SPSCC Exhibit, 1999

South Puget Sound Community College art instructor Carol Hannum organized a series of exhibits which were displayed in the college library in 1999. She asked me to prepare one for the July 5-August 12 slot. At the time I was employed by SPSCC as a librarian and member of the faculty.

I still have the narrative cards, but the images themselves have long since been given away. The exhibit consisted of 7 pieces. One of them was a Woofer the Psychic Dog t-shirt. The others were: The Tall Elf, As I Recall The 'Sixties, various library-oriented comix, Morty Prima Facie, a selection from The Tragedy of Morty, Prince of Denmarke, and Write-In Morty for McCleary Mayor.

The copies of comix were glued to foamboard, and each board had a border with covers of minicomix and other art. Last I knew those boards were distributed to my brother, to the back room of a local jewelry store, and to a juvenile correctional facility south of here.

It was Carol's choice to call me a "Renegade Cartoonist." The term seems redundant to me, since most good cartoonists are renegades in one form or another anyway.

At the same time this event was taking place, just four miles away The Evergreen State College was displaying a TESC Alumni Authors Exhibit, which included covers of As I Recall the 'Sixties, Cranium Frenzy # 1, The Tall Elf, Dante's Coat, as well as "The Four States of Being," the Outside In SW/Morty portrait, the earliest known drawing of Morty the Dog, and others. I believe this is the only time where my work was in two exhibits in the same town at the same time!

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The whole gang shows up in the kitchen at Steve's Acres of Cats

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McCleary, Washington

Mad Hatters Tea Party International

From about 1971 to 1974, I teamed up with a bookdealer and cartoonist from Victoria, B.C. named John Newberry to form a political entity called the Mad Hatters Tea Party International. John was a couple years older than myself and we shared an interest in the role of comix in the political process.

As the MHTPI we created silk-screened posters, mimeo broadsides, and even an ad in the Daily Olympian. This particular broadside was printed on legal size paper using the same mimeograph machine I used to print Gimmie Comics # 1 in 1973.

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Mud Bay, Thurston County, Washington

McCleary Old-Timers Reunion, 1987

Most of the people who attended this event in 1987 are now gone. And today I've become one of the old-timers.

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Mud Bay, Thurston County, Washington

WSU Comix Exhibit 2010-2011

Washington State University librarian Lorena O'English just sent me some photos of the comix exhibit currently on display over there in the Library. The exhibit will still be around for another month. These photos make me want to hop in the Olds and drive the 6 hours it takes to get to Pullman to see more! Most of the captions provided here are paraphrased from Lorena.

Comics on the Web


Educomics
(Note: Leonard Rifas was one of the participants in the 1986 WSU comix panel discussion)


From the underground


Minicomix


Local guy


Independent comics


Graphic novels


Comics in teaching and research


Alternative comics


Other cultures


World War II theme


Comics journalism


Comics publications


9/11 and comics


Comics and business


Teaching with comics


Creating your own

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Lost Loves & Might Have Beens

A poster for a NYC performance for one of Bryan's plays, 1987.

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Letters From Waldo

Another poster for a play by my brother, Bryan Willis. This one in New York City, 1988.

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Originally known as the Barnes Bank Building when it was built in 1869, this is possibly the oldest commercial structure in downtown Olympia, Washington. It was constructed with bricks produced by the factory of colorful local pioneer William Billings. This is probably the only remaining business building in Oly that was around when President Hayes paid a visit here in 1880. In fact, the President and his crew (including General Sherman) lodged a stone's throw from this spot in what is now an ugly parking lot.

To the left of the photo is the Joseph Wohleb designed HQ for the Daily Olympian in 1930. That paper moved to the Eastside ca. 1970. At about that same time, the furniture store that stood on the right of the photo (now a parking lot) burned in a spectacular fire. I remember watching it from the vantage point of my Grandmother's home on the Eastside ridge.

I Am NOT D.B. Cooper

It has come to my attention this evening that certain nefarious elements in the Olympia community are attempting to spread the heinous rumor that the famous Thanksgiving Eve 1971 airplane hijacker known as D.B. Cooper still lives and breathes in the person of-- me!?! Why, I cannot say. Hoaxers are such perplexing creatures.

Well, let's nip this one right in the bud.

Above is a portrait of D.B. I drew for the Missing Persons playing card series in 1996.

Below is a photo of me taken around the time Cooper performed his crime. As you can see we look nothing alike. He's balding, I had plenty of hair. His hair was dark, mine blonde. He appeared to be in his mid-forties in 1971, I obviously am not.

Also, Cooper was described as being taller than me. He smoked cigarettes, drank highballs, and used the term "snarf." Not to mention hijacked a jet. I didn't do any of those things in 1971 and with the exception of a brief and stupid flirtation with cigarettes in the later 1970s, never did any of those things later in life either. In addition I have never gone skydiving, although one day I'd like to try.

And, not a small detail: hijacking a plane and terrorizing the airline employees is just plain wrong, in addition to being a major crime.

I always thought his crime resonated with so many people because it was about money, not a political cause. And money is very universal. But as Morty the Dog readers know, money is not really the thing that motivates me.

Yes, it is true I lived very near under both of his flight paths. But that is about as close a connection as I have with Cooper. Well, that, and the fact I was living on Cooper Road at the time of the hijacking.

We may never learn the true identity of D.B. Cooper. But, to use a phrase in use at the time of the hijacking, you can bet your sweet bippy it ain't me.

Also below, "The Amazing Legend of D.B. Cooper," originally published in Limbolympia (1983)

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Olympia, Washington
In the Alley Next to the BroHo
Late March 2011

I hope this artist also does work in narrative panels in book form! Nice stuff.

David George

When I returned to The Evergroove State College as an employee 1986-1988 I became acquainted with a student who was another cartoonist named David George. He frequently signed his name DaVid.

His work had a strong Deadhead theme, and many of his projects never saw the light of day. But he did produce several posters, some self-published comix and an irregular newspaper called the Evergrateful and as well as The Evergreen Free Press. The poster shown here is from 1987.

He was a petite person with an intense manner under a quiet veneer. We stayed in touch in the 1990s through infrequent correspondence. He lifted Morty the Dog quite a bit out of my comix and used the mutt's image in several published works. Sometimes without permission, I might add.

Anyway, David came to a horrible end around 2003. Here is a narrative from Crime Time News:

Friday, March 26, 2004

DAVE THE DEADHEAD IS DEAD

Olympia, WA - When David George didn't show up at the Oregon County Fair last July, his friends knew something was wrong. The artist made it a ritual to come and paint signs in his own trademark eclectic style. Everyone familiar with the fifty-one year old batchelor also knew he smoked a little dope and had followed his favorite band, the Grateful Dead, all over the world.
For a while Dave designed and sold t-shirts at concerts. That is how he and lead guitarist, Jerry Garcia, became friends. It was Jerry who invited Dave to accompany the group when they played in front of the pyramids in Egypt. Dave even carried a pebble he had picked up there in his pocket.
About a week after the fair, a dismembered body was found and a week after that it was identified as most of David George. Police got several breaks in the case and soon arrested two men, Mert Celebisoy, 21, and Joseph D'Allesandro, 19. As often happens, the accused quickly turned on one another. Both agreed, though, that the death was the result of an argument over drugs. Each claimed to be driving a car when the other stabbed Dave, who was sitting in the passenger seat, five times with a hunting knife.
Forensic evidence revealed the dead head was alive when he was stuffed into the trunk and that he bled to death there. After leaving the body where it lay for several days, the pair hatched a disposal plan. Dave was taken to a vacant home where he was cut to pieces using an electric saw. The body parts were then shoved into black trash bags and placed back in the trunk. The killers then drove to another property where they used a wheelbarrow to carry the bags to a shallow grave.
Thursday morning a jury in Olympia convicted both men of murder. Friends of the deceased hope that before sentencing is imposed the two will tell them where to find Dave's missing left arm and head.

Posted by: Don / 1:08 PM