Marx and the French were often not on great terms (though that sentence loses some of its impact in that you can replace "French" with any group of more than 3 people sharing a common interest and it would probably be equally true). This had nothing to do with their pantslessness, however. In fact, a fair percentage of Marx's correspondence with Engels consisted in scurrilous rumor swapping, and Marx's attachment to his own pants was less than upright. That being said, Marx tended to bristle at the theoretical obsessions of the French socialists as opposed to what he considered his more practical view of the problem of the laboring classes. When acting as chair of any given communist or worker's association, inevitably one of the first things he did was steer the rules in such a way as to exclude as much of the Frenchish/theoreticalish element as possible.

Oh, hey, just looked at the APE site on a whim. We are confirmed at table 422 and, low and behold, Kate Beaton is going to be in attendance too! A rare chance to hit for the cycle with 2007-Launched-Historical-Comics! Why a fellow could pick up a signed copy of Never Learn Anything From History and then walk across the aisle and get a doubly signed copy of Light Opera and Heavy Consequences. So come on out and see us October 1 and 2 in San Francisco!

- Count Dolby von Luckner