Comix Anniversaries in 2013

 

50 years ago, 1963: President Kennedy is assassinated. Lee Harvey Oswald, JFK's alleged assassin, is shot on live TV by Jack Ruby.  I was in grade school and later documented an eerie follow-up in a 2001 minicomic entitled LHO.

40 years ago, 1973: My first obscuro pre-Newave comic, Gimmie Comics # 1, is cranked out on a mimeograph.

30 years ago, 1983: I publish my first 8 page 14 cm. minicomic, Sasquatch Comix # 1. 1983 also marked the very first issue of Morty Comix, which I believe was sent to Hawaii. Other comix published that year: Limbolympia, Sasquatch Comix # 2-5, Retreads # 1, Bonafide Child Innocence # 1, Cranium Frenzy # 4, The Big Picture Picture Book, Outside In # 1-9, As I Recall the 'Sixties, Tragedy of Morty Prince of Denmarke Act 1. Plus there were a number of reprints (called "editions" by collectors) and contributions to various comix with others.

20 years ago, 1993: Most of the year was taken up with editing City Limits Gazette, where I served as editor from Feb. 1991 to Sept. 1993. Also involved with some exhibits, short contribs, a televised lecture called The Wild World of Obscuro Comix, a jam with Max Traffic called Flying, and another with Pat Moriarity in Big Mouth # 3. Bruce Chrislip records our mutual experience with Robert Crumb in Paper Tales # 1.

10 years ago, 2003: By 2003 this old dog was slowing down considerably. Cranium Frenzy # 10, at 60 pages, remains my most recent full length comic book. Will I ever produce another full-length comic? I don't know the answer to that.

2013, what to expect: I'm working on more creative ways to distribute Morty Comix and documenting the process on this blog. Once Ron and Louise are finished with me in the making of their NW cartoonist documentary Bezango WA it is my intention to fully return to my hermit existence here in the hills of the Washington Coastal Range and begin a new phase of my comix art. I have no idea where the lines will lead me.


The last couple years have seen me out and about as a cartoonist in classrooms, panel discussions, performances, conventions, and I even hosted a Mini-Comics Day here in McCleary (which was quite fun!), but we true Mossbacks can only take so much of the sunlight of attention and social interaction.


However, as we all know, Fate has a way of screwing up our plans and sending us places we never expected to visit. I'm enjoying this blog very much (thanks Sarah for making this possible when you set me up in 2010 with your technical know-how) and for now it remains a fun venue for creative expression and provides a medium where my old prehistoric photocopy work can find a new audience.     

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The Evergreen State College

Olympia, Washington

Morty Comix # 2498

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

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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."

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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.

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Loose caboose by the Fetid Lake of Doom

Olympia, Washington

Favorite Movie Quotes: Tombstone

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

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Dreamer in catnip paradise

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.

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James Abbott mural

Brady, Washington

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.

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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?

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Morty Comix # 2496

Morty Comix # 2496 was wedged under a chair in a fast food dining establishment in Tumwater, Washington

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Favorite Movie Quotes: Thirteen Days

"If the sun comes up tomorrow, it is only because of men of good will. And that's, that's all that's between us and the Devil."