Photos: (Left) A volunteer moss rose bloom, Portulaca grandiflora, in a sidewalk crack. (Right) The same plant a few weeks later, after being carefully removed from the sidewalk crack and transplanted to a landscaping bed.

The Moss Roses

“Do you have any moss roses?”

I hear the voice of an old woman ask from across the garden centre.

“I’m sorry, we’re sold out,” comes the answer. I cannot see the speakers, but their disappointment drifts like a fog over the swaths of petunias and marigolds. The young man in the muddy apron is sweetly apologetic.

“We get one shipment early in the season,” he says. “And they always sell out immediately.” Moans of resignation issue forth from the pair in response.

“We always miss out on the moss roses,” the old women lament to each other, though with no bitterness. They reluctantly examine what is available.

“If only,” I think, “my troubles were so few that I mourned missed flowers.”

Three months later, I come home from shopping. A neighbour, smoking a cigarette on the stoop of my building, points out a delicate white bloom he has noticed in the sidewalk. I squat and look at it closely. “It’s lovely,” he says. I do not recognize the flower. I take a photo and upload it to a plant identification website. Portulaca grandiflora. The moss rose; double-white, specifically.

I hear the regrets of the old women in my mind. This is a gift.

Weeds Are in the Eye of the Beholder

The next day, a different neighbour watches me from his seat on the concrete steps leading to our front door. I look up at him. “This is a volunteer moss rose,” I explain — as if that explains anything at all. He appears confused.

“Oh,” he replies. “I thought you might be growing weeds in your apartment.”

“The old ladies love them,” I continue. He is not listening as I gently wiggle the plant’s root ball from the sandy soil in the sidewalk crack. Afterward, I transplant it into a sunny warm spot in the landscaping bed. Over the following weeks, it rewards my kindness by growing larger and blooming profusely.

No, I am growing weeds outside my apartment.

Growing a Garden

My bookshelf is residence to at least a dozen books on plants and gardening. Several I have had for as long as twenty years. This spring became the year I spontaneously put, “I want to grow a garden someday,” into action.

Starting with a few packets of sunflower seeds and inexpensive trays of annuals, I have gradually overtaken much of the neglected landscaping bed in front of my apartment building. Our beautiful mature trees were destroyed by damage and disease, leaving sun-scorched dirt and thirsty, struggling replacements.

Hauling a 2-gallon watering can back and forth from my apartment like a Medieval peasant, I nurtured an array of colourful, pollinator-friendly flowers. My first round of sunflower seedlings fell to cold and wind, accidental weeding, and rabbits. But a second round of sunflowers, started outdoors in late June, are thriving. The largest of them towers overhead; it is at least 7′ tall.

They should bloom in time for the anniversary of my move to Minnesota.

Nearly all of my neighbours have thanked me for my work at some point in passing. Coming and going, they often find me poking around with my trowel, “Diggie Smalls,” battling the prolific heartleaf four o’clock, or watering in the evenings. Their gratitude and praise are not my motivation, but it is rewarding that something I began doing for my own benefit has radiated outward and improved the quality of life for the people around me as well.

It seems counter-intuitive, but it is often by helping ourselves that we help others the most. Tending to our own garden creates the conditions for love to bloom.

Watching the bumblebees never fails to make me smile.

The Perennial

I find gardening to be an appropriate metaphor for life, generally.

It is seldom glamourous, often repetitive, improved by deliberateness and resilience, and even then does not always produce the results we expect. But even misfortune may not be what it initially seems. The unsightly caterpillar devouring one’s vines will grow into a life-supporting pollinator if given the chance. Waste eventually becomes compost. Death fosters new life.

I admire the practice of tending a few sacrificial plants for “pest” creatures. Balance is not only possible, it is mandatory for living things in an interdependent world to thrive. Humanity is so detached from the natural environment and ever-dwindling wilderness, we have forgotten this. Our ignorance is suicidal.

While there are many variables beyond our control, our gardens are largely a product of what we choose to tend — both as individuals, and collectively. When we are gone, it is the love we shared and the relationships we cultivated that sow seeds for the next generations. Too many have forgotten how to be human.

Perhaps the story of an autist “learning to be human” can help others gain the insight to make that journey as well. I do not know. One can only hope.

I have lived through many droughts and harsh winters. But, like the hardiest of perennials, when the season is right I will always grow back stronger.

Can comic books help save our world? Maybe! It is worth a shot.

Bloom

The release of my new autobiographical project has been delayed due to my work for the Minnesota Comic Book Association (MNCBA), but this is not a complaint.

As of 22 June, I have completed 117 comic drafts, and the first volume is completely scripted. You can read the draft version now by subscribing to my Patreon and viewing the “comics” tag. I also detailed my fifteen-year book release schedule in a post for my subscribers. So in the grand scheme of things, a delay of a few months is not substantial. Things will happen in due time.

It is incredibly exciting to be rebuilding my own brand simultaneously with the MNCBA. I hope that the resurgence of my own comics industry career can benefit the organization as well, like my flower garden for my neighbours.

The world needs cooperation, community, and creativity now more than ever.

Dams and flood-walls must be built against the rising tides of cruelty.

The following post reflects my own personal opinions and perspectives. It is not intended to represent the views of the Minnesota Comic Book Association.

When I first encountered the Midwest Comic Book Association, originally the Minnesota Comic Book Association, in May of 2015, I stepped into an organization in the midst of an identity crisis. Less than a year before my arrival in Minnesota, the leader of the group, Dominic Postiglione, passed away suddenly. Without him, there was no clear unity of goals, image, or vision for the MCBA and its future. For more than a decade, the MCBA had been synonymous with Nick Post.

Midwest Comic Book Association (MCBA)

Following Nick’s death, a number of dedicated volunteers assumed leadership roles to continue the twice-yearly comic book convention in his absence. Though the hard work and passion of the volunteers was without question, I immediately observed that the organization was beginning to struggle. No organizational hierarchy or structure was in place to guide the group moving forward.

That the MCBA might outlive Nick must have felt unthinkable.

There is no need to cast blame for that state of affairs. It is my experience, in general, that few people make a habit of considering what would happen in the event of their demise. Nevertheless, any organization — more so one dependent on the efforts of volunteers — must have clear messaging and a central mission to rally around. That is the glue that holds everything together when account balances dwindle, when conflict arises, and when disaster strikes.

The MCBA, lacking that unity, began to fracture. It was a process I witnessed from the inside after I became an active volunteer myself in 2016.

Midwest Comic Book Fans (MCBF)

Based on my experience with successfully building my own brand, in 2017 through 2019 I repeatedly approached MCBA leadership about modernizing the organization’s branding, messaging, and website. For whatever reason(s), I was never given the authority or creative freedom to make a genuine attempt at achieving those goals. This resulted in much frustration on my part.

In early 2020, the organization rebranded itself as Midwest Comic Book Fans. I was not involved in the decision in any way; indeed, I found out about it months after it had been decided. I did my best to create imaging and a new website for the organization using the art assets and instruction I was provided with.

From 2016 through 2021, I donated hundreds of hours of my time.

I ended all personal and professional ties with the MCBF in mid-2021.

The Midwest Comic Book Fans permanently closed its doors in early 2023.

I wrote last year that I was finished with comic book conventions, and for the most part, that remains true. There are no plans for me to ever return to tabling at shows. I have released the idea that I am “supposed” to enjoy or want that attention. I am content with my day job and marketing my work online.

The one thing I truly enjoyed about the MCBA was volunteering. Being estranged from my biological family, and having moved almost 1200 miles from Houston, TX, to Saint Paul, MN, the MCBA was my adoptive family for many years.

To watch it waste away, and then say goodbye, broke my heart.

Minnesota Comic Book Association (MNCBA)

Evidently I was not the only person to feel that way. As the MCBF was winding down its operations, several long-term volunteers were already in the process of creating the next incarnation of the MCBA. With a return to the original name, the newly-reformed Minnesota Comic Book Association is also a true non-profit.

When I received news of the new organization, admittedly, I had to consider for quite some time whether I was able and willing to become involved again.

Rebuilding a fresh organization from the ground up presented a unique opportunity to achieve the goals I was shut out from previously. After assessing the situation through conversation and volunteer meetings, the temptation of such a challenge proved too much for me to resist. I was all in.

Last March, I presented a formal proposal outlining many of the ideas I had brought up beginning in 2017. I presented an action plan, mock-ups of art assets, and I created a website in time for the SpringCon convention on April 29th. Much to my excitement, my branding and marketing proposal was accepted.

I am working in the role of Creative Director for the new MNCBA.

Creative Director

I am honoured and humbled to be a part of the team of volunteers bringing SpringCon and FallCon back to the Twin Cities under the banner of the newly-reformed Minnesota Comic Book Assocation. I know they were missed.

My personal objective is to do everything within my abilities to help build an organization with its own independent and stable identity, resilient enough to endure the coming and going of individual members. I am dedicated to serving the local comic book community, as well as my colleagues and aspiring comic book creators, through the MNCBA’s events and other resources.

I will work tirelessly to nurture and grow the MNCBA.

The Minnesota Comic Book Association was, and is, something special and valuable that should be preserved. I hope that I do not disappoint you with my efforts to help accomplish that. If you would like to join myself and others in this mission, please consider signing up to become an MNCBA volunteer.

If you wish to work on art assets, please contact me directly.