Match to Flame 125

 I had a contract that acknowledged me as the owner of my characters. The copyright would read “Batom, Inc.,” which was the name I had given my imaginary comic book company when I was in the fifth grade. I was poised and prepared to move forward with a comic strip that was ready to play for keeps.I should have been on top of the world at that point, but something wasn’t quite right. I had cast my karmic lot with the piper and he had delivered, big time . . . but now the piper was demanding payment. The past is a knife. 

From The Complete Funky Winkerbean Volume 7