My friend Kathy Murray asked me one day if I was ever going to have a “Wonder-WUBA” character as one of Darior’s group of heroes. I told her I was planning on it for the final episode — and that, indeed, I wanted to call her “Wonder-WUBA.”

Her face lit up: “CAN I BE HER!??!”

And so she was.

Understand, “WUBA” at the time was nearly as toxic as “the N word” is today. Our O-Rep wanted to let me call her Wonder-WUBA anyway, since I gave it a positive connotation. But he changed his mind just before printing, and made me change “Wonder-WUBA” to “Wonder Midette” – a name I thought was actually more insulting. (Female mids are mids, not “mid-ettes.” I mean, that was my whole point.)

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I have to admit, creating the last episode—saying goodbye to Darior and Carl and Poseidon III and the gang – was pretty emotional for me. I had put more time and energy into Darior than probably anything else I did at USNA. That really should have been a sign; but like I said, I’m terrible at taking hints.

Twice as long as a normal episode – 8 pages instead of 4. And I was also inking Chuck Martini’s 8-page story, while working with Chuck and Andrew to put together “The Biggest Log Magazine Ever.” Plus, you know, getting ready to graduate. As a result, I had no time to do any coloring/shading – and so Darior’s final adventure was left in a sort of “unfinished” state. Which was kind of a shame.