Without a doubt, these are the most talked-about, praised, criticized, loved and hated strips I've ever done.

In '91, my daughter was still premenstrual but I knew the big day was imminent. I wondered if I could do this subject in my strip. I knew that if Luann had her period, she'd have to do it before my daughter did or I'd risk embarrassing her.

When I mentioned the idea to my syndicate, they pretty much jumped through the roof. Menstruation as a subject for a comic strip? It had never been done. Could it be done? Should it be done?

I thought it could and should. The challenge was to be clear about what was going on but not obvious enough to offend. So I wrote the whole story without ever using the words "period" or "menstruation."

After dozens of revisions and tweakings, the syndicate was cautiously satisfied that we could publish this series without mass hysteria and cancellations. Even so, they asked me to draw an entire two week's worth of alternate strips to offer to any "cautious" papers.

Also, the syndicate sent advance samples of the strips to dozens of major health, education and woman's groups for their endorsements and these were included with the release of the strips to newspapers. The reader reaction? Mostly favorable. Teachers, counselors, school nurses and health professionals praised the strips as a valuable public service. But many readers felt that this topic had no place on the comic page and were deeply offended and outraged.