This cartoon and others appearing the same week in October of 2002 were, for reasons I do not recall, drawn with a felt-tip pen instead of the usual India ink and pen points. I might not recall why they were drawn this way, but I immediately can tell by the comic strip’s appearance. This caught my attention, because someone asked last week how my current experiment with felt-tip pens is coming along, an experiment made necessary by the dwindling availability of the old-style pen nibs upon which I have relied for over 25 years. It’s coming along all right, and I take it as a good sign that someone has to ask. I have settled on pens made by Japanese companies Micron and Copic. The felt-tip pens give the drawings a looser, more sketchy quality, which is a good thing, but it is difficult to achieve that flowing, more interesting line made by the old dip pens. When I’ve grown more accustomed to the transition, I think I’m going to be OK with it. Younger cartoonists have been doing it for years.