To Be... Continued??
It was shortly after this episode got printed that several factors conspired to break up the Gatherings. Seems even our "happy crew" wasn't immune to petty infighting and conflicts of personality; and about this time, an opportunity arose for the de facto leaders of the group, Kurt and Jane, to move to New Mexico to take up residence in this really cool house about an hour outside of Albuquerque (and everywhere else, or so it seems sometimes!) And since they were not only the instigators of most of the gatherings but also the owners of the vast library of anime, little-known movies and TV shows and other "video obscura" from which we drew our programming, it was like losing our heart. (Now my wife and I do still keep contact with K&J, and have even been to NM to visit them twice, but, sadly, not many of the other Gatherlings do.)
The most frustrating part of the abandonment of TAODSBABM is that there are almost no records - no notes, no sketches, no layouts, nothing - to give any idea how the story was supposed to end. (I am pretty sure that Episode 6 was to be the conclusion of the strip.) I seem to remember that Sonya "summons" Tetsuwan Atomu/Astro Boy to battle Psycho Gundam, and that near the end Iczer-One angrily confronts Sonya "and you better not have stretched my costume out of shape!!" ("What's the matter, feeling inadequate?" would probably have been Sonya's response.) Beyond that, I have no idea how the story would have ended.
But I'm not too regretful about that; I do remember having a lot of fun drawing the pages, collecting and synthesizing plot ideas and dialogue suggestions, and sharing and getting reactions to the story as it progressed. And I'm happy for the opportunity now to share this story with my valued readers; and I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have reliving the adventure.
And the essential spirit of the delectable Dr. Beta lives on in the persona of the equally (if not more so!) delightful Dr. Sonya Gannon.
So if a talking VCR suddenly makes an appearance in the Tetsuko series... you'll know why.
