Phone photo 2012

Morck Hotel

Aberdeen, Washington

Favorite Movie Quotes: Dr. No

"Does the toppling of American missiles really compensate for having no hands?"

Phone photo 2011

Aberdeen, Washington

Buttons - Events - 1974

McCleary 2nd Growth & Bear Festival

16th Annual

July 19-20-21-1974

On the curl: G.H. Stamp Works, Aberdeen, Wash.

Phone photo 2010

Aberdeen, Washington

Morty Comix # 2446

Morty Comix # 2446 was placed inside a book called Old Dogs, which resides in the waiting room of veterinarian in Olympia, Washington

Phone photo 2009

"The Count Has a Posse"

Sticker found in an alley in Aberdeen, Washington. This is an image of Joe Towey in his role as The Count,  an over-the-top vampire who introduced late night night horror films on KIRO TV in Seattle in the 1960s-1970s.

Joe also worked as the director of the J.P. Patches show. I met Joe when I interviewed J.P. back in 1975. Mr. Towey was a very mild mannered and almost shy man as he demonstrated how the control booth and cameras worked as the show was airing.

Favorite Movie Quotes: Dirty Harry

"Sociology? Oh, you'll go far. That's if you live."

Phone photo 2008

Aberdeen, Washington

Buttons - Events - 1966

McCleary 2nd Growth & Bear Festival

8th Annual

July 15-16-17-1966

On the curl: G.H. Stamp Works, Aberdeen, Wash.

Phone photo 2007

Morck Hotel

Aberdeen, Washington

Morty Comix # 2445

Morty Comix # 2445 was dropped into the mail slot of a long vacant storefront on Oly's Westside where a pizza place used to be.

Actually two different pizza places were there from the 1970s-2000s. Lots of good memories in both.

I think it was in this place I heard a good McGovern/Nixon story. Since George is in his last days I think it is appropriate to relay this tale.

Around 1976 a bunch of us guys taking a Constitutional law class at The Evergreen State College went here to share a pizza and beer. One among us was Vietnam War vet who was badly wounded on a gunboat, patched up, and then sent back to the U.S. for noncombat duty. He said he was then assigned to the White House.

According to this fellow, he stood at attention in a room where President Nixon came most evenings and studied papers. The President always wore glasses and had a beer with him as he did so. After a month of basically being ignored by Nixon, the Commander in Chief suddenly looked up at the soldier and asked, "Who did you vote for in the last election, son?"

"McGovern, SIR!" was the reply.

And the next day he was given a new assignment.

Goodbye George, and thank you.

Phone photo 2006

Sunrise over the Chehalis River

Aberdeen, Washington

Favorite Movie Quotes: City of Angels

A library user in 1998 navigating through the online catalog: "What happened to the cards? You could touch the cards!"

And really, believe me, that was the most exciting line in this bit of cinema art.
 

Phone photo 2005

Buttons - Events - 1991

Slug Fest '91

Elma, Washington

Phone photo 2004

Morty Comix # 2444

Morty Comix # 2444 was left on a brick ledge over a couple of pathetic real estate brochure distribution boxes in a strip mall on the Westside of Olympia. This was the same facility where I first met J.P. Patches ca. 1960 when he came to promote the grand opening of this place. Notice both storefronts pictured here are vacant.

Old, decaying strip malls, I must admit, do hold a certain fascination for me. They were the proto-malls of their time. This particular one predated the Oly area's first bonafide mall (South Sound Mall in Lacey) by a half dozen years. Both vacant holes pictured here hold many memories for me as the spaces have performed a variety of retail roles in their past.

In cartoonist terms, the left half of this image once housed a pharmacy/gift shop back when Tricky Dick was in office. They also sold LP albums, lots of them. The owner was a big fat Republican member of the Washington State House of Representatives who used his girth as a campaign plus since he claimed it would make him be noticed when he stood up to talk. But in fact all he did was introduce bills to benefit pharmacists.

Anyway, when my parents would be shopping for groceries next door, I'd slip into this place and study the amazing album covers. I didn't really care about the music on the vinyl as much as I studied the big graphic images used to sell them. This was part of my education as a visual artist.

Phone photo 2003

The Fab Four bask in the morning sun

Favorite Movie Quotes: Captain Blood

"Up that rigging, you monkeys! Aloft! There's no chains to hold you now! Break out those sails and watch them fill with the wind that's carrying us all to freedom!"

Phone photo 2002

Part of a Vince Ryland mural advertising a corn maze in Tumwater, Washington

$25 Sale - Original Art - Spring! and Nixon

 

 

Two drawings I am selling as as set, both unpublished

"Spring" black ballpoint on light bond, 14 x 22 cm. Drawn during the Pullman years, ca. 1984

Nixon: blue ballpoint on card stock, 22 x 28 cm. Drawn in 1973 or 1974 during the Watergate affair

$25 ppd

Check or money order to
Steve Willis
PO Box 390
McCleary, WA 98557-0390

Or order through PayPal

Phone photo 2001

Hey, someone put up this figure honoring my cat Charlie!

Tumwater, Washington

Buttons - Events - 1987

Slug Festival '87

I [heart] Elma's Thelma

July 31 and Aug. 1

Elma, WA

98541

On the curl: G.H. Stamp Works, Aberdeen, Wash.

Phone photo 2000

Forest fires smoke over McCleary

Morty Comix # 2443

Morty Comix # 2443 was placed inside a wandering shopping cart I spotted 'way at the edge of a parking lot on Olympia's Westside. Before helpfully shepherding the cart back to join the herd, I made sure a Morty Comix was part of the group.

Phone photo 1999

Forest fire smoke over McCleary's Little Italy section

Favorite Movie Quotes: Battle of the Bulge

"We must measure what we might gain by what we might lose."

Phone photo 1998

Forest fire smoke over McCleary

$25 Sale - Original Art - Morty Comix # 2173 ; Midnight Fiction Calendar

Original art

Morty Comix # 2173, 4 pages on 30 x 23 cm. light bond paper. One edge torn from spiral binding. Drawn in 1999, felt tip on nonphoto blue pencil.

Midnight Fiction Calendar, August 2008 page. 1 page on 30.5 x 21 cm. heaver stock paper than above drawings. One edge torn from spiral binding. Drawn in 2007, felt tip on nonphoto blue pencil. There is a second penguin that evaded the scanner. It is drawn entirely in nonphoto blue and is on the top of the page.

All five pages sold as a set for only 25 bucks

$25 ppd

Check or money order to
Steve Willis
PO Box 390
McCleary, WA 98557-0390

Or order through PayPal