Mark Monlux visited RR Anderson at the Holistic Forge Works compound today to begin work on the wayzgoose steamroller print design (photographed above, design courtesy of digital mastermind James Stowe).  With the opaque projection photo/transfer process a success, RR Anderson and Mark Monlux began carving their respective quadrants.

“We made good progress” exclaimed an exacerbated RR Anderson half buried under a pile of linoleum shavings, “It was hard to keep up with Monlux, a seasoned freelancer. The man is a meticulous powerhouse when it comes to results-oriented tasks. Even so, I look forward to working with Electric Elliot and Stowe at the HFW industrial compound.  We’re on target to meeting our March 1st Deadline. No worries.”

By grace of Kings Books and the Tacoma Arts Commission, the CLAW have been announced as official participants in this year’s King’s Books Wayzgoose!!! to take place on March 1st, 2009 at noon.

From Kings:

C.L.A.W., the Cartoonist’s League of Absurd Washingtonians, is a viciously serious secret society bringing together talented Washington state cartoonists.  Consisting of Elliott Trotter, R.R. Anderson, Mark Monlux, James Stowe, two zombie assistants, and a chinchilla, this group seeks to bring sequential art and illustration to the masses.  This is their first Wayzgoose designing a Steamroller Print.

What will the CLAW create? Who knows, but by the fish of the great Pacific, it will be glorious.

These are the semi-official meeting notes prepared inside the hyperbolical steel trap that is the mind of CLAW!

• ASSOCIATE MEMBERSHIPS – memberships for people who aren’t cartoonists but still want to hang out with cartoonists, support amusing community art-stunts and most important wear a fez.
• HONORARY MEMBERSHIPS – would be like Mormon “baptism for the dead”… call people members even if they have no interest in joining.  Something you bestow on people.
• OUR NEWSLETTER AS A “ZINE” OR MINI COMIC – talked about newsletter names Elliot liked ‘claw and order’ each member would draw page numbers from a fez and be responsible for cartoon content on that page.  zines would be distributed to coffee shops and or stuffed into City Arts and other unsuspecting host publications. Think old-school mad magazine… comics and fake ads.
• NON-PROFIT STATUS – would allow us to apply for arts grants, etc.  drawback: can’t offer political endorsements.
• OPEN TO THE PUBLIC MEETINGS – second meeting of every month would be open to the pubic.  Come join us at Mandolin Cafe!
• STUDENT MEMBERSHIPS – NO REDUCED PRICE for students!  it’s to hard to keep track of who is actually a student and who is looking for a handout.
• SCHOLARSHIPS – need more members to build up scholarship funds!
• 24HR COMIC DAY MARATHON -  John from comic book ink and Warren from Tacoma Art Supply are onboard for corporate sponsorship!
• VIDEO MEMBER PROFILES – Electric Elliot thought it would be fun to do micro documentaries for each member on the website.
• WAYZGOOSE – We all agree to collaborate on group design and that 3×5 foot slab of linoleum is the way to go.

Subsequent Email Correspondence!

Dear James,

You missed two hours of sheer relaxing bliss last night.

One of the projects we want to work on is a mini-comic to distribute around in coffee houses. If you fold the mini-comic out the hidden section would be a clear description of the group and the scholarship. So, to start this project we each drew two numbers from a hat representing the pages we would work on. See the zine template here

You pulled: Cover & Page 2
Me: Page 1 & B
Elliott: Pages 3 & 4
RR: Pages 5 & 6

Keep in mind that we need to photocopy the art for mass production. This means that there should be a quarter inch space between the edge of the art and the live image space.

James job on the cover will be tough until we settle on a name for the Newsletter.

• Truth and CLAW
• CLAW-Marks
• CLAWtoons
• CLAWarts
• CLAW and Order
• CLAWful
• I Am the CLAW

Sorry Elliott, RR, but some of the names we came up with last night and which I thought I posted did not get on there. Please go in and add them.

Other than having the newsletter name and website address on the active section, it was agreed that there should be no rules governing content other than to be Pro-Claw. All the clear stuff can be on the hidden page your see when you fold it out. Guys please correct me if I have this wrong.

I will type up some minutes for posting. Most the time we sat doodling and working on our hats.

– Mark Monlux

Stowe says:

Man, I missed you guys last night. I didn’t leave work until near 9 and I am already back in here at 6am today. I needed some Washingtonian Absurdity. On the newsletter name front… has anyone come up with Claw and Punishment yet? I still have a CLAW check to give to someone (Mark?) and I would like to hand that off as soon as I can. My catalog ships to printer next Wednesday… after that I will need some serious cartoonist bonding. Mark, is there a bad movie coming out soon? Maybe something with zombies in it?