The history of the Batmobile

Ah, jet lag! I’m awake a few hours earlier than normal (and normal is already pretty early for me). I’m caught up with e-mail, too, which allows me to be tempted by Web sites like this lavishly illustrated History of the Batmobile. It has an interactive timeline that goes from 1941 to the present day. I didn’t know, for instance, that the bubble top first appeared in the year I was born, 1955.

It’s an extra-special bit of synchronicity given that I read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, which is devoted to the golden age of American comics, on the (long) flight back yesterday. (If you missed this Pulitzer Prize winner when it came out a few years back, put it on your list for this summer. Author Michael Chabon pulls off that rare combination of unfailingly accurate pop culture references and genuinely high literature. Big themes, fun to read.)

Something (my agent and a couple of impatient publishers, for starters) tells me I’ll have a few, um, slightly higher priorities this week. But if you’ve got some spare minutes, this is probably worth a look.

(Via Tariq.)