Originally published October 27, 2000, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1406

“I have a plan… and it’s so cunning you could stick a tail on it and call it a weasel.”—Edmund Blackadder

I wasn’t going to write about this, but several friends of mine in the fan community have told me I should because they thought you guys might be interested. And I suppose it’s somehow appropriate: Although it was never anything I’ve intended, I’ve lived my life in this column. Ups, downs, good times and bad; it’s been like weekly therapy sometimes, the differences being that I don’t have to pay for it and I’ve got about twenty thousand therapists… most of whom don’t say all that much to me in terms of guidance, but then again, many therapists just sit and listen, and the only time they speak is when they say, “Time’s up.”

So…

I decided to ask Kathleen, my girlfriend of three years, to marry me.

Continue Reading “A Decent Proposal, Part 1” →

Originally published October 20, 2000, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1405

Assorted stuff…

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Rumor mill: What big-mouthed columnist was recently driven to distraction by a rumor started on a comic news service?

Continue Reading “Everything I Need to Know I Learned from the Internet, and more” →

Originally published October 6, 2000, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1403

It was the moment I nearly resigned from The Incredible Hulk.

I had embarked upon a storyline in which Betty Banner was pregnant. Several issues had already come out, and suddenly I was informed by the powers that be that the storyline was to be—you should pardon the expression—aborted.

Continue Reading “Redefining comics for adults, Part 2” →

Originally published September 29, 2000, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1402

The release of the “Ultimate Marvel” line, the first of which launches this week (as of this writing) with Spider-Man, serves several purposes. The first, of course, is that it downgrades the previous forty years of Marvel tales by Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, Jack Kirby, et al, into merely a Penultimate Marvel line, leading up to the overwhelming greatness represented in the new series. A sizable legacy to live up to, indeed. However, it also seeks to address a genuine problem facing many potential new readers: Where to start?

Continue Reading “Ultimate Marvel and redefining comics for adults” →

Originally published September 22, 2000, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1401

Two without-warnings in the past few days…

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The story has it that, at an auction house where a Carl Barks “Scrooge” painting was going up, Steve Geppi of Diamond stood the moment the bidding commenced and raised his bidding paddle. He held it out and up in a manner no less determined than Van Helsing defiantly holding a crucifix in the face of an advancing Count Dracula, and not once did Geppi lower it. So determined was he to get it that he kept the paddle up there, automatically jumping over every would-be competitor until the bidding was all done and he was the owner of it. Such is the determination and passion that the work of the masterful Barks inspired in some folks.

Continue Reading “Remembering Carl Barks’ work & Marvel editorial changes” →