I know that the punchline to today’s comic is really random. Sorry about that. I just had a lot of trouble coming up with an idea to spoof The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. I didn’t read C.S. Lewis’s books growing up and I don’t have much interest in seeing the movies. I’m just burnt out on all of these fantasy movies with kids who must Save The World!

The genesis of this comic was born out of something actual, though. A friend and I went to see Iron Man last week and there was a trailer for Prince Caspian ahead of it. He made a comment to the effect that it was weird to see Aslan so prominently in the trailer because he’s supposed to be dead in the second book. I thought this sound like a good jumping off point. Truthfully, I just wanted to use the line "You can’t keep a good Christ allegory down." Maybe I should have used that for the punchline. Instead I decided to make it weird.

I actually had to do a little bit of research on this one because I wanted to make sure what I was referencing was factual. So of course I checked Wikipedia – The Source For All Things Truthful^TM and consulted friends through LiveJournal. I think I gave myself a little wiggle room by framing the question inside Jared’s confusion.

I felt the need to be proactive about getting my facts straight because the last time I mouthed off about one of these "beloved" childhood fantasy novels turned into a live action movie, I got my head bit off. People take this stuff pretty seriously.

Then again, who am I to judge. Look how serious I take Iron Man…< Even though I know the comic is ridiculous, I would kind of like to keep Señor Guapo around - and yes, I realized that I spelled his name wrong in the comic. Sorry, I was up late finishing it. I'll fix it when I get home. Anyway.... Señor Guapo. Would you like to see more comics that feature him? I have a couple ideas that he might be useful for. E-mail me and tell me what you think.

I feel a little distracted lately. There’s a good reason for it. My dad is going in for open-heart surgery on Tuesday. He’s not having a bypass or anything like that. They’re going in to fix a prolapsed mitral valve. Basically, one of the valves in his heart is weakened and is letting blood that’s supposed to be pumped out seep back into the chambers of his heart. Now his heart has to work twice as hard to do its job. Eventually it would just tire out, so the surgery is mandatory.

I’m a little weirded out by the idea of my Dad having a surgery like this. I won’t get into details, but it’s highly invasive. He had Cami and I watch a video from the hospital letting us know what to expect. I’m not sure if it helped to prepare me or made things worse.

Anyway, I’ll be out of town next week to be with my Dad as he undergoes surgery. As such, there will be no new comics from me next week. Joe, Gordon and I also decided to take a week off, so there will also be no new episode of The Triple Feature.

I encourage you to continue visiting the site, though. I have a couple of great guest strips lined up. A couple of my friends from Boxcar Comics are stepping in to lend a hand. Who are they? You’ll just have to come back next week to find out!

So that’s what’s going on in my world right now. We’re confident about the surgery, but we’re worried about my Dad’s recovery. He’s a young guy, so he has that going for him. But 6 to 8 weeks of doing nothing is going to be difficult for him to manage. I appreciate your patience and understanding while I deal with this family health issue.

Take care of yourselves and I will be in touch soon. Have a great weekend!