Bezango: Big Boom!

Olympia Power & Light, May 4-17, 2011.

A photo of my cousin, Patty, back in the 1960s. She was visiting us from Vancouver, Washington and we set her up on the tractor. In the background to the right is the hill where the dynamite was planted. Patty is sitting not far from where the huge piece of wood landed. This should give you an idea just how far that chunk of the stump sailed through the air.

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Bezango: Oly High, 1970s

Olympia High School humanities faculty, ca. 1971-1972:

Hugh Moody, Jim Coomes, Gary Gerst, Art Lowman, Don Webster, Irene Kaufman, Dave Mesojednik, Don Martin, Tilford Gribble, and Ray Arnold as the dragon.

Olympia Power & Light, April 20-May 3, 2011.

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Outside In # 14

1st edition, 1984, 200 copies on white cardstock.

2nd edition, 1984. Seattle, Washington : Starhead Comix, regular stock white paper.

Mike Honeycutt, Jane Oliver, Kathryn Pritz, Meher Dada, Jane Weir, James Dean Pruner, Randy Maxson.

A particularly unsettling issue, or maybe that's my feeling in hindsight since Pruner died in 1988, and Oliver in 1992. Very strong self-portraits in every case here.

This was the final issue of Outside In I edited before handing it off to Michael Dowers. A brief history of the series will be forthcoming.

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whee

Back in the USA for 21 Cents

My friend and comix comrade Rex Munger and I took the ferry from Port Angeles, Washington to Victoria, British Columbia July 13, 1972. We visited Mad Hatter's Tea Party International member John Newberry and shopped for comix.

I filled up my wooden suitcase with a bunch of great Canadian underground comix in the course of the day.

On the way home, American customs officials detained me for an hour, searched all my belongings, and then charged me a whopping 21 cents duty for the books. I still keep the receipt inside the suitcase lid as a memento. I wonder if I would've been allowed to return if I had not come up with the cash?

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Tumwater, Washington

Outside In # 13

1st edition, 1984, 150 copies on white cardstock.

2nd edition, 1984. Seattle, Washington : Starhead Comix, regular stock white paper.

Bobby Stahr, Ellen Ferguson, Jerry Collins, Ronald Russell Roach, Tony Nichols, Paul Cartmill, Kenny Moran.

Be sure to click on the link above for Ronald Russell Roach and read one of the most interesting Pacific Northwest cartoonist webpages around.

Paul Cartmill was another Northwesterner (Vancouver, BC area) who I wish I had gotten to know better. His minis were quirky and clever, but he was on the comix scene for only a brief time.

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Outside In # 12

1st edition, 1984, 150 copies on white cardstock.

2nd edition, 1984. Seattle, Washington : Starhead Comix, regular stock white paper.

George Kochell, Greg Nelson, Denver Tucson, Al Simons, Ed DeVore, Will Shetterly, The Pizz

And, yay! Ed DeVore is back on the scene after a long absence!

Al Simons apparently died in 2006.

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Outside In # 11

1st edition, 1984, 150 copies on white cardstock.

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

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

T.S. Child, Tracy Thore, Jamie Alder, John E., Donald V. Cook, Gary W. Cooper, Bob Lewis.

Jamie died last year in March.

Gary Cooper, the university faculty mostly known as a collector, once paid a delightful visit here to Casa Esteban in McCleary.

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Outside In # 10

1st edition, 1984, 150 copies on white cardstock.

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

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

Mark Counts, Mary Lambright, Maggie Resch, Michael Roden, Joe Zabel, Roman Scott, Dave Patterson.

Mark Counts produced one of the most dramatic self-portraits of the series. It makes a great cover!

Maggie Resch was another cartoonist to come out of The Evergreen State College. I later got to meet her in 1986 when a group of us drove across the state together to Pullman for a presentation. I loved her sense of humor.

Roden died in 2007. Dale Lee Coovert has compiled a nice bibliography of Michael's work, and Richard Krauss put together an informative summary of Roden's art.

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That weird slot of space between the McCleary U.S. Post Office and McCleary Library

Outside In # 9

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

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

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

Dave Smestad, Bob Vojtko, Mike Hill, Garry Hardman, Clark Dissmeyer, Steve Gallacci, Cody Boyle.

A solid lineup of very excellent artists. Cody Boyle landed in the series courtesy of Lynn Hansen. Dissmeyer's self-portrait is particularly good, I think.

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Outside In # 8

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.

James Waltman, Anina Coder Sill, Paul Curtis, Greg Blair, Wayne Gibson, Clifford Neal, Harry Onickel.

After decades of circling each other, I finally got to meet Wayne Gibson at the Newave launch party last year. I always loved Harry Onickel's work and felt he and Richard Wayne must've attended the same upper Midwest cartoon school since their comix seemed to come from the same wacky source.

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