Intro
From June to September 11, 2013 I dragged along on this issue. It was fraught with tears and heartbreak. On September 13th we marked the passing of what would have been Donita's 50th birthday, and as she was only four months older than I it leaves me feeling a little tireder and older myself.
What I have done with this issue is to tie old and new together into one universe in such a way as to push forward to the new series while always paying homage to the old. We'd hinted of the death of Tayge and Lucky's father back in A Deviant Mind #8, but I had no idea, no way of knowing that the storyline would ever play into this series in such an impactful way. Picking up the pieces of this series after 30 years, as we watched Tayge and Lucky struggle along, never quite succeeding at anything, being called quitters and losers by their nemeses at every turn, I was in a way playing into my own insecurities about being such a late bloomer myself, and had decided in the course of things to find a purpose for Tayge and Lucky beyond being drifters and space pirates. The irony is that I was planning to drag Doug back in and get him involved in this series just a couple of months before the unthinkable happened. In my last phone call to Donita I told her about the series, that I was going to send them some episodes, and she said Doug would be thrilled to see what I'd done with our series.
You will see what I have done in the course of this story. There will be some surprises along the way. In the old series, Tayge's father Captain Space had rescued a small child who became the sidekick, who Space called his "Little Girl": in this episode it's Asuka who rescues Tayge when she sees into his broken heart, to understand what he hides there and what he is struggling through.
In this issue, Tayge finds himself, finds a purpose, though his issue is not resolved overnight and he realizes that he has a long way to go. So in another growing pain of the series Doug and I created in 1980, once again he finds himself on an adventure that is just beginning.
Let me know what you think of this issue when it's done. There is no cliffhanger this issue, the story ends on a hopeful note, and another story begins. The tribute part and behind the scenes pages, however, will only be available to paid Members of this site, or in the printed comic, on sale now at Indyplanet.com.
Thanks for reading.
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