Roy Thomas’s Alter Ego magazine is always a great read. But the current issue (#106) is a tribute to the late and very great comics artist/editor Dick Giordano. Download preview here.

It’s a must read if you’re…

—a Giordano fan.

—a Charlton Comics fan.

—a Last Kiss fan with a keen curiosity.

In addition to being my favorite artist from Charlton’s First Kiss (the source material for much of Last Kiss), Dick Giordano was Charlton’s editor for several years in the 1960s. More importantly he acted as mentor and occasional cheerleader to me after I started Last Kiss.

The issue features transcriptions from two comic conventions panels. The first a very entertaining 2009 panel about Charlton Comics featuring Giordano, Roy Thomas and Steve Skeates. The second from the Giordano Tribute panel at the 2010 San Diego Comic Con–featuring comic luminaries Mark Evanier, Bob Layton, Joe Rubinstein, Pau Levitz, Pat Bastienne and numerous others. (I must admit I was one of the others.)

This is a great issue about one of comic’s best-loved and most influential artists/editors. Dick was one of the kindest and most inspiring people I’ve ever worked with. I strongly recommend this issue!!

My sister Lisa (left) and my mom (right) were travel agents together. Here they are a lifetime ago during a trip to Peru.

My mom (Nina Lustig) always had a plan. She was determined to do things her own way. And in her own time.

For instance, she went in for a mastectomy even though it seemed hopeless. Her doctors told her she had only three months to live. They were only off by…29 years.

On the morning of Jan. 13, 2012 (Friday the 13th) she finally lost her battle with the Big C. But she didn’t give up without a world-class, kick-death-in-the-teeth fight.

She was an incredibly tough and private woman. (And I wouldn’t even dare tell you that much if she was still with us.)

How private was she? Well–she didn’t even tell me (or my brother) about her second cancer bout. I should’ve guessed something was going on, though. During those years, she was…oh, let’s call it “slightly grumpy.” (As in–slightly grumpy enough to bite the heads off baby seals.)

When her third bout with cancer came up–about four or five years ago–she decided to take my siblings (Jim & Lisa) and I into her confidence. Things didn’t look good. A doctor she’d been seeing had horribly misdiagnosed her cancer. Instead of giving her traditional chemo, he gave her hormones—which probably sped up the cancer. By the time she went to a new doctor, her breast cancer had spread into her spine.

Once the cancer gets into your bones you can’t really beat it. You can kill most of it. But there’s always going to be some cancer spores lurking–waiting to take root and bloom.

Mom knew what was ahead (chemo & radiation) and wasn’t sure she was up for the fight this time. I strongly urged her to fight. It was only of the few times I ever won a discussion with Mom. And I know—let’s face it—I would’ve lost if she were really against it.

For a long time, it seemed worth it. There were some good times and the chemo wasn’t overwhelming—at first.

But the last year and half were pretty miserable. The cancer was eating away at her bones. And the chemo was having some nasty side affects. The type that never get mentioned in Lifetime made-for-TV movies.

Among other things, the chemo made her teeth (never that good) crumble. She lost feeling in her feet and didn’t even realize she’d stepped on a toothpick until my wife spotted it several days later—sticking out of Mom’s foot.

Mom became increasingly unsteady on her feet. After one particularly nasty fall, she ended up in the hospital and a steel rod had to be permanently inserted into her right femur.

She needed new knees too, but that was judged too risky for a cancer patient.

For a while there, she was in and out of the hospital more than a soap opera star during sweeps week. And then she’d go home–insisting that she could live on her own. (My siblings and I slept over as often as possible, though.)

Finally, it became clear that life wasn’t worth living with chemo. So Mom decided to go on hospice at home. She wanted to die in her own bed. She figured it wouldn’t take long. Maybe a day. (She actually said goodbye to all of us the night she quit chemo.)

Instead, she was around for another seven months.

Hospice provided superb support. But hospice workers were there only two or three hours a week most weeks. The bulk of the 24-7 care fell to my siblings and me.

The first couple of months were surprisingly nice. Once she was off chemo, Mom started feeling better. Thinking clearer. And we had some wonderful talks.

But as the cancer grew, she was in more and more pain. She had a smorgasbord of painkillers available. But as the dosages increased (and the cancer possibly spread to her brain) it became harder for her to think and eventually even to talk clearly. Towards the end, Mom started repeating the beginning of sentences and wasn’t always able to find a way to end them. She’d get anxious about little things—worrying that something “might” go wrong.

And then—a little over a week ago—everything changed. She became clear again. Not perfectly clear, but more like the old Mom. She started calling family members to say goodbye. And close pals to thank them for having been her friends.

She grew obviously weaker each day. Sometimes we couldn’t understand her because she had so little breath that she could barely whisper. But she was pleasant again. Polite. Grateful to have family around. And often surprisingly funny.

On Monday (Jan. 9), the hospice nurse predicted that Mom would slip into a coma within 24 hours. Didn’t happen.

On Thursday (Jan. 12), the nurse predicted that Mom would die that day. Mom must’ve taken that as a dare because she slept all day, all night and it wasn’t until the next morning that she suddenly woke up. Then she whispered, “I love you. I’m dying.” And moments later—departed this world according to her own plan.

Comics writer & pop culture author Danny Fingeroth is speaking about his new book The Stan Lee Universe in Seattle’s University District on Jan. 7 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Details here.

Through Jan. 1 2012, NobleWorks is having a post-Christmas sale on all its Christmas cards. Discounts range from 40-60 percent off.

–Buy at least $30 of cards and you get 40 percent off with the coupon code: REGIFT40

–Buy at least $60 of cards and you get 50 percent off with the coupon code: REGIFT50

–Buy at least $120 of cards and you get 60 percent off with the coupon code: REGIFT60

Last Kiss Christmas cards:

—Buy Happiness

—Naughty Girls

—Great Sex

–Gay Christmas

Order by the dozen for best discount. Minimum order $30. Free shipping.

Although I spend most of my time doing Last Kiss, I still write an occasional Disney comic. The latest is something special. The first seven pages of “The Duck Who Came to Dinner” was scripted decades ago by the late and very great Carl Barks.

I purchased the unpublished manuscript several years ago during an eBay auction that was held on behalf of the Barks Estate. My publisher Egmont (Disney’s main comics licensee for northern Europe) gave me the go-ahead to write the remaining three pages of the 10-page Uncle Scrooge story.

In the tale, Scrooge goes to Donald Duck’s house on the pretext that he wants to tell Donald the story of how he (Scrooge) earned his first dollar. The idea is that it’ll inspire Donald to be frugal.

The reality is that Scrooge is conveniently showing up at dinner time to mooch a free meal. Donald has already heard the story many times and is sick of it–and Scrooge’s meal-mooching ways. So Donald (with the help of Huey, Dewey and Louie) spend the rest of the story trying to lure Scrooge outside and lock him out.

“The Duck Who Came to Dinner” was drawn by the one of my favorite Disney artists Daan Jippes. Drawing in his “Barks” mode, Daan did his usual outstanding job.

It was published in Scandinavia in October and will probably show up in a number of other countries soon. Hopefully, it’ll show up here in the U.S. one of these days too.

For more about the story and additional scans of the lettered art, check out Joakim Gunnarsson’s Blog.

(All artwork ©2011 The Walt Disney Company)

And the answer?

Well, it’s a lot like a political convention–except with more Braaains! And way cooler outfits.

I stopped to chat with www.geekchicdaily.com/ Editor-in-Chief Brian Walton (see photo above) and decided to take his picture. Two zombie gals immediately volunteered to make the photo more…uh, interesting.

Yeah, it was that sort of convention!

Authors Brian Herbert (the Dune saga) on left and Bruce Taylor ("Mr. Magic Realism") during one of the sunnier moments of Northwest Bookfest 2011.

I needed to be cloned–at least twice–to do everything I wanted to do and be everywhere that I needed to be this last weekend:

• 40th high school reunion — Friday night.
• More reunion festivities where everyone walks around saying,  “Who are all these old folks?” — Saturday until everyone gets bored or dies of old age.
• Sell Last Kiss goodies in Kirkland at a booth at Northwest Bookfest — Saturday & Sunday 10 .am. to 6 p.m.
• Be back in Seattle BEFORE 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday to take care of my sick mother.
• Stay home all weekend and kill some deadlines before they kill me.

How’d I do? Well, numerous fans kindly volunteered to take over for me at Bookfest. But I needed to at least set up my booth and be there for at least a few hours. So this is what happened…

• Made it to the reunion Friday night and had a great time pretending I remembered people.
• Skipped the reunion events Saturday so that I could be at Bookfest. Too bad. I was actually looking forward to more people going, “Oh, my God! Are you still alive?”
• Saturday morning I set up at Bookfest and waited for the crowds to arrive. Four hours later I decided they weren’t coming. Frankly, I don’t blame them. Having the vendors for a literary festival outside in October (especially in the Seattle area) is asking for trouble. It was kinda cold. And kinda wet. No sides to the tents of most booths. So it was hard to keep merchandise (and ourselves) dry. A friend was coming later in the day to take over for me. But having a friend be miserable and cold in my place didn’t seem fair. Plus security was going to be a problem when the show closed for the night. So leaving stuff overnight was out. So I just packed up and left around 2 p.m. Saturday. I didn’t come back the next day. Oddly enough, though, I’m glad I attended Bookfest. I enjoyed talking to my booth mates–old pals Bruce Taylor and Roberta Gregory and new pals Carl & Lida Sloan, and Brian Herbert. I especially enjoyed meeting Brian. I knew his dad Frank and it was fun reminiscing and finding out what’s going on with the Dune series.
• Took care of my mom Saturday night. Shelagh filled in for me Sunday night so I could write.
• And, yes, I made all my deadlines. Otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this!

Last Kiss posters and comics are appearing as prominent props in the upcoming web TV series, Up Up Down Down. I’ve created several new, faux Last Kiss comic book covers just for the series.

The adorable tyke holding the Last Kiss poster is series creator/star R.a. Rayne’s four-year-old daughter Ariebella. The series is now filming it’s first episodes. I’ll post a link as soon as the Up Up Down Down goes live on the web.

The sitcom is set in the fictional Up Up Down Down video game store where Owner Jack Cooper “and his short-fused…Assistant Manager…are being constantly bombarded with threats from the bank (and)…angry customers…

“In a desperate attempt to turn the store’s sales around Jack has hired Alex, a very attractive female ‘gamer’ who would much rather play a video game or read a comic book than Twitter about her latest shopping spree. Alex’s presence alone is drumming up new business and sending the store into a hormonal frenzy.”