Vacation round up #1: Sam Klemke

Here it is Friday and I'm on my last official day of vacation, back to the old grind on Monday. We did so much stuff on vacation that I'm going to break it down over a few blog posts.

Last Friday Morgan's mom wanted to take Elliott to the Washington County Fair in Hillsboro so she could see the animals. I didn't really feel like going because I try to stay away from Carnies, I usually end up in some kind of a verbal tête à tête with them when they try and get me to play knock down the milk bottles or throw rings in their rigged games, but I went anyway. I'm glad I did, because as we were about to leave I glanced over my shoulder and saw some caricatures hanging in a booth, I knew who the artist was before I even saw him sitting there eating his lunch, Sam Klemke.


I've Known Sam for about 11 years but through every fault of my own I've lost touch over the years. Sam's a great guy he's a cartoonist, caricaturist, movie and comic buff, Renaissance man, Filmmaker and Bon Vivant. I met Sam in Medford at the Rogue Valley Mall of all places. We started talking and quickly struck up a friendship and mutual admiration. Sam and I can always geek out talking about comics, music, movies and life in general. I came back later and showed him a picture of my dad (who passed when I was 10) and he did a great drawing of me fishing with my dad who had little angel wings, I gave it to my grandmother and she loved it.

I walked up to Sam at the fair and he was completely shocked to see me. I introduced him to Morgan, her mom and Elliott.

He insisted on doing a caricature of Elliott. She wasn't too cooperative but he was able to do a great drawing.


I'm just glad Morgan or her mom didn't ask him "So how long have you been doing this?", inside joke. He also gave me a copy of his book, it's a collection of autobiographical comics that he's been drawing through out the years. It's called "Party of 1" and is available at his website, I've linked it in my "Chuck's Peeps" category. You can also check out a short movie that he made over on YouTube, also very autobiographical. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miD0HUUM-ek

So that was cool seeing Sam again. I'm so bad about keeping in touch with people. We're going to get to see him in a few weeks because he's going to be working at the Pig Out At The Park. So if you're in Spokane stop by and see Sam and get your caricature done, you won't be sorry.

Later,
CS