Phone photo 504

Outside In # 5

1st edition, 1983, 150 copies on white cardstock.

2nd edition, January 1984, 20 copies on white cardstock.

3rd edition, 1984. Seattle, Washington : Starhead Comix, regular stock white paper.

Max Haynes, Rollin Marquis, Julian Ross, Bob X, Marc Myers, Lynn Hansen, Kevin Wildermuth.

Rollin and mail-artist Julian have both vanished from the comix network radar, but I always enjoyed their work. Marc's self-portrait as an Easter Island carving is one of my favorite pieces by him. Haynes, Bob X, and Wildermuth produced images that are classic examples of their styles. Non-artist Hansen surprised me by participating and his self-port has contributed to the enigma he behind.

Phone photo 503

Olympia, Washington

Morty the Blog Hiatus

Morty the Dog Blog will be slowing down or even hibernating for a few days as I attend to other business. In the meantime, please feel free to enjoy this music as much as you want until my next post.

Phone photo 502

Outside In # 4

1st edition, 1983, 150 copies on white cardstock.

2nd edition, December 1983, 20 copies on white cardstock.

3rd edition, 1984. Seattle, Washington : Starhead Comix, regular stock white paper.

Jean Francois Duval, Roldo, Mike Cody, Jim Thompson, Dan Florian, Richard Wayne, Petrina L. Walker.

Richard Wayne died in 1998 while in his early 40s. He was a very funny correspondent and minicomix creator and I have no doubt he'd be an entertaining commenter on this blog if he was still with us.

Dan Florian was an occasional comix artist who used to order my books in bulk. Occasionally I've seen his name resurface in recent years offering comix at online auctions.

Phone photo 501

Olympia, Washington

Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules Illustrated

I picked up this old dog-eared copy and found a couple drawings in it I probably made about 1982. This book was my occupational Bible throughout the 1980s.

Phone photo 500

Outside In # 3

1st edition, 1983, 150 copies on white cardstock.

2nd edition, December 1983, 20 copies on white cardstock.

3rd edition, 1984. Seattle, Washington : Starhead Comix, regular stock white paper.

J.R. Williams, George Erling, Par Holman, Jim Ryan, John Mobbs II, Bruce Chrislip, Matt Feazell.

A lineup of the classics in their classic poses, almost all of them part of the central core of the Newave comix movement. I got to meet Matt Feazell in person for the first time at SPACE last March, and I can't really explain it, but he actually does look like the self-portrait he contributed here! I'm impressed.

Phone photo 499

Olympia, Washington

Outside In # 2

1st edition, 1983, 150 copies on white cardstock.

2nd edition, December 1983, 20 copies on white cardstock.

3rd edition, 1984. Seattle, Washington : Starhead Comix, regular stock white paper.

Doug Holverson, John Howard, David Miller, Robert Stump, Robin Coder-Willis, Steve Willis, Clay Geerdes.

That great cover shows Holverson in, I believe, his beloved Studebaker. David Miller's self-portrait looks like it could've been drawn during the Renaissance and it remains one of my favorites in the series. Robin's demonstrates just how provincial we native Washingtonians can be, tucked up here in this corner, walled off by water, mountains and rain. Morty obviously has little patience for T.S. Eliot.

Howard and Stump were two prolific Newave regulars during the early-mid 1980s. John produced some of the funniest wage slave comix I've encountered, and Robert was very active in publishing, including reprinting my Sasquatch Comix series.

I met Geerdes and Miller in 1989 on a visit to the Bay Area. As you can see by the photos in the Clay Geerdes Scrapbook post, David looks pretty much like the way he portrayed himself, but Clay had a more creative self-image I must say. Oddly, to me Clay's self-portrait matched his voice, but not his face.

Phone photo 498

A very disturbing sight

Outside In # 1

1st edition, 1983, 150 copies on white cardstock.

2nd edition, December 1983, 20 copies on white cardstock.

3rd edition, 1984. Seattle, Washington : Starhead Comix, regular stock white paper.

Created with the intention of starting a visual directory of self-portraits.

The first issue featured Hank Arakelian, Clint Hollingsworth, Brad Foster, Tucker Petertil, Jean Turnbow, Mark Hopkins, and Jon Turnbow (now known as Strongbow)

The cover was an accident. I loved Hank's drawing and thought he sent this as his self-portrait right after I sounded the call. But it turned out he sent the graphic to me just to do it and didn't consider this a self-portrait. Yet it works and was the perfect illustration to kick off the series.



Hank's original still adorns my studio wall. My poor studio. Right now it looks like the Tasmanian Devil has paid it a visit.


Mark Hopkins is someone I've known since the third grade. He is one of the greatest natural born artists I've ever seen. While the other kids were drawing crude figures during art time in school, Mark would be creating an image that looked like a lost Van Gogh painting. Here's a photo of Mark and I in Santa Barbara, California, April 1, 1976 as we hitchhiked together down the West Coast. Mark's on the right. A lot of people thought we were brothers.

Phone photo 497

Heir of the Dog

Irving, Texas : Ozone Press, July 1987. 500 copies.

Hal Hargit and Dave Tosh put together this farewell to Morty after one of many announcements the mutt was dead. Other artists in the roast included: T. Ritter, W.C. Pope, Wayno, Walt Rodgers, Bob Vojtko, Rick Bradford, Allen Freeman, Andy Nukes, Mike Hill, Jim Thompson, Matt Feazell, Matt Borders, Ted Bolman, Jim Ryan, Brad Foster, Dale Luciano, Jeff Gaither, Edd Vick, and myself.

This thick minicomic included a centerspread that folded out to letter size.

This book really makes me teary eyed to read even now, after almost a quarter century. Such a great bunch of cartoonists. This comic made me realize how lucky I was not only to have such a wonderful network of comrades, but also, perhaps ironically given the fact Morty was supposed to be dead, that I had created a character worthy of a roast.