Firstly special thanks to Comic Book Ink owner John Munn for the use of his fine establishment whom all CLAW members have concluded is the ultimate NERD MECCA in Tacoma, WA.  Surrounded by buxom, scantily clad, super heroine statuettes and boxes of minty fresh comic books elite members of the Cartoonists League of Absurd Washingtonians High Council held congress to vote on imperative matters all things cartooned.

1. ART ON THE AVE. – members asked about status of this event. Took roll on who is available to attend. RR Anderson lives within walking distance so he was assigned first shift. Mark Monlux can do afternoon if a table is available for poster sales and zine presentation.  If no table is available members will stage a walk out. We will see.
2. URBAN ART FESTIVAL – STOWE is our point man on this, need to confirm dates, who is available. He’ll follow up on this.
3. CLAW ART SHOW AT TACOMA ART SUPPLY – Warren needs art from us ASAP for opening in AUG 1.  He has offered to mount on foam core board for us. Frost Park art work is ideal for this event.
4. 24 hr COMIC BOOK DAY – coming up in October. Comic Book Ink has offered to host up to 6 or so CLAW members to participate. Comic book Ink is a union operation so strict 24 hr comic book day rules apply (so not like those spawns of insomnia Cartoonists Northwest clowns  north I-5).
5. Iron Artist Competition at Tacoma Art Museum – RR is team leader. Why? Nobody seems to know; however, this event is happening at end of the month and we will dominate. Construction of a ‘super fez’ was mentioned as a thought experiment; members are intrigued. Happening July 31st.  Lots of silly questions were mailed to us in a form letter. Will add to wiki for TEAM CLAW to ponder. Need to remember to bring tools. AND ask for a spot with POWER outlets.
6. STANLEY SHAW – talked about how much of a weenie this cartoonist is for refusing to join THE CLAW. The man has inside info to working for CityArts… Mark was assigned to pump him for more info.
7. CLAW ZINE ISSUE NO. 003 DRAFTING STAGE – with issue no. 002 hitting news stands in your friendly neighborhood participating Tacoma businesses now is the time to get issue no. 003 cooking.  RR was assigned editor and the theme we decided on is “THE CITY OF DENSITY” a parody of Tacoma’s famous tagline “The City of Destiny” made famous by George McFly in that Back to the Future film when he says to his future wife: “You’re my density!” We will apply this to comics; trying to fit in as many different vignettes on one page for each member inspired by Electric Elliots tiny strips from Zine ISSUE  NO. 1.
8. OTHER BUSINESS – sadly new member Jeff was the only member unable to attend. We managed to fold many more bundles of zines thanks to help from Member Mike’s wife (who escaped the fate of wearing the fez of shame). Did we mention how incredible Comic Book Ink is? Man that place is SERIOUS AWESOMENESS! Also apparently there is an all you can eat sushi place over on 38th that is rad.

this concludes the secret meeting notes. Please burn this monitor after reading.

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.

CLAW IS PLEASED to announce the launch of our official mini-comic zine newsletter: CLAW-TU Verata Nikto! ISSUE NO. 001.   Hitting the streets, coming to a local coffee shop(s) near you (viz. Blackwater, Satellite, Mad Hat Tea Co., Urban Xchange, Mandolin etc.)!

A Funny, Collectible Mini-Comic Zine targeted at the people of Tacoma! Collect them all.  Don’t miss another opportunity.

IN THIS ISSUE: With special guest cartooning stars: Mark Monlux, Stowe, Electric Elliot, and RR Anderson!