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Yes, that’s Jennifer Grey and me at the “Disney Epic Mickey” launch. She is not seated in the corner. Just sayin’.

In case you’re wondering, I’m holding up a print-out of my blog entry from September 12 in which I asserted that she was the main story for DWtS and was being largely ignored by the media. She particularly liked being referred to as “Jennifer Freakin’ Grey.”

We also had a lengthy conversation about spinal surgery, since she’s going in for the exact same procedure I had. I felt kind of badly, because the Disney store employees kept trying to shoo me along since they (justifiably) felt I was monopolizing her time, while Grey kept asking me about pain management and recovery time. Meanwhile Caroline was spending time running around with Grey’s daughter, looking at the array of princess stuff, while Kathleen chatted with Grey’s husband about his wife’s time on DWtS, and later with Kyle Massey, sharing notes about where they respectively grew up in Atlanta.

The launch itself was a blast, with game creator Warren Spector being deluged by press and fans alike while the much-anticipated game was set up at the far end of the store. I tried my luck with it. After a few misfires, and realizing that I needed to switch the targeting remote to my dominant hand, I made my way through the Clock Tower sequence that was the main demo, so I felt pretty good about that. Heads-up to fellow lefties: The game set up actually has a left-handed setting you can utilize so you don’t get your wires crossed.

And it was great to see various denizens of this very board taking the time to come by and contribute to the game launch. And remember, I’ll be back in the city tomorrow for the signing at the Borders at 34th Street.

PAD

Yes, I will be attending the big launch party for “Epic Mickey” tomorrow morning at the Disney Store in Times Square. Since I wrote the Digicomics and the graphic novel adaptation, naturally I have a vested interest.

Major guests include game creator Warren Spector and–since Disney owns ABC–”Dancing With the Stars” Kyle Massey and…yes…Jennifer Grey. I assume “Good Morning America” will be there since it starts at 7 AM. Be sure to tune in.

PAD

Originally published May 13, 1994, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1069

The strange things that come about on computer nets.

On Usenet, speculation was rife that Marvel’s mutant books would reveal the existence of a third Summers brother, to join Scott (Cyclops) and Alex (Havok) Summers. A joke was subsequently made that perhaps the new sibling might actually be a Summers sister and that, in a bizarre twist, the Summers sister was Rogue. This, in turn, led an individual called “The Vodkinator” to suggest an opening a la Steven Spielberg’s Animaniacs, with Cyclops, Havok and Rogue taking the place of Wakko, Yakko, and Dot (the Warner brothers and Warner sister, the series’ protagonists.)

This, in turn, led net frequenter Tom Galloway to write an entire take-off on the theme of Animaniacs. He then showed it to me, and once I picked myself off the floor, I cajoled Arne Starr into doing an appropriate illustration. And here we go:

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COMIC LEGEND PETER DAVID ALLIES WITH BORDERS ON WORLD AIDS DAY

Special Penn Plaza Store Appearance Benefits Lifebeat – Music Fights HIV

New York, NY – Legendary comic book author Peter David will be signing copies of graphic novels and trade paperback comics on Wednesday, December 1, at 7:30 PM at Borders in Midtown (2 Penn Plaza). The signing is part of December One at Borders, a series of special events at stores nationwide to commemorate World AIDS Day.

Borders will donate 25% of the proceeds from the sale of these creator’s works to Lifebeat – Music Fights HIV. Lifebeat is a nonprofit that uses the power of music and the music industry to help educate young people about HIV/AIDS prevention. For more than seventeen years, Lifebeat has helped to mobilize the talents and resources of the music industry to raise awareness and funds, and to provide support to the HIV-positive community. For more information on Lifebeat, visit www.Lifebeat.org.

Eisner Award winning writer Peter Allen David (PAD) is one of the comic industries most talented authors. As a “Writer of Stuff” David is most famous for his 12 year run on The Incredible Hulk, as well as notable runs on Aquaman, Young Justice, Fallen Angel and Supergirl. David is the co-creator of the New Frontier, Star Wars series and has been a contributing writer to television programs, including Babylon 5, Ben 10: Alien Force and Space Cases. In 2005 David’s popular MadroX mini-series was turned into tan ongoing X-Factor series. More recently, PAD has worked on the comic version of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series, She-Hulk, The Little Mermaid for The Fractured Fables series, and Tron: Legacy inspired by the 1982 cult film.

As a novelist Peter David has been incredibly successful in the fantasy genre. He is best known for his Star Trek novels, including Q-in-Law; I, Q; Vendetta; Q-Squared; and Imzadi, one of the best-selling Star Trek novels of all time. David also is known for his work writing book adaptations of super hero movies. David is most proud of his novel Tigreheart, a re-imagining of the Peter Pan story. He is also well known for his Sir Apropos and The Hidden Earth books. In 2010 David has released Year of the Black Rainbow and The Balverine Order, for the Fable novel series.

Borders has been a longtime supporter of Lifebeat – Music Fights HIV. In addition to developing the innovative national fundraising program December One at Borders, the chain sponsors Lifebeat’s annual Bid 2 Beat AIDS online auction. The fifth annual Bid 2 Beat AIDS auction kicks off on eBay on December 1 as well, with hundreds of celebrity items and experiences from Lady Gaga, Madonna, Stevie Nicks, and more.

Tonight on “60 Minutes” they’re doing a piece about the upcoming much-discussed, much-maligned, and possibly hazardous Broadway musical, “Spider-Man: Turn On the Funk,” or whatever it’s called. I don’t have anything to do with the show, and apparently director Julie Taymor states that they released info about Swiss Miss just to mess with the fans (so, y’know, mission accomplished if that’s the case). So we’ll all find out together just what’s up.

PAD

Aired tonight at 7 PM, EST, on Cartoon Network. I loved it. Then again, I’m biased.

PAD

UPDATE: Check out the site of co-producer Brandon Vietti for a behind-the-scenes article about a YJ recording session. Click here.

Originally published May 6, 1994, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1068

Time to kill two birds with one stone, as they say (although I should emphasize that no animals have actually been injured in the making of this column.)

Several readers called to my attention, with some alarm, the April issue of Self magazine, a so-called women’s magazine that does big business in supermarket racks.

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To all those inclined to have one.

PAD

Every so often, America surprises me. Bristol Palin came in third. And considering she said tonight that she wanted to win–not because she felt she was the best–but because she wanted to upset all the people who “hate me and hate my mother”–I think that said it all.

Still waiting to see if my original post on this topic weeks ago predicting Grey would be the one to beat (before all the “Operation Bristol” nonsense came to light) was right.

PAD

UPDATED: YES! (And Jennifer, I can totally sympathize with the whole ruptured disc problem.)

So…here’s the pitch: Dirty Dancing 2 (Yes, I know there was one set in Cuba; forget that.) Baby returns to Kellerman’s twenty years later when the place is getting ready to close (as many of them did in the 80s. ) Baby is there with her son by Johnny (who has since passed away) who is a total loser and finds his inner dancer, not to mention romance (of course.) Meanwhile Baby, who has never remarried even though Johnny passed away years ago, finds romance with a handsome guy (Hugh Jackman) who turns out to be the developer planning to level Kellerman’s.

Originally published April 29, 1994, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1067

I love it when Oh So? provides me grist for my column. It’s almost like getting a freebie.

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I find myself wondering whether the grope-tastic actions of the TSA constitutes an illegal search in violation of the 4th and 14th Amendment and leaves them open to be sued on that basis by passengers who feel that the current procedures are too intrusive.

The simple act of wanting to take an airplane does not make one a suspect, any more than just getting behind the wheel of a car means that police can automatically pull you over and make you take a sobriety test. I don’t see how just wanting to fly from NYC to LAX constitutes just cause for an intrusive device that effectively strips you naked on television for prying eyes. What happens the very first time that a TSA employee whose job it is to watch subjects passing through the denudeonator gets arrested for having–oh, I dunno–child porn on his home computer. How’s that going to go over with the public, I wonder?

And if you feel that a video strip-search is demeaning, your alternative is to receive the same kind of pat down that someone gets just before they’re handcuffed and told to lower their head so they don’t bang it on the cop car?

Millions of innocent air passengers are being treated like criminals every day. How is this not actionable?

PAD

Originally published April 22, 1994, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1066

This ‘n that…

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Ages ago, when this season of my guilty pleasure, “Dancing With the Stars,” started up, I expressed irritation that all the media push was ignoring Jennifer Grey. “Nobody puts Baby in a corner,” I declared, and thus far since then I’ve been proven right. She has been the top score-getter practically every week. This evening she was declared to be in the top three for next week’s finals.

Unfortunately I’m starting to think that that’s as far as she’s going to make it. Why? Because the results of a recent poll published in “Hollywood Reporter” indicates that “Dancing” is the ninth most popular TV series on air with Republicans. And who else is still in the show despite dancing performances that are, at best, adequate, and paled in comparison to the magnificent Brandy, who was voted off this evening? Yup: Bristol Palin. There were looks of shock on everyone, particularly Grey’s dance partner, Derek Hough, who was literally slack-jawed, when Brandy was dumped while Bristol was still standing there.

DwtS has always been a popularity contest, but it’s particularly evident this year. It’s becoming abundantly clear that the GOP is lining up behind the daughter of professional candidate Sarah, perhaps in hopes that she’ll show up on the final episode. Mother has wisely kept as clear from daughter as possible, presumably so that if her daughter succeeds, it will be perceived as Bristol’s triumph alone. Should she indeed come out on top, and the odds seem for it (although I’d dearly love to be wrong) trust me: It won’t be perceived that way.

PAD

Originally published April 15, 1994, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1065

Previous installment: Part 1

For those who came in late:

Back in January, this column discussed the existence of a slam group created specifically to attack noted essayist and fiction writer Harlan Ellison. Originally the group called itself “Enemies of Ellison” and—hiding behind an anonymous flier—announced its intentions to put together a book of anecdotes designed to savage Ellison upon his eventual demise.

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A lot of people have been asking me to discuss the most recent series of “Doctor Who,” and since it’s available on DVD so that anyone can see it, I figure now is as good a time as any. I’ll try to keep spoilers to a minimum.
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Originally published March 25, 1994, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1062

There are some people who do their job extremely well. Their ability to do that job effects hundreds, even thousands of people every day. And when they die, their passing prompts outpourings of grief from those many hundreds and thousands of people. There are memorial services, and obituaries (albeit sometimes erroneous ones) in national newspapers.

And there are some people who do their job extremely well. Their ability to do that job effects hundreds, even thousands of people every day. And yet, by an interesting turn of priorities in our society, these people are generally not noticed. At least not consciously. Because the nature of the job is such that, if done right, the person isn’t really acknowledged by the outside world. Like a gimmick that’s part of a magician’s illusion, it makes the trick work without drawing attention to itself.

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You’re gonna love this

It turns out, for reasons that I can only guess at, that Running Press–the publisher of the Spider-Man Vault–has released it exclusively to…get this…Costco stores (so yes, Tom Galloway was right). Not that it’s on their website, because that would be too easy.

My guess is that they’re holding national bookstore distribution until there’s a movie to tie into (since I suspect that this was originally supposed to time out with the fourth Spider-Man film which, as we all know, got pushed back.) But they’re putting out some now on a limited basis, through Costco, presumably to tap into the Christmas season.

Isn’t publishing great?

I should put some of my author copies up on eBay. I could probably make a fortune.

PAD

But I would totally buy “Coon and Friends” action figures and plush toys.

PAD

I’d like to think that most people who hang out here do so because they’re interested in my work. Well, with the holidays coming up, I thought I’d suggest a few items that have my name on it that would make nifty gifts. In no particular order:

THE SPIDER-MAN VAULT: A coffee table book (co-authored by Bob Greenberger) telling the history of the wallcrawler, copiously illustrated and featuring reproductions of classic collectibles.

FABLE: THE BALVERINE ORDER: A novel tie-in to the popular video game. Familiarity with the game is not a requisite, but for those who are into it, it features a code for a weapon that can be used in-game.

WRITING FOR COMICS AND GRAPHIC NOVELS: A personal guide to writing in general and writing comics in specific.

MORE DIGRESSIONS: Considering so many people asked for so many years for a second collection of “But I Digress” columns, it’s kind of a shame that people STILL ask about it and then look surprised when I tell them it came out months ago.

BEN 10: ALIEN FORCE, Vol 8 and BEN 10: DOOM DIMENSION. The former is a recently released DVD of the popular Cartoon Network series that features my first episode for them, “In Charm’s Way.” The latter is a two-book original manga published by Del Rey.

FALLEN ANGEL OMNIBUS EDITIONS. For those who have been waiting a mere seven years for DC to finally get around to collecting all of the original “Fallen Angel” run, your wish was granted…except DC didn’t do it. Instead IDW has released all the original material, making it a nice companion to the previously published omnibus which features the first twenty issues of the IDW run.

DARK TOWER TRADE PAPERBACKS. The original collections of the “Dark Tower” comics, now available in trade paperback.

Also, in the interest of full disclosure, be sure to avoid:

Trade edition of Sir Apropos of Nothing People were asking me what the hell this was ever since it first showed up on Amazon, and I was unable to get an answer from Pocket. Turns out it’s a print-on-demand edition of the original novel, and it’s just awful. It consists of the mass market edition printed at trade size with no adjustment in the typeface, meaning each page is about thirty percent border. It features an excerpt for the sequel advertised as “coming soon in hardcover” when it was published years ago. The real travesty is the cover, in which they removed the silver trim from the lettering, so the remaining typeface is basically a mass of unbordered blackness. My name is hard to read and the title is nearly impossible. A quick Amazon check seems to indicate that it’s been pulled, but if it shows up again, give it a wide berth. Instead go for an original edition or pick up the trade collection of the IDW limited series.

They’ve been showing old episodes of the 1970s “Celebrity Bowling.” Every single show is a nostalgia trip, many times with actors I haven’t thought about in ages. For many younger viewers, the names will be unknown or else you’ll be astounded at some of the people you’ll see. I mean, really, where else can you see Adam West teamed up with Roy Rogers? Interestingly, thus far the best bowler was Bob Newhart, who clearly knew what he was doing and could have beaten everyone else single-handedly.

So tune in Saturday morning at 8 AM and get a blast from the past, even if it’s not your past.

PAD