And so we are at the end of another Joe saga, its conflicts resolved, its myriad threads of plot causality neatly tied with artful precision in those cases where they’re not sheepishly discarded due to poor story construction.

And yet, this momentary resolution leaves us with more questions than it answers. What will Joe do with his newfound freedom? What challenges could he possibly face, with the burden of his criminal record and mounting price on his head suddenly lifted? To what haven will he turn, now that the universe is open to him? Why did the therapist’s chair suddenly turn white in the last panel?

These questions are not for me to answer, especially since as you know each issue is frantically improvised roughly a half hour before the publication deadline. Suffice to say that the fact that the next series is number 13, a number believed to have dark and forboding powers by millions of gullible and ignorant people around the world, is not lost upon us.

It will be series 13, right? Hang on while I check. Yes. As I thought.

As always, you may discuss these and other portentious events here.

Mike