Informing the Misinformed

Originally published March 8, 2002, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1477

When you’ve had a career going long enough, certain misperceptions are going to start creeping in among the audience. They’re easy enough to spot: They’re the ones I see over and over on computer boards and such. No, I’m not referring to the same old saws, tossed around by people who seem to believe they have cameras set up inside my head, the ones who say with authority that I’m anti-this or anti-that. I’m referring to either misinformation or opinions which are groundless, but stated enough times that people seem to believe there’s some foundation in truth.

So I figured I’d address some of the most prevalent ones.

1. Misinformation: I wrote a book called Triumph in the Desert detailing the events of the Gulf War.

Back in May of 1991, people started bringing this book up to me to sign. The author was indeed one “Peter David.” Despite the fact that the bio indicated the author was a British guy who was International editor for The Economist, some fans weren’t able to suss that it was a totally different fellow. I must admit that booksellers haven’t always helped when it comes to distinguishing us. Amazon.com informs anyone who evinces interest in Triumph in the Desert that they might also enjoy the works of Diane Carey, Susan Wright, Keith DeCandido, John Vornholt, Jean Cavelos… most of them known primarily for their work as Star Trek novelists.

One time, just for laughs, I endeavored to track down my (presumably not evil) twin. As a piece of investigation, it wasn’t all that difficult. It’s not as if The Economist has an unlisted phone number. I finally located his office in, I believe, the Washington, D.C. bureau. Asking for him at the switchboard got me connected to an efficient sounding secretary with a British accent. “Peter David’s office,” she said.

“Hi, I’d like to speak to Peter David.”

“Who’s calling, please?”

“Peter David.”

I have to give her credit; she didn’t blink a telephonic eye. Instead she simply said, “Hold, please.” A few moments later, a male voice came on and said, “Peter David speaking.”

“Hi,” I said. “I know this is going to sound kind of strange, but my name is also Peter David. I’m a writer also, mostly of science fiction and fantasy, and I thought it’d amuse you to know that people keep coming up to me and asking me to sign copies of your book, Triumph in the Desert.”

There was a thoughtful pause, and then he said, “Would you be the reason that people keep asking me to sign a book called Vendetta?”

 

2. Misinformation: Supergirl keeps ripping off Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

When I first started developing my ideas for Supergirl, I wasn’t watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer for the simplest reason of all: It wasn’t on the air yet.

In the course of my setting the series in the smallish city of Leesburg, I decided there should be some sort of practical reason why all manner of bizarre doings occurred in what should have been a “normal” town. I concocted something called a Chaos Stream, a tributary running off the River Styx, which caused all manner of insane things to happen in Leesburg (including, naturally, supervillain attacks.) Meanwhile Joss Whedon was faced with the same conundrum in explaining why Sunnydale, of all places, kept getting hit with weirdness. (Interestingly, writers of Kolchak: The Night Stalker never felt a compulsion to explain why the intrepid reporter kept bumping into things that went bump in the night. I guess it was felt Chicago had it coming.) Whedon’s solution was the Hellmouth.

But although the two concepts were developed independently, fans gave benefit of the doubt to Buffy and assumed I was the rip-off artist.

As time progressed, it only got worse. The demonic character of “Buzz” is now widely seen as a rip-off of Spike in both his speech patterns (distinctly British) and his romantic interest in our heroine. No matter that Buzz predates Spike’s debut by at least a year, and the romantic interest by three years. “Obviously” Buzz is “modeled” on Spike. When Buzz became physically unable to take action against Supergirl without a huge headache, that was seen as proof positive… again, even though the storyline was already in development when Spike got the chip in his head.

Oddly, it’s purely one-way. No one ever accuses Joss Whedon of ripping off Supergirl. For the record, I don’t think he is. Still, let us consider Supergirl #49-50. In those issues, our blonde heroine is in nearly catatonic shock while a godlike villain is on the verge of a total triumph that will unleash hëll on earth. Brought out of her psychic funk by a peptalk from a being with magic-based powers, our heroine musters her allies, confronts the villain, and ultimately triumphs through a demonstration of love that leads to her apparent demise. This is not remotely to be confused with the concluding episode of Buffy’s fifth season, “The Gift,” (airing some time after the publication of the issues in question) in which our blonde heroine is in nearly catatonic shock while a godlike villain is on the verge of a total triumph that will unleash hëll on earth. Brought out of her psychic funk by a peptalk from a being with magic-based powers, our heroine musters her allies, confronts the villain, and ultimately triumphs through a demonstration of love that leads to her apparent demise. Nope. No parallel there.

 

3. Misinformation: I replaced Aquaman’s hand with a hook.

No. I replaced it with a harpoon. If you go back and look at the zero issue of Aquaman, you see he took a harpoon off a wall of the Aquacave and lashed it to the stump. It lasted for a number of issues until it was melted off, at which time he replaced with a high-tech harpoon, capable of extending, retracting, or firing with a cable line attached. But from the very beginning, fans who are simply not happy unless they’re dissing Aquaman dismissed him as “Captain Hook.” The barbed and spear end didn’t seem to matter. The fact that it wasn’t curved down and in like a hook didn’t matter. He was “hook hand.” It’s a dámņëd harpoon.

 

4. Misinformation: I transformed the Hulk back into his gray incarnation.

No. Al Milgrom wrote those stories, although Bob Harras states that he was the one who originally developed the idea.

 

5. Misinformation: I came up with the idea of doing a Rashomon-type story for an issue of Spec Spidey.

Yeah, well, this one was my fault. After I made mention of that several weeks back in the column about John Buscema, Richard Howell called to remind me that it was actually Carol Kalish’s idea to solve the book’s deadline crunch by cribbing the multiple POV story that the famed Japanese film popularized. I then presented the idea to editor Jim Owsley and we ran with it. It’s been well over a decade, and that aspect of it totally slipped my mind, but I’ve no reason to think Richard’s lying, and now that he’s brought it up I’m vaguely remembering it that way. So I’m taking the opportunity to clarify it.

 

6. Misinformation: I wrote books under the name “David Peters” because I was ashamed of them.

Years ago Ace books hired me to write two sets of novels that were work-for-hire: The Photon novels and the Psi-Man series. No different a set-up than writing comics…except that in comic stores, books are racked by title whereas in book stores they’re racked by the last name of the author. Which is why, when publishers produce series, they want them under one “house name.” These days there’s more flexibility, as Star Trek and Star Wars novels are all displayed together despite a variety of authors. But back then, it was an inviolate rule. So, over my objections, both series were published under the moniker “David Peters,” conceived as a sop to me by having it be reasonably close to my own name. Psi-Man in particular was botched, as any conceivable audience was eluded when the books were published with a fake name and categorized as “Men’s adventure” rather than SF.

Eventually, when Penguin-Putnam (formerly “Ace”) was re-releasing my novel Howling Mad, I mentioned that if they had any brains they’d rerelease Psi-Man properly classified and with my name on it. The response I got was, “What’s Psi-Man?” They’d forgotten they had it. So they revisited the books, found that it was “just like X-Files” (although naturally it pre-dated X-Files by a few years) and re-released them with my name placed above the title.

 

7. Misinformation: I have a boundless supply of autographed photos I love sending out for free.

For some reason lately I’ve been getting lots of e-mail requests for either autographs or autographed photos. I’m not entirely sure why that should be the case, but it is. The problem is that I don’t have autographed photos, and even if I did, I see no reason why I should bear the cost of mailing them out. So, as always, if anyone wants anything signed, send it to the address below with a self-addressed stamped envelope.

 

8. That’s it for this week’s column.

Well, okay, sometimes the truth is out there.

(Peter David, writer of stuff, can be written to at Second Age, Inc., PO Box 239, Bayport, NY 11705. If anyone has any other possible misinformation they want cleared up, feel free to let me know.)