Thanks to a recently discovered unmarked white label acetate, KFMB's "Captain Sticky Theme Song" can now be heard again for the first time since the late 1970s, when the Captain (aka Richard Pesta) was still battling evil on local streets, in courtrooms, and on network TV shows that did features on San Diego's cuddly cult crusader.

"I am America's only practicing caped crusader," he told the San Diego Tribune in 1984. "That is the role I desire to maintain for the rest of my life."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLq5NUzMxq0

(The Captain with Marvel Comics honcho Stan Lee at the 1975 San Diego Comic-Con, courtesy Mark Evanier @ www.newsfromme.com )

"Billing himself as the world's only real-life super-hero, Captain Sticky was a fixture of the early San Diego cons," says comic book writer Mark Evanier on his website.

"He operated out of that city, driving around in his Stickymobile (a highly-customized Lincoln Continental), functioning as a flamboyant crusader, mostly for consumer rights. For a few years there, he often appeared on the news, battling various injustices that ranged from nursing home abuse to auto mechanic rip-offs. As I understood it, he got results largely by just showing up at the crime scene. He was one of those colorful characters that no reporter could resist."

"So, if he pulled up outside your business, so did the TV cameras...and if you had a lick of sense, you'd just correct whatever he thought needed correction."

More of Mark's article can be read at http://www.newsfromme.com/archives/2005_01_29.html#009499

And the (mostly) good Captain's local obituary, from February 18, 2004: http://legacy.utsandiego.com/news/obituaries/20040218-9999-1m18pesta.html