The History of Morty Comix-- The Short Version:
In Feb. 1983 I started a series of hand drawn comix called
Morty Comix. Each "issue" is unique.
The History of Morty Comix-- The Long Esoteric Version:
Starting in the early 1970s I was in the first generation of cartoonists who published their own efforts and bypassed the traditional methods of submitting our work to others and relying on commercial distributors. Photocopy technology had advanced to the point where we could reduce and enlarge our original art, and print our own books. Prior to this time, in the 1960s, photocopiers were about the size of a Volkswagen bus and produced a muddy image where the toner ink would rub off on the hands of the reader, so this technological leap was huge for us. By the late 1970s we had a name as a movement--
Newave Comix. Like our big brothers in the Underground Comix genre, we were comics with an "x"
I started publishing my little comix in this genre long before I knew there were others like me. My first such comic was in 1973 and printed on a mimeograph! By the time I learned about the Newave network in 1981 while in graduate school at the University of Washington in Seattle I already had a number of self-published comix in my resume.
We cartoonists communicated with each other mostly via mail and in a way were an invisible college for each other. In those days the whole DIY comix thing was still pretty obscure and cartooning was not considered worthy of academic attention or training.
In Feb. 1983 I cooked up an idea to send each correspondent a piece of unique hand drawn original art and entitled the series
Morty Comix after my main comix character Morty the Dog. I honestly cannot recall how the concept was born in my cranium, except that I knew it was something new and crazy, man. There were several motives in mind here. First, it gave me a way to loosen up my drawing hand and I cranked them out like crazy without a lot of thought. Second, it was a way to drive completist collectors crazy. Third, it was a radical idea at the time, I mean, to actually
GIVE AWAY art? C'mon. What was I? Crazy? Fourth, it was fun and a crazy thing to do. And I guess I'm still crazy after all these years.
Notice how many times the word "crazy" turned up in that last paragraph? Actually anyone who has met me can tell you I am the quintessential normal person. I even own a coffee cup that has the word "Norm" on it as proof. So stay with me here and please stop backing toward the exit.
The basic
Morty Comix is a blank index card folded in half with four original drawings, or a sheet of letter size paper quartered. They are numbered in sequence, dated and signed. I attempted to include an issue with each piece of correspondence.
During the 20th century
Morty Comix were created in four distinct subsets:
#1-1000 (Feb. 1983-Mar. 1984) - Issue #1 was sent to the legendary cartoonist Ron "Gato" Vicens in Hawaii. He vanished but when old Newave cartoonists gather round the cafeteria room at the Comix Old Folks Home, we swap stories about him. I lived in Olympia, Wash. when I started the series but moved to Pullman, Wash. in June 1983.
#1001-1225 (Jan.-June 1985) - This set was drawn when I lived in Pullman.
#1226-1760 (Sept. 1985-Sept. 1986) - Began in Pullman, I returned here to McCleary, Wash. (where I was raised) in June 1986. I continue to live here today.
#1761-2195 (Apr. 1, 1989-Nov./Dec. 1999) - The series sputtered through the 1990s on a sporadic basis.
Morty Comix in the 20th century were also created in a few alternative formats: other issues were drawn on library waste cards, large sheets of butcher paper, cardboard, foam, styrofoam, and wood. Some issues were produced as puzzles, #1446 and #1500 are 80 pages thick. One issue (sent to Tim Corrigan), was burned into a large sheet of plexiglass. Another (sent to Bob X), was drawn in the sand at Ocean Shores, Wash. and sent as a photo. #1641-1690 were drawn on the inside covers of copies of
Starhead Presents #1 (a commercial comic book) published by Starhead Comix in Seattle (Michael Dowers).
Other artists participated in a few issues. Bruce Chrislip jammed on a few, although the exact numbers have been lost. Marc Myers jammed on #1430-31, 1439. Clint Hollingsworth and Myers and I drew #1432. John E. (John Eberly) with #1467, and #1730 was a 4-way effort, which included Edward (then called "Ted") Bolman, Michael and Keenan Dowers. #1433 was a Marc Myers solo.
Chris Bors took his copy of #1025 and (with my permission) reproduced it as a minicomic with a 50 copy run. #1882 and #2173 were drawn to be published, the first from Starhead Comix and the second by myself.
In 1984 Brad Foster of Jabberwocky Graphix in Texas published a large collection of this series in a book entitled
The Almost Complete Collected Morty Comix, culling from the 1983 and early 1984 issues. Somehow Brad managed to talk several people into loaning him their copies.
Morty Comix have also been published in:
Inside Joke, Acme Subheroes, Mini Haha Komix, Monthly Independent ..., Scratchez, Misc. Comics, City Limits Gazette, American Leather, Over the Wall, Small Press Comics Fanola, Mashuga, Small Press Comics Explosion, Morty the Dog, Upperground, Industrial Toilet Paper, Maximum Traffic, Bezango Obscuro, Damn Weird Comix, White Buffalo Gazette, Cartoon Loonacy and other publications.
Although
Morty Comix didn't exactly start a genre, it did inspire a number of short-lived responses from other artists such as: Par Holman, Paul Cartmill, Richard Wayne, Roldo, Chester Brown, Jim Ryan, Clint Hollingsworth, Maximum Traffic, George Erling, Marc Myers, Hank Arakelian, Gary Usher, Larry Weir, Jamie Alder, Jim Waltman, and Bruce Chrislip. They had titles like:
Dawg'on'it Comix, Jimix, Le Morte Comix, Maori Comix, More "Tea"? Comix, Morfy Comix, Mormony Comix, Neon Paisley Dino Attack on Morty Comix, Nivlem Comix, Non-comic Comix, Nonmorty Comix, Psuedo-Morty Comix, Puppy Chewed Comix, Shorty Comix, and
Ytrom. The only other artist I am aware of to seriously undertake creating multiple issues of an original hand-drawn series was Edward Bolman, who started
Nauga Comix in, if I'm not mistaken, Jan. 1986. I'm not sure if he is still drawing this title. Most of the
Nauga Comix I have seen appear to have more of a storyline and are drawn with more planning and care than my dash-offs.
Morty Comix was sort of a statement that original art (at least my original art) is not some sacred collectible thing, but merely the residue of a compulsion that is freely sent to anyone who I was in contact with. They were messages in a bottle. It is fun to track them and see where they wind up. So it is with considerable irony I have seen them sell for as much as $100 on eBay.
In the summer of 2010 an insidious co-worker named Shawn Moriarty convinced me to produce some more
Morty Comix as a benefit for the Olympia Film Society. And so the series was reborn after a near decade of slumber.
The Century 21 subset of the
Morty Comix series:
#2196-2257 (summer 2010 - March 2011) - These were warmup issues distributed in the old dying snail mail way.
#2258-2601 (March 21, 2011-July 2013?) - On a flight home on Delta from Columbus, Ohio to SeaTac after being a guest speaker at a comix convention called SPACE (Small Press and Alternative Comics Exposition) I was given a tablet of post-it type notes as were all the other passengers. While in the air hurtling over the upper Midwest I started to draw and when I landed back home I found myself with a bunch of illustrations which I divided into groups of four, entitled them
Morty Comix, numbered and dated them, and then began to leave them in random public places. This guerilla method of distribution crossed my mind while in the air. I don't know why. Just like the creation of the series itself, the idea simply popped up in a spontaneous manner rather than being the result of serious deliberation. Not a full-on epiphany, but perhaps just a piff (tip of the hat to Sarah here).
The closest parallel in my past that possibly influenced me was finding those weird little religious comics by Chick Publications in phone booths and other public spots. It seemed such an underground and strange way to distribute comic art and in the 1960s-1970s I found it fascinating. Jack Chick, who was a crazy person, may have been the subliminal mentor here.
The hiding of
Morty Comix in public places starting becoming major capers, especially with the expansion of surveillance cameras. I had to be careful sometimes. The hidden
Morty Comix are perhaps the most rare of all. I placed them in some places where I am sure they will never be found for years. And most of those that were found were probably thrown away.
During this period the filmmakers Ron Austin and Louise Amandes produced a documentary named after one of my books called
Bezango, WA. The film profiled the history of cartooning in western Washington State. I believe it is available on Vimeo for a small fee. My role in this cinematic story was to provide the weaving joke of hiding
Morty Comix in public places complete with my own nice theme music. I must say it is sort of strange to be held up as comic relief character in a film about cartoonists. At least I am not taken seriously, and that is a blessing. I am not a professional cartoonist or a serious artist. I'm just some guy who likes to draw.
#2602-2671 (July 2013) - These were all hidden in Butler and Pittsburgh, PA.
#2672-2759 (2013-2018) - During this period I severely broke my left arm (I am left handed) and wondered if I would ever draw again, but I recovered. Some of the
Morty Comix were hidden, others traditionally drawn and sent in the mail.
#2760-2854 (April/May 2018) - This set was drawn on a road trip down to Sacramento, east to Mississippi, then north to Columbus, Ohio, then back home via Wisconsin on I-90. They were given away at SPACE 2018. As I was staying at a home in Columbus a few days before the event I began to use household items such as paper plates, styrofoam cups, danger tape and sheets of tinfoil as a medium. Never before had I such a stockpile of
Morty Comix to give away for free. Nor had I previously given away so many of them directly face-to-face with the readers.
Several of the
Morty Comix in this subset were hidden in motel rooms along the round trip: in Corning CA, Kingman AZ, Gallup NM, Shamrock TX, Conway AR, Marion IL, Le Claire IA, Luverne MN, Gillette WY, Missoula MT and places in between. I expect they were all thrown in the garbage when found.
#2855-2899 (May 2018?-Aug. 2018) - Most of these were hidden
Morty Comix although a few were sent with correspondence. I started answering mail that included a "No Postage Required" envelope with a
Morty Comix and nothing more so some poor bored corporate wage slave mail opener would have something interesting to break up their monotony. #2891-2912 were drawn while I stayed in a casino in Henderson, Nevada. I do not gamble but it was the closest place I could stay to where my daughter lived at the time. Lots of living cartoon characters inhabited that casino, so it was great field work. And yes, I hid
Morty Comix there as well.
#2900-3200 (August 2018-March 2019) - Now we enter a phase that I never expected. Casey Bruce, a co-owner of Olympia's premier comics shop called the Danger Room came up with the idea that I give away
Morty Comix at the Olympia Comics Festival as wedding favors. Casey and his bride Marisha Kay were married at the Festival. Now how am I going to turn down an opportunity like that? How many cartoonists are offered a chance to contribute their art to such a positive happening? Many of the
Morty Comix created for this event were 3-D installation pieces in a wide variety of formats. My living room became a studio and my friend Paul Tumey called my setup the Fun Factory, a moniker that stuck. On the Big Day my little 1998 Toyota Corolla was so filled with Morty Comix that I was afraid I would be pulled over on the drive to the event.
At the Olympia Comics Festival I managed to give away almost all of the
Morty Comix. It astounds me how uncomfortable people can be about taking something for free. Even supposed hipsters are encased in the capitalist mindset, man. But some of us senior citizen Boomers still abide. Anyway, I took a small number of leftovers back home and they are part of this current diabolical project.
Oly is my home turf and I gave away comix to a wide range of people. To give away nine months of work within a few hours with a wedding at a comic convention as a backdrop was one of the highlights of my comix experience.
#3201- (Oct. 2019)- My good friend Borpo Deets of Butler, PA jump-started me on getting back to this project after I had drifted away due to family circumstances. He didn't know he was doing so, but he did by asking me to draw a new
Morty Comix for his publication
White Buffalo Gazette. The earliest in this subset will be part of this crazy project. As for those that I draw after, I plan to continue to hide them around my town (McCleary, WA) or wherever I travel until some new nefarious caper way of distribution crosses my path.
With
Morty Comix, the unusual method of distribution is an important part of my artistic process. The
Morty Comix series began as a sideshow in my comix activity but it is now my main venue for artistic expression. I can create and draw whatever and whenever I feel like without the headache of deadlines, editors, publishers, distributors, marketers, reviewers, finger-waggers, or government regulators. I should be saying something like "If my work gives readers just a small chuckle or head scratch or in any way disrupts their routine then I am happy," but in reality I hardly ever hear from anyone who finds these drawings. And over the years I have come to appreciate how that in itself increases the feeling of freedom and liberation I experience in making these little
Morty Comix. The actual product and what people think of it has become secondary.
My friend Tom in Butler, PA witnessed me hiding many
Morty Comix in public places and commented how he could see it brought out the trickster little boy in me. I think he's got something there.
The posts below are scans of the
Morty Comix that were sent around the USA for this project.
