Morty the Dog

Saturday, March 31, 2012

Favorite Movie Quotes: Hound of the Baskervilles (1939)

"Oh Watson, the needle!"

Favorite Movie Quotes: Hombre

"Oh, yeah. My momma taught me to remove my hat and my cigar in the presence of a lady. Whatever else I take off depends on how lucky I get."

Favorite Movie Quotes: Hollywoodland

"When it comes to publicity, what's true or false doesn't really matter."

[Comic art enthusiasts might want to check out this movie. It concerns the controversy surrounding the death of actor George Reeves, who we Boomers remember as the man who portrayed Superman in the television series of the late 1950s]

Phone photo 1321

Charlie, Hettie, and Buster

Obscuro Comix Philosophy in Action

I got Charlie to pose with the next three Morty Comix I'll be distributing. It looks like # 2321 will have a little Charlie toothmark on the upper right hand corner as a result.

Morty Comix is moving into a new phase. Initially, starting nearly three decades ago, I sent a copy of an original art Morty Comix to each correspondent. I stopped in December 1999, but revived the series in 2010 with issue # 2196. I guess this series could not co-exist with a George W. Bush presidency. No matter what surrealist image I could draw, there was no way I could outdo his real life absurdity. The man was political Dadaist.

In the pre-Internet days, we Newavers relied heavily on the USPS for our communication, and as a result a lot of Morty Comix were sent to my comix comrades.

But those were the sunny slopes of yesterday. I still draw Morty Comix but the audience has changed. If this series made completist collectors go nuts in the past, it will really drive them over the edge now. Since Morty Comix # 2279 my tactics have changed.

I now just drop them at random in little secret pockets in the world at large here in the Pacific Northwest where anyone might find one. Like little cartoon time bombs. Guerrilla comix I suppose you could call them. What happens to the art after I deposit it is beyond my control. So far, only one of these Mortyfied sites has responded back to Morty the Blog. The rest of them probably land in the recycling or trash can.

Can't explain why, but this method of comix art distribution really appeals to me. It seems to me this is almost the quintessential Obscuro Comix sort of activity. A true Obscuro would draw it and just throw it away, but I have enough ego to want some sort of audience, even if they discover it and ask, "What the Hell is this crap?" Well, especially if they ask, "What the Hell is this crap?" It seems so subversive and mischievous. Perhaps that is the appeal.

Plus I'm scanning and posting each one here, so at least the images are preserved even if the original gets deep-sixed, which I'm guessing most of them are.

I would love to know what Marcel Duchamp would make of this. I suspect he would've approved and made elaborate suggestions for how to fine tune this activity.

Phone photo 1320

This old lantern apparently belonged to my grandmother

Favorite Movie Quotes: Hoffa

"In every conflict there are casualties. The question is, what has been lost and what has been gained?"

[Reviewed in Cheaper by the Dozen 14]

Phone photo 1319

Morty Comix # 2318

Morty Comix # 2318 was slipped into nice hiding place between a shelf and napkin dispenser at a Starbucks in Olympia, Washington very early a few mornings ago

Phone photo 1318

Favorite Movie Quotes: History of the World Part I

"It's good to be the king"

[The planet prop was described in Weird Gifts From My Brother]

Phone photo 1317

Friday, March 30, 2012

Morty Comix # 2317

Morty Comix # 2317 was left on the front door handles of a long vacant Hollywood Video as an offering to the nearly extinct VHS/DVD rental Gods. In fact, it was almost as if I was in ancient Olympia, Greece honoring some now forgotten deity instead of being on the westside of chronically overcast Olympia, Washington, leaving some cartoon art on a place that once housed a great collection of movies. I bought a few of their used vids when the store was alive and those movies show up in this blog.

It was very near this spot I first met J.P. Patches about 1960 when he came to open the new Peterson's Foodtown shopping area, now occupied by Grocery Outlet. I would later see him again at the Seattle World's Fair in 1962 and, incredibly, got to interview him on the set in 1975. J.P. Patches is one of my personal heroes, so as you can see the very area where I deposited this residue of my cartoon hand is a special one with a lot of history.

Notice the Bil Keane-like crucifix symbol posing as a telephone pole over the roofline, giving the image an almost tragically sacred tone. When Hollywood Video pulled out of this place overnight, apparently in some nasty dispute with the landlord according to word of mouth (for what that is worth), they created a literal black space for cinema enthusiasts in the area. And that was quite awhile ago. In fact, in Phone Photo 566 from last year, the place was already closed. I sure hope the workers there were not screwed over in the process.

If video killed the radio star, then Internet killed the video star.

So, Morty Comix # 2317 was offered in remembrance. It probably fell on the ground, got rained on, and is now pulp in the storm drains. A fitting fate in this land of constant rain and natural recycling.