Phone photo 1892

Willapa Bay and Tokeland as seen from Bruceport, Washington

McCleary, Washington Does Not Exist!

According to this map in the 2010 Traveler's Companion : the Definitive Guide to Southwest Washington and Northwest Oregon, my town does not exist!

I have circled where McCleary is supposed to be. Apparently our town exists in another dimension. Actually that might explain a few things. On the highest point in the road between Oly and the beach, I've always said we are in that narrow Twilight Zone where the Aberdeen and Olympia spheres of influence don't quite touch.

Actually there are quite a few other towns missing, including Oakville, Satsop, Brady, Cosmopolis, Bezango, Cathlamet, Tokeland, Humptulips, Bucoda, Rainier, and many more.

From Tokeland to Topeka

John E. is a Kansas-based artist of all trades. Writer, musician, painter, and fortunately for us, cartoonist. In the Newave heyday, he had a comix anthology serial featuring various cartoonists called Mumbles. Today he is better known by his full name, John Eberly.

This jam was conducted through the mail. I published 60 copies in 1985, and I believe they were on ivory colored card stock. As far as I know, it has never been reprinted.

The resulting book was one of the more unusual specimens I've published. The folded product measures 11 x 7 cm. There are no staples as the entire comic is one folded sheet. Two 7 cm. cuts were made perpendicular to the center of the shorter border of the letter-sized paper.

I've included scans of both sides of the unfolded sheet, as well as a phone photo of the minicomic itself to illustrate the oddness of the collation.

Hitchhiking was a more common way for us young guys to see the country in the 1970s than it is today. John and I recorded a few of the pitfalls of this mode of travel. The Hole Man was my nod to our fellow Newaver, the most excellent cartoonist Par Holman of Sandy, Utah.

Tokeland, by the way, is a small community on the Washington coast. It is home to our state's oldest hotel, the Tokeland Hotel. I've stayed there several times. The word "funky" comes to mind when I think of the place. It has a ghost, and for awhile a cat named Hunter (pictured here) who would "knock" on your door, strut right in, and let you know you were staying there at his pleasure. Tokeland is very vulnerable to rising ocean levels.

Anyway, I always thought this was a charming little work and one of the better jams I've had the pleasure to be part of.