So I’m out here along with Ariel, who is thrilled that people are recognizing her from my blog and congratulating her on her bowling achievements. I have some panels over the course of the weekend, and am set up for regular signings at the Impact Books/CBG table today and tomorrow at 3 PM, and at the Claypool booth from 10:30 to 11:30 Saturday and 10 to 11 Sunday.
Ariel attended the Marvel/DC softball game yesterday, where Marvel clobbered DC 22-11, which sounds more like a year than a score.
PAD
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That’s nice, that people are recognizing and congratulating Ariel, and that she’s enjoying it. The score of the softball game is also cool. I hope your weekend out there continues to be just as good, or better!
One day, I will go to San Diego’s comic book convention. Oh, yes… I will. One day…
I will be going to Wizardworld Chicago, where, as I understand it, I may see you, PAD. I certainly plan on trying to see you and get your autograph.
Matt Hawes
COMICS UNLIMITED
http://www.comicsunlimited.biz
I hope that Peter can make it to the New York Convention this year.
I am sure the NYC Comic Con is going to be better than it was last year.
I look forward to your reports of the activities at this years San Diego Comic Con.
I know that G4TV is going to have live converage from the Convention floor, hopefully I will get to see you on TV tonight.
Regards:
Warren S. Jones III
SDCC is certainly an experience. My wife and I wish we could’ve gone this year, but we’re planning on going back next year.
Have fun, PAD!
So did you rig the game to promote your latest Spider-man? Definitely a nice touch! Are people also recognizing Ariel for when you plugged her team in X-Factor 8? It’s nice seeing a proud father boast about his daughter everywhere…
It does seem a bit too coincidental that the same week the latest FNSM is released, there’s a Marvel-DC softball game with the score 22-11.
Did anyone throw a retcon bomb during the game?
PAD – Do any creators take part in the game or is it more staff? Anyone that we would know take part in it?
Garrett
Looking forward to seeing you in Chicago in a few weeks.
Isn’t 2211 where the 2099 books would have been now were they not all canceled?
“112 Years Later”
“Isn’t 2211 where the 2099 books would have been now were they not all canceled?”
What do you mean?
I have fond memories of the DC/Marvel softball game. Which is to say I remember an issue of “Captain America” where Mark Waid had Cap crashland a QuinJet on the baseball field as Kurt Busiek was up at bat.
sorry if someione beat me to the punch. But Marvel VS DC 2211 sounds like a GREAT crossover.
Your comment on how people are recognizing your daugther and congradulating her on her bowling achievements is the perfect opening I need to slip in a question I wanted to ask you in your “Open Forum” thread but didn’t get the chance: How you feel the internet has changed the relationship between comicbook celebrities and the general public?
When I first started reading comics in the late 70’s, writers, artists, editors, the whole lot, were just names in the credits. All I really knew about their personal lifes came from the ocasional snipit in “Bullpen Bulletins” or from the ocasional interview in fanzines after I discovered the direct market in the mid 80s.
Now we’re at the point were at conventions people can not only comment to you about you’re latest Spiderman story(What the F@#k? Uncle Ben *SHOOTS* the future Spiderman? Come On! A) Where did he get the gun? and B) the *real* Uncle ben would never have done something like that no matter what alternate reality he’s lived through. So now instead thinking how cool it’s going to be to see how having Uncle Ben back in his life is going to effect Peter, I’m now looking at this guy as no better then those fake android parents of Peter’s that they brought in low those many years ago.)(But don’t worry to much; I’ve long since learned never to judge any of your stories until the whole arc is complete.)
(That is a compiment)
Anyways, does it ever seem wierd that people at conventions can not only make comments like that about your writing but can now also tell you what they think of the color of wallpaper that you have in your living room?
Does it ever get wierd to have some many strangers feel like they know you personally?
When I was on DC’s softball team, we were nearly unbeatable. Then one day, the rest of DC’s staff decided to join us for one day to play in one big softball “party”– including Peter’s Pal, Bob Greenburger (TM)– and we were slaughtered. The non-regulars promptly slinked backed to their windowless cubbyholes and we promptly went back to dismantling the much more serious softballers among New York’s literary elite. Such wonderful times!
Gotta ask, the curiousity is killing me, did you play in the game?
Peter, spotted you and Ariel passing by on the show floor today; you looked like you were limping. Everything okay? (It’s a big floor to walk so I hope it’s nothing more serious than blisters!)
Insideman: when were you on DC’s team? When I was there in ’88-90 (dear God, I’m old) we also beat the heck out of most all comers. Although it’s not true that Bob Rozakis hired me just because I could pitch.
Hi.
We talked briefly at the San Degio Convetion after your seminar on Urban Fantasy. I was the one who mentioned the Mary Sues. You said (I hope I’m remembering this right) that you didn’t like the term being applied to other fandoms because it was essentially watering down the definition, much like “Sexual Harssement” used to refer to a very specific thing and now it refers to just about any one who makes a dirty joke.
In the case of Mary Sues, I don’t think this has happened. I’ve actually studied them, and written several academic papers. And in many cases they’ve only gotten more “Sueish” than the original Star Trek Mary Sue.
If you look at the fan fiction, for example, in Harry Potter, you find that there are hundreds of girls like the Unicorn Princess of America, about a girl who has magical abilties that don’t require a wand and is the Wizarding Princess who lives in America in exile because the British wizards feared the powers of Queen and her children because they were Sorceresses. Not only that but the Unicorn Princess knows Harry, having met him before and some how manages to have gone to Hogwarts despite this so called exile and now she’s going back to teach Harry Olcolmancy and she can feel Harry’s pain through some sort of bond that they have. (And this was only the first chapter).
If that is not a Mary Sue, I don’t know what is. And it is to those characters that I would ascribe the term “Mary Sue” to. These outrageous, out of canon characters that skew the canon world and turn the canon characters into parodies of themselves.
They may have different forms but they all have the same character tropes that the original Mary Sue had, including the stunning abilties, the amazing powers (mentally, physically or magically) and the ability to make reality and characters bend to their whim.
So, while in some instances the broadening of a term may in fact weaken its original meaning, I think in the case of a Mary Sue, by limiting it to just the Star Trek fandom, limits the vocabulary of the fan fiction genre as a whole when trying to come up with a description for certain characters. Especially if they would be required to come up with a new name for essentailly the same character in each fandom.
Oh, and the generally accepted term for a Male Mary Sue is “Gary Stu” or “Marty Stu”. I prefer the term “Gary Stu” personally.
On the other side of things, I really enjoyed listening to your seminar and it was a great pleasure for me to be able to talk with you afterwards, even for the brief moment that it was. It was the highlight of my day.
I do hope that you don’t mind me rambling on like this, but fan fiction and popular culture is something that always fascinated me, and it gave me a thrill to sort of try and discuss it with a favorite author of mine.
Much thanks.
Kippur
So, any thoughts on this?
As to Mary Sue — the biggest recent Mary Sue i’ve encountered (and judging by the reviews on Amazon, i’m far from alone in calling it) is Mercedes Lackey’s “Exile’s Valor”, in which chronicler-herald Myste wins the love of the grim, strong hero and, incidentally, saves the world — i mean country.
(Incidentally, i made two posts to the “Superman Returns” thread — one the first day it was running, and, so far as i know, neither ever appeared…)
Highlight of the con yeah i’m the áššhølë what raged through the impact booth tearing it apart.
So, any thoughts on this?
Prolonged exposure will cause you painful spasms?
In case anyone actually looks at my picture linked above and goes, “Madrox shirt!? I have to get me one of those!” I will pimp my friends website which she made while I was away and unable to pimp it at comic con. It is http://www.mutant-america.com/