Well, I've definitely missed the deadline for Oztaku but that might not be so bad if the next issue deadline clashes with other commitments. I haven't felt much like drawing.

Still no sign of Percy, and the "Found" cockatiel count is now 20 or 21. I did manage to reunite one young cockatiel with the girl who had bred him, and his relations. Amazingly, it was because someone had rung me after seeing a "Found" sign and one of my "Lost" signs, and I kept details, then happened to discuss losing Percy with a colleague. When I checked details of her daughter's lost bird, and this found one, they matched!

I am nearly finished reading Watership Down to my daughter, who is enjoying it immensely.

"Cerebus," the aardvark character who began in 1977 is about to finish, with issue 300, in March 2004. It really is amazing to think of Cerebus ending. It's been around so long! Certainly, this character was one influence on some of the style and directions I chose with Maelstrom, though I had already created (and published) the earliest adventures of my own short barbarian character.

Like many others, I've waxed and waned as Dave Sim's worst (often misogynist) indulgences have distanced me, but I've always come back, due to the quality of the work itself. I'm going to miss Cerebus.

For the future, I can kind of imagine Dave living an Edward Gorey-like existence, creating exactly what he wants, when he wants. I hope it works that way for him.