PeterDavid.net

Hmph, interesting. Could you give a little context to that statement, please, Glenn? Like, was he talking about the upcomming Spidey story or something along those lines? Or did PAD just sit down and blurtout, "Spontinuity"?

Hey, that's a cool word.
I know I've seen comix where a twist in the plot welds together two previously immiscible bits of continuity.

It sounds like more of a writer term than anything else, since by the time it sees print, it's no longer spontaneous, is it?

"'Dogmudgeon''s a lovely word," said Nancy.

"Yes, isn't it?" said Roger. "You can use it if you like."

A quick googlesearch shows PAD unfortunately wasn't the first to coin this word.

Sounds like y'all are having fun. Spare a thought or two for those of us with little excess disposable income and bosses that won't let us take vacation days while they're in town. :)

"Spontinuity" is eventually going to cause me to stop buying comics. But then, being in my mid-thirties and someone who has a long memory, maybe I've been reading comics for waaaaaayyyy too long...

BTW...does "Spontinuity" have a secondary definition of "a condition which is caused by laziness in writing?" Ooops. Sorry, that belongs in "retconning"...

I've got one of those good news, bad news things.
First, PAD's leaving TIHulk before the end of the year. Second, PAD confirmed that an X-Factor series will be coming out around November.

Just saw the X-Factor article at the Pulse. Awesome news. Can't wait to read this. Ryan Sook sounds like the perfect artist for this type of book.

http://www.comicon.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=36&t=004001

While PAD leaving the Hulk makes me weep, this bit re. the X-Factor had me laughing, hard.

(note: SPOILERS! Bail, now! Avert your eyes, children!)http://www.newsarama.com/SDCC05/Marvel/x-men/xmen_HoM.html

David explained that Madrox is expanding the business after winning a million dollars on a gameshow like “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” by using his “lifeline” to call a duplicate who was organizing a group of 20 other duplicates all on Internet connections looking up information he needed.

Wonder why PAD's leaving Hulk. Odd demotion after getting the Spider-man and X-Factor promotions!

Glenn: Where is this celebrity blog you are speaking of?

To Paul Anthony Llossas:

You comment about being mid-30s, having a long memory, and maybe reading comics too long.

I'm nearly mid-50s, have a long memory, and have been reading comics SINCE THE 50s!

Whatchoo talkin' about, Willis?

What other celebrity bloggers? I'd be interested to know...

PAD's leaving The Incredible Hulk?! Is this true? If so - no!!! (Guess I'll have to figure out how to remove something from my pull list without it being cancelled out from under me ...) And why would he leave? Is it because you can't establish the kind of long-going storylines and strong supporting cast which he had on his first run under the current, TPB-driven system?

If he is leaving, at least we got "Tempus Fugit", and a few issues still to come - and "Dear Tricia" alone was worth it. Thank you, PAD.

I'm also very depressed at the thought of PAD leaving Hulk again so soon. Actually even more so than I'm happy about bringing back Guido, Jamie & the gang (and he made me love those guys back in the X-Factor days).

However Hulk is my all-time favourite character since I was 5 years old and Peter's run really stood out as the absolute highmark for the series.

After he left Byrne & Jones utterly destroyed the character for me in pretty much every respect, but logical structure chief among them. I held out hope for such a long time that the main writer would come back and salvage him.

After the Tempest Fugit arc this hope was rekindled when seeing that all the things which were highly contradictory, and didn't make any semblance of sense, would be weeded out and looked forward to Peter taking his time with playing this take to the finish: Explaining and putting the history together in a somewhat comprehensible way while revitalising the character again and explaining the current status quo.

A big added bonus would be to finally follow up on what happened with all the loose ends when Peter departed the first time: Maestro machinating the death of Betty, whatever happened to the Leader inside that polar bear and what was up with those weird, unexplained combined resurrections&mutations of his, where did the Pantheon go etc?

Don't get me wrong, I like the Spider-Man and especially Madrox news and appreciate that there is just so much time in the day before getting overworked. Health goes first, but I would have by far preferred another few years on the Hulk instead of either or, more reasonably, would love to hear that he decided to rescind commitment to start writing the FF & Wolverine novels to maybe make more Hulk a possibility side-by side with the other books.

Btw: Given that it doesn't seem like more Hulk is a reasonable request, might it be possible for Peter to give suggestions to the editor about the writers he thinks could continue his story/legacy without messing the character up again and who could create some sense out of the chaos? That would be great. Thanks.

"Leaving the HulK?!" Say it ain't so Pete! Say it ain't so! The Hulk was finally readable again. Is there any chance at all that you could remain on the book?

No!

I've just read Hulk #83 for the third time, and I just got it yesterday :(. The Hulk is not only readable again, its damn good!

Nobody can write The Hulk half as well as PAD can. The announcement that he was writing the Hulk again was what got me back into comics, after I had left when Byrne was taking my beloved Hulk and defecating on him.

Sad news for me.

I like PAD's HULK as much as anyone, but we don't know all the facts--PAD may have indeed been replaced on the series by Marvel's highers-up (rather than him voluntarily leaving). Much as we'd like it, Marvel ain't gonna let him stay or dictate what happens after if that is the case.

If PAD is leaving HULK of his own volition, then all the well-intentioned "please stay" pleas from us aren't going to do much. We should congratulate him on having written some darn good stories and wish him luck on the future projects.

If PAD has been let go from the series by Marvel, he or someone else will let us know this is the case, and we can either accept it and wait for X-FACTOR or start petitioning Marvel to keep him on the series, a la Mark Waid with FF.

But it's a mistake to wail, whine and moan before this important fact.

"wail, whine and moan"

...You know to unprovoked and immediately start blanket-insult, belittle and likening anyone who is depressed by the news to an immature ingrate below your own inflated stature is the attitude of a generalising callous bully and not the least bit sympathetic or humane. The sentiment that we need to know more is one I obviously agree on, but taking any chance for a spitefull conceited crack-down on others to make them feel guilty and worthless for feeling down is a way too extreme approach.

People are expressing sadness due to enjoying his run and having an emotional attachment to it. That's a sign of deep appreciation and shouldn't be belittled and spat upon on sight. God forbid people actually have feelings. As long as respect is shown regarding his motivations and the limits of a possible workload, I don't think showing signs of encouragement is a bad thing. I'd take it as an enormous compliment if it was me and this way he at least knows that his writing was appreciated by a vast amount of people.

I can't help feeling that there's a chance he turned disillusioned once again. The first time he left Peter said he had been taken for granted (of course I see it more as that people had such a huge amount of faith in his talent and reliability that they had come to both expect a high quality and that he would stay on board, but I digress) and this time that not enough of the readers appreciated Tempus Fugit for the right reasons, that it struck a chord with the real world.

There's a low chance that our disappointment will matter either if he didn't think he could maintain high quality for the book, that the workload was too high and he enjoyed other projects more or if Marvel replaced him (but I find that unlikely. PAD seems like a very upfront, honest person), but if it's due to disappointment in us again, maybe just maybe it will touch a chord that so many people really care and make him reconsider. If not that at least maybe he'll be interested in recommending a talented new writer, suitable to finish what he started according to his vision, for editorial after he leaves, given that so many of the substitutes really messed the character up. It would be a nice touch. In any case t's well worth mentioning and he deserves knowing that we very much enjoyed it while it lastd.

As for starting a petition to Marvel that's actually a good idea if it was their idea in the first place, but given that it likely isn't it sould likely just come across as ridiculous. After all I can't see them forcing him to write a book as a proper approach, nor that it would succeed.

Ugh. Trading a PAD Hulk series for "Spidey Super Stories" (or whatever that new kiddie book will be called) is painful!

David Andersson,
Seeing as how PAD has said it was simply the increasing workload that caused him to drop "Hulk", shouldn't we take him at his word. I mean, honestly, the man will be doing "Fallen Angel", a series he obviously loves and is excited about; "X-Factor", which will give him an X-book with some leeway, since it stars characters basically only he could make interesting; "Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man", a high=profile book and a return to a character he genuinely seems to want to write again; and a "Wolverine" novel, a "Fantastic Four" novel; and, of course, his "New Frontier" novels. Isn't it possible that he is genuinely more excited by these other projects, that he feels after returning to the "hulk" series he realized he had really said all he wanted to with the character, and that, basically, there are only so many hours in the day, and if he DID get any extra time he would rather do projects like the "Spike" one-shot or other characters he hasn't done over a decade's worth of stories on?

Michael D,
As PAD has stated repeatedly, "Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man" is not a "kiddie book". It will be a Spider-book for everyone to enjoy, in which he will be introducing new characters and exploring the Peter/MJ dynamic. It sounds like fun. Maybe that "pain" you are feeling is your brain's inability to grasp what PAD has said many times - the new title is not a "kiddie book".

I'm actually sort of happy Peter's leaving the Hulk again; I've been buying way too many comics lately, and I need an excuse to drop a book. Not hugely interested in X-Factor (especially since I've never liked Ryan Sook's art), so I won't be picking that up - and besides, *something's* got to go in order to pay for FALLEN ANGEL!

especially since I've never liked Ryan Sook's art

Really? I was looking through some of his art at Ryan Sook's site ( http://www.ryansook.com/forsale.html - *cough*150 bucks a pop a page, woah *cough) and his stuff looks pretty decent to awesome. Why no love?

"Maybe that "pain" you are feeling is your brain's inability to grasp what PAD has said many times..."

Insulting me is an...interesting...choice for a debate/discussion. But if that's all you have, then c'est la vie...

To Alan Coil:

I am duly, humbly chagrined. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

However, its nice to know I'm not alone... ;>

"Seeing as how PAD has said it was simply the increasing workload that caused him to drop "Hulk", shouldn't we take him at his word. I mean, honestly, the man will be doing "Fallen Angel", a series he obviously loves and is excited about; "X-Factor", which will give him an X-book with some leeway, since it stars characters basically only he could make interesting; "Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man", a high=profile book and a return to a character he genuinely seems to want to write again; and a "Wolverine" novel, a "Fantastic Four" novel; and, of course, his "New Frontier" novels. Isn't it possible that he is genuinely more excited by these other projects, that he feels after returning to the "hulk" series he realized he had really said all he wanted to with the character, and that, basically, there are only so many hours in the day, and if he DID get any extra time he would rather do projects like the "Spike" one-shot or other characters he hasn't done over a decade's worth of stories on?"

The point is that we don't know exactly why he choose to drop Hulk specifically to ease his workload. Was it due to not having more to say? Due to disappointment in us, that we didn't encourage, show our enthusiasm or understand his messages well enough? Simply that he enjoyed the others more? If one f the last two it's worth showing our deep and decades-lasting fondness, affection and appreciation for his Hulk runs. It could maybe, just maybe give him that extra charge of new enthusiasm and interest by showing him that he makes so many people happy. Likely far more so than through the new novels.

I'm very excited about the X-Factor and Fallen Angel news (despite Rictor's inclusion), but the Hulk is my all-time ongoing favourite and he's been utterly and continuously destroyed on Spider-Man 'clone saga' level, while PAD was gone. It's been awful. We'd be overjoyed if he'd consider dropping a novel from his schedule to make room for continuing Hulk a few months down the road. If nothing else I've waited forever to see the Leader or Maestro plots carried out to their logica conclusion and would very much like to see continuity explained and cleared up after the recent Nightmare arc. Or at least be heavily relieved if he could make sure the upcoming writer won't give us another 8 years of unstructured, incomprehensible awfulness and is reliable to continue more or less according to his vision. It'd be a very nice gesture towards his most loyal supporters in any case.

David Andersson:

Your points in your previous email to me were well-taken. "Whining" was a bad, trigger word that was more powerful than I meant. No offense meant, and your passion for PAD's HULK is to be commended.

But you wrote: "if he could make sure the upcoming writer won't give us another 8 years of unstructured, incomprehensible awfulness"

C'mon David, be realistic--who among us believes that, important a creator as he is, PAD has that kind of pull in the Marvel editorial offices? Why on earth would they give an outgoing writer the power to dictate future storylines and directions?

Sure, it would be nice. But it's not realistic.

A slight correction in my previous post: I wrote "Your points in your previous email to me"...

I meant, "Your points in your previous post to me..." My apologies--I didn't intend to suggest you were emailing me.

Personally I think the editor would listen to his suggestions, due to the sheer merits of his perspective on the character.

I mean spending 14 years on the character and defining him for the future at the same level as Chris Claremont did with X-Men should give him a lot of respect in that area.

David, you'd think so. Unfortunately, editors and higher ups change and, with those changes, sometimes comes a significant change in liberties, freedoms and input that writers have over the titles that they write.

Fred

Respect like stories being written that were done as a direct FU to things Claremont had set up for yearS? That kind of respect?

As for why he'd be dropping Hulk..well let's see..

Of his comic titles, there's Fallen Angel and Soulsearchers, which are both labors of love and personal projects....

So that leaves Spider-Man and the X-Title and Hulk.

I wonder which of those will do the least to put his many daughters through college?;-)

I think Marvel should switch its name to SXW or some permutation of that. Of course it stands for Spidey, X-Men, Wolverine. What portion of Marvel's books star either wolverine, spiderman, or a member of the extended X-men roster? What percentage of their total revenue do those three properties represent?

I certainly wouldn't blame PAD if the choice was a financial one (though I doubt it was). Having one out of five? six? comics starring spiderman is still probably twice the exposure of the Incredible Hulk. Same with having your own X-book.

Its a shame though, because I borderline refuse to read any book starring Spidey or the X-Men. But, it is PAD, so I will most likely pick up the first couple and give them a shot. The artwork shown from FNSM is terrific, so between that and PAD perhaps I can be convinced to stick around.

I'll read Fallen Angel too I'm sure.

""I think Marvel should switch its name to SXW or some permutation of that. Of course it stands for Spidey, X-Men, Wolverine. What portion of Marvel's books star either wolverine, spiderman, or a member of the extended X-men roster? What percentage of their total revenue do those three properties represent?""

i disagree, i'd say its BMS for bendis, millar, straczynski

joe v.

Hi,
Do you have any info about Beth D Milyo? I found this website by googling her name- you had mentioned her in the People's Court blog. She and I were in the Navy together- I found a posting which said she was trying to find me, but her email was out of date (bethd@home.com). Please send her email to me at danette@oddpost.com. This is my daughter's email because my email address is about to change and I'm not sure what it is going to be. We were in the Navy together in Great Lakes.

Thanks!!!
Glenna Collins

^ Well, that was a pretty random post.

Hey, has anyone heard of my old friend, Joey Joe Joe Shabadoo? I last saw him stumbling off into the night drunkenly 7 years ago and haven't heard from him since. Any help would be appreciated!!!

Well, Mr. D, I was busy terrifyingly busy at Comic-Con, so I only saw you once. You were coming off the up-escalator and (sorry) you looked like you had aged twenty years and had been pulling a cart for twenty miles.

I had to miss all the comics panels to cover as many of the animation ones I could, and even with two people helping, I missed a lot. I just found out that a very talented Disney improv actor, Philip Nolan, was at Comic-Con to act in a Harry Potter play running somewhere there. I never even got wind of it. Damn!

Couldn't they split up Comic-Con into about three or four cons, and move the pieces to cities in the United States where they have affordable rooms and restaurants? (It goes without saying that California isn't part of the United States. San Diego closely resembles a Soviet Union gulag in its nightly entertainment and restaurant choices.)

I had to miss all the comics panels to cover as many of the animation ones I could,

I was at Comic-Con for every day (including Preview Night) except Sunday, and I made it to exactly one panel: the Cup O' Joe, and I even missed the first few minutes of that.

I made it just in time for the "announcement" about PAD doing X-Factor.

But to split it up? Forget about it. I don't think anybody would go. Sure, Comic-Con is "controlled chaos", but with flights and hotels being overly expensive as it is, there's no way I'd ever go again if they split it up.

Thomas, next time, be sure to pick up the Thursday Union-Tribune. Its "Night & Day" section will give you information on the options available. Barring that, there's the paper's website, signonsandiego.com.

I mean, seriously, you were on the edge of the Gaslamp Quarter and you couldn't find sufficient dining and entertainment options? Are you sure you were looking in the right places?

JIM APARO PASSES AWAY
From Spencer Beck

The Aparo Family has asked me to send this information out to all parties. It is with the deepest regret I have to inform you of the passing of the legendary Jim Aparo early Tuesday Morning, July 19, 2005. Mr. Aparo, who was 72, died from complications relating to a recent illness. All Funeral arrangements will be a private ceremony for Family and Friends of Jim.

Aparo, born in 1932, was primarily self-trained as an artist. After years of working in commercial fashion design in Connecticut, his first break in the comics field was with a comic strip called "Stern Wheeler," written by Ralph Kanna, which was published in 1963 in a Hartford, Connecticut newspaper for less than a year. In 1966, editor Dick Giordano at Charlton Comics hired him as a comic book artist, where his first assignment was a humorous character called "Miss Bikini Luv" in "Go-Go Comics." Over the next few years at Charlton, Aparo drew stories in many genres--Westerns, science fiction, romance, horror, mystery, and suspense.

Aparo was notable for being one of the relatively few artists in mainstream comics at that time to serve as penciler, inker, and letterer for all of his work. These tasks were typically divided between two or more artists.

In the late 1960s, Aparo moved on to National Publications/DC Comics, which is where he came to fame in the Comics Community. Originally starting at DC on the Aquaman title, he then moved on to also work on the Phantom Stranger and DC's horror titles.

In 1971, Aparo worked on his first Issue of Brave & The Bold. Issue 98 featured the Phantom Stranger teaming up with Batman. Beginning with Issue 102 Jim was then the regular artist on the series and provided pencils & inks on almost every issue from 102 until the end of the series with Issue 200. Jim's work on Brave and the Bold was his favorite work of his time at DC as he truly considered the series his "baby." Also during this period Jim did one of the seminal runs on The Spectre, where his realistic style made the Ghostly character truly come to life.

After the end of Brave and the Bold, Aparo was co-creator for Batman & The Outsiders and also worked on the regular Batman and Detective Comics Series throughout the 1980s and early 1990s. most notably doing the Pencils on the "Death in The Family" storyline, which featured a phone-in vote deciding the fate of Robin II, Jason Todd.

Following a run on the regular Green Arrow Series, Aparo moved into semiretirement, contributing an occasional special or cover and doing a few private commissions before he eventually decided to move into full retirement.

He is survived by his wife Julie, his 3 children, his 4 Grandchildren and two step-grandchildren.

The Aparo family has asked that in lieu of Flowers or gifts, anyone wishing to honor Jim's legacy make a contribution to any worthy charity, as Jim believed that all charities were worth donating to.

For those wishing to send along their condolences and best wishes to the family, a P.O. Box has been set up for the family to receive cards. The address is:
THE APARO FAMILY
P.O. BOX 28
NORWALK, CONNECTICUT 06852 - 0028

Thanks to all who have loved Jim's work and have supported his career.

Spencer R. Beck
THE ARTIST'S CHOICE
http://www.theartistschoice.com

That's a shame. I enjoyed his work a great deal.

Thanks for the heads up, BBayliss.

Same here, Bill. That's why I felt the need to post it. He was the first Batman artist that I can remember enjoying.

A big shame. I recently read his and Barr's Outsiders run and really liked it. :(

He had a very clean style, though his batman was clearly influenced by the Neal Adams interpretation...his art reminds me of another fave, Curt Swan--not the sort of thing that screams attention to itself or takes away from the story. Such things have their place, just as they do in film (I'm always aware when watching a Tarantino movie that I am, in fact, watching a Tarantino movie) but the kind of art done by Aparo seems to be increasingly rare. Too bad.

Jonathan (the other one) said:

"I mean, seriously, you were on the edge of the Gaslamp Quarter and you couldn't find sufficient dining and entertainment options? Are you sure you were looking in the right places?"

First of all, there is NO McDonald's or Burger King in Gaslamp Square. That is the only affordable dining for most con geeks. I don't like them, but their breakfasts don't cost $12 a person, as mine did at "Hob Nob Inn."

I know about Dick's Last Resort and Tin Fish, and I discovered Buco di Beppo this time, but those are high-class restaurants, unaffordable to normal people. And I had to buy meals for three people.

And inside the convention center? I was surprised by sandwiches that had what appeared to be real meat, for the first time in years. But the majority of kiosks were still Mrs. Field's Cookies or pretzels. Apparently the Mafia Concessioneers' Council were told to push flour and bread products.

As for entertainment, you know as well as I that the sidewalks roll up at 7 PM. There were no bars where Klingons, 501st Imperial Legionnaires and Shoju Cosplayers can sit and drink and cheer a hockey game at 2 AM in San Diego. You CAN do that at Dragon*Con in Atlanta.

This is not how I wanted to end the great day I was having. My girlfriend is asking why I'm crying-I hope I can explain it well enough so she understands. Good-Night Jim, Thanks for everything.

And inside the convention center? I was surprised by sandwiches that had what appeared to be real meat, for the first time in years.

Not to mention that the stuff inside the convention center was the most overpriced food you can find outside of a movie theatre.

As for entertainment, you know as well as I that the sidewalks roll up at 7 PM.

I wouldn't necessarily agree with that.

We were in the Gaslamp Quarter last Thursday night to catch a bus, and it was pretty busy with plenty of bars and stuff.

I hear you, Dave. Aparo was in the class of Swan, Kirby, and Dikto when it came to name recognition. Most artists were a nameless crowd for me with few distinctive styles I could recognize, but Jim actually gave his characters emotional expressions (I can still picture a drawing of Batman being scared/shocked and recalling my own shock that Batman could be scared).

May he rest in joy.

I went to the convention, meet Glen who is a really sweet man, and said I was going to contribute here when I had something to say...

Thomas, you said:

"First of all, there is NO McDonald's or Burger King in Gaslamp Square."

Maybe it wasn't IN Gaslamp Square (I'm not pretty sure of how far Gaslamp Square goes), but in Westfield Mall there was a Macdonalds, and just a block away from it, yet another. There was also the food court in Westfield, which seemed quite cheap to me, and about eight blocks away from the convention there was a Subway and one of those 1 dollar pizza slice places. Also, I was staying at a hostel in 5th and... I believe it was Market? Just a block away from Bocca di Beppo, and even at 11:00 pm the street sounded pretty lively.
Yes, the food inside was pretty expensive (Even more after you did the conversion to Pesos) but outside it was just a question to walk a little bit more.

I didn't mention this at the panel, but I've been using that word for like, 20 years or so. It's like a locust-- periodically it crops up to enchant a new generation.

Anyway, I'll take credit for ebayables.

There are bars aplenty in the Gaslamp - IIRC, the one closest to the convention center would be Moose McGillicuddy's, but I could be mistaken.

If you're going for food during the day, Horton Plaza has a sizeable food court. After that, there is a McDonald's outside Horton. For that matter, the Ralph's, about four blocks away from the convention center, has a 24-hour deli, with some darn good sandwiches, as well as being a fully-stocked grocery store (which, in CA, means you can buy booze there, too! :) ). The nearest BK is at 10th and B, which is more of a drive than a walk - don't know if any of the buses ran by there, but it's also near the trolley line (get off at the City College stop). There's also a Wendy's about half a mile away, on Broadway, and a Jack-In-the-Box at 11th and C (City College stop again). The Carl's Jr, Taco Bell, KFC, and Santana's are all a little further away (although driving to Santana's is recommended - killer food!).

See? All you really needed to do was ask if anybody here was from Insane Diego, and you get the hook-up! :)

BID. Just want to say, If that is 'THE' Heidi M.--I really enjoy your column in CBG.