Random Happenstance

A brief housekeeping notice: I recently switched shifts at my job, which means I'm getting up at four in the morning now. It's nice to be able to take care of things in the afternoon (everything I needed to do was closed when I got off work before) and still have some daylight; but this means there'll probably be at least one night a week when I fall asleep at three in the afternoon.

Hopefully not Tuesday, though, since I usually enjoy watching Fringe. Based on the promos, tonight's episode also happens to feature a traditional staple of comic book/sci-fi cliches, The Suit That Lets You Walk Through Walls (Until It Doesn't). We all know that old saw; that supposedly even in solid matter, like a brick wall, there's still more space between the individual atoms than not, and if you could line your own atoms and the walls just right or vibrate through or whatever, you could walk right through. Which inevitably leads to someone getting imbedded in a wall. Guaranteed. And spookily, I had a digest with exactly that story next to me at work: a Gold Key the Twilight Zone comic! Click to enlarge, "The Perfect Criminal," from Mystery Comics Digest/The Twilight Zone #12. No credits given, reprinted 1973. (I think I bought this at a used bookstore around 1984 or so, and it was held together by tape even then!)





Hmm. I have a feeling that wasn't the first time that old professor "let" some small-time criminal test one of his inventions for him. Now I wanna watch old Twilight Zone episodes, since it feels like decades since I've seen any, but I might be thinking of the pinball game...let's check some links, then: over at Michael Crawford's Review of the Week he recently had a custom 12-inch Rod Serling figure, which almost certainly would've helped some of the likeness work in this digest. And at Polite Dissent, Scott not only usually has writeups for the new Fringe episodes (including how strong or weak the science and/or medicine was), but you can also check out this year's Comic Book Advent Calendar, your Weekend Moment of Psychic Nosebleed Zen, and follow the House challenge, which I am personally losing the hell out of.