The voice of Charlie Brown has been arrested on suspicion of stalking. And no, it wasn’t the little red-haired girl he’s accused of stalking.

It’s Batman.

As a zombie.

A big tip of the hat to the genius who came up with this.

Here are the covers of the 119 comic books that were on newsstands the month I was born. (And yes, if it seems important to know what was available the month you were born, you can enter your own date of birth too.)

My God, I wish I had all of those issues. Yes, even though every single week I consider how best to dispose of the thousands upon thousands of comics already in my possession, I might be willing to run over a close relative with a cement roller to get these. At various times I’ve had probably a third of these (bought, obviously, later in life). How did I ever let them go?

Which major superhero has the most laughable rogue’s gallery of enemies? Wonder Woman. Check out the list.

In retrospect, these seem so obvious.

Next week is San Diego Comic Con (or, as newbies call it, “Comic-Con International”), and I’m already making plans. This will be my 25th straight year of attending the Con with friends and having a terrific time.

In those 25 years, I’ve gotten to know San Diego pretty well, both from visiting the Con and from falling in love with San Diego and finding lots of other reasons to visit two or three times a year. That is, I thought I knew it well — until I got a look at this.

“This” is a new website, Sherpa Reviews, that profiles luxury travel in San Diego. The people behind the site are great people and I wish them a lot of success, because they’re offering something I wish I’d had years ago: a topographic map of the greater San Diego area, with points of interest clearly marked and with clickable icons for restaurants, hotels and activities. I’m admittedly geographically challenged, so this has given me an entirely new perspective on San Diego — like, what’s next to what else — that I’d never been able to keep straight in my head before. But even if I weren’t somebody who can get lost going from one room to another, I think I’d find something here that I didn’t know about before. (For example: the restaurant Searsucker. Never heard of it before. Now I want to try it.)

I’m sure I’ll be consulting this while I’m in San Diego next week, and thereafter.

They left one out: Superman most definitely suffers from Superman Complex.

Today was one of our nation’s most important annual celebrations. Yes, Free Comic Book Day was here once again, where kids aged 6 to 60+ are encouraged to get down to their local comic-book store and pick up some free comics. The good-looking lads in the photo below are my niece’s sons Bryan, Brody, and Brayden, properly accoutered with new comics and spotted in what should be every kid’s natural habitat:  against a diorama depicting an apocalyptic engagement between superheroes and supervillains on the streets of Manhattan. It does my heart good to see fine young men like these off to such a good start in life. I see they picked up a couple of Avengers-related titles — understandable, with the movie now out, although the irony doesn’t escape me that not one of the film’s heroes are in those particular issues. I haven’t read Pirate Club, but I hope it’s as good a pirate yarn as Treasure Island. (I read Treasure Island  to each of my boys and each one gasped aloud when young Jim Hawkins gets stabbed.)

I went to FCBD myself, of course, taking my two still-at-home children with me; I picked up  Bongo Free-For-All (which included a Simpsons story as well as a Sergio Aragones story from his childhood), the FCBD edition of Donald Duck Family Comics featuring stories by Carl Barks (whom I get to meet once as an adolescent — my father wound up drinking with him in a bar, which is a story for another time); and the Image comics sampler. My 9-year-old got Superman Family Adventures, something called “Kaijuland Origins” that features anthropomorphic dinosaurs (what 9-year-old boy could resist?), and a Green Lantern comic; and my 13-year-old daughter got the Buffy the Vampire Slayer giveaway and, with great pride, a comic called Holli Hoxxx (note the three x’s)  that was clearly marked on the tables as being “For Big Kids,”  and which the lovely comics cashier Amy asked me if I was allowing her to get, and which I allowed. Emma was fairly beaming with pride that I was okaying this. Here’s what I told Amy:  that I learned at about Emma’s age that whatever was prohibited was exactly what I wanted, so if I heard it wasn’t allowed, I sought it out. I think in the Internet age it’s especially unlikely that you can prevent curious young people from reading or seeing anything they want to; you’re better off talking to them about it. In any event, Emma read it through twice looking for the “prohibited” part and couldn’t find it, and then I did the same thing and couldn’t find anything either. Her disappointment was palpable. Maybe now she’ll think all things labeled “adult” are either misleading or boring.

Next year’s Free Comic Book Day is already set, for May 4, 2013. It’s one day early, which means we won’t have to wait quite as long. Mark your calendars now!