Believe it or not, we’ve been doing this sort of link blogging thing for four years, and when we started out, it seemed few weeks there would be a story about some wackadoo who dressed up as a superhero for some kooky reason. Nowadays we don’t get as many stories like that — maybe because everyone seems to be dressing up as a superhero in their spare time? So we’re proud to present a story in the classic mode, the story of a man brave enough to don a colorful costume to fight the malign menace of melanoma. Meet Captain Cutaneum.:

By day, Doctor Ruskin Lines is a dermatologist, but a couple of times a month, he slips on his super hero outfit to save kids.

“I’ve been saying there needs to be something, some program that we can teach these kids before they’ve already figured out how much they like being tan,” says Captain Cutaneum, a.k.a Dr. Ruskin Lines, dermatologist.

Doctor Lines came up with his alter ego, Captain Cutaneum, as a way to educate kids about the importance of sun protection.

Now, speaking as something of an expert in this sort of behavior, we feel Doctor Lines may also have been motivated to come up with the alter ego to let his freak flag fly, but he does offer some good advice on selecting sunscreen that contains one of the following: Titanium dioxide, zinc oxide, avobenzone or ecamsule. As Kurt Vonnegut did not say: WEAR SUNCREEN!

You can learn more about Captain Cutaneum and sensible skin care at his website. We note that his cartoon alter ego also advocates the use of a wide-brimmed hat and sunglasses — it may not look all that cool, but reflected sun rays can cause icky wrinkles, so our advice is simple: stay pale!