PeterDavid.net

If you’re within commuting distance, or any distance, of Manhattan, and you do not attend the annual New York is Book Country fair, then you should be making every endeavor to do so in the future. Yesterday’s was predictably crowded, but also just as predictably chock-a-block with all manner of interesting things to see and folks to talk with. It’s the only event where I actively seek autographs. At the NBM table we encountered Peter Krupp and Bill Plympton. Heading in the media celebrity direction, we got children’s books signed by Julie Andrews and John Lithgow. Also ran into the board moderator and one of the denizens of the “Peter David Speaks” folder from AOL, although we got permanently separated when Kath and I went over to say hi to Frank Miller at the DC booth. No Marvel booth, which was a shame. Not a *surprise*, mind you, but a shame.

PAD

Okay, last night’s FIREFLY was a bit more like it. More engaging than last week’s episode (ironic considering that one was by Joss Whedon whereas last night’s was Tim Minear), we’re starting to get more of a feeling of the universe they’re living in. None of the characters are really singing to me yet, with the exception of Kaylee (but only because of the actress and also she reminds me of Willow) and the prostitute–and I have to admit, it totally fractures me that she’s the one who is treated with the most respect wherever the crew goes. Then again, I have to admit I side with George Carlin who questions the illegality of the world’s oldest profession: “Selling is legal. Sex is legal. How can selling sex be illegal?” Personally, I have trouble with the notion of being pro-choice and anti-prostitution. How can you say that a woman doesn’t have a right to sell her body if she’s so inclined…but that she does have the right to expunge an unwanted embryo from it?

I also think it’s bold not to have aliens anywhere in the series, particularly considering alien characters always come across as far more interesting than the humans…and considering most of the humans we’ve seen thus far still come across as pretty flat, that would make the deficiencies all the more apparent. People still seem to be drawing parallels between the loopy sister and Drusilla, but I don’t know that that’s fair. Individuals with visions who are thought to be nuts goes all the way back to Cassandra, so what’s wrong with re-exploring the same source material? And her fascination with the stars was one of the show’s more engaging moments.

Now let’s just hope the ratings support the show. JOHN DOE, by the way, is turning out to be some truly riveting TV. In fact, Friday’s become a cool TV night when you have FIREFLY at 8, JOHN DOE at 9, and then MONK at 10 on the USA channel.

PAD

The other night I attended Ariel’s “Meet the Teachers” night–or, as we call it, Run Around the School Night, because you go from class to class in imitation of your kid’s schedule…except you spend about eight minutes per class as the teacher tries to cram in a description of the entire year’s curriculum.

The English class did not bode well, though. There was a big sign at the front of the class encouraging “INDEPENDANT THOUGHT.” Nothing like seeing a word spelled incorrectly in 30 point type at the front of an English class. The best, though, was the student essay up on the wall in the back in which the 6th grade student wrote how he was choking on some food until his older brother intervened. He wrote, “First my brother punched me in the stomach, and then he gave me the Hemlock maneuver.” Ah yes, the Hemlock maneuver. The good news is, there’s a 100% success rate in stopping choking. The bad news is…

PAD

It occurred to me that if they ever ran plays as double-bills, the way they used to do with movies, they should do a double feature of “The Vagina Monologues” and “Puppetry of the Penis.”

It then further occurred to me that, with genitalia pretty much covered (or uncovered) in the theatrical world, other organs should get equal time. Herewith a list of possible future plays:

“Venting My Spleen”

“Liver Spots”

“Brain Farts”

“A Detailed Appendix”

“Tongue Lashing”

“By the Short Hairs”

“Bowel Movements”

“My God, What an Asshole” (alternate

“Prostate of the Union”

“Throat Cultures”

“Butt Munching”

“Elbow Grease” (that would be the 50s rock version)

Other suggestions are welcome, frighteningly enough.

PAD

Okay, so here’s my overall prediction for the year’s arc. I do this every year, and I have yet to be right.

As I mentioned yesterday, I think Buffy is squaring off against the First. We would know for sure if those robed guys at the beginning had no eyes. It is my further belief that the First was responsible for the creation of the Hellmouth. What I think is that the First is going to be endeavor to open more Hellmouths throughout the world. And that in the final confrontation, Buffy will manage to not only seal the Hellmouth beneath Sunnydale, but get rid of it entirely so that Sunnydale will effectively be a normal town and Buffy and Dawn can lead a normal life.

That’s just my opinion, I could be wrong.

PAD

How could I have been so dense.

I bet Buffy’s dealing with the First. The primary evil that lurked around below Sunnydale, had an assortment of eyeless priests working for it, and drove Angel nuts back in “Amends” by shifting into the forms of various people he’d killed, including Jenny Calendar. After introducing the concept of the First back in season #3, we haven’t heard boo about it since then.

So either Whedon is repeating himself by having a Big Bad with the exact same MO…or it’s the same evil entity that’s been laying low since shortly before the destruction of the school.

We’ll see.

PAD

Buffy may have missed out on being Homecoming queen years ago, but that pales in comparison to the welcome homecoming of the new season. With as much lack of subtlety as we saw the miseries of adulthood hammered home upon our heroes (so much so that they forgot to *be* heroes most of the time), so too was there no subtlety in letting the fans known that all is well (i.e., evil) in Sunnydale once again. Except in the latter case it could not have been more welcome.

The instant I heard there was a new principal, I thought, “Bet he’s black.” There hasn’t been an ongoing black character since Mr. Trick, and he was only in the first half of season 3. But that was the only truly predictable aspect of the episode. Spike’s return couldn’t have been more perfectly timed, all manner of plot threads were put into place, and I feel truly sorry for anyone who is a newcomer because they couldn’t begin to appreciate the cameo heaven of the last two minutes. Even the charming comic book injoke of Willow’s witch teacher being “Miss Harkness” (an impossible-to-ignore reference to Marvel’s witch in residence, Agatha Harkness) showed that Whedon’s sensibilities were firmly back in place.

Welcome home, Buffy and Co. We missed you last year. Glad you’re back.

PAD

As a number of people pointed out, yesterday was my birthday.

I don’t make a big deal of it. Actually, I generally do my best to ignore it. All I do is reflect on people who should be celebrating birthdays, but aren’t around to do so, and then I wonder why I’m here and they’re gone, and then I just get even more depressed. On the up side, there’s cake at the end of the day to drown the depression in, so I suppose it always works out.

PAD

Kathleen and I made our annual sojourn to the Broadway Flea Market, held every year in Schubert Alley. The event only seems to get more and more crowded every year, but all the money goes for charity and so it’s a good cause. A whole buncha actors were there signing autographs (with the customary long line) while cast members of various shows sold everything from props to old books. Lots more folks selling food this year, I noticed; mostly home baked stuff.

Next Sunday I’ll be back in Manhattan attending New York is Book Country, the annual Fifth Avenue event celebrating publishing in NY. Last year’s was cancelled due to 9/11, so it’ll be nice to see this tradition back in place. Perhaps I’ll see some of you there.

PAD

I wanted to like FIREFLY. You’ve no IDEA how much I wanted to like FIREFLY, if for no other reason than it features Jewel Staite from mine and Bill Mumy’s SPACE CASES.

Here’s the thing: Joss Whedon has made his name and reputation on programs that take cliches and invert them, stand them on their collective ears. The cute helpless blonde who is first to be screaming victim of the monster? She’s the heroine who kicks their butts. The vampiric creature who goes bump in the night? He’s the hero, helping the helpless (okay, between everything from St. Germain to “Forever Night,” that one isn’t so original, but still…)

FIREFLY doesn’t transcend cliches or invert them. It embraces them. It adores them. Oh, there’s touches here and there, flashes of the Whedon pull-the-rug-out-from-under-expectations. But the overall world in which they exist does very little to indicate original thought.

Me, I’m going to stick with it, partly because of Jewel, and partly because Whedon’s earned that through years of getting it so right on his two other series. But most viewers don’t have a personal attachment to one of the actresses, and furthermore, Friday evening can be a serious killer of genre shows unless they come out of the box fast. And the hard truth is that if it didn’t have Jewel and it wasn’t by Whedon, I’d don’t know that I’d ever tune in the series again.

PAD

A few more fixes around and about the site. We direct your attention to the sidebar, where you will note the recent addition of Peter’s biography, a pointer to Spacecasestv.com (where spacecases.com moved after the domain got lost– don’t ask, please) and weblogs by Elayne Riggs (wife of Supergirl inker Robin– I know, I know, you all thought Robin was female and was going out with Joe Duffy) and your humble poster. (If you read my blog, I won’t feel the urge to interject over here. So much.

And, yes, now that the site is– no, won’t say anything lest the evil eye return– we’ll be back to posting more BIDs shortly.

A few more fixes around and about the site. We direct your attention to the sidebar, where you will note the recent addition of Peter’s biography, a pointer to Spacecasestv.com (where spacecases.com moved after the domain got lost– don’t ask, please) and weblogs by Elayne Riggs (wife of Supergirl inker Robin– I know, I know, you all thought Robin was female and was going out with Joe Duffy) and your humble poster. (If you read my blog, I won’t feel the urge to interject over here. So much.

And, yes, now that the site is– no, won’t say anything lest the evil eye return– we’ll be back to posting more BIDs shortly.

There was a period at the beginning there when there was a new editor on SUPERGIRL every other issue. When Mike McAvennie settled in, I kept expecting him to disappear within a month or so. Happily, I was wrong; unhappily, not forever.

I was extremely unhappy to learn of Mike’s departure from DC Comics yesterday. When I was first looking at Leonard Kirk’s pencils and saying, “Gee, I’m not sure,” Mike was the one saying, “Trust me, he’ll work out great,” and he was absolutely right. He was always watching out for the good of the book.

People are asking me what this bodes for SUPERGIRL. I couldn’t say. I am reasonably sure that sales are not what I’d hoped for with the new storyline and the “return of Kara.” I’m seeing lots of fans who state they never read the book or dropped it now saying they fully intend to start buying it with #75. Unfortunately my guess is that they haven’t bothered to tell their retailers, who in turn aren’t bothering to increase their orders. If every single retailer had increased his order by one copy–one–that’d be a rise of several thousand right there. Hasn’t happened so far. Funny that retailers and fans complain about the CAPTAIN MARVEL circus, with the air of publicity stunts and the multiple covers. But sales tripled. Tripled. SUPERGIRL was simply publicized with a much-asked-for storyline and terrific Ed Benes art. Emphasis on substance over style. Best guess? Haven’t even cracked the top 100 yet.

I’m asked what sort of message DC is sending by firing Mike McAvennie. Answer: Not a good one. Now here’s my question: What sort of message is being sent to DC when an editor launches a popular storyline with great art and the book still can’t get the time of day?

PAD

…and the reviews are beginning to come in for Captain Marvel. Peter is either too modest to link to the reviews, or he still fears the attempt will cause the website to explode again, so it falls to me. Look here and here. If you have any others, post them in the comments section and we’ll move them up front.

Meanwhile, some people are declaring victory. Forgive me for having my doubts…

UPDATE: More reviews here and here. Domo arigato, Markisan.

And anybody else who’s got a review and looking for some cheap link traffic, place their review in the comments section.

The signing went well at Jim Hanley’s Universe yesterday, I thought, although I was slightly saddened that Jim himself wasn’t actually there (Max Allan Collins, he turns out for. Me, no.) But it gave me the opportunity to meet and greet ChrisCross, Soto, Tom and Mark. I did get there late, though. Get this: Took me a little over an hour to drive in from Long Island, and then HALF AN HOUR to drive from the Queens Midtown Tunnel (35th and 2nd) to Hanley’s at 33rd between 5th and 6th…including a solid ten minutes to go 3/4 of a block on 33rd Street. I was going out of my mind.

It’s impossible to judge fairly how sales of CAPTAIN MARVEL were going since, naturally, the entire creative team was there. I will say, however, that according to store staff, sales of MARVILLE were going veeeeeery slowly. Funny thing is, the other two titles really have it pretty easy. Since I was the one going out there in the first place saying I thought the storyline in CM was so fabulous that everyone had to read it, I always figured I was the one with the most to lose if the writing wasn’t up to snuff. Expectations were high because of what I’d said, and because of my track record. Judging by comments on various boards, expectations were far less for the other two titles. It’s kind of like the Gore/Bush debates. Everyone expected so much of the intellectual, debate-savvy Gore, that all Bush had to do was show up sober, not bump into the furniture, and not attack a woman in the front row, and people would be impressed. Same thing here. My perception is that CM really has to be good to live up to what people expect. All MARVILLE and ULTIMATE has to do is not suck.

PAD

No, it’s not grooming tips (yeah, like I’d be the one to come up with those.) I forgot to mention that I’ll be appearing today at Jim Hanley’s Universe in Manhattan, 4 W. 33rd Street, from 4 to 7 PM for a “Captain Marvel” releated signing. Then let’s all clock with a stopwatch how long it takes signed copies of CM to show up on ebay.

Also, for those within range of Stony Brook University, I’ll be appearing on the radio show “Destinies” this Friday at 11:30 PM. “Destinies” airs on WUSB, 90.1 FM, Stony Brook, NY, and can be heard via RealAudio through links at the WUSB website. After September 24 or 25, the program will be rebroadcast online in rotation at Cosmic Landscapes.

PAD

UN weapons inspector Hans Blix. I love that name. I keep expecting he has two associates named “Sptzl” and “Glah.”

You know, that’s a thought. Send Sugar and Spike into Iraq as weapons inspectors. By the time they’re through, Saddam will be begging us to bomb him.

PAD

I’m always fascinated by the people who continue to rant and rave that my take on THE HULK was somehow dead wrong or “not the Hulk.” The one constant of any long-running comic book character is change, from variations in tone and style (Batman, Superman) to variations in costume and even identity. Why my run on the Hulk is singled out by some as being “not the Hulk” mystifies me, considering the number of personality and strength variations he went through in his first six issues alone.

These critics generally tend to single out what I called “the merged Hulk”….the period dubbed “the professor” by Paul Jenkins, a title I don’t hold with considering that it focuses merely on the scholarly aspects of the character at the time without taking into account that he was, in essence, a big bully. People who claim that the Hulk is supposed to be about the conflict between Banner and his savage aspect miss the point that the merged Hulk *was* about that very thing: It was simply internalized instead of externalized. But it was still very much there. My model for the Hulk at that point became Val Kilmer’s character from “Real Genius” except gone bad: A brilliant MIT student who was positive that he was better than everyone else in the world and could do whatever he wanted. Which is just a high-falutin’ way of saying, “Hulk is strongest one there is.” People who thought I did the storyline just so I could have him be clever and witty and big and green, frankly, just didn’t get it.

There are those who claim that the Hulk should be about nothing except Hulk smashing this and that and some other damned thing. Fans who believe that this would be a good thing are blind to the reality of the marketplace, which is that readers get bored. Fast. At $2.25 and up per book, fans are looking for reasons to drop titles more than they are to pick them up. Anyone fan who states that, if he were writing the title, it would be 22 pages of “Hulk smash” every month has doomed the book to declining sales and themselves to unemployment. The key to keeping a title going long-term is dancing as fast as one can. I applaud Bruce Jones’ success on the book; let’s see how he’s doing on it in ten years.

The funniest notion is those folks who believe the Hulk was my mouthpiece for my political views. It doesn’t get dumber than that. The Hulk headed up the Pantheon, an organization dedicated to the notion that they should be able to go wherever they want, whenever they want, and right whatever wrongs they saw fit regardless of national boundaries, treaties, or the desires of respective governments. In short…he was George W. Bush. Does *anyone* think I’m George W. Bush?

PAD

Just came back from a weekend spent down in Pennsylvania, celebrating my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary. For the first time in a while, all of us were in one place (with the exception of Shana and Gwen, up living in Boston and weren’t able to make it down…and by the way, Gwen is looking for a job. She’s particularly skilled at baking, if anyone knows of anything.)

My folks got a small room at a local place called the William Penn Inn, a restaurant so fancy that there was a harpist outside the room. I’m sure we drove him nuts because my father and I kept singing along anytime he played show tunes.

My pregnant sister and my pregnant wife have an established greeting wherein, instead of shaking hands, they bump bellies.

Ah well. Off to atone. Hope God doesn’t strike me down for entering my BLOG on Yom Kippur. That would kind of suck.

PAD

First of all, webmaster Glenn Hauman should be adjusting the BLOG response entries so that you can read the responses in order from the top down rather than bottom up. That seems to be the preferred method.

Second, I’m amused by the fans who are trying to figure out the identity of the Snake Girl who shows up in the final pages of YJ #49. There’s been all sorts of guesses as to who she is and some fans can swear they’ve seen her before.

Why is she so unfamiliar? Simple.

Her first appearance is in YJ #49. She’s never been seen before.

I was told to put in a snake-girl character because apparently a young lady won some sort of create-a-character contest that DC was holding, and YJ is the book she’s supposed to show up in. It was news to me, but hey, I just work here. So I made her Serpenteen’s girlfriend since that seemed a natural way to go with it. We learn a bit more about her next issue when she swallows Wonder Girl. Really. I’m not kidding.

PAD