It occurs to me that you folks may have general questions you never get answered. So feel free to post them here. What I will then do (or at least am planning to do, unless it turns out I can’t for some reason) is use the edit function to respond directly to the questions right where you ask them. That way folks won’t have to scroll like mad to find the answers.

If I think the thread’s getting too long, I’ll cut off responses and we’ll do another round in a week or so.

PAD

ADDENDUM: Okay, it’s 12:30 AM and I’m cutting off the postings now. I’ll answer these as I have time over the next few days.

So I’ve been reading HULK for the past year, determined to wrap myself around why it is that the book is so beloved.

Guys…is it me? Be honest. Seriously. Am I so biased that I’m simply *incapable* of understanding the book’s success? Don’t get me wrong: Bruce Jones, perfectly good writer Loved his stuff on Ka-Zar.

But, my God, people say *I* drag out stories? Snails could do windsprints around this pacing. The latest storyline is pretty much the last straw for me. Five issues to tell a story in which the Hulk makes no significant appearance until the last issue…at which time, unless I’m reading it wrong, he did nothing to aid in the resolution of the story. That’s not even taking into account that the Absorbing Man talks and acts nothing like the Absorbing Man of forty years standing.

Yet fans support the book by the carload.

Really, I desperately want to understand the popularity. Someone explain it to me.

PAD

With Fox News providing it so much publicity that you’d have to think the author should send them a nice fruit basket, Al Franken’s “Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right” is out in stores. The case (for a temporary injunction –GH) was tossed out of court by a judge who dismissed it by saying, “This is an easy case” and ruled that in no way, shape or form could the book possibly cause confusion in the marketplace.

The most hilarious line to come out of the proceedings was the Fox attorney who, when faced with the fact that satire and parody have First Amendment protection, opined about the book’s cover, “This is much too subtle to be considered a parody.”

You have to love that. A title as subtle as a brick through a window, but Fox attorney’s consider it “too subtle to be considered a parody.” Yup, this is definitely the irony-blind network that bills itself as “fair and balanced,” all right. Of course, no one expects Franken’s book to be fair and balanced: That’s kind of the point. Franken doesn’t mean it; Fox does.

I’ve bought my copy and expect to be reading it within the next couple of days.

PAD

Tom Galloway pointed out the Diamond Catalogue entry that lists an exciting new action figure: The “Ariel Flipping Spider-Man.“

This, of course, prompts visions of Spider-Man chucking the Little Mermaid–or possibly my third daughter–into the air like a pancake. Or, hey…it could be exactly what it says: Ariel flipping Spider-Man, implying she’s either throwing him, or perhaps extending the middle finger of her hand at him.

Tom’s supposition is that it’s a typo for “Aerial.” But that couldn’t be it. Diamond, and Marvel, never make mistakes.

PAD

Here you go. Doubling as the “Whad’ja think?” and potentially (unless indicated otherwise) for publication in a future issue of “Captain Marvel.”

PAD

Read for yourself. Here are the first five pages of FALLEN ANGEL #3. Yes, it’s “For Mature Readers”, which means that you probably shouldn’t be reading if you are upset by drawings of pretty females in schoolgirl uniforms, women with bindings on their feet, or possibly inappropriate touching of a young schoolgirl’s knee…

(What? Me using lurid and overwrought descriptions to tittilate and get more people to read Peter’s book than otherwise might? Perish the thought!)

Continue Reading “FALLEN ANGEL #3 Preview, or, “What’s all this “Mature Reader” fuss about, anyway?”” →

Catching up on my e-mail, I just got finished reading an e-mail from my editor informing me that, beginning with issue #3, “Fallen Angel” would carry a “Mature Readers” label, and I wrote back to her and asked if I can publicize this on my blog.

Then what do I find out? That it’s already been announced on Newsarama.com.

Personally I’ve never been a big fan of labels because, as the Jesus Castillo cased proved, they provide as much protection against persecution as a sieve against a rainstorm. But I do believe that retailers should be informed at the time of solicitation as to specific adult material so they can order accordingly. However, ultimately DC’s the publisher, and if their comfort level dictates it should carry a label, that’s their call to make.

Interestingly, it frees me up language wise. I can pretty much have the characters say anything I want now, something I was originally told I could do, but then told I couldn’t because the book *didn’t* carry a Mature Readers label. Nevertheless, I can’t help but feel that profanity is becoming overused in comics to the point where it’s lost its shock value. Profanity is like any other tool: It should be used at the right time to accomplish the right effect. If the story is filled with explicit language from the get-go, it loses whatever power it might have to indicate stress or anger. So although certain words may come creeping into the conversation–words like “swell” and “So’s your old man!”–they’ll be used judiciously.

PAD