The Diogenes Club
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Bezango: Driving
Olympia Power & Light, May 5-19, 2010
As it turned out I was never unemployed. I was indeed "bumped" by someone with more seniority but I had a part-time job the next day. And in a weird twist of fate, I was hired back to my old employer within a month.
The drawing of Morty dates back to 1981, in Cranium Frenzy # 1. Notice I cropped out the "Outta my way, ya peckerheads!" word balloon from the original. They trained us to curse like that when I drove a taxicab in Burlington, Vermont.
Jack's Shoe Repair still exists in the same storefront in Olympia. I often wonder where that little girl is today and if she has any inkling of how she scarred me for life.
No one has taken me up on investing in the thermotropic mood car idea yet. But you'll see. You'll see.
Monday, May 30, 2011
Bezango: Ghosts and Love
Olympia Power & Light March 24-April 6, 2010.
Typo alert: "Washington State Academy" is supposed to read "Washington State academic."
The illustration was originally on the cover of one of Max Traffic's issues of Buzzizyk and reprinted in Retreads 14. Is that heart flying away, or, coming in for a landing?
If you are into ghost hunting and sightings in the Olympia area, the colleges seem to be the places to start. I understand that in addition to The Evergreen State College and South Puget Sound Community College, there is another ghost (a monk who committed suicide? Did I get that story right?) over at Saint Martins University in Lacey.
Morty Mysteries
While looking through my files I found a letter from our Newave comrade Hank Arakelian. It's dated 7/6/92.
He provided me with a copy of this image and captioned: "Remember this? It will appear in the Exp View in a month or two."
Whatever happened to Hank? At the time he suddenly vanished from our radar Hank and I had been pretty deep into a full length comix jam. Unfortunately, I believe he has all the art from that effort since the ball was in his court and he was going to publish it. I can't find any copies here. So will it always be one of those Lost Comix? Actually, I have several of them out there floating in the void.
Also, I don't believe I ever saw the above image in print. Did it ever see the light of day via photocopy toner in his Exploded View comix?
Oh well. What's life without a few mysteries? Hank, if you're still out there, drop us a line if you feel like it. We miss you.
Bezango: Fallout? Aliens!? Or Worse-- ?
Olympia Power & Light March 9-23, 2010.
The windshield pit panic is a true and hilarious event in the history of the Pacific Northwest.
Phone photo 458
North Bend, WashingtonApparently this was a filming location for the television series Twin Peaks, a show I've never seen. So I felt sort of out of the loop here. Same experience when I visited the town of Roslyn, just over Snoqualmie Pass from North Bend, where they filmed a series called Northern Exposure. I never saw that series either. I think I was working in the evenings during the time those shows were hot, and as you P.M. workers know, that tends to make you one step removed from the mainstream.
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Bezango: Exploring Oly
Olympia Power & Light, February 10-23, 2010
Hmm, y'know this article and topic was a literal city limits gazette!
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Outside In # 1-10, 12-13 Available in Mortyshop
Outside In # 1-10, 12-13. All 1st editions. 1983-1984. Every one of them is an 8 p. minicomic printed on white cardstock. Printrun of 150 copies for each issue.
SOLD!!
What is "Bezango"?
Last October 9th, when I posted the Bezango/Bezango Obscuro story I made a stab at the etymology of the word "Bezango."
It was just a word I made up. I liked the sound of it. I had used it as an expression of joy for awhile, perhaps starting as early as the 1980s. The first instance of this word seeing print, so far as I can ascertain, was in the 1994 comic of the same name. But perhaps I used it in City Limits Gazette 1991-1993. When I post those I'll keep my eye out for it.
Later "Bezango" became a geographic place in the Bezango WA 985 series, an 8-issue run that began in late 2001. Bezango was another name for the weird and unusual people and places tucked away in these moss-covered hills of Southwest Washington.
The word was revived for the Olympia Power & Light column in 2009. To me, the word has evolved into some kind of catch-all for the stories that fall between the cracks, the oddballs, the weirdos, and the celebration of frivolity. We'll get into the story behind that last descriptor in good time.
Bezango WA 985 has also been on stage and shown as gallery art.
Bezango: Um ... The Computer Just Broke
Olympia Power & Light, January 13-26, 2010
The great computer crash of December 2009. It would be 8 or 9 months before I got a new one, so my OP&L columns in the first half of 2010 had to be written in longhand. In a lot of ways I discovered not having a computer is like not having a car, my mobility was severely hampered in a society built around certain technologies.
Editor Meta Hogan drew the sad and tragic scene of the dead elves.
And I really did draw a Morty the Dog story. It's a few pages long and is in the possession of a certain crazyman Back East who might turn it into a jam.
Friday, May 27, 2011
Bezango: Running For Elected Office the Absurd Way
From Olympia Power & Light, December 30 2009-January 12, 2010.One reader wrote in, a bit confused. His memory mixed up Greene's 1972 Republican campaign with a later absurdist run for the same office, when the 1976 OWL (Out With Logic, On With Lunacy) Party ran Don "Earthquake" Ober (1922-1979) for Commissioner of Public Lands. A rather easy mistake to make in a state that draws so many colorful characters to the ballot.
The OWL Party didn't exist in 1968. No. Greene ran, hilariously, as a Republican. The fact he went under the radar and won the Republican primary is actually more subversive than running as a third party candidate.
Above: Greene's official entry as a Republican candidate for Commissioner of Public Lands, from the 1968 Official Voters Pamphlet for Washington State.
Book Fight! Book Fight!
Yow! Two books are going at it mono y mono!
One of them is insulting the other yelling, "You don't know your verso from your recto, buster!"
And the other replies, "Oh yeah? And you don't have much of a spine, buddy!"
Sarah and the Qs
We asked Sarah what she want wantedAnd she said, "Here's what you do,
Get some scissors and some paper
And cut me out a Q."
But that didn't satisfy her
And she said, "Here's what I can use
Get some scissors and more paper
And I can have two Qs."
But the Qs got sad and lonely
And they wanted to go home
So we found a giant atlas,
An enormous hardbound tome.
You know it wasn't easy
It took a lot of work
But we found they place they longed for
In old Upstate New York.
So now the Qs are happy
Get some scissors and some paper
And cut me out a Q."
But that didn't satisfy herAnd she said, "Here's what I can use
Get some scissors and more paper
And I can have two Qs."
But the Qs got sad and lonelyAnd they wanted to go home
So we found a giant atlas,
An enormous hardbound tome.
You know it wasn't easyIt took a lot of work
But we found they place they longed for
In old Upstate New York.
So now the Qs are happyThey no longer have the blues
It ended very well:
Sarah Qs
in Syracuse.
It ended very well:
Sarah Qs
in Syracuse.
Kaczynski Kristmas
Hey look! It's Theodore Kaczynski, the Unabomber, in an artificial Christmas Tree!
Gosh, that makes me want to break out into a little song:
O Ted and bomb, O Ted and bomb,
You batshit crazy loony!
You blow up folks to make a point
And now you're rotting in The Joint.
O Ted and bomb, O Ted and bomb,
You batshit crazy loony!
The Infantry is Coming!
Yes, he joined the Army and served along with a baby Douglas fir. In short, he defended our country with the infant tree.
To Our Tornado Alley Comrades
A couple months ago I was honored to be invited to SPACE, held in Columbus, Ohio, and met a great group of Midwestern cartoonists.
And now during all the news of these devastating storms clobbering the country's midsection I can't help but wonder how many of you guys have been dramatically impacted by this. Hope you're all surviving the weather safe and sound.
Chad Woody recently posted a pretty sobering bit about finding Joplin, Missouri hospital x-rays at his workplace.
And now during all the news of these devastating storms clobbering the country's midsection I can't help but wonder how many of you guys have been dramatically impacted by this. Hope you're all surviving the weather safe and sound.
Chad Woody recently posted a pretty sobering bit about finding Joplin, Missouri hospital x-rays at his workplace.
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