The Supremes Sing Bacharach

Make the Music Play

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Tumwater, Washington

Idolizing

Floyd M. Storm illustrated the cover of this 1926 sheet music. Like our late local muralist James Abbott, Storm's work is much better handling backgrounds than people.

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Florida snowman

The Comix Files: Russell Cowser

In 1996 Russell Cowser of Austin, Texas included this creepy image with an order and commented:

"The reverse is a page from a very scary Scientology textbook that we acquisitioned on a fact-finding mission."

Makes me think this is from the Jack T. Chick School of Graphics.

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Drifters Sing Bacharach

Make the Music Play

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Just a Memory

This uncredited illustrator presented a bit of nostalgia in 1927. That is one very strange looking tree, I must say.

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Alligator on the ceiling, Elma, Washington

Dord Taste / by Marc Myers

Marc Myers is still creating ambient music. He recently sent me this CD, Dord Taste, which clicks right along as I have been maintaining this blog.

Somewhere in one of my comix the word "dord" is used in one panel. There's a funny little history with that term.

Marc also sent me a couple of my old 1994 catalogs.

Thanks Marc!

The Comix Files: Jerry Collins

Atlanta-based cartoonist Jerry Collins and I corresponded in 1984. He contributed a self-portrait to Outside In # 13.

BlackRayman Interprets Bacharach

Wishin' and Hopin'

The Web of Love

A great cover graphic by Porter M. Griffith on this sheet music, copyright 1929. The artifact is interesting on many levels. For openers the piece is printed on a single sheet and folded. This early talking film was "personally directed" by James Cruze. Apparently part of it was in color!

The movie is about a ventriloquist who is slowly going insane. I have to wonder. This stack of scores originally belonged to my great grandmother, Jennie Hoss. Her brother, Lafe Reeves, worked as a barber but he was also an accomplished ventriloquist. I wonder if he was teased about this movie? 

Favorite Movie Quotes: Mr. Saturday Night

"You're not a comedian, you're a terrorist!"

The Mighty Vikings Play Bacharach

Wishin' and Hopin'

The Comix Files: Jack T. Chick

Back in 1987 I ordered the entire set of those oddball little Jack T. Chick comics so I could donate them to the Washington State University Comix Collection. Jack sent this letter with the order form. It was written during the same era when more famous evangelists than usual were getting caught with their pants down.

"Our enemy, the world ..." Wow. Jack really is from another planet.

But I always admired the way these little guys were distributed, and that method no doubt served as one of the inspirations for how Morty Comix is sometimes presented.

Recent Meeting Notes

Vandalias Sing Bacharach

Wishin' and Hopin'

Home on the Range

This 1935 sheet music is bereft of credits for the cover graphics unless the artist's name is somehow cleverly hidden in the grass.

The Comix Files: Jim Charette

Jim Charette, of Fall River, Massachusetts, makes a pitch for his zine Charette's Eye View in 1992.

Martha Reeves and Dusty Springfield Sing Bacharach

Wishin' and Hopin'

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The Bluebird

Even though this is copyright 1916, published in 1919, this uncredited cover graphic still has a very 1890s look to it. Thank goodness Art Deco came along and rescued this medium!

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The Comix Files: Richard C.

Richard C., aka Ricardo Campos had a store and record label in Montebello, California called Wild Rags, and a zine covering underground metal music called Wild Rag. He wrote to me around 1994/1995 when he decided to branch out into comix publishing.

I have no idea how far he got into the comix thing beyond publishing Russell Evans' Dixon (it was considered Wild Rag # 32). Richard C. apparently simply vanished into folklore. A survey through Internet will provide various rumors and gossip about his fate, none of it confirmed.

Selma Bjornsdottir Sings Bacharach

Wishin' and Hopin'

I Feel You Near Me

Sheet music from a very early (1930) talkie. Movie soundtrack music usually used photos rather than hand-created graphics for the printed covers. Love the Red Star logo.