1. agreed that this Friday will be best to attend Buddy Holly play at TLT. some will be gathering to eat before the show, others will be meeting up at TLT right before the show.  Agreed that we will all wear fez.
2. New pledge Michael ( http://jinxmedicstudios.us/ )  has paid his $70 dollar membership fee. We have assigned him a size 7 fez from the box of props for him to attend the TLT show.  Be prepared for official initiation ceremony next OPEN SWIM. In the meantime please check out his website… the dude is like Leonardo da Vinci. Amazing.
3. Elliot reaffirmed his idea of tacoma needing a CARTOONIST LAUREATE to compliment the POET LAUREATE program. Idea still needs development. How will Cartoonist Laureate interact with the community?
4. talked of taking over all COMICS on feedtacoma.com creating tacoma’s first online-bottom up-anarchy-newspaper comics page in Tacoma as most of us already produce (semi)weekly strips.  RR will follow up with Kevin to see the best way to go about this…  could be as easy as collecting a bunch of RSS feeds together and the cartoonist adding a keyword tag like ‘tacoma’ to their respective blog/webcomic whathaveyou.  Need to check with Mark Monlux though to get his thoughts how he feels about this. My personal thoughts are in an age when traditional newspapers are shrinking their comics pages, this could be a big F.U. to the universe–which makes me happy.
5. [ANONYMOUS TACOMA ACTIVIST] stopped in to share feelings that Tacoma is really hurting for an alternative/underground publication zine that young people would be interested in. Something with lots of comics and a place where alternative music venues can share events.  Perhaps side 2 of CLAW zine?  [ANONYMOUS] expressed that local biz get zip in return for expensive ads in [TITLE(s) REDACTED]…   shared a flier that Sean Alexander (previously of helm gallery) put together where he illustrated all advertising.  Maybe biz could pay cartoonists to illustrate ad in zine…?  Who knows exact details..  But  [ANONYMOUS] wanted to bring to our attention as creative creator types developing a publication that there is a niche market right here in Tacoma that is dying to be tapped into.  to recap:  young people with money aren’t reading local publications because all lame.  Biz owners don’t want to buy ads in publications that young people with money aren’t going to read.  ???
6. report on back room of Urban Xchange as meeting place for CLAW:  owner is super nice, back  room sexy but hot, fez gets sweaty. unsatisfactory table space for drawing.   Next steps?  Check status of Mandolin?  Stowe: Check with Comic Book Ink,  tables in back might be good for open swim.  Anyone check comments here? http://www.cartoonistsleague.org/an-open-swim-teaser/
   looks like a member of the pythian knights lodge invited us to have meetings at pythian temple downtown.  Maybe somebody can follow up with him?
7. Talk of end of the year CLAW awards dinner. Naturally we would need to consume food that had claws..the lobster for example.  We all painted visuals of such an evening with the wacom stylus of the imagination.

Congratulations to Adam M Botsford for winning the 2009 Young Cartoonist/Illustrator of the Future Scholarship! Adam has received an over sized novelty check in addition to $100 dollars in cold hard cash.

Check out his amazing pumpkin illustration…

Adam has posted a write up of his experience during the CLAW OPEN SWIM MEET and AWARD CEREMONY which is sewn with well crafted sketches he drew during our group conversaton about the superiority of 1980’s zombie movies.

 

On behalf of THE CLAW high fez council of MYSTIC EYES, I wish you the best of luck. May your pencil always be sharp and your eraser never besmirched. You are one talented dude worthy of a fez.

Put down that remote and join the Open Swim!
The CLAW (Cartoonists League of Absurd Washingtonians) will be having their Open Swim this Wednesday evening. The Open Swim is for both member and non-members. Anyone who wants to be part of the festivities is welcomed. Besides the usual hijinks of doodling and preparing the path for the robotic overlords, the first recipient of the C.L.A.W.’s Young Cartoonist of the Future Scholarship will receive a giant novelty check. The time and location are:

Wednesday, 7:30 p.m.
The Mandolin Café
3923 S 12th St
Tacoma, WA 98405
(In the back room, to the left of the performance stage.)
RSVP if you can, space is limited.

If you would like to get a direct email informing you of CLAW meetings and events click on the membership page and subscribe to the email list.