Phone photo 3065

A nutria on the shores of the Fetid Lake of Doom, Olympia, Washington

Phone photo 3064

A nutria on the shores of the Fetid Lake of Doom, Olympia, Washington

Phone photo 3061

A nutria on the shores of the Fetid Lake of Doom, Olympia, Washington

Morty Comix # 2633

Morty Comix # 2633 was left at a public area on the shore of the Fetid Lake of Doom, Olympia/Tumwater, Washington as another invasive species. As you can see the Legislative Building looms in the background.

Finding a place to stash this comic was not easy. At first I tried to put it behind a giant warning sign but didn't like that spot.

Then finally I crammed it into a slot behind the LAKE CLOSED ... sign where I figured it would be more shielded from the elements.

The FLOD has nutria and caimans swimming around in it, but it was the tiny New Zealand Mud Snail that "closed" the Lake. OK, in the first place, this lake was an estuary until the Post-War era, when humans dammed it up, creating this fetid polluted pool of slime that you see above. Now I ask you, just who is the real "invasive" species here? And who is to say New Zealand Mud Snails are not part of nature's plan?

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.