Wanted to show Karen narrating the story as a current time 40-something. Taking new photos of the school allowed me to accurately plot the room size, along with a 20-unit grid of student desks (4 rows of 5 desks). Drafting Karen’s 70s-era feathered hair was a challenge. I used “Ms. Marvel”, drawn at the time by John Buscema and Joe Sinnott, as a drawing style guide.

Ronny Davis — the protagonist who bears a passing resemblance to Yours Truly — was sort of an accident. The story’s was supposed to be about my last year at John F. Kennedy Junior High School. When pencilling, the main character drawings looked too old. Since I already lettered a section rooting the story in 1976, and I was stuck with the drawings, the only logical option was to base our protagonist on my fictional older brother Ronny Marshall.