Never Can Say Goodbye

Unfortunately, this is the only good picture I can find of my old '90 Lumina, this partial with my Mom sitting in it. I place this here, because just minutes ago the old girl was towed off to that big scrapheap in the sky. We got nearly twenty good years out of that car, more than we ever expected to get out of it. And with all the amazing memories of the places that battered behemoth took us to, I have to say it was hard to let it go.

But when I look at our new '96 Buick, it wasn't that hard....

The Long National Nightmare is Over...

Deena and I got a new car today.

Just to give you an idea about how timely this new car came into our lives, as some of you may know, we've been nursing our 1990 Lumina like a patient at a nursing home for more than a year now. We have literally been trapped within the confines of Columbus, Indiana, with the exception of the occasional rental to get to important Whoosier Network meetings, because once the car hit over 50 the motor would start sputtering, missing, clacking, and doing all manner of nasty things. I've taken it to our regular mechanic many times, and he's practically begged us to consider a new car.... to the point that he decided it wasn't worth trying to fix.

Last week, while driving back from Mom's, the engine started missing.... horribly. And then the front wheels started wobbling like the front end was out of alignment. And for most of this week, it was everything it could do to get me from home to work everyday... and thank God work for me is just a few blocks east of us. But there was no doubt about it this time. We had to get something workable and fast.

Anyway, we came across an ad in the paper for a well maintenanced 1996 Park Ave. Buick for $1900. Yes, lots of mileage on it (189,000), but we were desperate enough that we thought it wouldn't hurt to at least check it out. So I called the lady who had the car, but only got the answering machine. So I left a message, but I didn't hear back from her right away, so I figured it was a lost cause.

But Tuesday she called and said the car was still available, but that I might want to wait a couple of days until the snowstorm let up. I told her if it was all right, I'd really like to take a look at it right away. So I got out there (she lived only about a mile down the road from my Mom's, and the coincidences don't end there) and she let me take it for a test drive.

Immediately I could see driving this thing would be like driving Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Practically everything is powered and run by buttons, with a surprise at every turn. I haven’t driven anything like this car since my beloved ’74 Marquis back in the 80’s, which, but for a black paint job and a set of green headlights, was my personal Black Beauty. The only real flaw it had that I could see was a small electrical problem that kept the driver’s seat from moving forward or backward, which my mechanic said he could fix in a jiffy next time I came in. It rode like a dream and handled really well in the snowy weather.

We got all the title transfers, plate switches, and paperwork all done in minutes at the BMV (yeah, go figure that), and we took it out for a cross-country acid test last night. Ran great, has terrific gas mileage, and we’re extremely happy.

But here’s the weird part… the woman who sold it to me is the sister of the ex-husband of my sister Tammie. On top of that, last night I discovered that my mechanic is the uncle of my other sister Vicki’s husband Kenny. None of this was known to me as we’ve only reconnected in the past two years after a very long estrangement from my late father and his family. So everyone involved in this transaction is somehow related to me in one way or another.

And I’m certain that, hiding in the shadows of my neighborhood, Rod Serling’s smoking his cigarette and going “So, how you likin’ the Twilight Zone, kid?”

And the Aftermath...

Well, Christmas this year was far from the usual dysfunctional disaster it has been in previous times. Not that I didn't give it my All-American effort...

My all-around gift to everyone to the families was a print of my Eleventh Doctor portrait, fully framed, just right for the empty spot in the attic. It matches well with the official stuffed Sarah Palin's Alaska polar bear. You know, the one with the bloody bullet hole in its forehead?

I won't go into the circumstances of the booty getting, other than that, for the most part, everything I predicted bore out. But that's okay... I'm so much more into the giving part of things than I am in the getting. I'd just as soon not get anything for Christmas, as it just doesn't seem to be the point of the whole holiday. And besides, nobody likes shopping for me, especially the in-laws. They don't wanna have to explain to the youngsters why Uncle Mark is getting cooler toys than they are.

"Wahhhh! Uncle Mark got the Spider-Man action figure with the kung fu grip and web shooters and all I got was a Star Wars toy! Why? Whyyyyy????"

'Cuz I'm cooler than you kid. Now, sheddup!

Another reason is is that both sides of my family either fear, or have no understanding of how, to shop online. If they did, all their Christmas shopping for me would be done in no time and I could direct them to places where they could save a bundle. Now, the fear part I can understand. Both sides of my family have had encounters with identity theft, the worst case being my brother's wife. She's still dealing with the reprecussions of an encounter a few years ago that still rears its ugly head now and then. I myself had someone hack into our account a couple of years ago and nearly wipe us out (fortunately my bank saw the red flags and took all the necessary steps so we didn't lose anything). But I find there's just as much risk, and perhaps more, of doing in person transactions with a debit card as much as there is on the net. One way or another, there's always a chance the horse is gonna throw ya. The best thing to do is brush yourself off and get back in that saddle.

But I can't seem to convince them to just try it out. Save a little money. Find a bigger variety of items out there. At any rate, if you just go down to the graphic novel section the local Waldenbooks at the mall, I can give you a list and various 40% off coupons. Somehow, I still get the perennial sweaters, pants, socks, undies, and more aftershave, cologne, and deodorant than a man would need in three lifetimes. I'm not that offensive....

But I did have fun at the in-laws this Christmas, much in part to the three crazy dogs they have there. The moment I showed up, they all wanted various degrees of lovin', and I was more than happy to oblige them. While we were waiting for dinner to be served, I went downstairs to the rec room where my nephews were busying themselves disposing of zombies in Black Ops, and to join in on the fun, I hunkered myself down with Vols. 3 and 4 of The Walking Dead softbounds. Below everyone's feet, we had turned the basement into Zombieworld.

Of course, once we got back home, I couldn't wait to turn on the DVR and catch that Doctor Who Christmas Special... during which I fell asleep ten minutes into it. But I did catch it all Sunday... another brilliantly realized Steven Moffat script, with an ingenious twist where the Doctor actually does too good a job at reforming a heartless villain. And, of course, we got a scrumptious teaser trailer for the next season in April. The Ood will be back. The faux TARDIS will be back. The Doctor comes to America (for real, this time!). Musketeers! Stetsons! River Song in various stages of clothing! And the Fez may once again rear its tacky tassel...

I'll be back with more later in the week, along with new episodes of MARK AND DEE. See you then!

Season's Greetings from the MARK AND DEE gang!

Yeah, I know... I've been extremely neglectful of this blog for a while, and I'm hoping to turn that all around this week as I go into a lovely and much-needed three-day weekend that hopefully will give me a chance to catch up on the MARK AND DEE strip, the next in the Doctor Who watercolors I'm doing, and kick back with some fabulous Christmas movies, starting off with my annual Christmas Eve viewing of Bob Hope's The Lemon Drop Kid. Screamingly funny film, one of the last truly great Bob Hope comedies before television claimed him and his steady stream of film comedies began a downward spiral. I wish this was running on TV somewhere because, like so many other Christmas-based movies, it just seems special to just sit and watch it on netwrok and cable, knowing there are other folk out there discovering this lost gem and laughing at it too. Having it on DVD is great, but it just seems a tad empty as an experience. That's why I'm grateful that NBC still runs It's a Wonderful Life twice during the Christmas season, and particularly on Christmas Eve. It gives that great film a national audience.

Yes, Christmas is tomorrow, and I'm not really looking forward to it, as I have always felt that Christmas Eve, the anticipation of it all, is always better than when you get there and it kinda sucks. But I think I can handle it for one really good reason: even if I don't get a darn thing I really wanted for Christmas (and this year especially it's looking more or less that we're heading that way), I still get one thing that's really special: a brand-new Doctor Who episode on BBC America. This year's DW Christmas Special, entitles "A Christmas Carol", will actually air on the same day here in the States as it will in Britain, no stalling for two or three days (or even longer). So Christmas Day won't entirely suck tomorrow, because after all the running around from one family gathering to another, the bloating of my stomach, the yuletide dysfunction, and weariness of the whole bloody mess, I will still get to come home and spend an excellent hour with the Doctor, Amy and Rory.

Sometimes, in spite of it all, things do work out.

Have a lovely holiday season.

MARK AND DEE: The Journey Parts 10-14

And a day and two months later...

Yeah, I've been extremely neglectful of this blog, so my apologies to all those who were wondering "WTF"! I do have a lot to comment on from the last couple of months, but in the meantime, let's start the make-up process by giving you a whole lot of MARK AND DEE. Merely click on the images for a bigger view.

As you might recall, Tandy Breckinridge, our antiquities dealer and favorite British person has more or less kidnapped her boyfriend Mickey Walton to help with a job for her father. They're currently winging their way aboard her family's private jet for parts unknown. With the exception of Mick's aversion to air sickness, things have gone smoothly until Tandy heads to the pilot's control room...

PREVIEW: Halloween cover for Gallifreyan Gazette #265

Sorry I've been gone for so long, but after a nasty bout of depression and finishing an actual commissioned work (yep, I'm actually getting paid for wat I love to do!), I'm back with some new stuff, starting with the cover of the next issue of the Gallifreyan Gazette, the official newsletter of the Indiana Doctor Who club Whoosier Network. Merely click on the image for the larger view. Hope you like:

And we'll be back with more MARK AND DEE in just a day or so!

Finally: the Brave and the Bold returns!

The last new episode aired in the middle of April, and it's been a long, dry summer of reruns... but the good news is that the Emmy-nominated Batman: The Brave and the Bold returns with all-new episodes this Friday at 7:00 PM on the Cartoon Network. They'll be wrapping up the season-wide subplot with the two-part "The Siege of Starro", as Batman battles the legendary space starfish who has taken control of practically every costumed hero on Earth.

For those of you who haven't been tuning into this terrific series, it's a valentine to long-time Batman fans like myself who feel that, after watching the Dark Knight get darker and darker in both the comics and two cartoon series, we needed a break from the doom and gloom, a return to the fun Batman of the mid-60's and early 70's before he became a sullen psychotic. Well, producer James Tucker, who has been mulling this kind of Batman as far back as the last season of The New Batman Adventures (when he supervised the storyboarding of the Dick Sprang-inspired segment of "Legends of the Dark Knight"), gave it to us and good.

This new series steeps itself into the Silver Age history of DC Comics with the kind of wild stories that do honor to Gardner Fox, Julius Schwartz, John Broome, Robert Kanigher, Jack Kirby, and especially Bill Finger (whom many credit as the real mastermind behind Batman). If you've come here looking for that psychotic bully he's evolved into, just keep marchin'. Batman is the Caped Crusader in this one, a Sprang-inspired creation, with the talented Dietrich Bader as a cross between the raspy Kevin Conroy and the straight-laced camp of Adam West (who actually appeared in an episode with Julie Newmar as Thomas and Martha Wayne!). And while the series itself never takes itself too seriously, there are the dark moments that fans of the Dark Knight clamor for, such as an episode where Batman tracks down the man responsible for his parents' murders (courtesy of Batman: the Animated Series' own Paul Dini).

And let's not forget the musical episode, "Mayhem of the Music Meister", a story with flavor straight out of the 1960's Brave and the Bold comics, featuring Neil Patrick Harris as the Conducter of Crime, with a fantastic score that could persuade Andrew Lloyd Webber to don a cape and tights.

Ewww.

This series has one last full season to go, and I'm hoping before it disappears we'll get that Music Meister action figure. I'll be the first in line for it.

Anyway, put it in your DVR... this Friday, Cartoon Network, 7:00 PM EST.