Donna Barr's Blog, page 10

New Ka-Blam Tshirt

My old white Ka-Blam tshirt was too big - and just not cool. But what's better than black? So thank you, Ka-Blam, my fave floppy printer, for quality and price. And a hot new tshirt.

The Little Store: http://donnabarr.blogspot.com/2007/04...

The Amazing Hawaii Comicon 2016

If you want to have a lot of fun and sell books and meet wonderful creatives and fans, go to the Amazing Hawaii Comicon. I went with Roberta Gregory, who made it that much better, being able to share the adventure with a long-time friend and colleague.
William Doc Grant got trip tips for us, Roger and Elizabeth Pankey let us time-share a condo, and Hawaiian Cartoonist Jon J Murakami toured us around 3/4 of O'ahu in two trips. We got to see and do and eat everything we'd planned. 
First of all, here's the obligatory shot of me in my Ka-Blam T-shirt. If you need floppy-size comics, they have the best inks, clear paper, color and prices. I'm going to get one of their black shirts, too. 
Just for good measure, here's the convention badge and what's left of one of the leis Jon gave us.









The next two shots are the view from our condo window in Honolulu, Waikiki. 
The first one is makai - toward the mountains - over the golf course. 
The second is makau - toward the water - over the canal. 



In the morning, talapia in the schools rise in bunching black schools to feed. Fairy terns flip between the buildings, looking like the paper "birds" in Spirited Away. The terns are endemic in the northern islands, but in the south, they only live in Honolulu. 




And now more convention photos:
William Doc Grant gave Roberta and me paper hats full of pennies. We saved the pennies to buy spam musubi, and played Angry Birds with the hats. Roberta is threatening the properly terrified Erin Hamada. 
Erin makes the most amazing food pillows, including bitten eggs. You can really only get them in Hawaii, because of shipping prices.  















Here's Roberta and Erin with Erin's giant bread and onagiri pillows. We ere calling her Pillow Woman. A con nickname, of course.

Here's a Soldätchen (little soldier) I was doodling on for kids' day, Sunday. I'd somehow left all my good pens at home, so was making do with ball points. 

A couple little girls were watching with their dad, and I asked 'em if they wanted it. They did. I'd post the photo, but one needs to protect kids.



However, I can post an adult with her picture of a Söldchen (little girl soldier). This is Hannah - and she's happy with the next doodle I did. 







Now for the cosplay! A blurry (sorry! - wonky little IPod camera) Deadpool pirate with a costume based, an Aquaman with REAL scale mail he made himself, and the dapperest of dragons. 




I didn't get any more photos of the trip. It was us at the beach, and us eating everything Hawaiian we could find. We saw the valley of temples, the north shore, you name it. 
And birds! Admittedly, most of them are imports, but when else could I see Brazilian cardinals flying about, and shoo Australian zebra doves out of breakfast?
Chickens and cats were all about in the country, clean, well-fed, and utterly unafraid of humans. Which shows you just how nice the humans are.
Yes, Hawaii has racism and homelessness and all the general problems, but all anybody really cares about is food and the beach. Which is as it should be. We missed a luau I'm beginning to think we should have skinned out of the con to go see.
After the con, we moved from the condo to a little hostel near the beach. In a quiet, cool alley, where you could sit on the lanai and look at Diamond head.
See the blue toenails? Everybody has blue toenails. Or people who paint their toenails.
I no longer feel guilty for never learning to surf. Early throat and sinus operations make it impossible for me to keep water out of my lungs. I TRIED body surfing but ended up hacking out water. So I went back to floating in the lagoons. Although watching the kids using McDonald's trays to body-board was still pretty tempting. And the best fun is watching body-boarders off the jetty in the evening waves.
The Menehune are the Hawaiian Little People. They're supposed to be mischievous. I found out, if you ask for ANYTHING, they get it for you, free and cheap, so long as you thank them. Here's my haul. 
This is just a small portion of the stuff we did, so we'll end with the food report, and wishes that you have been or can go to Hawaii some day.


I would like to know if our conventions can serve MAHALO nui loa!
Spam Musubi, the basic Hawaiian spam-and-rice snack. It was the go-to food all over the island.
BEST Hawaiian food: the dark purple Okinawan potato.
And - I never thought I'd recommend McDonald's - but haupia (coconut custard) in a fried sugar crust. No, you can't get it unless you're in Hawaii. The same with the Dole plantation fresh-picked-pineapple ice cream. It's like you have to come up where I live for REALLY fresh salmon.
Seattle, you can get poi at Uwajimaya for the same price they sell it for in Hawaii. 
Roberta and I almost didn't get back on the plane....The Little Store: http://donnabarr.blogspot.com/2007/04...

Shortrun 2016

Applying for Shortrun and this is the art they require.
The Little Store: http://donnabarr.blogspot.com/2007/04...

Hogan's Alley Magazine

Blah. Trying to sign in to the Eisner's to recommend a great magazine, but they're securitied up like they think they're somebody's off-shore account. 
So I will do the next best thing and recommend the magazine.
Hogan's Alley. Named after a classic newspaper cartoon, and continuing to share wonderful cartooning from around the world.  
Go and enjoy. Because our fans are the real voters. It's why we don't have awards at my comicon, because what's the use of industry professionals log-rolling each other, or if people don't buy our books or love our website? Our fans give us our awards and rewards.
And I'm a fan of Hogan's Alley.The Little Store: http://donnabarr.blogspot.com/2007/04...

Transfolk Treated Right

A recent interchange of emails between myself and a Fred Meyer store in Bremerton. I also sent this message to the Bremerton police chief, who immediately said, since the store was in Kitsap county jurisdiction, he would send it to the Sheriff. Bremerton has a bad rep, but there is a steady undercurrent of decency, acceptance and multi-culturism in that town (as well as an vibrant and interesting arts community).
My first email to Fred Meyer: 
Hi - Have always loved your store & the folks in it. But on the 30th of April, 2016, I think I might have witnessed bad behavior connected to the trans bathroom controversy. While I was in one of your women's restroom stall, I heard someone come mumbling in to use the stalls; it was a man's voice. I wasn't upset; sometimes we wander into the wrong restrooms, if no one else can be seen. Perhaps it was a transwoman. I don't know; I didn't stay to verify. But when I left, I found a group of men and a boy standing against the wall opposite the restroom, as though waiting for something. They were probably waiting for a friend to use the men's restroom. BUT - lately, restrooms have been targeted in an attempt by certain groups to humiliate and harm transfolk. I'm hoping I was just being paranoid, but just in case, I thought I'd give you a head's up. Bremerton has always been an admirably politically-involved town, so anything can happen. And thanks again for being such a good store and giving me the opportunity to contact you (I know - arguing over who gets to use the bathroom; childish, but transfolk get beaten, raped and killed all the time. And need a place to pee in safety).
Their email to me:

From: CustomerService@kroger.comTo: donnabarr@hotmail.comDate: Thu, 5 May 2016 07:08:35 -0400Subject: RE: Your Comments (#23812679)Dear Donna,
Thank you for contacting Kroger Customer Connect. 

I am sincerely sorry for your negative experience at the rest room of our Fred Meyer store located at 5050 State Highway 303 Ne. Your concerns regarding the issues faced by transgender people are commendable and I really appreciate them. I have shared your experience in detail with the Store Management Team so they are aware and can review the situation and make your future visits to the store pleasurable..
Please know our Store Manager is always open to direct feedback. It is important to the Manager to speak personally to our customers about areas that need improvement as well as our successes.

Please feel free to reply to this email or call us at 1-800-576-4377 and reference case number 23812679 should you have further questions or concerns. We appreciate hearing from our valued customers and will assist in any way possible. 
Thank you for shopping with us and have a great day. Sincerely,HarpreetKroger Customer Connect The Kroger Family of Stores 



Dear Harprett:
Thank you so much for your quick answer, and your caring view of all your customers.
I've always been very happy with your store, and this is one more reason to appreciate you all.
I'm very involved in making our world a better place, and a steady user of social media. My internet friends will be happy to discover that the Bremerton Fred Meyer is even better than we could hope.
Donna Barr
The Little Store: http://donnabarr.blogspot.com/2007/04...

Recent and Upcoming Conventions

Needed to catch up on my posting! Here's me in a Ka-Blam tshirt at Shortrun last year. 
And then me in my Ka-Blam tshirt at Emerald City.
Ka-Blam is the best place for old-style floppy comics, reprinted print-on-demand. The prices are almost the same as they were when we first printed those books, and the quality is superb. Paper is very white, and the inks are very black. Colors are great, too!
Mexico! Pacific Northwest/Egyptian!Now here are the table covers I'm going to be using at the Amazing Hawaii Comicon: done by hand with markers. They go both ways, so I can use one or the other depending on which end of the table I'm sharing. 
One of them is done in with Mexican styles in mind, the other with a mix of Northwest native and Egyptian. I think I'll use the Mexican one for Hawaii. 
Photos could be better, but you'll see them at shows.  The Little Store: http://donnabarr.blogspot.com/2007/04...

Needle

For Sammi
The Little Store: http://donnabarr.blogspot.com/2007/04...

Fearless Gets Best Treatment Now

Sammi is the red Norwegian Forest cat in the photo. Fearless is the cat who looks like a Chartreuse. Sammi has Fearless's sitty place, a milk crate and afghan by the stove. 

Fearless is beginning to show pain from something in her side - possibly her possible cancer. I made Sammi get on the couch. He's been getting all the special treatment because he has diabetes. We have to pay more attention to Fearless, now.

LATEST (March 13, 2016): 

Fearless couldn't get to the vet because of storms. 

BUT - it turns out her pain came from - who knows? - falling off a bed or something. She's much better, now. Dingbat.

Because of all the liquid in her lungs in her x-rays earlier in 2016, and some masses, there may be heart complications. Electrocardiogram for her, or tentatively, at least. We have to think about that - the trip to Seattle?

I dunno. Old cats. What do you do with them? Other than schoozle. 'em.






The Little Store: http://donnabarr.blogspot.com/2007/04...

Clallam Bay - West End Map

Map of Clallam Bay and SekiuHere's the map I did for the local chamber of commerce. Now nobody has to try to describe how to get to Cape Flattery and find every park, bathroom and cup of coffee on the way. The reason there is no color is so customers can use provided color markers to plan their own route and itinerary.
Map of the Upper West End of the Olympic PeninsulaThe map cost the Sekiu/Clallam Bay Chamber of Commerce $1500. I had no trouble with them paying their bills up front and on time.

The map is causing great joy in town. Four Chinese teenagers used pink markers to line out their trip, then found out about Clallam Bay's dragon dance - and came back to help celebrate. The Sunsets West Co-Op gave them pan lids and other noise-makers, and they joined in. What made them happiest was that Americans loved and made their own dragon dance.

It was like that moment that healed relations between the US and England when King George VI and Queen Elizabeth ate hot dogs with FDR. "They like our food!"

It doesn't take much to make people happy. Everybody wants a pad of them for their business or family. I told the chamber they should sell them. I made my money, now it's their turn.

But I'm beginning to get this sung at me: "Mapmaker, mapmaker make me a map!"The Little Store: http://donnabarr.blogspot.com/2007/04...

Sammi is our Darlin'

Our Sammi - 18 years old - has diabetes. It's been rough and up and down, but he's hanging in there.

Today he claimed the catfood-closet door by face-rubbing, and smacked Kiki (the calico fluffernutter) in the butt.
So, good hopes.
He has no blood, so it's hard to measure glucose levels, but we're trying. I just have to remember to rub his toes really well before taking blood for testing.
He's possibly a Norwegian Forest cat, so we think the name is after the Indigenous people of Scandinavia, otherwise known as Laplanders. He was captured feral as a young cat, and is finally getting over his fear of blankets.The Little Store: http://donnabarr.blogspot.com/2007/04...