Originally published April 18, 1997, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1222
(Editor’s note: Last week, Peter shared his online run-in with Flash Gordon and Wonder Girl, their online names changed to protect them from further embarrassment. This week: More online anecdotes.)
I was on America Online late one night. It has been a bit easier to get on recently, perhaps because so many people have given up on the service that it’s made some more room.
No, not me. A different one. And if you think some of my friends were startled to see my name at the top of an announcement that “Peter David” had died in a car crash, I gotta tell you it’s inCREDibly creepy to see your own name in that headline.
(more…)
Since it’s not exactly genre, we haven’t discussed the new series “SMASH” which will be wrapping up this coming Monday. So I figure, What the hell. Let’s do that.
First of all, I’m kind of astounded that the series got on the air in the first place. It’s a show for which Kathleen and I are the target audience, and that’s NEVER a promising endeavor. The ratings for the Tonys indicate that the vast majority of America doesn’t give a damn about real Broadway, so why in the world would they be captivated by a TV series about made-up Broadway? If they want to see something on TV about performers struggling for their shot, they’ll put on “The Voice” (the show’s lead-in) or “American Idol” where it’s involving real people, or at least nominally real. Judging by the ratings, viewers more or less haven’t embraced the show, for those reasons and others, and yet NBC has given it a second season pick-up. Which is good, because we’ve been enjoying the hell out of what has been remarkably schizoid ride. And I mean that in a good way.
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Originally published April 11, 1997, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1221
Once upon a time, one had to be face to face in order to have social intercourse. (Remember, kids, be careful when having social intercourse: When you talk to a person, it’s as if you’re talking to everyone that person ever spoke to.) Now, however, you have the solitude of computer terminals, and are able to hide behind fake names and even fake locations.
And yet the anonymity can have curious and fascinating spin-offs. Herewith an intriguing anecdote of the new age of Isolinear Isolation. However I have changed the names of those involved, either to protect them from further public embarrassment, or else because they’re so obnoxious that I don’t want to give them more of the notoriety that their conduct clearly indicates they crave. (more…)
I’ve been saying for ages that I didn’t buy for a minute the notion that President Obama had any problems with gay marriage. Not for a moment did I think that a guy whose parents, less than half a century ago, would not have been allowed to marry in some states, would believe that legally keeping people apart who love each other was an acceptable way of doing things. But I think that he was concerned about the political backlash. Me, I think he should have said screw the backlash and just been honest. Then again, that’s easy for me to say, because I wouldn’t have had to worry about going all-in on my political ambitions with this issue. He probably felt he needed to save his political capital for health care, which we all know is rock solid steady and couldn’t possibly be overturned or set aside.
In any event, whether Joe Biden’s honest answer to the question was a trial balloon or simply forced Obama’s hand, it was obvious that his foot-dragging toward an inevitable “reversal” of his “evolving” opinion was going to have to happen sooner rather than later. Based on surveys, the GOP is (once again) on the wrong side of this issue, and the people who pointlessly hate the idea of gay marriage were likely not voting for Obama anyway. So in theory nothing is lost and some good will is gained. The other bit of timing that I liked was that it came in conjunction with North Carolina’s obscenity of an anti-marriage, anti-civil union amendment (which also impacts heterosexuals, so brilliant move there.) North Carolina comes across as so stupid, you’d almost want to joke that it should marry Arizona, except of course that would be illegal. One North Carolina politico claimed that they hoped this would send a message to the rest of the country. Well, I think the President of these United States sent a message right back: everyone who voted for it was wrong.
My one regret is that Obama basically said that it’s still a state issue. I mean, yeah…he’s right. But so was slavery, once upon a time. I wouldn’t have minded him putting forward a case for possibly taking it to the national level. I don’t pretend to understand these things, but I wonder if a class action suit in North Carolina by disenfranchised gays AND straights would be the ticket to a Supreme Court ruling.
PAD
Originally published March 28, 1997, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1219
And now, in celebration of the 20-year anniversary of Star Wars, we present the untold story (well, untold until now) of the single most important individual in the entire trilogy. The individual upon whom the whole story has hinged. And yet, his praises have gone unsung. There are no books about him, no background on him, no notice of him whatsoever in any description of the main points of Star Wars. Hearken to the following tale (a commentary on the series—which is ®, TM, and © Lucasfilm Ltd. and not confirmed by anyone in that organization):
A Long Time Ago… in a Galaxy Far, Far Away…
That creators shouldn’t get worked up over Internet piracy because, hey, it enables people to sample the work and, by gosh, they will start buying it. And you’ll find plenty of people who will attest to doing just that.
But then there’s the guy who J.K. Woodward–sitting at the adjacent table right now at the Wildpig convention in New Jersey–told me about, who came up to him at the New York Comic Con. The fan was waxing effusively about J.K.’s work on FALLEN ANGEL, and how much he enjoyed his work…and then felt constrained to add, “I don’t actually buy it. I download it. But it’s great!”
You wonder how someone can be that clueless. Well, it’s easy: the massive sense of entitlement amongst some Internet denizens. People who would never think of shoplifting a comic book from a store do not hesitate to take advantage of stolen goods. Why should they feel any kind of shame when it does not occur to them that they are screwing the publisher and creators out of money? They cannot distinguish between, say, free online content provided by newspapers and pirate sites where they can browse through illegal downloads.
And it’s only going to get worse. Because the current generation of users has witnessed the rise of pirate sites and makes use of them without the slightest intention of providing remuneration for the creators, rationalizing it all the way. The next generation is going to grow up with theft as the norm. No excuses necessary. And if you don’t think that’s going to have a long-term negative impact on publishing, you are quite simply kidding yourself.
Because for every nimrod who’s shameless enough to tell creators point blank, “I love getting your work for free,” I’ll wager there’s plenty who are doing the same thing and just keeping their mouths shut. Because they know what they’re doing is wrong. And they do it anyway.
PAD
“What’s the best superhero” film ever made is a question endlessly debated with no concrete answer. There’s too many subcategories. You want fealty to the spirit of the source material? “Spider-Man.” You want the best performance of an iconic hero? Chris Reeves’ “Superman.” Comic strips? “The Phantom.” Most street cred with the Academy? “Dark Knight.” And so on.
But for pure fangasm…for a comic book superhero film that will not leave a dry seat in the house (metaphorically, one hopes)…you simply cannot beat “The Avengers.”
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Originally published March 21, 1997, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1218
[Editor's note: Last week, Peter David, writer of stuff, pointed out that there's a plot concept missing in Star Wars that, as he wrote, "didn't even exist when the film came out two decades ago."]
Consider, if you will, the universe of Star Wars.
They have spaceships.
They have faster-than-light drive.
They have blasters.
They have lightsabers.
They have satellites capable of reducing an entire planet to rubble instantly.
They have land speeders. They have All-Terrain Armored Transports (AT-ATs). They have robots in a variety of shapes and sizes, capable of independent thought and action—basically, artificial intelligence. They have laser crossbows. They have cities in the clouds. They have suspended animation capability wherein they can put you to sleep inside carbonite, thaw you out, and you’re none the worse for wear except for the shakes and blurred vision. They have force fields, holographic chess, and high-speed air bikes.
What haven’t they got?
Originally published March 14, 1997, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1217
“Don’t do it, Luke!”
That was the sound of Ariel, my five-year-old, as she watched The Empire Strikes Back, safe and snug in the confines of her home—as opposed to, say, in a movie theater.
Been a busy week.
Flew up to Montreal on Monday and then, in a rental car, drove up to Quebec City to do work on a video game. The weather appears to have declared war. The entire drive up to QC it rained, except when it sleeted. Once in QC, whenever I was indoors, the weather was fine; when I set foot outside it started to rain.
Then I drove back down to Montreal on Wednesday afternoon, this time with only intermittent spitting from the skies. Thursday morning the weather I remained indoors so that the weather was clear and flew to Calgary, my current location, attending the Calgary Expo, which seems very well run and organized.
Friday went very well. Met a lot of enthusiastic fans, sold a ton of stuff (guess Canadians have spending money because they don’t have to worry about paying for health care; lucky devils). Had a lengthy chat with Ty Templeton about the fabled golden age hero, Hoverboy. Been trying to take it easy, but this morning I woke up at 4:30 and haven’t been able to fall back to sleep. So here we all are.
PAD
Originally published March 7, 1997, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1216
While Harlan Ellison was busy putting fans in their place, I was busy being put in mine.
Harlan started quite a stir during his opinion piece on the Sci-Fi Channels Sci-Fi Buzz. Ellison stated that writers “owe” fans nothing beyond their best endeavors at plying their craft. Writers who receive wide fan support do not owe the fans any sense of gratitude for “putting” the writers where they are; the writers owe their relative success entirely to their own efforts.
Originally published February 28, 1997, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1215
Assorted fun stuff…
* * *
I’ve just returned from a Marvel “writers’ retreat” in Long Island. At that august gathering, an assortment of editors including Bob Harras, Bobbie Chase, and Tom Breevort, and creators including such luminaries as Chris Claremont, Kurt Busiek, John Romita, Sr., Tom DeFalco, Klaus Janson, Larry Hama, Scott Lobdell, and others who are going to be hacked off with me because I didn’t mention them by name, gathered to try and sort out the “Lee-feld Universe.”
Originally published February 21, 1997, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1214
When one is faced with a pointless death, such as that of Ennis Cosby, one is often seized with the desire to try to do something about it. This is usually not possible. It’s probably not even possible in this case.
But then I read about a rep for the LAPD describing the killing as “a complete whodunit.” Trying to solve mysteries and sort out things that don’t make sense is a natural compulsion (just ask Oliver Stone).
And I also read reports of the actual events surrounding the death of Bill Cosby’s son.
And there’s stuff that’s just bugging the hell out of me. I have no one else to talk to about it, so I figured I’d talk to you.
Isn’t that kind of like Hamas accusing the U.S. of launching a war on Israel?
PAD
Originally published February 14, 1997, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1213
From The Book of Gen-X-is:
In the beginning, the comic book market was void and without form.
And the Lord looked down upon the comic book market and stretched out His hand. And two forms spun out into the ether and were shaped into existence.
That’s what we more or less attended at Carnegie Hall yesterday.
It was a celebration of the music of the Muppets (and by extension of the life of Jim Henson) with puppeteer John Tartaglia as the MC. And the Muppeteers were there, performing in as low-tech an environment as you can imagine: They had black drapes erected on railings on either side of the stage, about five feet high, and the Muppeteers (dressed in black) would enter in a crouch from either wing, put the Muppets on their hands, and then have them appear over the top of the railing. It was on par with what you’d see during a puppet show mounted at your local library. Personally I thought it was marvelous because it really got the Muppets back to their roots, which was perfect for something celebrating the artistry of Henson (whom Kermit referred to as “my right hand man.”) Kermit, Fozzie, Piggy, the whole gang was there. They even had Statler and Woldorf heckling from one of the balconies. And Kath was teary eyed for a good chunk of it, particularly when Paul Williams was performing “The Rainbow Connection” with Kermit.
PAD
Originally published February 7, 1997, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1212
Picking up from last week:
So there I was, loaded up with software for America Online. Now I was really in need of some sort of method for picking up messages off the Internet, as my former server had collapsed. And also—I blush to disclose—I’d never in my life gone “websurfing,” a term that I must admit completely befuddles me. Who the hell made it up, anyway? I mean, talk about your mixed metaphors. What sort of image does that bring to mind, surfing a web? It makes no sense. You surf on water; you crawl on a web. How do you surf a web? It’s like saying, “I’m going to mow the linoleum.”
I received an email from the State Department yesterday that a July book fair in Lima, Peru, asked specifically for me as a guest to come out and talk about comic books and graphic novels. I figure it’s either a great honor or else an incredibly elaborate practical joke or kidnapping plot.
I figure I’ll go. When the State Department says a whole city asked for you to come out, I don’t see how you say no.
PAD
Originally published January 31, 1997, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1211
Assorted thoughts…
* * *
My experience on America Online has been less than sterling thus far.
The first time I tried AOL was several years ago. I came on for a live conference. I was on line for about thirty seconds when I was immediately hailed by someone using a fake name. “Are you Peter David the writer?” he asked (one of the hazards of signing on with my own name rather than a nom-de-byte).
I wrote back, “Yes.”
Which garnered the quick response of, “Your writing suuuuuuuucks.”
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