By November 2012, the syndicated comic strip "Stacy's Coffee" was hitting its stride as a success in newspapers around the country, with a potentially bright future. Its growing popularity was evidenced by positive feedback from readers, as well as unanticipated reflective discussion in the online community. But few people knew that its creator, cartoonist Mark London, was a tortured man who had little to laugh about in his own life. Both he and his estranged wife were suffering from unimaginable loss, and their failure to grieve properly had resulted in a collapsing marriage, a return to both former and new self-destructive habits, and an intense blame upon themselves and each other. Behind the enamored strip was a man who was fighting his own demons and, in a way, he was also lost in the nostalgic relationship that he shared with his own work.