Morty the Dog

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Morty Comix # 2498

Morty Comix # 2498 crawled into a little hidden crevice at a McDonald's in Tumwater, Washington very early one recent morning.

Phone photo 2191

Nadine in the morning

Inside the car, are those dome lights?

Wait. No. The dome lights don't work.

Those must the glowing eyeballs of Mr. Death, who IS SITTING IN THE BACK SEAT ON THIS BLACK ICE MORNING!!!

YAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRGH!

As it turned out Mr. Death merely wanted a ride to Oly and we talked movies. We both like Westerns. I hate it when he just shows up like this, but apparently he doesn't have a phone. Sometimes I wish I had the nerve to suggest he could use a breath mint. It's not like he's my friend or anything, but would you refuse him a lift?

Favorite Movie Quotes: Vendetta

"Mr. Macheca, I'm going to need some money-- to buy the jury."

Phone photo 2190

Friday, January 11, 2013

Deep Thinks Animation

A bite-sized animation by John Eades. This one is an adaptation of a one-pager I drew in the mid-1980s. If I'm not mistaken I think this first appeared in a comic published by Steve Lafler, and has been reprinted a few times in different places. Jay Kennedy even made a little sculpture of Morty based on this drawing.

Phone photo 2189

Loose caboose by the Fetid Lake of Doom

Olympia, Washington

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Favorite Movie Quotes: Tombstone

"There's no normal life, Wyatt, it's just life. Get on with it."

Phone photo 2188

Dreamer in catnip paradise

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

A Question of Procedure

Question: Buster the Cat likes to eat. A lot. Do you know why this is like a parliamentary procedure we hear about in news coverage?

Answer: Because this is a fill-a-Buster.

Phone photo 2187

James Abbott mural

Brady, Washington

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Morty Comix # 2497

Morty Comix # 2497 needed to be sent somewhere out of the routine, and at random. So here's what I did.

I took a long piece of wood out of the carport and set it up as a ramp in my living room.

Then I went back to the studio and blew dust off my old World Book Encyclopedias.

This is the 1961 set. I purchased these for 4 bucks at a garage sale here in McCleary about 20 years ago, I think.

Since I rarely go in my studio, Charlie timidly tried to enter the room-- a place he knows he isn't supposed to be.

Then I located an old toy car of mine, dating back to the late 1950s. A rare survivor of our 1965 house fire. I used this car as a model for Morty the Dog's vehicle in a few pages of Cranium Frenzy # 1 (1981)

The encyclopedias were arranged at the bottom of the ramp according to the thickness of the volume so all together they sloped down.

I let go of the car at the top of the ramp.

In an exciting moment it raced down, and came to rest on four different volumes.

And those volumes were H, J-K, L, and Q-R. That means Hawaii, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Rhode Island.

So I suspended the ramp above the floor a few inches and placed the four volumes underneath. Then I situated wooden blocks on the top, two above each book.

The contraption was seasoned with catnip. Yes, I was going to enlist the help of the Fabs.

Dreamer was first, and actually he quickly chose the winner by knocking the blocks on one of the tomes right away.

Then Buster had to have a turn, but the blocks he knocked over missed all books.

Charlie came over and just enjoyed the catnip.

Hettie, meanwhile, just watched the whole exercise, regarding it as a silly waste of time. In many ways she is the smartest one in this house.

The winner was Rhode Island!

Rhode Island is our 13th state. So I picked the 13th largest city there, North Kingstown. In looking at a map I liked the sound of Spink St., but had to settle for a nearby address I could verify, which turned out to be a bank on a street with a much more boring name. So I am sending this Morty Comix to that bank, care of the "Art Director."

This February will mark the 30th anniversary of Morty Comix. I have sent them all over the world. But this might be the first time one has landed in Rhode Island.

Phone photo 2186

Morty the Dog Animation

Our long-time colleague from the Newave era, John Eades, is the first person I am aware of to completely animate a Morty the Dog story.

Check out his take on the 1984 minicomic, Lordy, Lordy, Where's Mr. Morty?