Underground/Newave comix cartoonist Steve Willis was born in Spokane, Washington. He and his family moved to Olympia shortly before he turned three and then onto a farm outside of McCleary, Washington when he was eight. He attended the Evergreen State College, and earned a master's degree in Library Science from the University of Washington in 1982. While a student at Evergreen, Willis drew comics for the student newspaper, working alongside other future Pacific Northwest cartoonists Matt Groening, Lynda Barry, and Charles Burns. Willis worked at Washington State University as a Catalog Librarian for several years in the 1980s, continuing to draw Underground/Newave comix. Willis later worked as a librarian at the Evergreen State College, and as of 2014 he is the Program Manager at the Washington State Library in Olympia. He offers cartooning workshops for novice and aspiring cartoonists in McCleary, Washington.
In addition to collecting thousands of small press and alternative comics, Willis published his own Morty Comix (over 2000 unique comix, mostly portraits drawn on the backs of retired filing cards or random paper), and edited the small-press newsletter City Limits Gazette. Willis is cited as one of the progenitors of the small press explosion of the 1980s and of the minicomix format, drawn on 8.5 x 11 inch paper and then photocopied, folded into quarters, bound, and cut. Out of this movement also came microcomix, an even smaller format used by a smaller number of cartoonists. Willis and other small press cartoonists exchanged their creations with fans and other cartoonists though the mail in the United States and worldwide.
The collection offers an extensive representation of the American underground and counterculture in the 1980s and 1990s, with a broad geographic range, and many materials coinciding with the birth of the underground comix scene (referred to by many cartoonists as “Newave"). The collection consists almost entirely of published items, primarily comix, issued circa 1968 to 2014. It includes approximately 3500 individual titles, often with multiple items (sequential issues of comix, magazines, newsletters, newspapers, and zines).
Standard and digest size comix make up about one-third of the collection. While many of these are underground comix, they are of a more professional quality than the other formats in the collection. Among the standard comix are rare and unique issues of Zap Comics (R. Crumb), Weird Comics, several standard comix by Steve Willis, and Sun Comic number 1, a hand-drawn comic on the topic of Jefferson Airplane. The minicomix format constitutes approximately ten percent of the collection, a significant volume given both the small size and rarity of the format. Especially notable are minicomix by Steve Willis (Morty the Dog), Matt Feazell (Cynicalman), and Maximum Traffic, all important cartoonists and collectors in the American underground comix scene. Microcomix fill two boxes, and are well represented in proportion to the rest of the collection. Of note among the microcomix is the large collection of Chick Tracts, a form of comic Christian propaganda and ministry material. Comix advertising and catalogs fill six boxes.
Approximately one-third of the collection is non-comix material, consisting of magazines, newspapers, newsletters, and zines. Of these, zines are the majority (about fifteen percent of the collection) and are notable for their documentation of the American music underground, counterculture, leftist and ultra-conservative politics, LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) rights, and graphic poetry. The majority of the newspapers and newsletters are from Washington's Puget Sound area, including a large collection of Penstuff, a monthly newsletter of Pacific Northwest cartoonists.
Some of the items in this collection contain terms that have historically been used to dismiss, discount and marginalize individuals from particular communities. MASC recognizes the harm caused by these terms. We retain the language in this finding aid to document history and preserve context.
Series 1: Advertising and Promotional Material. This series contains materials related to the advertising and promotion of comix, zines, comic books, and promotional comix-related events.
Series 2: Bibliographic Correspondence and Documentation. This series contains documentation of donations by Steve Willis and other cartoonists, files related to processing the collection, and correspondence between Willis and other cartoonists.
Series 3: Books. This series contains bound volumes with ISBN numbers. Subject matter includes comix and poetry.
Series 4: Catalogs. This series consists of catalogs for comix, comic books, anime, art supplies, and other materials.
Series 5: Clippings. This series consists of newspaper clippings relating to comix and comic books, and several handmade scrapbooks of comic strips clipped from newspapers.
Series 6: Comix. This series is divided into three subseries: Subseries 6.1, Comix; Subseries 6.2, Microcomix; and Subseries 6.3, Minicomix. Microcomix are generally smaller versions of minicomix, where the 8.5 x 11 inch sheet is folded into eighths or sixteenths and then bound and cut.
Series 7: Magazines. This series consists of magazines published on glossy paper and most contain ISSN numbers. The professional production and presence of the standard identifying number (ISSN) distinguish materials in this series from underground zines.
Series 8: Newsletters. This series consists of newsletters of small press, library, and environmental groups and organizations.
Series 9: Newspapers. This series consists of comic and non-comic newspapers, most from western Washington State.
Series 10: Comix Related Materials. This series contains a variety of memorabilia and miscellaneous materials relating to comix and comix creators, including audiocassettes, calendars, postcards, t-shirts, and other miscellaneous items.
Series 11: Reference Material. This series contains Fandom Directories from the 1980s to early 2000s.
Series 12: Review Zines. This series consists of small press zines that review other small press zines.
Series 13: Zines. This series consists of small press zines written by one or multiple authors.
Series 14: Oversize Materials. This series consists of materials housed separately due to large size.
This collection is arranged in fourteen series. Within each series, materials are arranged alphabetically.
This collection is open and available for research use.
Copyright restrictions apply.
[Item Description]
Willis Comix and Small Press Collection, 1968-2014 (SC 003.4)
Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.
Most of these materials were donated to the Washington State University Libraries by Steve Willis, in multiple installments from approximately 1987 to 2014 (MS.2009.15, MS.2011.01, MS.2011.32, MS.2014.08). Additional materials were donated by several of his friends and fellow underground comix artists, including Matt Feazell, William Honath, Mick Cusimano, M. Goetz, Joseph Shea, Lynn Hansen, John Eberly, Jerry Riddle, Andrew Roller, and Bob Supina.
Robert Franklin processed this collection in 2014. Sarah Schraeder assisted in translating German language materials into English.
Steve Willis Underground Comics Collection, 1966-1997
Lynn R. Hansen Underground Comics Collection, 1899-1994
Paul Brians Comics Collection, 1950-2004
Clark Dissmeyer Comix and Small Press Collection, 1977-2002
Joseph M. Shea Comix and Small Press Collection, 1967-2010
Jeff Zenick Comix and Small Press Collection, 1984-2003
Comic Art and Culture Collection 1969-2019
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.