SquatchCon Port Angeles 2023

SquatchCon is Port Angeles's very first comicon. This is me with my Ka-Blam tshirt and some of the first cosplayers to show up, on Thursday. Ka-blam is the best print on demand company, especially for floppy comics, with almost 80's prices!

SquatchCon cosplayers

It was crazy. There are photos all over social media of this event. The tables sold and number of attendees, including for panels - including very professional cosplay - were like for a six-year-old con. In it's first year, it outgrew its space bigtime. I ended having a double title: SquatchCon Outreach AND Fairy Godmother. I am all over this thing, having the time of my life.

This is what the organizers say: “So weirdly enough, we're going to be looking for another venue for Squatchcon after all. Between the outdoor issues and hallway crowding, the building owner felt that it was literally too successful for our space. Stay tuned!”

Next year, the convention plans to split into two simultaneous events, SquatchCon, and NerdCon. Who plan to have bowling leagues and a playoff during the convention.

You gotta attend in 2023.

That first night, we had Drink and Draw at Bob's Studio. 

I was able to give this one to the cosplayer. He loved it.

Emerald City Comicon 2021 - MEET UP and UPDATES

This post will be updated as scheduling comes in.

Will Emerald City Comicon 2021 - December 2-5 - happen? Do we know? Since we can't, I got me a 4-day pro badge anyway. They're not expensive, so Just In Case works.

I'll be in Seattle for four days - Thursday afternoon, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The first two days, I'm staying away from the convention, because, you know, COVID. So Thursday and Friday, if you don't do the convention, we can say hi in person! I'll be organizing meet-ups, parties, and listing events, whether they're part of ECCC or no. I go home Monday morning.

If you have any event you'd like me to attend, or a dinner, or a party, let's list it here, so I can get really organized.

See you in December! OOH, Christmas decorations.

I Want To Come Back As One Of My Cats

Jim, Yellow Bear, and 
Teeny Puppy. Buried with him.

 (As of August 13, 2021, Jim has passed away. He was a tough old guy, and went quietly).

Back in 2007, we rescued an abandoned cat. 

His name was Jim.

He was already a full-grown cat when we got him, so in 2021, he was at least 20.

BUT - his weight was good, and he was happy.

True, his pupils didn't expand or shrink at the same time or rate, and at night he wandered the house yelling, with a stuffed toy named Yellow Bear in his mouth, all of which signaled dementia. Well, I don't know if Yellow Bear was part of that, but he participated.

Jim had some kind of large mass in his belly - possibly in his spleen or liver - but he was too old to have an operation, and the vet didn't think she could reach it anyway. 

He loved to sleep under his red light by the stove.

We kept him home until he passes away, very quietly, lying on comforters next to the stove.

Till the last hours, when he called for us, we were there for him. He even purred.

In our house, we have a saying: "I want to come back as one of my cats."

We should all end up so good.

Easter Eggs To Me?

This is getting odd. It's one thing to see story ideas or characters that resemble each other, because there's been a lot of genre-borrowing over the centuries.

And then there's some very specific stuff that is so oddly the same you start to wonder.

My comics, The Desert Peach, and Stinz, have had a world-wide audience for years. I'm beginning to wonder if other creatives who know my work - especially writers in much more recent film and animation - are throwing little Easter Eggs to me. I would be so delighted if they were.

I can't prove this. Just take a look and think about it.

ZOOTOPIA: There are a bunch of stupid wolves guarding the secret project. In Stinz, there are a bunch of bachelor wolves my fans call The Stupid Wolves. They even look somewhat like the ones in Zootopia - and they're about as bright. 

I wouldn't think that was enough to prove those are my images - but look at the secret installation on the lake with its causeway, and then look at the mill and the mill-race in Stinz. The two things together have me wondering. What do you think?

THE HATEFUL EIGHT: This is really an oddly one. In Tarantino's movie, Sam Jackson shows up as a man who famously served in the Union army as a Major. So he's the Black Major. That's just one point - but his old enemies have a ransom on his aging head? Stinz was the Black Major - and had a ransom on him. And had gotten old.

FROZEN: I know there's a reindeer in the original Snow Queen. But the role of the reindeer and the person who rides him is much more like Udo and his reindeer in The Desert Peach. What do you think about that in addition to the birch trees?

THE GOOD LIAR: This one is sensitive. First and foremost, the REAL bad guys in that movie are the Nazis, that screw up two families SO BAD. 

"Taub" is commonly a Jewish name in Germany. Jews who were officially Germans - yes, the Nazis took over the roll of the Rabbis in saying who was Jewish - served in the German army. They could visit their official Jewish relatives in camps before the war started, and all access were closed to the camps, which were then devoted to extermination. 

Taub's relatives seem to have already died in the camps. This is a weird complex idea, and you see it in The Desert Peach, between Udo and Leutnant Winzig.

It's what makes the movie even more horrible. I'm not saying anybody saw this - because this kind of stuff happened all the time. 

There you go. If these are coincidences, so be it. But if they're Easter Eggs - thanks, guys! 

Final note: one Stinz character is the village blacksmith. He has a pet black rooster who is really a demon. One of the woodcutters up here has a pet red rooster who follows him everywhere. 

Both birds are named "Chicken."

CONTACT ME

Instagram: donna_barr_herself

Facebook and Messenger

Twitter
 

Email: donnabarr01 at gmail dot com

Zoom Meetings

I run 1-hour Zoom meet-ups, mostly for learning music, having a drink with friends to loosen up, just having fun.

I may occasionally run other sorts of art-related Zooms.

Nothing fancy, no pressure. Show off or ask for advice. Questions welcome.

If you want to see if I'm running any meetings, contact me any of the social media and email addresses on this site.

First digital on the new Acer

My very first digital drawing on my new Acer Spin 2-in-1, "Janis."

It still looks like my stuff. I have a tendency to use traditional techniques, even on the most high-tech machines.

This was done on the little Paint program that came with the puter. For learning purposes, it's perfect. Got me working with automatic hand movements very quickly. 

Not a lot of brushes or colors - but what do we usually have on our drawing table, anyway? You know it's just that little cup full of brushes and markers and sometimes scissors or a screwdriver).

Paint doesn't have layers or anything (although it DOES have a kind of 3-D option. Hm. I see the next thing I'll have to do is figure out the keyboard options for emojis. 😁 And now I have).

I want to finish up a project that's been having problems, and I haven't got a scanner yet. I had been using the library scanner, but welcome to the New Normal. That's going to be resolved soon, I hope (Thank the Spirits).

I seldom print out anything because - well, why else have a puter if you're going to be piling up dead tree scraps on your real desktop? The only reason I want to see anything Real is if I do a commission or send a fancy postcard to a Patreon.

I'm getting over an injured neck - thanks to the help of a good neighbor - and I want to give my neck one more day to heal. I think I just rolled over wrong in my sleep.

This little Windows computer shows a huge improvement over my expectations of 10 years ago (TTS). If you want a nice little computer for basic needs and a pretty nice tablet, all for about $700, you could do worse than an Acer Spin.