"Luke! Don't give in to hate. That leads to the Dark Side."
The Diogenes Club
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Morty Comix # 2378
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Monday, June 4, 2012
Morty Comix # 2377
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Cartoon Simple
Morty the Blog readers need to check Jim Gill's new website, Cartoon Simple.
It brings to mind the advice I got from Seattle Post-Intelligencer cartoonist Ray Collins in 1977: if you want to be a great cartoonist-- study poetry. Say a lot with just a few lines. Then he politely told me my work was very bad. And it was. But I got better, in part because of what I learned from Ray.
Nelson Bentley, William Stafford, Ken Kesey, Richard Brautigan: I sought out the Pacific Northwest poets and writers. Authors who described the world I lived in. It made a difference in my comix.
Phone photo 1596
John R. Chaplin
Apr. 30, 1851
Oct. 22, 1906
--
Emma S. Chaplin-Overhulse
Feb. 20, 1861
July 14, 1931
--
Grace R.
Daughter of
J.R. & E.S. Chaplin
June 1, 1882
Feb. 1902
Olympia Comics Festival 2012, pt. 13
My final bit on the Oly Comix Fest.
All the comix, business cards, and brochures that were traded or given to me will go to the Washington State University Comix Collection, the oldest academic collection of underground, Newave, and small press comix on the Pacific Coast. This library collection was started long before comix were considered acceptable by the mainstream in the early 1980s, even by other librarians. As a result, WSU holds many rare titles from the pioneer days of self-publishing, as well as early works by cartoonists who are now internationally famous such as Matt Groening, the Teenage Turtle guys, Chester Brown, etc. Anyone on the West Coast who has an academic interest in the subject of the history of self-published or underground comix will have to visit this collection. There is no other public place in Ecotopia that can come close in terms of broad coverage.
The Oly Comix Fest really has roots in the old Newave Comix movement. God bless you Clay Geerdes.
Olympia Comics Festival 2012, pt. 11
Triple book signings at the Danger Room with Mike Allred, Jason Shiga, and Shannon Wheeler. Casey Bruce is the retail moderator.
I hope the City of Olympia appreciates what a treasure it has in the Danger Room.
Olympia Comics Festival 2012, pt. 10
My apologies to those tables I was not able to catch due to being too late or having technical problems. I managed to get the last couple as they were folding up.
Olympia Comics Festival 2012, pt. 9
Filmmakers at work.
Ron Austin and Louise work together as they set up to interview me as part of a project they are working on. We had to find a quiet corner of the Olympia Community Center as the Fest raged on. Part of the preparations involved Ron manhandling a decapitated mannikin.
Notice how Louise has improvised using a trash can in place of a tripod. I was impressed! Not only do these two have an equal and warm partnership, but the three of us sure spent a lot of time laughing pretty hard. So much so it was only with a tremendous effort of willpower that I could keep a straight face while being questioned when filmed.
Olympia Comics Festival 2012, pt. 8
Beautiful work by http://theseframesarehidingplaces.com/
Max Clotfelter, Kelly Froh
The most photogenic pair in the Fest!
Students from Madison Middle School had a table with comix and fiction. I was so happy to see this. The torch of creativity is kept alive and these kids are lucky to have such visionary teachers.
Drawing comix helped keep me sane as I was growing up (no wisecracks, please) and the adults who encouraged me to continue this activity as part of my personal development were essential in my evolution as an artist. It was all quite informal in those prehistoric times, even in college. There was no such thing as classes in cartooning.
My departed friend Steve Charak would've been all over this if he was still alive, but it has only been in very recent history comix have become an accepted part of academia, on any level.
So I salute Madison! What a great way to combine drawing and writing education.
And, I went to grade school at Roosevelt, so I feel an Eastside kinship there.
The photo of John Doe, her neighbor in orange, was one of several that unfortunately didn't turn out
Chelsea Baker at the Timberland Regional Library table
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