Month: July 2002

Nope, Peter has the bigger Eggo. Which means that while Peter’s at the San Diego Comic Con, I get to keep the website filled with neat things to arrest your wandering interests. So let’s get straight to the housekeeping, shall we?

First neat thing: if you look to your right, you’ll notice a little button labeled “Make A Donation”. Your donations will help pay for the data entry for all of the old But I Digress… columns, the servers and bandwidth to keep the site running, and the food to keep the chimpunks fed inside the uninterruptible power supply. And of course, please use the Amazon links as well– if you go there via one of our links, this site receives a tiny percentage of whatever you spend while you’re there. So order a lot.

Second: I’ll be adding a LOT of BID…s in the next few days, and will soon be adding a page for just them, for ease in finding them. And of course, you can still use the search button at the bottom of this page.

Second and a half: we’ve enabled comments on the old BID…s, so feel free to do so. Peter will probably add a few comments of his own, updating or placing them in historical context, the usual.

Last: If you get a chance, make sure you pick the pack of Peter’s panels at the Con. He’s got a new top-secret project that should be seeing the light of day by the end of the year, and he’ll be making a big announcement about it at the convention. No, I don’t know which one, so go see them all.

I know that no matter how much I make myself available at the San Diego con, there will be folks who will say, “I had no idea where you were!” because, y’know, they can’t crack the schedule book. So herewith my official con-related schedule:

FRI 8/2: 10:30-11:30 AM, Novels in the Reel World, Rm 16AB
FRI 8/2: 11:30 AM-1:00 PM
Autograph signing, Line AA3 (with other panelmembers)
FRI 8/2: 4:30-6 PM, Writing SF & Fantasy, Rm 7B
FRI 8/2: 6-7 PM Autograph signing, Line AA2-3 9 (with other panel members)

SAT 8/3: 11:30 AM-12:30 PM, Spotlight, Rm 7B
SAT 8/3: 3-5 PM, Autograph siging, Line AA9 (individual)

SUN 8/4: 11:30 AM-12:30 PM, McFarlane: TakeYour Best Shot, Rm 16AB

I will also be doing autographing sessions at the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund table, and at the Claypool table. Check with those locations in the dealer’s room for times.

See you all (or at least some of you) there.

PAD

Saw “Road to Perdition” today. Easily the best film I’ve seen this summer (which isn’t saying much) and possibly this year (which is.) The end of the film was so emotional that several people in the theater (who obviously hadn’t read the book) were openly sobbing.

However, am I the*only* person who hears the title and can only think how it would make an intriguingly bleak entry in the Bing Crosby/Bob Hope “Road” pictures? I keep thinking of Crosby, Hope and Dorothy Lamour singing “We’re off on the Road to Perdition!”

Does anyone even *remember* those films?

PAD

Well, we seem to be having a small real-life crisis as the apartment in Boston where Shana *thought* she was going to be moving is suddenly no longer available. Which means, come September, she could have difficulties.

If anyone knows of a two-bedroom flat in a decent neighborhood in or near Boston, easily accessible to the “T”, for around $1100, please drop an e-mail to me at padguy@aol.com.

Thanks.

PAD

People who pre-ordered from Amazon the “Hulk: Visionaries” collection by myself and Dale Keown are asking me why they’re being informed that their order was cancelled.

The answer is simple: The book was cancelled. And it wasn’t just cancelled in June. It was cancelled back in January. It never existed.

Apparently, back in January Marvel decided to scale back on projected trade projects, and the “Hulk: Visionaries” collection was one of the ones that was dumped. I’m not entirely sure why mine was so honored, nor am I certain which other ones were scuttled. Bottom line, though, is that solicits are done for the paperback market six months in advance, so even while orders were being taken, the book was already off the table. I’ve no idea when it will be rescheduled. If I had to guess, I’d say “never,” but that’s just me.

PAD

My esteemed colleague, Monsieur Evanier, on his website takes to task those in the industry whom he feels displayed excessive joy (although he used a fancy shmancy German word for it) over another’s misfortune when Todd McFarlane initially was on the receiving end of a multi-million dollar judgment against him. Seems TMcF thought it would be funny to name a gangster character after real life hockey player Tony Twist in the SPAWN comic and TV show. Twist didn’t think it was funny, sued him, and brought in testimony stating he’d lost $100,000 in endorsements because of it. Jury awarded him a ludicrous amount of money. The judge subsequently tossed out the jury verdict, and the appeals court just supported the judge. Mark believes this to be a Good Thing and a triumph for the First Amendment.

Mark, of course, has this luxury. He, after all, wasn’t portrayed as a member of the Ku Klux Klan, as I was in an issue of SPAWN. To me, it was never a First Amendment issue. It was a “Todd’s being a jerk” issue. Yes, the First Amendment defends Todd’s right to be a jerk, but not at someone else’s monetary expense. The courts felt “no reasonable person” could confuse Twist with the comic book character. Oddly, to my mind, no reasonable person could confuse a soap opera actress with her character, yet actresses portraying bad girls get slapped in public by irate soap fans. No reasonable person could think “Harry Potter” can lead a child to witchcraft, yet the book is banned from some school systems and libraries. No reasonable person could find OJ Simpson innocent, yet he’s out playing golf. No reasonable person could think that a comic book store selling adult comics to adults presents a danger to the town, yet stores are shuttered, store managers arrested and lives disrupted.

We do not live in a reasonable society. And the question is whether Todd McFarlane, now having hidden behind the skirts of the First Amendment, will take greater efforts to support the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund…or will just see this as a vindication and empowerment to screw over other people, such as Neil Gaiman.

I think we all know the answer to that.

PAD