The CLAW 2013 A.D. photo by Steve Dunkelberger

The Great Yearly Ceremony Eye Cycle is complete!  We present to you the players from right to left:

• RR Anderson – new council member of the four eyes, political cartoonist
• Rob Larson – Orphan cartoonist and new member and proxy for council member Anique Zimmer
• Mike “JinxPhantom” Shaudis – High Chancellor of the Knights of Pythias and CLAW CROW/Zombie cartoonist
• Carmen “Nemrac the Destroyer” Melendez – Comic book shop operator, cosplayer, cartoonist, FRIEND OF CLAW no. 01
• Electric Elliot Trotter – CLAW FOUNDER PRIME (the undying no. 01)
• Thorax O’ Tool aka Larry E. – Bean Town, Fail Whale, elemental cartoonist CURRENT SITTING CLAW COUNCIL FOUR EYE
• Mystery Friend of CLAW – The Original Series
• James Stowe – Sidekick Quests Cartoonist CLAW founder NO. 4
• Joel Larson – FRIEND OF CLAW NO. 02, Sidewalk Chalk Expert Class
• [Name removed upon request] – Retiring Four Eye Council, Member no. 13
• Mark Monlux – Return of Stickman, Comic Critic movie review cartoonist and Claw FOUNDER no. 03
• Mark “B9” Brill – Dogwood Tales, Platypus cartoonist!
• Michael Daley – new council member of the four eyes, Dr. Venture Cosplayer

New Council-members Michael Daley (sword left), RR Anderson (sword right) photo by Steve Dunkelberger

Two eyes open! Two eyes close. Swords are exchanged for PEN IS MIGHTIER !  The hymn of the robot overlords was sung.  The world was saved from destruction for another year.  Cake was eaten. Tiny robots were set upon each other for the amusement of all. Verily, descendant historians will chronicle this night in song for weeks to come.  We are the mighty talons of the CLAW… Follow us on FACEBOOK!

the PHANTOM ORGANIST photo by Steve Dunkelberger

Complete Photo Album of CLAW at Great Yearly Ceremony

Great Yearly Ceremony on Weekly Volcano Blog

**RR’s GOALS**

Do You Like 2 Draw? C.L.A.W. Wants YOU!

My fellow adamantium talons of the CLAW, friends of CLAW across the airwaves, CLAW cadets and Citizen fanbots! This is your new No. 2 speaking on behalf of my new capacity as 1 of 4 of the High CLAW Council of the Four Eyes… EYEBALL!

• I pledge to boost enrollment of our ranks… in particular I’d like to reach out to lady cartoonists and lady illustrators in the community.  I will listen and report back suggestions for making our league more appealing to these market groups.
• I pledge to really push hard for our much delayed 501c non profit status… EYEBALL!
• I pledge to organize members to complete their member gallery about page with samples of portfolio work and basic minimum of contact information!
• I pledge to promote our CLAW college art student scholarship program at every opportunity. This is a record setting year. I hope to match in the year to come!
• I pledge forward motion on our CLAW anthology self-published book!
• I pledge honest feedback and portfolio reviews of work. Our skills must ever be sharpened… no talon left behind!
• I pledge more life drawing! tutorial nights! movie riff nights!  challenges to other drawing/craft/activity groups!
• I pledge more community power team ups! We have got some awesome cartoon strips going here, lets see if we can’t get them into some publications around here!
• I pledge to put the absurd back in Absurd Washingtonians… EYEBALL!

May the power of the cosmos be with you! 

BREAKING:  CLAW will be at the Emerald City Comic Convention!

**end transmission***

This interview came about because of The C.L.A.W.! I first met Saint Bryan, a fellow Tacomanite, at last year’s 24 Hour Comic Challenge. If you recall The CLAW was doing a combination fundraiser for Comic Book Ink and The CLAW Student Scholarship Fund. Saint made a donation and he received on of the brown bag cards, which happened to have some of my art on it. I was drawing How to have a Table at a Comic Book Convention and we chatted for a bit. I would later run into him at ZomBcon where he would get a chance to see my book and other stuff. It was then he asked me if I would be willing to draw some pictures for an interview. We did the filming back in December. I want to thanks Comic Book Ink for being a backdrop to for some of that interview.

At the last 24 Hour-Comic day, i began a project with my friend and writing partner Zan Christensen.  It was a comic about bullying and one boy’s efforts to overcome it and although we didn’t finish it at the event, we did continue to work on it actually did a limited print-run to debut at this year’s Emerald City ComiCon.  Now we are trying to raise funds through Kickstarter.com to do a large, color print-run that will hopefully be published in time for San Diego ComiCon, through Northwest Press.com (Zan’s publishing concern.)

Well, now Zan and I have been named “Heroes of the Week” on Michael Hulshof-Schmidt’s “The Sollipsistic Me” blog site.  He writes about the comic and what it’s trying to accomplish in raising awareness about the issue of teen suicide because of bullying.  You can read more about it by following this link:

http://hulshofschmidt.wordpress.com/2011/04/29/hero-of-the-week-award-april-29/

“Hero” is a bit of a strong word, but I certainly appreciate the recognition!

Donations can be made to the Kickstarter.com site here:  (Please copy and paste into browser.)

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/zan/anti-bullying-comic-the-power-within