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  M-O-O-O-O-Z!!!

  No, that’s not an angry sea cow.

  That’s… Z-O-O-O-O-M!!!

  But backward.

  That’s because the best way I can do this chapter is to start at the end and work backward to the start.

  So here’s me: I am chasing after my dogfish, Growler, who has a piece of my Hammer-Boy superhero costume in his jaws. I am covered in ink. Oh yeah, and my butt is on full display because of the hole Growler bit in my tights.

   

  “No, Growler! NO!”

  I’d spent days making the Hammer-Boy outfit. Hammer-Boy is a character from one of the comics I draw.

  And that’s where the ink comes in.

  Usually I use ink for my comic strips. But today I had been drawing Hammervision lightning bolts on the hammer-helmet.

  Then Dad’s tail knocked over the squid-ink pot. A cloud of it had landed on my rear end.

  Why was Dad’s tail swishing so much?

  Well, he’d just been barfed on by Finn, my baby brother.

  And because Growler hates squid ink, he’d snapped at the billowing blue cloud as it settled on my behind!

  But why, you ask again, was I making the costume?

   

  Well, the annual Sandy-Wave-O Comic Convention is this weekend. It’s the most awesome event of the year for fans of superhero comics and their movies.

  Everyone dresses up, and if you’re lucky enough, you might even get to meet the geniuses who create the stories. Geniuses like Keel Caiman and Mariko Ta-Makoshark, creators of my favorite comic in the entire ocean.

  And if you have the best costume, you’ll win a cameo in the Caiman comic of your choice!

  And so…

  Z-O-O-O-O-O-M!!

  (That’s us going forward again. Keep up.)

  My costume has a hole on the rump. It’s stained with ink. And I don’t have time to completely fix it before I leave for the convention.

  ARRRRRRGH!!!!

  See? I told you it was a good place to end the chapter.

  Sigh.

  Because I’m pretty sure my cameo dreams have ended too.