Category: 1

So New York Comicon was a lot of fun. Had my picture taken with Clark Gregg.

Met an entire cosplaying Young Justice, including Empress, Slo-Bo and Secret whom I’ve never seen cosplayed before.

But here was the high point.

Continue Reading “You Ain’t Never Had a Friend Like Him” →

First of all, I want to make clear that I very much appreciate the kind comments and even outrage from many fans who are objecting to X-Factor being cancelled. I think it’s swell that people have started a “Save X-Factor” Facebook page and tried to get “SaveANXF” trending on Twitter.

I would also like to say something to the people who are declaring that I’m obviously angry or petulant or whatever because I mentioned that the “wait for trade” attitude leads to books being canceled.

I love how people keep saying that I’m upset. That I’m complaining. That I’m whining. That I’m castigating paying customers. No, I’m really not, and if you people think I sound angry, then I am frankly astounded at the low tolerance level of an Internet that thinks nothing of posting the most vicious, nasty, mean-spirited and typically anonymous comments about creators in the industry and then howl with indignation when any creator (not just me, but any others on countless occasions) says anything that can be remotely construed as hostile.

No, I’m not upset. I simply stated truth. There are some titles that are considered must-buys on a monthly basis and the rest are “I can wait for the trade” and that latter attitude leads to books being canceled. That is simple fact. Now if people want to get angry with me simply because I’m speaking the truth, fine, go ahead. I really don’t care.

PAD

This isn’t a secret because I announced it back at Dragon*Con, but Bleeding Cool seems compelled to announce it incorrectly by stating that X-Factor is cancelled with #19.

Which is not true. It’s cancelled with #20.

Also for some reason Bleeding Cool is associating it with the fact that Quicksilver will be returning to the Avengers and that’s why the book is going away. No, it’s because not enough people are buying it. Which is exactly the reason they cancelled “Gambit” as well, so it’ll probably be a long time before he gets to star in another book.

All I did was write a book that got tons of positive write-ups. Which I guess is enough to encourage people to buy it when it comes out in trades, oblivious to the fact that books get cancelled when you do that. Whatever.

Me, I remember when Rich Johnston used to write to me for confirmation before running stuff. Apparently that’s no longer the case.

PAD

I’ve been reading the Amazon reviews of ARTFUL and overall I’m averaging four stars out of five. So I figure that’s good.

But there seem to be a spate of One-star reviews that read almost uniformly the same:

“Didn’t keep reading it.”

“Couldn’t read it.”

“Don’t read books about vampires.”

“Read one chapter, stopped.”

Maybe I’m being oversensitive, but how can anyone claim to have an informed opinion about a book that they didn’t complete? Or that they didn’t even start? One person even gave it a one-star review because they never received it? The hëll?

I don’t mind if someone reads a book of mine and declares they didn’t like it, but I don’t see why they feel the need to slam it without having actually bothered to read it.

PAD

I have no idea why. I just am.

Mr. Lance Shaw was my eighth grade history teacher when I was living in Verona, NJ. But before I had him in eighth grade, I heard about him in seventh grade. All the eighth graders would tell us how awful he was. That he was relentlessly brutal, demanding. That he worked them ragged. The horror stories about Mr. Shaw were legendary and if you wound up getting him, then God help you.

When I got my eighth grade schedule and found I had Mr. Shaw as a teacher, my heart sank. I cannot tell you how much I dreaded the class.

On the first day, we filed in, and every student was nervous. We’d all heard the horror stories. Once the bell rang, Shaw surveyed us a moment.

Then he said the following:

“I have two rules. The first is that you will address me as King Shaw or Your Highness.”

We all exchanged confused looks.

“And the second rule is that you will spend from now until the end of the school year telling all the seventh graders what a terrible and terrifying teacher I am. I want you to petrify them.”

That’s when we realized. It was a joke. A massive school-wide joke. Shaw was, in fact, a perfectly nice guy, a great teacher, and had a snarky sense of humor. He had been using his students to spread awful rumors about him so that new students would be terrified of him at first and then love the notion that, No, Shaw’s not a bad guy, we’re just hosing everyone else in the school.

And naturally when we got out of the class and went to lunch, the first thing we did was terrorize the seventh graders about Mr. Shaw.

I’ve no idea whatever happened to him after that, of course, but I hope he stuck with teaching. He was great.

PAD

Kath here.

If you haven’t wished Peter Happy Birthday on Facebook or Twitter, feel free to do it here or even if you have wished him a happy Birthday on Facebook and/or the Twitter.

I wanted to post a Happy Birthday to my husband, my best friend, and an all around sweet guy.

I love you Peter David and wish nothing but happiness for you in the coming year.

Kath ‘the wife’ David

I’m afraid that I’m going to come across like a cranky fan sitting in my rocking chair complaining about the kids running around on my lawn. Nevertheless, recent instances of fan entitlement are starting to get on my nerves.

I’m not talking about previously discussed situations such as fans coming up with all sorts of excuses for stealing material and claiming that it’s okay to do so. Those are entertaining as always, but not really big on my mind at the moment.

No, I’m thinking about the current fans of “Once Upon a Time” who are not only convinced that their views are not being represented on the series, but are going after such blameless targets as the actors, targeting them with hostile tweets and such. And you thought it was bad when a villainess in a soap opera couldn’t go food shopping without being harassed by customers.

Continue Reading “What the Hëll is Wrong with Fans?” →