XKCD Strip Spotlights The Awesome That Is Carl Sagan

Count me among the crowd that's thankful for Toby, Dave & Ian, who dutifully explain the for-smart-dudes-only webcomic XKCD.

I'm not saying I'm not a smart dude - I went to Syracuse, you guys - but sometimes the jokes in XKCD are a little over my head. Luckily, I don't need the XKCD companion guide to decipher the meaning behind a recent installment titled "Sagan-Man," in which our hero is bitten by a radioactive Carl Sagan and promptly turns into a superhero with all the science fiction cunning and nerdery of the late, great astronomer and author.

The meaning behind the strip, of course, is that Carl Sagan is awesome.

If you don't believe me, just read "Contact," his awesome novel that was turned into an even more awesome movie back in 1997. No, I'm not entertaining any arguments that the "Contact" movie was bad. It's great. That scene where Jodie Foster travels to the Vega system and it looks like her childhood picture of Pensacola, Florida and an alien has taken the form of her deceased father as played by the always wonderful David Morse? Yeah. Irrefutable evidence of awesome.

Basically, what the world needs is more adventures of Sagan-Man.

Correction: what I need is more Sagan-Man. Correction: I'm so alone.