Mountain Home, August 2022

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MARVEL AT Comic History in the Making Wellsboro’s First Comic Con Brings Roy Thomas to Town

By Gayle Morrow

Capuzzo Cooks in Wellsboro Pitching Polio a Curveball in Corning History Sings in Danville

AUGUST 20221

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Volume 17 Issue 8

16 Tess’s Table

Marvel at Comic History in the Making

By Teresa Banik Capuzzo “Stolen” recipes perfect for summer.

By Gayle Morrow

18 Glory Hill Diaries

Wellsboro's first Comic Con brings Roy Thomas to town.

By Maggie Barnes Lord help the sister.

20 In a League of His Own

By Steve McCloskey

Lifelong home runs for Corning native Dave Clark.

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34 Back of the Mountain

A Susquehanna Man

By Sarah Wagaman Against the grain.

By Chris Espenshade

Teacher, storyteller, musician— Van Wagner mines local history.

12 Batters Upstate

By William H. Brewster Twin Tiers is home to a rich baseball heritage.

Cover illustration courtesy John Cimino; cover design by Gwen Button; (top) courtesy Julian Stam; (middle) Van Wagner, by Chris Espenshade; (bottom) Ithaca native John Clapp, courtesy Bill Brewster.

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w w w. m o u n ta i n h o m e m ag . co m Editors & Publishers Teresa Banik Capuzzo Michael Capuzzo Associate Publishers Lilace Mellin Guignard George Bochetto, Esq. D i r e c t o r o f O pe r a t i o n s Gwen Button Managing Editor Gayle Morrow S a l e s R ep r e s e n t a t i v e Shelly Moore Circulation Director Michael Banik Accounting Amy Packard Cover Design Gwen Button Contributing Writers Maggie Barnes, William H. Brewster, Chris Espenshade, Carrie Hagen, Roger Kingsley, Don Knaus, Steve McCloskey, Dave Milano, Brendan O’Meara, David O’Reilly, Linda Roller, Karey Solomon, C o n t r i b u t i n g P h o t o g r ap h e r s Helen Barrett, Bernadette Chiaramonte, Bruce Dart, Becky Enders, Justin Freeman, Michael Johnston, Jan Keck, Jaosn Robson, Deb Stafford, Linda Stager, Sarah Wagaman

D i s t r i b u t i o n T eam Brian Button, Grapevine Distribution, Linda Roller

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T h e B ea g l e Nano Cosmo (1996-2014) • Yogi (2004-2018) ABOUT US: Mountain Home is the award-winning regional magazine of PA and NY with more than 100,000 readers. The magazine has been published monthly, since 2005, by Beagle Media, LLC, 39 Water Street, Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, 16901, and online at www.mountainhomemag.com. Copyright © 2022 Beagle Media, LLC. All rights reserved. E-mail story ideas to editorial@mountainhomemag. com, or call (570) 724-3838.

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Marvel at Comic History in the Making Wellsboro’s First Comic Con Brings Roy Thomas to Town

By Gayle Morrow See Comic on page 8

6

Courtesy John Cimino

Mentor of Marvels: comic icon Stan Lee (left) co-creator of the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, and more, has a cameo next to Roy Thomas, Wellsboro Comic Con headliner, who worked exclusively for Marvel Comics from 1965 to 1980, and as editor-inchief from 1972 to 1974. Proving the pen is mightier than the sword, Roy made a legendary career from writing about sword-carriers such as Conan the Barbarian and co-creating Wolverine, Carol Danvers, Vision, Ultra, Luke Cage, Ghost Rider, Red Sonja, and more.

In the 1980s he co-wrote screenplays for the films Fire and Ice and Conan the Destroyer and for TV including The New Fantastic Four, GI Joe, Xena: Warrior Princess, and Conan the Adventurer (both live and animated).

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Comic continued from page 6

P

erhaps it was not quite a belle epoque, but there was a Golden Age of comic books, unofficially 1938-1956, during which comic legend Roy Thomas was born. Roy would grow up to champion classic comic book heroes, write such characters as Wolverine into life, and succeed Stan Lee as editor at Marvel Comics. You can ask him about the Golden Age, and all other things comic, when he comes to the inaugural Wellsboro Comic Con on August 13 and 14 with his wife, Dann, one of his comic collaborators.

This Golden Age, coinciding roughly with the start of World War II and continuing through the ensuing post-war Baby Boom, was, in hindsight (hindsight maybe enhanced by X-ray vision?), the perfect confluence of people, society, politics, and all the accompanying events of the time—life writ large and colorful, in frames, with speech bubbles.

Cartoons, funny or not, political or otherwise, have been around for, oh, 250 years or so—perhaps longer, as we don’t really know all the nuances of cave paintings, hieroglyphics, and the like, do we? We do know, though, that it was Benjamin Franklin, in 1754, who published the first editorial cartoon in his Pennsylvania Gazette. Rudolphe Töpffer, a Swiss artist, gets the credit for the first multi-panel comic—this in 1827. Richard F. Outcault’s The Yellow Kid comic strips ran in Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World, and then in William Randolph Hearst’s New York Journal from 1895 through 1898. In 1897 a compilation of Yellow Kid strips were published in the U.K. as a comic book—it’s considered the first use of the term.

Courtesy Gmeiner Art & Cultural Center

(5) Courtesy Pop's Culture Shoppe

A Comic Universe

Superpowers: other presenters at Wellsboro Comic Con include (clockwise from top left) R.A. Conroy, author, illustrator, contributor on Disney’s Pocahontas, Tarzan, Fantasia 2000, and more; Khoi Pham, artist for Teen Titans, Mighty Avengers, DC’s new Duo and Marvel Star Wars variant covers; Kevin McCloskey, author and artist of We Dig Worms and other Giggle and Learn natural science books for young readers; Heather Bohner, makeup artist offering free classes at the Gmeiner Art & Cultural Center during the event; Bruce Wechtenhiser, one of the world’s biggest Spider-Man superfans; Dean Kotz, artist on Dungeons and Dragons, Charmed, Red Panda, Warlord of Mars Attacks, Gods and Gears, Trailer Park of Terror and more!

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Comic books are a type of illustrated, sequential storytelling. They’re different from their precursors, which were the stand-alone comic strips or cartoons in newspapers and magazines. Comic books and their characters are serialized—Superman, for instance, has a past, a back story, and his ongoing adventures depend on what’s already happened (although, being Superman, he can do something about that). Those of us of a certain age may identify with a certain Man of Steel, but before the late greats George Reeves and Christopher Reeve, there were Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, and their 1938 creation—the original Superman, the archetype for the superheroes who followed. It was June of that year that National Comics Publications published Action Comics #1 (and if you’ve got one of those in your attic, you can probably quit your day job) and introduced the world to Superman and his universe.

Roy, Wellsboro Comic Con’s guest of honor, thinks continuity is important for the myriad comic universes.

“From the days when I was a kid, I was always bothered when Superman would fight one group of ‘Martians,’ and Batman (let alone Captain Marvel or the Human Torch or Black Terror) a different bunch

welcome to of ‘Martians,’” he says. “I wanted a ‘universe’ long before there was a Marvel universe, so I responded enthusiastically first to the smaller universe Julius Schwartz was creating with his handful of titles at DC, and then even more so to the one conceived by Stan and the gang at Marvel.”

Well, he’ll soon be joining us in the Tioga County universe. We may be lacking superpowers. We may not have a cadre of superhero pals á la the Justice Society of America or the Avengers Team. But we can join the borough’s first Comic Con, brought to us by Pop’s Culture Shoppe, and featuring two days of vendors, workshops, panel discussions with some of comic’s biggest names, cosplay/ costume contest, and even a super pet contest.

The first 2,000 tickets sold (twenty bucks each) will include a goodie bag with a T-shirt, pin, and the just-released X-Men Legends vol. 2, #1 comic, complete with Roy’s autograph. On Saturday morning Roy will do a Q&A outside the Deane Center, giving a peek into his universe, and sharing his stories and insights. This outdoor event is open to the public.

Later Saturday, for those with tickets, he’ll give introductory remarks at the Arcadia Theater showing of the 2017 film, Logan, featuring Wolverine, a character he co-created. He’ll also talk about his latest comic, to be released August 10, that includes the secret behind the character’s change in costume after he stopped being a lone wolverine and Professor X recruited him.

Marvel-ous.

Creating a Retail Universe and a Comic Con Pop’s Culture Shoppe, on the corner of Main Street and East Avenue, is celebrating its first decade as a retail store. Julian Stam, who owns and runs the place with his wife, Anja, explains that the store “had grown out of a comic book hobby” known as HeroClix.

It’s a miniatures game with collectible pieces based on characters from the Marvel and DC Comics universes; Julian sold the pieces, then started running game nights, and the store took off from there, evolving, as universes do, along the way.

For with small, locally owned retail businesses in downtowns everywhere, success depends in large part on the community.

Customers have commented on the “community vibe” here, Anja says, adding, “We wanted it to be a little more inter-generational. So that was our mission a little over ten years ago.” Ups and downs, of course, but so far, so good. Then along came covid. With community support, they were able to weather it.

“We sat down on New Year’s Day, and we were so thankful for getting through the pandemic,” Anja continues. “We wondered, ‘What shall we do as a thank-you to the community?’”

So, after some discussion—inspired in part by a connection with Roy Thomas’s agent, John Cimino, and by Julian’s purchase of 14,000 pounds of comic books, all from a store that had closed and all issues from the past quarter century—they came up with an idea. Wouldn’t it be cool to bring Roy Thomas here, and let’s also, while we’re at it, promote the town and the store, say “thanks” to the community, fill up the hotels (the second week of August is typically not a busy time), maybe generate some additional interest for the final day of the Tioga County Fair, and just generally bring all the positives and creativity of the comic book universe here for a fun weekend.

So planning for the Wellsboro Comic Con (“con” being short for conference, in case you wondered) began with booking the See Comic on page 10

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It turns out to be a wake-up call that helps Jean re-connect to her own spirit and learn that life is for the living.

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Gayle Morrow Cosplay it again, Stam: Anja (left) and Julian Stam (owners of Pop's Culture Shoppe) bring the inaugural Comic Con event to Wellsboro, which will happen again in 2023.

Comic continued from page 9

Deane Center, and is ongoing.

“One of the challenges is it grew so fast that we might be adding things up to the last minute,” Julian says. “It’s a work in progress.

The response has been huge, but we want to get the proper balance between vendors and attendees.”

And, Anja adds, “We wanted to give it a Wellsboro flavor.” Thus the event’s tagline: “Classic comic creativity wrapped in retro rural charm.”

“It’s a throwback to the bombast awnd alliteration of the ’60s era (of comics),” Julian laughs.

Indeed. Holy Wellsboro Wonderfulness, Batman!

What To Do and Who You’ll See Roy Thomas was a high school English teacher in the early 1960s when he made the official move to the world of comic writing.

He worked very briefly (eight days) for DC Comics, then went to Marvel Comics, where editor-in-chief Stan Lee was making his mark, and where, subsequently, Roy made his. The characters and story lines he has helped bring to life over the past five-plus decades are legendary: Conan the Barbarian, Wolverine, Luke Cage, Yellowjacket, Morbius, Killraven, and X-Men, to name just a few.

As for the creative process, Roy says he favors the way Stan Lee did things. That is, the writers and the artists got together, had a chat over the drawings, and words followed

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later.

“I much prefer the Marvel method pioneered by Stan out of sheer need, originally,” Roy says. “I think it had a great deal to do with shaping the stories and universe that enabled Marvel eventually to displace DC as the most successful comics publisher...both by unleashing the imagination and freedom of the artists (not just [Jack] Kirby and [Steve] Ditko but others as well) and by giving Stan a chance to react to already-penciled artwork and thus make the story even bigger and more exciting than it might otherwise have been.”

Plan on hearing more from Roy at Comic Con about the creative process.

Khoi Pham, an artist, an artist mentor, and a former attorney and venture capitalist, will be doing a thirty-minute presentation on “Making an impact as an artist.” His own art works includes DC’s Teen Titans, and Marvel’s X-Men, Legacy, and Spider-Man. Khoi says what he loves about Comic Cons “is being [able] to directly interact with people who shared common interests.”

“My first comic convention was Wizard World Philadelphia in 2006,” he continues.

“Since then, comic conventions have become commonplace, and I love it.” He adds that newcomers should “come and immerse yourself in the creative side of comic books.

Join the cosplay [the act of dressing up as a character or concept]. Take a lot of pictures.”

Chris Ring, a commercial artist for over twenty-five years and author of the children’s

book series Seamus (the Famous), started his comic career with the CarbonKnight miniseries. He’ll be giving a talk on creating characters, and says the best thing about Comic Cons “is the creator/fan experience.”

“Fans of the medium can talk to actual creators about the stories they write, the art they make and their opinions on the comics medium in general. Sometimes creators [share] insights into the next big releases, plus many are willing to look at the work of budding artists and possibly share some helpful hints. That one-on-one connection is not as prevalent in other entertainment media.”

He recalls that his first “con” was 1995 in Pittsburgh, following the release of CarbonKnight, his first book.

“It was a very exciting time to be an indy comic creator,” Chris says. “Books like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Crow, and Hellboy showed that independent comics could grow into something really big.” Things changed with the emergence of computers, and, subsequently, “everything evolved in comics—the art, the stories, the diversity, and the fan base...Comics exploded onto the big screen like never before which grew a fan base for the con experience like never before.

Cons began popping up nationwide and fans in both urban and rural areas were getting to meet their favorite comic creators.”

To make the most of this inaugural con, Chris suggests that attendees “never be shy” See Comic on page 32

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Chris Espenshade

A Susquehanna Man

Teacher, Storyteller, Musician—Van Wagner Mines Local History

By Chris Espenshade

M

uddy Waters and the Mississippi Delta. Woody Guthrie and Oklahoma. Jim Croce and the southside of Chicago. Bruce Springsteen and Asbury Park. There is a long tradition of singers, songwriters, and storytellers being at their best when performing about their specific place and its unique heritage and people.

Danville, Pennsylvania, has Van Wagner. Van (above) is a folk musician, a songwriter, a storyteller, a historian, and an environmental educator. Though he travels and performs throughout the region and beyond (including some gigs in the Northern Tier in August and September), in his heart he is never far from his roots on the eastern bank of the Susquehanna River in Cumberland County. Danville, formed in 1792, has a long history of natural resource extraction, processing, and shipping. Coal

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mining, iron and steel milling, logging and lumber milling, silk and textile processing, and tanning all contributed to the nineteenth and twentieth century prosperity of Danville and other areas of northern and central Pennsylvania. That prosperity depended on strong backs and hard work, and the everyday laborers in these industries, and the history surrounding them, are often featured in Van’s songs.

“I have learned so much American history from songs,” Van says. “Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly, and hundreds of other songwriters have inspired me to write songs that tell a story. I like true stories about the people and places from where we live. I love Pennsylvania, and I love singing about local themes. I have rambled all over the world, but Danville is my home. The people and places of the Susquehanna Valley are sacred to me.”

Van dresses in neat Carhartt work pants, and a collared, short-sleeve shirt. He is tall, tan, and fit. Shoulders and forearms reflect long hours spent with axe, saw, and maul.

His hairline is beginning to recede, but Van retains healthy sideburns. As with many storytellers, his eyes quickly transform from deadly serious to highly amused.

Van is explicit and unapologetic in acknowledging the strong influences in his life. His appreciation of history started with his family. His grandmother taught history at Danville High School, and his grandfather helped create the Montour Historical Society.

“I have been raised in a family that respects heritage,” Van says. “I like music history as well. I collect vinyl records. I have one of every Neil Young record ever released.” For the twentieth anniversary of his own album, North of 80, Van created a See Van Wagner on page 14

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Jean is sleepwalking through her life until she answers a dead man’s cell phone.

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Van Wagner continued from page 12

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It was members of Van’s family who also provided his early exposure to folk music and encouraged him to become a musician.

“My brother Ollie has been a huge musical influence on my life,” Van continues.

“He taught me my first chords on the guitar and also played the first Neil Young, on 8-track, I ever heard. Our dad played great music in his Volkswagen Vanagon: Guy Clark, Arlo Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and the Kingston Trio.

“I do enjoy electric and acoustic music, but for me acoustic music reminds me of sitting around a fire with friends sharing songs and stories. So, for me, acoustic music usually wins out when playing. My songs are about local people, so I need to sing them to local audiences.”

You can’t get much more local than a song titled “Rattlesnake” or “Where the Bears Dance.”

At the risk of asking too much of a metaphor, strong roots also provide balance. The forty-five-year-old has a wife, Tamara, and two sons in high school, Luke and Calvin. Van balances annually writing

twenty songs and releasing a new album with his day job teaching environmental science at Lewisburg High School. His summer break commonly finds him working as an arborist and forester. Van shares with his students his knowledge of and appreciation for the wilds.

“I grew up in the woods and was raised to appreciate trees,” he says. “I love wood and have made everything from guitars to mouth bows. I love natural resources. I have spent my life making a living from them—coal miner, logger, hunter, and small-time farmer.

Our society has often lost touch with our connection to the natural world. We must be stewards of the land and use natural resources wisely. I find the best environmentalists are the people who know their wood comes directly from the natural world.”

As an environmental science teacher in the midst of shale fracking, Van resists being judgmental on what could be a highly divisive subject. Rather, he says he tries to “focus all my classroom teaching on local issues and the lives of my students.”

“I do not overwhelm them with global issues at their age but instead keep it local. I do a lot of labs with my students on natural gas and fracking, but I try not to use words

like good or bad. I simply focus on the local picture of what it is and why it is. As they grow into the young adults they will become, they can find their own path of whether or not they support or oppose something.”

Van’s fans, and those who might want to be, will have many chances to see him perform throughout the region this summer and fall. On August 4 he’ll be at the Elk Creek Café in Milheim; on August 5 at the Pottsgrove Carnival; on August 12 at the Montour-Delong Fair in Washingtonville; on August 20 at the Stony Fork Music Festival; on August 26 at the Bradford County Historical Society in Towanda; on September 1 again at the Elk Creek Café; on September 9 and 10 at the Danville Heritage Festival; and September 17 again at Stony Fork at the Brayden’s Benefit/North of 80 Festival. You can also find a sampling of his music at vanwagnermusic.com.

Chris Espenshade is a professional archaeologist, an outdoor columnist, and a resident of Wellsboro. He is working to add wildlife photographer to his resume.

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Courtesy Holly Howell

Tess’s Table

“Stolen” Recipes Perfect for Summer

By Teresa Banik Capuzzo

E

very time I take to the kitchen I plan on turning out something delicious, a confidence that comes partly from being a good recipe collector and recognizing a good cooking brain when I see one.

Ecclesiastes said it best: “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.”

But sometimes even Ecclesiastes would have said, “This needs a pinch more salt.”

Which brings us to high summer, pasta salad, and the shady world of recipe authorship. As picnic season kicks into high gear, I want to share with you a great cook, a saucy tale, and the best pasta salad I’ve ever tasted.

It was served to husband Mike and me one sunny summer Saturday at the picnic table of Ginger Howell. Ginger is a remarkable cook who has run the Seasonal Kitchen Cooking School out of her home in

16

Pittsford for half a century, most of it with her late husband Dick, where they came to know Julia Child, James Beard, Martha Stewart, and other culinary luminaries. At ninety-bleeping-three years old (Ginger’s expletive-deleted description of her age) Ginger hasn’t lost a step in the kitchen.

A side table glistening with a frosty glass drink dispenser full of muddled-mint mojitos awaited her guests that afternoon.

Lined up beside it were tubs of wines on ice, pairings selected for the al fresco feast by Ginger’s well-known Finger Lakes sommelier daughter Holly, a Mountain Home wine writer (pictured above with her mom). It was masterful entertaining. And Ginger, a generous teacher, didn’t hesitate to share her ziti salad recipe that night.

If you’re a longtime reader, you know Holly’s celebratory and effervescent voice.

But when I called to catch up and tell her I was thinking about asking her mom if I

could publish her wonderful ziti salad recipe, she was strangely hesitant.

“I don’t know,” Holly replied. “I guess you’d have to ask her if you could print it…

I’m not sure.”

I had to get to the bottom of the mystery.

“That’s Bert Greene’s recipe!” Ginger chirped when I called her. “That’s who I stole it from!” Ginger had just finished addressing the ethics of “stealing” recipes in a humorous piece entitled “Original Sin” for her seasonal recipe newsletter: “This pasta salad could very well be the best pasta salad on the planet earth,” Ginger wrote. “But it’s not my recipe. And stealing a recipe is a definite no-no in the world of food writers. Everyone knows the omnipotent [name redacted to protect Ginger and us from lawsuits] got a free pass. Even though her first cookbook…was studded with other celebrity recipes, her career took off like

gangbusters making her an instant culinary icon.”

Other cooking gurus didn’t fare so well. “Poor Richard Nelson’s reputation went into the sewer after blatantly ‘borrowing’ from Richard Olney and then denying it,” Ginger added. “And Melanie Barnard apologized profusely after Food and Wine printed (word for word) Bert Greene’s Dirty Red Slaw which she sneakily renamed All American Slaw and claimed it for her very own by cutting all the ingredients in half. ‘Cookbookgate,’ as it came to be called, prompted William Rice, then the editor of Food and Wine, to lay down guidelines: add a new ingredient, alter an old one, rewrite the text and, if all else fails, give credit where credit is due.”

Ginger ends by fessing up in full: “This wonderful pasta salad is not my own—I stole it from Bert Greene, who stole it from Craig Claiborne, who stole it from—well, you know. It is just so good I wouldn’t change a grain of salt to make it legal!”

So I am sharing Ginger-Bert-Craig’s recipe with you with full attribution—and one small change of my own.

G-B-C’s recipe is straightforward and fresh with vegetables, but I got stuck on beef bouillon powder. I don’t cook with anything containing additives and preservatives except in the rarest of circumstances. So I searched everywhere, both virtually and actually—and fruitlessly—for a pure bouillon powder to buy. Then I started hunting instead for a beef bouillon recipe. What I found was a vegan/vegetarian (in case that matters to anyone you feed) treasure, which we now refer to in our house as “beef” dust. We also call it magic, and we dump it into anything and everything. It has the added property of adding zing to dishes that already seem perfectly zingy.

When I mentioned the bouillon to Ginger, she said, “Bert used George Washington’s bouillon powder. He said it was his secret weapon!” She added, “It’s a delicious salad. I could eat it every day.”

That weapon is available online if you want to make G-B-C’s recipe in its virgin formulation. If you’re going to make your own beef dust, do it ahead of time so you don’t slow yourself down on picnic day. This bouillon recipe is by Cordon Bleu- and CIA-trained chef Andy Anderson, published on the justapinch.com recipe website. I am going to give the whole achingly long address for the recipe itself because it was tough stalking it back down for you, and because Chef Andy says a lot of interesting things about his ingredients, which we don’t have room for here: justapinch.com/recipes/saucespread/seasoning-mix/diy-essentials-beef-bouillon-powder.html.

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½ c. nutritional yeast flakes 2 Tbsp. powdered mushrooms 1 Tbsp. dehydrated onions 1 tsp. garlic powder 1 tsp. dried thyme 1 tsp. dried oregano 1 tsp. paprika 1 tsp. celery seed ½ tsp. salt See Stolen on page 30

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17

Glory Hill Diaries

Lord Help the Sister

By Maggie Barnes

“G

irl, what is taking you so long?”

It was beastly hot, the warmest day of the year so far, and I was trussed up like a Rose Parade float in an emerald green brocade dress. My hair was making a valiant effort to hang on to the four pounds of styling mousse I had shoveled into it. The half can of hairspray was doing what it could to help.

My sisters were visiting, and in order to understand the importance of that statement it helps to know that I am the baby of the family. When you are the caboose, those who came before you never stop thinking of you as the baby. And they worry about you in perpetuity. But I was grown and out on my own now, and hosting my sisters for the weekend provided the perfect chance to prove that their worry was for naught. I had a good job, a nice apartment, a passel of friends, even a boyfriend who actually remembered my birthday. As far as I was concerned, I was living on the highest part of the hog.

So dinner on me at the best restaurant in town was definitely in order. I had saved for months to afford the evening. I also decided to take the happening to the next level and reserve the only limousine I could find in our rural county.

The time for its arrival had come and

18

gone and there was no sign of it. Terri and Joanne, similarly dolled up, were trying to find a breeze on the front steps, eager to get to the air conditioned restaurant. I tiptoed to my bedroom and called the limo company.

(Make note here, children. This was the day of the anchored phone.)

“Where is the car?” I hissed into the phone, keeping an eye on my sweltering siblings outside.

“He isn’t there? Huh. Not sure what to tell you.” Her indifference came through the phone in waves.

“Well, I know what to tell you…if he isn’t here in five minutes, I suggest you find something cool to wear to Small Claims Court.”

“Maggie! Come on! We’re going to be late for our reservation.”

I was running out of time, and Miss Congeniality was dragging her feet.

“He’s ten minutes from you,” the dynamo reported.

When I got back into the hallway, Terri was halfway up the stairs, lifting the hem of her elegant skirt to make the climb. I forced a smile.

“Sorry! Just trying to do something with my hair in this humidity.” I charged down the steps toward her, forcing her to turn.

“Good grief, you look great. Let’s go, aren’t you dying to get somewhere cool?”

I bought another couple of minutes by “forgetting” my purse, but Terri and Joanne were on the verge of sisterly mutiny, and I had to start for the car.

Finally! It was long and sleek, not as spotless and gleaming as I’d hoped, but it was a limo and it was turning into the drive.

“Surprise!” I said with relief.

Of course they were delighted and, after I told them our reservations were actually for an hour later, we spent time taking photos.

There was a bottle of champagne, as I had requested, and I asked the driver to go along the lakeshore road for the scenery. My spirits had lifted considerably.

The rest of the ride is fuzzy in my memory, so forgive me if I don’t get the chronology right. I think the first thing was asking for the air to be turned on and being informed that it was. The three of us exchanged sweaty glances. Joanne leaned toward the nearest vent.

“It’s blowing all right,” she said, straightening hastily. “Warm air.”

“Yeah, the air isn’t the greatest,” the driver tossed over his shoulder.

I reached for the button to lower the windows. At least we could have air

welcome to movement.

Nope. The windows didn’t open.

“Yeah, we need to get that fixed, too.”

The thought was forming in my head that we were going to spend twenty-five minutes in this rolling oven.

That was the moment the base popped off of Joanne’s plastic glass and bubbly streamed down her silk dress. Terri and I did what we could with the tissue-like cocktail napkins at hand. My glass was the next to fail, revealing the design flaw from the plastic drinkware factory’s engineering department—a hole in the stem. Terri poured another round as Jo and I held our palms against the bottom of our glasses.

“Drink fast!” Terri barked as the limo took a sharp corner too fast and the three of us pitched over, streams of champagne flying sideways and wadded up napkins bouncing across our laps like lottery balls.

When our postures returned to upright, Joanne’s dress was puckering and had shortened by two inches. It had a slash of wetness across her legs that looked like she had been visited by a diaper-less baby. The curls I had worked so hard to achieve did not survive the collision with the back of the seat during our near accident, and Terri was trying to mop up the champagne in her ear with an equally damp napkin. My brocade dress was mottled like bad cheese. Our makeup was melting in shiny rivers down our faces. All we needed was Vincent Price and we could have remade House of Wax. (It was a movie, children, Google it.)

I was devastated. This special evening of reassuring them that I could take care of myself and entertain them properly…I had failed spectacularly. That was when I realized the limo had come to a halt.

We were at an intersection about five miles from the restaurant. The car was nosing off the road, but still mostly in the right lane. The driver was outside the vehicle. After a moment, he walked the length of the limo, opened the back door, leaned in, and very quietly said, “Ladies, we’re out of gas.”

Terri, Joanne, and I looked at him, looked at each other, and exploded in laughter. We howled and flopped over on the bench seats. Terri poured the driver a glass of champagne and, wordlessly, he drank it, holding his hand over the bottom.

I can imagine what we looked like arriving at that fine dining establishment. Stained dresses, flat hair and streaked makeup, and still laughing. Turns out, it takes a while for someone to stop to help a limo. I’m sure they were expecting a gratuity, or at least a stock tip from the passengers. A gas can got us to the nearest station, and we were only five minutes late for our table.

The following Monday, I walked into the limo rental office and before I could get one word of my planned tirade out of my mouth, the saleslady handed me my money back. The driver had told her everything. And then quit the job. Apparently, it was all too much for him, too.

We still talk about that night. Joanne says that when the day comes and she is on her deathbed, I have only to whisper “limousine” in her ear and she will die laughing. I have been blessed to host my sisters many times since through the years. I’ve never tried for a limo again. It might all go perfectly, and I don’t want to risk ruining a perfect memory.

Maggie Barnes has won several IRMAs and Keystone Press Awards. She lives in Waverly, New York.

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Courtesy Dave Clark Don't tell him what he can't do: as the only professional baseball player to pitch and play from crutches, Dave Clark is a true role model for his Dream & Do attitude.

In a League of His Own

Lifelong Home Runs for Corning Native Dave Clark

By Steve McCloskey

T

he Twin Tiers region has produced more than its share of professional baseball players. Dave Clark was never supposed to be one of them.

Since the first professional baseball league played its inaugural game in 1871, scores of young men from our region have played pro baseball, including dozens of players who made it to the Major Leagues.

Caton’s James “Deacon” White recorded the first-ever hit and first-ever catch in the world’s first professional baseball league game in 1871. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown in 2013. His younger brother William “Hoopa-La” White played ten years in the Major Leagues and still holds the MLB record for starting and completing all seventy-five games he pitched during the 1879 season. He threw an unbroken record

20

of 680 innings that year. “Hoopa-La” is also credited as the first player to wear eyeglasses on the field. Liberty native Jimmy Sebring hit the first home run in World Series history in 1903, while Arnot’s Red Murray led the National League in home runs in 1909.

Al Todd played his high school baseball in Mansfield before moving to Elmira. He broke into the Major Leagues as a thirtyyear-old rookie where his many milestones included being the starting catcher in the first Major League night baseball game on May 24, 1935. Six days later, Todd was the opposing catcher who called the pitch that got Babe Ruth out in the Bambino’s last Major League at-bat.

But none of those local legends have had a more unusual and extraordinary career, have overcome greater adversity, or have inspired as many people as has

Corning native Dave Clark, a man who played his entire professional baseball career on crutches. And as remarkable as it may sound, playing professional baseball with polio might not be the most amazing accomplishment of his life.

Dave Clark has become an All-Star in overcoming adversity and making a difference in the lives of others. Dave, now seventy, lives with his wife and their children in Cape Coral, Florida. He was born in 1952, during the nation’s worst polio outbreak, and contracted the virus at ten months old. There were 58,000 polio cases recorded that year, resulting in 3,145 deaths. He was one of the 21,269 who were paralyzed as a result. Against the odds, Dave survived those early years. He was fitted with braces and crutches by the time he was See League on page 22

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22

two, developing a system of locomotion that allowed him to enter elementary school. Two events occurred during his elementary years that freed him from fear and would give birth to a life-long search for opportunity.

The first lesson was that helping someone in need creates memories that last a lifetime. Early in the school year as a firstgrader, his teacher announced that the class would soon be making a field trip to tour a nearby firehouse. While the rest of the class buzzed with excitement, Dave was consumed with fear and trepidation. He had mastered walking with the aid of his braces and crutches, but it was laborious. He had never walked as far as the firehouse was from the school. He feared, at best, he would fall behind the group on the walk or, even worse, fall and not be able to finish. When the field trip day arrived, Dave was stunned and relieved when one of his classmates showed up with his red Radio wagon in tow. His sole purpose was to pull Dave on the field trip. The crisis was resolved, and other classmates also asked if they could help pull the wagon. Dave never forgot how life-changing a simple gesture could be or how good a helping hand felt.

A year later, a gym teacher provided a lesson that would change the direction of Dave’s life forever. The exercise for class that day was to climb a rope suspended from the ceiling. All the boys in the class were intimidated by just the thought of having to go up the rope. Dave started to move toward the sideline, thinking there was no way anyone would ask him to climb up that rope without legs to shimmy. But the teacher instructed Dave to get in line. He told Dave that he didn’t have to climb the rope, but he did have to try.

The teacher also told Dave he had to try to engage in every activity in gym class that year. Otherwise, he would never know what he could do. To the astonishment of everyone, including himself, Dave was the only person in the class to climb the rope to the top. Years of using crutches had given him a well-developed upper body. The feat changed the way his classmates thought of him and how he thought about himself. Dave used that confidence to start engaging in sports with a passion.

Ignoring the physical limitations, he played baseball with the neighborhood gang during the summer and ice hockey during the winter. He loved the feeling of belonging and fed off the competition. He also started to become pretty good. Dave developed a batting stance propped up on his crutches and could field with the best of them. He loved to pitch, overcoming a shortage of velocity by developing pinpoint accuracy. He later perfected a knuckleball that would serve him well during his professional career.

Dave finished high school, attended Corning Community College, then graduated from Ithaca College. He dreamed of becoming a professional baseball player and searched for the seemingly impossible opportunity to do so. Persistence led to a roster spot with a semi-pro team in Hunnewell, Missouri. This led to stops with minor league teams from Texas to Connecticut and places in between. He played for the Indianapolis Clowns, one of the last barnstorming teams in the country. He later became part-owner of that historic franchise. His minor league career led to an opportunity to play professionally in Sweden, where he met his wife.

When injuries and illness forced him to end his playing

career, he managed championship teams in Sweden. Later he took a scouting assignment for Major League Baseball as well as a support position with Team USA in the 1996 Olympics. Adversity invaded his life again with the onset of post-polio, a newly defined condition that weakens the muscles of polio victims who were physically active. It, like polio, has no known cure. He traded in his crutches for a three-wheel scooter to move about as his strength and stamina deteriorated. When the post-polio effectively ended his baseball career twenty years ago, Dave again saw opportunity elsewhere. He moved into motivational speaking roles, talking to groups across the country. He also had an idea of putting together sports camps pairing professional athletes with handicapped individuals.

As always, putting a dream into reality, Dave organized a camp in 2006 with the appropriately named Fort Myers Miracle of the Florida State League. That free event featured campers going through stations manned by professional players. It was a big hit with both players and participants, and remains free to this day.

“When you see the laughter and pure joy on the faces of the participants, parents, and pro players...well, there’s no better feeling in the world than that,” Dave says. “All problems dissolve, at least for a brief period of time, and pure enjoyment ensues. Isn’t that what life should be all about? I think so!”

For the past thirteen years, Dave has partnered with Doug Cornfield, a former NCAA Division I runner at Georgia and the father of a son born with no arms, to form Disability Dream & Do Day (D3Day). Dave Stephens, who was born without legs and both wrestled and played collegiate football, joined the team in 2016. By 2019, the organization was producing twenty events per year, supporting itself and its mission with corporate sponsorships, speaking fees, and sales from books. Diamond in the Rough: The Dave Clark Story was published in 2008. It is an enjoyable, easy to read, and inspiring account of Dave’s saga that’s filled with wonderful life lessons. Doug wrote A Pound of Kindness in 2019— it’s a children’s book that captures the story and lessons of the classmate’s kindness with his little red wagon.

The effects of the covid pandemic proved to be almost as crippling as the bouts of polio and post-polio syndrome.

Minor league baseball cancelled the 2020 season and with it the opportunity to partner with D3Day camps and promotions.

Corporations and organizations stopped meeting in person, wiping out any speaking opportunities and putting D3Day in peril.

“Covid was and is a concerning situation for all of us,” explains Dave. “I knew it was going to impact what we do in a big way, but I also knew we'd find a way to keep doing this. Perseverance is the difference between failing and achieving and I was blessed with an overabundance of perseverance.” D3Day survived. It hosted an ice hockey camp with the Elmira Junior Enforcers in February and baseball camps at Corning, Rochester, and Hudson Valley this past spring. Another Corning event is scheduled for September 10.

Dave Clark will always be a baseball guy, and he is truly in a league of his own. For more information check out D3Day.com.

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Steve McCloskey retired in 2017 as the long-time Director of Athletic Operations and Information at Mansfield University. He currently serves as a member of the board of the Mansfield History Center.

23

Courtesy Bill Brewster At the old ball game: members of the 1888 Elmira team include (front row, l to r) J. Burns, “Spooney” Smith, J.C. Velder, and Charles Hall; (back row, l to r), J. Chamberlain, “Jolly” Dailey, Harry Taylor, “Babe” Shay, H. Van Alstine, Bert Kenney, G. Backer, and Bill Heine.

Batters Upstate

Twin Tiers Is Home to a Rich Baseball Heritage

By William H. Brewster

E

arly professional baseball has deep roots in the Twin Tiers. Many of the founders of baseball’s modern (post1900) era hailed from local farm, factory, mining, and railroad towns, working men playing alongside working men, many of whom have descendants still living and working in the area today.

Late nineteenth century baseball is fertile ground for historical and genealogical research. Research of 1880-something baseball in my own hometown of Waverly took me well beyond online sources to the National Baseball Hall of Fame Library in Cooperstown, and to local libraries and historical society museums in Elmira, Sayre, Athens, Owego, and Waverly, each of which contains fascinating materials and exhibits.

The Twin Tiers’ baseball pioneers included Ithaca native John Clapp and Bellefonte native John Montgomery Ward, teammates on the 1883 New York Gothams.

Clapp was one of the first major league catchers to wear a mask. He was also the proprietor of an early New York City sports

24

bar, and the first manager of Waverly’s team.

Ward organized baseball’s first labor union, the Brotherhood of Professional Base Ball Players. Before they became major leaguers, Clapp and Ward toiled for teams in Owego and Binghamton.

Paying Players, Integrating Teams In the mid-to-late nineteenth century, towns on railroad lines used baseball teams to compete for businesses and lure spectators and shoppers from other towns. Newspapers publicized the teams and the games, leading some towns to compete for better players by paying them. The major leagues existed, but they drew much smaller crowds than today.

Overall, baseball leagues were so unstable that, prior to 1900, only twenty-five percent of professional baseball teams lasted more than two seasons.

Achieving more stability meant attracting a broader base of spectators, which required players to put a livelier game on the field. Team owners in the International League understood this in 1887, when they

allowed seven of the best African American players in the country to play on white teams. The two best were Buffalo’s Frank Grant and Binghamton’s Bud Fowler, second basemen known for great speed, hitting, and fielding. The two faced each other in a series of riveting games in early 1887. Despite on-field success, Fowler left Binghamton before the end of the season, and the League abandoned the integration effort after 1888.

To honor their roles as baseball pioneers, Grant was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006, and Fowler was inducted this summer on July 24. On July 23, the Binghamton Rumble Ponies celebrated Fowler’s induction with a special bobblehead giveaway.

Just forty miles west of Binghamton that same summer of 1887, John Clapp led the Waverly players to a successful season with a team featuring local ace pitcher Nat Lowman and second baseman Harry L. Taylor, a native of nearby Halsey Valley.

Waverly’s opponents included teams from See Batter on page 26

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Famous Brands began in 1983, offering “famous brand” Famousand Brands in 1983, offering clothing footwear atbegan below retail prices. Since that humble beginning in a tiny storefront, we have grown to “famous brand” clothing and footwear at 30,000 sq. ft. covering 3 floors and half a city block, becoming abelow destination store for millions of Since visitors and localshumble alike. retail prices. that

beginning in a tiny storefront, we have grown to 30,000 sq. ft. covering 3 floors and half a

25

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570-662-2972

2103 S. Main St., Mansfield, PA

Liberty book Shop 1 East Park St., Avis, PA 17721 • 570-753-5201 • www.TheLibertyBookShop.com Used, Rare and Out-of-Print Books. Your source for unusual books on any subject.

Browse our in-stock selection of over 40,000 hardcover books and paperbacks.

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HOURS: Thurs & Fri 10-6; Sat 10-3 (or by appointment, feel free to just call)

Jimmy’s Park Hotel 127 Troy Street • Canton PA

Catering Available

for Weddings, Showers, Parties and Any Other Special event!

Batter continued from page 24

Elmira, Sayre, Painted Post, Susquehanna, and Watkins Glen.

Lowman left baseball after the summer to pursue his railroad career. Taylor, a twenty-one-year-old student at Cornell, went on to Cornell Law School and played the next two summers in Elmira.

His 1888 Elmira teammates included Bill Heine and Bert Kenney, friends and mentors of Truxton native John McGraw.

Leagues and Unions A couple seasons later, in 1890, these players would find their way to still more connections with one another in the drive to improve the game. Angry about the reserve clause that prevented players from freely moving, Ward organized his own Players League, which opened playing opportunities throughout organized baseball.

Taking advantage, Heine and McGraw each joined Kenney on a team in Olean; Taylor found a major league spot in Louisville; and Grant found a spot as the only African American player on a team in Harrisburg.

Joining Grant in Harrisburg was Hughie Jennings, an eighteenyear-old breaker boy from Pittston, in Pennsylvania’s coal country.

Energetic and impressionable, Jennings was heavily influenced by Grant’s ability and flamboyance. The two future Hall of Famers were at crossroads in their respective careers. The twenty-five-yearold Grant was no longer welcome in white professional leagues after 1890, and instead played the next decade for the Cuban Giants and other traveling teams, routinely visiting Twin Tier ballparks during his teams’ annual sojourns. Jennings, meanwhile, joined Taylor in Louisville in 1891, and in 1893 jumped with Taylor to Baltimore, joining McGraw to build the Orioles powerhouse. Jennings later followed Taylor to Cornell Law School and coached the baseball team.

By 1900, Taylor and Jennings were so prominent in baseball circles that they were named the counsel and spokesman, respectively, for the new Players’ Protective Association, the successor to Ward’s first players union. This was the organization that united players and fans behind the new American League in 1901, and launched baseball’s modern era.

While Taylor, Jennings, and McGraw were prominent in major league developments, their old friends and teammates continued to play ball back home. Taking advantage of its central location at the nexus of multiple railroad lines, Waverly’s professional seasons culminated in 1901 with a franchise in the New York State League, managed by Taylor and McGraw’s old friend Bill Heine. Over the years, Waverly pulled players from throughout the region, including future major leaguers “Wild Bill” Donovan, Frank “Wildfire” Schulte, John “Sandy” McDougal, and Charles “Heinie” Wagner.

Waverly’s schedule illustrated the wide range of competitive teams at the time, from barnstormers like the Nebraska Indians and Cuban Giants to town teams like Towanda, Hammondsport, Moravia, and Troy, and city teams like Albany, Wilkes-Barre, and Syracuse.

It was truly a Golden Era for local professional baseball.

Come Join Us For Dinner

...on the Porch!

Breakfast Served Saturday & Sunday

CLOSED JULY 4TH

570-673-8777 26

When he’s not hanging with the grandkids, author Bill Brewster can be found traveling with his wife Maria, or playing trombone in local jazz bands. The author’s books, The Workingman’s Game and That Lively Railroad Town, are available at local bookstores and online.

AUGUST 13-14 2022

presents

Pop Culture & Comic Book Market

Cosplay / Costume Contest Panels & Speakers Creator Workshops Kids & Family Activities

VISIT WELLSBOROCOMICCON.COM

FOR A FULL SCHEDULE AND TO PURCHASE TICKETS ROY THOMAS

R.A. CONROY

KHOI PHAM

Successor to Marvel Comics© editor Stan Lee, and co-creator of Wolverine, Ghost Rider, Morbius, Iron Fist, Red Sonja, and MANY MORE!

Author, illustrator, Contributor on Disney’s Pocahontas, Tarzan, Fantasia 2000 and more, & storyboard artist for this summer’s “Paws of Fury”!

Artist for Teen Titans, Mighty Avengers, DC’s new Duo and Marvel Star Wars variant covers and lots more!

DEAN KOTZ

KEVIN MCCLOSKEY

BRUCE WECHTENHISER

Artist on Dungeons and Dragons, Charmed, Red Panda, Warlord of Mars Attacks, Gods and Gears, Trailer Park of Terror and more!

Author and Artist of We Dig Worms and other giggle and learn natural science books for young readers.

One of the world’s biggest Spider-Man Superfans! Featured on Fox, he’s been collecting for over 50 years!

OVER 50 VENDORS AND ARTISTS! 27

welcome to

BRADFORD CO. Canton Lions Club & Pennsylvania Trials Riders PRESENTS

3RD ANNUAL

FALL FOLIAGE TOUR OF THE MOUNTAINS

ADVENTURE MOTORCYCLE RIDE 2022

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 1ST

10 am Start 75 Mile Morning Ride & 50 Mile Afternoon Ride

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 2ND

Sign-up & Start of 60 mile ride • 10 am

Free Camping • Sat. Night Band @ Campground A mix of paved & Free Sat. dirt roads through Lunch & the scenic Endless Mountains, starting Dinner in downtown served by Canton, PA! the Canton Lions Club Funded in part by the Bradford County Tourism and Promotion Agency

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Wyalusing Hotel Kids Apparel

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Pumpkin Festival 19th Annual

Sponsored by the Canton Volunteer Fire Department

Saturday, October 1, 2022 10:00am–5:00pm

Sunday, October 2, 2022 10:00am–4:00pm

754 Canton Street, Troy PA • 570-297-7770 HOURS: Monday-Saturday 8am-5pm hooverclothingstore.com 28

Admission is a donation at the gate that goes back into the community through various outreach programs.

DISTINCTIVE CRAFT VENDORS • FESTIVAL FOOD • DAILY LIVE ENTERTAINMENT

Canton Fireman’s Fairgrounds Route 14 South • Springbrook Road • Canton, PA 17724 FB: Canton Fire Department’s Pumpkin Festival

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welcome to

BRADFORD CO. Stolen continued from page 17

Throw all the ingredients into a blender and whir it into a powder.

Ziti Salad Ginger calls this dish a “garden in a bowl—a perfect pairing with fried chicken and a nice rosé,” which is how she served it to us.

(Her fried chicken recipe is also a borrow from Bert, another thing of gustatory beauty.) Be careful about the size of that red onion. I find that the colossal ones overpower the salad, so I suggest adding the chopped onion in to taste.

1½ Tbsp. salt 2 Tbsp. oil 1 lb. ziti ¼ c. milk 1 red onion 2 tomatoes 1 c. chopped sweet pickles 1 large green pepper 1 large shallot 1 Tbsp. pickle juice ½ c. sour cream 1½ c. mayonnaise 2 Tbsp. beef bouillon powder Freshly ground pepper Dash wine vinegar Roughly chopped fresh dill

Come help us celebrate

Jack “The Shoe Man” Kuyper’s 50th year as a Troy businessman.

From the “Trading Post” to Armenia Mountain Footwear, Jack has been on the Troy retail scene for 50 years!

Please stop by

Armenia Mountain Footwear and say hello,

share a memory, and help us say “Thank you” to Jack.

Sat., August 6th 11am to 2pm 41 Canton St. Troy, PA

30

Bring a 4-quart pan of water to a boil. Add 1 tablespoon salt and 2 tablespoons oil, then ziti. Boil 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Drain, rinse in cold water, and drain again. Place in bowl. Add milk to moisten and toss.

Chop onion, tomatoes, pickles, and peppers into ¼-inch cubes.

Reserve a large tablespoon of each for garnish. Mince shallot.

Beat together sour cream and mayonnaise, using whisk, until creamy. Add bouillon powder, salt, and pepper. Pour over ziti. Add shallots, tomatoes, pickles, green peppers, vinegar, and pickle juice.

Mix well.

Garland with reserved vegetables. Cut fresh dill over all. Chill.

Serves 10 to 12.

• At the end of Ginger’s picnic someone told me the mojito recipe, and I jotted it down. I have no idea whose recipe it is, and Ginger isn’t claiming it. I have just named it: Can-Can Mojitos 1 can each: Bacardi mojito mix or limeade White rum Sprite Ice 1 c. fresh mint leaves, muddled (which means mashed gently with a pestle or wooden spoon to release the flavor) Dump the limeade into a pitcher and use the can to measure all the other ingredients. Stir well, add mint leaves, and drink to the summer and to everyone who cooks!

C air ity AUCTION

Friday, August 19 Begins at 7pm

Gmeiner Art & Cultural Center

Artistically Recreated Chairs by the Wellsboro Art Club

Chairs will be auctioned off to benefit the Art Club Scholarship Fund

for a Wellsboro High School student.

Come Early to Look Them Over!

For more information please call

(570) 948-9001

Refreshments Available 31

Comic continued from page 10

about talking with the artists.

“Creators are very giving of their time and they really do like to talk about the medium,” he says. “They are there to meet you and they enjoy that. Secondly, they usually have some cool, hard to find, or exclusive items at their table which you can purchase or just enjoy viewing. Many artists also do original sketches (prices vary) so you can request a one-of-a-kind sketch of your favorite character.

Chris continues, “Cosplay has also exploded onto the con scene, so many fans come to the con dressed as their favorite character. Costumes range from amateur fun to just-about-ready-to-walk-onto-a-movieset. Last but not least, you can get some great deals at cons from all the different vendors, plus, you can get a lot of books, prints etc., signed or personalized when the creator is attending.” (The artwork used for this cover will also be available for purchase.)

Other guests and presenters include R.A. Conroy, assistant animator and storyboard artist for Disney, animal welfare advocate, author/illustrator of her novel Shelter; and illustrator/storyboard artist for

this summer’s animated animal romp Paws of Fury: the Legend of Hank (it’s about a beagle who wants to be a samurai, and is a spoof of Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles, which was also a spoof). Kevin McCloskey, a former Kutztown University professor and creator of Giggle and Learn comic books for just-starting readers will be on the Green for worm races (don’t ask, just come). Bruce Wechtenhiser, who is the man when it comes to SpiderMan, will be here. Attendees can also meet Dean Kotz, professional comic artist for over a dozen years, former Pennsylvania resident (striking fear with Trailer Park of Terror), and creator of the official T-shirt art design for the event and the program art. Numerous other creators and presenters are scheduled and more are pending.

At 1 p.m. on Saturday, Heather Bohner will be leading a special effects makeup class at the Gmeiner Art & Cultural Center. In the first part of the class, she will demonstrate techniques to create a "breakthrough" makeup effect—unmasking to reveal the Marvel character underneath. In the second part, students will learn hands-on techniques for contouring and changing the shape of their face. The class is free and materials will

be provided. It is open to students ages ten to 100. There is a limit of fifteen participants, and pre-registration is required. Call the Gmeiner at (570) 724-1917 for more information or to register.

“The Gmeiner Art & Cultural Center is pleased to be a small part of Wellsboro's first Comic Con,” says Carrie Heath, directo.r “This event showcases a popular form of art and encourages individuals in attendance to embrace their own creativity.”

Do you think your pet is special? Of course you do. But, does your pet have super powers? If so, can you take a picture, or, better yet, draw one, of your pet exhibiting those powers? Is there a costume involved? Then enter Second Chance Animal Sanctuaries’ Super Pet Contest and tell the world just how super your pet is. Message them on Facebook or email secondchanceas@yahoo.com for more information.

There will be events, vendors, and activities throughout the downtown on both days, so check the online schedule at wellsborocomiccon.com regularly, or stop in at Pop’s Culture Shoppe for an update. It is a “multiple venue show,” with a ticket required for most indoor events. Outdoor events and

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Mountain Home accessibility to vendors do not require a ticket. Attendees are encouraged and welcomed to come in costume.

“We do know we have a vendor who has a 3-D scanner who can scan you ant then make a miniature of you,” Julian says. Costume contest winners will receive one of those miniatures. If you’ve always wanted your own “minime” or avatar, now’s your opportunity, as the imaging service is also available to purchase.

Both Julian and Anja stress that while planning for Comic Con is ongoing, and it’s possible the schedule may change, they are excited to bring their love of the comic universe to the area. The Wellsboro Area Chamber of Commerce has already approved it as an annual event, so it’s officially part of the borough’s universe.

“We really want this to be another town festival, an annual event,” says Julian. “And we really want it to be an opportunity for the non-profits to showcase themselves, for the retail businesses and the hotels to benefit.”

“We are excited to bring this to Wellsboro,” Anja concurs.

Resident comic fans are excited about it, too. Jeff Ryan, a class of 2000 Wellsboro Area High School graduate, says he’s been to two other Comic Cons—one in Philadelphia when he was very young, and one in Elmira just a few years ago. He’s planning to attend this one.

“I have been an avid comic book (or graphic novel, if you will) fan since I was probably six or seven,” he says.

“They are truly amazing works due to the combination of art and storytelling, and for just how versatile the writing can be.

As far as favorite character, I have to go with Green Lantern. He was always my idol as a kid. Not that Batman and a lot of the Avengers aren’t. [They are a] Close second. Story line wise, DC Comics’ Kingdom Come mini-series and Marvel's first Secret War have always been pillars of comic book literature, in my opinion.”

He adds it’s kind of amazing that, at this point in time, “comic books and all things related are so incredibly popular.”

“As a child, they were frowned upon and you would be called names [if you read them]. Now you are the popular kid.

Who knew?”

Maybe it’s a new Golden Age.

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B A C K O F T H E M O U N TA I N

Against the Grain

By Sarah Wagaman

D

riving along Route 6, I spied a beautiful caramelized wheat field with the complementary colors red and green in the background. The windblown wheat and quaint farm in the distance caught my eye, but it was the stand-alone aster that welcomed me. Asters—which are most prominent August through October—attract monarch butterflies and other pollinators (and me). There are over thirty-five aster species native to Pennsylvania. While many are rare and confined to unique habitats, common species thrive in disturbed areas such as fields and roadsides.

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Muncy