Year: 2002

I’m always fascinated by the people who continue to rant and rave that my take on THE HULK was somehow dead wrong or “not the Hulk.” The one constant of any long-running comic book character is change, from variations in tone and style (Batman, Superman) to variations in costume and even identity. Why my run on the Hulk is singled out by some as being “not the Hulk” mystifies me, considering the number of personality and strength variations he went through in his first six issues alone.

These critics generally tend to single out what I called “the merged Hulk”….the period dubbed “the professor” by Paul Jenkins, a title I don’t hold with considering that it focuses merely on the scholarly aspects of the character at the time without taking into account that he was, in essence, a big bully. People who claim that the Hulk is supposed to be about the conflict between Banner and his savage aspect miss the point that the merged Hulk *was* about that very thing: It was simply internalized instead of externalized. But it was still very much there. My model for the Hulk at that point became Val Kilmer’s character from “Real Genius” except gone bad: A brilliant MIT student who was positive that he was better than everyone else in the world and could do whatever he wanted. Which is just a high-falutin’ way of saying, “Hulk is strongest one there is.” People who thought I did the storyline just so I could have him be clever and witty and big and green, frankly, just didn’t get it.

There are those who claim that the Hulk should be about nothing except Hulk smashing this and that and some other dámņëd thing. Fans who believe that this would be a good thing are blind to the reality of the marketplace, which is that readers get bored. Fast. At $2.25 and up per book, fans are looking for reasons to drop titles more than they are to pick them up. Anyone fan who states that, if he were writing the title, it would be 22 pages of “Hulk smash” every month has doomed the book to declining sales and themselves to unemployment. The key to keeping a title going long-term is dancing as fast as one can. I applaud Bruce Jones’ success on the book; let’s see how he’s doing on it in ten years.

The funniest notion is those folks who believe the Hulk was my mouthpiece for my political views. It doesn’t get dumber than that. The Hulk headed up the Pantheon, an organization dedicated to the notion that they should be able to go wherever they want, whenever they want, and right whatever wrongs they saw fit regardless of national boundaries, treaties, or the desires of respective governments. In short…he was George W. Bush. Does *anyone* think I’m George W. Bush?

PAD

Just came back from a weekend spent down in Pennsylvania, celebrating my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary. For the first time in a while, all of us were in one place (with the exception of Shana and Gwen, up living in Boston and weren’t able to make it down…and by the way, Gwen is looking for a job. She’s particularly skilled at baking, if anyone knows of anything.)

My folks got a small room at a local place called the William Penn Inn, a restaurant so fancy that there was a harpist outside the room. I’m sure we drove him nuts because my father and I kept singing along anytime he played show tunes.

My pregnant sister and my pregnant wife have an established greeting wherein, instead of shaking hands, they bump bellies.

Ah well. Off to atone. Hope God doesn’t strike me down for entering my BLOG on Yom Kippur. That would kind of suck.

PAD

First of all, webmaster Glenn Hauman should be adjusting the BLOG response entries so that you can read the responses in order from the top down rather than bottom up. That seems to be the preferred method.

Second, I’m amused by the fans who are trying to figure out the identity of the Snake Girl who shows up in the final pages of YJ #49. There’s been all sorts of guesses as to who she is and some fans can swear they’ve seen her before.

Why is she so unfamiliar? Simple.

Her first appearance is in YJ #49. She’s never been seen before.

I was told to put in a snake-girl character because apparently a young lady won some sort of create-a-character contest that DC was holding, and YJ is the book she’s supposed to show up in. It was news to me, but hey, I just work here. So I made her Serpenteen’s girlfriend since that seemed a natural way to go with it. We learn a bit more about her next issue when she swallows Wonder Girl. Really. I’m not kidding.

PAD

It’s a crying shame about “Farscape” being flushed, but not entirely surprising from what I understand:

1) SFC’s parent company is in deep financial trouble, and I think it’s pretty obvious just to look at it that “Farscape” is not a cheap series to produce. I doubt the actors are making big bucks; the money’s up on the screen. The other aspect is that in TV production, you reach a point of no return vis a vis syndication. You need a certain number of episodes to be able to form a syndication package to allow for stripping (running a show five times a week) which is where the real money is. If you don’t make that number, then the show will likely lose money overall, particularly if it’s an expensive show. I don’t know for certain it’s the case, but “Farscape” might have been reaching that number where they either had to cut their losses or commit to the full number for a syndie package, and they chose the former.

2) I always marveled how “Farscape” was clearly a series where the network was letting the creative folks have their head. Believe me, you can tell: You’ll see shows and something will happen or be said and you’ll say, “Yup, that was a network note.” For the most part, notes from the network exist to dumb shows down, make them lowest common denominator. “Farscape” challenged you to keep up with it. Networks hate that. So I thought it was smart that SFC was being “hands off” with the show. Turns out I was wrong. The series producers simply ignored network notes. This did not endear them to the brass at SFC. From what I hear ’round the campfire, SFC brass hated the series. A series has no friends at a network at its own peril; unless it’s a megahit, it’s vulnerable, as execs will look for any excuse to bag the show. “Farscape” was many things, but a megahit it wasn’t.

3) I also understand the sets have been destroyed. Not stored. Destroyed. If that’s true, if the sets are gone, then any “save the show” campaign is a waste of time. They won’t rebuild the sets. The bulk of initial outlay goes into the sets. The only way “Farscape” comes back (in a two hour film, as has been hoped) is if all shots of Moya, etc., are stock shots and the entire thing is shot on Earth. Which is not impossible, I suppose. But a return of the series ongoing if the sets are gone is slimmer than slim.

PAD

Sentiments I hear from some folk indicate that they don’t *want* to think about 9/11. That they hate this anniversary focus on it because it pushes to the forefront of their minds something they would just as soon not dwell on: The potential for concerted attack in everyday life.

I can understand that. Then again, kind of gives you an insight into the Israeli mindset, doesn’t it, since they can *never* stop thinking about the potential for concerted attack in everyday life. Kind of hard when your neighbors have wanted to annihilate you for over half a century. It’s been observed that people “adjust.” Yeah. They do. I just don’t think outsiders like *how* Israelis adjusted. We’ve just had a taste of walking in their shoes for a year. The result? Paranoia, depression, brand new psychological syndromes, and the nation’s leaders are beating the drums as loudly as they can shouting for war. From one year. Imagine where our head will be at if we’re randomly under assault for the next *sixty* years. Just…food for thought.

I sure hope to God nothing bad happens today. Then again, if I were a terrorist, I’d launch a major strike on September 12…just when everyone is letting out a breath of relief.

Rest easy. Let’s hope we all see each other at the end of the week.

PAD

Okay, here’s the thing…

Last year my fantasy novel SIR APROPOS OF NOTHING was published. At the time I wrote it, I thought I was writing a one-shot. There was room for the story to go, but no contract. So I had a two-month block set aside to write the next New Frontier novel for November publication.

But APROPOS was so well received that S&S picked up their option for two sequels. And the timing was strategic: They wanted the first sequel to be out in summer of 2002 to time out with the paperback release of the first book (so they could run a chapter from the second book in the paperback as an enticement.) Furthermore, the average NF book is 80,000 words, while APROPOS and its sequels weigh in at around 160,000. Since both contracts were with S&S, I said, “Guys, I can’t write both books in the same period of time. Which do I concentrate on?” They said, “The APROPOS sequel is more time-sensitive. Do that.” So in the period of time I had blocked out for the next “New Frontier” novel, I turned out the length-equivalent of two of them, which was called THE WOAD TO WUIN. And then I had other deadlines I’d committed to (such as the KNIGHT LIFE sequel and the HULK novelization) which had to be met. So NF got shoved back. And I didn’t want to just try and dash it out in a half-baked manner because that wouldn’t be fair to the readers.

So now I’m working on the next NF book and as soon as it’s in, I will *definitely* post here what the pub date is.

PAD

Our long national nightmare is over. Thanks to the tireless efforts of Glenn Hauman, we’re back up and running and hopefully will be for some time to come.

A lot has happened in the past month, far too much to cover in one entry. Most current item is that THE WOAD TO WUIN got a rave review from “Locus” magazine in the September issue. Rolling backwards, I’ve just finished the novelization of the “Hulk” movie, and a few weeks ago I turned in the manuscript for the sequel to “Knight Life” which is going to be called (drum roll) “One Knight Only.” Now who’s the one who suggested that?

More to come over the next few days.

PAD