(September 1 2006 Note: This blog began on the Now Playing magazine website, and all of the entries originally posted there will be moved here to the blog’s new home.)

Greetings and welcome to my little corner of the blogosphere! A bit about myself: I’m Dr. Arnold T. Blumberg. I answer to “Arnold,” “Dr. Blumberg” and perhaps even “Doc,” but if you call me “Arnie” or “Bloomberg,” I’ll have to wrench off your arm and beat you about the face and neck with it. Just saying. OK, no more unpleasantness.

I have the honor of being Curator of Geppi’s Entertainment Museum, an all-new institution opening this September in downtown Baltimore just a baseball’s throw away from Camden Yards where the Orioles play. It will be a unique journey through 230 years of pop culture, and before you ask, yes it means I get to be around toys and comics all day. It’s a hard life, I know.

This is a comics-themed blog for the most part, which I suppose means that you can expect me to rant and rave and otherwise hold court on the fascinating four-color world of comics in all its myriad formats and styles. We might talk over the history of the amazing Spider-Man (you don’t even want to get me started on Gwen Stacy…ah, Gwen…), the ramifications of DC’s latest universe reshuffling, the end of Terry Moore’s long-running romantic saga Strangers in Paradise, or any of a thousand other topics. There are no boundaries, no borders. Just think of this blog as one of those big panels stretching to the edges of the page and enveloping us all in its timeless wonder of words and pictures.

“No Borders” also means I might not just chat about comics. Doctor Who, that plucky little British sci-fi television show now enjoying its second series after a spectacular revival last year, is without doubt my number one passion on this Earth. Sure, when my wife is around, I say that it’s her, but I think she’s sharp enough to know better at this point. Example: The house is burning down. Do I save A) the wife, or B) the variant UK Toys ‘R’ Us exclusive remote control Assault Dalek in its original box? That’s a stumper, all right. I’ll have to get back to you on that one.

My point is that Doctor Who is bound to crop up quite a bit. To quote its current Executive Producer, Russell T. Davies, “it’s the best idea ever invented in the history of the world!” But don’t worry, I promise to keep coming back to all those gaudy pamphlets with the spandex-suited pituitary cases, funny animals, heartfelt explorations of human emotion, and much more. We’ll hang out, talk comics and sci-fi and maybe even politics and whatever else crops up, and I hope you’ll be here with me to join in and offer feedback. Let me know if you like what you read, tell me when you think I’m off base, and by all means offer suggestions for what you’d like to see discussed here.

Oh, and my answer is, of course, both A and B. To paraphrase Val Kilmer in Batman Forever, I’m a fan not because I have to be, but because I choose to be.

Next time, we’ll get things rolling by taking a look at the end of one major superhero comic book event and the start of another with my no-holds-barred take on DC’s Infinite Crisis #7 and Marvel’s Civil War #1. Fair warning: It’s not going to be pretty.