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Am I alone in disliking the whole notion of slabbing?

I feel as if owning comics should be a fully tactile sensation. That you take it out of the mylar snug and carefully open the pages and read the story, smell the must of the paper, feel it between your fingers. As opposed to being preserved in amber, untouchable unless you care to kill the value.

I find myself hoping that ten years from now slabbed books are looked upon as some sort of collecting oddity that people use as coasters.

PAD

It’s been fascinating watching the repeats of “Hill Street Blues” on Bravo. Not for the obvious reasons: The storytelling, the writing, the characters, etc. No, I’ve been struck by three things:

First, how little of the later years of the series I actually recalled. I did not remember, for instance, that Mick Belker got married and had a baby. I forgot characters who were in for entire seasons, such as Garibaldi and Mayo…perfectly good actors with zero characterization. I was amazed how little they gave Rene Enriquez as “Ray” to do, especially when one considers that the character of Norman Buntz essentially stepped in to fill his slot and practically took over the whole show (not to mention getting his own series and later showing up with another name on “NYPD Blues.”) It was as if, if the writers couldn’t come up with a storyline that focused on Ray being Hispanic, they didn’t know what to do with him.

Second, I can’t believe I didn’t realize Stan Jablonski, the sergeant who replaced the late, great Esterhaus, was gay. He had a thing for Belker. He was in denial of it, it was subtle, it was between the lines, but it was right there.

And third, geez, the guest actors on that series. Wandering through the hill in parts of varying sizes were Miguel Ferrer, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, Armin Shimmerman, Lindsay Crouse (Maggie Walsh from “Buffy”), Tim Russ, Robert Pastorelli (“Eldin” from “Murphy Brown,” showing up in two different roles), Mykelti Williamson (back when he was Mykel T. Williamson), not to mention Peter Jurasik pre-Londo as Sid the Snitch.

The run is getting toward the end of the series. I’ve no idea if Bravo is going to start over at the beginning, but if they are and you’ve never seen it, catch it M-F at 7 PM (it’s repeated at 1 AM except for the Monday episode for some reason.) It’s worth seeing or re-experiencing.

PAD

July 27, 1990

(more…)

There are people who detest Akiva Goldsman–writer of such film travesties as the latter Batman films and the “Lost in Space” movie–with a passion burning hotter than a thousand suns. Some hate him so much that they resent him winning the Oscar because they can’t forgive him the previous films. To those folks, here’s some interesting food for thought. I just picked up a copy of the “West Wing” script book, and in it creator Aaron Sorkin relates how his friend Goldsman was visiting one evening. And Goldsman, seeing a framed poster of “The American President,” said, “You know what? That would make a good TV series. You should do a TV series focusing on the administrative staff of the President of the United States.”

The next day, Sorkin found himself unexpectedly in a pitch session, and an exec said, “So what’s your idea for a series?” Sorkin had nothing. So he blurted out, “How about a series focusing on the administrative staff of the President of the United States?”

And thus was born “The West Wing.” Now, of course, if you happen to hate that series AND you hate Akiva Goldsman, here’s just another reason to hate him more. But if, like me, you love the series, you have to grudgingly admit that you owe Akiva Goldsman one.

PAD

My daughter, Shana, is signed on to a lease for an apartment in Boston that she’s now not going to be staying in, so she needs someone else to take over the apartment. Not a sublet; a replacement for her on the lease. It’s in a nice neighborhood, I’m told. Her e-mail, I think, is [email protected] If you’re looking for a place in the Boston area, drop her a line.

PAD

We’re going to start posting the But I Digress… archives, in more or less chronological order, here in the weblog. (Why? So the search engine can find them– and let’s face it, the colum was a blog before anybody even thought of the phrase.) Shortly thereafter, we’ll have a link page for all of them as well and we’ll just keep adding to them.

If there’s no article, it means we don’t have it, so we ask the Intrepid But I Digress Staff (IBIDS, aka you folks) to send in copies so we can post them here.

ucking thing is going to get back on…

OH! WE’RE BACK!

HI! I was just, uh, talking with Glenn about the razor-sharp efficiency of our host, the power outtage that was solved in short order with the restoration of every board except this one, and the e-mails for help to our host that were apparently ignored. All hail the host.

Oy. WHY are we doing this again?

So…lots of folks are telling me with great excitement about DC’s announcing at the Chicago Con that they’re going to “poll the retailers” regarding a collection of “Atlantis Chronicles,” as if this is going to lead to a TPB. Except no one seems to recall that they’ve made this announcement repeatedly for the last decade. Lemme ‘splain how it works: Fans tell DC that they want to see a collection. DC then asks a small cross-section of retailers who give them one of three responses: (a) No one’s asked for it; (b) I’ve still got copies in my back-issue bin; (c) What’s that? And the talk of collecting a series that’s probably some of the best comics work I’ve ever produced dies until the next round of dead-end discussion pops up.

To be honest, DC has been saying there’s no demand for so long that my guess is they don’t dare bring it into print simply because if it *does* sell, they look like schmucks.

It was, however, collected in two volumes in Italy a few years back. So if you can speak Italian, you’re all set.

PAD

I’ll be writing about this in more detail in “But I Digress,” but having seen “Men in Black II,” I have to say that the best thing about the outing was the cockamamie little cartoon that ran in front of it.

MIB2 had TL Jones, Will Smith, Rip Torn, Lara Flynn Boyle in lingerie, and lots of incredible effects (including Lara Flynn Boyle in lingerie). What it did not have is emotional heart. And that’s an incredibly amazing achievement, considering that the opportunities were right there and completely blown by the filmmakers. The changed dynamic of J knowing the ropes and K learning his way just sat there. They did nothing with it. A remarkable opportunity of pulling K out of his new life was utterly wasted when it was established that he had a dead end postal job and his wife had left him several years previously. Imagine a film where J has to pull K out of his Happily Ever After. That if they’d built into the premise the notion that one K was de-neuralized, he could never go back.

You see this film and you’re so distracted by what it *could* have been that what *is* there simply isn’t all that appealing.

PAD

New rumor floating around is that the BBC is considering reviving “Doctor Who” with Anthony Stewart Head as the traveling Time Lord.

My understanding is that this rumor, while enthusiastic and certainly food for thought, is also not true. So why am I repeating it here? Well, I figure that maybe it’s like “Beetlejuice.” If you same it enough times, maybe it’ll just spontaneously happen. Now personally, I liked Paul McGann in the role, but I think Tony Head would be even better in it. McGann captured the man of action aspect, but not the scholarly manner of the Doctor, and I think Head could encompass both.

PAD

So the word is out on what’s coming up for SUPERGIRL. If you head over to Comicon.com, you’ll read all about the return of–maybe–Kara Zor-El in the 75th issue of SUPERGIRL.

Bottom line is, I believe that there are still potential readers for the series out there who aren’t even giving it a try because it’s not the Silver Age cousin of Superman (you remember…the one who could never sustain a series). And I figured, Y’know, let’s embark on a development that will pull in even those readers. And let’s play off a cover that is one of the most instantly recognizable cover images that DC has ever produced, so much so that a statue was produced and sold of the moment. Although in reviewing that sequence as I prepped the issue, I was struck by the fact that Kara’s ship was crumbled upon landing. Shouldn’t it have been “invulnerable?”

At any rate, the seeds for the storyline actually start being sown with issue #73, so be on the lookout for it. And if you’re not reading the book and want to start, for heaven’s sake tell your retailer.

PAD

Damn. I found a dozen more “Captain Marvel” letters, just when I thought I’d finished them all up. I’d misfiled them. Since it’s my fault, I’ll stick the extra postage on. Rats. Ah well.

People are actually receiving the previews (which means .34 cents was enough postage, thank heavens) and the response seems pretty positive. Over in the Warren Ellis Forum, a fellow named Isaac Sher got his and posted a really nice write-up about it in the Comics News Section. I’d post a direct link to the message, but I’m not clever enough to figure out how to do it. Don’t bother trying to post a follow up response, though, if you do happen to find it: Warren made a point of shutting down the topic before anyone could reply, instructing the poster to find another forum to discuss “Captain Marvel” in. Not sure why, but it’s his forum and his call, so once again…ah well.

PAD