I am not sure where the observations like "people who go to Wordstock don't like comics" and "graphic novel ghetto" come from as I have noticed, the last few years, that the comics garden is the most bustlin' part of Wordstock and several people I know have made the same, unprompted observation.. Those comments reek of the air of somebody who was unhappy with something last year and didn't do anything to change it or work towards making things better. Most everyone I talked to about it this year said that all the passersby WANTED to learn more about comics.. Also, 5 of the Workstock speakers were people from graphic novel / comics community.

Though not many comics were actually sold this weekend by people I knew tabling in the garden (myself included), I cruised around the fest a few times with this article in mind and noticed, yet again, the comics garden was the most busy area of Wordstock. Also, it seemed to also be the place where attendees stopped and loitered more to talk with the tablers because they wanted to know more about what local creators were doing and how they did it..

As to the comic book folk not appearing in the list, that actually may NOT be Wordstock's fault, as most of the core organizers heading up the Stumptown Comics Foundation board did almost NO planning of the garden until the last minute, with lesser-in-charge board members trying to pick up the slack and plugging comics folk into tables as late as just a week ago and not scheduling some comics workshops until this past week... An announcement of the comics garden even happening at Wordstock again this year wasn't posted on the SCF website until October 9th. I feel sorry for the lesser-in-charge SCF board members who had to field a lot of last minute planning and complaints because the people who seek to have credit for leading SCF aren't truly doing the job.

Stumptown Comics Fest organizers seriously dropped the ball to plan for Wordstock and are not making their comics community a priority this year, despite even having the fancy titles like "President of Stumptown Comics Foundation" (the President didn't even make an APPEARANCE at Workstock all weekend) and "Director of Stumptown Comics Fest" (the Director did at least made an appearance one of the days). The founder of SCF and former man-in-charge (Indigo Kelleigh) made time in his schedule to come; I heard rumors that he may come back into SCF to help again, I direly hope they are true, as he is a sincere guy who is able to play well with others and maybe would be able to restore some peace and focus to SCF. Regular SCF tablers were there all weekend tabling, like Top Shelf, Sparkplug Publishing, Erika Moen, Jamie S. Rich, Paul Guinan, Sean Christensen, Jesse Reklaw, Oni Press, Anina Bennett, David Malki, John Isaacson, and Joelle Jones. Cosmic Monkey Comics made the time to pack up a mini shop's worth of comics and be there all weekend. The SCF volunteer coordinator volunteered all weekend (true to the the tile)... But where where most of the main SCF organizers and how are they spending their time? Instead of committing themselves to planning and promoting SCF, they're fighting amongst themselves, pointing fingers when things aren't done rather than rallying together, and playing dress up at other events.

It's really disheartening and I fear for the future of Stumptown Comics Fest with such uninspired, haphazard organizing. SCF has yet to choose artwork for 2010 or even acquire official guests and speakers. I passionately hope whoever they decide to ask, at what will now be the last minute (in terms of big festival organizing), has it in their hearts to agree to appear at SCF for the sake of our community. But really, how could the SCF community expect them to, when most our own organizers won't make SCF a genuine priority. I also hope that, in writing this comment, SCF organizers read it and start to realize that their community is paying attention to what is going on, recognizes their poor planning and is feeling insulted.

Put your personal issues and power struggles aside, genuinely commit to the community you claim titles to, show up to your own events, or step down so that more inspired and committed people can pick up your slack if you're unable to make the Stumptown Comics Foundation and Fest a priority.