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attempted climbing Half Dome with his arms and legs wrapped in pitch soaked burlap. "He’d go up a ways like Spider-man," said Ranger Dick, "but he’d always slide back down." Mimi and I paid careful attention to the story after that, not because of the Spidey reference, but because Anderson finally made it up, after trying all summer, on October 12th, 1875. One hundred and twenty-one years before our anniversary, sure, but not a whole column there. Talking to a crowd of 150 people and referencing Spider-man only brings to mind my pal Mike Allred’s quote… that every one in America knows what a comic book actually is… it’s just that not everyone ever buys one. Later that night, when we were relaxing in the jacuzzi, we watched a little of America’s Most Wanted. I have to say, I love that John Walsh. Not to demean his obviously tragic loss, but he’s a real-life Batman. Just as Bruce Wayne sees the face of his parents’ murderer, Joe Chill, every time he nabs a criminal, so, too, I believe, that John Walsh feels he’s avenging and giv ing meaning to the death of his murdered son every time they catch a bad guy for real through the efforts of the fine folks at America’s Most Wanted. Not a whole lot to comment on there.

"Maybe there’s a column there," Mimi said.

"Naw," I said. "I think this latest one’s gonna be the column about nothing. My Dinner With Andre. Sometimes the commentary is that there is no com mentary."

"You’re gonna piss off those people on the Internet," Mimi said.

"Yeah, well," I replied. "It’s not like they don’t know what the deal is when they read the title of the column. Never know what I’m gonna write about."

"Yeah, yeah," my wife said. "Pass me my wine, ya loose cannon."

The Big Man Conversation October 26, 2001 You may recall that Matt Fraction was a former editor of Savant. You may further know that he's a partner in the award-winning design firm MK12. What you may not know is that he's writing Rex Mantooth: Kung Fu Gorilla for inbred hillbilly Robert Kirkman's Funk-O-Tron in November. Ol' Fraction is poised to make a big splash, and since I get a lot of emails every day

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