BIRD CITY USA PLUS ROCKS

A few weekends ago, I finally finished the work for The Hospital Suite, so I had a chance to have some fun.  On Saturday Stephanie and I went to our first meeting as members of the Badger Lapidary and Geological Society, followed by a fossil-hunting trip out to a few quarries in the Monroe, Wisconsin vicinity.  We found a lot of old animals, including our first "Trilo-bits" (but no complete specimens).  I figured I knew a good bit about Animals and Vegetables already, so it was time to learn some about Minerals.  We've been going out and rockhounding for a few months, but this was my first time doing so with people who knew what they were doing, so it was plenty educational.

Your 'umble narrator.

When we started fossil-hunting a few months ago, it was very surprising to me that one could walk up to an average, ordinary rock outcropping and find old animals sitting there that are millions of years old.

Bivalve clam, found in chert

Clockwise from top: Some kind of gastropod (snail), snail, galena (silvery mineral), sphalerite (black mineral)

A nice big chunk of rock featuring some lovely "fossil hash" (what rockhounds call a hodgepodge mix of various fossils all grouped together).  If you zoom in on the cephalopod hole in the lower left, you'll see it's filled with pyrite and sphalerite crystals.  Pretty cool.

Gastropod in matrix

Fossil hash consisting mostly of brachiopods

Then, that Sunday we finally got to attend the Sand Bluff Bird Observatory's annual Bird Fest.  Usually we're out of town that weekend, or just plain forget about it, or hear about it too late.  This time we made it.  It was great getting to be around a bunch of like-minded people, and to see these reclusive and somewhat small birds up close was remarkable.  It almost gave me the shakes I was so excited.

 White-eyed Vireo

(Vireo griseus)

Gray Catbird

(Dumatella carolinensis)

Brown-headed Cowbird (Female)

(Molothrus ater)

 Common Yellowthroat

(Geothlypis trichas)

Nashville Warbler

(Vermivora ruficapilla)

Western Palm Warbler

(Setophaga palmarum palmarum)

So all in all, a pretty good weekend!

APPLESEED CON

US Route 30, between Valparaiso and Fort Wayne

So, last weekend I drove out to Fort Wayne, Indiana, to attend the 2014 Appleseed Comic Con.  My buddies Jim Rugg, Ed Piskor, and Tom Scioli were attending, plus who were the Special Guests? None other than both PETE BAGGE and JIM STERANKO!  So I'm there.

The trip wasn't too bad, once I got out of Chicago.  I made it to Ft. Wayne early enough Friday afternoon to quickly hit all the comics shops in town.  I managed to pick up like ten 1970's Marvel Horror Comics that were on my list, and I was ridin' high.

Checked in to the hotel, and stayed up way too late talking about comics with Jim, Ed, and Tom, three hardcore comics enthusiasts.

Beautiful downtown Fort Wayne

Next day I got up early to set up for the show.  The Con was held in a gorgeous new Events Center, right in the heart of downtown.  Day One went well, met some cool people, including, for the first time-- Pete Bagge.  Then I lurked around the Steranko table a bit checking out all his cool old memorabilia (old Marvel black light posters from 1973 etc).  When I tried to take his picture he said "No Pictures!" and held up his hand.  The guy has class.

Managed to rustle up six or seven more comics I was looking for, and had lunch at the King Gyros next door.

Spit and a Half table, Northeast Indiana Stylee

Saturday crowds

The Great and Honorable Peter Bagge

Ed Piskor and his Hip Hop Family Tree

Jim Rugg and fan

Cool old Steranko Star Trek poster

That night we all went to dinner downtown and sat at a long table-- Steranko held court at one end, and Bagge at the other.  Two generations of Classic American Cartoonistes, wow.  Got out of there and went back to the room where we stayed up too late talking about comics again.

Fort Wayne Skyline

In Search of: BREAKFAST

"This is the idea we could have rolled with from the beginning!"

Downtown Post Office

Grand Wayne Center, home of the Appleseed Con

Tom and Jim share a knowing glance, Day Two

Jim with just some of his amazing and prodigious output

(I bought a copy of the Black-Lite Barbarianess poster!)

Tom never stopped working, all weekend-long

Day Two was slower than Day One, but that only meant I got to shoot the breeze with cartoonists more, and dig through more longboxes.  Afterwards, we all met up for a final calzone-fueled goodbye.  The Con Fatigue miraculously wore off, and I realized how much fun it was just hanging out with these guys.

Then, the road home...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Hi everyone,

Twenty-five years ago, on May 17, 1989, I drove over to the tiny little Kinko's copy shop at Golf and Roselle in Schaumburg, and printed 18 copies of my new zine, King-Cat Comics #1.  So happy birthday, King-Cat!

I just want to take a moment and thank everyone who's helped me through these 25 years-- all the friends, family, and readers that have made this possible.  I couldn't, and I wouldn't, have done it without you.

Today I'm in Fort Wayne, Indiana, standing behind my table at the Appleseed Con, an appropriate place to be all these years later, I think.  There are few things I love more than comics, and it's been a privilege to be a part of this world.  Thanks!

John P.

* * *

(click images to enlarge)

SPRING IS HERE, I HEAR

It's been one of the longest coldest winters I can remember.  We didn't have any blizzards, but just steady snow day after day, with bone-chilling temperatures in the vicinity of -17 for weeks at a time.  This is really unheard of.  Usually you get a few days like that per year, but not long stretches of misery.

So last week when it finally appeared that spring might be making a few cracks in winter's icy grip, I decided I wasn't gonna wear my winter coat anymore, just my Bears hoodie.  I had to do my part to let winter know we weren't gonna sit there and take it anymore.  Consequently I've been pretty cold lately.

Today it was in the upper thirties, and sunny, so I thought I'd head up to Big Hill Park in Beloit to look for Skunk Cabbage.  As you may know, Skunk Cabbage is the harbinger of spring.  It's the first plant to come up each year, and generates so much heat as it grows that it actually melts the snow around it.  It's a weird, fascinating plant.  It grows in low-lying wet areas, and at Big Hill Park there's a little swampy spur of land that juts out into the Rock River, and it's a perfect spot to find Skunk Cabbage.

The road down to the river was stilled closed for the winter, so I parked at the top of the hill and worked my way down the slope to the main path, which winds its way along steep wooded hillsides with beautiful mossy rock outcroppings.  The path was clear and wet in places, and ice and slush still coated it in areas where it ran through shadow.

Finally got down to the bottom, and, sure enough, the floodplain along the river was dotted with Skunkers.  They were mostly still closed up, but on a few here and there the bright yellow spadix was visible through the leaves.  So that means Spring is here, or at least around the corner.

Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus)

(In the backyard the feeders have been covered in Goldfinches, in their tan winter plumage, and just in the past week or so their heads have started to show the change to the bright yellow that they'll sport throughout the summer.)

View of the Rock River, from the top of the hill

On the way home from the park I stopped at the dam to look for Bald Eagles, but I didn't see any.  Now that the river is mostly unfrozen I guess they don't need to hang out at the dam much anymore (they stick around in the winter because the rushing water prevents freezing, and thus maintains their access to fish).

Then back home where I filled the feeders and chased the dogs around the yard.

CZF 2014

Well, it's that time of year again -- time for cartoonists and zine-publishers to start hustling around the country to attend the myriad specialty festivals and fairs that have sprung up over the last decade.  From March through November it seems like there's a zine or comix fest somewhere every weekend!

My first of 2014 was last Saturday's Chicago Zine Fest, now in it's fifth year.  After a long period with no zine-based festival in Chicago (hard to believe, considering the presence of the legendary Quimby's and the huge amount of self-publishing going on in the city) it's been great to have the CZF every spring, getting bigger and better with each passing year and showing no signs of slowing down.

Jake's pal Ratso interviews the writers from the Grooves 'N Jams blog

This year my table, which I shared with Chicago zine impresario Jake Austen, was located on the first floor, and after a slow start there was a steady stream of people coming through all day.  I'm pretty sure this was the first year in which there were so many exhibitors everyone was limited to one half-table spot.  This made for a slightly claustrophobic feel behind the tables, but I got used to it pretty quick.  Sales were the best I've ever had at this show, and it was fun to see everybody.  You do enough of these shows and it all becomes family-- not only your fellow exhibitors, but the people in the crowd stopping by.

Afternoon crowds

OG Chicago zine legend Karen Wehrle dropped by to hang out with Jake and go over their plans for the Chicago Music Zine Symposium being held next month.

Ye Olde Spit and a Half Half-Table

One minor problem was that this year's CZF was held the same day, in the same general locale, as the St. Patrick's Day Parade.  It took me 2.5 hours to travel the 90 miles from Beloit to the Loop, and ten minutes to fit into the only tiny parking spot I could find once I got there.  Afterwards was almost worse, having to traverse the city with lurching drunks stepping out in front of your vehicle every fifteen feet.  But all in all an enjoyable day.

Post-show I went up to Thai Spoon for dinner with my old pal Ray.  We stopped at Quimby's to drop off their latest Spit and a Half order in person, and then I headed back out into the darkness to make my way home.

Drove under the O'Hare Oasis on its last day in existence (sigh) and made it to Beloit in time to hear "Ace of Spades" come on the radio at midnight.

Next up, SPACE, in Columbus April 12-13.