Folkomix

Folkomix was a term I invented that pretty much fell flat with my comix comrades. Brad Foster even created a minicomic making fun of it. I later came up with "obscuro" and that seemed to stick with a particular type of self-published comic.

In 1985 I made three printings of this catalog, a total of 16 copies. The entire thing was compiled the old-fashioned way. No computers. Only index cards and a typewriter.

Washington State University has since split the comix collection into subgroups. This particular list represents the entire collection as of 1985, combining the classic undergrounds that already existed in a dusty box hidden away in the Rare Books section plus the comix that poured in when I sounded the call to the Newave network.

In the 1990s I input the bibliographic entries into the WLN database. Hence the notations. They can still be found in the WSU catalog, but I don't know how many of them migrated to OCLC when WLN was absorbed into that utility.

There are also two supplements to this catalog. I'm not sure if the binding will permit me to scan them.

Phone photo 424

Toppenish, Washington
"The City of Murals"

Taken from the front of City Hall, which had country western music blaring out to the street on loudspeakers

Emergency Horse: A Dog Named Barfy / by Mike Lee

Mike Lee's essay included The Bil Keane Watch in this Portland, Oregon tabloid.

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Toppenish, Washington

The only town in Washington State with the word "penis" embedded in it's name, hence making it unsearchable on filtered Internet in public libraries.

The Crapper Point Journal

The Crapper Point Journal was a response to the official student newspaper for The Evergreen State College, The Cooper Point Journal.

Here's how I got roped into this. During my very last quarter at Evergroove a faculty member who shall remain anonymous but is named Margaret Gribskov contacted me and asked if I would be willing to participate in a spoof of the CPJ. Of course I would. So she introduced me to a fellow named Ken Silverstein.

Ken was a new arrival to TESC and was struck by how pompous and lockstep the place had become as contrasted to the earlier reputation the school had enjoyed as a more libertarian institution. His idea was to create a newspaper for the college set in the future. That's why even though the paper was really released on June 6, 1979, it carries a date of December 12, 1985.

So I drew the masthead and a couple cartoons. Ken, I think, did all the writing. Margaret bankrolled the project. For most of the humor in this publication all I can say is you really had to be there at the time to get it. The jokes were extremely local and topical.

In the brief time I worked with Ken I was impressed by his sharp observations and energy. Today he is a well known journalist and writer, mostly known his work in the Los Angeles Times and Harpers. Today he appears to be in freelance transition. Definitely an engaging journalist to follow.

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Forest fire survivors
Yakama Indian Reservation

Technical Difficulties

Blogger has been experiencing technical problems during the last couple days. If you saw some earlier posts here but no longer can find them, it isn't your imagination. They were around not long ago but as of tonight are out in the Phantom Zone.

It won't be a big deal for me to re-input them, but Blogger says they are still restoring missing posts, so hopefully we'll be back 100% soon. It can't be a fun job for them, so kudos to Blogger for putting all the pieces back together.

Phone photo 421

Yakama Indian Reservation

Comics F/X Morty Awards

For a brief time the Morty Award was sort of the Oscar for obscuro/small press comix, bestowed upon unsuspecting artists by their peers. I found a couple articles covering the awards and in the process accidentally found a neighboring piece about the rebirth of City Limits Gazette, so I'm including that for good measure.