Lorin Morgan-Richards

I grew up in a converted one‑room schoolhouse in Beebetown, Ohio. My mother, a student of fine art, taught me how to draw and how to compose music on our family’s pump organ. We kept several animals, including twenty odd cats, many of which appeared in my early drawings and stories. My fascination with Native American history and the American West began when I was very young. In second grade, I was diagnosed with dyslexia, but by my early teens I had become an avid reader thanks to nonsense authors like Edward Lear. When I was fifteen, I wrote and produced my first short film. From 1993–2003, I earned my A.A. in Liberal Arts from Cuyahoga Community College.

During my time at Cuyahoga Community College, I became involved in theatre, dance, and experimental performance. I collaborated with artist Textbeak, composed synth‑based pieces for modern dance, and eventually moved to Lakewood, Ohio. In 1999, I released my solo album ENKI, which I adapted into a live performance inspired by Zecharia Sitchin’s The Twelfth Planet.

In 2001, while living in New York City and working at Caroline Distribution/Astralwerks Records, I produced An Occurrence Remembered, a metaphysical war‑themed performance influenced by Ambrose Bierce. It premiered in New York City the week of 9/11. Even though the production took a financial loss, my team and I agreed to carry on for the emotional support the show could offer during a difficult time.

I moved to Los Angeles in 2002, and shortly after worked at the Southwest Museum of the American Indian while completing my B.A. in Cultural Anthropology at California State University, Los Angeles, specializing in Native American studies. Here, I took a creative writing course and delved into folklore, that generated my first bits of poetry and storytelling.

My first book, Simon Snootle and Other Small Stories, was published in 2009, followed by A Boy Born from Mold and Other Delectable Morsels in 2010. Stylistically, it has always been pencil and ink, and my writing often blends dark satire with environmental themes and societal pressures.

I founded A Raven Above Press to publish my illustrated works and to support authors and artists of Celtic and Native American backgrounds. Through the press, I also organized cultural events—most notably the Los Angeles St. David’s Day Festival, founded in 2013. I launched Celtic Family Magazine in August 2013 and served as its publisher until the magazine went on hiatus in 2017. My press also produced a series of collaborative books for Welsh festivals, often working with both American and Welsh artists, including Ruth Jên, Siobhan Owen, Monica Richards, Nichola and Sarah Hope, and Nathan Wyburn.

My 2012 Western novel Me’ma and the Great Mountain introduced a few new characters named the Goodbye Family, and during this time, I hand‑bound limited editions of my books because I wanted to create volumes that “last for generations.”

From 2015–2018, I ran two weekly comic strips—The Goodbye Family and The Noodle Rut—and in 2016 I won the Official Tasty Nugget Award for my illustrated story Sad Lost Doll.

My work has been syndicated on Tapas and shared widely through my social media channels. In 2021, I created The Goodbye Family: The Animated Series which received recognition including being listed among the top ten best animated TV series of 2022 by Vulture/New York Magazine.

On August 21, 2024, I screened my first animated short film, Poor Poor Eldon, privately at the J. Paul Getty Museum for the Getty Underground program. The film officially premiered on April 1, 2025, at the Beverly Hills Film Festival, where I served as producer, director, and animator. The score was composed and performed by Joshua Kovarik and Textbeak.

My second animated short,The Decline and Fall of Holly Dew and Walter Melon, scored by Textbeak and Kovarik, began its festival run in late 2025 with a public release the following year.

With the success of my Weird West series, I’ve continued to expand the universe, releasing near‑annual comic collections devoted to the Goodbye Family. In early 2020, I released my second Goodbye Family novel, The Goodbye Family and the Great Mountain.

Alongside my books and films, I’ve directed and produced several documentary shorts exploring American Frontier history called Biographies of the West which has been available in schools across the United States.

Native American Involvement

My interest in Native American history deepened when, in childhood, I noticed a textbook photo of Custer being praised juxtaposed with an image of Miniconjou Chief Spotted Elk (Big Foot) lying dead in the snow at Wounded Knee—and realized the story was incomplete.

Between 2008 and 2012, I partnered with Native leaders and Indigenous organizations in Los Angeles to create Bringing the Circle Together, a free monthly film series at the Japanese American National Museum. The series showcased documentaries by and about Indigenous communities and featured cultural demonstrations and guest speakers such as Makana, Saginaw Grant, Douglas Miles, and Blase Bonpane. One of our landmark events occurred on February 25, 2010, when representatives of the Southern and Northern Ioway Tribes joined Tongva leaders—marking a historic first meeting between Midwestern and Southern California Native Nations within our series.

My involvement in the Welsh‑American community expanded after the Welsh Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles closed in 2012. I had previously helped coordinate an Eisteddfod at Barnsdall Art Park in 2011, and I felt compelled to create a new cultural gathering place.

This led me to establish the Los Angeles St. David’s Day Festival, first held on March 1, 2013, with singer‑harpist Siobhan Owen as the headliner. Around the same time, I launched Celtic Family Magazine, which reached readers nationally in both print and digital formats.

Imperfectualism

In 2020, under the pen name Marcil d’Hirson Garron, I published Imperfectualism, a treatise defining art that cannot be easily replicated by machine. The philosophy encourages slowing automation through creativity. The work draws on automatic drawing and is influenced by the Dadaists and Surrealists.

In relation to my art, I often say:

“My imagination helps see the past come to life as if watching a theater production put on by spirits.”

Bibliography (selected)

  • Simon Snootle and Other Small Stories (2009)
  • A Boy Born from Mold and Other Delectable Morsels (2010)
  • A Little Hard to Swallow (2010)
  • A Welsh Alphabet (2010), with notes by Peter Anthony Freeman (collaborative)
  • The Terribly Mini Monster Book & a Lesser Known Story About a Rare Benign Belbow(2011)
  • Me’ma and the Great Mountain (2012), foreword by Corine Fairbanks
  • Welsh in the Old West (2015), foreword by Jude Johnson (collaborative)
  • Dark Letter Days: Collected Works (2016)
  • The Night Speaks to Me: A Posthumous Account of Jim Morrison (2016)
  • The People of Turtle Island: Book One (2016)
  • The Dreaded Summons and Other Misplaced Bills (2017)
  • Imperfectualism (2020)
  • The Goodbye Family and the Great Mountain(2020), foreword by Richard‑Lael Lillard

Comics & Graphic Collections (selected)

  • 13 Disturbing Postcards to Send to Your Grandparents (2010)
  • Memento Mori: The Goodbye Family Album(2017)
  • Wanted: Dead or Alive… but not stinkin’(2017)
  • The Goodbye Family Unveiled (2017)
  • Down West (2018)
  • Nicklesworth: Featuring the Goodbye Family(2018)
  • Gallows Humor: Hangin’ with the Goodbye Family (2018)
  • Dead Man’s Hand‑kerchief (2019)
  • The Importance of Being Otis (2019)
  • Yippee Ki‑Yayenne Mother Pepper (2019)
  • Pyridine’s Fancy (2020)
  • Keeping up with the Boneses (2020)
  • Family Messings (2021)
  • It’s Your Funeral (2022)
  • It Came From the Outhouse (2024)
  • The Good, the Bad, and the Fugly (2025)

Comics Volumes (selected)

  • The Goodbye Family Jewels: Volume 1 (2020)

As Illustrator Only

  • The Pied Piper of Hamelin (2012), by Robert Browning; colorized by J.A. Pringles
  • Plop the Raindrop (2013), by Kevin Alan Richards

As Writer Only (Collaborative Art Books)

  • A Seers Guide to the Haunted Labyrinth(2012), curated by Brian A. Kenny
  • Voices Lleisiau (2023), curated by Nichola Hope, Dan Langford, and Wales Week/London

Web Stories (original selections)

  • Sal the Silverfish (2016)
  • The Overcooked Tater Tot (2016)
  • The Sad Lost Doll (2016)
  • The Tiny Adventure of Hairball Man (2016)
  • 12 Days of Krampus (2016)

“Now That’s a Silly Goose” (Classics Illustrated)

  • Jack and the Beanstalk (2020)
  • Aesop’s Fables (2020)

Solo Studio Albums

  • ENKI (1999)
  • An Occurrence Remembered (2001)
  • We See But Dimly (2002)
  • Orpheus (2010)

Compilation Appearances

  • Notes From Thee Real Underground IV (2001, Underground, Inc.)
  • Mutations: Tribute to Alice Cooper (2002, Underground, Inc.)

Audiobooks (as author; various narrators)

  • A Boy Born from Mold and Other Delectable Morsels (2010) – read by Jason Shepherd
  • Simon Snootle and Other Small Stories (2012) – read by Jason Shepherd
  • A Welsh Alphabet (2012) – read by Jason Shepherd
  • The Dreaded Summons and Other Misplaced Bills (2018) – read by Jason Shepherd
  • The Goodbye Family and the Great Mountain(2022) – read and foreword by Richard‑Lael Lillard
  • Me’ma and the Great Mountain (2023) – read by Jessica Rose Felix

Collaborative Releases

  • The Goodbye Family (EP, 2021) – produced/mixed by Chopper Franklin; lyrics by Morgan‑Richards; vocals by Mather Louth; music by Heathen Apostles (Ratchet Blade Records)
  • Gothic Western Haunt (Single, 2023) – same collaborators (Ratchet Blade Records)

Documentaries (Shorts)

  • Do Ye the Little Things in Life: St. David’s Day Festival—National Day of Wales 2013 (2013) – featuring Siobhan Owen
  • The Mari Lwyd (2021)
  • Celt: Live in Hollywood (2022) – featuring Meinir Gwilym (recorded at the 2014 festival)

Animated & Fiction

  • Poor Poor Eldon (2025) – writer, director, executive producer, animator; “An Imperfectualism Film”; music by Textbeak and Joshua Kovarik; world premiere April 1, 2025, Beverly Hills Film Festival
  • The Decline and Fall of Holly Dew and Walter Melon (2026) – writer, director, executive producer, animator; music by Textbeak and Joshua Kovarik; world premiere April 18, 2026, Beverly Hills Film Festival

Television

  • The Gentleman Psychic (episodes include: “Jim Morrison Occultist Poet,” “Addams Family Walking Tour,” “Vampira”)
  • The Goodbye Family: The Animated Series(2021–present) – writer, director, executive producer, animator; characters include Otis, Kepla, Reverend Moustache, Barry Dingle, among others
  • Biographies of the West (2020–present) – television docuseries written, produced, and colorized by Morgan‑Richards
  • Lower (2010)