Thursday, January 17, 2008

"Morty the Dog" Cartoonist Steve Willis

Steve Willis, whose comics I remember from the "black and white explosion" of the 1980s, talks about his life and his choices in the video below.

While attending Evergreen State College, he worked along side fellow students Matt Groening and Lynda Barry. After he left Evergreen, he was approached by Esquire magazine. They liked his cartoons, except for the art and stories, he says. He was part of Clay Geerdes' newave network, and produced most of his cartooning in the early 1980s.

Steve works full time as a librarian now, and cartoons in his spare time. We get to hear his views on creativity and see him draw. The video runs about 9 minutes.



Related: Steve writes about his Evergreen College years.

2 comments:

Mark Anderson said...

Gonna get my coffee and settle in for this one.

Thanks!

BTW, stop knowing so much about cartooning. You make the rest of us look like schlubs.

Heath said...

Just seeing this video now after reading an item in Comic Fan! magazine... just Googled your two names... So neat to see Mr. Willis in the vidflesh. Thanks for sharing this! I was particularly interested in his motivations for becoming a librarian. Good stuff.