Meeting Notes, July 1990-Sept. 1991

Today I've been weeding through my books and in the process ran across a notebook I kept of work related meeting notes from July 1990 to September 1991.

This was a time period when the Washington State agency I worked for had converted into a private nonprofit corporation (only the 2nd such instance in the history of Washington). After privatization in July 1990 I was promoted to a position where I managed anywhere between 12 to 20 people at any given time. This was a bibliographic utility called WLN (now extinct since around 1999/2000) and I kept copious notes of every meeting. For anyone interested in the history of online library services in the Pacific Northwest, or in the topic of public to private conversion, this notebook might be a valuable primary document.

WLN (originally called the Washington Library Network, then Western Library Network, and finally just WLN) was a great place to work and we had an excellent set of products and top notch crew of dedicated people. Even so, I was recruited and lured away by South Puget Sound Community College in Olympia, Washington in September 1991 where I worked as a librarian and member of the faculty. WLN was the hardest job I ever left, but in the long run it turned out to be a good decision.

Anyway, I noticed while looking through these notes that there were a lot of illuminations. Almost all of them in pencil (sorry, I know many are difficult to see). Contrary to being distracted, we cartoonists actually listen and think better while moving our drawing hands around. Non-cartoonists think we're goofing off, but actually we are processing what we are hearing through our special comix-vision. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

During the second half of the time period covered here I revived City Limits Gazette. Some of the drawings seem like the very beginnings of comic ideas that were later fully developed and published, such as Tulpa and State of Beings # 2.

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Wildcat Creek
McCleary, Washington

A look at Lighten Up! by Joe Sumrall

Above: samples from Joe's book.

Although this title is no longer available from Bear & Company, I thought I'd give it a rare review in this blog. Sarah managed to track down a copy of Joe Sumrall's Lighten Up! : a Book of Enlightened Humor (1990) and I just finished giving it a read.

Sumrall has been mentioned earlier in this blog. My fellow local cartoonist was murdered almost two decades ago and this case remains unsolved. He should not be forgotten.

In Lighten Up!, Sumrall employs a fairly traditional cartoon drawing style. He uses lots of shading film and has a careful line style in his chiefly one-panel gags. You don't sense this guy is really cutting loose and getting wacky.

But the subject matter he covers is far from conventional. Joe intended his cartoons to be enjoyed by an audience familiar with some basic New Age premises. In 1990 this group was a much smaller subculture than it is today. It is also not a movement that strikes me as having a great sense of humor, and I can't help but wonder if Sumrall's attempt to bridge cartoon gag comedy with the spiritually esoteric was frowned upon by those who were attempting to institutionalize these philosophies into cults or profitable ventures. Such charlatans don't mind being the object of scorn, but being laughed at is another matter.

The closest work I can compare this to is the film Stuart Saves His Family by Al Franken. By poking fun at a take-themselves-serious subculture from within (in Franken's case, the 12-step movement), an awkward dynamic takes place that requires an acquired taste.

Lighten Up! stands as an oddity in the cartoon world, which makes it all the more interesting to read. But not in funny har-de-har-har way.

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Wildcat Creek
McCleary, Washington

Prehistoric Proto-Internet Review of Morty

In 1986-1988, while working in a temp job in The Evergreen State College Library, a student named Ms. Greenberg would occasionally pay me a visit and want to talk comix. I don't know how she found me, but she was a Morty fan. I enjoyed visiting with her whenever she came by. I recall she was unfailingly cheerful and pleasant, which of course made me wonder even more how she could've been a Morty reader.

But she was, and I was grateful that such an upbeat person found something of worth in my comix.

One day in the Spring of 1987 she brought me this printout sent by her friend Casey Boyd of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This was the first time I ever saw any of my works reviewed by an online source.

This was also the first time I saw an email address, including the use of the "@" symbol. Of course, I didn't see it online, I just saw the printout. I wouldn't be exposed to BITNET as part of my job at WLN until 1990.

Anyway, it turns out hsu@uicsrd.CSRD.UIUC.EDU is Dr. William Tsun-yuk Hsu, now a professor of computer science at San Francisco State University.

So Dr. Bill Hsu, a very belated thank you for providing what was probably the very first online mention of my work. And thank you Casey and Ms. Greenberg, wherever you are, for giving me the info.

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A spot where a bear had recently spent the night, judging by the pattern on the grass.

The Pig Lot,
McCleary, Washington

The Mystery of "Kid" Swanson

This article on Jimmy "Kid" Swanson was also posted on OlyBlog in 2006.

And the mystery remains.

This is a figure in the history of McCleary, in the history of Washington State boxing, and in the history of African Americans in the Pacific Northwest who deserves to be the subject of more research.

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The Pig Lot
McCleary, Washington

Bear Fest Kitchen, 1959-2002

A farewell to the original community kitchen used for cooking the bear stew for the McCleary Bear Festival. From 1986 to 1994 I lived in a house where this structure was plainly visible from the living room window of my home.

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Push/Pull