For today's installment of Kate the Great, Jaime and I welcome the work of a special guest writer: my dad!

Several months back, my father approached me with the idea for this comic strip. He's written lots of stuff in his life, but never a comic strip (this is his very first one!), so he had a little trouble articulating exactly what he wanted to see Kate doing. (The difficulty was compounded by the fact that my mom and brother kept asking him questions.)

My Old Man: "Louie is looking out the window --"

My Ma: "But why?"

My Old Man: "I'm getting to that, Patti. Anyway, there's a whale in the yard --"

My Brother: "Why a whale? What's a whale doing out there?"

My Old Man: "Well, it's been raining, and --"

My Ma: "When it's raining, I don't think the whales come out."

My Brother: "I think they do."

My Ma: "You should Google it. On that Googley thing."

My Old Man: "It's not raining now!! This is after the rain. And Kate is yelling to her mom--"

My Ma: "You know what Kate should do? Read a good book."

My Brother: "That's not funny, ma."

My Old Man: "Just forget the whole thing."

But I didn't forget! I wrote down his idea and did a crude sketch, and Jaime did a way-so-much-better sketch, and then finished it. And I printed the piece and framed it, and yesterday, I gave it to my dad for his 60th birthday.

That's right: my old man is 60! (I've got to stop calling him "old man". It might hurt his feelings, now that he is one.)

Kidding, kidding!!! I don't think 60 is old.

Age is a state of mind, really. It's how we think and how we feel. And if you can think like a kid (and this strip is proof that my dad can), and if you're in good health (and my dad is, and we're lucky for that), then you're never REALLY old.

And on that profound note, I'll wish my dad happy birthday just one more time this year, and post his strip. (It's pretty good, right?? Leave him some love in the comments below.)

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