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My editor at Penguin-Putnam called the other day. With me going over the copyedited manuscript for “ONE KNIGHT ONLY,” she asked what I had planned next. Talk turned toward a third Arthur book, since a trilogy has a nice sound to it and the end of “ONE KNIGHT ONLY,” while it is definitely a conclusion to the story, does leave open significant possibilities for a third volume. I’m working up a proposal now for what I’ve tentatively titled “FALL OF KNIGHT” and we’ll see how that flies.

I’ll keep you posted.

PAD

Hot socks, kids! Gwen will be working at New England Comics on Saturdays…and possibly Wednesdays, depending upon some other factors.

Told you I’d keep you up to date.

I’m keeping this short because I’m having computer problems. It’s making lots of weird noises. Hopefully it’ll be fixed soon.

PAD

Last night’s episode of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” was the first one this season that could genuinely be called gripping. The Buffy-gets-shrunk sequences worked largely due to the chemistry between Buffy and the vampire; there was more pop to their interaction than I’ve seen between her and any of the regulars this season. The absence of Amber Benson hurt, but clever writing made the sequence work well. And the double gut punch of the two twist endings was a genuine jaw-dropper (which we also haven’t seen a lot of this season.)

It’s looking more and more likely to me that the First Evil from season 3 is behind this. Here’s another nutty notion: What if the Watcher’s Council is evil as well…and perhaps has been all along? What if they were formed, not to aid slayers, but to keep them reined in so no slayer would ever reach her full potential? What if the reason the First’s henchmen were able to kill what I think we all assume to be slayers-in-training, was because the Council knew right where to point them? Imagine if the Council were governed not by altruisum, but by the philosophy that one should keep friends close and enemies closer.

PAD

Joe Quesada was asked about the retailer poll and, in discussing it, stated that:

“If a major account tells us they like a business policy because it helps them move more units and order more Marvel product we will listen much more intently than if five tiny accounts told us they didn’t.”

I’ve no doubt.

Me, all I know is that thus far the responses are coming in so lopsidedly against Marvel that it’s becoming embarrassing. At the very least…at the VERY least…it makes very understandable and defensible why Heidi would have stated “most retailers” are against it. Marvel’s opinion thus far seems buoyed by an ostensible majority that is not only silent, but tongue-tied.

It is entirely possible that the Fortune 300 doesn’t want to be bothered saying anything. But I’m not exactly tracking with why that would be. Perhaps they worry about being publicly villified by other, opposing retailers. But I’ve made clear that confidentiality will be honored where desired, and I’d like to think people take my word for it.

I submit another possibility. Just food for thought:

The notion that some retailers are smart enough businessmen to know that Marvel had already committed to their current policies. Policies which, I should re-emphasize, are working…at least as far as Marvel is concerned. So why rock the boat? Perhaps one doesn’t stay in the inner circle unless one says what people want to hear. Maybe they figure that if they don’t say what Marvel wants to hear, Marvel will stop listening altogether.

I don’t claim to know. I don’t know, because I’m not hearing from these many retailers who support Marvel. I *am* hearing from retailers who identify themselves as top sellers in the marketplace, and I gotta say…they’re not loving the policies.

The purpose of the poll is not to pillory Marvel or make anyone out to be liars. It was to spread information. It was to explore why a CBG columnist reported one thing and Marvel said in an incredibly aggressive manner that she was wrong, holding her up for public ridicule while doing so.

Maybe retailers who tell Marvel they support their policies don’t want to admit they’re just saying what Marvel wants to hear. Or maybe they don’t want to risk putting themselves at odds with other retailers. There’s no way to know. Heck, maybe they just don’t give a damn about polls, in which case we’ll never know.

But it certainly would be nice to.

PAD

Well, now that DC’s announced it, I can talk about YOUNG JUSTICE going away. Which is obviously upsetting for me, considering it’s pretty much the best selling title I’m writing.

I know some creators can’t wait to announce a title of theirs being cancelled. I’m not one of them. I’m just not real big on spreading around bad news. And I’m actually somewhat surprised how depressed I am about this, considering originally I only committed to doing six issues. But I’ve grown very attached to the kids.

What caused YJ to go away, despite healthy sales? The “Teen Titans” animated series. Ironic, I know, considering I wrote an early verison of that series bible (although I’ve since learned that the version which got the series green lit didn’t feature any of the work I did on it. And since I don’t want to claim credit for stuff that other people did, I figured I should set that record straight.) The moment the “TT” series got the go-ahead, DC decided to scuttle YJ so they could produce a “Teen Titans” comic more evocative of the forthcoming cartoon…which I did my original work on because they wanted it to be in the spirit of YJ.

So why wasn’t I then asked to write the new TT comic? Well, come on: Who relaunches a new comic series with the same characters and the same writer? That trick never works.

I suppose what I regret the most was, when “Impulse” and “Superboy” were both canceled, I was going to have free rein with the characters. I could do anything I wanted with them since YJ had become their home book. And now I won’t have the chance to do them.

And I’m also going to regret not working with Todd Nauck anymore. In this day and age when artists ricochet from book to book and get “hot” that way, Todd stayed with the book from start to finish and only got better and better…and less and less heralded simply because he remained in one place. Just like Leonard Kirk. Many fans gripe about the transience of artists, but then take artists (and books) for granted when the creative team remains for year after year. Kind of a mixed message there.

YJ wraps with #55. Fortunately enough, I’ve known about this for a long enough time that I can pull everything together in a four part storyline that brings to a head several main subplots. In short: Secret goes off the deep end. Darkseid recruits her. The Wonder Girl/Superboy percolating romance is finally addressed. Red Tornado returns. Harm returns. Slo-Bo makes a shocking revelation. Lotsa neat stuff. My thanks to the longtime YJ fans who have supported the book…and my regrets that I couldn’t do more to keep the series around.

In the meantime, I’ve got several new projects in the hopper. I’ll announce them as soon as the contracts are signed.

PAD

Note: for reasons that will become apparent upon reading, this is the current column from the Comics Buyer’s Guide.

(more…)

I spoke with my eldest daughter, Shana, last night, and she told me with great excitement, “I saw this TV show tonight with little Buffy! Buffy as a little girl.”

My mind immediately ran through the episodes of the series featuring Buffy as a youngster. I came up with a couple, but none of them had run recently on FX. Then I thought someone had green lit the animated series and I’d missed the announcement, but that wasn’t supposed to be about Buffy when she was “little.” “What show?” I asked.

“This show! With little blonde Buffy! And Giles the stuffy British guy, too.”

“What?!” I was completely bewildered, since Giles didn’t meet Buffy until she was in her teens.

“Yeah! It’s about Buffy when she was living with her Uncle Bill, and Giles was the butler…”

“Shana, you were watching FAMILY AFFAIR,” I sighed. “It’s a remake of a series from thirty years ago. And the butler is Mr. French, not Giles.”

“They called him Giles,” she replied.

I realized she was right: “Giles” was Mr. French’s first name. I assured her there was no relation to “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” although now that I think on it…*two* series featuring characters named Buffy and Giles? Coincidence? Buried memory on Whedon’s part? Tribute? You decide.

Regarding this week’s actual episode of BTVS: The pace dragged something fierce and the subject matter was a retread of earlier stories. But the whole episode was worth it for the wordless sequence outside the principal’s office with Buffy, the rocket launcher, and Spike.

I mourn the fact they don’t do “Buffy” and “Angel” crossovers, because I would dearly love to see Conner show up in Sunnydale and start getting involved with Dawn. How hilarious would that be, with Buffy suddenly re-experiencing her and Angel’s romance, except she’s seeing it from the POV of the worried mother figure.

PAD

PAD

Now that everyone’s done whomping on Glenn, I’m going to ask if anyone is really surprised over the election results. I mean, really.

To me, it was pretty much in the bag the moment Congress gave Bush war power even though we’re not at war.

Never underestimate the magician’s trick of misdirection. Look. Look, over here. This country’s riddled with problems, the type of which would cause any electorate to shift control, but hey! Over there! There’s this very, very bad man, and we have to do something about him, because he’s a very bad man. So quick, let’s assemble our allies–you know, the country that turns tanks on its protestors, and the country that supplied almost all of the 9/11 hijackers, and the country bordering Afghanistan where the new terrorist camps have been set up–those allies, and do something about this very bad man, because unlike the very bad man, they embrace human rights and the American way and puppies.

And while that’s happening, the Democrats won’t be able to pull the attention of the 1-in-3 people who vote over towards those annoying domestic problems because they’ll be too worried about war, and–as I said ages ago–people don’t like to switch horses in mid-war stream. In a political environment where criticism of the administration is tantamount to being unpatriotic, naturally the electorate is going to give a more clear mandate to a man who, two years ago, it did not give the majority of the popular votes to and likely would be heading for defeat in 2004 if two airplanes hadn’t been flown into the World Trade Center.

So as I said, I wasn’t surprised. The only surprising thing would be if anyone else was.

PAD

Well, the Diamond Top 100 is out for November. Let’s see how we’re doing.

A number of folks were quick to point out that “Ultimate Adventures” is now outselling “Captain Marvel.” Well, not exactly. CM #3 is ranked around 86. However, that doesn’t count the alternate CM #3 with the additional Alex Ross illos which is price tagged at $3.99. That’s ranked 141. According to the folks at Marvel, when the numbers for the two books are combined, the total sales jump the ranking of CM #3 to somewhere around #38. If that’s the case, we’re actually climbing in sales. I suppose the make-or-break will be #4.

The single greatest resistence I still hear to buying the book is, “I don’t care about ‘Captain Marvel.’” I know I said as much when I formulated the Countdown System of sales success, ranking buying/ordering priorities as Company (4), Character (3), Artist (2) and Writer (1). But dang, I hate being right.

I just find it fascinating that fans are far more loyal to characters who were, for the most part, created by people who now could not get a job writing those characters.

As for “Supergirl,” my understanding is that #75 is blowing out of stores, and by the end of business today, DC–which currently has less than a hundred copies left–will be sold out. It was ranked #88. So how did #76 sell? Dropped more than 20 places to #110. Apparently retailers didn’t know (or care) that the storyline with Kara continued. Plus it guest featured Superman and Superboy. Didn’t matter.

Sometimes I’m just left wondering.

PAD

Because Peter’s blog reaches many more people than mine does, I’m hijacking it for a post. Considering the subject, I don’t think he’ll mind.

Why? Because down the street from me is my town library, my voting place– and from the steps of that I saw the results of the a very important hijacking– my photo of what it looked like is at left. And two years earlier when I voted here, there was another important hijacking, this was of a presidential election. So when I go to vote today, I’ll be reminded of both those events.

And you should be too.

If you think the current administration has done a horrible job of tracking down the people responsible for that day, or are trying to pull a bait and switch of targets with Iraq, or if you think that Bush should have at least stopped reading to kids when he heard about the plane crashing into the Twin Towers, or if you think that the current administration has done all it can for its corporate contributors and damn little for anybody else, or if you happen to think the President is a liar and a buffoon, or if you’re terrified about the judges that would get appointed and everything else that would happen in a Bush-dominated Congress, or if you just don’t want to see what happened to Jesus Castillo happen to anybody else– then your vote is needed.

Remember– you can’t complain about the Supreme Court taking away your vote in the last election if you don’t vote in this one.

So go vote!

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, in a unanimous decision by the board, will endeavor to take the case of Jesus Castillo to the Supreme Court.

For those just joining us, Castillo is a store manager in a comic book store in Texas. He was convicted of obscenity charges for selling an adult comic book to–get this–an adult. During the trial, the CBLDF brought in expert witnesses who testified that the material in question (a manga clearly labeled as “Adults only” and kept in a separate adults-only section of the store) had artistic merit and did not satisfy the Miller test of obscenity. The DA offered no rebuttal witnesses. Instead she argued to the jury that comics are really intended for kids, and on that basis posed a threat to the youth of Texas (despite community standards tolerating a variety of adults-only stores operating mere blocks away from the comic store, with material far more explicit than the manga in question.) Incredibly, the jury bought the argument and convicted Castillo.

A split decision from a higher court refused to overturn the conviction. This decision, if allowed to stand, could have a chilling effect on any comic featuring any content not explicitly kiddie safe. The CBLDF’s only option at this point is to attempt to get a writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court. We intend to do so.

The expense will be considerable and the odds may be long. For further information to learn how you can contribute to the fight against the erosion of your right to buy whatever comics you wish to buy, check out the CBLDF website at http://www.cbldf.org.

An official press release will be forthcoming.

PAD

In the continuing saga of my daughter, Gwen, she had told New England Comics that she couldn’t work on weekends during the day because she works at a bakery then. So NEC offered her Saturday from 11 to 5. On the surface, that would seem rather bizarre behavior. So she turned them down. But wait! Apparently NEC displayed foresight bordering on the psychic, because Gwen was informed a week later that the bakery was changing her hours, and she wasn’t going to be working weekends anymore. Which means she *is* available Saturdays from 11 to 5.

Is the NEC slot still available? Will Gwen want to give up her now-free weekends? Will she, in fact, meet some nice kids around her age (17/18) so she’ll have people to hang with? Will she be able to keep a straight face behind the NEC counter and not burst out guffawing if customers say, “Wow, that Peter David is the best writer ever!”

All I know is, the adventures of Gwen are spreading in notoriety, and recently were recounted in All the Rage.

Stay tuned.

PAD

So I was contacted by the folks at Harper-Collins about writing the Young Adult version of the “The Hulk” novel. Apparently they’d heard good things about me and figured, since I knew the script, I’d be the person to do the YA one.

Two problems faced us, though. First, if my name was on both of them, that might cause some confusion in the marketplace. And second, from a personal and creative point of view, how could I approach the same material and keep it interesting for myself? Because if it was boring for me, it would be boring for the reader.

What we came up with was simple: The entire book will be told first person, extracted from diaries kept by Bruce Banner. And the author’s name on it will actually be “Bruce Banner.” So young adult readers will be getting the real story straight from the Hulkster’s mouth, so to speak.

Should be interesting.

PAD

I’ve been on jury duty this week, and finally got called in to be questioned by lawyers as a potential juror.

There were six of us in a row of seats facing the lawyers, and a bunch of additional possible jurors still looking on. The case was–believe it or not–a slip and slide. Someone slipped on ice and was suing the homeowner.

Several people were very straightforward in saying they’d be predisposed to vote against the plaintiff, seeing it purely as a nuisance suit. So they were excused. Some people, when asked if they could vote impartially, said, “Uh huh.” Or “Sure.”

My answers were longer. Much longer. They boiled down to “Uh huh” and “sure” but went into detail. I watched the lawyers’ eyes glaze over.

They punted me from the jury…along with a retired police detective, and a landlord. They kept the people who said “Uh huh” and “Sure.”

A couple hours later, I went home, and that was it. This is the second time I’ve been called for jury duty, and the second time nothing came of it.

Isn’t this a great legal process?

Uh huh. Sure.

PAD

We missed seeing “Firefly” last Friday since we were out seeing “Dance of the Vampires,” but Glenn taped them for us and we just saw it.

Definitely the best episode so far. The multi-layered storytelling style would have been hell on anyone who can’t follow non-linear stories, but it certainly propelled things along. I assume the clips were from the unseen pilot, and although it seems to have been poorly received by Fox execs, I know *I* am sure interested in seeing it now. Those clips made it actually seem like a Joss Whedon show.

Most disconcerting for me was the introduction of Kaylee. I still think of Jewel Staite as the little fifteen year old we hired for “Space Cases.” Meeting her character by seeing her humping some guy in engineering and then hurriedly getting dressed afterwards just gave me the willies.

PAD