Phone photo 1759

Destruction Island in the fog

Phone photo 1758

Kalaloch, Washington

Favorite Movie Quotes: Operation Petticoat

"Don't let my manicure fool you, Sir. I was born and raised in a neighborhood called Noah's Ark. If you didn't travel in pairs you just didn't travel."

Phone photo 1757

Amanda Park, Washington

Godspeed, J.P. Patches

He's gone.

We Puget Sound Boomers who grew up watching live local TV in the late 1950s to 1960s came to love J.P. Patches. Contrary to legend, I do not believe Portlander Matt Groening based his Simpsons Krusty the Clown character on J.P., but rather on Portland's Rusty Nails, an Oregon J.P. counterpart.

J.P. was not really a clown, he was not really an adult, he was something else. Something special. An adult who understood us. He introduced us kids to Spike Jones music, improv theater, and anarchy. He certainly was a key figure in shaping the lives of local cartoonists and was a big influence on my own art.

I interviewed J.P. in person in 1975. I was impressed how he gave me, a nobody college student, his entire morning. Bob Newman, who played Gertrude, joined us as well. I had seen J.P. a couple times before, first at the opening of the big shopping center in west Olympia (now the home of Grocery Outlet) ca. 1960 and later I saw him at the Century 21 World's Fair in 1962 on a go-cart with Gertrude.

Goodbye J.P., we love you. And thanks for all the fun you gave to us Patches Pals.

Phone photo 1756

US 101 between Hoquiam and Quinault

Favorite Movie Quotes: Throw Momma From the Train

"And for the last four years you've been working on some novel that no one has ever seen. So you get the shaft from your wife, you dive into another excuse for not writing. Well go ahead, Larry. Go! Go to Mexico! Write your heart out. Ándale! Arriba! But I handle writers, Larry, not artists. You go be an artist, let the rest of the rest of the world make a living. Here. It's my favorite fuschia. Live and be well."

Phone photo 1755

Montesano, Washington

Phone photo 1754

Phone photo 1753

Sign for a produce market

Aberdeen, Washington

Phone photo 1752

ECT.

Phone photo 1751

McCleary, Washington

Phone photo 1750

Guns and Hoses baseball game

McCleary Bear Festival

Phone photo 1749

Guns and Hoses baseball game, where the police and firemen square off at the McCleary Bear Festival. During the game we had the worst lightning storm in recent memory, complete with torrential rain, hail, and thunderbolts directly above. And still they played. No real Grays Harbor County guy is going to be the first to admit they have enough sense to get out of the rain, much less potential lightning strikes.

And that is part of the reason I choose to live here in McCleary. This town, as the masthead of the old McCleary Stimulater newspaper used to declare, is as "Independent as a Hog on Ice." There is no logical reason why this village should be here, yet here we are. Bezango WA 985.

Morty Comix # 2418

Morty Comix # 2418 was drawn in the sand on the beach

La Push, Washington

I don't think you'll be seeing this one showing up on eBay. Heh-heh.

The Pacific Ocean owns it now

Phone photo 1748

Having fun at the McCleary Bear Festival

Lost Boys Pirates, Tinkerbell, and Tiger Lilly!

Morty Comix # 2417

Morty Comix # 2417 was left in an amazing rusting incinerator that looked like it was once part of a real going concern long ago. This is on US 101 between Queets and Amanda Park, Washington.

Phone photo 1747

The Lost Boys Pirates had such a great float!

McCleary Bear Festival

Morty Comix # 2416

Morty Comix # 2416 was slipped into a loose seam above the PO boxes in the post office at Beaver, Washington

Phone photo 1746

Volunteers in the community kitchen preparing the bear stew.

Seriously.

McCleary Bear Festival, McCleary, Washington

Morty Comix # 2415

 Before

 After

Morty Comix # 2415, the final one in the Watercolor Series, was left inside a storage box under Donna Barr's display table at the Clallam Bay Comicon.

Phone photo 1745

McCleary Bear Festival

Morty Comix # 2414

 Before

 After

Morty Comix # 2414, part of the Watercolor Series, was inserted into a menu at a restaurant in Forks, Washington, where I met filmmakers Louise Amandes and Ron Austin for breakfast.

As I was stuffing the menu, Ron asked, "Aren't you worried someone is going to kick your ass?"

Well, as a matter of fact, yes. Particularly in the town of Forks, which had a much different reputation before the national media discovered this place. In the 1970s, we hitchhikers knew this was a town never to get stranded in.

Ron's question is a good one. This method of distributing Morty Comix could easily cross some legal/social boundaries if I am careless. Maybe I have even already crossed some. I am sure in some cases my distribution actions have been recorded by security cameras. But as we saw with Morty Comix # 2407 a security guy appeared to enjoy discovering the comic.

This is a blending of graphic and conceptual art. The rules of the game reveal themselves as we play. I'll try to be a bit more playful than those old Jack T. Chick comics I used to find in phone booths, but in many ways his method of distribution helped inspire me on this project.

If the old mailed Morty Comix drove completist collectors crazy, this new set, starting with Morty Comix # 2279,  will be extra hard to find and I must say there is some satisfaction in that.

But at some point I'll stop and allow this certain slice of Morty Comix to be incredibly hard to collect and then move on to something else.   

Phone photo 1744

Dandelions take over a school lawn, Tumwater, Washington

Supposedly this invasive species was introduced to this area on purpose by Catherine Maynard in the early 1850s.

Favorite Movie Quotes: Tender Mercies

"I don't know the answer to nothing, not a blessed thing. I don't know why I wandered out to this part of Texas drunk and you took me in and pitied me and helped me to straighten out, marry me. Why? Why did that happen? Is there a reason that happened? And Sonny's Daddy died in a war. My daughter killed in an automobile accident. Why? You see I don't trust happiness. I never did. I never will."

Phone photo 1743

Tumwater, Washington

Morty Comix # 2413

 Before

 

 After

Morty Comix # 2413, part of the Watercolor series, was left in a phone booth at Kalaloch, Washington, overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

Phone photo 1742

Amanda Park, Washington

Favorite Movie Quotes: Stripes

"So we're all dogfaces. We're all very, very different, but there is one thing that we all have in common: we were all stupid enough to enlist in the Army. We're mutants. There's something wrong with us, something very, very wrong with us. Something seriously wrong with us. We're soldiers. But we're American soldiers! We've been kicking ass for 200 years! We're 10 and 1! Now we don't have to worry about whether or not we practiced. We don't have to worry about whether Captain Stillman wants to have us hung. All we have to do is to be the great American fighting soldier that is inside each one of us. Now do what I do, and say what I say. And make me proud. Fall in!"

Phone photo 1741