by Tim Baron

I’m sure I’m not the first, but it happened to me just the other day. I saw something and thought, ‘Damien would like that’. And a second later, well, yes. I remembered. What I’d seen was an advert for a collection of vintage Superman comics, and I’d thought he’d like it because, amongst his many attributes and abilities, Damien was a colossal Superman nerd. But not for him the grim and gritty portrayals of recent years. Damien was a 1950s-60s guy, the so-called Silver Age of comics. Back then, Superman could juggle planets and would save the day with powers such as Super Ventriloquism, or Super Mathematics. The final panel would often be Clark Kent giving a smile and a wink to the readers, as once again, no one realised he was secretly Superman. The stories were inordinately preposterous and Damien absolutely loved them.

With that in mind, I present the script for the comic –

Damien Sweeney: Memories #1

Page 1

Panel 1 – Damien greets me in the pub in Keyworth in 2006.

Panel 2 – On the road with Northern Leg; Damien and a number of others are discussing Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett and The West Wing.

Panel 3 – View from above; Damien and I moving a smidge faster to take over at the front of the cross. Damien is calling: Come on Timbo!

Page 2

Panel 1 – Damien corrects my grammar.

Panel 2 – At the pub, Damien thanks someone for a song they’ve just sung

Panel 3 – At the pub, Damien sings Bastity Chelt; it’s the bit where the rest of the Leg plays their kazoos.

Page 3

Panel 1 – Damien lends his car to someone. [He used to have insurance so that anyone over 25 could drive it – who does that?]

Panel 2 – Damien sweeps the floor at the Ron Dawson Memorial Hall in Corby Glen, as Northern Leg prepares to leave.

Panel 3 – Damien standing near the paschal fire at Walsingham.

Page 4

Panel 1 – Damien corrects my grammar.

Panel 2- Damien takes himself off to mass on a day that isn’t Sunday.

Panel 3 – Damien laughs at a joke – his own or someone else’s. It’s a good, big, whole body laugh. The laugh of someone who likes to laugh, of one who has, indeed, been waiting for just this chance to laugh and is going for it in a big way.

Page 5

Panel 1 – Damien is voted leader of Northern Leg and his pride in this is a shining, lovely thing.

Panel 2 – At the Leadership handover, Damien gives me a book about – wait for it – Superman. He’s inscribed it, ‘You were Super, Man’. This pun makes him very happy.

Panel 3 – At the pub Damien sings Hush, Hush, time to be sleeping…

Page 6

Panel 1 – Damien corrects my grammar.

Panel 2 – At the pub, Damien plays the tin whistle alongside the other musicians.

Panel 3 – Damien cooks dinner for the leg

Page 7

Panel 1 – the whole page – Damien arrives with Northern Leg at The Slipper Chapel and many, many people are pleased to see him.

Page 8

Panel 1 – Damien is reading something with his glasses on upside down.

Panel 2 – After a nasty fall, and a trip to A&E to have his head wound sutured, Damien stands before the assembled members of Pilgrim [then Student] Cross and thanks Northern Leg for ‘having me in stitches all week’.

Panel 3 – Damien is in his kitchen, cooking; he looks out at us with a smile and a wink. Just the way Clark Kent used to do.

Page 9

Panel 1 – the whole page – Damien’s headstone; the last line of the inscription reads [what else?]

To Be Continued

Thanks Damien. You were Super, Man.