The Comix Files: Jack T. Chick

Back in 1987 I ordered the entire set of those oddball little Jack T. Chick comics so I could donate them to the Washington State University Comix Collection. Jack sent this letter with the order form. It was written during the same era when more famous evangelists than usual were getting caught with their pants down.

"Our enemy, the world ..." Wow. Jack really is from another planet.

But I always admired the way these little guys were distributed, and that method no doubt served as one of the inspirations for how Morty Comix is sometimes presented.

The Comix Files: Chester Brown

One of the advantages of being a perpetual amateur cartoonist is that I get contacted by amazing artists early in their careers before they really get discovered. Such was the case with the incredibly talented Toronto-based Chester Brown during our correspondence from 1984-1986. At the time he was producing a photocopy digest called Yummy Fur.

I loved the way he usually included a bunny graphic with his signature. It was fun jamming with Chester on our mini Lump Soup Sciopluieas in 1985.

During this era I sent Chester a Morty Comix that was something like 100 or 200 pages long. He shot back his own version, which was just as long, and is now in the comix collection at Washington State University.

Found Object in Elma Leads to a Bizarre Case

"I'm a creepy stalker! morelater.com/creep"

"His name is Rick or Eric. His phone number is 360-970-3081. He's been stalking a blind woman since September. He got her number by following her around and listening to her. She called the cops, but they wouldn't do anything. Know any more about him? Call 425-522-3748."

So I'm minding my own business like a Norm, walking down the gritty sidewalks of Elma, Washington, when I spy this little (1.5 x 2.5 inch) card on the ground.

For those of you who enjoy a little detective work like I do, be prepared to enter a bizarre case here when you dig a bit. Naturally it involves my alma mater, The Evergroove State College!

There are two sides to everything, and I am making no conclusion here, merely reporting.

As a Morty Comix distributor I am curious how many of these little cards were printed and how they were scattered. And why did I find one on the sidewalks of Elma?

I'll add this to the next box I'll be sending to the WSU Comix Collection. It qualifies as a micro-zine-- an independent voice using nontraditional print channels to be heard.

Morty Comix # 2533

OK, so I check to see if Morty Comix # 2527 is where I left it. Sometimes these Morty Comix sit for months before anyone finds them. The spot is at a phone booth in a gas station/minimart in Tumwater, Washington. Actually various places on this retail space have served as a depository for Morty Comix for awhile. I think I have left at least half a dozen in this general vicinity in the last year or so.

But wait, I see an interloper.

What should I find at the place where I left Morty Comix # 2527 but a Jack T. Chick weirdo minicomic! This one is called The Contract! and it is the second Chick publication I have found on this retail space this week. How deliciously bizarre.

So is this how the game is played? Two anonymous comix droppers in a turf war? One Obscuro the other Fanatically Religious? Then so be it. I accept the challenge with a sense of fun. It so happens I like Chick publications (for reasons the publisher doesn't intend, I'm sure) and send all I find to the Washington State University Comix Collection.

Morty Comix # 2533 has taken the game up a notch as I replaced the Chick comic with my own work at the phone booth the next morning. Perhaps this is just a brief conflict. Or perhaps not.

Morty Comix # 2401

The idea for Morty Comix # 2401 came to me in a meeting at work. I quickly jotted down the basic concept while pretending to look serious and intelligent.

So then I came home and drew six faces. The next stop was my little photocopier.

But guess what? I hadn't used my photocopier since Mini-Comics Day last may 26th. So when I opened the lid for scanning I found the original art for The Floating Head of Humptulips, a jam by Frank Young, Paul Tumey, Jim Gill and myself was still in there! A cartoon bomb for me for a change!

So I took that art and it became the first item in a box of material I'll be sending to the Washington State University Comix Collection when it fills up. I just sent WSU a big box of comix and related material earlier this month.

The box, by the way, was originally sent to me by Michael Dowers, one of several filled with copies of Newave! The Underground Mini Comix of the 1980s.

That hideous and frightening doll hanging above the box was given to me by my daughter many years ago as a joke. It is part of my Bulletin Board project.

 Then, for good measure, I tossed my original draft drawing for Morty Comix # 2401 as well.

Well, my my, we certainly got sidetracked, didn't we? So, back to the six faces:

I ran the images through my photocopier, and reduced them in size, on astrobright pink paper. Maybe about 15 copies. Then I cut them into little squares.

All the little squares were then placed inside a styrofoam cup. The cup itself was titled, numbered and dated.

 The original art, which was ballpoint on graph paper, was burned in my woodstove.

The next day, which is today, I visited a Timberland Library branch north of here and found a great place to leave Morty Comix # 2401 as sort of a cartoon bomb ...

 ... right under a dictionary stand.

And so I bid farewell to another Morty Comix left out in the world all on its own to face an uncertain fate.

Morty Comix # 2391

Morty Comix # 2391 was left in an unused plastic slot at the Tumwater Post Office

That big cardboard box on the counter is full of comix about to mailed to the Washington State University Library Comix Collection

The most recent additions to this shipment came from the Olympia Comics Festival!

Olympia Comics Festival 2012, pt. 13

My final bit on the Oly Comix Fest.

All the comix, business cards, and brochures that were traded or given to me will go to the Washington State University Comix Collection, the oldest academic collection of underground, Newave, and small press comix on the Pacific Coast. This library collection was started long before comix were considered acceptable by the mainstream in the early 1980s, even by other librarians. As a result, WSU holds many rare titles from the pioneer days of self-publishing, as well as early works by cartoonists who are now internationally famous such as Matt Groening, the Teenage Turtle guys, Chester Brown, etc. Anyone on the West Coast who has an academic interest in the subject of the history of self-published or underground comix will have to visit this collection. There is no other public place in Ecotopia that can come close in terms of broad coverage.

The Oly Comix Fest really has roots in the old Newave Comix movement. God bless you Clay Geerdes. 

Mortymail 5/9/12

OK, I admit I have become a terrible correspondent to those of you who contact me via USPS. And I have been for a number of years. Burnout is liberating yet guilt-inducing.

Anyway. It is not my intention to make this a regular feature of Morty the Blog, but I thought I would report on some of the stuff I get in the mail before I send it off the to the Washington State University comix collection. In no way is this making up for Richard Krauss basically suspending Midnight Fiction, and I am not reviewing. If you are looking for a networking place, send your comix to Rick Bradford at Poopsheet.

I let my mail pile up quite a bit before I even look at it. Then I get out the jack-knife, slice those babies open after they have collected dust for a week or more, and mostly pay bills while some old movie is in the VCR. Yes, you heard me, I said VCR. Occasionally some comix stuff slips in there.

Here's what arrived this week:

Kel Crum sent me his latest, Scribbles. I'd like to know how he found legal sized paper to print this work in the classic enlarged digest size which I loved. I finally got to meet Kel at SPACE last year and admired his performance skills during the comix reading show.

Bruce Chrislip sent me a big packet of material. Included were copies of a couple jams from SPACE 2011. I found his reprint (20 years later) of Thurber of Ohio to be especially wonderful. Before Bruce and I left SPACE in Columbus last year to head for Cincinnati, we visited the Thurber House. I really enjoyed visiting the home of one great Ohio cartoonist while accompanied by another great Ohio cartoonist.

I hope one day Bruce and Joan Chrislip return to Washington State.

And finally, our old Newave comrade, Gary Fields, sent this great version of Morty the Dog! 

I love it!

WSU Comix Collection Finding Aid

This must be something posted just within the the last year. I stumbled across a list of comix I gathered, 1966-1997, for the Washington State University Comix Collection! Looks like you can see the bibliographic entry on their online catalog by clicking the highlighted LC classification call number.

In the past they have provided a list for the Lynn Hansen Comix Collection and the Paul Brians Comix Collection.

WSU also mentions: "Unprocessed collections (please contact us for access information): Further Steve Willis collections (MS 2009-15); Clark Dissmeyer collection (MS 2009-18); Joseph Shea collection (MS 2009-19, MS 2010-01); Jeff Zenich collection (MS 2009-20)."

Steve Stwalley Package of Comix!

Last month I found a big packet of comix in my PO Box from Minneapolis cartoonist Steven Stwalley. You might recognize his name as the cover artist to both Morty the Blog jams We Rode With the Clowns and Terminal.

Great stuff in here! Follow the link to his name for more info. I especially liked the one-of-kind 100% Genuine Counterfeit Morty Comix # 2,368,147 ("I've got more issues than a psychopath!")

This will all be donated in turn to the Washington State University Comix Collection. Many thanks Steven!

Relics of Rebellion / by Joe Bageant

An article from the Daily News (Pullman, Washington), August 12-13, 1989.

I never met Laila Vejzovic in person, she arrived at the Washington State University Library after I left, but we corresponded and talked on the phone a few times. I was pleased she was so supportive of comix in the library and her backing helped the collection grow and become secure. I love the fact she is holding a copy of Max Haynes' Dog Slobber. A copy of The Almost Complete Collected Morty Comix is on the table.

Comic-Book Fan Magazines : Watching Pop Turn Into Art / by Robin Johnson

An article in the Serial Review (Spring 1986), an early recognition of the academic/cultural value of comic art from the library field. Mentions the Washington State University comix collection and the Folkomix index.