I have a month to prepare for the next Frankenstein's/Comix Thing fracas. Comic book related matter has been presenting itself in surprising ways.
Like this stuff - I totally forgot I had set this aside to sell. I had a lot of things in front of the bookcase so I wasn't paying attention to what was on the shelves. I have a feeling these will find someone to love them.
Only a couple of the titles available!!
I have a lot of original art too. I have no idea what it's worth at this point. But it doesn't belong stacked in a basement. Someone made this art for someone else to reproduce, distribute and enjoy.
I made good on my goal to clean up that corner of my living room and now you can see the fruit of my labors:
Fun weather fact: if you put my zip code into the search engine for weather.com, the results are Portland, OR and a town in Martinique. Nice! I wish I was in Martinique. Work is closed because of snow. The advisory states that the temperature is 31 degrees Fahrenheit, but "feels like 24". Who decides that?
Circumstances have not changed a whole lot since we last spoke, but I feel a little better. I don't know what it is, but getting my laundry done for once might have had an impact. I've been walking books over to Powells one bag at a time to sell them. In fact, I just did that. I get trade credit, which I'm going to use to help get Christmas presents...and probably something for me. I finished my comix page for VisionQuest and got the TIFF file sent over to the officials.
A fragile and beautiful moment from The Good Wife, S5
I've been decluttering my paperwork, and shredding a whole lot of old bills and things. It's funny how a large pile of papers turns into an even bigger volume of skinny paper strips. Using a shredder relieves so much tension. Just sit with your cup of tea and put the subtitles on whatever DVD you've got going, and go to town. You'll feel so much better.
It's holiday season and I'm not very well prepared for any of it. I still have to put up my trees. I guess now that my sofa is cleared of junk I can think about decorating a little. I keep thinking it's still the first week of the month.
All right, in the interest of finishing this before another week goes by and the weather is nice again, I'll get this published. Today was a first - I've never seen this Carpool Karaoke thing before but I found this as I was trying to get The Fall S3E2 on YouTube. I like Bruno Mars a lot and this put a million smiles on my face so here ya go Russia and Singapore.
Oh, I guess I should explain the title - this is the 161st published post. Over and out.
I took the afternoon off work last Friday to help my friend/former business partner/former employee Virginia load up a 20-foot truck full of Sparkplug material so it can go to its new home in Cupertino, CA. Several of our other friends were there helping, including Marc and Dave from Alternative Comics, which will be housing and distributing Sparkplug's comix for the foreseeable future.
Here's a before and after shot from the garage at Virginia's (BTW only part of it is shown here):
We had lunch somewhere in the middle and about five hours after we started we headed over to my house for more of the same:
This pickup job happened because everyone was here to participate in Linework NW and I had some unexpected interactions with many folks I hardly ever see. The whole Sparkplug experience and everything else caught up with me on the bus ride home Sunday night, so I had to rent Legend so I could get back to normal.
I bet you thought I meant the one with Tom Cruise. I've already seen that one about 67 times. Would see again though!!!
You may remember what started this whole blog nonsense, if you need reminding go back to the early times and recollect. Over the last four years we moved all of that stuff at least a couple more times. I thought I'd be in tiptop order by now, but as my friends could clearly see, I'm still a sloppy dingdong.
One of the things on my list for 2016, to do as soon as possible, is to take up the last of the carpeting in my house. Almost a year ago my mom helped me with the floor in my living room and hallway, but the bedroom and office are still the same. It's time to say goodbye to that filth of a floor covering. Did you know that the backing on old carpet disintegrates over time and looks and feels a lot like sand? Not to mention the years of crumbs and other stuff that have seeped through. Not that I ever really eat in those rooms, but things have a way of getting tracked around.
Which leads me to reveal my next plan: paint the rest of the living room and finally make real curtains. I have one of those giant vertical blinds over one of them and a piece of fabric tacked over the other one. It's been like this also for about a year, mostly because I haven't gone out yet and picked fabric for the curtains. Making them won't be too hard.
Today's weather was less crappy than normal so I dumped a shitload of stuff into the compost. I hope I'm not ruining it by putting in things like cotton stuffing from a moldy cushion, or particles from the bagless vacuum cleaner. I'm good at adding things to the container but not turning it or keeping it damp, so I don't think I'll have usable compost for a very long time.
OK, enough about that. What I really want to talk about now is how awesome it's going to be when I go see Earth and Super Furry Animals in February, FOR FREE because I've had this McMenamins gift card lying around unused for the last five years. Until now.
AND ALSO that I have another DJ thing coming up, it's been official for a couple weeks but I'm going to have a slot at the upcoming Twilight Rummage Sale in February. I get a free table and $20, so I guess I'm a pro now.
The January edition of the rummage sale was last weekend and I had a pretty good time. I spent most of the money I made two days later on my table for the Frankenstein's comic book show that's coming up in March, and my page/publishing cost for Vision Quest #4 that's also on the way. Just doing my part to keep the comix economy alive.
I got a paid holiday today because tomorrow is Independence Day. Thanks job! I'm sitting here in a coffee shop planning the rest of my day and writing this thing. Meanwhile I'll recap what's going down in basement town.
I cleaned up the comics and magazine explosion I made while getting ready for the swap meets last weekend. I scooted a few things around so it suddenly looks a lot better in here. I had a semi-surprise visit from friends Lark, Andrice and Thien, who all agreed that things looked good. Thien took away with him a roll of posters he'd printed long ago as part of a project with Sparkplug, so he helped the process along.
I have a lot of other posters and artwork that I am keeping, so I'm hanging them in the stairwell. If you use a broom handle you can tap down the corners of posters in high places, like I did with the La Mano tour poster above the steps. I used tape, even though you really shouldn't. By the way, how do you like my staircase broom closet?
I might need a nap before too long. I went to see Torche and Melt-Banana with Lark last night and didn't get home until almost 2am. Seeing these bands made me want to run around hugging everybody afterwards. I woke up at 7:30 and didn't really feel like sleeping. My first order of business for the day was to buy a metal lithographed dollhouse from a woman I met on Craigslist. I'm such a dork, here I am trying to clean up my life and I get another dollhouse. That is another post entirely.
On the schedule for the rest of the day: finish a painting, work on my zine, start work on a comic I'm doing for the next Visionquest comics anthology, clean the house. Take photos and stick them in this blog post.
The moths abide, the ants abide, we're a happy family.
I've culled my wardrobe really thoroughly, and got everything hung and folded neatly. I used to work at Buffalo Exchange and I still have a lot of my instincts about hanging and sorting clothes. Everything faces left. I button the top button to keep shirts in place.
I'll edit this post later to show a pic of the closet. The sliding doors are long gone (you can see then leaning against the flat file in my previous post), and I hung curtains that I never draw, but I still like the way they look!
I've taken out the ancient, rolled-up wool rug from under the bed and vacuumed it. I put it in the living room to see if it is truly the moth farm I suspect it to be. I vacuumed beneath the bed too, which has been needing it forever, and I found a comb I've been missing for months. Not sure how it got under there with the duvet feathers.
As another important duty for the day I shall endeavour to prepare my goods for Frankenstein's Comic Book Swap on June 27. It's June bitches! The comics fiscal year has begun!
If you don't get this reference, just stop reading and never return. KIDDING! I have nine followers, I bow to each of you.
And...the less entrancing view of the shortbox sorting shitshow.
I spent a whopping 14 hours in comics thralldom on Saturday, February 28th, at two different events. The first one, Frankenstein's Comic Book Swap was organized by my friends Tim and Andy of Cosmic Monkey Comics.
I was there with the bulk of Dylan's comic book collection, which I had rather painstakingly organized in my nonprofessional way. I borrowed a car and got everything there in two trips. The location was the Eagles Lodge at SE Hawthorne & 50th, so I didn't have far to go. I made it for the early bird hour and we were really off and running.
I did really well but was surprised that the overall volume of stuff I had to take back did not decrease by much. I took most of the boxes back with me at 6pm, but left some things for the next thing on the schedule: Comix Thing. That went from 9pm until midnight. I had my own stuff and I was also selling work published by Sparkplug Books.
Comix Thing
Here are some important things I learned about my years working at swap meets:
Use the space under the table(s) if you can. Don't limit yourself to the tabletop.
Get an extra table or set of shelves if you have the room and put more stuff on it.
Box lids are really great for holding things together. Use them like trays!
I try to bring a variety of things to swap meets. Even at comics swaps I have art and dvds. I don't just want to see a sea of comics.
Labels, even crappy ones, really help people find things and help you organize the table.
Be ready to negotiate, because it's better to get a little less than the marked price if you can shift the thing you're selling. You get paid and someone else gets something they like, and the comic (or whatever) isn't hiding in a box in your garage. Everyone's happy!
...But don't be afraid to stand your ground or ask for more if necessary. A guy offered me a price for a bulk deal and I told him I needed 2 1/2 times more, and I got it. The worst anyone can say is no.
Customers at these things can be messy. Let them drag things around but stay on top of the disorder.
Both shows were super fun and I got to see so many friends and make some new ones. Yay comics!
I'm getting ready to make a sizable donation of small press/self published comics. Don't worry, if you're reading this I'm most likely keeping your stuff unless I've got doubles! Over at the Ohio State University, they have a special collection of just such things named after my husband Dylan. I'm really honored on his behalf to contribute a lot of the work he collected over the last couple decades. Dylan discovered a lot of amazing work that might get overlooked, because small press stuff tends to not get the publicity and distribution it deserves.
Caitlin McGurk is curating the Dylan Williams Collection, please contact her at mcgurk.17@osu.edu or call 614-292-0538. I mentioned her in a previous post ages ago. She's super nice and learned on the subject of indie comics and zines.
As a lot of you know, Dylan's and my books and comics together make a vast personal library, and going through them is a massive undertaking. I'm keeping a ton of stuff, but it feels like I could build another house with the volume of materials that I have on hand.
I'm getting back to my old pace before a week ago, but it's been hard. I've been recovering from losing my voice, which is still pretty bad. I had a cold over a 1 1/2 weeks ago and I've been feeling fine but the voice started to go right before the holiday. Last night after getting home my first order of business was to hurt my back so badly that I needed to lie down immediately, which also hurt. It happened just as I was bending down to look into a storage box, so I barely had to do a thing to ruin myself. My back hurt through most of today, so I decided to take it easy.
I did, however, do some critical cleaning work. I'd been putting off cleaning off a shelving unit in my garage so I did that today. None of the things on it were very heavy but I managed to get rid of a lot of stuff on it that had been collecting for a few months. I still kept the box of bonsai supplies though. Dylan and I started a bonsai hobby when we first moved in together in 1997 and we just held onto the rocks and fancy planter and other things. I think I'll give it another go. 2013 will be my bonsai achievement year.
Finally heard from the college that's taking my donation of Dylan's books, they are coming Friday! I am so glad that students will be learning from these books in a matter of weeks. Speaking of which, there's already a wonderful collection that Caitlin McGurk is organizing at Ohio State University in Dylan's name. Check out their blog about the Girl Scouts coming to visit and learn how to do their own comics! I was a Scout once, I would have loved to have this kind of field trip.
I found this photo of me from my early years, cleanin' of course. A Cinderella story, outta nowhere.
