Attentive Patreon supporters have been seeing occasional previews from my upcoming Vortex graphic novel, which I’m more than half done with.

The story in a nutshell: It’s summer 1970 and Governor Tom McCall has a problem. The American Legion is planning to hold its convention in Portland, with the theme Victory in Vietnam, and their planned speaker is President Nixon. Antiwar activists plan a protest in the streets, and more than 50,000 are expected to descend on the city, threatening a repeat of the violence at Chicago or Kent State. A group of hippie entrepreneurs offer McCall a way out: sponsor a rock festival at a park outside Portland during the convention to siphon off longhairs who might otherwise come to protest. McCall agrees, and Vortex I: A Biodegradable Festival Of Life is the result. With no budget to book name acts, the festival books a motley collection of local bands to entertain the happily stoned crowd. Good vibes prevail because McCall has instructed law enforcement to turn a blind eye to open drug use and public nudity, and rumor has it that local sheriffs are giving away the contents of their drug lockers to keep the crowd away from the convention. The feared confrontation fizzles out, McCall is re-elected in a landslide that November, and that’s the reason you don’t read about the Portland Riots of 1970 in the history books.

Full publication is at least a year off, but I recently shared a few complete pages on Patreon. The sequence comes from the section set at the Vortex festival itself. Actual attendees, including future luminaries like Matt Groening, Al Franken, former New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller, and Dark Horse Publisher Mike Richardson, break the fourth wall and tell their stories directly to the reader. Individual stories come from published and online sources, personal interviews and emails, and in a few cases, Facebook posts (I know Facebook is kind of over, but it remains an excellent place to get in touch with Boomers!). Since Patreon is prudish and I want everyone to see this, I pixellated all nudity that appears in the pages, but can post the uncensored panels here on my website.

First up, a friend and occasional music critic who prefers to be anonymous:

Second, fellow MLC graduate, former DJ, and A&R Man, Nicholas Hill:

Dark Horse Comics publisher Mike Richardson attended Vortex as a 20 year-old:

I found this quote online from onetime Oregonian reporter and eventual New York Times executive editor Bill Keller:

I recently heard out of the blue from a former penpal named Kathryn Derwey. She was emailing on an unrelated matter, but it just so happens that she had also attended Vortex and had a story to share:

Inga Dubay taught art at my alma mater MLC. She designed the silkscreened logo for the Vortex festival:

Dr. Gwen Martin is a composite character who appears in the book. The quote comes from an interview with a nurse that I found online:

The Voices From Vortex sequence is five pages long, but I’m open to expanding it. If you have a Vortex story to share- especially if it comes with pictures!- contact me through this site, or find me on Facebook, and maybe you can star in my comic!

Vortex I, A Biodegradable Festival Of Life, a graphic novel by David Chelsea, is funded in part by the Regional Arts & Culture Council