Strange Tales

My father passed away last month, after battling various health issues. It's still hard to accept that he's gone. He was a great parent, and as I get older I realize more and more how lucky I was to have him.

His death notice appeared in the Sacramento Bee yesterday (where he'd retired), and is in the Washington Post today (where he spent most of his professional life). It was written by his wife Mary, with input from my brother Jason and I.

- See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/washingtonpost/obituary.aspx?n=david-e-lasky&pid=180956538#sthash.xNx0PUAD.dpuf

From about 2003 on I've been a part-time teacher at Richard Hugo House, a sort of community-center-for-writers in Seattle. It's been based in an old house, a former funeral home, since 1997. The building is being torn down to make way for a condo/apartment (an ongoing story here), but the Hugo House will continue to exist on the ground floor of the future-building. Last Saturday night, Hugo House held a celebration and farewell for the original location. Everyone was allowed to write on the walls (since they are coming down in two weeks), so I decided I'd draw a comic about writers -- in the room that housed the last public location (so far) of ZAPP, the Zine Archive and Publishing Project.

This photo by Raymond Pompon

Facebook users have guessed nearly all of the writers pictured in the comic. Here is the roster:

Panel 1: Mairead Case, author, prison writing instructor, PhD candidate, and former Hugo House intern. She represents all the HH interns who went on to do great things in the world.

Panel 2: Sherman Alexie, literary titan. He represents all the literary titans who have been involved with Hugo House over the years.

Panel 3: Wendy Call: nonfiction writer, translator, and a fantastic writing instructor. She represents non-fiction writers and all the great teachers that have worked at HH over time (and will continue to!).

Panel 4: Anastacia Tolbert, HH writer-in-residence who gives powerful readings, here representing all the writers-in-residence, and all the great readers who've taken the stage, or shared their work in a classroom, at HH.

Panel 5: Stacey Levine, writer of short fiction and novels, with whom I read at the Lit Series a few years back. I took one of her classes at HH and it was great. This panel is about the writing community.

Panel 6: Sierra Nelson of Vis a Vis Society, and Typing Explosion. This panel is about taking poetry and literature in bold new directions! Huzzah!

Panel 7: The late Octavia Butler, who took science fiction in amazing directions, here representing writers in the NW who write diverse and sophisticated genre fiction that transcends the bounds of genre fiction.

Panel 8: Not a great likeness: This is Greg Stump, my frequent co-teacher of comics classes at HH. Greg represents comics/graphic novels' important presence in Seattle's Lit Scene.

Panel 9: RIchard Hugo, guiding spirit.

So I went to my first Democratic caucus today. It was held at Whitman Middle School - walking distance from me.

I was anticipating crowds, and it WAS very crowded, but I didn't have to wait in line.

My neighbors (I only actually knew two people gathered around this table - and waved to other. more distant neighbors at other tables) -- the man with the folder volunteered to be in charge. At the table is a volunteer vote-counter and secretary.  They counted the votes a few times, my neighbors had 3 minutes for whomever wanted to speak for each candidate, and an additional 3 minutes for whomever was undecided. One woman identified herself as undecided and she had the most interesting things to say. (In a nutshell: "I LOVE Bernie, but I'm not sure he will be able to do all of these things he's promising. I HATE Hillary, but I think she may have the better chance of actually getting things done. How should I vote?")

My immediate neighborhood went about 80% for Bernie.

The very full cafeteria at Whitman Middle School. I saw this guy taking photos, so I decided I would too.

The crowd. On the left, a woman was speaking to the room, but her mic was not working so well and people had trouble hearing.

It was so crowded and stuffy inside, some of the tables opted to move outside. ^

When I left to catch a bus to Ballard, I came across this graffiti. ^ Crown Hill (and WA state) loves Bernie.

Happy birthday (nov 20) to one of the great emerging fantasy artists, Ner-Tamin! (also known as Julia Nikitina)...

Originally posted by ner_tamin at Белый новый год

По клику картинка увеличивается. С наступающим всех!

Кстати, в моем паблике вконтакте, вот тут: http://vk.com/thewizardsjourneys в течение декабря шел новогодний календарь, сделанный по типу рождественских календарей - помните, такие, с конфетками на каждый день? Только вместо конфеток там были волшебные предметы: телефоны, которые звонят в прошлое, книги северного сияния, сундучки со сказками и другие вещи. Если кому хочется добрать новогоднего настроения - приглашаю. :-)

I am writing 30 minutes every day in the month of October to help raise funds for Seattle's Hugo House, a place for writers. A lot of what I've been writing falls under the heading "Ideas for Short Comics" -- a flurry of ideas which I may sit down and turn into comics one day. I am posting some of them here on LiveJournal for other cartoonists who may get inspiration from them. Here is a challenge for comics creators (If you draw comics, feel free to attempt this one yourself, and maybe give me a little credit on it):

–

RAIN

A comic goes on for a few panels until a drop of rain hits it, and we realize that we have been looking at a comic that character has been reading. That character opens an umbrella and is then revealed to be a mascot on a product's packaging. The product is then shown to be a part of the scene we were shown in the original first few panels. The overall feeling should be that we have witnessed a complete cycle, either narrative or visual, or both.

–

If you would like to support the Hugo House, please donate a litte something via my page...

http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/Lasky/3030-writing-challenge-2015

I am writing 30 minutes every day in the month of October to help raise funds for Seattle's Hugo House, a place for writers. A lot of what I've been writing falls under the heading "Ideas for Short Comics" -- a flurry of ideas which I may sit down and turn into comics one day. I am posting some of them here on LiveJournal for other cartoonists who may get inspiration from them. Here is one more of my "ideas for short comics" (If you draw comics, feel free to do this yourself):

–

Make your own version of a classic comics page. Write new text in the captions and balloons (and sound effects).  [See example below]



–

If you would like to support the Hugo House, please donate a litte something via my page...

http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/Lasky/3030-writing-challenge-2015

–

–

Loteria Comics

Do a web search for “Loteria Cards.”
Pick a deck you like.
Redraw the grid (or part of it) as a comic, adding word balloons as you wish.

Subject: your own aspirations vs. fate.

–

Erotic Comic

Take up to 3 pages to depict a sex fantasy, or memorable sexual experience. You may hide or disguise the identities of the characters if necessary.

Look up the printers' text “Lorem ipsum.” This will be the text of your comic, to use any way you desire. Be adventurous.

The title of your comic will be “Latin Lover.”

–

I am writing 30 minutes every day in the month of October to help raise funds for Seattle's Hugo House, a place for writers. A lot of what I've been writing falls under the heading "Ideas for Short Comics," which may become a zine some time soon. Here is one of my "ideas for short comics"...
–

Public Dominion

Pick a book you like that is in the public domain (published before ~1915).

Turn to the page that corresponds with your current age.

Pick the longest paragraph (or the entire page) and make a comic which has one panel for each sentence in the paragraph.

Content of the panels and how the text is used is up to you.

–

If you would like to support the Hugo House, please donate a litte something via my page...

http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/Lasky/3030-writing-challenge-2015