Civic Karma in McCleary

In a past life I was Babbitt. Today I'm a civic hermit. Actually, I'm a social hermit too.

Phone photo 186

Flying

1st edition 1993, published by Maximum Traffic, Butler, Pennsylvania, enlarged digest size.

West Coast edition, 1994, published by Steve Willis, McCleary, Washington, regular digest size, print-on-demand.

There's no telling exactly how many copies of this jam with Maximum Traffic are out there. Max, along with Steve Lafler, Bob X and The Pizz, created some some of the most highly-charged-with-energy comix of the Newave/Obscuro network. Max might've gone crazy and printed zillions for all I know. For every letter I write to Max, he responds with a dozen to my one.

I suppose calling this a jam might be stretching it a bit. For openers, it started off with a script by Max. I provided the visuals and some ad-libs.

The background graphics on page 9 is pure Max Traffic, which is the only page where I can detect his artwork. However, the free flight art style of mine throughout the comic was very inspired by his story.

Given my history of writing stories on the, shall we say, existential side, it was sort of a relief to illustrate this sparkly tale written by someone else, relieving me of any responsibility for where it was heading or compulsion to turn the conclusion into a comic-tragedy.

The edition scanned and posted here is the one published by Max. Publishing it in enlarged digest size was the right choice. I have also provided the inside cover of the West Coast edition.

This was a very fun project and I'm glad I was invited.

Phone photo 185

Mud Bay at early morning high tide with old bridge pilings, Thurston County, Washington.

In the 1970s there was a small replica of a Viking Ship anchored at this spot.

The Fetid Lake of Doom

Not exactly a full length story-- more like an extended minicomic in regular digest size, but I guess this qualifies as my most recently published book.

This was originally published as an online work on OlyBlog, April 23, 2007. Rick Bradford's Poopsheet Foundation first brought it into hardcopy in October 2007 with 100 numbered copies.

Right after this was printed by Rick, I pretty much stopped keeping bibliographical track of my comix, lectures, etc. I'm not sure what that means.

A little history here. My friend Rick McKinnon started OlyBlog as a place for citizen journalists covering news in the area of Olympia, Washington in 2005. It was one of the early sites deliberately embracing the concept of "hyperlocal news." Rick asked me to join in the starting days (I'm member # 31) because he wanted two things: 1. A local old guy who knew some of the area's history and 2. Someone who was not deadly serious about politics.

One of the early discussion points in OlyBlog centered on whether or not to return the artificial Capitol Lake to it's original state-- an estuary. I suggested the lake be populated with gators, crocs and caimans to make it more exciting. One thing led to another and the Fetid Lake of Doom was born.

This took me about 8 months to complete, I think. And that's at a faster rate than the comic I'm currently working on!

Also attached is a photo of the real FLOD with the Washington State Legislative Building dome.

Trivia:

Page 1, panel 3. Zach Willis is my nephew. He helped fill in the dark background on the last panel of page 4 when we were on a family visit to Springfield, Oregon.

There is a brief clip of page 5 in progress as part of video documentary on artists balancing their day jobs by Mark Shimada. The USNS Fisher did indeed visit Olympia in late 2005, I think.

Page 6: Rick is, of course, none other than Rick McKinnon. By a coincidence, in real life the FLOD was invaded by the non-native nutria about this same time! Nutria just happen to be one of the crunchy little tidbits caimans down in Latin America love to eat. Beautiful!

Page 7: I used XERK! and QUONK! as sound effects because I realized I had never used comic sounds starting with X or Q before. Both of these completed my Obscuro Comix Sound Effect Dictionary. Fetid Lake of Doom by Steve Willis

Phone photo 184

Mud Bay at high tide in early morning, Thurston County, Washington.

One of the southern tips of Puget Sound

Nirvana in McCleary

Then and now.

Just outside the west part of town sits one of the most famous mileage signs in Washington State, thanks to Kurt Cobain and my fellow William Morley Bouck scholar, Krist Novoselic.

Phone photo 183

Strange and Unbelievable, but Real and True! I Inherit Over 5 Million Bucks From June Pointer!

Yes, according to an email sent to my workplace from Edward Mattson, Esq. of Pretoria, South Africa, the youngest member of the Pointer Sisters has left me over 5 million smackaroonies!

This is great news. June Pointer probably left it to me due to my role in managing the group for a brief time in the late 1970s. I'm including a rare shot of me with the group during that era as solid proof of this association. Usually I have tried to keep my connection with them quiet, but now I must reveal the real and true truth, strange and unbelievable as it sounds.

Now you Morty the Dog readers finally know why there are no 1979 Newave comix in my bibliography-- I was busy being a manager for these popular singers. I see my hard work has finally been rewarded.

And it don't rain in Indianapolis in the summertime.

Phone photo 182

Fan Scene # 1

Cartoonist extraordinaire Matt Feazell once suggested we construct a family tree of comix. I don't know if he ever followed up on the idea, but if he had you would probably see the Newave line trace back through undergrounds, Mad, Help, Tijuana Bibles, etc.

But there was another larger and older network of self-publishers in comic artland-- the fans. They emulated the commercial comics. In fact, in the 1960s, you could say my own superhero and funny animal selfmade comics were fan products, and I'm not the only Newaver who had some history in this area as a developing cartoonist. But unlike the readers of Fan Scene, I had never really networked outside of my family and friends prior to reading undergrounds.

In the mid-1980s the Fans began to discover the Newave movement. Although our content was very different, we all shared a love of comic art and the challenges of being small press publishers before the Age of Internet.

This publication, Fan Scene # 1 (July/August 1984), profiles Morty the Dog. Although I'm not a big fan of the term "fan," I felt this article was an example of the two networks recognizing each other.

As you can see, the subtitle of this publication uses the ancestor of the word "zine"-- fanzine!

Phone photo 181

Face-No-Face and the Dog

This jam with Jeff Gaither was published in 1986, probably in February, by me in Pullman, Washington. 60 copies were printed on salmon paper, enlarged digest size.

Interesting to see early Gaither here. I believe today he is known primarily for his strong visual work, but in this comic his writing is as surreal, if not more so, than the graphics.

I would venture a guess this is the only comic in history that ever presented a Washington Monument Bowling Alley.

Phone photo 180

Tumwater, Washington