Saving the best for last - in my 'sweeps month' spectacular - this final day of my "BBS" series will be devoted to the 'cream of the crop': sketches drawn by professional comic artists, most of whom I'd met in 1995 at the construction site of the International Museum of Cartoon Art (on the south end of Mizner Park) in Boca Raton, Florida.

It was May, 1995 and I was already a 'volunteer worker' for IMCA at the time, working Friday and Saturday evenings in a trailer that doubled as a makeshift gift shop - chock full of memorabilia pertaining to comic strips and animated cartoon characters. Part of my job was to promote the yet-to-be-opened museum to all visiting customers.

Around that same time, the National Cartoonists' Society was holding its annual convention in a nearby Boca Raton hotel, so that all members would get to see a guided tour of IMCA (prior to its inevitable opening in 1996).

Needless to say, I couldn't pass up an opportunity like THIS! So, I brought along my camera... but more importantly, I'd schlepped along my big black sketchbook, in the hope of getting some really big names in the comic biz to draw on one of its pages... and I hit paydirt!

One of the first cartoonists I got to meet was Jim Davis, the artist/creator of "Garfield"! (The 'fat cat' first made the scene on June 19, 1978, and is still going strong to this day.) So, imagine my delight when Mr. Davis drew 'Garfield' in my sketchbook (joining many of the other works of other noteworthy 'funny animal' artists, too numerous to name). I'd also managed to snap a photo of Mr. Davis with another legendary comic artist, Dean Young (of "Blondie" fame), later that day.

But this is only the beginning... I have a few more surprises to unleash, later today... So "stay tooned"!

"Garfield" © Jim Davis/PAWS, Inc.