Month: August 2006

The issue everybody’s talking about. Whad’ja think?

PAD

the perpetually homeless Jon Manzo has come to me yet again saying that I, like Obi-Wan, am his only hope. I pass on the following as a public service:

Dragon*Con Crash Space Needed: Expected roomie had to cancel, so I’m looking for a place to sleep. Arriving Thursday, departing Monday. Non-smoker, will bring own bedroll. May have a room for Thursday night, but still waiting to hear. E-Mail to Voiceodoom@aol.com by Wednesday pm.

All responses should be directed to him.

PAD

John Byrne has several popular lies he likes to tell about me. One of his favorites jus resurfaced over on his board in a thread about whether the internet has ruined comics, in which he responds to the following set-up line–

“Wasn’t the ending to Alpha Flight #12 spoiled at a comic convention by another comic professional?”

–with the following lie:

“Peter David handed out xeroxes of Guardian’s death at a con about a month before the book shipped.”

Nnnnnno. A popular lie of John’s, but no. Number one, it wasn’t at a convention; it was at a get-together for retailers. Number two, it wasn’t Guardian’s death. It was an unlettered two page dream sequence in which Heather was seeing a dessicated Guardian tearing out the ground. Number three, it was part of a package of about two dozen photocopied highlights from assorted Marvel titles. Number four, the material in question was handed to me by Denny O’Neil, the book’s editor when I–in my capacity as sales manager at the time–was going around collecting material to put into the package. And when I said to him, “Are you sure you want me to include this in the material?” Denny replied, “Sure, what’s the harm?” Number five, retailers at the get together had no idea that the sequence actually indicated that Guardian really died. I know this because when John showed up at the get-together, he looked at the material, screamed at me at the top of his lungs, “How could you be showing this to retailers?!? It gives away the fact that Guardian dies!” and stormed out of the room, slowing only long enough to kick over a standing ashtray on his way out. At which point stunned retailers said, “Guardian DIES?,” started looking at the xeroxes again, and were muttering, “I thought it was just a dream sequence…”

Set your watches. I’m sure John will be hauling out the equally fun “Peter David was so stupid he had a character fall to his death underwater” lie sometime within the next six months. That’s one of his favorites.

PAD

Y’know, there’s any number of things one can criticize the Emmys for. The strangeness of nominating Tony Shalhoub for Best Actor in a Comedy, but not “Monk” for best comic series, even though he is the show; the utter bizzareness of nominating “House” for best dramatic series but not Hugh Laurie who, again, is the show. Ellen Burstyn being nominated for best supporting even though she only had fourteen seconds of screen time; nominating Alan Alda for best supporting and Martin Sheen for best actor even though Alda had far more screentime, and completely ignoring Bradley Whitford who was the pulse of “West Wing’s” last season. Strange strange strange.

But jumping on the opening sketch which depicted Conan’s plane taking a nosedive (was I the only one expecting snakes?) and his crash landing on the island from “Lost” because of the tragedy with the airplane in Kentucky…that’s really pushing it. People are howling about poor taste and insensitivity, and no one’s allowing for the possibility that maybe it just didn’t occur to the producers to make the connection. It sure didn’t occur to me. In fact, Kathleen was so ahead of the curve that the moment she saw him in the plane she said, “They’re going to spoof ‘Lost.'” (I was busy anticipating snakes, see above.) Hurley’s comment about how they weren’t invited was scathingly brilliant. I’m not trying to downplay the real life tragedy, but come on…should we also accuse the Emmys of not taking terrorism seriously because they spoofed “24,” or that they were dissing sick people because Gregory House was examining Conan? Maybe…*maybe*…the timing was regrettable, but it’s absurd that people are demanding apologies from NBC and the Emmy producers.

Please.

For me, what made the evening was the running gag with Bob Newhart…although, of course, that could be interpreted to be making fun of people on life support or people who have been trapped in disasters and suffocated.

PAD

Not exactly a new title, but the IDW trade collection of the relaunched series’ first five issues is now out. Personally I think it looks extremely nifty. Plus there’s some art corrections, such as the matter of Juris’s amazing regenerating ax,. Also contains a cover gallery plus intro by me and a piece by JK walking you through how a page of FA is created.

I am also told by DC that they are “considering” collecting the rest of the series’ first run in trade paperback and will “decide by the end of the year.” IDW would be thrilled to collect it themselves, but so far DC holds those reprint rights and haven’t released them.

PAD

After making a point of saying that he was “right” and that Pluto would remain a planet, Colbert’s not going to be a happy camper over the ninth planet losing its status. But that’s his problem. Ours is coming up with a new mnemonic to remember the names of the planets since “My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nice Pickles” has become moot.

Now the obvious fix is to come up with a new food for “N.” “Just Served Us Noodles.” Or “Nuggets.” Or “My Very Ethnic Mother Just Served us Nachos.” But you know what? I think it’s time we come up with something completely different. Like “Motor Vehicles Everywhere Must Jump Sharks Until November.” Or something equally idiotic.

Go to it.

PAD

As part of my endeavor to get back into shape, I’ve joined a local gym. Planning to work mostly on improving upper body strength. Also what’s really cool is that the walking machines have television screens on them with all sorts of cable channels. It’s amazing how quickly the time passes when you can focus on something other than the exercise. Plus they’re the only gym in the area with a pool, and swimming is great exercise. Best of all, they have child care, so I can bring Caroline with me and Kath can have the mornings to work on puppetry and such.

So basically I’m figuring Monday/Wednesday/Friday will be gym days, and I practice bowling Tuesdays, Thursday and Saturday. Seems like a decent enough exercise program. Until now I’ve just been bowling for exercise, which works well enough, but the development of my body is lopsided. My right arm is pretty normal looking, but my left arm–my bowling arm–is muscled and defined. So this should help even things out. And they teach you how to use the various machines so I won’t screw myself up.

PAD