Morty the Dog

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Morty Comix # 2444

Morty Comix # 2444 was left on a brick ledge over a couple of pathetic real estate brochure distribution boxes in a strip mall on the Westside of Olympia. This was the same facility where I first met J.P. Patches ca. 1960 when he came to promote the grand opening of this place. Notice both storefronts pictured here are vacant.

Old, decaying strip malls, I must admit, do hold a certain fascination for me. They were the proto-malls of their time. This particular one predated the Oly area's first bonafide mall (South Sound Mall in Lacey) by a half dozen years. Both vacant holes pictured here hold many memories for me as the spaces have performed a variety of retail roles in their past.

In cartoonist terms, the left half of this image once housed a pharmacy/gift shop back when Tricky Dick was in office. They also sold LP albums, lots of them. The owner was a big fat Republican member of the Washington State House of Representatives who used his girth as a campaign plus since he claimed it would make him be noticed when he stood up to talk. But in fact all he did was introduce bills to benefit pharmacists.

Anyway, when my parents would be shopping for groceries next door, I'd slip into this place and study the amazing album covers. I didn't really care about the music on the vinyl as much as I studied the big graphic images used to sell them. This was part of my education as a visual artist.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Phone photo 2003

The Fab Four bask in the morning sun

Favorite Movie Quotes: Captain Blood

"Up that rigging, you monkeys! Aloft! There's no chains to hold you now! Break out those sails and watch them fill with the wind that's carrying us all to freedom!"

Phone photo 2002

Part of a Vince Ryland mural advertising a corn maze in Tumwater, Washington

$25 Sale - Original Art - Spring! and Nixon

Two drawings I am selling as as set, both unpublished

"Spring" black ballpoint on light bond, 14 x 22 cm. Drawn during the Pullman years, ca. 1984

Nixon: blue ballpoint on card stock, 22 x 28 cm. Drawn in 1973 or 1974 during the Watergate affair

$25 ppd

Check or money order to
Steve Willis
PO Box 390
McCleary, WA 98557-0390

Or order through PayPal

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Phone photo 2001

Hey, someone put up this figure honoring my cat Charlie!

Tumwater, Washington

Buttons - Events - 1987

Slug Festival '87

I [heart] Elma's Thelma

July 31 and Aug. 1

Elma, WA

98541

On the curl: G.H. Stamp Works, Aberdeen, Wash.

Phone photo 2000

Forest fires smoke over McCleary

Morty Comix # 2443

Morty Comix # 2443 was placed inside a wandering shopping cart I spotted 'way at the edge of a parking lot on Olympia's Westside. Before helpfully shepherding the cart back to join the herd, I made sure a Morty Comix was part of the group.

Phone photo 1999

Forest fire smoke over McCleary's Little Italy section

Favorite Movie Quotes: Battle of the Bulge

"We must measure what we might gain by what we might lose."

Phone photo 1998

Forest fire smoke over McCleary

$25 Sale - Original Art - Morty Comix # 2173 ; Midnight Fiction Calendar

Original art

Morty Comix # 2173, 4 pages on 30 x 23 cm. light bond paper. One edge torn from spiral binding. Drawn in 1999, felt tip on nonphoto blue pencil.

Midnight Fiction Calendar, August 2008 page. 1 page on 30.5 x 21 cm. heaver stock paper than above drawings. One edge torn from spiral binding. Drawn in 2007, felt tip on nonphoto blue pencil. There is a second penguin that evaded the scanner. It is drawn entirely in nonphoto blue and is on the top of the page.

All five pages sold as a set for only 25 bucks

$25 ppd

Check or money order to
Steve Willis
PO Box 390
McCleary, WA 98557-0390

Or order through PayPal