WHERE AND WHEN WITH DONNA BARR

How To Draw A Horse Right. Youtube.

For any year, just hit the links: Contact me for meetups, panels, etc. donnabarr at gmail dot com.

Emerald city Comicon - I usually attend, at least for a couple days, as a wandering agent. They have something they call an artist's alley, but it's really a dealer's room. 

Squatchcon - April

Olympic Collectible Expo - April

Comic Book Swap Meet - July. Maybe.

Clallam Bay Comicon - Originally July, not operational at this time. BUT - if you want to run your own comicon, you're welcome to use this as template.

Olympic Collectible Expo - October. Not usually.

ShortRun - November 

Forks Raincon - November

Opttacon 2019 - 3 Drawn Book tables!

(Photos with my new smartphone; it doesn't take as good a picture as the IPod - my apologies). 

My Ka-Blam tshirt at another show!
Always go to them for well-priced floppies

Opttacon is over for another year, and I'm already planning for next year. As a Drawn Book author, I have some good news. This year there were THREE drawn book tables.

My table.

These first couple of shots are of course of me wearing my Ka-Blam shirt. They give me $10 print funds every time I do this and then put it up on the internet. 

The next shots are of my good friends at small comic powerhouse, Pugmera Studio. You'll find their good stuff on Instagram! 

They are so together - that screen is just an old television hooked up to a PC laptop. They're fun happy folks, and very supportive of all the shows and drink and draws in Port Angeles.

Woof!

Here is Maureen Heaster, and her adorable book "Hurdles," about dog relay-racing. She draws and paints wonderful cats, too. 

I suggested she do abook about CAT relay-racing and her eyes lit up. At first she thought that wouldn't be possible, but I told her to look up Russian Cat Circuses on YouTube. Cats will do anything for cold-cuts. Who knows what she'll have at the next show?

All of us have been vendors at the Forks RainCon. It's getting to be quite the little nerd network out here!

Last year, Roberta Gregory and I were at one table. From three tables to one- that's a 200% jump! And next year, I'm very honored to have been asked to design the tshirt, so I'm in for 2020. 

No, it's not making a lot of money for comics people yet - but that will come. We're dropping dinged copies into $1 boxes at Anime Kat, to build a market. I'll have to try that at local bookstores, too.

The Entire Dreamery

Jeff Tingelstad, who runs Opttacon, found this nearly pristine collection of The Dreamery on ebay, and dropped it on my table. What a lovely surprise. I will make sure it goes to the San Diego State Special Collections.

Gaming runs late at night, as an entertainment venue. Comics run during the day as a trade show. Opttacon seems to be making it work. 

I've still to figure out how to make optimum use of my travel time but I think with the help of Toadlily Hostel in Port Angeles, in 2020 I'll be there for the right hours.

Anime Kat, one of the sponsors!

Speaking of Anime Kat, here is their boss, Drew. A very together guy and a lot of fun! Anime Kat is nerd central for the Peninsula. Manga, games, general fun. 

Penumbra says there are great drink-and-draws at Studio Bob on Front street. I suggest you contact them on Instagram - and follow them and ask for full details.

I had to get home early on Saturday, so I missed the Tardis extravaganza planned by the co-splayers. I hope that happened! I'm kind of part of the semi-official find-the-cheap-costume-parts team.

Cherry-picked! Authors of Conspire

Cherry-picked Games, that make my favorite game, Conspire. I still want to get my fans together and punch my characters into the game. I'll bet it would work.

The Opttacon table.

Gotta show the Opttacon table itself, covered with donated games for the win contest. Since I had no game to donate, I grabbed the $5 day-old box at Num-Num Donuts. Eveyrbody likes donuts with their games! That's Steve Strout standing guard. Opttacon bought pizza for everybody the first night.

And now: OPTTACON! In all its geeky glory.

FIRST Opttacon - 2018

The show floor - and me earning printing cash

from K-Blam.com - where you want to go for

high-quality POD comics floppies at only about

$1 more than 1980's prices.

What a great show! Held in a convention hall in a beautiful park in Sequim, Washington.

Even though I've been going to entertainment conventions for decades, I never really looked in on the gaming track. Gamers were always quietly concentrating in their own room, I was working my table in the Artists Alley, and Never The Twain. 

I had no idea what fun, happy people gamers were (and smaller bad swab groups like those that caused Gamergate didn't make me eager to know them. Another black mark against those schmucks).

The hall was packed!

What an eye-opening. The gamers were totally welcoming to Roberta Gregory and me, the only comics people at the show. Two of them eagerly listened to how to turn their game into a comic book while avoiding pitfalls and keeping the costs down. Of course I recommended Ka-Blam.com for printing!

I even played a game called Conspire - originally attracted to it because all the players were wearing homemade tinfoil hats. Did we ever have fun! We were the noisiest game in the room because it's a very simple roll-playing game. We started with "Who broke the coffee shop blender?" and ended up involving a stolen meth shipment and the FBI. We were laughing so hard!

(For those of you begging me for years to make a Desert Peach game - just plug the characters into Conspire. You will not be disappointed. I would love to hear from you, and see photos and videos of you playing the Desert Peach Conspire. I wonder if anyone would like me to run one at any of the shows?)

Horses who wanted carrots.

I learned that only the figure-makers in gaming seemed to be able to do horses well. NEXT year - if we're very lucky and all parties are pro-active - there MAY be an actual horse at a horse-drawing class. There are hints the horse will arrive carrying a cosplayer. We shall see!

Congratulations to Port Angeles's own AnimeKat and Jeff Tingelstad for organizing and filling up a bang-up first year gaming convention. 

As a comics person, I advise us all to get in on the action. Roberta made most of the sales, but I was there to connect our two nerd worlds. And I think I was quite successful. 

View across the fields.

So be on the lookout for next year, and all our nerdcons on the Olympic Peninsula, including the Forks Raincon and my own Clallam Bay Comicon.

Roberta and I stayed at a very cool AirBnB just west of Sequim. It's a horse-and-dog rescue farm! And all the animals are spoiled and happy. As usual, the rest of this report is a photo essay. Just to give you a taste!

Roberta on a stroll from the house.

 

Park grounds - viewing pavilion

 

Park pool

Park pool