Month: June 2010

So to make a short story long

Posted By: Peter DavidPosted On:

Nearly three weeks ago, for no discernible reason, I started developing pain in my right hip. I was fine once I started walking or if I was sitting or lying down; but the transition from sitting to standing was agonizing. (And if that doesn’t seem a problem, then keep track of the number of times you go from sitting to standing and vice versa in the course of a day). They took X-rays and found nothing relevant to hip pain. So they put me on some heavy-duty pain killers and recommended, just as a precaution, that I see an orthopedist.

By the time I saw the orthopedist, it had gotten worse. Walking no longer kick started my hip; now I couldn’t walk without a cane (although to assuage my new found sense of vulnerability, I was using my sword cane.) The orthopedist believed that it could be a pinched nerve and put me on a prescription of pregnazone, but also slated me for an MRI. And I was on the clock, because this was happening on Wednesday and I was slated to get on an airplane the following Monday for a business trip.

The MRI was barely 24 hours later. By that point, it had spread to both my hips and my thighs down to my knees (although not into them, thankfully). I couldn’t believe how fast I was degenerating. I was now in pain 24/7. There was no comfortable position for me; at most, I could become so exhausted that I would pass out for an hour here or there before the pain awoke me. That was my equivalent of sleep.

They got back the MRI results and that’s when it pretty much went right off the rails.

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Conventional Days

Posted By: Peter DavidPosted On:

digresssmlOriginally published May 21, 1993, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1018

I am shortly (if I have not already left when you’ve read this) off to Romania to observe/help-where-I-can with the filming of Trancers IV and Trancers V.

Therefore, in my endeavor to thrill and entertain folks on a consistent basis, I’m going to be writing the next four installments of BID one after the other, bang bang bang. This might have some effect on the timeliness of the column, but that’s the way it goes. Things will return to normal once I’m back.

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What has been going on in Casa David

Posted By: Kathleen DavidPosted On:

by Kathleen David

As some of you know Peter had surgery on Friday to relieve a rather serious back problem that was progressively getting worse. He got through it as well as expected all things considered. He is resting comfortably at home now working on getting better. His time on the internet is rather limited but he wanted to assure those who have been asking him questions, that he will get to them in a day or so.

The girls are fine. Caroline has a pretty good understanding of what is going on but I think it is still pretty scary for her. Ariel has been helping a lot with Caroline so I have been able to concentrate on Peter.

More news as we have it but right now we are taking it a day at a time.

Stranger than Fiction

Posted By: Peter DavidPosted On:

digresssmlOriginally published May 14, 1993, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1017

Several years back, I wrote a four-issue run on Web of Spider-Man about a group called the “Cult of Love.” A grief-stricken Betty Leeds was easy pickings for the mind-manipulating group, and the story focused on Spider-Man’s attempts to get her out of the Cult’s clutches.

(The story also featured a subplot about Mary Jane contemplating posing nude for Playboy—a storyline which was the victim of last minute editorial cold feet. It was art-and-dialogue-changed to MJ’s trying to decide whether she should model skimpy lingerie—rendering the subsequent angst totally nonsensical. So if you ever happen to reread the story, all you have to do is substitute “naked” for “in skimpy underwear” and mentally undress MJ during the photo sequences, which shouldn’t be too much of a chore. But I digress.)

At the climax of the story, a crazed cult member wound up torching the whole establishment. Most of the cultists managed to get out, although the leader did not, when the roof collapsed on him.

The storyline was written up in the Skeptical Inquirer, a publication that debunks professional scam psychics and other “paranormal” activities. They said nice things about it because it helped to explain, in detail, some of the tricks that cult leaders use to convince their followers that they are genuine miracle workers.

It was a nice little four-parter (Mary Jane story butchering aside), but I hadn’t given it much thought until recently when I was at home watching CNN, which was covering the FBI tear-gas assault on the Branch Davidians, the followers of self-proclaimed messiah David Koresh. And I watched in amazement as, suddenly, fire started to break out in several different places in the compound.

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Barf Bag Hand Puppets, Part 3

Posted By: Peter DavidPosted On:

digresssmlOriginally published May 7, 1993, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1016

Previous installments:  Part 1 – Part 2

In the past two weeks I’ve been juggling a young adult novel, a screenplay, income taxes, and my daughter’s Bat-Mitzvah. With all those balls in the air, I’ve got my butt in a sling, which means—yes, that’s right—a quick fill in. And that means one of two things:

1) Top 10 list

or

2) Barf bags

Show of hands. Who wants a top 10 list? Please, no pushing. No, you over there, you can’t raise both hands. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Hands down.

Okay. Who wants barf bags?

Ah, that’s rather overwhelming. OK, then—

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“Toy Story 4: Woody Hex”

Posted By: Kathleen DavidPosted On:

You don’t need me to tell you how brilliant “Toy Story 3” was, so I’ll just move right onto my scenario for “Toy Story 4”:

Sid from the original “Toy Story” shows up (all grown up and totally psychotic since the toy-attack incident from the first film) and destroys all of Woody’s toy friends, leaving Woody’s face partly melted. Now it’s up to Woody Hex (and the only other survivor, Buzzeye–Bullseye but with Buzz Lightyear’s head attached)–to track down his friends’ killer and seek vengeance upon him. The climactic sequence when Sid dies from the snake in his boot would be an instant classic.

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