The Champion of Comic Books

At the last stop on the N and Q lines, at the end of a short tunnel, there’s a circular dime-shiny sign that — Bam! Pow! Zap! — punches right through the grey gloom of the subway station. Look at it, up at the ceiling. It’s not a bird. It’s not a plane. It’s Silver Age Comics, the super-cool shop of superheroes. Silver Age Comics opened in 1991. For the last 25 years — Silver Age celebrated its silver anniversary in February — Batman, Superman, Wonder…

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The Hollywood Star

Someone slipped a sheet of paper into my mailbox. It looked like junk, and, in my haste, I almost threw it out. In the spring of 2008, Tony Scott was filming , a remake of the 1974 classic, and he was looking for a house, it could be my house, for the hero, Denzel Washington. Tony, Englishman eccentric, charming and chatty, took a tour and declared that this was indeed a desirable dwelling for Denzel. The key “bring-home-the-milk” scene, as he called it, was to be of Denzel’s wife…

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The Clown Juggling a Double-Fun Life

David Ellis can’t stop the clowning around. His 4-year-old daughter, the so-called Lady S, is looking down on him, longingly, from the second-floor bedroom window. David, serious for a second. She’s dying to be outside with him, but she’s suffering from the sniffles, so he’s making funny faces to make up for her sequestration. He sticks out his tongue, flies his fingers from his nose like a bird and bulges his big brown eyes until they nearly pop through his wire-rim glasses. Her…

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The Hypnotist

Look into my eyes. Craig Mackay, a hypnotist, has brilliant, beautiful blue ones, but you’ll never hear him utter this command. Instead, he asks you to sit on the striped sofa in his blue-walled office for a gentle conversation about your goals. Craig is from Scotland. Do you want to lose weight? Are you here to quit smoking? Are you afraid to go to the dentist? Do you desire to boost your confidence? Are you trying to reduce stress? Now that Craig knows the why, he can help you with the…

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