We went yesterday to see one of the first teen productions of “Les Miserables,” up in Fairfield, CT. It featured Kate and Robbie Greenberger, daughter and son of DC editor Bob Greenberger, in the ensemble. Working from a script that was custom-pared for high schools by the show’s producers, the students performed admirably in one of the most demanding musicals in existence (how it’s called a musical and not an opera, I don’t know.) Particular standouts were the kids playing Valjean, Thenardier, Eponine, and I thought the kid who was playing Gavorche could easily step right into a professional production.

PAD

So having tired of the packed-in crowds at the Long Island Ducks baseball games, we opted instead for the relatively emptiness of major league baseball by going to Shea stadium on Saturday. The bit-more-than-half filled stadium was hemorrhaging fans by the seventh inning as the Mets found themselves down 10-4 to the Cardinals. We hung out since we had reasonably good seats in foul ball territory (although we didn’t catch any.)

Going into the bottom of the ninth, still down 10-4, the roving camera guy in the “crowd” aimed his lens at two nuns. The nuns appeared on the Jumbotron and one of them promptly crossed herself and clasped together her hands in supplication. The message was clear: Only Jesus could help the Mets now.

Whereupon the Mets promptly rallied. Before a stunned crowd and a fumbling Cardinals outfield, the Mets strung together five runs, bringing it to 10-9 and runners on the corners with two outs. Unfortunately Jesus must have sneezed or his attention was drawn elsewhere for a moment, because a long fly ball caught by a running Cards outfielder ended the game one short of a total comeback. Still, a 10-9 nail-bitter was a hëll of a lot more entertaining than the 10-4 blowout we thought we were going to end up with.

And apparently to make up to the Rally Nuns for his lapse, Jesus came on strong for the Sunday game and the Mets won 13-5.

All those times I sat there, watched the Mets and muttered “Chriiiist,” who knew? I’m only hoping the Rally Nuns come there regularly from now on. The Mets need all the help they can get.

PAD

I suppose, now that it’s hit the web (after all, Mark Evanier talks about it here) that we can let the cat out of the bag.

The film version of CODENAME: COURAGE will be out July 4, 2004, lord willing and the creek don’t rise. The beginning of the promotional site is up here, I assume it will get better as it gets closer to release. Here’s hoping this film is closer to Peter’s version of his comic than Hulk was.

Don Swan’s documentary about the process of this thing going from comic book to movie has also generated some interest, and may be distributed by Miramax. Peter does show up in the documentary, and details on that can be found here.

I used to post on the John Byrne board when he’d go off on another one of his inaccurate rants about me. No point nowadays. Not only does the merest mention of my name cause denizens to cry “Off topic” or tremble in fear that a fight might break out and disturb the peace), but John announced that he now has the power to lock up threads and delete posts to cut down on some of the “twaddle.” The hilarious bit was that he announced it in a thread titled “Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair.” It is gloriously ironic that he quoted the famed Shelley poem “Ozymandias,” a cautionary parable about the futility of egomania and the emptiness of self-aggrandization. It’s the most unintentionally self-revelatory thing John’s said since he used a quote from a fictional Nazi as his sig line.

In any event, John–who never hesitates to castigate others for proclaiming to be mindreaders, but doesn’t hesitate to put forward his opinions on my state of mind as fact–claimed, “PAD is evidentally one of those people who cannot separate himself from his work, and so has taken each of my comments as a personal attack, responding with personal attacks, including most unprofessional “commentary” in the comic books he writes.”

Well, no. I’ve pointed out that some of his critiques of my work were wildly inaccurate (for instance, holding up Spidey 2099 #1 as an example of how to do a first issue wrong because the hero never appears in costume…except he does, for eight pages. Later John admitted he hadn’t actually read it, but stood by his opinion nonetheless.) And I’ve taken his personal attacks as personal attacks (for instance, his claiming that I advocated the concept of people standing by and doing nothing while policemen were beaten to death.) But I’ve written quite a bit more than John has, and separating myself from the work has become pretty easy. Unfortunately, John doesn’t quite seem to be able to reciprocate. For instance, he obviously thought the sequence in “Captain Marvel #2” in which Rick Jones laughs at the Hulk Annual was some sort of retaliation directed at John. No. I would have done the same sequence no matter who wrote that idiot annual, presuming the editor let me.

Jeez. Jack Kirby created Funky Flashman and HouseRoy, obvious Stan Lee and Roy Thomas pastiches. What an unprofessional that Jack Kirby was. And hey, how about that story featuring a superpowered character visually based on Jim Shooter, right down to the acne scars as I recall, blowing off his own foot with a blast beam. Who is the unprofessional person who drew that story? I’m trying to remember…

PAD

Dreamwave has informed me that the second issue of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” has sold out.

Also, FYI, issue #5 will be the first issue that is wholly original and not a “re-view” of one of the animated episodes. It’s a lot of fun; Raphael rescues a cat from a tree, which sets off a chain of events that ends up with him fighting for his life.

Really.

PAD

I’ve been informed by editor Andy Schmidt that CAPTAIN MARVEL got the go-ahead for another six issues beyond where we’re scripted, taking us to issue #24. Think of it as being informed by the network that your show’s doing well enough to be picked up for the rest of the season. So that’s pretty positive.

Since Ivan was snapped up to draw “Superman,” I don’t know yet who’s going to be penciling it. Hëll, any volunteers?

PAD

Okay, actually, it’s rated PG-13.

“Pirates of the Carribean” was a fun film. Now I have to admit I’m a sucker for pirate films going in, so I’m hardly impartial. Furthermore, the movie was about a half hour too long (they go from point A to point B, and then there’s a lot of running around and sword fights and ships firing at each other just so they can get back to point B again.) But the cast does wonders with the material. You’ve got Geoffrey Rush in the “traditional” pirate vein of Captain Barbossa, contrasted with Johnny Depp’s delightful Captain Jack Sparrow, played as a total fop which hides his gloriously devious mind (most particularly when he executes a deft bait-and-switch to obtain a new vessel right under the noses of the British military.)

It’s surprising how many images from the ride they managed to sneak in without it being disruptive to the story flow. Snappy use of CGI and skeletal pirates combined with nudge nudge wink wink self reference makes the film far more entertaining than I expected. It’s easy to determine how many people in the theater really know the ride: At one point, several imprisoned pirates are trying to coax a mangy dog, holding the keys in its mouth, to come toward them. “You can stand there forever and the dog’s never going to move,” says Sparrow, apparently foreseeing the eventual Disneyland tableau featuring exactly that. Anyone who laughs at that has been on the ride. Anyone who doesn’t, hasn’t.

PAD