Friday, October 29, 2010

Counter-Culture Comix : a Look at Newave and Underground Literature





Hard to believe, but in less than six months after I left Washington State University's employment for greener pastures, WSU staged a huge exhibit on the Newave and undergound comix in their collection.

The exhibit ran from November 3-December 19, 1986, making it probably one of the very earliest academic presentations on Newave comix. I remember the exhibit included Cranium Frenzy #5, Natural Functions, and Storm Warnings.

There was a panel discussion when the exhibit opened. The participants included cartoonists Michael Dowers, Maggie Resch, Leonard Rifas, myself, English faculty Paul Brians (donor of the original box of undergrounds that started the whole collection), and librarian Ed Kukla. As I recall, Leonard was an old hand at this kind of thing and blew everyone else out the water with an excellent set of slides (before the days of power point).

Bruce Chrislip was also invited to speak, but he couldn't make it. So he provided a life-size cardboard drawing of himself. We set it up in a chair and played the cassette tape he provided of his presentation. The part of the tape I remember most was when Bruce was almost finished and than said, "Any questions? Yeah, you in the back ... Oh, I'm glad you asked that ..." and then proceeded with a bit more info.

Librarian John Guido coordinated with us cartoonists. A very nice young woman named Marilyn Sandmeyer prepared the exhibit itself. She very politely asked me not to kill off Morty the Dog.

The program cover and poster was reprinted from The Tragedy of Morty, Prince of Denmarke Act 3.

Phone photo 126

Art Guards


Charlie and Dreamer protect an original unpublished illustration. They claim it belongs it to them. It was drawn in May 1977 during the first time I lived in Seattle. I believe it was created with India ink, a medium I have not used since then.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Phone photo 125


Rochester, Washington

The Collected Bil Keane Watch





Published mid-1994 with an initial run of 50 copies, most of those going to contributors. After that it became a print-on-demand publication for a year or two.

Basically it was simply every "Bil Keane Watch" from City Limits Gazette collected and presented as an individual set of books. Five volumes to be exact! The volume number designation was indicated by the amount of nostrils on the cover.

There were a couple things in this set not originally presented in CLG. One of them was "The Last Bil Keane Watch," which was an article in Subliminal Tattoos # 1 (1994).

Although I did offer this as a print-on-demand back in the 90s, I'm hesitant to scan and post things with this here newfangled electronic gizmo without permission from the contributors.

Here's the list. If your name is on this lineup and you don't mind me reprinting your writing, let me know and maybe I'll post a sampler of this set on this blog in the near or distant future:

Mark Campos, Randy Scott, Wayno, Ted Bolman, Bruce Chrislip, Troy Hickman, Bruce Bolinger, Clark Dissmeyer, Jeff Nicholson, Jeffrey Kipper, Maximum Traffic, Mike Lee, Ben Adams, Sean Bieri, M. Stengl, Bill Donahue, Steve Lafler, Ricardo Nancy McJacksonstein, Jeff Zenick, Randy H. Crawford, Jeff Snee, Brad Foster, Russell Rose, Bryan Willis, Matt Love, Andrew Roller, "Thad Willis," Kel Crum, Gary Usher, Dusty Rhoads, Jeremy Pinkham, Ted Delorme, Tom Jansson, Asa Sparks, Ken Clinger, Michael Drummond, William Dockery, Greg Stomberg, and Bruce Sweeney. Apologies to anyone I've missed.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Phone photo 124


The view looking west from Maryhill Museum, Columbia River, Oregon/Washington border

Farewell to City Limits Gazette, 9-9-93



The final issue of CLG. A very thick tome but even so I couldn't fit everything I still had to print.

The goodbye editorial is scanned and posted here.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Phone photo 123


Klickitat County, Washington

City Limits Gazette: Bil Keane Speaks!










Some local press for CLG and "The Bil Keane Watch." The reporter, Michael Drummond, shared his notes with me. Shortly after this article, Bil Keane contacted me directly!

You can bet we at CLG HQ were totally delighted and overjoyed when The Master himself joined in on our "Bil Keane Watch."

All I can say is Mr. Keane is a true class act. He had a very gracious and funny response. He also became a CLG subscriber!

Note the number of nostrils on Billy.

I consider this one of my most precious pieces of original art (the other is an early 60s Joe Kubert pencil and ink with Hawkman). It is framed and here we see it today in my living room, behind the TV my neighbor gave me, a special fez, and Buster, the dignified cat.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Phone photo 122


Columbia River Gorge, Klickitat County, Washington

The Naked Preacher and the Family Circus









City Limits Gazette was the only news source brave enough to make the attempt to tackle this cosmic connection.

A local naked preacher controversy was somehow explained in real time by the allegories presented in Bil Keane's Family Circus for that day. Amazing!

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Phone photo 121A


Spearfish Lake, Washington

Mount Hood, Oregon

Demons at Evergroove



From City Limits Gazette # Talking dog (May 1993).

Like any good journalist I called a staff member (who still works there) and verified all the facts. CLG had the exclusive scoop on this story.

Phone photo 121


Columbia Hills, Washington

Bil Keane Watch run amok





CLG readers had a lot of fun deconstructing Bil Keane's Family Circus in a running feature I called "The Bil Keane Watch." I understand the Keane family came to regard our treatment of Family Circus as their favorite satire of Zen Master Bil's work.

One weird and complex spinoff from covering Keane's work resulted in CLG getting a mention in Harper's Magazine. Originally they were interested in the Watch, but they shifted their focus to something else. Mike Lee of Eugene, Oregon's Emergency Horse tells the tale.

From City Limits Gazette # Zoop (Apr. 1993)

Phone photo 120


Stratas in time.

Lone Pine Tree Village, The Dalles, Oregon

The Dalles Dam, Columbia River

Columbia Hills, Washington

Lynn Hansen's Tribute to Jane J. Oliver




From City Limits Gazette # ZZZZZZZerk-gigga-gigga-BOINK! (Dec. 1992).

I miss both Lynn and Jane.

Phone photo 119


Lone Pine Tree Village, The Dalles, Oregon

State of Beings #14: Illinois




The final entry in this series, I think, released with City Limits Gazette # Pall bearers on roller skates (Oct. 1992).

Nikita Khrushchev was a major international figure during my childhood. I suppose that's why he entered the dream upon which this story is based. Uh, er, I think it was just a dream.

Now here's a weird coincidence. I lived in a different house when I drew this story in Oct. 1992. In a little under two years later I moved into the place where I now live. And the kitchen sink setup in the comic was nothing like my old kitchen, but very close to my current kitchen! Eeyow! Was I predicting something through my drawing hand?

Suddenly I'm hungry for donuts.

Phone photo 118


Lone Pine Tree Village, The Dalles, Oregon

State of Beings #13: Idaho




Birthed into existence as an insert with City Limits Gazette # Overwhelming sadness of the monkey trapped in the garage (Sept. 1992).

For some reason I became obsessed with the fact someone ran around big comic book conventions wearing a giant cartoon head in the image of Richie Rich. This was a topic that would occasionally come up in CLG. After awhile I was convinced the person who was parading around in that getup was cartoonist and comix scholar, Bruce Chrislip. That's him in the comic, so it is almost proof this is true.

Bruce himself denied he masqueraded as Richie Rich, so we just have to take what he says at face value. Heh-heh, get it? Face value? Anyway, I did write to Harvey Comics asking about the personnel and specifics of the giant Richie Rich head, but for some reason my query was ignored.

Phone photo 117

Sometimes I Wonder

It's no secret I have very little respect for Wikipedia as a reference tool. Well, I'm starting to think that "Wiki" must be Internetese for "bum steer." Here's what I found on ZineWiki:
and I must say the about the only correct info on this is my name and the fact I'm a native Washingtonian. Twisted Conundrums was actually a column, not comix. I graduated high school back in the days of Tricky Dick.

Steve Willis is an artist, writer and publisher of minicomics, originally from Washington State, U.S.A.

Willis began producing minicomics soon after graduating high School, in the late 1980's. Since then he as produced a number of titles, and several issues were produced of a couple of his titles.

Some of his comics have appeared in the Northwestern newspaper 'The Stranger. Some of these comics were subsequently collected into a minicomic entitled Twisted Conundrums, released in 2001.




Phone photo 116


What is it?

I'll send a new Morty Comix to the first person who correctly identifies the subject of this photo.