PeterDavid.net

May 10, 1991

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I think I speak for Mets fans everywhere when I say, Christ, is it over yet?

PAD

In flipping through the actual text of the Hulk Encyclopedia, I have good news and bad news.

Good news is that,although he’s omitted from the index, Roy Thomas IS actually mentioned once. On page 32 it says, “If you’re looking for a Hulk comic that shows just how much can be done with the character, start with Incredible Hulk #47 from 1972. This classic story was written by Roy Thomas…”

Bad news is, anyone endeavoring to take that advice will be looking for a reeeeaal long time. There’s no such book as “Incredible Hulk #47.” “Incredible Hulk” continued its numbering for its second run from the canceled “Tales to Astonish,” so the first issue was #102.

Also, Harlan Ellison (likewise not in the index) is mentioned for his Jarella story. So that’s nice.

PAD

Shout outs to all the board regulars who showed up at the Madison Square Garden convention today and swung by to say Howdy.

I was only able to attend the convention for one day, considering I’m working on finishing up a “New Frontier” novel and the deadline is ticking down. Truthfully I shouldn’t even have gone the one day, but I’d promised, and I didn’t want to bow out unless absolutely necessary. Nevertheless, don’t expect to see much of me on line for the next couple of days as I blast through the rest of the book.

PAD

I picked up a copy of the Marvel Encyclopedia: The Incredible Hulk, which is the OFFICIAL (emphasis theirs) Marvel Guide to the Incredible Hulk that gives us “the people behind the Hulk, from Stan Lee and Jack Kirby to the writers and artists who have shaped the character throughout the years, this is the story of the creators behind the myth.”

Out of curiosity, I checked the index. I offer the following statistics without comment.

Number of pages Stan Lee is mentioned on: 24.

Jack Kirby: 14

Ang Lee: 11

Bruce Jones: 9

Dale Keown: 8

Herb Trimpe: 6

Axel Alonso: 5

Bill Jemas: 3

John Byrne: 2

Todd McFarlane: 1

Peter David: 1

Roy Thomas: 0

Sal Buscema: 0

Al Milgrom: 0

Bill Mantlo: 0

Len Wein: 0

Bob Harras: 0

Bobbie Chase: 0

PAD

…there’s a little less than two days to bid on the autographed New Frontier set over at LotAuctions.com, with proceeds going to benefit the CBLDF.

Now I hear you say, “But, Glenn, I can’t outbid that $200 plus for the full set!” Well, that’s the beauty of the LotAuctions format– you can pick and choose. Just bid on the hardcover of the first four books or books 5 & 6 or even single bids on books 9, 10, or 11 or any of the other items in the set. If the final bids for the individual items exceed the bids for the full set, the individual bids win.

For those who are interested, there is going to be at least one large collection of comics going on the auction block in the next few weeks (about 10,000 separate titles) and at least one store liquidation. So register now and get on the Future Watch, so you can see what items are coming up for auction soon. Heck, I’ll start going through Peter’s basement and see what other stuff he’s willing to inscribe for charity.

End of soft sell.

Read it (as have Kathleen and Ariel), liked it overall, had some problems with it.

Spoilers herewith abound in the attached. If you haven’t read the book and intend to, don’t read this thread. That way you’re warned and folks don’t all have to stop and put in the whole invisible line thing.

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Past couple of days, going to www.peterdavid.net has gotten you nowhere. I think we have it fixed now. However, in the future, should accessing the site via that route present a problem, try peterdavid.malibulist.com.

Also, when posting a response, you may get one of those brilliant “Error” messages. Don’t repost. Chances are your first message is actually going through and the system is just being idiotic again.

PAD

Ariel bowled quite respectably in the Pro-Am, shooting roughly twenty pins over her average in each game. She met a number of the women bowlers, all of whom were polite and supportive and helpful. Her favorite remains fellow New Yorker Michelle Feldman.

I was very proud of her.

And at one point, to my astonishment, a fellow says to me, “Are you Peter David? I blinked and said “Yeaaaah.” “I’m Joe Calamari,” he said. I was thunderstruck. To run into Marvel’s former top guy hanging in the pro shop of an alley hundreds of miles away. Turns out Joe’s wife is a bowler and bowling fan, so he accompanied her. Talk about an unexpected blast from the past.

PAD

May 3, 1991

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April 26, 1991

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Tomorrow morning Ariel and I will be heading down to Harrisburg, PA, where Ariel will be participating in the Professional Women’s Bowling Association Pro-Am Tournament. No, Ariel is not a pro, obviously, but for 11 years old she’s doing very well, currently carrying a 112 average and recently bowled a new high game of 160 in her Wednesday night league. So anyone who wants to come by and cheer her on Tuesday at 4:00 PM, swing on by the A.B.C. West Lanes at 6454 Carlisle Pike, Mechanicsburg, PA. For that matter, I’m told they still have openings for anyone who wants to participate.

PAD

Worried there might be too much stress in your life, but you’re not entirely sure?

Bob Greenberger referred me to the following website:

http://webpages.charter.net/hkirtley/stress/

It’s a nice, quick way to determine whether or not it’s time to relax.

PAD

In case anyone’s interested, you can go to this site: http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/living/6130051.htm

There’s an article in the Philadelphia Daily News about me.

All of a sudden, everyone and their brother wants to interview me.

PAD

People are congratulating me over the press release about TMNT #1 selling out.

Except I’m not happy about it. Once again, it’s the Santayana quote: “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

When I first started writing “Captain Marvel,” what did I hear from fans? “I can’t find it in my store!” “It’s sold out!” Fans seemed to think this was a good thing. Month after month this continued, and then Marvel suddenly announced that the book was in trouble.

Supergirl #75 sold out. Supergirl #76 sold out. “Great!” quoth the fans. “Cancelled!” quoth DC.

Does everybody get it yet? When retailers don’t support my books (because I’m not, y’know, the New Hot Thing), they don’t order enough. When they don’t order enough, the books sell out. When the books sell out and the early issues are unobtainable, people won’t buy the subsequent issues, which causes orders to drop even more.

When you see future sellout announcements on–for example–”Fallen Angel”…don’t say “Hurrah!” Don’t say “Congrats!” Say “Uh oh.”

PAD

That’s the Hulk, kids. Up on the screen, big as life. Starting at a slow jog across the desert, picking up speed until he’s moving like a locomotive, then one or two short jumps, faster and faster, and then he’s gone over the mountains in a two mile vault.

More below (and, in the interest of full disclosure, yes, I wrote the novelization, so if some of you think that connection would render me unable to make unbiased commentary, you’re free to do so.)

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In case anyone is wondering what in hell goes on with Newsarama lately–some stories can’t be read, and no response posts can be made–I asked Matt Brady about it and he said:

“We’re changing over to a better bulletin board system today, and will be moving to a new server tomorrow or the next day, but as of now, you can still read most of the articles on the front page – you just can’t post. The traffic just showed us where the weak spot was in regards to what our BB system could do, and the server we were on.”

So now you know.

PAD

Site master Glenn Hauman has started up a new auction site called LotAuctions.com. It’s a rather unique site, from my understanding, in that if you have a group of objects to sell, you can list them as both individual properties and as a single lot, and the bidding determines which way it will go. So for instance, if you have a four-issue comic series, and issue #3 was written by Stephen King, people can either bid on the entire set or for the single issue by King. Also the site is constructed in such a way that “sniping” (someone jumping in during the last ten seconds or so of an auction and snatching it away without you having a chance to counterbid) isn’t possible.

To help kick things off, there’s a set of my “New Frontier” novels, proceeds from which will go to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. These will not only be signed, but I’ll personalize them to the winning bidder if he or she so desires.

So check it out.

PAD

UPDATE FROM GLENN: There’s a problem with accepting bids, and we’re working on fixing it. As soon as it’s resolved, we’ll let you know– but you can still register in the meantime and be ready to go when we are. We’ll also be extending the bidding time on Peter’s auctions to compensate.

SON OF UPDATE: All better now. Thanks for bearing with us. We’ve extended the auctions to compensate. Don’t forget, if the bidding gets to high for the set of my “New Frontier” novels, you can bid on just one of the items in the set.

RETURN OF UPDATE: Okay, new problems. Grumblegrumble…

For this week only, we decided to change the background color to green, for the obvious reason.

I’m slated to go to an advance screening of “Hulk” tomorrow. Check this site late tomorrow for my thoughts.

PAD

Well, I’ve read Marvel’s response to the Waid situation (which appears on Newsarama and is also posted way down in the thread just before this one.) What’s truly odd is that I read Mark’s comments, and Joe’s response, and not only are they NOT mutually exclusive, but they actually dovetail.

Joe states that Mark is “mixed up.” That “Honey I Shrunk the FF” was merely a proposed direction from a month ago, and is not the way they’re taking the book. That fans are getting upset over something that’s moot. Okay, I accept that. It happened with “Captain Marvel,” when word leaked of a “Return of Mar-Vell” storyline that we’d already discussed and dumped weeks earlier.

But Joe doesn’t deny that’s the direction Mark was told the series should go a few weeks back. And Mark never says that was the direction the book is now going. All he says it, in regards to his firing, “It would seem the decision to replace me was made the moment I failed to get with the program.” That’s not the same as saying it’s definitely the direction the book is going, although it’s certainly not an outrageous inference for fans to draw.

Joe also said that Bill Jemas is not going to be writing the book, whereas Mark had said he heard Bill would. Once again, evidence of confusion on Mark’s part…except, once again, not an absolute contradiction. Joe didn’t say that Bill was NEVER going to write the book. That there had been no plans for him to write it. Merely that he’s not going to do so now. Yes, it’s possible Mark was misinformed. On the other hand, it’s also possible, based on the phrasing, that Bill was planning to but backed off rather than take the PR hit…either on his own initiative, or at the strong suggestion of someone else.

What I did derive a chuckle from was: “Furthermore, this isn’t a cost saving measure nor is it some flight of fancy. This is a change in direction for a Marvel title requested by the man who schemed the Ultimate Universe, had the guts to tell Origin and turned Marvel’s publishing business around in less than two years. But hey, what does he know.”

Boy, does THAT not logically track. Trotting out Bill Jemas’ business decisions and implying it lends cred to Bill’s writing skills or creative instincts is like saying that because Flipper swims so well, you like his chances running the Kentucky Derby.

PAD