Suuri Kurpitsa

Finnish cartoonist Pauli Kallio invited several of us American Newavers into his amazing anthology series, Suuri Kurpitsa (translated = "Great Pumpkin"). I've included the cover of the issues followed by my contributions.

While many of us here in the states were messing around with cheap photocopy, Suuri Kurpitsa had slick paper production values and color on the covers. I couldn't decide what was more thrilling: having my work published in high quality hardcopy, or someone thinking enough of my comix to take the trouble to translate them.

Finland, by the way, has quite a role in Pacific Northwest history. Here in Grays Harbor County, you can see many Finnish surnames adorning the signs of business enterprises, especially in Aberdeen. Down in the neighboring Lewis County, the town of Winlock was basically a Finnish colony. Nearby Astoria, Oregon had a major Finnish neighborhood that was home to Maila Nurmi, also known to us Ed Wood fans as Vampira.

It would also be safe to place the Finns as among the most politically radical ethnic groups up here in the first half of the 20th century.

Anyway, I'm starting to ramble. So I'll slap myself in the face and start my morning chores now, like filling the porcupine with helium. No, that isn't a quaint euphemism for anything-- I really do have to fill the porcupine with helium. Otherwise he gets earthbound and cranky.

Phone photo 313

Storm Warnings

1st edition, February 1986, Pullman, Washington. 50 copies, white cover, enlarged digest size.

2nd edition, February 1986, Pullman, Washington. 30 copies, white cover, enlarged digest size.

3rd edition, 1990, Seattle, Washington : Starhead Comix. 17 x 13 cm. Color covers.

Available as a print-on-demand title in regular digest size, 1996.

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

The nationally distributed Starhead version reprinted the 1980s story "Downtime Laff Riot" and a maze not found in the original edition.

My initials follow me around. I was born in Spokane, Washington. SW. I live in Southwest Washington. SW. Storm Warnings. SW.

I'm not particularly fond of this comic, especially the Rainmaker story. Oddly, it seems to me that out of all my comix, this one is the most acceptable to fans of conventional comic books.

Trivia:

P. 3-4: Mr. Wright also appeared in Delayed Stress Syndrome Funnies.

P. 13: Mukey and porcupines. It doesn't get much better than this, one of the few bright and happy spots in this book. Notice Mukey has a Max Fleischer character type of nose here. He was still under construction.

P. 23: Hey, isn't that ... Brad Foster in that crowd? Why, yes, I think it is!

Phone photo 312

There seems to be an unwritten law that presidential siblings are supposed to be a bit embarrassing. But in that crowded field one name really stands out in my memory.

When he wasn't accepting money from Libya, Billy Carter, brother of President Jimmy Carter, took his name to market in the form of "Billy Beer" in the 1970s.

But his real crime was allowing his name to be on the worst beer it was ever my displeasure to consume. I think they let this stuff age about 15 minutes before sending it out on the market.

Steve Willis Archives v. 4

1st edition, March 1991. Chico, California : Onward Comics. 50 copies. Blue cover, regular digest size.

This final volume of the set is an enlarged version of Stevetreads # 4.

Now, which one of us is going to badger Jeff Nicholson enough to convince him it is time for his return to the comix medium?

Phone photo 311