The Gift of Me

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 hëll 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.

27 comments on “The Gift of Me

    1. That’s weird, that you can’t pre-order it. I know the book exists; I have copies. Well, let’s see what happens when the 13th rolls around.
      .
      PAD

      1. Yep, Spidey Vault at Costco in the Gift Books/Coffeetable books section. Was picking up the Doonesbury 40th anniversary doorstop and saw it and got it.

  1. The collection of the IDW Sir Apropos miniseries also contains the hard-to-find Apropos short story from the “Heroes in Training” anthology, for them what’s interested in that.

  2. Many years ago, I gave a friend one of your Star Trek books. I don’t remember what it was called. I knew my friend loved Star Trek stuff, and I recognised your name from Spider-Man, so I figured Hey, this should be a good one.

    1. Yeah I quickly zeroed in on anything that PAD wrote in the Star Trek universe very few, at least in 90’s, could write Trek that didn’t make the book a dry read and dull read. I think I first came across Q-in-Law or DSN: The Siege.

    2. No question, PAD’s Trek books are well worth it. I think is was Strike Zone which was the first (and I believe only) time I ever liked the Wesley Crusher character.

      1. Always been partial to A Rock and a Hard Place, myself. I particularly like the narrative from the perspective of the Wild Things.

  3. PAD, besides three words in the title, what’s different between WRITING FOR COMICS and WRITING FOR COMICS AND GRAPHIC NOVELS?

    1. It’s basically a second edition, although there’s some stuff added. For instance, when we were planning it, I put out a call for questions from readers as to things that they felt were overlooked in the first edition. The questions are then answered in the book in Q&A format.
      .
      PAD

  4. My boyfriend and I picked up about half of Fallen Angel at Fan Expo last year. Omnibuses SO going on Christmas List. Thanks for the notice!

  5. I generally buy trades in 50% boxes or basements or dingy store rooms at comic shops. So my friends will have to make due with old but good Peter David books. Though I’m also giving out a lot of books by the greatest one of comics’s truly great writing team since sliced bread- J.M. Dematteis and Keith Giffen.

    1. Where did you find yours? I can’t find a single online store that has them in-stock and for sale. I may be checking a Costco when I’m out of town next week.

      1. Me and some family members helped with a photo shoot for the book.

        Looks like Costco is the way to go for now! The book is beautiful, informative, and funny (love the way Aunt May’s death was handled).

        Just be careful with the binding!

  6. Hi,

    do you know if there will be any more of the trades of the “hulk visionaries”, the stuff that you did?

    I was getting all of them but it feels like it has been forever since the last one came out.
    Thanks!!!
    gtc

  7. Groovy! My wife has just recently gotten heavily into Fable so this is will be great way to share my love of your style.

  8. Peter,
    .
    I’m glad that More Digressions is out, so that I can now put it on my To Get List. Knowing that it includes the Star Wars column, which I thought was one of your most brilliant columns when I read it while browsing at Jim Hanley’s, is worth getting the book itself. I have two questions, though:
    .
    1. Why, aside from the columns about your proposal to Kathleen, did you pick 9/11 as the cutoff date for the columns to include, given that the last collection came out in ’94, six years earlier than that?
    .
    2. So when’s the third collection coming out?

  9. Apologies for not realizing the second Digressions collection was out. Consider it ordered.

    I can vividly remember buying the first one at the SDCC and plowing through it each night at the house of a friend where we were staying. Very much looking forward to it. Consider me in line with Luigi above for the 3rd volume …

  10. “The Gift of Me.”
    .
    Oh. After recent discussion of the J.J. Sachs statue, I thought you were going to announce the P.A. David statue. I guess we’ll be waiting a bit longer for that one….

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