This year is only into its first quarter and a lot has happened, to the world and myself. Shortly after the beginning of the new year my sister and I had been taking care of our father. My dad and I had a complicated relationship throughout the years, often (Literally) leading to physical abuse. Once I very nearly beat him to a pulp while I was in college. I'd found out he'd hurt my sister and when I found out the only thing between me and him was my mother. We were never close and that does fall on him. I tried to connect but most times his replay was (Truthfully): You really are a lost cause. The last day he was alive I'd gone into the room where he'd been staying. He'd slipped into something like a coma and it was only a matter of time before he was gone. I'd seen and helped take care of others in this condition and it all ended the same way. I cleaned him up, almost a useless task because the room was ripe with the smell of death. Beth, who had pneumonia

    Memories are strange things. In our memories people never grow up, they don't get old and we're right there with them, young(er) and with the future still ahead of us, a future that doesn't frighten because we believe ourselves to be indestructible.  When I finally became a professional artist and working for DC Comics I was fortunate enough to have met one of the nicest pros in the business, Don Newton along with his son, Tony. Don helped me keep sane during that whole time, was my friend, and I can't say enough good things about Don...He influenced my future in ways I'm not going into right now. Thing is, one day a year or so later I received a call from a mutual friend that Don had died. After dealing with his being gone, I called our editor at DC and told them the news. The first thing that came out of his mouth was 'Did he finish that last story?' and the next thing out of my mouth was 'Go fuck yourself!' Not a great career mo