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.

Comicon Eats Recommendation

If you make it out to any of the Peninsula Cons, be sure to drive a few miles to the West on Highway 112, and see if these folks have their stand set up. They usually do, in the summer. Check the bottom of the page for their dates and places. They're a happy little independent business who will be happy to see any of you. Their email post is long, but amusing. And their products are YUMMY.

We ARE rolling! Our bake day was TOTALLY successful in all ways ... EVERYTHING turned out beautifully. A more beautiful thing ... and SUCH HELP! ... we finished moving family out here this week, too, making all this possible, and a 3rd generation in training. :)

Reminder:  ALL the bread products are AUTHENTIC sourdough, therefore enzyme rich AND the GLUTEN, PHYTATES, & ENZYME INHIBITORS have been BROKEN DOWN and NEUTRALIZED for easy, human digestion, due to the LONG FERMENTATION PROCESS (most with gluten intolerance can eat this bread) ... AND the fermentation process converts bread into a high protein food, not high carbohydrate. In the Human Longevity film, centurions from Europe said wouldn't think of eating a meal without bread ... bread is their staple ... but it's sourdough, and they don't use glyphosates (RoundUp that "bind proteins") in Europe ... other countries do not have gut issues like Americans do eating bread, and bread is a STAPLE, EATEN WITH EVERY MEAL (sourdough) ... nor do Americans who visit Europe, but Europeans can't come to America and eat our bread (except ours), or they're sick their whole vacation.

AND super important, ALL ingredients are non-GMO, plus authentic sourdough has a LOW GLYCEMIC INDEX of 53, pumpernickel even low of 43 ... conventional bread has a high glycemic index of over 73.

Here's the lineup:

Regular authentic sourdough bread (GOLDEN breads, with turmeric, ginger & pepper, which synergistically work together, are listed below this).

White (many call it "sourdough", but all bread products are sourdough), our MOST POPULAR,Jalapeno/cheddar cheese bread (another super POPULAR bread), Multigrain whole wheat bread (veryhealthy & hearty, fresh-ground org. wheat, fresh-ground FLAX SEEDS which sooooooo good for you, millet, oats, sesame seeds), White (lighter) multigrain whole wheat ... a lighter half & half mix bread (more white flour in the multi-grain whole wheat), Pumpernickel (we also fresh-grind org. rye "berries" into flour, and rye is the best for clean arteries,AND it's made with raw cacao powder, considered a "superfood, onion & garlic), Triple berry "bead pie", Apple "bread pie," Peach "bread pie,", Cinnamon Roll Bread with walnuts and raisins, "Bread pie" individual serving, is back ... Apple, and Triple berry.

GOLDEN (turmeric)* sourdough breads: 

White, Multigrain whole wheat, and Pumpernickel.

"Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food."  

If you don't care for the taste of GOLDEN sourdough breads, make French toast, meatloaf, various sandwiches, egg, tuna, peanut butter & jam, etc etc etc. to hide the taste ... surprisingly delicious ... pumpernickel is already so flavorful, it also hides the taste very well ... but once you get used to it, it's not noticed anymore, even with small kids, just like when we get used to sourdough. My husband HAS To HAVE 2 SLICES first thing in the morning (he loves toast) or  physically hurts too bad to move (super bad back) ... I eat it daily for preventative reasons, one slice does it for me. 

MAINTENANCE daily dose recommendations of TURMERIC is 1,000-3,000 mg, which can be taken daily for a lifetime (remember, "You can take up to 12,000 mg (12 grams) of turmeric per day w/o side effects for curative issues (conservative side says 8 grams)." For CURATIVE, THERAPEUTIC DOSE - required when we have some issues ... for example cancer patients needing quick action, or say, suffering with arthritis pain and you take large dosages ... it acts like a strong painkiller and helps you.  This can go on for some time, but then cut back to preventive dosage as soon as the body is back in shape (see my previous newsletters)

There are 17 slices of bread in a loaf, one slice equivalent to approximately 1,000 mg. of turmeric, though having more power and assimilation than taking it any other way because of the FERMENTATION PROCESS, the predigested sourdough process it's been through. Add butter (or coconut oil for butter), and it assimilates even more. Usually turmeric needs a "carrier oil", too. I don't know if it does when fermented (in sourdough), but we "butter" everything (usually with coconut oil, flax seed oil, pasture fed butter, olive oil ... healthy fats), because we don't get enough "good fat" in the usual American diet.

COOKIES:  ginger, snickerdoodle, peanut butter, chocolate chip, & oatmeal raisin. 

BROWNIES: This (butter) & Jalapeno/cheddar cheese bread is the only product we have that HAS DAIRYin it.  Everything else we use ORGANIC PALM FRUIT SHORTENING. Brownies and cookies are the only things we use eggs in.

PIE ... our pie crust is made with organic palm fruit shortening, unbleached pastry flour & sea salt

9" & "pie pockets" ... triple berry (Marionberry blackberry, raspberry, blueberry), Marionberry blackberry,and apple.

"Stogies" plain AND with WALNUTS ... made out of our pie crust, which is made with organic palm fruit shortening ... like grandma used to do with left over pie dough, roll out, sprinkle with organic evaporated cane sugar & cinnamon ... but we roll them up like cigars then bake them, so they're easy to handle.

Look for the hot pink signs!! ... We'll be...BEing here... with our "bread wagons":

• FRIDAY:  Port Angeles, between Mt. Pleasant IGS & Dave Barnier Auto, about 2950 Hwy. 101, east of PA, 11:00 - 5:00 (Friday only in PA.)
• FRIDAY : Hwy. 112 pull-off, halfway between PA & Joyce, mp 57, 10:30 - 6:00ish
• SATURDAY: Hwy. 112 pull-off again, halfway between PA & Joyce, mp 57 or so, 10:00 - 2:00ish ... he has to leave earlier this week. 

♥In Light*Joy*Love*Gratitude♥

"the bread lady"

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

 

Clallam County "Comicon" a Good Try. And Fun!

On Friday, 24 July, 2015, the North Olympic Library System featured the Clallam County Comicon.

While it wasn't actually what's been referred to traditionally as a "comicon," it was certainly a lot of fun.  It was actually a children's and teens' reading summer reading event.

Being in a library system, which is funded by public taxes, it couldn't allow sales by individual authors or companies - and unlike a sci/fi or fantasy convention, the dealers' area has always been the heart of a comicon. Let's call it a "meet," because everybody, including me, enjoyed meeting the authors and martial artists and cosplayers.

The Library went all out, offering tables covered with activities, including a working electronics-construct model I had a great deal of fun learning. A kid joined me, and we took turns placing the pieces as outlined in the informative booklet. We made LEDs light up and even hooked up a microphone that allowed the LED display objects to respond to our voices.

Of course, the first thing the boy learned from me was: REAL electrical systems can kill you - and burn your house down. Don't worry; kids can take it. He wisely nodded. The other important thing is: put all the pieces back in the box! Losing pieces while working on a project is a major cause for adult swearing (well, okay, I'm the plumber in the household, and LEAKS after fixing are the major cause of adult swearing). 

A little girl came along who wanted to do the next diagram, and I said to the boy: "Okay, I taught you - now you teach her." They looked a bit bemused, but I already know that's the best way to drive lessons into a kids' head. And I'd help, of course. But we didn't have time to do that - the meet was starting!

Wow. Look at all the costumes. A warrior from "Game of Thrones," carrying off the whole attitude that made his cheap materials work, a plausible Dr. Who, and a pirate and fairy in matching green-and-black. That must have been from "Pirate Fairy." 

It WAS a very genre-oriented event, but that would be how librarians think: they need to be able to shelve things. and it's comics' own fault that we don't list our stuff as "adult fiction" and such, so they know where to put it. Right now they manage American graphic novel vs. Manga. One librarian in the NOLS system I met a few months ago thought ALL graphic novels were read right-to-left because she only knew Manga. I don't blame her - it's a huge and growing art form. 

The first event was the martial arts demonstrations. A tall blond man in black turned out to be the dad of the family - and was hilarious, as his wife and kids all demonstrated how a bigger attacker can be made to end up on the ground. It was the best and funniest demo I'd ever seen, and the lessons stuck in my head, anyway. Best of all, they emphasized NOT fighting and NOT hurting the other person - and don't try pressure points on your friends, relatives or pets.

My old friend Dave Lasky was up next on a panel about the Carter Family graphic novel he did the art for, along with Mathhew Holm. Here's the official listing: Matthew Holm (Baby Mouse, Squish) and David Lasky (The Oregon Trail, The Carter Family) will discuss how they became professional comic book artists and authors, and offer insider tips.

After the panel, I went and bothered them both at their signing, by the table where the library featured their books. Linda Medley, the Author (artist/writer/owner) of "Castle Waiting," had come out, too, and we had lots of fun talking about publishing (It's interesting only if you do it, I might add - and then we can get quite geeky about it. Never ask anybody about publishing unless you REALLY want to know).

There were panels on making creature worlds, and a panel on making comic books based on popular TV cartoons, and all the constant niggling over drawing the characters and working the plots exactly as the editor wants to fit into the TV world. About the latter - because this is a blog and not a "newspaper" report, where we have to leave stuff out that may piss off the people who buy ads - I have to admit I leaned over to somebody I knew and said, "Kill me now." She responded with: "They'd better be getting a butt-load of money!"

I was really unhappy when I had to catch the 5:15 bus back to Clallam Bay, because the event went on another hour, but I took what I could. The whole evening was devoted to costuming, and I was really sorry to miss that.

The event was a one-shot, but it made me think seriously about holding one of my dinky old-fashioned conventions in Port Angeles. Why not? There's plenty of geeks showed up at the library event, and they'd love their own comicon.

Okay - caveats? Trying to hold a "comicon" in a library. One of the organizers seemed a bit upset when things got louder and exciting. Comicons are rowdy. No, we don't push each other around, but we don't get to talk to other geeks and nerds very often, especially up here, and in the surrounding rural areas, where nerds have been bullied. My comicon (see link on this page) is helping with that, and Twilight certainly started the ball rolling. But we get a bit excited when we see our own and try to cram in everything we have in a short time.

Second problem: the library actually planned to put the activity tables outside. This is a paper-based event. This is also La Nina year. The rain forced all the activity tables inside, and further added to the noise.

We've already talked about the lack of artists' sales tables, but that couldn't be helped, because it's a public taxed venue. 

BEST thing that happened: I brought a stack of my Desert Peach comics to the meet, for free distribution. Two girls were riveted, and had a short "panel" with me about becoming a comics author. They learned that the HARDEST way was the path I'd chosen - to NOT use other books as models - to solve artistic problems oneself - to NEVER give up one's copyright - and to never give up. It's the best path, though - because in the end, you own everything you've done, and there's nobody else like you. 

Linda Medley's "Castle Waiting" is another example of the Original Author, as is Roberta Gregory's Naughty Bits. 

Oh - and the fact that my books were about a German officer in WWII didn't hurt with teenage girls. There is a huge fascination among them for German soldiers in World War One and Two. I'd thought this was just because of the interest in the WWII German uniforms displayed in Manga, but I've since found out that many girls almost seem - with emphasis on SEEM - to be reincarnations. They're following the same path I took 40 years ago, when I thought I was alone. They want to know the causes of war, and how to stop it. 

While most of the books at the comics meet were sugar - they were, after all, meant for little kids - these girls wanted meat. 

Remember, parents, when your kids get into comics, they may want to think, and think hard.