Month: July 2010

Jason Bay was put on the 15-day disabled list.

Who had July 30th?

PAD

First: Back in March, in regards to “Psych,” I wrote:

I happened to stumble over the information that Dule Hill is an accomplished tap dancer. They should totally work that into an episode next season.

Last week’s episode, “Feet Don’t Kill Me Now” was a showcase for Dule Hill’s tap dancing skills.

Second: Back in January, I began “Bay Watch” in which we endeavored to predict when (not if) Jason Bay would wind up on the DL, because the Mets are just that snake bit.

Last week, Bay plowed into a wall catching a fly and concussed himself. They’re now looking at putting him on the DL.

PAD

Disneyland was great, especially since it was the first time I was able to wave my employee ID and get in for free. Because of Epic Mickey, I’m now really into Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. I managed to score the very last copy in the park of the statue of Walt Disney holding Oswald in his hand. Now if anyone has a line on one of the plush Oswald toys they came out with back in 2008, that would be much appreciated.

Bought a second large rolling suitcase to accommodate all the stuff I got at San Diego.

My trip to LA went fine. Paul and Misty Dini were kind enough to let me crash at their place (Misty put “Having a sleepover with Peter David!” on her Facebook page, so that’s gonna start some rumors.) Had story meetings at both the “Ben 10” and “Young Justice” offices, so that was a full day. Flew back on the red eye and had an interesting chat with a very smart young woman who is an actress and filmmaker and also holds a degree in environmental studies. She was working as a booth babe at the San Diego Con, and I wish her well in her career choices.

Sat around at luggage carousel #4 for half an hour, waiting for my suitcases. A Jetblue employee finally got around to coming over and telling us that, no, despite what we’d been told and despite the sign that was up that said this was where we were supposed to get our stuff, the luggage had in fact come out on carousel #1. So we all schlep over there to discover the luggage just sitting there, having been there so long the belt wasn’t even turning anymore. In terms of the nigh-legendary incompetence of JFK baggage handlers, this isn’t quite up there with the time it took a solid hour for the luggage to offload, but it’s close.

Get home at 7 AM. Tiptoe into the silent house and Caroline bounds out of nowhere and says, “Hi, Daddy,” nearly giving me a heart attack. My startled shout wakes Kathleen. Ariel is already downstairs. I hand out gifts, spend some time with the girls, and then collapse. Only now am I starting to feel back to normal.

Or at least what passes for normal.

PAD

A much less frantic day than yesterday. I buzz over in the morning to the airport where I pick up a rental car for my trip up to Los Angeles. I used to fly into LA, rent a car, drive down and then back. I don’t know what I was thinking. The cost of parking the car alone is $200, plus I don’t do much driving during the course of the convention, so it’s a waste of money. This time I flew into San Diego and am flying out of LA (Burbank, actually) and so am just renting at the airport and dropping it off in Burbank. Simple.

My first panel is at 11 AM. It’s on “Halo.” I’m on it at the request of the “Halo” folks so I can talk about my “Halo” limited series, which I do. I have to say, working with the “Halo” folks was a pleasure. If there were things in my scripts that they didn’t like or didn’t think worked, they didn’t simply say, “No.” Instead they say, “Here’s why it doesn’t work, and here’s how you can fix it.” Incredibly knowledgeable and utterly on top of all aspects of their universe.

As I walk across the street, a short guy in sunglasses and a wool hat says, “Now is when I run into you?!”, pumps my hand, says it’s great to see me, and keeps going. It takes me a moment to process that it was Seth Green.

I have a signing at the Marvel booth at 1 PM. I run into old Internet friend Kathy Li, and she in turn is able to have me rendezvous with Maggie Thompson, who I have not managed to catch up with the entire weekend.

I cannot believe how many people in the course of the day tell me they thought I did a great job at “Quick Draw.” First of all, I thought I did a terrible job, and second, how many people were at the dámņëd thing, anyway?

The Pro/Fan Trivia contest is at 3 PM and I’ve agreed to MC. Yet again, Mark Waid–probably the strongest member of the Pro team–bails at the last second, leaving Kurt Busiek and Len Wein high and dry, with an audience member attempting to fill in for Waid. But Waid’s absence is sorely felt as the fans beat the pros in a match that (all parties agree) would have been handily won by the pros had Waid been there since a number of questions would have been in his wheelhouse. As for the questions themselves: ghastly. Incredibly picayune, not particularly entertaining. Good trivia has you going, “Oh, oh, I know this! I know this!” These just mostly drew confusion and blank stares, and not all the attempts at humor I generated could hide that. If the same person is writing the questions next year, they can get someone else to moderate.

I head out to LA, making my customary yearly stop at Disneyland. It’s the first time I’m able to wield my handy dandy Disney employee pass, so I get in free. I could go to California Adventure, where I’ve never been. But it’s no fun going somewhere new in Disney if I have no one to share it with, so I decide to wait until I can go with my family. I buy a new suitcase, which I’m gonna need in order to bring home all the sway I acquired at the convention.

PAD

First, I neglected to mention yesterday that I attended the presentation of the “Young Justice” animated series. The audience reaction seems overwhelmingly positive, and I’m glad to hear it, because (and I am now free to mention it) I’m going to be writing several episodes for the series. I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to reconnect with the characters, even if there are some differences between the guys I wrote and the new incarnation. I would love to tell you all about my first episode, but I’m afraid that it’s…oh, what’s the word…Secret.

Anyway, today is my roughest day in terms of commitments.

The day starts with the third and last signing with Claudio Sanchez of Coheed and Cambria, and rolls right into a signing at the Marvel booth. From there I have to high tail it to the Quick Draw panel. Every year Mark Evanier has both Len Wein and myself participate in “Hidden Words,” in which three words are put up on the screen, revealed to everyone in the place except the challenged individual, and then three artists attempt to convey–via drawing projected on large screens–what the words are. This year Mark has opted for what he calls a “steel cage death match,” with Len and I going head to head. The winner would be decided by audience applause, be declared the “King of Hidden Word,” and move on to the challenge round.

We are given a choice of four envelopes, some of which have easier words than others. Len chooses envelope #2, and I select #1. The good news is, envelope #1 has easier words than #2. The bad news is, whoever is in charge of the envelopes screws up and gives Len the words from #1. They’re challenging, but not overly so.

Mine are murderous. Eventually I get all three, but it’s a struggle. Furthermore, my heart isn’t really in it; I want the crowd to choose Len.

They cross me up and vote for me anyway. I don’t know whether it’s because they liked my efforts more, or are just anxious to see me suffer.

So we go to the bonus round. Some bonus. And then all three artists draw the first word, and it’s identical: A head shot of a cat. I almost fall over laughing. “Cat,” I say. Huzzah. Mark tells the artists to start on the next and before any of them draw a line, I say, “Dog.” Yup. So I figure Evanier would make the third one easy as well.

It was “Miscellaneous.”

Bášŧárd.

I move on to an IDW panel that’s somewhat less exhausting: Transforming Words to Pictures. The panel focuses on the differences between writing comics and novels. One panelist proudly says that she can write an entire novel in a mere four months. This draws oohs and ahhs from the audience. I figure this is not the time to mention I can write a novel in six to eight weeks typically, and I turned out my DS9 novel in fourteen days.

After that is the Disney Epic Mickey panel. It goes fairly well, I think, as Warren Spector runs footage and gameplay from the hotly anticipated game, while I discuss the Digicomics and adaptation of the game itself that I’ve written (accompanied by sample art on the screen.) One guy in the audience is dressed like Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, so that’s a good sign.

I attend the party for the Animators Guild, which my work on “Ben 10” qualifies me for. After that I catch the tail end of the Stan Lee documentary, “With Great Power.”

Then I come back to my room and collapse.

PAD