I Feel Like Captain Kirk! Let me explain…

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."

One of my all-time favorite movies is Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. It came out in 1982 when I was just nine years old. I didn't really know much about Star Trek back then, but my dad took me to see it, and I loved it from the start. It's actually one of the first VHS cassettes I ever bought, one of the first movies I ever owned—maybe even the first. Back then, owning movies felt like magic to me, and in some ways, it still does.

One of the movie's themes is about growing older, aging, and how that changes you and your perspective on life. When I was younger, this theme didn't really resonate with me. I appreciated it as a story element, but it wasn't personal for me. As the movie begins, it's James T. Kirk's birthday. He's getting older, has accepted an admiralty, taken a desk job, and is no longer commanding the Enterprise. He's feeling very, very old.

His friend McCoy berates him for his attitude on aging: “Dammit, Jim, what the hell's the matter? Other people have birthdays. Why're we treating yours like a funeral?”

A few weeks ago, I turned 52. And just yesterday, I realized that I'm probably around the same age as Kirk in that movie. Well, I looked it up, and it turns out that in The Wrath of Khan, Kirk was turning 52 as well. That was considered old back then! It seems crazy to me now, especially since I've reached that age and know what it feels like—or rather, don't know what it feels like. After I turned 52 earlier this month, I told my wife, “I don't feel 52; I feel more like I'm 30. I feel young.”

Interestingly, those are the same words James Kirk says at the end of The Wrath of Khan. McCoy asks him, “You okay, Jim? How do you feel?” And after everything he's gone through—being confronted by an old enemy, meeting the son he never knew he had, watching his best friend sacrifice himself to save everyone on the Enterprise—he declares: “ I feel young.”

That's exactly how I feel right now. After everything I've been through in the last few years with my health issues—literally facing my own death on a dark day in September 2023—and enduring a 30-day hospital stay where I had to learn to walk again and wondered if I'd live or die, this year has brought a renewed sense of life to me.

Next year, my new comic series will debut: The Patchwork Girl of Oz. I still can't believe it's happening and that Image Comics immediately said yes when I pitched them the idea. It's a lifelong dream come true to do an Oz comic, and it's helped me reclaim that feeling of youth. And things couldn’t be better in my personal life. Thanks to my amazing wife, I’m happier than I’ve been in a long, long time. I don't feel old at all. I certainly don’t feel 52—I have no idea what 52 is supposed to feel like! It feels like I'm finally living and working as I should have been at the end of my 20s. Maybe 50 is the new 30!

That's where I'm at as we wrap up 2024. I'm 52 years old—the same age James Kirk was in that Star Trek movie where he starts out the story feeling old and irrelevant but ends up feeling young and alive. So, after all these years, I can finally relate to that character in a deeply personal way. It took me 43 years to fully appreciate a story that I fell in love with at age 9. Storytelling is so powerful. I’ve always known that. But I had no idea it had a literal time travel component!

"It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known."

I feel young—so young.

I hope you and everyone you love are feeling the same way right now: young, joyful, and excited for the future. Here's to a wonderful 2024 and an even better 2025! I'll see you then.

Your pal,

Otis

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