Beren · deMotier · at · LiveJournal

 This last weekend my favorite writing retreat, the Lloyd Center Doubletree, hosted the fourth annual Stumptown Comics Festival, and I got the go see a roomful of creative people wearing a lot of printed T-shirts and holding pens or stylos. The older kids went along; they're into the Web comic genre, as well as graphic novels, so it was fun for them to see what was new at Dark Horse Comics, and what could be done with a Wacon Graphire and CorelPainter. No reasons that teens can't create comics in their abundant spare time. Go for it!

My own interest in the Comicon was two-fold; for one, I wanted to see my good friend AskDr.Eldritch, aka Evan Nichols, who had a table this year and a bumper sticker with my name on it. No, not literally, but held for me to add to my minivan assortment of political, satirical and ideological statements. Keep Portland Eldritch ("Eldritch" is old english for strange or weird) is a natural addition. I even got a button because I know the artist/writer! 

My second motivation for going on a Saturday morning to a room full of zinesters, comic artists, small presses, illustrators and writers who somehow got gigs writing for Batman, Wonder Woman or Buffy the Vampire Slayer (also enough cat hair to have the three of us running for the door to get meds within forty-five minutes), is that I have a secret ambition to write and draw graphic novels. As a visual artist/writer*, the medium seems perfect, add in my two years studying screenwriting--virtually identical to writing for the graphic novel--with ideas to spare that would fit in book form just fine, and you've got a forty-three year-old comic artist wanna be.

The kids weren't the only ones salivating over the computer tools for creating art. Nor were they the only ones going home inspired. But I will have to put those ideas on the back burner while continuing to promote the book, write more articles, put together a humor collection and paint portraits. Someday I'll have three kids happily in school, but that day is not today.

The day at the Stumptown Comics Festival was not without promotional opportunity. In fact, thanks to anti-anxiety meds and age, I was able to hand out postcards for my book to presses, a library connection, several liberal members of the Portland comics community, and three artists and/or writers making lesbian porno comics, apparently a popular genre.

My life motto is "you just never know." As both an artist and a writer I'm still looking for that perfect combination of medium. Perhaps graphic novels will be that, maybe picture books. I'm willing to give it a shot. 

*Here a a couple of samples of my visual work.