Back in the day, we used to get color proofs of the Sunday strips. Eventually that policy was ended, but since I had a color proof of the second Darling Sunday, I thought I’d use that. As he would continue to do, Tom A knocked it out of the park. And, as is my wont, I didn’t show John getting torched by Gene Simmons, but instead left it off panel for the reader’s imagination to fill-in.

So, for the moment, a crisis had been averted. I was quickly assured that no one would be changing anything in my ...