Small But Fierce - 2015 Clallam Bay Comicon Con Report

The press release I sent out to my media list. I know other attendees are going to be putting up reports. Links welcome!

Here's one from Dara Korra'ti - a real beauty, with much better photos. 

Dara Korra'ti, Angela Highland, Charcoal Brown, Roberta Gregory, 

Bruce Taylor, Donna Barr. and Pierre Richard. 

CLALLAM BAY, WASHINGTON - The Fourth Annual 2015 Clallam Bay Comicon was small in size, but intense in spirit.

Held in the Lion's Club hall in Clallam Bay, Washington, July 11-12, with free admission, the convention was constantly abuzz with fans and newcomers talking directly to and buying from authors, or attending round-table panels and art classes.

Friday night - the Soul Ducks add a little
slice of Mardi Gras.

All of the panels were well-attended, and most of them were interactive.

Linda Medley, whose classic and beautiful comics series "Castle Waiting" has continued for many years, graciously allowed other artists and fans to play with her selection of jewel-like ink pens and nibs.

Roberta Gregory, beloved author of "Naughty Bits," offered her "True Cat Toons" book at her table, and taught children and adults how to draw cats.

Breakfast at the convention B&B -
the Winter's Summer Inn.

Donna Barr, known for "The Desert Peach" and "Stinz," did an instructional on the correct drawing of horses. This panel and Gregory's were filmed by Pierre Richard, for later sharing on the internet.

Dara Korra'ti, of the band "Crime and the Forces of Evil," bravely used the comicon to launch recently-composed songs - "I wrote this one last Thursday!" - much to the enjoyment of the whole hall.

We almost lost Dara at the parade!

She also offered a panel on starting the kind of geekmusic festival she launched at the long-running sci/fi/fantasy convention Norwescon. This very busy and energetic woman added a third panel on writing music, specifically the very entertaining supervillain songs.

Angela Highland taught a fun and informative panel on how to self-publish a manuscript.

Portfolio review by industry professionals helped new artists channel their future work and polish their work habits.

The Saturday night fish-n-chip blowout.

The show-goers enjoyed events at Clallam Bay/Sekiu Fundays, including a fair, parade and Saturday's spectactular annual fireworks in Sekiu. They also enjoyed fish-n-chip feasts at the Clallam Bay Inn. Attendees even bought fresh-caught salmon at Jack Mackerel's Fish Company, to take back home after the show.

Here's Dara Korra'ti's film of Donna Barr, setting off one of the little rockets she found earlier buried in their package at the Slip Point beach with July 4th fireworks debris.  See what you get if you clean beaches? GOODIES!

Peach Flambe - in her fancy new Unique Junque jacket - sets off one, too.

Saturday fireworks. Dara Korra'ti © 2015

Note to fireworks attendees - the ashes of the recently deceased whose families want to honor them are placed in one of the fireworks. That giant, gorgeous gold burst with the lavender and white after-bursts? That was the one. What a way to go. 

We were far enough away not to get cordite and - other things - in our hair. That's what happened at the following week's Quileute days. I don't know if folks in LaPush put people remains in their fireworks. That may just be a Sekiu thang; I WAS under the fireworks the first time they did that, so me and the whole town got touched by the deceased owner of the Breakwater Restaurant. 

I'd like to thank Pierre L. Richard for the film of me showing everybody how to draw a horse. The link is at the right there, but here is is again, embedded from the YouTube Site:



Even better is Roberta Gregory's How To Draw Cats, also filmed by Mr. Richard:



Speaking of films: admittedly, the film festival kind of fell apart - you can't do films along with everybody going to fireworks. We're not big enough for overlapping events, yet. Somebody started to show a film with Alan Arkin and Christopher Lee as superhero/villain: "The Return of Captain Invincible." I need to get that from the library - or request it. They've got Osu's films, so why not this? Well, darn, they don't. Gotta get it into the system!

The Three Sisters Art Gallery featured bands each night. After traveling in, nobody had the gumption Friday night to really dance when the beloved Soul Ducks - "Down and dirty mud-wallow blues" - hit the floor. Well, the Canadians, after days of travel, blew into town and still wanted to party, but Canucks are hard to stop. Saturday night was the bluegrass band "Loose Gravel," but we were all over stumbling around on the beach in the dark, watching fire in the sky.

Always good to patronize local businesses: The Sunsets West Co-Op offered health-conscious foods for attendees with health concerns. Unique Junque sold inexpensive and warm and fashionable sweaters and jackets to attendees who had come in from much warmer places, and needed cozy clothes on this rainy summer weekend.

General notes for next year: The Clallam Bay Comicon is a classic comicon -  concentrating on independent productions of books, music and film. It has hopes that a small independent film producer may have DVDs at the show in 2016.

Steve Strout's comicom in Chimikum, and the North Olympic Library System's free mini-con on July 24 in the Port Angeles library main branch, are just two examples of small conventions that are building what is affectionately known as "geek culture" on Washington State's Olympic Peninsula.

The 2016 Clallam Bay Comicon is already in the works. Details available soon in full at the link at www.donnabarr.com - which encourages people who would like to run the same kind of show to use this model. There is no charge for using or sharing the model.

Original show links: 2015 Clallam Bay Comicon

Full Link: 

http://donnabarr.blogspot.com/2014/07/2015-clallam-bay-comicon.html