Comic Charlie

It was late afternoon and Charlie was napping. She had been asleep for about an hour and I was dozing on the couch watching tennis. This is the part of Charlie's nap I hate the most, the last 1/3. Its not the worst part because Charlie will soon be awake, but because of the uncertainly of when she will wake. She could begin to stir at any minute or she could sleep for another hour. Its entirely random. It is hard to plan my nap when I can't anticipate hers.

On this day I was woken not by Charlie, but by my neighbour's children yelling into a loud speaker - 'COMICS FOR SALE, GET YOUR COMICS, ONLY 25 CENTS'. I was slightly annoyed at this interruption, but mostly I was intrigued. 25 cents for a comic is quite a deal. What if these comics were valuable first editions? Maybe they were selling their dad's old X-Men comics. Maybe I could make some money from the children's ignorance. Torn between supervising a sleeping baby and the seductive allure of cheap comics I ran outside.





The neighbour's kids (Liam - 7, Nicky - 4, and their friend Max) were not selling old comics, but were offering to draw comics. I had never seen their work before. I thought that the kids might be some sort of artistic prodigies; maybe one day their drawings would be priceless (like the old Bob Ross I have in the cellar). Without hesitation I dug a Loonie from my pocket (25 cents per page, plus a 25 cent tip) and commissioned a three page comic. I suggested that maybe Charlie's helmet could be worked into the story. That maybe her helmet was the source of her supper powers. Not wanting to interrupt the artistic process too much I left the kids to their work and returned home to make sure Charlie was still alive (she was).









An hour later the comic was delivered to my mail box. It may not be a Stan Lee original, but it is fantastic. I am thinking of sending it to a Hollywood movie studio; I hear movies based on comic books are big money these days.