Seems like after being away from the scene for so long, you’d think I’d return by utilizing my own characters instead of a pink-haired make-up artist and a poorly designed caricature of Paul Bettany. What can I say? I’m an odd duck.

Cami and I have been catching up on the pop culture we missed since we were in Europe at the end of May. An adventure I lovingly refer to as "The Deep Dive." As of this weekend, we’re preparing to surface. We’re almost entirely caught up.

We went to see The DaVinci Code last weekend and – as capivated as I was by Paul Bettany’s performance – it struck me that it wasn’t much of a stretch in casting a painfully pale and pasty Brit to play the albino monk. In the back of my head, I always kind of thought Bettany was an albino anyway. Something about his giant forehead and his nearly transparent eyebrows.

I never read Dan Brown’s book mostly because I don’t get into mainstream fiction. Mostly entertainment retrospectives and biographies. So I didn’t have much in terms of bias going into the movie. I thought there were some sincerely gaps in logic. For people that are supposed to be so well educated, they make some supremely dumb decisions while evading the police. Nothing real people would actually do. Then again, the police in this movie are inept at almost every turn. So perhaps it’s tit for tat.

I feel a little odd talking about The DaVinci Code when the movie has been in theaters for more than two weeks. Typically I pride myself on being more timely. But it’s a pretty big movie and I didn’t want to look back at 2006 having let it slip through my fingers.

I have a couple of other posts that I want to make, so expect them later. Signing off for the moment because it’s late. Despite the simplicity of today’s comic, it took me a while to get back into the rhythm of producing a new comic so long after being out of commission.

More to come!