The title of this post is in reference to all the bad poetry within Chutney
Point that Indigo
insisted I read last night at the hopefully now monthly gathering of Portland
cartoonists. I would call last night a successful and very enjoyable dry run—some
people couldn’t make it and there were others we realized we should have
had notified. I was at least still a little too out of it from San Diego to
be very organized. In fact, this gathering was spearheaded and co-ordinated by Indy.

But as for who was there, well, Indy and myself obviously, Kip,
Lee
Purvis, David Youngblood,
Ezra Clayton Daniels, David
Hahn and wife Robin, Steve
Lieber, Sara
Ryan and
Kevin Moore. There was the usual getting to know each other amongst cartoonists,
questions of “What do you do?” and the passing of actual work. I
actually got the “I didn‘t know you lived in Portland” line
from David Hahn that I‘ve previously heard in reference to Indigo, Linda
Medley, Craig
Thompson and Steve. I was amused and flattered.

We took up a nice bit of
square footage as is was at the Lucky
Labrador so I am amused that we want to at least double the number
next time. ’Cause Portland is just lousy with cartoonists.

There’s a quote from Chuck Palahniuk‘s book Fugitives
and Refugees, a book all about the odd pleasures of Portland about the
than explains the sheer volume of cartoonists for me:

Katherine’s [Dunn] theory is that everyone looking to make a new life
migrates west, across America to the Pacific Ocean. Once there, the cheapest
city where they can live is Portland. This gives us the most cracked of the
crackpots. The misfits among misfits.

Many thanks to Pittsburgh cartoonist Bill
Mudron for sending me an uncorrected proof of this book a couple months
before its official release, giving me a chance to share stories that not even
some of the Portland natives knew of. Also, I can see if they did any continuity
editing to take in to account those things, alas, now gone. Kip thinks many
accounts in Fugitives and Refugees would make good comics.