Exactly my thoughts, Ron.

The DVD sets of TV shows are a great idea. I watched a whole lot of the early Sopranos episodes that way at a friend's place, and it was a brilliant show, I must say. Great to see it with no interruptions.

*****

As for the despicable Dr. Fredric Wertham and his 1948 crusade against the supposed dangers of comic books! Ye Gods, what a travesty!!! He would surely have felt at home sitting by the left hand of Dr Goebbels. People like Fedric Wertham are the most pernicious threat to a free and enlightened society. They are a curse upon civilization, in my opinion. They are the natural allies of the most oppressive forms of government know to humankind, and they would stifle every form of freedom and imagination if given the power to.

To think that the bastard started his dirty work in the very year that I was born! That means that practically every comic book I ever read as a child was printed under the shadow of his crazy witchhunt.

I always wondered why the older comics from the 30's (I've seen some of those) were so much grittier and livelier than the stuff that came later. This was specially noticeable with the older Mickey Mouse adventures, which were really swashbuckling, streetwise, and wonderful in the pre-1948 era. After '48 Mickey just became dull, dependable, nice-guy suburban Mickey, Mr all-around WhiteBread, and all the grit and exotic wonder of the old days was gone. The graphic art also suffered.