PeterDavid.net

I’d see pictures of her and there was just something about her that I could swear I’ve seen before. And it’s finally come to me.

I’ve seen a number of productions of “Man of La Mancha” (not counting the ones I’ve actually been in). And one year I saw it at Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut. And there’s a line in the show where Cervantes describes his knight as a man with “eyes that burn with the fire of inner vision.” Then when the actor “became” Quixote and began to sing, “I, Don Quixote,” for the first and only time in all the times I’ve seen the show, he did exactly that. He did SOMEthing with his eyes and suddenly there was just this burning intensity in his eyes, the flame of the zealot, the fire of inner vision. And it was incredibly scary (I even heard someone near me mutter, “Whoa”) because in a way that was never done in previous productions, it was driven home to you that this guy was nuts. Just stark-staring bonkers.

That’s why Bachmann looks familiar to me. Hers are eyes that burn with the fire of inner vision, just like that day at Goodspeed when the audience and I were in the presence of a madman, a fanatic, a zealot believing that God has sent him on a quest.

The only difference is, he was acting.

PAD

Originally published September 1, 1995, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1137

People are always sending me interesting stuff to run in BID. However, an odd confluence of events resulted in several entertaining things landing at the same time. So what the heck.

I’ll share ‘em all with you.

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When I first saw “Cowboys and Aliens” being advertised, I thought, “Been there, done that.” Specifically in “Oblivion” and its sequel for Full Moon.

Apparently Shout!Factory agreed; they re-released the original on DVD with a redesigned cover. I knew nothing about it until Kath pointed it out to me in the latest copy of “Entertainment Weekly.”
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Do you think the country will default?

Personally, I do not. I think what it keeps coming back to is that the debt ceiling has been raised repeatedly in the past (including over a dozen times during the Reagan years) Suddenly making an issue of it simply stinks too highly of partisan politics, and most of that stench seems to be clinging to the GOP. Will they really be so stupid as to shove the country into default as part of a misguided attempt to try and score political points? I doubt it.

PAD

My quietest day insofar as convention programming is involved. I only have a single signing at the Marvel booth, from 2-3.

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Originally published August 25, 1995, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1136

Varied and sundry thoughts from the San Diego Comic Con:

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Okay. Today was pretty interesting.

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Came in too late at night and too tired to post last night.

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Originally published August 18, 1995, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1135

Ah, the first stirring of a Presidential election, when fear is in the air and a young man’s fancy turns to pointless issues and repressions. Ah to be a liberal now that the stink is here.

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Actual day one, as opposed to the unofficial day one on Wednesday.

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Arrived at JFK and the line for the security check in was insane. Absolutely insane. Even the TSA people were saying to each other that they’d never seen anything like it.

I, of course, had: at Comic Con. Apparently JFK was a warm-up. Fortunately I got there early enough that I was able to make it through. Wound up standing in line with Jim Salicrup and we were able to make it through with minimum fuss.

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I’ll update it as time allows.

Thursday—4:00-5:00 signing, Marvel Booth #2329
Thursday—6:00-7:00, X-Men Gay/Lesbian panel, Room 32AB

Friday—10:00 – 11:30, the Black Panel, Room 5Ab
Friday—12:30-1:30, X-Men Panel, room 6DE
Friday—5-00-6:00, Media Tie-In Writers, room 4

Saturday—10:00-11:30, Activision panel, Room 5AB
Saturday—12:30-1:30, Marvel game panel, 6A
Saturday—3:00-4:00 PM, Activision signing
Saturday—5:00-6:00 PM, Signing Marvel Booth #2329

Sunday—2:00-3:00 PM, Marvel Booth #2329

1) The announcement that the marriage of Superman and Lois Lane “never happened” as a result of the relaunch. Noooo, it’s not a reboot at all.

2) Every time you think Fox News can’t sink any lower into the realm of partisanship and inaccuracy, they surprise you. Fox News host Eric Bolling, on the Glenn Beck replacement show “The Five,” declared–in denying that George W. Bush was a relentless fear-monger–declared, “America was certainly safe between 2000 and 2008. I don’t remember any attacks on America soil during that period of time.” Best of all, no one else in the panel bothered to mention 9/11.

PAD

I have a new limited series coming out from Marvel that’s a prequel to the Disney “John Carter” film. You can read an interview here.

PAD

Originally published August 11, 1995, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1134

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

One never knows what’s going to get reactions out of people.

I’ve written any number of annuals over the past years. One of them I wasn’t happy with at all. A couple I thought were OK. And a couple I was really pleased with.

Yet none of them received much of a reaction until recently.

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A section of the 405 in LA is being shut down for the weekend and the media is going bugnuts about it? Is that what we’ve come to?

Hey, LA–it’s the weekend. Stay home. How hard IS this?

If you have a job that’s on the weekend and you absolutely can’t take off, see if you can crash with a friend who’s within walking distance. You remember walking. Or maybe not. I once was in LA and walked from point A to point B, about two miles, and didn’t encounter a single other pedestrian.

Carmageddon. Christ. What’s next? Auto De Fe?

PAD

Wait no longer. You can now purchase either the eBook version or the paperback through the same site.

PAD

As I walked out in the Battle of Hogwarts
As I walked out into battle that night
With Death Eaters coming, all led by Lord Voldemort
A guy with no nose who was spoiling to fight.

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Originally published August 4, 1995, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1133

The streets of Mega-City One are ablaze with a citizen riot. The repressed lower class rails against a society where law and order no longer serves and protects, but oppresses and strangles.

Two peace officers—”Judges” by name and trade—are pinned down by overhead fire. They call for back-up as, high above, tattooed and snarling miscreants take aim with souped-up bazookas and shoot off more rounds.

And then the “back-up” arrives, in the form of a black-clad, helmeted engine of authority, astride chopper that makes the Batcycle look like a Big Wheel. He steps off the vehicle, surveys the situation. A microphone snaps into place and he bellows four words destined to go down in both movie and comics history:

“I am—duh law!”

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So a while back Jay Tea challenged me to include the phrase “earth-shattering ka-boom” into the Transformers novelization, and I agreed to take him up on it.

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