PeterDavid.net

Nov. 16, 1990

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Okay, fine. We’ve been asked to do it, and we’ll do it.

Announcing the official “Little David Baby Pool,” in which entrants are challenged to guess specifics about the future offspring of Peter and Kathleen David.

Just so everyone is starting off on even footing: The original sonograms at 8 and 20 weeks projected a due date of December 18. A sonogram taken yesterday puts it at December 9. Early sonos are usually more accurate than later; however, the OB/GYN has stated that the baby could come at any time. Meantime, conventional wisdom states that first pregnancies are frequently late. None of the sonos were forthcoming about gender because the baby remained firmly in the fetal position…although, really, you can’t hold it against the kid because, y’know, if you can’t be in the fetal position while you’re a fetus, when CAN you be?

Entries are judged on the following criteria, in this order by process of elimination:

1) Gender.

2) Date of Birth

3) Weight

4) Time of Birth

I based the order on the most asked questions we get (“Do you know the gender? When’s it due?”) So in other words, get the gender correct and you move on to the next level of judgment. Get the date right but the gender wrong and you’re SOL. The person who gets gender and DOB correct wins. If more than one person gets gender and DOB right, we move on to tie-breakers such as weight and time of birth. That way we dont’ have to referee if multiple people guess the same gender and DOB, because the other criteria will certainly determine a winner.

What’s the winner get? His or her choice of either signed editions of all three cover variants of CAPTAIN MARVEL #1, or a signed copy of “SIR APROPOS OF NOTHING” (ppbk) and the sequel, “THE WOAD TO WUIN” (hc).

All entries should be right here at this thread at www.peterdavid.net. That way everything’s open and above board. E-mail submissions directly to my AOL account will not be counted.

PAD

Diamond’s numbers for December of 2002 have been released. The rankings in the U-Decide are, frankly, kind of embarrassing.

I may be off a rank number or two ’cause I don’t have them in front of me, but it was something like CAPTAIN MARVEL coming in at #58, ULTIMATE ADVENTURES at #78, and MARVILLE at…oy…#113. (Update, just double-checked: UA is at #71.)

PAD

As relieved as I obviously am that the Macy’s parade went unmolested (could you imagine shooting the Charlie Brown balloon? You can hear him muttering “rats” as he deflates) one has to be dismayed by the new attacks on Israeli interests which–by startling coincidence–coincide with the primary elections that will determine whether Israel continues with the hardline tactics of Sharon or toes a more moderate line.

There is a growing desire by Israeli citizens–weary of being blown up wherever they go–to come to some sort of accord with the Palestinians. Feeling that the hawkish Sharon isn’t the one to achieve it, they are seriously eyeing candidates who favor such concepts as clearing out of the Gaza strip.

The problem is that some Arab factions wouldn’t want that to happen, because they’re not interested in a Palestinian state. They’re interested in killing all the Jews. One is staggered at the difference in extremist philosophies. The extremiest Israeli philosophy is, “No compromise because it threatens Israeli security.” The extremist Arab philosophy is, “No compromise because we want all the Israelis dead.” The latter fuels the former, and around we go.

So if major strikes convince more moderate Israelis that peace is hopeless, Sharon stays put, which helps the Arab extremists who are benefited by the world seeing Israel as unwilling to bargain.

The question is, who’s trying to manipulate the election? Palestinians? I’m not sure, but…I’m thinking no. I’m thinking bin Laden’s people, passing themselves off as a never-before-heard-from Palestinian militant organization, out to keep destabilized a region that is essential to the United States both for obtaining oil and for allies required for the suddenly vital war against Saddam.

PAD

Wil Wheaton talks on his website about doing the voice of Aqualad, in an episode written by Titans creator Marv Wolfman. Marv talks about the experience here, along with a photo of the cast.

This is for all those people who read Peter’s post on the Teen Titans here and wondered about whether Marv was involved in the series, and not a transparent ploy to get Wil’s readers to come over here. Nope.

Nailed it.

Didn’t I say it? Back at the premiere? I said, “the First Evil,” and lo and behold. Who’s your daddy? Say it. Who’s your daddy? (Except my kids don’t have to say it because, y’know, they know that already.)

Show’s coming together. Seems to be more spark in the performances. Willow’s arch dressing down of Andrew followed by the “Okay?” was perfect. Spike seemed more dangerous than he has in two seasons. Xander’s useful explanation of what happens to sleeper agents (“Either they blow their heads off or they escape in a nuclear submarine”) was priceless. Was wildly pissed off to see Tony Head’s name missing in the “guest starring,” so we figured (correctly) that we were going to be kept hanging until freakin’ January (God, for the days when they’d just run the shows through the season from beginning to end.)

And hey, let’s consider the following: A primal force of Biblical level evil uses catspaws to play ruthless and evil mindgames before opening a dimensional gate to unleash the first vampire. Last night’s episode? Apparently. But also SUPERGIRL issues #68-#74, except it was Lilith instead of the First and the Carnivore–the first vampire–as opposed to butt-ugly who crawled up from below. For that matter, the Carnivore also did the mind-messing stuff as far back as SUPERGIRL #48. I’ll be curious to see whether the fans who consistently claim that I rip off Joss Whedon will take note of the fact that I was first out of the box this go-around. Then again, they’re the same ones who claim that Buzz was a rip-off of Spike even though Buzz (and his romantic obsession for the blonde heroine) predated Spike.

By the way, SUPERGIRL #76 is also sold out from the publisher. Two in a row. I knew the demand would be there. Unfortunately, the retailers didn’t. Missed sales, missed opportunities. Kind of a Pyrrhic victory there.

PAD

Well, the saga of Gwen is apparently being eagerly followed over on “All the Rage,” and we wouldn’t want to leave them (or you) hanging. So here it is:

Gwen will be working Saturdays, 11 to 5, at the New England Comics Allston Store. She actually worked in one of the other stores yesterday. When one customer bought “Supergirl,” she gave him a big thumbs up and said, “You should always buy this comic.” He looked at her in utter bewilderment and said, “Yeaaah, it’s, uh, pretty good,” and then beat feet out of there hastily.

So swing on by Saturdays and say hi.

PAD

The next NEW FRONTIER novel will be finished within the week and shipped off to Pocket Books. Working title is “THE GOD CHILDREN.” Pub date isn’t set, although obviously it will be in 2003, and quite possibly before the next Harry Potter novel. This will be followed by another NEW FRONTIER hardcover, which will feature–among other things–a look back at Calhoun’s Academy days.

PAD

Just came back from rolling in the PBA Pro/Am tournament at the Syosset Lanes in Long Island. As one might surmise, I was an Am.

I’d been incredibly afraid to enter the tournament, especially because I’ve been in a real slump lately. Then again, being incredibly afraid of doing something is often a good reason to go and do it (provided you can’t get yourself killed in the process.) So short of someone beaning me with an Ebonite, I figured it was safe enough.

Extremely glad I did. I had a great time bowling alongside the pros, who were all really nice, and I actually did reasonably well. Granted, it was no-tap, meaning that taking down nine pins with the first ball counts as a strike, so there was that cushion. But I was converting my multi-pin spares, and had Kathleen and Ariel cheering me on besides. My scores were 183, 191 and 208, which wasn’t bad, especially since I’ve been struggling as of late, plus I was nervous. I doubt I’ll win any prize money (the Pro/Am runs through Wednesday), but my goal was to go out there and not suck, and I accomplished that much, at least.

Plus we had a brilliant back-up plan. If I was doing lousy, Kathleen would spill water on her lap, jump up and shout, “Honey! My water broke!” And I’d quickly apologize for having to depart, but hey, gotta get the wife to the hospital, and off we’d go. Fortunately we didn’t have to go that route.

We’ll be back at Syosset next Sunday when they broadcast the Pro/Am live at 1:00 PM
EST on ESPN. So if you tune in to ESPN then, you might see us. I’ll be the one wearing the SPIDER-MAN soccer shirt.

PAD

Due to Kathleen’s impending delivery date, we knew if we wanted to see the revival of “Man of La Mancha” on Broadway, we’d need to go sooner rather than later. So it was that we were there in the first performance of the first premiere.

Well, it’s certainly in a *lot* better shape than the other premiere we recently saw (“Dance of the Vampires.”) But hell, look at the material. And this time out, they didn’t screw with it the way they did at the Goodspeed Opera House a year or two ago–cutting songs (“What Does He Want of Me?”, “The Gypsy Dance”), or deciding to have Quixote speaking in a Castillian accent (transforming “Dulcinea” into “Dulthinea,” giving it a distinctly Daffy Duck sound.)

Solid to excellent casting. Brian Stokes Mitchell as Quixote doesn’t quite capture the air of madness in the old man, and he motors through Cervante’s pivitol speech about having seen life without milking the world-weariness and pain Cervantes has experienced, but you can’t argue with the man’s pipes. His “Impossible Dream” becomes a showstopper. Ernie Sabella wrings every last laugh out of Sancho (although Ariel looked up at me loyally at the end of the show and said, “You were a better Sancho, daddy.”) Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio has a far more comprehensive theatrical track record than I’d realized, and I think she has the potential to be one of the great Aldonzas. She not quite there yet, though. She conveys some nice sneering contempt every now and then, but the broken spirit and burning bitterness of the tavern slut isn’t fully in evidence. And you really need that to make her transformation at the end more striking. On the upside, she’s a lot better than Sheena Easton or (oy) Sophia Loren.

And hey, comics fans. The production was directed by Jonathan Kent.

PAD

Nov. 9, 1990

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Nov. 2, 1990

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It occurs to me we should have a centralized place to solicit comments when something of mine comes out. So on Fridays when a comic of mine comes out, we’ll do a “NU? WHAD’JA THINK?”

Curiously, a line of dialogue was dropped out on story page 10. The exchange, between Superboy and Mxy, is supposed to go like this:

SUPERBOY: Me and my buds, Young Justice, ran into a teen version of you. Why, we helped make you the, uh, man you are today.

(Mxy looks stunned.)

MXY: That was…you?

SUPER: Yeah!

MXY: That was you guys?!?

SUPER: That’s right! You remember?!

(And a giant robotic booted foot slams down on Superboy, wiping him out of the frame.)

Sfx: WOOOOM

(Angle on the foot, slamming down into the pavement.)

Sfx: THOOOM

(Worm’s eye view of the robot, about thirty stories tall, lifting its foot in the act of walking, and we see Superboy smeared on the bottom of the robot’s foot. Mxy is thoughtfully scratching his chin.

MXY: Can’t say as I do.

For some reason, the “That’s right! You remember?” line vanished. So Mxy’s “Can’t say as I do” reads very oddly.

Also, without desiring to give major storypoints away, I feel the need to respond to initial confusion from readers. The Superman who appears in the story and talks to Kara is *not* the real Superman. He is an actor whom Mxy endows with Superman’s powers. So all of his dialogue and advice to Kara is through the prism of a guy who has actor friends who have dealt with overzealous fans. Unfortunately, although this was made abundantly clear in the text, apparently a coloring error (the fake Superman from the current Man of Steel, which this ties in with, has red hair; the one in SUPERGIRL does not) prompted some readers to think that this was simply Superman being insensitive.

The Kara storyline is a tricky one. The problem is that Kara’s first instinct is to find Superman. If she finds him first crack out of the box, he’s immediately going to take charge of the situation, and I’m no longer writing a SUPERGIRL story. I’m writing a SUPERMAN story where Linda Danvers is a supporting character at best. The fake Superman who was going to be in MOS provided the perfect answer. Unfortunately, the colorist apparently didn’t know to make his hair red, and bam. Instead of the perfect answer, we have confused readers.

The joys of comic books.

So whad’ja think?

PAD

From Marvel’s February Solicitations:

MARVILLE #6: Written by Bill Jemas, art by M.D. Bright and Paul Neary, covers by Greg Horn and Bright.

Bill Jemas reveals his plan to give out $100,000 of Marvel’s money to Marville readers. 32 pages, $2.25.

Wow. By my calculations, the average Marville reader stands to make about five grand on this.

Boy, I really wish that “The Daily Show” or “SNL Weekend Update” took outside submissions. ‘Cause I’d love to send them this notion that occurred to me:

German officials stated they would not be filing child endangerment charges against singer Michael Jackson for his dangling his infant son over a five story balcony. However, German legal experts admitted that arrest and prosecution would have been far more likely if Jackson had been a black man.

PAD

Does anyone out there read “Get Fuzzy,” the hilarious comic strip that has–until now–told of Satchel and Rob, a dog and his owner respectively, who are routinely terrorized by Bucky, the resident cat?

If so, regular readers must be wetting themselves over the current sequence that has Bucky pushing the usually submissive Satchel too far. After insulting Satchel’s friends, calling them “Eurotrash,” Satchel terrorizes the utterly stunned Bucky.

Great stuff.

PAD

SUPERGIRL #75 is sold out from the publisher.

I very much doubt they’ll go back to press with it. And since retailers showed impressive faith in the “Return of Kara” storyline by actually *cutting* their initial orders by 2000 copies for #76 (leading me to further doubt it will ever be collected as a TPB), I suggest you get your copy early if you’re so inclined.

Glenn also has the black and white copy of the cover of #79, which he should be posting up here soon (if he hasn’t already). [All right, all right-- it was left in the car, which was left at the mechanic's after I fixed your computer. Don't ask. It's up now. --GH] Based on the cover art, it should sell the best of all of them…while, if the ordering pattern continues, will have the lowest numbers. Anyone interested in actually being able to read this series might be advised to let their retailer know now.

PAD

Well, this is gratifying. The paperback edition of SIR APROPOS OF NOTHING is on the Locus Bestseller list for a second month in a row. And the sequel, THE WOAD TO WUIN made the runner-up on the hardcover list.

Not bad for a book (and its sequel) that was dismissed by most every publisher in the SF world.

PAD

Rumors around the internet are true: Harlan Ellison was in a serious auto accident. However, he called me today to assure me that he and Susan are just fine. Achy from whiplash, but fine. The accident occurred at an intersection while he was on his way to a speaking engagement attended by, he estimates, ten thousand would-be writers. He and Susan made it to the talk, somewhat the worse for wear, but his car was totaled.

Anyone have a nice car in good shape they don’t want anymore that they want to give to Harlan Ellison?

PAD

This off the AOL news ticker as it discusses the “increased chatter” that has the FBI at high alert, worried about an imminent terrorist attack…

‘Sources suggest al-Qaida may favor spectacular attacks that meet several criteria: high symbolic value, mass casualties, severe damage to the U.S. economy and maximum psychological trauma,” says the alert, which was posted on the FBI’s Web site early Friday.’

I keep thinking about this, and keep coming back to the same unpleasant notion:

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is in less than two weeks.

Thanksgiving. Celebration related to this country’s founding. Sponsored by the largest department store in the world. Televised. Thousands and thousands of people. Big balloons. Big floats with celebrities. Big targets. Hundreds upon hundreds of overlooking windows from which gunmen can be positioned, turning the concrete canyons into a shooting gallery. Hell, the moment the packed-in crowds panic, the stampede alone will kill and injure hundreds.

They’d never hold another Macy’s parade. For that matter, every major parade in America would likely be canceled because security is impossible to provide. Would YOU march in one?

No one start yelling at me that I’m giving them ideas. If they could think of flying airplanes into the WTC, they can think of this all by themselves. If they’re going to do it, it’s already in the works.

I hope I’m wrong. I was wrong about the shooter in Maryland. I might be wrong about this as well.

But if you’re going…watch your back.

PAD