This Friday, April, 1st, is the debut of the new Swampy’s Florida: Lakeland coloring book at The General Store as part of Downtown Lakeland’s First Friday event.

The coloring book has lots to color and learn about Lakeland’s history and great places to visit. I was able to price the coloring book at $3. If you’re in the area come by and say HI! and get a free drawing between 6 to 9pm.

All of this happening at a store that I think every town should have, The General Store. You can’t miss the rocking chairs outside! Also, if you haven’t met Downtown Lakeland’s infamous Sparky at The General Store, now’s your chance! By the way, that’s Sparky in the middle on the cover.

Come by and visit the first Swampy’s Florida booth at Pine Castle Pioneer Days this Saturday and Sunday in south Orange County! I’ll be drawing Florida scenes, have some Swampy mini-comics & debut Swampy’s first coloring book. There’s lots more than me at the event to see, so come out and experience the Florida Cracker lifestyle with music, friends & fellowship!

Learn more by clicking here!

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I headed over to Bushnell, Florida, for the 31st annual re-enactment of Dade’s Battle at the Dade Battlefield. I pulled out the sketchbook and here are some sketches.

To learn the history of Dade’s Battle click here.

Here is a “slain” soldier lying in the scrub.

I attended the Orlando Remembered meeting Wednesday morning. Above is a sketch of Peggy Jo van den Berg. Below is a sketch of member, and fellow artist, Ellen Smith.

Above is our Orlando Remembered Chairman, Robert Serros, and our permanent Secretary, Grace Chewning.

WOW! I got behind posting the books I’ve read! This should catch is up. To date, this year, I’ve got 25 under my belt.

Here’s this list:
Dade’s Last Command : The non-fiction story of Francis Dade and his soldiers in 1835 and the massacre that followed that started the 2nd Seminole War. Excellent!

Separation of Power: Vince Flynn’s 3rd novel of Mitch Rapp and his war on terrorism. Not the best of the series that I’ve read yet.

The Lincoln Lawyer: A fellow cartoonist recommended author Michael Connelly, so I read this. Maybe I should read another…

Night of Thunder: I continue to read a few contemporary authors and continue to be disappointed. This would have been OK, if I hadn’t figured out the ‘Big Twist’ as soon as the character was introduced.

A Brief History of the Everglades City Area: Good stories, but could have used some fleshing out. The stories are a bit too short. I’m just glad this volume got put together to help document the area in Collier County.

Blackwater Sound: Back to Florida fiction and James W. Hall does it again. I’d put off reading this for a few years and it was great riding an adventure with Thorn again.

True Tales of the Everglades: A fine collection of stories by an author who knows them.

Nuclear Jellyfish: A fun Serge Storm’s story as the serial killer continues his hilarious mayhem across our state of Florida.

Cracker Florida: Don’t know what author Washington was thinking, but most all profiled in this volume are not Crackers. All of the stories are about folks in later years in Florida and what happened from their time moving to Florida or the few with a lifetime here.

The Dreadful Lemon Sky: I bought my friend Jeremy a copy of this book when it struck me it had been 30 years since I read it. So I read it again. WOW! What a difference part of a lifetime makes. Still one of my favorite books, but my understanding and working knowledge of Florida really assisted me in appreciating the story.

Pelts, Plume and Hides – White Traders among the Seminole Indians 1870 – 1930: An excellent examination of the Semino0le and Mikasuki people and their interaction in terms of trade with the white man during the years stated. Terrific book!

Headed over to Silver River State Park about 5 miles. Above is a sketch from across the Silver River at the boat landing at the end of the River Trail.

After that I took the Fort King Military Trail. Below is a sketch from that I added color to.

At the boat launch all these little children were squealing about seeing a turtle. The softshell poked more of his head out and part of his body. He was a huge sucker. I pointed out to the little folks that the turtle was about the size of a little red head there and he was probably hiding under the launch to keep away from hungry gators. Their eyes got all big and scampered back so they might spot the shy critter again. Below is as much of the turtle I could get in a photo.

There’s more about this hike at Swampy’s Florida.

I attended a 3-D showing of ‘The Creature from the Black Lagoon’ on March 16th, 2010. I had a great time visiting with friends I was surprised to run into there, Paula Large, Jerry Darkey, Priscilla Rose, Dan Stapleton, etc. I got to finally meet Holly and Dolly of ‘Holly and Dolly’s Bar and Grill in Casselberry. The twins were also former dancers at Church Street Station and mermaids at Weeki Wachee. To the left is a sketch of someone at the theater.

The best part of the film viewing is that Ginger Stanley attended. Ms. Stanley was the stand-in for Julia Adams in ‘The Creature from the Black Lagoon’. She spoke before and after the film about her experiences in the film and answered questions. After the viewing she was outside the theater greeting fans and signing autographs, which she did for hours. Below is the autograph and below that is a photo of Ms. Stanley and myself.

Sandra and I working on a project in Glades County in South Florida. Part of that was getting with Charlie Lykes with Lykes Brothers. He gave a wonderful interview of the history of the company. The interview was conducted in one of the oldest buildings on their property. A very cool early 1940’s cabin that looks nearly contemporary. The results of our interviews will be available later next month.

Afterward I sketched a few cows on the property.

I attended the Orlando Remembered meeting. We’ve got display projects cooking! To the right are some sketches I made of Robert Serros, Grace Chewning and Richard Bazzo.

I’m digging up all sorts of items from the past as I clear through boxes. Below is a page from a sketchbook from around 1986. I love hearing all sides of an issue. Back then I had more time to do that. A dear friend told me about a retreat with …radical Abbie Hoffman and I went to see first hand what this fellow was all about. During the retreat I made a ton of notes and sketches. Was I shocked to open the pad last night and there at the top is Hoffman’s autograph. I don’t recall getting it, butI did.

After the retreat, which was somewhere near Umatilla, we all gathered at East India Ice Cream Shoppe in Winter Park. I remember former classmate Missy Gaston working there that night. She was shocked when I told her later who she was serving.

What I have always remembered from the retreat was Hoffman speaking of the need for “one world” “an order” “a world dollar”. It was just a couple years later that George H.W. Bush started preaching a “New World Order”, essentially what Hoffman had described at the retreat. A major reason I have a problem with the Bush family.

I attended the Friday luncheon of the Florida Press Association at historic The Breakers in Palm Beach, Florida. During the luncheon the Florida Press Association presented awards to those of the daily papers. Also given were awards from The First Amendment Foundation. The Pete Weitzel/Friends of the First Amendment Award was given to Pat Gleason, who is an assistant to Governor Charlie Crist on many things including open government. She is a great lady. She assisted Sandra and I when visiting the Governors Library & Sandra donated many of her books. Governor Crist was at the luncheon to present the award. Below is a fuzzy photo of Pat Gleason speaking, to the right of the photo.

I was honored to receive the Sunshine Award for my editorial cartoons on the subject of Sunshine Week. Below the photo are the two Sunshine Week cartoons. My time at Orlando City Hall greatly helped my constructing these two cartoons. Director  Barbara Peterson was a big help!

To the right is a colored sketch of drapery in The Breakers.

While at the Florida Press luncheon I met Mark Mathes who once editted a ton of cartoonists when he was with Tribune Media Services. Amongst those is cartoonist and editor, Dick Kulpa. Dick was one time editor of the infamous Weekly World News.  I once penciled a week of comics strips for Dick’s comic strip ‘Ghost Story Club’ many years ago.

Anyway, Mark invited Dick over and we went to dinner. Dick and I drew each other and a photo of such is below.