The Cartoon Issue, 2016

Telling stories primarily with pictures is a challenge for writers because, you know, we like to use our words. But with the help of 17 artists, we reduced storylines to their essence for this fourth annual edition. Those artists range from current students at the Center for Cartoon Studies to longtime New Yorker contributor Edward Koren. The latter, Vermont’s cartoonist laureate, drew our cover in his famously hirsute style. Not all cartoons are “funnies,” of course. Inside you’ll find serious pieces about Vermont’s new laws, refugee resettlement and community policing. And we cover the arts with more art: a local Karen Carpenter tribute , a comic avatar of musician Billy Bratcher, a Japanese tattoo exhibit, and more. Oh, and do enter our first-ever adult coloring contest! Go ahead, color the Bern.

WTF: What Would Make Silverware Magnetized?

Seven Days has received many odd reader questions over the years, but this one might be the strangest.

Barre’s Rich Dufresne Builds Sci-Fi Action Figures

Rich Dufresne started out customizing action figures for his kids. Then he started his own company, Imagination Asylum.

New Rules: 2016 Laws Affect Drivers, Turnips and Estate Taxes

Many of the 199 laws that Vermont legislators passed this year took effect July 1. Here are some of them.

Vermonter Sally Olson Sings in Tribute to Karen Carpenter

Vermonter Sally Olson is carrying on the legacy of singer Karen Carpenter — right down to the vintage dresses and ’70s hairdo.

Starting Over: First Steps for Refugees in Vermont

You’re a refugee from a far-off country. You arrive in Vermont. What’s next?

Over the Rainbow: Mark Daly’s Big Realization

Following the messy breakup of his band Chamberlin, Mark Daly was in a dark place — specifically, a cabin in the woods of Goshen. That’s when the transformation began.

Middlebury’s Seedsheet Gets the Garden Started

Cam MacKugler wanted access to food grown right at home, but he had a tiny apartment and no space for raised beds. So he invented a way to make gardening a lot easier.

Tea Time at Perennial Pleasures in East Hardwick

In 1970, landscape architect Tom Kane, his wife, Judith, and their children moved to an 1840s brick house in East Hardwick. Ten years later, daughter Rachel Kane started a garden nursery called Perennial Pleasures at the family home.

Cops’ Feet on the Street Making a Difference in the Old North End

Meet Corp. Krystal Wrinn, who spends eight-hour shifts walking the Burlington streets on foot patrols intended to target street crime and drugs.

Loyal to Local: In White River Junction, Dave Briggs Champions the Creative Economy

Dave Briggs has been an engineer, an innkeeper and an arts promoter in White River Junction. Now he’s building the town’s creative economy.

Feel the Bern: An Adult Coloring Contest!

Museum Piece: Inside the Most Important Garage in Vermont Politics

Across the street from Malletts Bay, behind the general store that bears his name, Sen. Dick Mazza owns the most important garage in Vermont politics.

The Legend of Sweet William, Vermont Troubadour

A photo his my email of a vintage record label that reads “Bernie Town Bounce.” With it several 1970’s era looking cartoons of one of the two musicians who recorded it…