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M/V Chetzemoka

From Vashon Island to Point Defiance

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M/V Chetzemoka

From Point Defiance to Vashon Island

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Tacoma, Washington

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Seals

Tacoma, Washington

Morty Comix # 2398

Morty Comix # 2398 was slipped into a dessert/wine list at a Tacoma, Washington restaurant

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Red Wolf

Tacoma, Washington

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Entrance to the old Ferry Museum, now home of the Washington State History Research Center, Tacoma, Washington

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Stadium High School

Tacoma, Washington

Morty Comix # 2346

Morty Comix # 2346 was deposited behind a door of meeting room for a state agency in Tacoma, Washington

Quote of the Day

"Got ... got to ... make it ..."

Tacoma, Washington State native Bruce Bennett (who lived to be 100 years old), talking to himself while crawling through the desert in Sahara (1943) in the role of Waco Hoyt.

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Tacoma

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Vashon Island as seen from Tacoma

The Mystery of "Kid" Swanson

This article on Jimmy "Kid" Swanson was also posted on OlyBlog in 2006.

And the mystery remains.

This is a figure in the history of McCleary, in the history of Washington State boxing, and in the history of African Americans in the Pacific Northwest who deserves to be the subject of more research.

Gimmie Comics # 1

1st edition, June 1973, McCleary, Washington, 100 copies, white cover, 10 legal size leaves.

2nd edition, September 1982, Olympia, Washington, 25 copies, blue cover, digest size.

3rd edition, 1984, Gilbert, Minnesota, HSC, 25 copies, white cover, digest size.

Print-on-demand reprint edition, 1994, digest size.

1st Danger Room Reprint edition, July 2005, 5 copies, green cover, digest size.

I count this as my first underground influenced comic. The initial edition was hand cranked from a mimeograph. A few copies were in comic shops in Aberdeen and Tacoma, Washington. The Tacoma shop asked me what the heck I thought I was doing. A few of these were sold or given away before I destroyed the remaining 80 copies. So theoretically there are 20 copies out there in the world.

I don't even own a copy of the 1st edition, but my old friend Rex Munger lent me his copy many years later and I copied it, retraced some of the faint lines and reissued the thing with an intro. The 2005 edition has a rewritten introduction.

The graphics were carved into that gummy mimeo master with a stylus. Although not exactly a stellar work, you can see I was already interested in porcupines. There's the obligatory drawing of then-President Nixon as a Nazi. The victim in the New Hampshire pancakes page is a self-portrait. Actually, within a few years I actually was in a New Hampshire diner and deliberately ordered pancakes for breakfast. The artist on the last page is also a self-portrait. Apparently I had cut my hair short by the time I reached the end.