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.
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