What, no Hitler? No Jack the Ripper? Because those are the historical characters I'm sick of.

Likewise, except it was Myst for me. I'm in.

Actually, now that you mention it, the tension between "spy show" and "superhero show" may also apply to the comics, and affect the trajectory that SHIELD stories have taken there.

Is Buster Crabbe in this one?

Journeyman. Cuz then it would be BACK

I saw it. I mean, on TV. Dad woke me up in [what seemed like] the middle of the night. As a six year old, of course, I complained about the lousy reception (!) But frankly, in half a century of watching the tube, there's nothing I'm as glad to have seen.

Renaissance London. Catch a show at the Globe, quaff a few brews with the bad boys in the back room of the Mermaid Tavern. Mass at St Paul's if it's 1621 or later and the Dean is preaching.

And explain why my wife calls me Rain Man.

And explain why my wife calls me Rain Man.

You forgot the DMV. As a wise old devil once said, "Places that seem like the portals of hell ... really are."

My numbers were from the World Book, but of course I can't vouch for them, didn't actually get out and measure.

Hey, that's my house, right over there in southeast Libya. And they told me plate tectonics was a slow-moving kinda deal.

I can't find a graphic, but I suspect the lengths of the two continents wouldn't be that far off.

ALso the Jem'Hadar. Pull out the little tube — which runs outside their armor, for pete's sake — and you're done.

Yeah, I get that. People are responsible for their own actions. I just don't think that absolves the people who deliberately inspire those actions.

What about for saying stupid things and encouraging others to act on them? Do you blame people for that? Because I sure do.

I've detected a pattern lately: every comics or pulp-style graphic that grabs my attention has Francesco Francavilla's name on it. This guy is good.

Yup. I came to make sure that got a mention.

I think there's an important distinction between "banned" and "removed from a library." Real banning, the way "Chatterley" and "Ulysses" were banned — makes it illegal to distribute a book, no matter how much you want to. These are the sort of bans that involve jail time or major fines, as well as court cases.

I loved that game. Played it all the way through, slowly, in grad school. There was just one problem: I'm tone deaf. Can't match pitch on a bet.