After my father died, I couldn't stop thinking about a comicstrip my friend Steve Lieber did just months earlier. It's the same subject, as his dad had just died. And it hits the same sore point that I now have, that my dad never got to come out and visit my life for a bit. Steve did this personal piece for Portland Monthly magazine, and frankly it's some of his most impressive cartooning. The narrative tool of negative imagery he uses here is something that only comics can do. I'm actually going to run the whole strip over at the Mercury Studio blog, so people won't be confused and think it's mine. I would be very proud of it if it were, though.