Category: But I Digress…

Originally published November 2, 2001, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1459

“It’s gonna be great!” said Harlan Ellison, which is usually enough to set off warning bells in my head.

The new great thing that Ellison had masterminded was to be my introduction to, quite simply, the big time. The Big Stage. The Rilly Big Shoo, as Ed Sullivan used to say. Ellison had put together an evening of debate, discussion, and mishugas at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The concept was that Ellison, Neil Gaiman and I would take the stage as—in the spirit of the Three Tenors—the Three High-Verbals.

Continue Reading “The Three High-Verbals, Part 1” →

Originally published October 26, 2001, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1458

Television being a spectacularly imitative medium, producers like to present new shows in ways that will evoke something else which has been successful. One also wants to have as many recognizable elements as possible in order to prompt more people to watch the show.

And it was decided that Superman remains a consistently popular and attractive character (except when Nicholas Cage is slated to play him) and furthermore that Superboy may well appeal to a youthful audience. Not to a juvenile audience, as the previous half hour Superboy series did, but rather that desirable, hotly coveted eighteen-to-twenty four demographic that apparently has money to spare and sets many of the trends for the rest of us.

One can almost see the light bulb flashing over the producers’ heads as they considered a series about Superman’s early years, and came up with the perfect pitch: Kal-El’s Creek.

Continue Reading “TV review: Smallville series premiere” →

Originally published October 19, 2001, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1457

Dragon*Con: The Good and the Bad.

Good: I was scheduled to be on two panels early Friday afternoon… both slated to be held before my actual arrival. For instance, a panel that was to consist of myself and Paul Jenkins was scheduled for 2:30 PM, at which time I was still 30,000 feet in the air. Paul showed up ten minutes late—figuring it was no big deal because I’d be entertaining folks in his absence—to discover that just about everyone had already left because they figured neither of us was going to show. So why is this “good,” you ask? Because Dragon*Con always schedules me for panels before I arrive. Isn’t it nice to know there are things in this world you can absolutely count on? Furthermore, I was also scheduled for panels on Sunday after I left, but I tricked them: I changed my airline reservations to depart Monday so I was actually able to attend the panels. Plus they forgot the other tradition of scheduling me opposite myself (for instance, having me on a Star Trek panel at 4 PM in one place while having me doing a reading at the same time somewhere else.) So all things considered, it wasn’t as disastrous as in previous years.

Continue Reading “Dragon*Con 2001: The Good and the Bad” →

Originally published September 28, 2001, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1454

Enter, a bunch of teenagers sitting around in a room, bored. It’s the summer before their senior year in high school, and a week and a half before school actually starts. They want to make this week and a half count. Unfortunately, there’s nothing to do in this godforsaken town. Their plans to go to the beach and have a picnic dinner have been smashed by the rain.

Teen One: He gets off work at five, right? And then he’s coming to pick us up?

Teen Two: Yeah. But we kinda have to figure out what we’re going to do before he shows up.

Teen Three: Hmm… nothing to do.

Silence

Teen One: Hey, I read that email you sent out. Isn’t there some new movie out with Steve Buscemi?

Teen Three: Yeah, it’s an awesome movie called Ghost World. I highly recommend seeing it.

Light bulbs go off over each of their heads

Teen Three: Hey, let’s go see that. Do you want to?

Teen Two: I’m up for it. Sure.

And off they went. Peter David’s daughter, her best friend Cayley, a French kid, and a designated driver schlepping out to Huntington, a good 45 minute drive, to see a movie. And they lived happily ever after…

* * *

Yep, it’s me again. Gwen! David. My dad took me a few weeks ago to see Ghost World with Thora Birch and Steve Buscemi.

Continue Reading “Movie review by Gwen! David: Ghost World” →

Originally published September 21, 2001, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1453

To a great degree, I look upon my time writing Aquaman as a spectacularly ambitious failure.

I took on the series for two major reasons: First, The Atlantis Chronicles remains, all these years later, some of my favorite work. When the series was being produced, DC’s top people—and I mean top people—spoke enthusiastically about it being a perennial favorite, kept perpetually in print a la Watchmen with additional spinoff titles and even merchandising. None of it ever materialized. DC remains resolute in not even offering a trade paperback collection, despite fan request (and with Bob Greenberger over at Marvel now, the only person there who ever continued to spearhead a collection movement is gone.) So I was hoping that by taking on Aquaman, and incorporating storylines and elements which originated in Chronicles, that it would finally spur a TPB collection of that series. Still hasn’t happened. By this point, I’ve given up hope. Ostensibly the project is simply undoable… despite the fact, interestingly, that they managed to collect it just fine in Italy.

Failure number one.

Continue Reading “On Writing Aquaman” →

Originally published September 7, 2001, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1451

A couple of things this time out…

Continue Reading “A Pair of Challenges” →

Originally published August 31, 2001, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1450

Although intercompany rivalry and jabbing between Marvel and DC is hardly anything new, in the past it was always done with a sense of… I dunno… style. And humor. Cast your recollections to the days of “Our Distinguished Competition,” which always sounded to me like a southern lawyer sparring with a northerner. Or just calling the competition “Brand Echh,” in a send-up of commercials at the time which wouldn’t compare themselves directly to competitors but instead use a generic substitute (as opposed to now when Advil will not hesitate to tell you it’s better than Excedrin, Bayer, Tylenol, Dristan, and sex all rolled into one.)

And DC occasionally took shots back, mostly aimed at Stan’s ego… and, most memorably, Marvel expatriate Jack Kirby basing the characters “Funky Flashman” and “Houseroy” on Stan Lee and Roy Thomas. As a young reader, that went right past me without ruining the stories, as the best in-jokes should.

But now, though… the kid gloves seem to be coming off. Friendly feuding is rapidly being replaced by what seems to be genuine dislike and personality clashes, at a time when the industry still needs a ton of work to become genuinely healthy. Under those circumstances, watching DC and Marvel wail on each other is kind of like watching a T-Rex and a triceratops going at it while sinking into a tarpit.

Continue Reading “Undistinguished Competition” →