The Diogenes Club
Friday, August 24, 2012
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Buttons - State Campaign - 1988
Democrat Dan Grimm State Treasurer
A button for the first of Dan Grimm's two terms as Washington State Treasurer
Buttons - State Campaign - 1972
Don Bonker, Secretary of State
Bonker tried and failed twice for the Washington State Office of Secretary of State. First in 1972, when I picked up this button, and again in 2000.
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Geographic Newave/Underground Comix Index: Alabama-California (Orinda)
Shortly after Jay Kennedy released The Official Underground and Newave Comix Price Guide (1982) I went through it and re-sorted the geographic information by hand. Remember, this was long before Internet. I was interested in the demographics and regional distribution of this thing of ours. Plus, I am a librarian. This is what we do.
This was all hammered out on a manual typewriter, probably in 1982. I'll be posting this in parts. It has never been distributed in any form.
Jay's list, of course, was not complete, but he made a very good effort. If you hit the tag for the Official Underground and Newave Comix Price Guide you'll see some folks had issues with the publication. Jay is gone, and so is his biggest critic, Lynn Hansen. I liked them both very much and still miss these two guys.
In 1982 I didn't expect to outlive these two good men, but here I am, still around even though I am among the most sedentary of humans. The guy I list as my family doctor died several years ago. I smoke cigars and don't exercise. Fate has given me the task of being a relic and bloviating about the past of an obscure art movement, passing the torch to the students of the esoteric. So here I am blogging for you.
And, as Vonnegut said, so it goes.
This will be a long list, so you comix historians keep checking in.
Phone photo 1854
Pioneer Rock, Thurston County, Washington
Enormous boulders were dropped here as the ice sheet retreated. This particular specimen used to sit alongside State Route 8 but was removed to the entrance of Boy Scout Camp Thunderbird (at the southern point of Summit Lake), about 20 years ago. It bears a barely readable inscription honoring early pioneers.
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Buttons - State Campaign - 1972
Jim McDermott is known today as the long time Congressman from Seattle and is the most outspoken liberal in the Washington State delegation in that Other Washington. Since 1988 he was won elections by ridiculously huge margins (over 80% in 2010 for example). But it wasn't always so. Long ago he made two unsuccessful bids for Governor. In 1972 he failed to win the Democratic primary and in 1980 he lost the general election.
I might be wrong, but I think I picked up this button in his 1972 bid, when he was a little known member of the Washington State House of Representatives. And in 1972, when he was trying to win name recognition, it seems strange to have a button with no words on it. Maybe it was this sort of marketing that lost him the primary.
Favorite Movie Quotes: Wyatt Earp
Buttons - State Campaign - 1972
Dore, Attorney General, Try Him You'll Like Him
Fred Dore, a Democrat, borrowed a popular television advertising phrase used by Alka-Seltzer at the time, "Try it, you'll like it." But he still lost the 1972 election for Washington State Attorney General.
Monday, August 20, 2012
Buttons - State Campaign - 1968
O'Brien
Robert S. O'Brien, a Democrat, served as Washington State Treasurer for 100 years. I picked up this button in 1968. This specimen has a couple beautiful qualities. First, the image itself projects luck. Secondly, since the button merely has his surname, O'Brien could use this same image for several election cycles.
Comic art fans will be interested to know O'Brien's Republican opponent in 1968 was Eddie Alexander, the same guy who owned the print shop with the very rude workers who printed Delayed Stress Syndrome Funnies.
Sunday, August 19, 2012
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