I thought you might be interested in this rough sketch of the cover for “Artful” which will be coming out this summer from Amazon Books. The cover is by Douglas Smith, the marvelous artist who has done, among other things, the covers for the “Wicked” books. The full title for the book is: ARTFUL: Being the Heretofore Secret History of that Unique Individual, The Artful Dodger, Hunter of Vampyres (Amongst Other Things). You can order it now
Originally published March 17, 2000, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1374
Assorted things…
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Catherine Zeta-Jones announced that, when she marries Michael Douglas, she would be changing her name to Catherine Zeta-Douglas. What a crying shame that she didn’t hook up with a guy whose last name is Beam. Then she could be Catherine Zeta-Beam, giving endless amusement to Adam Strange fans everywhere.
Here we go after the jump.
I will be doing commercial blogging on the Super Bowl this Sunday. Swing on by.
PAD
Originally published March 10, 2000, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1373
I’ve been doing this column for nearly a decade and also having a lousy memory, which naturally presents a danger: I don’t recall whether I’ve covered certain topics or not. So if I have discussed the following, then hopefully I’ll say something new. If I haven’t, then it’s completely new.
Which actually makes me wonder about commercials when they advertise an episode by saying, “An all-new episode.” What’s meant by that? It’s not a rerun? Then why don’t they just say “new”? What’s with the “all?” It particularly annoys me when it’s an episode that’s actually a clip show. You know the type I mean. There’s a framing device of some sort—someone’s looking at a photo album, or one character has amnesia and someone else is filling them in on their life. And there are scenes from other episodes for illustration, which wind up occupying fifty percent or more of screen time. I’ve seen that on Xena more than a few times. So where do they get off calling that an “all-new” episode? Because it’s not. A lot of it’s old.
Am I the only one who worries about these things? Besides Jerry Seinfeld, I mean?
Probably.
God, I need a life.
Mushing on: One of the questions I continually get asked (which leads me to believe that either I didn’t discuss it, or I did but lots of people missed it or didn’t pay attention) is whether I pay attention to critiques and comments from the fans. They’re certainly unavoidable. They’re all over the place, in boards and folders and such.
The answer is, yes, I always pay attention. But how I react to that commentary varies depending upon the circumstances and my mood. Here are the various techniques I’ve used regarding fan comments.
At this spot tonight at 9 PM EST. Swing by.
PAD
Okay, I’m tuned into PBS and ready for the speech. I’m pretty sure this is the first live blog I’ve done since the stroke (that I’ve typed myself; Kath did the typing on last year’s Oscar blog), so it should be interesting. And here we go after the jump.
Originally published March 3, 2000, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1372
Snail mail has trickled these days, most people choosing to communicate via e-mail. And because e-mail requires so little effort, some of them tend to be minimalist—letters that I call “What’cha thinks?” What’cha think of this or that. Understand: I’m not being disingenuous when I say that I’m not entirely sure why folks ask what I think. Perhaps they want to hear my opinion so that they use it to form an opposite opinion. In any event, herewith a scattering of recent “What’cha thinks…”
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