PeterDavid.net

So Glenn Beck claims that he was harassed and wine deliberately spilled on his wife by nasty, vicious liberals while trying to watch a Hitchcock film in Central Park. Meanwhile the nasty, vicious liberal in question claims that no one was bothering him, his bodyguards were giving people crap, and the wine spillage was a complete accident (claims of innocence that appear to run counter to earlier twitter messages that conveyed hostility toward Beck on her part.)

As is typically the case, everyone is the hero (or victimized party) of their own anecdote. Of course, Beck has a much larger microphone to make his case. Still, as a vicious liberal, I have to say that there’s no excuse for harassing Beck at a general event. I disagree with what he has to say, but defend his right to say it and also his right to take some time off to enjoy life with his family.

Too bad it wasn’t a Kurosawa film festival, considering the “Rashomon” aspects of the incident.

PAD

What the hell is up with the Mets? Taking two out of three from the A’s. Two grand slams in one game after a two year drought. Over .500, finally. Jose Reyes is the most difficult out in the National League.

A fluke? Or the start of something? And would management really be tone deaf enough to trade Reyes?

PAD

My new novelette, “Bronsky’s Dates With Death,” sees print in the July/August issue of the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction which should be going on sale today. It’s the story of an elderly man who winds up pissing off everyone with his constant, incessant talk about dying…everyone up to, and including, Death himself. Check it out.

PAD

Originally published July 7, 1995, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1129

The delayed (last installment was in #1125) wrapping of my Space Cases journal (Space Cases being the series pilot created by Bill Mumy and me for Nickelodeon.)

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My parents sent me this box of old stuff of mine that’s been sitting in their basement for God only knows how long. It’s my life and interests for the first eighteen years of my existence in microcosm. Some of it is truly amusing considering where my life’s gone. A copy of “MIrror Friend, Mirror Foe” by George Takei, whose wedding I attended. An issue of an old SF magazine called “If” with a cover by a pre-Elfquest Wendy (credited as “Wendi”) Pini, who drew the tattoo on my left arm. And–get this–an original 1969 New York Mets Yearbook.

PAD

Honk if you suddenly want to dump your spouse and marry someone who uses the same public bathrooms you do.

PAD

Gene was a wonderfully talented artist with whom I had the distinct honor to work with on several occasions. He will be missed terribly.

PAD

Originally published June 30, 1995, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1128

We’re cracking open the letter vault here at But I Digress; let’s see what we’ve got:

(Letters may be edited for length, but no meanings will be changed or distorted, such as: “Peter, The Incredible Hulk is the best example of lousy comics” becoming “Peter, The Incredible Hulk is the best example of… comics”.)

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UPDATED on 6/22–I should mention that if you have your own blogs, feel free to link to this discussion so we can not only get as many opinions as possible, but also get this project in front of as many eyes as possible. Price is important, but ultimately endeavors such as this stand or fall on word of mouth. I’ve got over 100K words; now we need the mouths.

In several weeks, on July 8, Crazy 8 Press will be going live, and I’m looking for your input on pricing.

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Originally published June 23, 1995, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1127

It must be getting fairly frustrating for Marvel. With its sole big screen release being the much-maligned Howard the Duck, it seems that everyone else is able to turn their characters (Superman, Batman, TimeCop, the Rocketeer, the Mask, the Crow, Swamp Thing, Tank Girl) into big screen stories with far greater ease and frequency. The results, both critical and financial, have been mixed—but that’s going to happen with any genre.

Now another company can be added to the roster of those who have beaten Marvel to the punch, when it comes to producing a successful screen translation of one of its characters: Harvey Comics, with the advent of Casper.

And I’ll tell you: The film is, for my money, one of the best comic book adaptations, bar none.

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It’s challenging when one sees a film that is getting slammed by hostile reviews, because it gets into your head and you start looking for everything that’s wrong, because if everyone else saw it, then you figure there’s something wrong with you if you’re not seeing it as well.

Okay, well…there’s something wrong with me. I saw “Green Lantern” and thought it was a perfectly good movie about Green Lantern.
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Reported by the Associated Press:

After hacking into the Islamic jihadist magazine “Inspire,” British Intelligence agents changed the directions for making a home-made bomb to a recipe for making cupcakes.

I think that’s hilarious. I’m going to have Rictor do something similar to that, purely as a throwaway bit, in a future issue of X-Factor.

PAD

Originally published June 16, 1995, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1126

I’m taking a break from the Space Cases journal to comment on some recent happenings in our little industry—and deal with some other items that have come to my attention. Hey, kids: Let’s see how many people I can really get annoyed in the course of one column. (more…)

Apparently, Amazon has closed our Associate account without notification, or any reason given. Which means that if you’re buying items from us in order to help us pay for the costs of this site, we’d appreciate it if you could defer your purchases for a few days while we get this sorted out with Amazon, on the off chance that Amazon doesn’t credit us for the amount of time the site is down.

We’ll put up a notification when this is resolved. Thank you.

UPDATE: All better now. Feel free to click and buy.

Samuel L. Jackson doing a reading of a book that has a title that just about every parent has, at some point, either thought or said aloud. I should note: Not safe for work…although I guess it depends where you work.

A guy named Bill Warren (presumably no relation to the comics legend) is endeavoring to recover bin Laden’s body.

So what do you think? Ebay?

PAD

So last night’s episode must have been a serious shocker to those who haven’t read the book series. Yeah, well, trust me: it was even more shocking in the book.

Serious spoilers below.

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Originally published June 9, 1995, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1125

Continuing my journal of the making of Space Cases, a TV pilot for Nickelodeon, the kids’ television network.

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Fixing the one thing I really didn’t like about “X-Men: First Class.” Since it’s a spoiler, it’s below the cut line.

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