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In my review of The Duh Vinci Code, I disparaged the cartoonish Opus Dei characters, suggesting they had leapt off the page of a graphic novel. My put-down has returned to haunt me, eliciting this comment from CombineHarvestorofSorrow:

Cheap old stereotype to compare the characters to those from graphic novels. If only Dan Brown's writing was half as good as Alan Moore's or Frank Miller's.

To which I reply: actually, fair comment. and deserve more serious attention, as does the graphic novel as a form. There is vastly more imagination and skill to be found in their work than in The Duh Vinci Code.

And while I'm talking about graphic novels, I recently discovered one I'd never heard of before, when someone drew my attention to the existence of the magazine , the first and only issue of which appeared in May 1937 featuring the eponymous superhero from Long Island with telepathic skills and a penchant for invention. One of the stories in that shortlived issue, written by Paul Chadwick under the pseudonym "Chester Hawks", is , which casts a crime-busting ace reporter by the name of alongside the Captain.

Captain Hazzard and the Python Men of the Lost City has just been revived and re-released by , with an expanded role for my pulp hero namesake. What can I say? O Captain, my Captain!