City Limits Gazette # 5 zillion and six (May 1991)

Logo by Mark Campos. Dennis Pimple on defining underground comix, Lynn Hansen reviews, Wayno on minicomix, bad cover versions of Day in the Life, Day Tripper, Dear Prudence, Dig It, Do You Want to Know a Secret, Don't Bother Me, Don't Let me Down.

Phone photo 536

City Limits Gazette # snoodlebee clapsaddle (May 1991)

Snoodlebee Clapsaddle was the name of a character I invented in the 1970s and have used sopradically over the years, such as in Cranium Frenzy # 7 (1994). Sometimes the name is spelled as Snoodle B. Clapsaddle.

Logo by S. Minstrel, Jay Kennedy defines underground comix, Jim Ryan creates a Ryan/Willis image, the WSU comix collection covered by the Lewiston Tribune.

Phone photo 535

City Limits Gazette # zimbo (Apr. 1991)

Logo by S. Minstrel. Bruce Chrislip covers the Misfit Lit Panel Discussion where Robert Crumb falls over in a chair.

Phone photo 534

City Limits Gazette # ...---... (April 1991)

Uh, er, did I say the first issue of CLG was the only one printed in broadside format? Oops. Guess this one was as well.

The "cranky letter" I make reference to in the second news item had been published in The Comics Journal # 140 (Feb. 1991). I'm including the actual printed letter below. As you can see, the Family Circus zen party is being prepared.

Phone photo 533

City Limits Gazette # bezango (March 1991)

This issue of CLG might've been my first use of the word "Bezango" in print.

An innocent mention of King Features editor Jay Kennedy and his connection with Family Circus artist Bil Keane is the first fine line crack in the dam that will soon burst.

I provide a brief synopsis on the comix career of Ronald Gabriel Vicens II, better known as "Gato."

Bad cover versions of And I Love Her, And Your Bird Can Sing, Ask Me Why, Baby You're a Rich Man, Baby's In Black, Back in the USSR, Ballad of John and Yoko, Because, Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite, Birthday, Blackbird, Blue Jay Way, Can't Buy Me Love, Come Together, Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill.

Dog Boy drawing by Steve Lafler.

Gato's final letter

Phone photo 532

Opening Day, Tumwater Farmers Market
Tumwater, Washington

City Limits Gazette # ... (March 1991)

News on John E., a Walt Rodgers drawing, Bruce Chrislip's Cartoonists City column, Clay Geerdes responds to Chrislip, bad cover versions of Across the Universe, All My Loving, and All You Need is Love. The very last sentence on page 4 is a bit chilling since my fellow listed major WSU Library comix collection donors are no longer with us.

Phone photo 531

A weirdo thing I found in my yard when I was mowing

City Limits Gazette # !* ... (Feb. 1991)

OK comix comrades, time to get comfortable and prepare yourself for a looong haul. I'm going to scan and post every issue I published of City Limits Gazette.

Here's the first issue with an introductory essay by CLG founder Bruce Chrislip, and a bit by me declaring the death of photocopied comix. I was only half right.

Although all issues of CLG were printed on legal size, this is the only issue where it was presented in a vertical fashion, like a broadside.

I hope in the process of posting this series I get all the issues in the correct order. Here we go!

Phone photo 530

Cascade Comix Monthly Index 1978-1981 / compiled by Gary Usher

McCleary, Washington : Steve Willis, 1994. Print-on-demand, regular digest size.

Gary's index to Cascade Comix Monthly, a publication that was freshly dead at about the same time I learned about the whole Newave network.

Phone photo 529

Can o' Worms issue # 2

1st edition. Olympia, Washington : The Evergreen State College, January 1992. Enlarged digest size. I'm just scanning the front and inside covers here.

A look at the contents page (by Ed Martin) is most interesting. Matt Groening, Lynda Barry, and your faithful pixel correspondent were already considered old guys almost 20 years ago!!! Jeez. A milepost worth noting for this blog.

By now the three of us must be in the fossil category.

Of this second generation of Evergroove cartoonists, I've met Edward Martin III, Cat Kenney, and Megan Kelso.

Ed was a student worker in the Evergreen library when I was employed there as Head of Cataloging 1986-1988. I liked his creativity and he was a fun conversationalist. It seems today he is a film director.

Cat Kenney, who I always liked both as an artist and person, worked in a local comic shop for awhile. She was the one who first alerted me that my work was woven into Understanding Comics.

This book has a very early example of Megan's work. I had the pleasure of meeting her this year at the Olympia Comics Fest.

I like the nice visual directory of the artists on the back cover. The previous Evergreen cartoonists anthology, Tales From the Steam Tunnels (1981), couldn't do that since most of us had already graduated when that title was published.