PeterDavid.net

Word on Newsarama is that Mark Waid was fired off FF for refusing to take the series in the direction dictated by Marvel higher-ups: i.e., ditching the high adventure tone (which Mark’s been doing a great job with) in favor of, according to Waid, “making the FF a wacky suburban dramedy where Reed’s a nutty professor who creates amazing but impractical inventions, Sue’s the office-temp breadwinner, the cranky neighbor is their new “arch-enemy.”

Basically, it’s “Honey, I Shrunk the FF.”

It will be interesting to see if the book is being used as a rough draft for what the projected November 2004 FF movie may eventually become.

Me, I’m flashing back to when I shown the door from “Hulk” because the Marvel higher-ups knew the way to go was 22 pages of “Hulk smash.” And that version tanked, and the current book is about as far from 22 pages of “Hulk smash” as you can get…and everyone who made the decision leading to my departure is long-ago fired.

Is NO ONE at Marvel familiar with the writings of George Santayana?

PAD

Hopefully some of you folks tuned in to Bravo tonight to see the airing of “Varekai,” the latest Cirque production which we saw some weeks back. There were a few acts in there that weren’t in the performance we saw, which is a bit annoying. And naturally seeing it on a TV screen can’t compare to being there in person. But at least you get some idea of what it’s all about. I’m sure Bravo will be running it a few more times, so try and catch it.

Me, I’d like to get out to Vegas and catch this new supposedly ultra-sexy version of Cirque that’s running out there. And I still haven’t seen the “Star Trek Experience.” Been about a decade since I’ve been to Vegas. Maybe longer. Actually, it might have been when Dale and I were out there promoting the Hulk, so you KNOW that’s a while.

PAD

George W. Bush fell off a Segway.

DAMN YOU, BIN LADEN!!!!!

The truly frightening thing is that after he fell off, he looked up, grinned, and said “Live from New York! It’s Saturday Night!”

Okay, he didn’t, actually. But I’m now thinking that Chevy Chase can revitalize his career by portraying GWB. Why not? At least he looks marginally more like GWB than he did Gerald Ford.

PAD

UPDATE: Although I’m keeping this “Fallen Angel” artwork at the forum top for the next few days, new blog entries are right below! So just scroll past.

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Before this starts popping up on assorted threads, I thought I’d address this via a separate entry. It was said by one poster:

PAD gets dissed in aintitcoolnews.com’s review of the Hulk movie. Harry Knowles who runs that site is an idiot.

Well, I leaped two miles over to AICN to see this “dissing.” Guys…all Harry Knowles said was that my work on the Hulk wasn’t his cuppa. He said that my work on the series defined the character for some, but it was never really his thing. I mean, unless there was something further down I missed, that was pretty much it.

To Harry Knowles, the pure rampaging Hulk was THE Hulk. Accept no substitute. He’s not the only person who feels that way, and that’s fine. Different strokes. And that’s not the way I ever tried to write the Hulk, so naturally my work wouldn’t appeal to him. He didn’t say “Peter David is an idiot” or “His work sucked” or “Anyone who liked his work is a schmuck.” He just said it wasn’t for him. Like the old days when Don Thompson would say, “For those of you who like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing you will like.” Fine. No harm, no foul.

I mean, there are people who didn’t like my work on the Hulk and, in writing about it, trashed everything about my career and my life, and considered it a normal way to mete out criticism. Knowles made a two sentence mention about the WORK, not about me personally, and moved on.

Nothing idiotic or disrespectful there.

PAD

Okay, now this line I KNOW was from Comedy Central. On last night’s “Daily Show” Jon Stewart, in reporting on the House voting for an amendment banning flag burning, quoted a pea-brained politician who showed so much disdain for the Constitution he’s supposed to be upholding that he actually said, “Some people like hiding behind the First Amendment.” To which Stewart riposted, “That’s because they keep being shot at by people hiding behind the Second Amendment.”

PAD

The “Hulk” promo half hour debuted tonight on MTV at 10:30 PM EST (which I guess means that if anyone on the West coast is reading this, you can turn on the set in seven minutes and watch it.) Aside from interviews with Stan Lee, Joe Quesada, Avi Arad, Axel Alonso, Eric Bana, Jennifer Connelly, and even (gasp) me, it also features a few more extended sequences of the Hulk in action, some of which I thought looked quite nifty. And hey, the show is worth it, for nothing else, for the naked Hulk aerobics sequence. Seriously.

Anyone who missed it can catch repeats at:

June 12 4:30pm

June 13 8:30 pm

June 14 1:30pm

June 15 4:30pm

PAD

The first issue of the new series that ties in with the animated version, but also seeks to strike a bit of a different course, hits the stands today. There’s a nice review of it on a website called www.comicsnsuch.com.

PAD

No, we don’t know how it got skipped, either. But here it is:

Artwork by Brian Stelfreeze, who bythe way did indeed do the cover for #5.

The government has announced that we can expect a terrorist attack from Osama bin Laden (whom the President swore to bring in “dead or alive” before we couldn’t find him) utilizing a weapon of mass destruction (the kind that Saddam Hussein had when we turned our attention from Afghanistan to bomb Iraq so we could find Saddam’s WMDs except several months later they’re nowhere to be found and Tony Blair is being raked over the coals for it) sometime within the next two years, which would take the current administration well beyond the next election year.

Now of course no one, absolutely NO ONE, would be unpatriotic enough to even consider the notion that a public kept fearing for their lives from terrorists would be even more reluctant to consider trivial matters like the economy and the environment come 2004 and want to stick with the administration which is protecting us all from evil terrorists plans (like 9/11 which happened during that same administration’s watch.) In fact I would be shocked–SHOCKED–to learn of such blatant and cynical manipulation on the part of the government.

PAD

Watched the Tonys last night, as I always do…although considering the renowned low ratings the show regularly getrs, I thought it would have been funnier if–when Matthew Broderick made reference to the “millions of people” watching, he’d said instead, “the thousands, perhaps hundreds of people watching tonight.”

They certainly did more to try and make the show even more lively for America beyond the boundaries of New York City, including more individual performances from nominated musicals and such. And you have to love that Wolverine hosted the main part of the show, with Nightcrawler doing the earlier, more technical awards. Still, in the first ten minutes, when the two guys who won kissed, I could practically hear channels changing all over the heartlands of America.

Still, Ariel was overjoyed. She was rooting for “Hairspray.” Having played Jan in her school production of “Grease,” she now aspires to someday play the female lead role in “Hairspray” (since the current star also played Jan.)

PAD

For our wedding anniversary, Kathleen got me an X-Box. I currently have three games I’m working on. The first is Dragon’s Lair 3-D as I have a field day putting Dirk the Daring through his paces. I used to be totally addicted to the arcade game. The X-Box version is equally addictive, and I have to be careful it doesn’t start intefering with my work output.

I also have the “Buffy” game, and the new “Hulk” game, which features such creations of mine as Half-Life and Madman. I’m flattered. I’d be even more flattered if I actually got any money from that. It doesn’t appear to be forthcoming.

PAD

For everybody who asked: Star Trek: New Frontier: No Limits will be out in trade paperback in October, 2003. Pre-order now and be the first on your block to get:

Introduction by Peter David

Mackenzie Calhoun: “Loose Ends” by Dayton Ward

Elizabeth Shelby: “All that Glisters…” by Loren L. Coleman

Zak Kebron: “Waiting for G’Doh, or, How I Learned to Stop Moving and Hate People” by David Mack

Robin Lefler: “Lefler’s Logs” by Robert Greenberger

Morgan Primus: “Alice, on the Edge of Night” by Ilsa J. Bick

Soleta: “Revelations” by Keith R.A. DeCandido

Si Cwan: “Turning Point” by Josepha Sherman

Selar: “‘Q’-uandary” by Terri Osborne

Burgoyne 172: “Oil and Water” by Robert Jeschonek

Mark McHenry: “Singularity” by Christina F. York

Arex: “The Road to Edos” by Kevin Dilmore

D’ndai of Calhoun: “A Lady of Xenex” by Peg Robinson

U.S.S. Excalibur: “Making a Difference” by Mary Scott-Wiecek

Katerina Mueller: “Performance Appraisal” by Allyn Gibson

Xant: “Redemption” by Glenn Hauman and Lisa Sullivan

Soleta: “Out of the Frying Pan” by Susan Shwartz

Burgoyne 172: “Through the Looking Glass” by Susan Wright

Calhoun & Shelby: “A Little Getaway” by Peter David

The Star Trek: New Frontier Timeline, compiled by Keith R.A. DeCandido

“A Little Getaway” is the story of Calhoun and Shelby’s honeymoon on Xenex, and the rest– well, you’ll have to wait a bit.

I think there should be a superhero called the Flying F–k. I think that would be cool. The dialogue practically writes itself.

DAMSEL: You’ll never get away with this!

VILLAIN: Lady, I don’t give a flying f–k what you say…

FF: (bursts into room) Did someone mention me?

VILLAIN: F–K!

FF: That’s right.

Maybe he can have a partner. Holy S**t. So when they both burst in, the villain shouts, “Flying F–k! Holy S–t!”

Wow. Maybe I do have too much time on my hands.

PAD

Did you lose a comic book?

A relatively valuable comic was left at my table, presumably by someone who was getting autographs. I kept waiting for the owner to return, but he or she never did.

I have it safe and sound with me and would be happy to send it back to the owner.

If you think this message might apply to you, write to me at [email protected] and identify the comic book you’re missing. If it’s the one I have, I’ll get shipping info from you.

PAD

I’ve just been informed that we’ve sold German rights to the new edition of KNIGHT LIFE. Hopefully they’ll also be interested in picking up ONE KNIGHT ONLY.

Oddly, SIR APROPOS OF NOTHING (which has editions in several countries)–well reviewed, strong selling–still has no interest from publishers in England, where I’d've thought it’d be a natural. Go figure.

PAD

Watched the three hour (!) program on CBS tonight listing the 100 heroes and villains in movie history. Most of them I agree with, but…Cruella DeVille and not Maleficent? Han Solo but not Luke Skywalker? Tarzan but not Sherlock Holmes? Can’t say I’m loving some of the omissions. I think Jimmy Stewart was just a touch overrepresented.

PAD

Theoretically, we now have an RSS feed at http://peterdavid.malibulist.com/syndicated.xml. Would somebody who uses RSS check and see if it works before I slap it into the sidebar?

Came back from the Philadelphia Wizard World convention. Certainly the liveliest turn-out I’ve seen at a con in some time. And the facilities were large enough to contain the crowd without things getting overpopulated.

I went down with Kathleen and Caroline (Ariel spending the weekend with her mom). Many people asked after Ariel, which was nice, and there were many “oooohs” and “aaaahs” over the baby. Saturday night Kathleen went out with a group of convention attendees including Maggie Thompson, Elayne and Robin Riggs, and Leah Adezio (admirably keeping things together in the wake of her recent loss). I willingly volunteered to go back to the hotel with the baby; not a great sacrifice, as my voice was completely gone and I was utterly exhausted.

Ken Knudsen, artist of “My Monkey’s Name is Jennifer” was set up two tables down and was true to the promise he made in the back inside cover of his comic’s most recent issue by giving me a vodka shot. I downed it and then remembered I didn’t drink. Fortunately it didn’t blast back up and out my nose.

The table was back-to-back with Mart and Carrie Nodell, whom it’s always great to see. Jim Salicrup stopped by as did, ten minutes later, Danny Fingeroth, so it was like Marvel old-home week. Met my editor on Captain Marvel, Andy Schmidt, who bears a striking resemblance to Riley from “Buffy.” Or maybe Richie Cunningham. I haven’t decided yet.

Lots of interest in “Fallen Angel” as people paged through the first five issues which I had out in various forms on my table. I signed comics steadily from 10 AM through 4 in the afternoon on Saturday (lighter turnout Sunday) and I have to admit, I was surprised. I wasn’t in most of the adverts (not their fault; I didn’t sign on until late) and yet I had steady business. So that was nice.

PAD

My buddy Brian Alvey has an interview with Darby Conley, creator of Get Fuzzy, over at http://www.meet-the-makers.com/conversations/conley/. Tell his referal logs we sent you.