Day: July 20, 2005

I’ve flown Jetblue any number of times and had no problem. So it was startling that my return from San Diego was as much of a fiasco as it was, especially considering that I was lied to by virtually every Jetblue employee that I encountered.

Continue Reading “Jetblah” →

This blog notes the passing of James Doohan at the age of 85.

As many of you know, Peter worked with James on his autobiography, Beam Me Up, Scotty. I’m sure Peter will have more to post about this sad event, and the man himself, later.

Feel free to use this as an open thread.

Well, not “back” technically. Down in Florida where my family is vacationing….the “getting to” of which via Jetblue was a horror story that I’ll write up in my next blog entry.

Most of my San Diego “news” has already been posted elsewhere. Yes, “X-Factor,” the continuation of “Madrox,” will be starting up in November. Yes, I’ve signed with Pocket books to do two Marvel novels, “Fantastic Four” and “Wolverine.” Yes, I’ll be leaving the Hulk because my work load has effectively quadrupled, although I certainly wouldn’t rule out coming back to it at some point in the near future.

Overall, had a really good time this year. Made a lot of very positive contacts, had meals with a variety of friends including Marv Wolfman, Len Wein, Mike Richardson, Mark Evanier, Maggie Thompson, Paul Dini, Chris Valada and her son (whose name escapes me, sorry, dude.) Attended fun parties including a Stan Lee bash where I met Dallas Cowboy Darian Barnes, who turned out to be a big fan of my work (he let me hold his Superbowl ring while he checked out my 800 Bowling ring, an action that Barbara Kesel opined had a bizarre subtext she didn’t want to dwell on.) Met John Landis and his son, attended the Eisners, participated in panels, actually walked the entire floor of the dealers room, resisted the temptation to drop $250 on a replica of the Shakespeare bust from “Batman”, meeted and greeted many fans including folks on this board (including various lurkers who I urged to participate), and found the time to buy and read the latest Harry Potter book (which I’ll start a thread on once more people have had a chance to read it, so please don’t comment on it here.)

For me, a high point was having the chance to chat with Ray Harryhausen. I asked him what he thought of today’s CGI effects versus the way it was done in his day. He made a really valid point: That he preferred the monsters and such that he produced in his day, because the fact that they weren’t perfect–but only close approximations of human or animal movement–gave them a nightmarish quality that heightened the fear element. But that the computerized images generated now are so perfect, that they’ve taken the fantastic and rendered them mundane. I think he may well be right.

In any event, more abot the Jetblue horror show later. We’re off now to visit with Shana.

PAD