Jamie Alder Scrapbook

Exquisite Corpse Comix #4

Jamie Alder was a major artist in the Newave comix scene. In a group of very diverse artists, he was usually classified as surrealist. Being included in his classic minicomix series Exquisite Corpse Comix was considered a real honor by those of us who were lucky enough to have been invited.

I never met Jamie in person, but we had a pretty lively correspondence from 1982 to about 1993 or 1994. We had quite a bit in common. He was from the same part of Michigan where one set of my ancestors lived before coming to Washington Territory. We both were products of families in the equine biz, we both loved animals, and comix! He always came across as a very kind, gentle, and funny person in his letters. I was very saddened to learn he died last Mar. 22 at the age of 58.

When Jamie first wrote to me, he was still in Michigan, but within the year he had moved to California. That was where he lived when he invited me to participate in his Exquisite Corpse jam series. Although Jamie coordinated the whole comic, it was actually published by Starhead Comix in Seattle.

In order to understand the concept behind this work, I have included a scan of Jamie's instructions he provided for me. The comic itself doesn't quite look like the way I have scanned it. You actually have to sort of turn it upside down and inside out while you read it. You could print out the pages if you want and piece them together the way Jamie intended.

Some jams work, some don't. I don't think this one really worked. Our styles were too different. I'm really more of a long-winded storyteller and Jamie was a visual poet. But it was fun to work with him. Other issues in this series with different artist combinations were much more graphically stunning.

There are several nice tributes to Jamie on the Web, and I'll contribute another. I'll follow this post with a Jamie Alder Scrapbook, scanned from visuals I found in my file of correspondence with him.

Phone photo 20

See this cup? It belongs to me. This hot beverage drinking utensil is proof that I am a normal person. It has a picture of a 19th century piece of agricultural machinery which pretty much places the whole matter beyond debate. I hope this puts the whole "normal" issue to rest.

Pay no attention to the small wild Russian boar standing next to it.

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The Reef

Done to a Turn

Comix jams generally don't result in a product with a tight storyline, but this one was relatively coherent compared to others I'll hopefully be scanning if I can contact the artists.

Dave Tosh and I sent the art back and forth and checkerboarded panel by panel. He published it in 1987 under his Slice o' Life label (Dallas, Texas). We've never met in person, but when you work on something like this you create a connection that is almost like talking in person. I don't know how many copies he printed, but 50 of them were set aside and signed and numbered by both of us.

Trivia: The wraparound cover included our heads on platters, that's Dave on the left and me on the right having my nose honked by Morty. This comic has an unusual depiction of Mukey the Mutant Membrane. He actually predates Morty the Dog by a good five years or more. This comic depicts his face as more human-looking than other works. I love Dave's background touches such as the title "Bullets I have Known" on the detective's bookshelf, and the Red Herring Cafe. Our drawing styles were close enough that the visuals don't seem too jarring.

When my last day comes, I want to utter a cryptic clue like Mukey does here. And of course it will be a total lie, but it'll keep everyone guessing. Heh-heh.

I see as of this date, Rick Bradford has the original art for this comic available at The Poopsheet Shop. His specs state:

- page size roughly 5½ × 7½"
- all pages have one hard-to-see crease running through them (my assumption is that the pages were folded when they went back and forth through the mails one page at a time), condition is otherwise very good, no tears or markings

Original art in these comix were usually larger than the printed version and then reduced for sharpness and clarity. Reducing and enlarging on photocopy wasn't really commonplace until the late 70s-early 80s, and it had a profound impact on the ability of us Newavers to produce and publish our own work.

Scanned with permission from Dave Tosh.

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State Street

Lynn Hansen-- Artist?

Although known primary as a collector and reviewer of underground and Newave comix, Lynn Hansen (1958-1995) would occasionally publish a minicomic. They were comprised of drawings by various artists, but once in a rare while Lynn himself would join the ranks of the illustrators. This page, which I have always liked, ran in Idaho Spud #2 (1986, L. Hansen, Idaho Falls, ID)

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Gray Area

Eternities of Darkness

This minicomic is the 2nd part of the Cranium Station DMZ trilogy (see earlier post for a more complete history).

First published by Dada Gumbo in 1984. Unlike Cranium Station DMZ, I don't believe this also had a digest-sized version published as well.

The scanned copy here is from the 2nd ed., published by Starhead in 1992.

The June 2005 1st Danger Room Reprint Ed. had a print run of 5 copies (green covers, yellow guts).

Trivia: The title is a line from Nabokov: "The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness." Cover: I'm told I fell down some stairs and was seriously injured when I was a very small child while living my native city of Spokane, Washington. The experience must've burned into my bank of memories I can't remember but still access, since the image of falling down steps is one that keeps showing up in my work. There is another not so subtle secret message embedded in the comic. Page 4, Tony Dow was the actor who played Wally, older brother to Beaver. Page 9, I occasionally use the name "Jubby" for different characters in my comix. I just like the sound of it. Page 11: I had the honor of interviewing J.P. Patches and met Gertrude in 1975. Two great guys who I'm sure influenced my cartooning to a great degree.

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Linear thinking on a computer.

Dante's Coat

40 copies of Dante's Coat were printed Feb. 15, 1999. Half were red, half were pink.

The five 1st Danger Room Reprint Ed. copies (June 2005) had 3 pink and 2 yellow copies.

I might be wrong but I believe this was drawn with a #1 lead pencil.

Some would say this stands as my most autobiographical work. Wise guys.

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Church parking lot on a weekday

Cranium Station DMZ

This was the first of a trilogy including Eternities of Darkness and Hungry Stairs to Heaven. It is a circular story and can be picked up anywhere in the narrative without worry or anxiety about missing out on the "plot."

The first edition was published in 1984 by Dada Gumbo Press in Tucson, Arizona both in minicomic and digest-sized formats. I had been using the comic metamorphosis technique since the early 1970s, but Dada Gumbo's publisher Dale Luciano really gave me an encouraging venue to explore this method with some more detail.

Starhead published the 2nd ed. in 1992, during a time when they were briefly housed at Ocean Shores, Washington on the other end of Grays Harbor County from McCleary! The cover included red highlights.

When I had my print-on-demand catalog in 1994, this trilogy was not included. This was due to fact I was also selling unsold inventory for Clay Geerdes and Dale Luciano. And Dale still had copies of the set left over and available at that time.

The 1st Danger Room ed. in June 2005 had 5 copies with green covers and yellow and white guts.

The entire trilogy was finally published in a form it which it was meant to be presented in 2010 as part of Newave! The Underground Mini Comix of the 1980s, published by Fantagraphics and edited by Michael Dowers.

Some points of trivia. The comic has a not so subtle secret message, the influence of my friend Lynn Hansen (1958-1995), who was obsessed with the hidden messages in Beatles' songs and images. The bottle of Wildermuth on p. 3 is reference to my old college pal and conceptual artist Kevin Wildermuth. The guy with the glasses on p. 5 is me. Page 7: clowns have long been a source of sordid fascination for me. In the early 1970s I had a seedy clown character named Jobbo Bonobo, which grew into a rather disturbing cult a few years later at The Evergroove State College in Olympia.

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A relic of linear thinking.

And here Steven holds up his hands about a foot away from his face and says with a bittersweet tone, "These fingers have filed thousands of card catalog cards!"

So then, you wonder, what is the relic? The card file, or Steven?

Sharks

A logo I drew in 1989 for a soccer team in Olympia, Washington comprised of women with an attitude.

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Will, one of my co-workers, usually has a rotating exhibit of amazing neckties on his cubicle wall.

Woofer the Psychic Dog ticket

My brother, Bryan, is a playwright. In the 1980s and 1990s he frequently hit me up to draw posters for his productions. Woofer the Psychic Dog was one such production. Yes, we both have produced works with dog characters. Must be in the genes.

This ticket was for the West Coast premiere, which took place in 1988, I believe. But the image is from a poster I drew for the 1986 New York production. In reality the role of Woofer was played by Morty, which explains why they look alike. Eventually Morty got to be pretty swell headed about the whole thing and went on a big star trip, demanding Cuban cigars, allowing no one on the set to bring a cat, biting critics in the leg who gave him a bad review, and so on. It was pretty sad.

The play continues to be performed, but with a different dog actor in the title role.

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When I inherited the office of my former supervisor, I also inherited this image of Morty I drew on a whiteboard back about 2002-2003. The thing has been on there so long a normal eraser won't eradicate it! Seems sort of symbolic. So I took the board down and have requested to have the thing taken away. Here it is in mid-transit.

Starhead Comix Button and Stamp

I'm not sure where or why I drew this little logo for Michael Dowers' Starhead Comix line. Perhaps I used it on the cover of one of my comix for him in the mid-1980s. In any event, the image was used as the more or less official Starhead Comix icon for a couple years.