Phone photo 1763

La Push, Washington

Louise Amandes and I observed something big swimming around in there. My best guess is that it was a killer whale. A nearby group of children saw it too and it was great to see how excited they were.

Attention Phineas and Ferb Fans: Meet the ORIGINAL Floating Baby Head

It came to my attention that a popular animated cartoon has a character called Giant Floating Baby Head.

I wonder if any the folks behind the show saw my Floating Baby Head character comix in the 1990s? And if not, what sort of collective memory were we tapping into?

State of Beings # 1 (1991)

Bezango / Bezango Obscuro (1994)

Phone photo 1762

La Push, Washington

Buttons - Presidential Campaign - 1932? 1936? 1940? 1944?

Roosevelt

Curl says "G.H. Stamp Works, Aberdeen, Wash."

Phone photo 1761

La Push, Washington

Buttons - Presidential Campaign - 1924

Keep Cool With Cal

Coolidge For President

Not an original pin. This came from a Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour, according to the info on the curl, probably in the early 1970s. 

Since we have many public offices coming up for primary and general elections, I thought I'd run some of the pins I have gathered over the years, mostly by accident. For some reason I have never thrown them out. Perhaps this is due to the fact they do not  take up a lot of room.

Phone photo 1760

La Push, Washington

Favorite Movie Quotes: Weapons of Mass Distraction

"Nobody buys senators anymore, Norman. I thought everybody knew that. We're much cheaper to lease."

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

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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