Clay Geerdes Scrapbook

Bill Kossack's Clay Geerdes Website inspired me to dig through my own bits of paper around here and assemble this scrapbook. The concluding memorial I scanned was originally published in, I think, Cartoon Loonacy and perhaps White Buffalo Gazette. It pretty much ties the whole scrapbook together.

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Otto-Nove!

Newave! the Underground Mini Comix of the 1980s

When Michael Dowers told me he was going to put this book together, I had a difficult time imagining what the final product was going to look like. But knowing Michael's amazing history as a visionary publisher and coordinator, I had faith it was going to be great. He didn't disappoint me.

My personal file of the little minicomix which I keep as my portfolio fills up two card catalog drawers. I loaned them to Michael so he could see if there were any he wanted to reproduce for this book. He picked them up at my place, and about 6 months later Sarah and I went down to Puget Island, which sits in the middle of the Columbia River between Oregon and Washington and retrieved them.

Although this dense brick of a book clocks in at around 900 pages, it is just the tip of the volcano. But the impact of this little baby has been the Newave event of 2010. A lot of us Oldwavers have dusted ourselves off and gotten to know each other again. We knew in the 1980s we were on to something wonderful, and now we are seeing that we were way ahead of the pack, even pioneers.

Not only has Michael's book been a factor (along with Sarah's lighting a fire under me) in my decision to crawl out of my cave and revisit this comix stuff, but it has also brought forth a whole new audience of the next generation of comix readers.

Michael, you done good.

I'm reproducing the interview portion from this book. Rick Bradford, who is turning out to be one of the main historians of the Newave movement, conducted the back and forth via email. Since the spine of the book doesn't allow me to lay the pages flat on the scanner, I wish you luck on reading the photocopy version.

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Old Man Willis

I guess that would be me

Mopti

This is the Greek translation of Morty the Dog who Walks Like a Man, originally published in 1987 by Starhead Comix. This version was published later that same year. It measures 21 x 15 cm.

1st Danger Room Reprint edition, July 2005, 5 copies, blue cover, enlarged digest size.

Michael Dowers of Starhead Comix made an arrangement with a publisher in Greece. I have no idea who actually translated it, or even if it was actually printed in Greece or the USA. But I love the fact the sound effects remain in English.

Mop Ti

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Morty Candle Box

A Morty candle box constructed about 15 years ago by my sister-in-law, Susan.

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Bryan's gate

Clay Geerdes Website

Fellow Newaver David Miller informed me that Clay Geerdes' nephew, Bill Kossack, has started a webpage in memory of the man who made our crazy network possible.

I contacted Bill and he added:

"I have an area on my site titled "Underground Friends". Everyone that was connected to comix and knew Clay are invited to submit to it. It's really just a place where someone can submit whatever they want about themselves, how they got into comix, their favorite memories, what they are doing now, etc. They can send me their favorite pics to post with their submission. It doesn't need to be about Clay entirely, but mostly a place where people who were associated with comix can post whatever about their lives.
I'm going to update the web site this weekend with more additions and another update on the weekend of Jan 8th. I'm hoping to have all the Comix World newletters posted by then. The biography section is undergoing a more organized change."

Here's the link to website: https://claygeerdesinfo.com/Home_Page.php

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Morty In Box

Designed and built by John Crosby, ca. 1987.

John was the bookbinder at The Evergreen State College Library. When I worked there in the capacity of Acting Head of Cataloging, John constructed this In Box. The material on the edges is made of buckram, the fabric you see covering most hardback books.

I first met John in 1986 during my interview process. They shoved me into a room with about 30 people, all firing questions at me as I was struggling to maintain a professional image. Then in the middle of all this, there's this fellow who got an evil grin and dramatically pulled out one of my comix with Morty on the cover. "What can you tell us about ... this?" he asked, clearly enjoying himself as the mischievous character I later got to know. So much for my professional image.

That was the first time I met John. And I got hired in spite of the comic. Or maybe because of it.

John created all sorts of creative artistic pieces. This In Box is one of my favorites of his.

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Midnight Fiction 2008 Desk Calendar

Richard Krauss of Portland, Oregon pulled me out of semi-retirement when he asked me to contribute to this fun project.

I was peacefully minding my own business like the true Norm that I am, just making an average living with my own two hands [and here as Steve lifts his hands his fingers sort of wiggle back and forth while a "deedle-deedle-deedle" sound effect takes place, as if made by a xylophone] and along comes this opportunity to present the world with an image placed in my cranium by cosmic forces.

And who, I ask you, can resist the chance to draw a penguin in the desert sands? Not me. I just woke up and knew I had to do it.

Midnight Fiction released this as loose leaves in a CD case. As you can see by the contributor list, I was in good company.

The penguin was based on a pet penguin that used to hang out at my house. I have posted a photo of him with Dreamer the cat. Unless you have lived with a penguin, it is difficult to explain how evil they really are. Fortunately he just picked up and left shortly after seeing my drawing for this project.

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