Phone photo 2110

Please dispose of all food & containers on account of the bears

Sou'wester, Seaview, Washington

Buttons - Schools - 2001

Onalaska High

Logger's Pride

On reverse: Pin Co. ... Taiwan

For Onalaska High School, Onalaska, Washington

Phone photo 2109

Main Hotel

Sou'wester

Seaview, Washington

Room number three is rumored to have a ghost

How to Fix a Leaky Ceiling the Cartoonist Way

Not too long ago we experienced some severe wind and rain and one of the ceiling panels in my office out in Tumwater, Washington developed this stain from a leak. I am sure there are better ways to repair this, but none of them are as fun as the cartoonist method.

Phone photo 2108

Pine forest mushroom

Seaview, Washington

Buttons - Schools - 1952

Blazer Booster '52-'53

On the curl: GH Stamp Works, Aberdeen, Wash.

This button was issued by Centralia College, Centralia, Washington

Phone photo 2107

Remains of a homeless camp?

Pine forest, Seaview, Washington

Favorite Movie Quotes: The Outlaw Josey Wales

"Hell is coming to breakfast."

Phone photo 2106

Pine forest mushroom

Seaview, Washington

Catnip Frenzy at Steve's Acres of Cats

 

So, as you can see this innocent little construct was peacefully existing on my living room floor. It actually looks like something Ed Wood would've used as a set in one of his films.

 But then I added catnip

This morning this is what I found

And yet after this they still go outside and kill things with their insatiable thirst for thrills. I live with four literal wild and crazy party animal killers! 

Phone photo 2105

Seaview, Washington

Outside-In: The History of a Comix Series

I have no memory of drawing this or why it exists. Looks like it was created in 1989, but if it was ever published I am not aware where. Michael Dowers sent me these pages in the recent stack of original art he returned.

Phone photo 2104

The Seaview sea view

Seaview, Washington

Buttons - Comic Art - 1994

Richie Rich

On the curl: Character "Richie Rich, The Poor Little Rich Boy" (R)&(C) Harvey Publications. (C) 1994 Warner Bros. All Rights Reserved

I believe this button was presented to me by a cartoonist who many of us suspect used to run around comic conventions in a giant Richie Rich head. I won't say his name but his initials are Bruce Chrislip.

Phone photo 2103

Entry to the beach

Seaview, Washington

Buttons - Comic Art - 1980s?

According to psychologists, the best thing to do when you're feeling tired and a little depressed is to give yourself a treat.

On reverse: Badge-A-Minit, LaSalle, Ill. 61301

I have no idea where this came from or who made it.

Phone photo 2102

Seaview, Washington

Favorite Movie Quotes: North to Alaska

"It's hunky dory with me if he walks off with his gold mine."

This quote interests me for two reasons. First, it was uttered by the great Ernie Kovacs. Second, I had no idea the term "hunky dory" predated the 1970s, but I guess it has a long history.

Phone photo 2101

Notice

8 Break-ins a wk. in

Seaview

You are dealing with 

low-life Cowards

Protect You're Property

I found this sign at the base of a telephone pole, where it apparently had been originally displayed before the elements dashed it to the ground.

Morty Comix # 2478

Morty Comix # 2478 is being sent to Maximum Traffic in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Here's the story: Back in the 1980s and the pre-Internet 1990s I was right on top of my postal mail. The US Postal Service was my lifeline to my comix comrades. But that was then.

Today I check my PO box infrequently, and even then I just pile up the mail and look at it once a week. Sometimes I throw it in a stack and don't get to it for months.

On this rainy weekend I started excavating through my studio and found several long forgotten documents dating back to the Stone Age. This included a SASE from one of my all time favorite artists, Maximum Traffic.

So, here's to you, Max. My buddy Charlie helped me stuff the envelope.

This issue of Morty Comix is a bit unusual. Many of the 5 x 3 in. versions are made of old discarded Gaylord circulation cards with WLN labels, originating from South Puget Sound Community College in Olympia, Washington.

But a few of them, like Morty Comix # 2478, are drawn on the reverse of discarded shelflist cards that were used as a springboard for recataloging, also from the WLN era.

I miss WLN. It was a great organization and the contribution to the field of librarianship in the Pacific Northwest has not been matched since their demise over a decade ago.

Phone photo 2100

Even at the coast I encounter another entry in the throwaway dental floss series

Seaview, Washington

This was in someone's mouth cleaning out gunk between their teeth and now it is out there on the ground for the rest of us to behold.  Excuse me while I get sick.

The Blue & Gold

Before middle schools we had junior high schools, grades 7-9. In Olympia there were two junior high schools, Washington and Jefferson. I started out in Washington but partway through my academic journey there they built a new junior high to absorb us Boomers. It was called Reeves Junior High. It was named in honor of Mr. Reeves, my grade school principal at Roosevelt Elementary. He was a nice man who lived a block away from me.

Reeves was the school for the tough, working class kids. It was not an easy place to learn from the classroom due to the anarchy. All of our lessons came from elsewhere.

The school newspaper was called The Blue & Gold (school colors) and was run off on a mimeograph. I have a scattered few issues from the first year. Many of my cartoons failed to reproduce to the point where they could not be read, but I found a few I could post here.

It was at Reeves that I first learned the power of cartooning in politics. The Olympia Mayor, Tom Allen, wanted to turn the downtown Sylvester Park into a parking garage. Even though I was a teenager, I met with him to state why this was wrong, and he treated me like a teenager. That is to say, I was brushed off and ridiculed by him as an "environmentalist." (The term "treehugger" had not been invented yet and The Evergreen State College had not surfaced in Oly at this time, so we were still living in an extension of the 1950s in Olympia). So I drew a bunch of cartoons about "Tommy Treecut" for the Blue and Gold. The principal, Ted Wynstra, called my parents to complain, saying Tom Allen was a friend of his, and my Mother responded by saying, so what? The kid has a right to free expression.

Yes! As I have stated before in this blog, I was very fortunate in the parental department.

And Tom Allen was later nailed in some scandal involving self-interest in the construction of the public library and left office under a deserved dark cloud. 

Anyway, part of digging into that mimeo gel to produce those cartoons meant I had to sit in the school office area. I quickly noticed that the central microphone for the school announcements was in the same room, as well as the stack of notices waiting to be read. So I started writing bogus notices and slipping them into the stack. I wonder how many people showed up for fake meetings?

Ain't I a stinker?

So, here are some of the cartoons I drew during that era, 1969-1970:

Norman, the Wonder Prune was regular character I used

Remember, the Moon landing was new thing in 1969!

 This cover was drawn by our art teacher, "Snuffy" Jenkins.

He died fairly young, only a few years after he drew this.

He was a squat, square, straight-talking guy who loved teaching.

This was the kind of Cold War paranoia nonsense we Boomers could not get away from, even in a junior high newspaper!

Phone photo 2099

Seaview, Washington

Buttons - Comic Art - 1987?

A drawing of Morty the Dog by the amazing Jeff Nicholson taken from the cover of Ultra Klutz #12. I am guessing he made this button in 1987, the same year as the release of the comic.

Enough time has passed that some of you might not be familiar with Jeff's work.  So let me tell you his comix are definitely worth tracking down.

Phone photo 2098

Seaview, Washington

Favorite Movie Quotes: My Darling Clementine

"I've heard a lot about you, too, Doc. You left your mark around in Deadwood, Denver and places. In fact, a man could almost follow your trail goin' from graveyard to graveyard."

I love the Victor Mature-Hamlet-Shakespeare scene in this film.

Phone photo 2097

A chained chicken in front of a restaurant

Seaview, Washington