IKJK’s own Colleen Frakes is one of the new Xeric recipients! Many congratulations to Colleen! She more than deserves it.

Colleen just released a new mini, the 5th installment in her Tragic Relief series, Ninja Robot Zombie FunTime. A mere $3 in the IKJK Store.

Xeric news coverage in The Comics Reporter, and The Beat.

Why is the Alaska part of our trip split up into 3 parts? Because we were there for 11 days. That’s a lot of days. And we made 3 different stops in 3 different ports, the last port being Dutch Harbor of “Deadliest Catch” fame.

Beautiful, isn’t it? From what I understand, Dutch Harbor is just the major harbor on the Aleutian island of Unalaksa. Yes, Unalaska, Alaska. Is there an Unoregon in Oregon? No. An Unnew Jersey in New Jersey? Actuall, maybe. But anyway, there we were.

The Aleutians were a Japanese target during WWII, which is why the US military built a bunch of defensive installations on the islands. There’s these run-down huts all over the place, in addition to a few now-gunless gun emplacements.

We saw at least 10 different bald eagles while we were there. Unfortunately, the adults were impossible to get close to (maybe fortunately, as they could rip our faces off with their talons). This adolescent was perched down a hillside we were driving on, and the road was sufficiently hidden from his view that we were able to get a few pictures without scaring him off.

If you’ve never seen “Deadliest Catch,” it’s about possibly the most dangerous job in the world: Alaskan King Crab fishing. All their boats are based out of Dutch Harbor. We did some crab fishing ourselves, except we pulled up the crab pots BY HAND. Here’s the spoils.

So then it was back to Tacoma, Washington. Here I am, spotting land. I was an integral part of the voyage.

Should I file this under “C” for can or “E” for empty?

Our arrival. Our dock is on the right, and that’s the impressive Mt. Ranier in the background.

Next Up: Crackheads in Vancouver, driving Rt. 1 on the California coast, and on to San Francisco.

The line snaked from the Briggs Opera House halfway
down Main Street. I was able to cut because I had
volunteered to work on the set up and clean up crew.
There were probably a few hundred people there at
least. It was a full house. After everybody finally
got seated a few local former VT politicians such as
Matt Dunn spoke about the Center for Cartoon Studies
and about how we were lucky to have such a talented
yet shy famous cartoonist pay us a visit. The former
Governor was there and she said a few words about how
we would all be lost without humor in this day and
age. She made some disparaging remarks about Mr. Bush
and said it felt good.

Finally Garry TD hopped onto the stage and went right
into his presentation. He joked about his generation
of baby-boomers innate ability to reinvent itself in
an effort to stay viable and important.

“When asked when the onset of middle age begins we say
at about 80.”

(Pause for comic relief)

Then he read us his future planned obituary as
a professional Basketball player for the New York
Knicks.

“No, I don’t think it’s that unrealistic. If you’ve
seen the Knicks lately…yeah. woah.”

The lecture was comedic and serious at times. Garry
showed us clips from his HBO and Cinemax shows
satirizing Reagan’s semi-botched bombing of Libya.
That particular parody depicted a group of dancing
singing bomber pilots amped up in a video arcade
playing After Burner between dance moves, and singing
in a sort of rhyming melodic military jargon.

We also were treated to new and old versions of the
animated Doonesbury. There was a huge difference
between the old cell animated high budget tv version
and the new web version. I actually liked the older
looking version better, but Garry was telling us about
the future in which cheap animation would change
comics on the web.

There were some other important bits like Garry telling
us how he got his start being plucked right out of a
college paper to do syndicated work for the big
papers.

“I was in the right place at the right time.”

He also told us about how when his strip got more
controversial the same old publishers who had once ran
his strip valuing his young voice and opinions,
dropped him. He told us about the anxiety of losing
those big clients and how it all worked out based on
the advice of his editor who told him in a cocktail
bar over the rim of a martini,
“Don’t worry. Just wait. They’ll die.”

It was a good plan.

Sure enough, the old publisher who dropped the strip
died a year later and the inheriting young publisher
made his first decision at the helm to buy Doonesbury
thus solidify it’s market worth, hipness, and
longevity to the other papers.

“It wasn’t my draughtmanship that they wanted so much as
what I had to say. This was a time of massive
generational divide. The papers needed fresh voices.
Younger voices from the generation that was tuning
out. At that point I was still awkwardly trying to
find my style on the page with each printing.
Fortunately, my audience stuck with me.

Garry told us about winning the Pulitzer and how over
night he was “fit company for dinner parties” and how
“that kind of scared me.”

He also told us about the gag coupons he had printed
in one strip with instructions to mail in to a corrupt
Washington politician who had questionable spending
and accountability habits. Of this he remarked,

“They tried to put the strip out of business…but
after the tenth bag of coupons arrived he gave up and
told the post office to stop delivering them.”

At the end of the lecture Trudeau answered questions
from the audience such as “Why did you leave the mouth
out of your early character’s faces?”

One woman who had approached the student comic
concessions stand before the show stood up at the end.
She was fighting back tears.

“My husband has been deployed to Iraq. Reading your
strip has helped me get through this time apart. I’ve
even started making my own comic. Thank you,” she
said.

Now it was Trudeau’s turn to fight back the wetness
from his bespectacled eyes.

“Thank you for saying that. And thank your husband for
me.”

The crowd stood at attention and thunderous applause
filled the opera house.

After Anchorage, the next stop was Kodiak Island.

This is a view coming into the harbor.

Ships this large all require a pilot when going in and out of port. A pilot is based in one specific port, and knows it like the back of his hand. They’re experts at the delicate maneuvers involved in docking ships. And the guy we had to bring us into Kodiak landed on the ship in a helicopter the night before. A helicopter landed on the ship. How cool is that.

We went fishing for salmon once we got to Kodiak

The river where we started.

Me looking all ready to fish. Or whatever.

The first spot we went to wasn’t so great, but the 2nd spot was amazing. The river was running so thick with salmon you couldn’t not catch something. We were in the middle of the up-river run of “Pinks.” There were a few of the more desirable “Silvers,” but mostly Pinks. We caught enough to fill two big garbage bags to the point they almost broke they were so heavy.

And then, we got a visitor.

There are signs all over the place telling everyone that, in the case a bear shows up, you should walk quickly to your car and get the hell out. We didn’t do that. We just stood there and stared. Kodiak grizzlies are a sub-species of grizzly bear, known for being much larger than normal grizzlies.

This guy came with a buddy, but the 2nd bear disappeared pretty quickly. This one just went a little bit into the river and started scooping out salmon one after the other, taking one big bite out of the middle of the fish, and discarding the remains. He did this for 8-10 fish, then wandered off. Couldn’t have cared less if we were there or not. Which is good, because I wasn’t in the mood to be eaten.

We brought our bounty of salmon back to the ship for the chefs to cook up for the whole crew. Fresh salmon. Delicious.

Alaska Part 3 coming soon.

After Joe and I hit Portland and Seattle we were able to hitch a ride on a ship going up to Alaska. Lest you think there is no way we could have freeloaded for an entire 11-day trip, rest assured we did. People ask us: “Well, you had to pay something, right?” and we say “No.” And then people ask us: “Well, you had to work on the boat, right?” and we say “No.”

We were on a 700-foot container ship carrying 850 containers to Anchorage, Kodiak, and Dutch Harbor, Alaska.

By my count we took about 120 automobiles to Anchorage.

The view out of my private stateroom.

Sunsets out in the middle of the ocean: pretty nice

ditto.

We would shoot rockets at each other to pass the time when we got bored.

It took about 3 days or so of sailing to reach our first port, Anchorage (That’s sailing out of Tacoma, Washington, at the south end of Puget Sound). Anchorage is a nice city. In the summer. I wouldn’t want to be there in the winter. The center of the city had a great feel to it, and I had the best fish and chips I’ve ever had at a bar there (the secret is really fresh halibut). Joe’s uncle, who got us on the ship –being the captain and all he was allowed to do that– took us to meet a friend of his, Pedro, who took us up the gondola at Alyeska Mountain. Alyeska is the major, possibly the only, ski resort within a reasonable distance of Anchorage. The gondola took us up several thousand feet in the matter of minutes, getting us some great views.

That’s one of the cannons they use to start avalanches.

That night we went out to a local bar, Humpy’s, and had ourselves a few drinks. The ship set out at midnight so everyone was required to be back by 11 pm. We made it in time, and settled down for the trip out to our next stop, Kodiak Island.

As you can see from Sam’s post below, we’re all getting ready for the Small Press Expo in Bethesda, Maryland here at I Know Joe Kimpel. Like industrious little elves we are photocopying, assembling, folding, stapling and trimming our little hearts out. SPX will take place next Friday and Saturday, October 12th and 13th, at the Marriott Bethesda North Hotel & Conference Center, so if you’re in the area stop by and say hello. IKJK will be at table G2 with a smattering of new books from our talented artists.

One new book which will be debuting at SPX is Sean Ford’s eagerly anticipated Only Skin #2. Only Skin #1 garnered him a lot of critical acclaim and the new issue picks up where that left off and promises to deliver more disappearances, new questions, and mystery and intrique all around. Only Skin #2 will be for sale at the IKJK store immediately following SPX! Sean will be at table H2 at SPX so if you can’t wait for your copy grab it there while you can.

These are the comics to be available from myself at Small Press Expo this year, including one of my favorite comics right now, “White Vinegar” by Jacob Berendes (only 10 copies though! Some are already reserved too!). Faux-Pas #5 is limited to 60 copies, and Pizza Wizard #1 is limited to infinity copies. Seriously.

See you there!