Today's #HumpdayHutchinsons comes at an interesting moment. We've basked in the glory of the great reviews on Joe's Comix: WILD KINGDOM and diverted into some of the brothers' non-minicomic material (here and here). We've previewed the forthcoming Phoenix Masters minicomics line...but the official debut is a little over a week away at Zinecinnati, so it makes sense to hold on the big launch for another 7 days. So let's dive back into the stacks! Here's a classic minicomic from...1985? 1986? Who knows, there's no date on this one.

As readers surely are aware, Phoenix Productions is both a (very small) publishing house and host of an ongoing YouTube video channel, FANzine Live. I don't write about FANzine Live as much as I probably should on this site because, well, I spend most of my time doing FANzine Live everywhere else. Creating and producing (these days) four videos a week is a lot, and I'd like to spend my time talking about other projects like Strange Times, Heroes Now and the incredible Phoenix Masters. But... (and there's always a but!)

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.

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Last week's #NobleHeadFriday was so much fun - looking at Edward Bolman cartoons and artwork - that I thought I'd share some more of his work. Enjoy! Again, these are largely unadjusted scans. Some gems in there that show off Bolman's skill and endless imagination! Remember, Edward sent me these pieces (and a bunch of others) to be distributed for free with copies of Noble Head Funnies. Order direct from Phoenix Productions via our Ko-Fi shop or pick up a copy at a live zine fest table, and you can pick one out. Then run out and find a frame!

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The excitement is building for Zinecinnati, the next stop on the Phoenix Productions Fall Tour!  I'm looking forward to seeing everyone on Saturday, October 17 at ARCO Cincy from Noon-5pm.  But let's sweeten the deal, shall we? If you Show Me Your INK at Zinecinnati - buy a comic or graphic novel from INK/Indie Northern Kentucky at the show, I'll happily GIVE you one of the brand new Phoenix Masters minicomics, which will be premiering at the show.  New minicomics coming soon ... Get 'em at Zinecinnati! INK is very special to Phoenix Productions. 

We're on a bit of an original art kick here at Phoenix Productions, so let's keep the good times rolling with some cartoons sent to me by Daryl Hutchinson! We generally know Daryl for his stunning, intricately illustrated pieces filled with complex shading and lifelike realism. But did you know that the man likes to cartoon with the best of them? 'Tis true, and here are four pieces he sent me the other week, created with that classic Hutchinson humor: And you know that he probably whipped those off in 30 seconds or less.

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We're right around three weeks out until Zinecinnati, so I thought I would use today's #SundaySteveWillis to share with everyone the first five of Steve Willis's minicomics for treatment as Phoenix Masters minicomics. They are: They are: Asteroid 1997 XF11 Lordy Lordy, Where's Mr. Morty? Monkey Trap Dante's Coat The Tall Elf And while there IS a Morty the Dog minicomic in the mix, the five minicomics were intentionally chosen (curated, if you will) to provide a wide sampling of Steve's skill and storytelling technique. It was a fun challenge to mix and match a strong opening five; hopefully you will enjoy.

On this #NobleHeadFriday, I'm stepping back from Noble Head Funnies (but get it, it's FANTASTIC) and instead sharing a small handful of the original art that Edward has sent me since starting this Phoenix Masters project. These are fast scans, only cropped with no touchups. While that's a bit crude, it also gives you a sense of how amazing a cartoonist Bolman is. Enjoy! Pretty cool, eh? What if I told you that you could have one of these pieces for yourself? Edward sent me these pieces (and a bunch of others) to be distributed for free with copies of…

On this #HumpdayHutchinsons entry, I think it's wisest to skip the typing and go straight to the video: As you can see, we're going much further than the Hutchinsons, but I'm so thrilled to start with Daryl. His work has been integral to the Joe's Comix projects, but he's been so darned selfless about it! He did the remastering. He did the coloring. All to let Joe's work shine that much brighter. What a great brother. But as we have seen in his older work (perhaps through Meet the Hutchinsons…

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Things have been afoot here in the Phoenix Productions skunkworks, and Phoenix Master Steve Willis is hip-deep in it all. (So what's new?) What it boils down to, at this point, is this photo... While not quite a double rainbow, it's worth asking the ultimate question out of that viral video: What does this mean? For the answer to that, you'll have to wait a little while. Not too long, though... While you're waiting, consider picking up an edition or two of The Collected Cranium Frenzy by Steve Willis…

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We're up to issue five of Noble Head Funnies, the Edward Bolman/J.P. Noel minicomic series that serves as the foundation of the Phoenix Masters Noble Head Funnies collected edition (plus some more!). When I looked through the issue, trying to figure out what to share, one particular page hit me. It was this one: Such classic Bolman. Gentle, subtle...surreal...funny. And Edward specifically asked me to make this the comic that went on the back cover of the compilation. Of course I had to share it! But Noble Head Funnies #5 just overflows with creativity and artistic range.

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The Hutchinson Brothers and I are still buzzing over the great review of Joe's Comix: WILD KINGDOM at Broken Frontier...wow. If you haven't read it yet, go do so. I can't properly express my happiness over a reviewer who really "gets" the wild cartooning of Joe Hutchinson...and then offers appropriate appreciation for the technical work that Daryl Hutchinson put in. But it's #HumpdayHutchinsons time! We're going back to 1987, the heart of the legendary black and white boom. (Hi, TMNT guys!) The level of creative and publishing entrepreneurship was through the roof, and it felt like comic readers (and publishers) were tripping over themselves to read The Next Big Thing.

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Today's #SundaySteveWillis entry has Phoenix Master Steve at the fullest extent of his powers, combining 60s/70s pop culture with his amazing cast of characters (plus a celebrity guest!) and his unmistakable cartooning genius. It's a tale that takes up the entirety of Cranium Frenzy #32...here are the first four pages to whet your appetite, so to speak: ...and this is the "normal" part of the story! (And hello, Sebastian Cabot!) If you want to see the rest - and you do! - you'll need to grab a copy of…

Zine enthusiast Gary Usher kindly took a look at Phoenix Masters Joe & Daryl Hutchinson's Joe's Comix: WILD KINGDOM collection at Broken Frontier, and it looks like he enjoyed it! Joe Hutchinson’s mini-comics also touch on absurdity in a humorous way, but with a horror (or disturbing) element clouding every story. This book, however, is a family affair collecting more than 20 short comics stories by Joe, as well as contributions from two more Hutchinson Brothers. It's a spot-on assessment, especially with respect to the artistic approach that Joe used back in the day.

Today's #NobleHeadFriday entry covers a couple topics, both from Edward Bolman and J.P. Noel's Noble Head Funnies #4. The first is an excerpt that Bolman inserted from his other ongoing series, Nauga Comics. It has elements clearly drawn in the manner of Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, something I'm not sure I've ever seen out of Bolman before. Great stuff, nutty as ever and impeccably drawn. That pointilism, that shading! Wow. Immediately following is this two pager, a little more "standard" for Bolman (as if anything is). Microbes tossing cream pies.

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Today's #HumpdayHutchinsons offering takes us back...waaaaaaaay back...to the opening story of Joe's Comix: WILD KINGDOM! (It also takes us back to the days of the dinosaurs, too.) Here's the unedited scan of Tasty Pioneer, an 8-page minicomic that simultaneously showcases teenage Joe's amazing detail on dinosaur art, his raucous humor and his inclination to show off undeveloped natives. If you got a chuckle from this one, there’s even more! Big brother Daryl remastered every Joe Hutchinson story that we could find related to animals and packed them into a single volume — 

On this (American) Labor Day weekend edition of #SundaySteveWillis, we're lucky enough to have hit Cranium Frenzy #31 - The Sebastian Cabot issue! Let's start with the obvious for anyone...younger than me, most likely! "Who's Sebastian Cabot"? So glad you asked! Per Wikipedia: Charles Sebastian Thomas Cabot (6 July 1918 – 23 August 1977) was a British actor. He is best remembered as the gentleman's gentleman Giles French in the CBS-TV sitcom Family Affair (1966–1971). He was also known for playing the Wazir in the film Kismet…

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One of the challenges in talking about Edward Bolman's cartooning is how to best describe his particular sense of surreality. Well, maybe it's not a challenge for those who are more well-versed in such matters...but to a layman like me, Bolman takes his storytelling to places that I honestly have a hard time describing. And then there's the whole idea of surreality in cartooning (or in art, for that matter). I mean, Steve Willis has his own brand that we've explored in The Collected Cranium Frenzy by Steve Willis and through…

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For this #HumpdayHutchinsons entry, we're looking at the marquee figure for Joe's wild cartooning: Looney Bird! Joe's work is so diverse...yet remarkably consistent...that it was hard to pin down an iconic figure for his body of work. Yet Looney Bird, with that slightly off-center look of his, rose to the top. So here's a tale of Looney Bird, remastered and colored by brother Daryl: Hee hee! Gosh, I love Joe's cartooning. If you got a chuckle from this one, there's even more! Daryl remastered every Joe Hutchinson story (including another…

1. We had some rare irl new arrivals in the mail this last month , including the newest (and possibly last?) issue of Robin Bougie's Gutte...

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Most of the time on these weekly looks at Phoenix Masters like Steve Willis...well, I try to find a good little snippet of a Cranium Frenzy issue and share it. Works even better when the snips are self-contained. Well, issue #30 doesn't fit that bill. It's one big story, and a great one filled with Steve's endearing surreality and wry observations on the world around us. But how do you slice up a 20-page story to give a representative taste? Start at the beginning, I suppose. So let's take a look at the first six pages of…

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I think we've all had enough exposure to Edward Bolman's outstanding cartooning to fully appreciate one of my favorite recurring pieces of Noble Head Funnies: War and Fleas! Here's the first part, appearing in Noble Head Funnies #2: I'm telling you, Tolstoy has nothing on Bolman and J.P. Noel. The product of the combined imaginations of Edward Bolman and his son, J.P. Noel, this excerpt can be found with over 300 other pages of fantastic cartooning in Noble Head Funnies, available right now at bolmancomics.com. Go grab a copy!

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In today's #HumpdayHutchinsons entry, we're celebrating National Dog Day! Here's one of the brothers' "advertisements" - a how-to on how to handle those nasty little canines. Of course, it doesn't go as intended. If it did, would it be a Hutchinson Brothers work? Daryl remastered every Joe Hutchinson story (and advertisements like this!) that we could find related to animals and packed them into a single volume — Joe’s Comix: WILD KINGDOM! 124 pages, colored for the first time in a glorious full magazine-size package. It’s wonderful. A true Phoenix Masters project, to be sure. Dog stories included! Get your copy today, and we'll keep the dogs in the kennel!

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While I'm proud that Phoenix Productions is doing its part to preserve Steve Willis's amazing cartooning for the ages, it's appropriate to note that Phoenix isn't the only person/operation doing this. Rick Bradford, genius behind the Poopsheet Foundation, has dipped his toe into the water once or twice as well. (And he's not the only one!) Rick, of course, was kind enough to write the foreword for The Collected Cranium Frenzy by Steve Willis Volume 4. The man clearly knows his Willis - and Morty - so it makes perfect sense.

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On this #NobleHeadFriday, we're jumping into the back matter of Edward Bolman's amazing collection of cartooning. In addition to the title material, the Noble Head Funnies collection includes a number of extras. One section is the "Soonday Moonday" alphabet, where Edward posts rhymes for a 'Letter-To-A-Page' review of our 26 letters. If you've been anywhere near a toddler over the course of your life, you've probably seen one of these alphabet books. However, you probably have never seen one done in the manner that Edward Bolman (with his son, J.P. Noel?) did his alphabet.

The Phoenix Productions library of Joe & Daryl Hutchinson/Anthrax Press material is reasonably deep, but it's not exhaustive. Every now and then, the guys surprise me with a piece that I've never seen before. And then there are the times when the tables turn. Here's an example - Where's Jimmy? - a lighthearted speculative piece over the mysterious disappearance of the notorious Jimmy Hoffa…

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