Phone photo 1942

The shore of the Fetid Lake of Doom

Phone photo 1941

Warning sign by the Fetid Lake of Doom, claiming that this body of water is infested with New Zealand Mud Snails. However, we know this is just a cover. The authorities really want to protect the citizens from caimans, which abound in the Lake during the warm months, but officials are afraid of causing widespread panic if the truth came out. Hence, this little fairy tale to keep people away.

$200 - Fetid Lake of Doom Original Art and Script

The Fetid Lake of Doom original art and script, finished in 2007, $200 ppd.

8 pages of artwork on medium stock paper, 30.5 x 22.5 cm. with perforated spiral binding marks along the right edge (I'm left-handed). Felt tip over nonphoto blue pencil.

The script was actually changed quite a bit in the course of drawing the thing, which is pretty normal for me. What is not normal is that the script still exists! Ballpoint pen on 6 yellow tablet sheets, 28 x 22 cm., lots of crossed out lines.

$200 ppd.
Check or money order to
Steve Willis
PO Box 390
McCleary, WA 98557-0390

Or order through PayPal

Phone photo 1839

Where the Deschutes River empties into the Fetid Lake of Doom at one of the southernmost reaches of Puget Sound, Tumwater, Washington

Phone photo 1834

Deschutes Parkway along the Fetid Lake of Doom

Olympia, Washington

Phone photo 1833

The Fetid Lake of Doom Lagoon

Phone photo 1832

The Fetid Lake of Doom Lagoon

Phone photo 1528

Boat used for capturing caimans in the Fetid Lake of Doom, moored in Tumwater, Washington

Phone photo 1335

The Fetid Lake of Doom one early foggy morning

Phone photo 1334

The Fetid Lake of Doom at early morning 6 am hour fog

Phone photo 917

A refugee from the FLOD.

Phone photo 891

Occupy Olympia tent city at dusk in the shadow of the Legislative Building
Olympia, Washington

This is the same area where Olympia's "Little Hollywood" once floated, before the Fetid Lake of Doom was created.

This scene brings to mind the era of the early 1930s and how Olympia became a rallying point back then. The story of Fred E. Walker is particularly engaging.

Phone photo 882

Olympia, Washington: The Fetid Lake of Doom bordered by the "Isthmus," upon which stands a tall building locals call "The Mistake By the Lake." In the background is Budd Inlet, site of the famous 1976 Sea World whale controversy. Also the former home of the Mothball Fleet.

Phone photo 825

A close-up shot revealing why the Fetid Lake of Doom is called the Fetid Lake of Doom

Phone photo 824

The Fetid Lake of Doom with the Legislative Building on the horizon line

Phone photo 823

Ducks and geese at a side pond off the Fetid Lake of Doom

Phone photo 525

The Helium Lobster
with the Washington State Legislative Building
looming over the Fetid Lake of Doom in the background
Olympia, Washington

Taken on the Isthmus
I got my driver's license on the now abandoned building on the left

A doc who looked like Patty Duke's father gave me shots
on the now abandoned building on the right

OlyBlog T-Shirt

OlyBlog was one of the first community blogs in the country to bill itself as "hyperlocal" when it was started by Rick McKinnon in 2005.

In the early days of the blog we OlyBloggers would meet at the Brotherhood Tavern (locally called the BroHo) in Olympia on occasion. Some of us had a little problem about the caimans in Oly's Capitol Lake and made an issue out of it. I even drew a comic about the sordid affair called Fetid Lake of Doom.

Anway, I drew a logo for OlyBlog using the caiman image about mid-2006. As you can see by perusing through this Morty the Dog blog, drawing giant reptiles has been a theme of mine for years.

OlyBlogger Visudha De Los Santos, a former neighbor of mine here in McCleary, took the logo and produced about 10 or 12 of these shirts. They were distributed at the BroHo in January 2007. The shirt is blue and the logo is white, but my phone photos have sort of changed the color of everything.

The Fetid Lake of Doom

Not exactly a full length story-- more like an extended minicomic in regular digest size, but I guess this qualifies as my most recently published book.

This was originally published as an online work on OlyBlog, April 23, 2007. Rick Bradford's Poopsheet Foundation first brought it into hardcopy in October 2007 with 100 numbered copies.

Right after this was printed by Rick, I pretty much stopped keeping bibliographical track of my comix, lectures, etc. I'm not sure what that means.

A little history here. My friend Rick McKinnon started OlyBlog as a place for citizen journalists covering news in the area of Olympia, Washington in 2005. It was one of the early sites deliberately embracing the concept of "hyperlocal news." Rick asked me to join in the starting days (I'm member # 31) because he wanted two things: 1. A local old guy who knew some of the area's history and 2. Someone who was not deadly serious about politics.

One of the early discussion points in OlyBlog centered on whether or not to return the artificial Capitol Lake to it's original state-- an estuary. I suggested the lake be populated with gators, crocs and caimans to make it more exciting. One thing led to another and the Fetid Lake of Doom was born.

This took me about 8 months to complete, I think. And that's at a faster rate than the comic I'm currently working on!

Also attached is a photo of the real FLOD with the Washington State Legislative Building dome.

Trivia:

Page 1, panel 3. Zach Willis is my nephew. He helped fill in the dark background on the last panel of page 4 when we were on a family visit to Springfield, Oregon.

There is a brief clip of page 5 in progress as part of video documentary on artists balancing their day jobs by Mark Shimada. The USNS Fisher did indeed visit Olympia in late 2005, I think.

Page 6: Rick is, of course, none other than Rick McKinnon. By a coincidence, in real life the FLOD was invaded by the non-native nutria about this same time! Nutria just happen to be one of the crunchy little tidbits caimans down in Latin America love to eat. Beautiful!

Page 7: I used XERK! and QUONK! as sound effects because I realized I had never used comic sounds starting with X or Q before. Both of these completed my Obscuro Comix Sound Effect Dictionary. Fetid Lake of Doom by Steve Willis

Phone photo 66

I was driving on Deschutes Parkway in Olympia this morning and thought I'd get a nice sunrise shot of the Washington State Legislative Building reflected in Capitol Lake. But then I remembered the so-called lake was really a dammed estuary now filled with invasive species such as nutria, some kind of tiny snail, and dangerous caimans-- this body of water is known as the Fetid Lake of Doom, or FLOD to those of us in-the-know. So I took a photo of the road instead.

Actually this is the third Deschutes Parkway. It was first constructed around 1949-1950 when the "lake" was formed. Then the 1965 earthquake, a 6.5 event which I recall was fun, made chunks of the parkway collapse into the water. So it was rebuilt. The 2001 quake (6.8, and not so fun) once again wrecked the road. So it was rebuilt.

Isn't that more interesting than a boring yet-again picture of our capitol dome reflected in the water? I think so.