OCTOBER 2011 TOUR DIARY, Part Three

I headed north on the Great River Road towards Chester.  To the east were beautiful wooded bluffs, to the west the vast floodplain of the Mississippi.  Gradually, the truck traffic got worse, and then I was in Chester, Illinois-- the birthplace of E.C. Segar, creator of Popeye.  At the first stoplight coming into town, I looked straight at the Popeye-themed City Park and the Popeye Museum.  I parked the car, grabbed my camera, and got out.

Popeye mural on the wall of the Museum.

Wimpy statue in the city park.  There are statues of Popeye characters going up all over town.

From a memorial dedicated to those Chester residents lost in battle.  Are these Civil War soldiers the origin of "Jones. One of the Jones boys"?

Popeye Museum.

Mural on the back of the Museum.

Concrete porch supports behind the Museum.

Olive, Swee' Pea, and Jeep;  across from the courthouse.

Looking down to the river, from behind the courthouse.

Ghetto Palm.

Segar's birthplace.

Bluto statue downtown.

And the man himself, looking out over the river bridge to Missouri, at the Chester Welcome Center.

The only bridge crossing for 100 miles; Chester, IL.

Looking for the Popeye Statue, I saw the signpost pointing across the bridge to Kaskaskia, Illinois, the only portion of the state that lies west of the Mississippi.  Whoa!  I'd wanted to see it for years, so I headed across.  (The only way to get to the island is by driving into Missouri, and looping around to come in from the west.)

Crossing the channel into Kaskaskia.

Kaskaskia Island is a flat, flood-prone region devoted exculsively to agriculture.  It was formed when an 1881 flood rechanneled the river, leaving Kaskaskia on its western bank.  Once a thriving French colonial settlement (with a peak of 7000 people), the 2010 population was 14.

Kaskaskia Island, looking out toward the bluffs on the eastern bank of the river.

Church of the Immaculate Conception (1843).

"Liberty Bell" Shrine.  During the flood of 1993, this building was completely underwater.

This bell was a gift of France's Louis XV to his important colonial outpost in 1741.  Falling into British hands following the Seven Years War, the city was liberated during the American Revolution on July 4, 1778, and the bell was rung in celebration.  Since then, it has been known as the "Liberty Bell."

Afterwards I headed back up towards St. Louis, through the French colonial town of St. Genevieve.  I had a signing that night at Subterranean Books in St. Louis' "Loop," with the great cartoonist Tim Lane.  It went well, and afterwards Tim and his wife taught me how to play darts, which I won handily in a case of beginner's luck.  We went back to their place for beddy-bye, where I met their two beautiful mutts:

Sage

and Brando.

We stayed up too late talking about life, comics, publishing, politics, history, etc and I made a vow to come back down soon so he could show me* around his favorite St. Louis neighborhoods.

I got up the next morning and said my goodbyes, heading across the river again to visit Cahokia Mounds, a mysterious, prehistoric Indian civilization that was at one point the largest city in North America.

NEXT TIME: Cahokia Mounds, Iowa City, Pittsburgh

*Haha, I said "Show Me."

Buy the beautiful Popeye collections from Fantagraphics!

Read about Kaskaskia's demographics at Wikipedia.

OCTOBER 2011 TOUR DIARY, Part Two

I awoke Monday morning at dawn, in the cold Wal-Mart parking lot.  I immediately headed back to the state park--  it was going to be a busy day.  I had to be in St. Louis for a signing that evening, but I wanted to visit the park again, AND see Chester on my way up, too.  Maybe even Cahokia, if I could fit it in...

"Saw the moon rise over the parking lot,

but it was only a Burger King® sign."

Mr. Narrator

At the entrance to the Giant City Nature Trail.

Stone steps put in place by Civilian Conservation Corps workers in the 30's.

Giant City State Park gets its name from the unusual rock formations along this trail. Gigantic sandstone blocks here have mysteriously drifted apart into gridlike patterns, forming narrow, perfect little "streets."

Balanced Rock on the path.

Underneath the balanced rock.

Looking up from within one of the crevices.

"The Giant City"

As I came across this crevice, I heard a distinct snoring coming from within.  I stood there transfixed, in front of the hole, listening for like 5 minutes to some animal sawing wood.  From the sound it was a pretty sizable mammal (the crack was about a foot wide at the base).  I asked the rangers afterwards what they thought it was and they unanimously agreed it was most likely a bobcat, as those animals are frequently spotted along the base of these cliffs.  Pretty cool.

Heading out of the park towards Highway 51, you drive through the tiny town of Makanda, Illinois.  This town is famous for two things:  Paul Simon, Illinois' beloved bow-tied liberal Senator, was from Makanda.  AND when I was a young whippersnapper, just discovering what comics could be, my friends and I would drive out a few times a year into Chicago, to the little comic convention held at the Congress Hotel on Michigan Avenue.  It was your typical mid-80's comic-con, mostly dealer tables selling back issues, but there was always this one guy there with a selection of the most obscure, radical, bewildering comics available...  Lynda Barry, Gary Panter, the original RAWs, minicomix, bizarro art publications, etc.  I'd always make a beeline right to his stuff.  That guy was from Makanda, too.

Downtown Makanda

Uptown Makanda

I often think of that dude, selling his weirdo comix at the superhero con, and it inspires me in my work with Spit and a Half.  If I could be "that guy" to some young cartoonist, that's something to aspire to.

Anyhow, I drove west out of Carbondale, headed for the River Road, and Chester, Illinois-- the birthplace of Elzie Segar, Popeye's dad.

NEXT TIME: Chester, IL and St. Louis

For more on Giant City State Park, please click here.

OCTOBER 2011 TOUR DIARY, Part One

Yeah, so the last day of September I headed out on a 10 day (or so) tour, down to Nashville, then up to Iowa City via St. Louis, across to Pittsburgh, and back home.  The tour stops consisted of shows, a signing, and a comics conference, so it was a pretty varied trip.  I was also excited about it because I was hoping to cross a bunch of items off my lifetime to-do list:  Visit Carbondale, IL and Giant City State Park; Chester, IL-- birthpace of E.C. Segar, the creator of Popeye; and Kaskaskia, IL-- the only portion of the state that lies west of the Mississippi River.

I left home in the afternoon and powered by Diet Wild Cherry Pepsi®, made it most of the way to Nashville, sleeping in a truck stop parking lot somewhere outside of town.  I awoke at dawn and made my way into the city.  When I rounded the bend on 24 and the skyscrapers came into view, I actually said to myself "Nashville Skyline."  But I bet it looked a lot different when Dylan saw it.

First stop was the Handmade and Bound Festival at Watkins College of Art, Design, and Film.  I wasn't sure what to expect, but part of the fun is bringing comics to people who may not be expecting them.  The Festival was a melange of zinesters, handmade book artists, poets, craftspeople, and me.  It was great.  Everyone was super nice, and people were very happy to see all the comics I'd brought along.  The day went by quickly, and I headed out into the Nashville twilight feeling good.

Spit and a Half table, Nashville.

I thought I'd head downtown to see if the Ernest Tubb Record Shop was open, and just to check out the city. The only other time I'd been in Nashville was on a rainy Sunday afternoon, and this was a beautiful Saturday night, so I had high hopes.

Whoa, though, Broadway was crawling with tourists. There was no way I'd find a cheap place to park, so I headed back out on the interstate to find the BBQ place that was voted best in town. (I saw the billboard on the way in.)  After some doing I managed to find it -- Jack's BBQ-- and treated myself to a hot, spicy meal.  Afterwards I decided to hit the road.  I slept in a Wal-Mart parking lot in Clarksville, and headed back out at dawn the next day.

I'd been wanting to visit Carbondale ever since High School, when my friends Fred and Mark and I tried to make it down there for spring break (with hilarious results-- look for a comic about that story soon). Well, by late morning, there I was, in the home of the Salukis. I drove around the town a bit, listening to sports radio for NFL updates (Bears Win!), found a nice health food store and stocked up, and then wound my way back out to Giant City Road.

Shortly after entering the State Park, I found this idyllic pond and prairie, with a well-mowed path through it, and thought it would be a nice place to start.

I walked the path, looking at weird plants and listening to weird birds, when, from up in the trees, I heard someone mutter "Really?!?!"  I kept walking.  "Hey!"  It was some camo dude in a tree-stand with a bow and arrow.  "You know it's the middle of deer season, right?"  I said, "Nope" (which was true) and kept walking.  Fifty feet down the road he came running up to me, all flustered.  "You've ruined everything!  You can't just go walking through here!  This is hunting grounds!  Didn't you see the sign at the parking lot!?!"  I told him that the only sign at the parking lot said the area was for day-use only, with no overnight camping.  There was nothing about hunting grounds.  He got more and more agitated.  "I have to do all kinds of stuff to cover my scent!  I use special shampoo!"  I told him to spare me, I knew all about it.  He told me I was breaking law, that in the State of Illinois it was illegal, that I was "interrupting the hunt."  I shrugged and decided to get out of there.

"Hunting Grounds"™

A few miles down the road I came across another lot in the woods, this one clearly marked as a trailhead. A short hike down the path I got what I came for...  Ever since I was a kid, I've been looking at pictures of the crazy cliffs and rock formations of Southern Illinois.  And here I was, on the edge of a sheer, 50-foot cliff, looking down onto wild boulders and enormous trees reaching for the sky.  At last!

Balanced Rocks overlooking the cliff.

The pictures don't do justice to the dizzying heights shown.

I met some other hikers who congratulated me on the Bears win, and mentioned they had started their walk at the bottom of the cliff, but couldn't find their way down.  Some rock climbers showed us a gnarly half-path down the slope, and we all followed it onto a paved park road.  The hikers headed to their car, and I took another path into the woods to follow the cliff's base.

Underneath a massive overhang at the foot of the cliff, blackened by centuries of soot.

"A path is made by walking on it."

Anyhow, I wandered through the woods, coming to dead end after dead end, looking for the path up to the top of the cliff that the other hikers had told me about.  No luck.  And it was getting dark.  I found myself back at the paved road, and reckoned that if I followed it around, it would eventually link up to my parking lot.  But I walked through the growing darkness for what seemed like forever, with only raccoons as companions.  Not only was it getting dark, but cold.  After finding the official "Giant City Nature Trail," which I made a note of to come visit the next morning, I relented, and decided to try to backtrack up the half-path I took down the cliff.  My main worry was finding the right trail in the dark.

Uh oh!

I did manage to find the path, and confirmed it was the correct one with remembered landmarks.  Scrambling up the slope, I found the trail at the top of the rise, and headed back towards the car.

A view over one of the cliff-edges in the dark.  Yikes.

Lo and behold, I came to the parking lot at last, and headed back towards Carbondale, where I had Chinese food for dinner, and, peering through darkened windows in empty strip malls, I scouted out the two comics shops in town.  At Wal-Mart I brushed my teeth and made myself cozy in the corner of the lot.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.

NEXT: Giant City Part Two