Morty Comix # 2381

Morty Comix # 2381 was placed behind a shutter in Olympia, Washington

Favorite Movie Quotes: The Sting

"Revenge is for suckers."

[Reviewed in Cheaper by the Dozen 73]

Morty Comix # 2380

Morty Comix # 2380 was tacked up on a bulletin board in an Italian restaurant in Olympia, Washington

Favorite Movie Quotes: Return of the Jedi

"Luke, you're going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view."

Phone photo 1603

Morty Comix # 2379

Morty Comix # 2379 was deposited in the Land of the Empty Phone Booths

Tumwater, Washington

Phone photo 1602

A discarded portable dental floss plastic delivery system found in a public place in my growing series on this particularly repulsive trend. This one was found in the parking lot of a convenience store in Tumwater, Washington that is clearly visible from my office window.

Favorite Movie Quotes: The Empire Strikes Back

"Luke! Don't give in to hate. That leads to the Dark Side."

Phone photo 1601

Morty Comix # 2378

Morty Comix # 2378 was placed inside a book of Christmas music which in turn was placed inside a piano bench somewhere in Olympia, Washington. The whole adventure was documented by Ron Austin.

Phone photo 1600

McCleary, Washington

Favorite Movie Quotes: Star Wars

"Who's the more foolish? The fool, or the fool who follows him?"

Phone photo 1599

Morty Comix # 2377

Morty Comix # 2377 was placed under a trash can in the entryway of an Olympia public building. Ron and Louise filmed the event and I documented them as they documented me documenting the placing of the Morty Comix.

Phone photo 1598

Yes, life is pretty darn tough at Steve's Acres of Cats

Favorite Movie Quotes: The Spy Who Loved Me

"Observe, Mr. Bond, the instruments of Armageddon."

Phone photo 1597

Tumwater, Washington

Cartoon Simple

[illustration by Paul Tumey]

Morty the Blog readers need to check Jim Gill's new website, Cartoon Simple.

It brings to mind the advice I got from Seattle Post-Intelligencer cartoonist Ray Collins in 1977: if you want to be a great cartoonist-- study poetry. Say a lot with just a few lines. Then he politely told me my work was very bad. And it was. But I got better, in part because of what I learned from Ray.

Nelson Bentley, William Stafford, Ken Kesey, Richard Brautigan: I sought out the Pacific Northwest poets and writers. Authors who described the world I lived in. It made a difference in my comix.

Phone photo 1596

Headstone in Tumwater, Washington for John R. Chaplin, Ohio Prohibitionist who founded a short-lived People's University in Olympia, Washington. A member of his circle, Arthur S. Caton, ran for Governor under the Prohibition Party banner a couple years after John died. I had no idea Mr. Chaplin died so young until I came across this grave by accident. His untimely death explains why the University failed to last.

John R. Chaplin
Apr. 30, 1851
Oct. 22, 1906

--

Emma S. Chaplin-Overhulse
Feb. 20, 1861
July 14, 1931

--

Grace R.
Daughter of
J.R. & E.S. Chaplin
June 1, 1882
Feb. 1902

Olympia Comics Festival 2012, pt. 13

My final bit on the Oly Comix Fest.

All the comix, business cards, and brochures that were traded or given to me will go to the Washington State University Comix Collection, the oldest academic collection of underground, Newave, and small press comix on the Pacific Coast. This library collection was started long before comix were considered acceptable by the mainstream in the early 1980s, even by other librarians. As a result, WSU holds many rare titles from the pioneer days of self-publishing, as well as early works by cartoonists who are now internationally famous such as Matt Groening, the Teenage Turtle guys, Chester Brown, etc. Anyone on the West Coast who has an academic interest in the subject of the history of self-published or underground comix will have to visit this collection. There is no other public place in Ecotopia that can come close in terms of broad coverage.

The Oly Comix Fest really has roots in the old Newave Comix movement. God bless you Clay Geerdes. 

Olympia Comics Festival 2012, pt. 12

Olympia Comics Festival 2012, pt. 11

Triple book signings at the Danger Room with Mike Allred, Jason Shiga, and Shannon Wheeler. Casey Bruce is the retail moderator.
 
I hope the City of Olympia appreciates what a treasure it has in the Danger Room.