Window Plants 2020

Sweet potato, potato, black tomato.

With everybody thinking about growing at least some of their own food, I'm posting photos of my window green house.

If anything makes it, it goes outside in a couple plots. 

The peppers are doing surprisingly well. I think these are from seeds one of my readers sent me.

The sweet potato is the one I used to clip starter sprouts from. 

Sweet potatoes, avocado, and ?

No clue. Fan sent it?

The black tomatoes are the continuing generations of tomatoes I rescued from a drie-out plant in a tiny plot at the edge of a small Capitol Hill park.

The avocado won't get much of a life. It's being grown for the leaves, that will be dried and ground for a kind of filé powder. It's related to sassafras.

Next to it is a plant I have no idea about. Another sent in by a reader probably. I'll plant any old thing, labeled or not.

The wild tobacco is mixed with leaves from alder, mint, coltsfoot and raspberry leaves. I have chronic bronchitis. Medicinal smoke helps keep my lungs from tipping into pneumonia.

Sweet potato sprouts, wild tobacco.

The aloe is because we have a wood stove, and if you have one of those, you get burnt once in a while. Grabbing a leaf and squeezing the gel onto the burn sure helps.

It's not a lot of gardening. Most of that is masses of kale in the garden. We cook it in everything, for iron and calcium. Marinated overnight, it makes good salad.

It's about all I can grow up here without a real struggle. Slip point has a cold, dry, salty wind all summer, and is too wet the rest of the year.

Peppers

Hello, fellow brown thumbs in uncooperative environments, everywhere.

North American tobacco

A

Aloe

West window.

COVID 19

Hi, everybody!

I know I've got a lot of information about upcoming conventions, but all of them are only possibilities at this point.

Like Emerald City, the folks who run these conventions are responsible people. They're monitoring the situation.

I expect Olympic Collectible Expo to be at least postponed, because it's in the Kitsap Mall, and is much closer to Seattle, the epicenter of the outbreak in the United States.

There is another event coming up in Port Angeles in early April - that I don't know if I can share yet - and they are monitoring as well.

AnimeKat (the Port Angeles store and nerd central) and OCE on Facebook are the best places to check out what might be happening.

So everybody stay safe, wash your hands, sanitize all surfaces. Let's get through this the best we can.

San Diego Comic Fest 2020

Pam, me and Ka-Blam

The San Diego Comic Fest is a heck of a show! 

Held at Sheraton at 4 Points in San Diego, it makes about 2000 people very happy. Everything about it is classic comicon.

First up is Pam Jackson, Pop Culture Librarian (She got to make up her own title) at the San Diego State University, at my table in the artists alley.

AND me in my Ka-Blam shirt. They are the best drawn-book floppy printer, and only about a dollar more per issue than '80's prices! High quality, friendly and helpful. You can't go wrong with the Blamster.

Girls can do that.

Diana Leto and I ran the "Girls Can't Do That" panel. We were told we had the panel only a week before. There was some scrambling, but we got our art files together, and with my moderator chops and Diana's tech expertise, the panel was fast and furious and funny. Audience member Buzz Dixon told us "this was the best panel" he'd ever attended, and took our picture. Mucho gracias, Buzz!

Mary Fleener did even better with the Underground Panel. Her, me, Roberta Gregory, Trina Robbins, Bruce Simon. QUITE the lineup. Again, well-organized, ran fast. At the end, an audience member threw a wad of cash at Mary and said, "Take everybody to dinner!"

Sketches

That night we hit the Emerald Chinese around the corner from the hotel. The place was full of comicon folks. Drawn book people aren't racist OR stupid. Our table plowed through a mountain of goodies like savage badgers. It was so good!

Stinz

Of course, folks show up for sketches. I did this little drawing of Stinz in a guy's book. And after 30 years, asked myself why a centaur would need a cane. Fashion, of course!

Colleagues!

One of the best reasons for going to SDCF is to meet up with old friends and colleagues. Here we have Roberta Gregory and the Lustigs! 

John is the creator of Last Kiss, an hilarious series based on old romance comics he bought the rights to and provides with smart-alecky word balloons. It's a big hit, and for good reason!

Surf's Up!

This year's theme was The Two Rays - Ray Bradbury and Ray Harryhausen. 

There were crazy old movie posters all over the big panel room. Thanks to the volunteers who put in so much time making it fabulous!

Here we have Robert, on the surfboard of the RatFink installation. It's built of slats and chicken wire and cloth and spray plastic. 

He also built this party-girl Medusa. Who else feels sorry for the Gorgon? She was just minding her own business when a guy showed up and cut her head off.

The art of war.

Robert gives her a Miss Comic Fest banner AND a glass of wine! She's one of the gang, now.

Appropriate headgear.

Here's Robert with an absolutely fabulous samurai warrior. A fully home-made costume. Cosplay amazes me.  These people turn out the greatest outfits.

Spider Cool

The guy in the samurai costume makes a different helmet crest for each event. They're plastics - he must be running them off a 3-D printer. I wish I'd asked.

We can't have a comicon this year without the Spiderverse. This cosplayers's outfit matches the carpet!

Finally, a starry character from a comic book I should know. Whatever it is, it's grand. It's covered with tiny fairy lights.

That's all I had time to photograph this year - there was so much going on!

If you get a chance, head to the SDCF. It's worth it. 

See you next year!

ShortRun 2019 Powerhouse

I can only share one photo because I simply didn't have time to take any more!

Bruce Simon and Me - I told him all
about Ka-Blam, the best floppy printers
for the best prices.

Never in all my years going to hundreds of conventions has the floor been hotter. 4,000 people crowded into the Fisher Pavilion in the Seattle Center, and they were there to BUY. They wanted books, tshirts, facetime - they were in the moment, and ready to party. Thank Goodness my Square reader was working!

The photo is of Hoo-Hah publisher Bruce Simon, who offered, among other books, a truly well-done collection of the classic Out Our Way cartoons from the 1930's. We got on so well we've shaken hands on sharing a table next year, if ShortRun will have us both back! 

I told him he MUST submit the Out Our Way books to the Pulitzers this year, in the publisher category. The books meet all their criteria, especially being a very well-done collection of a wonderful American series.

He came up from Berkeley, and was unprepared in a number of the business points of running a table at a show, because - according to him - the comics scene in San Francisco is badly faded. 

I told him to run right over to this site and look up the Clallam Bay Comicon and start the process of running his own one-person minicon. The secret to this is, after about seven years of what is really quite easily organized, somebody else will want to take it over and expand it, as happened with the CBCC, which has morphed into the Forks RainCon. 

So, anybody in Berkeley or environs who wants to help out, look up the book on Amazon,* where there's always a contact email block.

*(I'm sorry for that - so many of us put our books on Amazon before it went asshole).

I missed the afterparty again because I was just so exhausted. I have a lung infection, and am on antibiotics. So I can't drink anyway! I should have just made up my mind to Uber* home, but I'd only used Uber once, and my brain was fried from the intense show. 

**(AND I will have to transfer to Lyft, because Uber's CEO is calling the murder of a journalist by his Saudi shareholders a "mistake." We know what Friends' Rachel had to say about mistakes. Which is sad, because I really like Uber.)

I did make it to the Fantagraphics afterparty Sunday evening, which featured an interesting music/animation from Berlin.

Sunday, there were two great ShortRun events downtown and on Capitol Hill, featuring Shortrun authors. And did I just pick up an opportunity to talk at the University of Washington? We'll see.

ANYWAY, I was dreading the bus ride back home on Monday, but not because it was a bus ride- Clallam County Busses are fabulous - but because it was Veteran's Day (Properly called Armistice Day, before America got mad about losing the Korean War), and rural areas get stupid. 

BUT - it turned into an opportunity to POSSIBLY start the gay pride festival in Port Angeles. I can't share how, because it's Somebody Else's Story.

But I can share how I walked by the old vets selling vet stuff in front of the Safeway and said, "We're going to try to have a gay pride parade in Port Angeles." 

Their answer? "All RIGHT!"

I will certainly be back to ShortRun next year, especially if I can run at least a quarter table. That's a privilege.  

NFReads Interview With Me

Originally, said, "No politics, no religion," but that would leave me right out! So Tony added my foreword, and everything's kopacetic. 

As you can see, I don't think much about the process of creativity: I just do it. 

NFReads interview with me.

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.

If Your Fans Are Happy...

San Diego Comicon. My publisher and I open a box of books we'd received just in time for the show. Because our printer was always perfect and pristine, this is the ONE time we didn't ask for a proof copy, in order to make the show deadline.

This was in the days of paper layout. We literally waxed certain elements into place. As we pulled the first copy of the book from the box, we saw – the waxed title logo had fallen off the front cover, and the book had been printed without its title. It had shipped all over the world AND IT HAD NO TITLE.

This was a Desert Peach issue dealing with rape in the military. The cover art I had done was graphic and frightening. Staring in horror at the book with no name, we looked up to see the first approaching fan. With a copy of this book in his hand. We braced ourselves. The fan lifted the book, and said, in awe:

“This is so profound. You let Donna's artwork speak for itself.”

While I was still standing there with my eyeballs and tongue stuck in place, my editor responded – cool as a copperhead:

“Yes, it was a difficult artistic decision, but I trust Donna in her vision.”

I jumped right in and pretended along with him. I am still in awe of his quick thinking and outright gall.

Do I have to tell anyone my publisher – as a child in Texas – went to cotillion?

What we learned: if the fans think whatever you do is wonderful, agree with them. It doesn't matter if you've made a mistake. If they're happy, say Thank You and pretend you meant to do that.