ComicBase is the longtime leader in comic collector's software. It combines the world's most comprehensive comic price guide and encyclopedia with a powerful collection management system, making it the ideal tool for serious collectors.

Don't be nervous, Dad. This will be easy for a technological genius like me and every other person on the planet who's not you. First thing, you'll have to buy me some pre-instillation software to generate the valances I'll need to build in your system. Just go to the store and ask for Turbo Track 4001, Fishing Fury II, and Roller Coaster Maniac. The nice thing about them is that they have games included with the pre-instillation software and...

Dad! You're going away again.

Tell you what...just give me a blank check and you can wait in the car while I buy this stuff.

There are things that I've been learning from this experience with Barbara's passing, things that, if you wouldn't mind, I'd like to be share with your readers

You can never tell the people you love often enough that you love them. You don't know when it'll be the last chance you have. Although I did tell Barbara at least twice a day that I love her, I still wish I'd said it to her at least one more time.

Having a will is *very* important. Barbara passed without a will and I'm going to have to go through all sorts of legal stuff before everything is settled. She had a checking account in her name only and hadn't named a beneficiary. There's also the matter of her car. Even if it essentially just names one person who will see to the disposition of assets, a will can save a lot of time and trouble.

Having life insurance is just as important as a will. The only life insurance Barbara had was through her work, and when they let her go during her lengthy hospital stay, we weren't able to get a new policy started. Even just the cost of cremation can be more than many people can afford all at once, and funeral homes expect to be paid within 30 days.

Make sure, if bank accounts aren't in more than one person's name, or for that matter, all other savings, retirement plans and so forth, that a beneficiary is named.

I don't think enough people realize the importance of these things. God knows I've learned the importance of the last three, but if my experience can, in turn, help others avoid some of these difficulties, then there will, at least, be that positive note to this experience.

I'm not going to talk about the terrorist attacks, except to mention, in response to John Jackson Miller's editorial that, in my mind, even the most trivial--relatively speaking--jobs are still worth doing, even if all they do is provide a necessary distraction and entertainment to others. 'Nuff said.

The main focus of this is to note the appropriate coincidence of Tony's column, talking about our meeting at WizardWorld and the lessons I have learned in the wake of my wife Barbara's death, appearing in the same issue focusing on the five-year anniversary of Lois and Clark's wedding.

What Tony may not have known or remembered--had I mentioned it before and it's quite possible I had-is Barbara and I met through LOIS & CLARK: THE NEW ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN, the television show. Actually, it was through an internet mailing list that, so far as I'm aware, is still going strong today.

I'm originally from western Washington, while Barbara was here in Greenfield (right outside Milwaukee). Neither of us was looking for a relationship when we first began chatting online through the group, but we did find we were finishing each other's sentences and responding in the same way to what other posters said. That led to discussions outside the TV show, concerning each other's likes, dislikes, and opinions on a wide variety of topics. In about four months' time, we figured we'd had the equivalent of several years' worth of dates, without the distractions of dating.

LOIS & CLARK played a big part in our lives, especially after we met in person the first time. Our wedding had the characters all over the place, although sometimes, Clark was represented as his alter-ego. One of our wedding cakes had a topper I'd created using a wedding photo of Lois and Clark from the show. The ring pillow was made from a Superman S-shield T-shirt. The wedding favors included small tins of Superman candies, which we'd scoured Milwaukee trying to find just before that Christmas. I even wore a Superman S-shield pin on my suit, and the men involved in the wedding all wore flowers with red, blue and yellow ribbons tied around them. Even the bouquets had the Superman colors. To top it off, our exit theme at the end of the ceremony was the theme from LOIS & CLARK!

Since we were married, we made a trip to Metropolis, Illinois, and, at the last Mid-Ohio-Con we attended, I was able to tell John Byrne that his work on Superman made it possible for my wife and I to meet and get married. Heck, I couldn't tell Siegel and Shuster, or even Curt Swan or any of the many other people who worked on Superman and had passed away.

I wrote several columns for an online Superman fanzine. There is even a Superman Christmas ornament hanging from mt car's rear-view mirror, and I won't even get into all the other paraphernalia around an apartment which is crowded with stuff, but now feels much emptier than it did two months ago.

I think Barbara would appreciate the coincidence, the latest in a long line of Superman-related events in our all-too-short time together. Thank you.