As I type today’s #SundaySteveWillis entry, I just got the Steve Willis Phoenix Masters minicomics off to him in the (snail) mail yesterday. So I’m in a bit of a limbo, which is fine because Steve has gifted me PLENTY of material to share.
Today, we’re going uber-niche: Morty Comix using color!
Background on Morty Comix: As best I understand, Morty Comix are a daily drawing exercise for Steve. It’s his way of remaining consistently creative. They’re also individual original art pieces, items he gives away freely. Some, he mails out to friends and mailing list recipients. Some, he hands out at his infrequent zine fest appearances. Some, he hides in the strangest public places — restaurant menus, library books, the pocket behind the front seat of my minivan (true fact)…to name a few.
These things are the stuff of legend. One of a kind, individually signed and numbered – over 15,000 of them! I put a few of the Morty Comix gifted to me in The Collected Cranium Frenzy by Steve Willis Reader. I made a FANzine Live video related to Morty Comix here. Others have made Morty Comix bootlegs – in fact, I made a video out of one of those, too.
Back to today’s topic: Color. Steve told me that he received a paint set for Christmas. Cool, I thought. It’ll be fun to see how he paints Morty and the cast of characters.
Was that what we got? Of course not. This is Steve Willis that we’re talking about. Soon, I received a message with the most interesting photo:
These were most definitely not going to be portraits.
And then, the big reveal:
Holy cow! Steve took these abstract color swaths and…turned them into genuine one-panel Morty Comix cartoons! The photo above shows off a ton of his creations, but here are the actual color Morty Comix that Steve has sent me over the past year. Take a moment to scroll through them.
Steve and my minds don’t work the same way. I think paint and think “paintings” like a good literalist would. He thinks paint and bends the medium to his will. A splash of color presents itself as the foundation of a cartoon. Just amazing, and another creative demonstration of the Phoenix Master.
The Phoenix Masters minicomics are a-coming, but the jewels in the crown have to be the five volumes of The Collected Cranium Frenzy by Steve Willis and The Tragedy of Morty, Prince of Denmarke (Steve’s epic adaptation of Hamlet — first time collected into one volume!). You can get all of these books at craniumfrenzy.com.
