White Buffalo Gazette

 

When I was in Butler, PA last summer I had a chance to meet or re-meet local Keystone State cartoonists Tom Rehm, Buzz Buzzizyk, Wayno and Mike Hill. And Chrislip even came from the wilds of Cincinnati. In fact, I believe I even saw the mysterious Borpo Deets, who showed up at the Future Tenant show in Pittsburgh wearing an obvious ill-fitting toupee and an unintentionally humorous false beard in a comical effort to conceal his identity. He had a glow in the dark necktie that had the words. "Will you kiss in me the dark, baby?" When I looked at him and said, "Oh, you must be the infamous Borpo Deets," he swiftly made some feeble excuse about an alligator in his SUV that needed tending, darted out, and never returned to the show. 

Anway, the above promo is the siren call for Obscuro cartoonists to show their stuff. All you comrade weirdo cartoonists should heed this invite. Buzz Buzzizyk has a special eye for the iconoclastic and revolutionary comic art. 

 

Mike Hill Covers the Obscuro Bezango Show

Mike Hill of Worker Poet fame also performed a bit of photojournalism for the Rehm/Traffic/Buzzizyk Obscuro Bezango show in Pittsburgh's Future Tenant gallery. But unlike me, Mike uses a real camera and is an accomplished photographer! He has graciously given me permission to select a few of his photos. None of the artists wished to have their faces posted online, so I have to dance around that as I select:

Tom had cleverly hidden the part of the exhibit with my own comix art under that red covering until the last minute. I was touched-- and impressed by his stealth. It didn't make me feel so bad about hiding all those Morty Comix in his house!

That twisted face has scrawled on the reverse side something about the mysterious "Borpo Deets," who I am convinced was the mentor to all three artists in the show.

 

A break during the final stages of setup. My West Coast sensibility was prepared for massive humidity, but it actually was pretty nice the week I was there. Notice the Big Eyed Bean From Venus in the window. It was fun watching folks react to it as they walked by. 

 Opening night. Willis, Wayno, Chrislip

 Willis, Chrislip

 It's the shirt that draws these beautiful women to me

For your readers in the Pittsburgh area, this show is continuing to September 1st

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.

Morty Comix # 2530

 The distribution of Morty Comix # 2530 needs some explaining.

So I'm watching this super-epic film from 1962 called How the West Was Won. I have a Random House book that was released with the movie. Picked this monograph up long ago at some sale.

As I was viewing this Space Age celebration of Manifest Destiny (the movie ends with freeway traffic and urban sprawl portrayed as a good thing), I told myself I would send the next Morty Comix to the first city uttered by any character in the story.
 

And that city turned out to be Pittsburgh. Jimmy Stewart, in the role Linus Rawlings, Mountain Man, utters, "I kinda itch to get to Pittsburgh. I ain't seen a city for a long time. I aim to whoop it up a little."

Pittsburgh. Home to the amazing Wayno. A city that has been showing the art of Maximum Traffic. and a hop and schlep from the home of one of my favorite artists of the Newave Comix era, Mike Hill.

I am not a big fan of Stewart, but there have been a few movies where I could tolerate him. The Shootist, Shenandoah, Rope. I think I like him in those since he wasn't playing his normal Jimmy Stewart character. The guy could act if the studios gave him a chance.

Since his given name was James I sought out James Street in Pittsburgh. And once again Google's street view assisted me in finding a good home for a Morty Comix. Since they produce a product using more creativity than most, I selected a trophy store as the next random art recipient.

I have a lot of ancestors on both sides who lived in, are buried in, passed through the colony/state of Pennsylvania on their generational trek out here to the West Coast. One of my ancestors was supposedly converted to the Quaker faith by Penn himself. His grandson, another forefather of mine, ran off and wed a Shawnee woman, and became a frontiersman in Virginia. So the Quaker strain in my family was short-lived.
 

Off to the Keystone State for you, little one. I've been to Philadelphia but one day I'd love to visit Pittsburgh.

Louis Jordan: You Will Always Have a Friend If You Have Some Money To Spend

Our Newave pal Wayno was positively evangelical almost a quarter century ago when it came to the music of Louis Jordan, "The Last Swinger; The First Rocker." He compiled a great cassette of Jordan's songs and converted me. I pulled this out a couple months ago and enjoyed the songs more than ever.

Lately the song "You Will Always have a Friend if You Have Some Money to Spend" is running through my mind.

Thanks for introducing me to Jordan's music, Wayno. I'm still a fan, both of you and Louis.

Newave! Promo Mini Comic

Here's the page I contributed to the 8 page minicomic Michael Dowers printed up to promote his Newave book. Other artists included, XNO, Wayne Gibson, Wayno, J.R. Williams, David Lasky and Jamie Alder in what was probably one of his last published drawings.

City Limits Gazette # Too much noise, too far away (Aug. 1993)

Logo by Maximum Traffic, Other Sounds by Wayno, Suspended Animation by Michael Vance and R.A. Jones, Underground cartoonists sacred cows response by William Dockery - Bruce Sweeney - Randy Crawford, Buck Town Pub by Mark Cunningham, Note to Hemp reform comix artists by Maximum Traffic, Andrew Roller offers to take over CLG, Time to deep-six the National Endowment for the Arts, Bil Keane Watch by William Dockery - Maximum Traffic - Jeff Zenick - Mike Lee, Bibliography of Underground and Obscuro Comics by Gary Usher.