Obscuro Bezango Show 6

The Opening Night.  An astounding thing happened. Five of us from the old City Limits Gazette crowd were there at one time: Left to right, Bruce Chrislip, Tom Rehm, Wayno, Mike Hill. I was the 5th but how can I be in two places at once?

I was too busy schmoozing to take many photos, but I did document the following for you students of Newave Comix.

 Hillary chats up Bruce

Wayno, Chrislip, Hill. This was first time I have actually met Wayno in person, even though we corresponded off and on since the 1980s. He was a wonderful contributor to the Bil Keane Watch in City Limits Gazette and a major part of the spark in that title. He brought me a package of coasters, in part to replace my coffee stained and much loved Scottie's Bar coaster in my studio.

 Mike Hill, Bruce Chrislip

A graphic of the mysteriously vanished Maximum Traffic is on the wall

Bruce braved a four hour drive from Cincinnati to attend this opening. As the historian for our brand of comic art, his presence gave the event a a few more "chops" as they say in West Pennsylvania.

But too soon it was all over and the crowd spilled out to the night streets of Pittsburgh. Buzz Buzzizyk, Maximum Traffic, Tom Rehm, all free spirits inspired by the shadowy Borpo Deets, had their night of being honored.

Missing Persons

This was another WFMU giveaway as part of a fund drive. Compiled in 1996 by Hank Arakelian, these were actual playing cards.

The theme concerned missing persons. I was given the diamond number cards and assigned to come up with missing persons in the Pacific Northwest. My subjects were Jacko the Sasquatch, Harry R. Truman, Hale Boggs, Butch Cassidy, Wesley Everest's grave, victims of Billy Gohl, flying saucers over Mt. Rainier, me, and D.B. Cooper.

The artists in this project were: Sam Henderson, Deirdre Kennedy, Justin Green, William Graef, Dave the Spazz, John Schnall, Kaz, Hank Arakelian, Harry S. Robins, George Erling, Doug Skinner, Krystine Kryttre, Diane Farris, Chris Ware, Bob Powers, Steve Willis, Nisa Rauschenberg, Mack White, Robert Armstrong, David Chelsea, R. Sikoryak, and Dorian.

The set was accompanied by a small booklet presenting the biographies of the subjects.

Wes Everest's grave is now a well marked IWW memorial to the 1919 Centralia Massacre. I never met Harry R. Truman, but I remember seeing his lodge when I visited Mt. St. Helens and Spirit Lake a year and a half before the eruption.

Missing

Crackpots and Visionaries

Crackpots and Visionaries was a cardset giveaway as part of a 1992 fund drive for WFMU radio in New Jersey.

The cartoonists in this project: Byron Werner, Drew Friedman, Carel Moiseiwitsch, Stephen Kroninger, Hank Arakelian, Roy Tompkins, J.R. Williams, Steve Willis, Joe Coleman, Mark Beyer, Gary Panter, Charles Burns, J.D. King, Harold S. Robins, Julie Doucet, Jim Ryan, Scott Cunningham, Mark Newgarden, Steven Cerio, Carol Lay, Mack White, Doug Allen, Lennie Mace, Sean Taggart, Krystine Kryttre, Richard McGuire, Glenn Head, Jayr Pulga, Ned Sonntag, Jim Woodring, Peter Bagge, Mary Fleener, Jonathon Rosen, Jimmy Piersall, and Kaz.

As tempting as it might be to say the title of this set concerns the cartoonists themselves, it actually refers to the content. Hank Arakelian gave us a list to choose from of various names throughout history. We then drew a portrait, and WFMU supplied the biography on the flip side of the card.

I chose William Jennings Bryan. His career from being a Populist champion and presidential candidate in his 30s to ending up as a Bible-thumping creationist clown at the Scopes Trial is a fascinating and sad descent. But through it all he was always an amazing political actor and showman.

Hank didn't particularly care for my portrait of Bryan. He thought the image was too simple-- not busy enough. But he used it anyway and I was glad to be included in the company of so many great cartoonists. I have an uncut sheet of all the cards on display in my studio.

Bryan also had an indirect role in our family names. His first, and most highly charged, run for President was in 1896. Out in the silver fields of Colorado and Nevada he was practically a God. It was in August of that campaign that my grandfather, William Jennings Bryan McDowell, was born in Ouray, Colorado, a silver boom town.

My great grandfather, Ben McDowell, had dragged his whole family up there from Illinois in the 1880s as he chased silver and gambled away two fortunes (so they say). Several of his brothers lived there too. Ben deserted the family and spent his last years chasing gold in Cripple Creek, Colorado.

Meanwhile, my grandfather's name was shortened to Bryan. The labor violence he witnessed during his formative years turned him into a lifelong Socialist in political philosophy.

The McDowells were never big on preserving family history. About 30 years ago down in Centralia, Washington one of my Mom's cousins gave me a big puffy Victorian era McDowell family photo album, saying "Here kid, I'm not into all this gynecology stuff."

Lots of pics of Ouray, plus some from the Midwest, including tintypes. We think my great grandfather Ben is in a group portrait with his brothers in one shot (nothing is marked), probably the one on the upper left.

And today the name Bryan lives on through my brother.

Sort of strayed here, eh?