few years after this story was published, so of course we'd have to find a substitute person for this terrific movie script. Wayne Newton, perhaps.

Page 16: The Worst Cat in the World was actually a half Siamese/half Manx named Snowy.

Page 19-20: I actually really like Oregon, but we Pacific Northwest siblings like to have our little teasing jokes. Portland has a vibrant comix scene, by the way.

Sometimes I Wonder

It's no secret I have very little respect for Wikipedia as a reference tool. Well, I'm starting to think that "Wiki" must be Internetese for "bum steer." Here's what I found on ZineWiki:
and I must say the about the only correct info on this is my name and the fact I'm a native Washingtonian. Twisted Conundrums was actually a column, not comix. I graduated high school back in the days of Tricky Dick.

Steve Willis is an artist, writer and publisher of minicomics, originally from Washington State, U.S.A.

Willis began producing minicomics soon after graduating high School, in the late 1980's. Since then he as produced a number of titles, and several issues were produced of a couple of his titles.

Some of his comics have appeared in the Northwestern newspaper 'The Stranger. Some of these comics were subsequently collected into a minicomic entitled Twisted Conundrums, released in 2001.