Henry McCleary : a Centennial Scrapbook, 1898-1998

Charles Fattig and I put together this collection of material for the McCleary Historical Society in 1998. Only 55 copies were printed. Henry McCleary a Centennial Scrapbook

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New Orleans

Resistance is Useless

My new coffee grinder came with an instruction booklet that included the warning: "Do not attempt to defeat the cover interlock mechanism."



But did I pay heed? Unfortunately not. Instead I took this as a challenge.

And the result was humiliation and shame.


First I attempted to threaten the grinder with a cane but realized I was resorting to violence. And that will never do.


So I challenged the grinder to a gentlemanly game of Operation (The SpongeBob Squarepants edition!) and the grinder won every time!

"Do not attempt to defeat the cover interlock mechanism."

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How hot was it in New Orleans in late June?

Gyorgy Ligeti : a Bio-Discography / by Robert W. Richart

Another one of my reprint-on-demand titles from the 1994 era. This was a partial reprint from a full monograph originally published in 1990 and written by my friend and librarian colleague Bob Richart. I watched him at close range when he went through the ordeal of compiling this work.

Ligeti is best known to American audiences via Stanley Kubrick. He used the composer's works in the soundtracks of both 2001 a Space Odyssey and The Shining.

Bob Richart is someone I've known since Pullman days and he has taught me a lot about how to listen to music. He also is a very funny, creative man and has been a great supporter of my comix work through the years.

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This is the dwelling where William Faulkner wrote his first novel, Soldier's Pay, in 1925.
Pirate's Alley, New Orleans

Courtney Love and Morty the Dog

Courtney Love and Morty the Dog. Yes, they do have a connection. Thanks mostly to Ted Bolman. The depiction of Morty the Dog by other artists is a whole sub-category I have not really bothered to cover much in this blog, but this case is exceptional.

There were two famous female pop singers of the 1980s who allegedly attended my high school early in their lives. They were said to either be invited to leave or decided to drop out. (Gretchen Christopher of the 1950s group the Fleetwoods also attended OHS when I was a little kid).

One of them was Rickie Lee Jones, who would've walked the halls of Olympia High School at the same time I was there. Since there were over 2000 of us Boomers enrolled (more people than currently live here in McCleary), I cannot seem to place her in my memory. Yet she is by far the most famous person associated with OHS during the era when I was a student there. I find this factoid fitting and pleasing. Way to go Rickie!

The other was Courtney Love, a good decade after my time. But how is Morty connected? you might ask.

It is complicated.

Ted Bolman and Catherine Noel had a very Obscuro publication called Gorilla Cookies. Blank space was left on the cover to write letters to those who were lucky enough to get a copy. On the cover of the first issue (July 1994) Ted wrote to me about a mural he had earlier made at Jabberjaw Coffeehouse in Los Angeles.

The interior of the issue displayed three photos of Catherine and Ted at the mural. You can see Ted's rendition of Morty on the left side of the middle photo, behind the chair.

But the real shocker was the reproduction of the cover of Flip Side no. 68 (Sept./Oct. 1990). There above the cranium of Courtney Love is Ted's drawing of Morty the Dog! Talk about a brush with fame!

And Courtney, I thought you were terrific in Man on the Moon.

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Pirates Alley, New Orleans

Supposedly the spot where Gen. Andrew Jackson and the pirate Jean Lafitte met to form an uneasy alliance in planning a strategy to successfully defeat the British in the 1814 Battle of New Orleans.

Comixtalk Interview

Comixtalk was a very nice concept zine consisting of interviews with small press and Obscuro comix cartoonists. This was one of Kevin Collier's publications out of Nunica, Michigan.

Kevin had come from the more mainstream fannish side of comic art enthusiasts. This was a network older and larger than us underground comix-inspired Newave troublemakers. But he made an honest effort to bridge the gap between his home camp and the more remote and alien world of what was left of Newave in the late 1980s. It was an admirable try and the few issues of Comixtalk are now valuable historical source documents for anyone interested in the history of Newave comix.

In some ways Kevin was ahead of the curve. Anything new, dangerous, progressive and possibly profitable quickly gets co-opted into mainstream culture and becomes the new norm. He was making an honest effort to treat us seriously before Fantagraphics moved to Seattle and soaked up all those Newave cartoonists into their commercial fold. In this regard, Kevin needs to be respected as a visionary.

The motive behind my involvement with the Fan camp was I felt we Newavers could perhaps get some of the more mainstream influenced cartoonists to open up their artistic vistas if they could see our work and realize they didn't have to mimic the Big Boys in order to express themselves. It was the arrogant evangelical side of me, I suppose. But I did get to know many fine cartoonists through the network Collier was part of and had to rearrange my world view of cartooning as a result. I had to accept it is OK to be a fan, since there were so many decent people and great cartoonists who used that as their premise.

This interview comes from Comixtalk no. 1 (August, 1987).

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Jackson Square
New Orleans

St. Louis Cathedral in the background

The words, "The Union Must and Shall Be Preserved" were carved into the base of the Jackson statue during the occupation of New Orleans by Union forces in 1862 under the command of Gen. Benjamin F. Butler. The words paraphrased a famous toast made by President Jackson in response to State Rights champion John C. Calhoun. My little phone camera couldn't really pick up the words too well, but trust me, they're still there.