The "special" tree

Jason Turner, who moved back to Vancouver from Toronto a little over a year ago, is visiting this week, and so Dave and Dalton and I met up with him for a few beers on Friday. Dave has a little project on the go where every day he goes to Queen's Park and draws a different tree. Queen's Park is of course one of those city parks that at night plays host to, um, an active social scene, and Dave told us about this one tree that, for some reason, seemed to be a centre of activity. "I counted fourteen condoms under this one tree," he said, "and fifteen wrappers. The other trees have, like, two. I don't know what it is about this tree."

More beers were consumed, and it got late, and Dave decided we should go on an excursion to Queen's Park, because he needed to show us the tree. Which is how I came to be wandering around the park in the middle of the night with three comix artists, looking for condoms under a tree. This picture is ridiculous: Dave is all, "Look! I found some!", Dalton seems to be investigating a root, and Jason has spilled beer on an embarrassing area of his pants and appears to have adopted an attitude of philosophical detachment towards the entire situation. I have no idea what that thing above Dalton's shoulder is. It's in the other picture I took of the tree, too. Maybe the tree is haunted. It would make sense.

Incidentally, Jason and his girlfriend Manien have completed the first five-issue "book" of their comic, True Loves, which first appeared on Serializer. I'm not sure where you can buy it, but you could e-mail Jason and ask him. It's really sweet, and while it won't change your life, it may make you want to visit Vancouver.