When I was in high school, one of my favorite movies was “Pump Up the Volume.”

Shut up. Yes, I rewatched it recently. And, yes, I understand exactly how many people I’ve lost in admitting to it. It's a rather cheesy flick about a high schooler, Christian Slater, who stakes his claim on a pirate radio station.

But here’s the thing.

I still remember how that movie made me feel, like anything was possible as long as you held onto your voice. That notion still gives me chills, and it’s the reason my current passion for comics rests in "Doktor Sleepless," written by Warren Ellis and drawn by Ivan Rodriguez.

In “Pump Up the Volume,” Slater’s motivations are benevolent. He becomes wrapped up in circumstances that allow him to become a force for change, but it’s fairly passive. Imagine if that character decided to drop out of the world for a few years and came back with a more malignant plan - to cleanse the world by destroying it. Throw in an assassin masquerading as his nurse, more innovative technical smarts than any one person is safe possessing, a dose of H.P. Lovecraft, and you’ve got Doktor Sleepless.

(There's also a nagging question regarding Sleepless' ability to be on the air when the person everyone believes to be him is locked safely away by the local government.)

Even if there wasn’t a greater plan in this book, I would still read it for those moments when I can hear the whine and hiss of the radio just before the good Doktor launches into a tirade that reminds me why I need to stay pissed off at this strange and beautiful world.