This year, a few wonderful artists-in-residence contributed comics to the Ramsay Community newsletter, along with a few of my usual newsletter comics. I posted some of the 2018 comics on this blog, but I didn't get around to posting the rest. So, I'm hoping to amend that now, by putting up the last few missing 2018 comics here. Of course, you can also see them on the Ramsay Community Association website.

We'll start with the May 2018 comic, which was really an image from a drawing/brainstorming session at Of the Wild Preschool in Bridgeland.

The June comic was created by Aria, a youthful comics-artist-residence who's a student at Ramsay School. You can see her investigative inclinations are placing her on the right track for a career in comics journalism!

The July comic was contributed by Calgary artist Nicole Wolf, who's busy right now being the New Central Library's inaugural artist in residence (wow!!!). When I saw that Nicole had written this comic about a "chicken incident," it just seemed like a story well-suited to Ramsay, a neighbourhood with a long history of strong feelings about chickens. And, I loved Nicole's comic, too. Sorry it is a little bit hard to read in this online blog format.

Here is September's comic on "Ramsay at Night."

For the November newsletter, I compiled a few snippets from past Ramsay comics, over a 2-page spread: here they are!

And the last comic, wrapping up the 2018 newsletter comics artist-in-residence series, is a Christmas card by Calgary artist Al Gerritsen. I can't find much of Al's work online, but I did find a blog written by a visitor to his workshop, who posted some pictures of his wonderful work.

And that is the end of this story. Thanks Ramsay newsletter and Ramsay readers! Happy new year and see you in 2019!

Every month (just about), I write a comic for my community newsletter, and when I remember to do it, I post the comics here. I just took a look at my blog, and realized I've missed posting the past few comics. I'll have to remedy this, soon! Especially because a few of the 2018 Ramsay newsletter comics weren't actually by me, but were submitted by a few wonderful artists-in-residence who shared their own neighbourhood stories with Ramsay readers.

I'll post those missing comics sometime soon, but in the meantime, here's the October comic - featuring my friend Andrew. You can read more about Andrew here. See you in the neighbourhood!

Why should I even care if nobody remembers "Buck Shot?" I care... because the Buck Shot Show is an important part of the Calgary story!

A few years before I wrote that comic, I wrote another comic about Ramsay for the Calgary Herald. In that one, I mentioned that one of my neighbourhood's claims to fame, was that Buck Shot had been a former resident! (I stole the picture of Benny the bear, from that earlier comic.) Here's a piece of that Calgary Herald comic (you can see the whole thing here).

Did Buck Shot really live in Ramsay? All my knowledge is just based on this anecdote. I hope I've got it right!

I just realized that, in this comic, I called Buck Shot an "artist." I guess he was an artist of the beloved children's television show variety. But I wonder if he would consider himself an artist? I hope so!

It's time to share this month's Ramsay newsletter comic. This year, I've been inviting different artists to contribute a comic to the Ramsay newsletter, to continue the Ramsay comics series about life in my neighbourhood.

Presenting this month's artist-in-residence, Sharon Barrette!

Sharon is an artist based in Parksville, B.C. And this is her first comic!

I asked Sharon if she could send me something about life in her own community in B.C. Sharon paints pictures of the people, animals, and scenes in her life, and I thought she might send me a painting. I was surprised (and delighted) that she tried her hand at a comic. It doesn't show much about the physical setting of her neighbourhood, but instead takes a look at some characters and their interactions. And I love that it has a punchline - in a classic comics style that reminds me of Lynn Johnston's beloved Canadian comic For Better or For Worse.

Maybe you've seen Tom Wujec's talk on How to Make Toast. When people are asked to draw the steps involved in making toast, they come up with many different versions of the story: everything from sowing the wheat, baking the bread, fixing the toaster, smearing the jam, to eating the toast! The way they tell the story, and what they choose to tell about it, gives us some insight into the storyteller's perspective. I'm having fun seeing the different ways my Ramsay newsletter artists-in-residence tell their versions of a one-page neighbourhood story. I'm not surprised that Sharon's comic focuses on the people: she's a sociable person who's sincerely interested in what makes people tick. One of the original  founders of the Inglewood Night Market back in 2013 (when she lived in Calgary), she's also a tireless volunteer who's passionate about helping people and enriching her community.

To see her work, you have to go to Parksville - there isn't much to be found online. But here's an article featuring her work for Nanaimo's 2016 Festival of Banners, as seen in the photo above!

Here's her Ramsay comic, "In My Hood."

Stay tuned for comics from more creative folks, like our previous contributors, Eric Dyck, Phil Dokes and Sharon!

It's the middle of March, and this month's Ramsay newsletter was delivered to Ramsay neighbourhood mailboxes a while back! I haven't had a chance until now, to post this month's newsletter comic here. This is  the second in 2018's newsletter artist in residence series, introduced in last month's blog.

I met Phil at a Bob Dylan concert WAY back in the 1990's. It was only my third show, but he'd already seen Dylan dozens of times! Dylan was at the height of his "Neverending Tour." Fans came from all over the world to see Dylan, but a secondary benefit of coming out to a show was the opportunity to meet other people who shared the passion for the music. It was early internet days, and you couldn't make these kinds of connections online. You'd travel out to the concert venue and hang around early and late in hopes of running into those friends you'd seen before. You got to know the seasons and the hemispheres in which you'd be likely to find certain fans. And you'd have conversations you couldn't have anywhere else.

Ok, so I'm waxing all nostalgic about my days as a Bob Dylan groupie. Suffice to say, one of the friends I made on the road, was Phil, and although a love of Dylan's music was the initial connection between us, we quickly discovered we also shared a love of comics.

And as Phil gently nudged me towards some comics education, others (myself included) were nudging Phil to make the shift from a comics reader to a comics maker. One of my favourites among Phil's self-published works is Drawing Crazy Patterns, a narrative about the so-called BobCats - the Dylan fans who met on the road, their paths crossing and diverging again, until the next show. I've been digging through boxes of comics and I couldn't find that particular one (argh, I know I have it somewhere) - but if you really want to see some comics about the Dylan fan scene, you could take a look at this old blog post of mine.

Hi everyone! As you know, if you've ever taken a look at this blog, I've been writing comics about life in my neighbourhood for a while. This year, I'm stepping away to work on a few other things. But I hated to leave the Ramsay newsletter readers without their monthly comic. So I thought I'd ask some creative people to contribute their own comics this year, instead. Hence, the Ramsay Newsletter Artist in Residence Series! (A fancy way of saying you'll be getting some surprise artworks in your monthly newsletter - which may or may not have anything to do with Ramsay!)

Here's the comic Eric kindly contributed to the newsletter, to start off 2018. What will be next? Wait and see! (Or, if you have a great suggestion - send it my way!)

Check out the whole Ramsay Community Newsletter, in all its volunteer-run glory! This month's issue features a story about creative Ramsayite Caitlynn Cummings! (Alas, the online version has not been posted at the time of writing, but stay tuned, it'll get there one of these days. Did I mention volunteer-run?)