Well, not "back" technically. Down in Florida where my family is vacationing....the "getting to" of which via Jetblue was a horror story that I'll write up in my next blog entry.
Most of my San Diego "news" has already been posted elsewhere. Yes, "X-Factor," the continuation of "Madrox," will be starting up in November. Yes, I've signed with Pocket books to do two Marvel novels, "Fantastic Four" and "Wolverine." Yes, I'll be leaving the Hulk because my work load has effectively quadrupled, although I certainly wouldn't rule out coming back to it at some point in the near future.
Overall, had a really good time this year. Made a lot of very positive contacts, had meals with a variety of friends including Marv Wolfman, Len Wein, Mike Richardson, Mark Evanier, Maggie Thompson, Paul Dini, Chris Valada and her son (whose name escapes me, sorry, dude.) Attended fun parties including a Stan Lee bash where I met Dallas Cowboy Darian Barnes, who turned out to be a big fan of my work (he let me hold his Superbowl ring while he checked out my 800 Bowling ring, an action that Barbara Kesel opined had a bizarre subtext she didn't want to dwell on.) Met John Landis and his son, attended the Eisners, participated in panels, actually walked the entire floor of the dealers room, resisted the temptation to drop $250 on a replica of the Shakespeare bust from "Batman", meeted and greeted many fans including folks on this board (including various lurkers who I urged to participate), and found the time to buy and read the latest Harry Potter book (which I'll start a thread on once more people have had a chance to read it, so please don't comment on it here.)
For me, a high point was having the chance to chat with Ray Harryhausen. I asked him what he thought of today's CGI effects versus the way it was done in his day. He made a really valid point: That he preferred the monsters and such that he produced in his day, because the fact that they weren't perfect--but only close approximations of human or animal movement--gave them a nightmarish quality that heightened the fear element. But that the computerized images generated now are so perfect, that they've taken the fantastic and rendered them mundane. I think he may well be right.
In any event, more abot the Jetblue horror show later. We're off now to visit with Shana.
PAD
Posted by Peter David at July 20, 2005 09:21 AM | TrackBack | Other blogs commenting
It sounds like the coming year is going to be huge for you, and this year wasn't too shabby either ;)
Congrats PAD.
Wow. Um. This is the first that I am hearing that you are leaving the Hulk. It upsets me greatly. I collected the book for over a decade solely because of your authorship. Your return to the title made it the only Marvel title I'm currently reading. I personally don't care at all about X-Factor, Spider-Man, the novels, etc. The only Marvel character I care about is the Hulk, and it's a Peter David Hulk or bust.
I haven't seen any posts since 7/14. Glad the system is working.
Sounds like an awesome time. Now that I live in the Dallas area, I would rather meet Peter David than Darian Barnes. I'll be looking forward to the new novels. I always have appreciated reading your novels. Thank you again.
I think it would be cool to speak to Marv Wolfman and Lein Wein to discuss how comics have evolved over the years. I will admit to missing some of the old special effects but I always viewed it as a generational thing.
Off to play Candyland with my 4 year old!
Yuk, sorry to see you leave Hulk and go to X-factor. I steer clear of X-books due to X-overs and such and the Spider-man starting at a cross over still stinks so maybe I'll try it at #4. I'll grab you on Hulk again in the future (and no didn't pick up any of HoM cross overs) Marvel really needs to put a lid on this. Oh well, not good news from my view point.
You know, PAD, on Friday my wife and I were up in the autographs area for the Rebecca Moesta signing (the one where they should have made a seperate line for those that only wanted Amber Benson's autograph, rather than making those that didn't stand in line for 45 minutes for the other authors).
I saw you come up and chat with Adam Busch for a minute, and they you went wandering around. And you kept wandering around the area for like 5 minutes. I almost went over to you to see if you were lost or something. :)
Sorry to hear that you won't be on Hulk anymore, PAD. I always thought that you had the best take on the character(s) and added much depth to Bruce, Hulk and the whole supporting cast. But at least you're off it because you're busy as hell, so we'll be blessed with plenty of your writing over the coming year.
Ugh, though I have enjoyed the handful of issues since your return to the title, it seems almost a tease of what might have been. I hope that the next writer who comes onto the title can keep my interest for longer than the previous handful between your runs. Guess we'll see.
A Wolverine novel, nice. Will this be a novelization of the Wolverine solo film that has been bandied about or a completely original story? I'm curious to read your interpretation of the scrappy little guy in a prose-only format.
Congrats on the new projects, we'll miss ya on the Hulk.
Fred
Well, congratulations and I wish you the best in all your projects. Personally, I'd prefer you on Hulk and not writting novels, but that's not my choice. I'll keep buying whatever comic book you write (although I usually wait for the tpb, too expensive in Japan to follow you monthly, sorry).
Leaving the Hulk? This sucks. You might come back to it in the future? Don't bother none of us will be reading it. You've already proved you can come home again, but I don't think even you can do it three times.
CGI is mundane compared to the stuff Harryhausen did, just like an automoble is mundane compared to a horse and buggy.
Steve:
>Leaving the Hulk? This sucks. You might come back to it in the future? Don't bother none of us will be reading it.
I would. I'd venture to say that others would as well.
Aaaaand... HULK most likely drops off my pull list again (depending on who the new writer ends up being). But X-FACTOR goes on, of course, so no net financial difference. :)
For me, a high point was having the chance to chat with Ray Harryhausen.
Ray has been one of my heroes since i was a kid. I've dabbled in stop motion animation when super-8 was around and am now learning to use CGI for some hopefully upcoming low budget movie projects. Ray is absolutely correct.
The thing about Stop motion is not so much that the technique is imperfect but that, in some ways, it is too perfect. Each frame presents the animated figure in perfect, sharp focus, whereas you can introduce the expected imperfections of film into CGI like the blurring of a fast moving figure.
Actually, animator Jim Danforth double exposed frames of film in WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH to imitate real life and the results were fascinating--the smoothest stop motion ever but with much less of the dynamic qualities that Harryhausen's strobing creatures presented.
The thing that CGI seems to have a hard time doing is to give the characters that personality that Ray's creatures had. In a movie where the creatures are just bit players that's ok but I worry about KING KONG. Still, the one bright hope has to be the amazing work Jackson and crew did with Gollum, so all is not lost.
For my money, the best use of CGI was probably in MARS ATTACKS, where they deliberately imitated the perfect imperfections of stop motion animation.
Now I'm really kicking myself for not going. My buddy Joe Fludd (who says he had a nice chat with you, PAD) was there and says he saw Ray Harryhausen, Ray Bradbury, and Forry Ackerman together. Just as well, I'd probably fall to the floor and do the "We're not worthy!" bow, which would embarrass them all, however well deserved.
Wow, I had no clue that Bradbury was even there. I just got back from a vacation in MI...... where I brought my old copy of Fahrenheit 451 to reread for the first time in nearly 20 years. Some of the pieces of future science that he threw in over 50 years ago are frightenly close to what has actually come to be. It was even scarier in its implications now than it was back in the mid 80's.
Fred
When did a new X-Factor get announced (aside from right here and, presumedly, in San Diego)? I must have missed that.
Thank you so, so much for deciding to be a part of the new "X-Factor." I cannot put into words how happy I was when I read the news, especially the roster. This is a dream come true for me since your original run on "X-Factor" was one of the first comics I read 12 years ago and has become my favorite run on any title ever. Seriously, at random points yesterday, I'd think about "X-Factor" and just get downright giddy. Nerdy? You bet.
Any news about the Miracleman/McFarland/Gaiman mess being cleared up? I may have missed it in other press...
Thanks.
Off The Hulk?...why...that just makes me angry...
When did a new X-Factor get announced (aside from right here and, presumedly, in San Diego)? I must have missed that.
I'm guessing sometime Friday. PAD mentioned it when I met him at a booth for an autograph and quick chat on Friday, and then it was given the "official" announcement during the slideshow at the Marvel Comics Cup O Joe panel.
The announcement at the panel got quite a bit of applause, too.
Ironically, I've not read much Hulk, but I loved Madrox and will look forward to new stories there and your take on Spidey.
With regards to stop-motion, they developed a "stop & go" motion technique in the '80's where the models were actually somewhat motorized, so that with each frame it moved a little, getting the blur effect of real life. I think they used it in "Dragonslayer." As for CGI versus stop-motion, I'd have to say for its time, stop-motion was easily the best special effect available; let's remember Lucas used it throughout Star Wars (the chess game in ANH, the tauntauns in ESB, a couple of the scout walkers in ROTJ). However, characters like Gollum show the potential we've only begun to explore with CGI, whereas stop-motion is for most intents an already finite technique. CGI also lets them go back and forth between the real actor and some insane special effect while suspending at least some level of disbelief; I just watched Hellboy on cable last night, and the end sequence moves effortlessly between the real actor swinging a sword and the CGI monster swinging around the CGI actor.
*sigh* Word just hit the wire that James Doohan passed away this morning.
It is sad to see you leave Hulk since he is one of my most favortist characters. However, your departure this time is under favorable circumstances (too much work for PAD!) and I hope that the Hulk book will see you again. In the meantime, I'll be picking up some Spider-Man and X books again.
Harryhausen's stuff was great. I love models and stop-motion animation. It looks so much more realistic, I think, than the overdone CGI stuff of today.
My nephew wanted me to watch Attack of the Clones with him last week, and it was almost physically painful for me to watch again. Not only because of the acting and dialogue, but just the sets, which weren't even sets, but big blue screens. Everything just looked so fake.
I went back and watched the Original Trilogy, you know, to cleanse myself, and I was struck once more by how big a difference it makes, the actual, physical sets and models, versus all the CGI.
That's why Lord of the Rings worked so well, I think. Because while Jackson did use a lot of CGI for the armies, and to sort of expand the sets, he also used a ton of models that gave everything a realistic texture and feeling of weight.
Glad the workload and income has increased so nicely. Could you rub off a little of that luck on us? :) I'm waiting with some trepidation for the JetBlue report; from what you and others say it seems like the bloom is definitely off that particular rose, which is a shame because I used to like most of what I heard about that airline.
Dave: I agree with your differentiation between the Star Wars prequels and the Lord of the Rings. The thing that kind of kills the prequels' biggest battles for me is the whole clones vs. droids dynamic; much like the cookie-cutter animation shortcut, it's hard to empathize on any meaningful level with either side. And it's easy to see in the prequels when they're in a real set versus a blue screen. Sin City did it much better, mixing largely CGI sets with key physical props. But LOTR tops them both with its use of CGI as a special effect to be mixed in only when necessary, as opposed to the overuse of the prequels. However, I still argue that when used right, CGI today is at least on par with, if not better than, stop-motion in its heyday, and CGI is only going to get better over time.
Doohan dead at "85". but who's counting?
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,163092,00.html
Len & Christine's son (biologically, he's only
Christine's, but I have heard Len on more than one
occasion refer to him as "my kid" or "my son") is
named Michael. A good kid, too.
"Steve
Leaving the Hulk? This sucks. You might come back to it in the future? Don't bother none of us will be reading it."
Who asked you to spesak for us? Speak for yourself. I WILL be reading Hulk should PAD return one day.
That said, I LOVED your X-factor run!
Especially Quicksilver, he was my fave. Hope you will get the chance to write him again, if only for a guest appearance.
X-factor introduced me to your writing.
That's right, never read Hulk before.
Didn't have the money for it back then, sadly.
I AM enjoying the Peter David Visionaries TPBs by Marvel very much though! Can't wait for vol. 2!!
Anyway, looks to be a great second half of the year for me:
X-factor, Fallen Angel and my first Spidey book in 12 years...Woohoo!!
Thansk for posting the updates about what is happening.
PAD the IDW website said that you would be signing copies of the Spike one-shot, does that mean its done and if so do you know when it's coming out, or where they b&w preview copies
Peter leaving Hulk again? :(
Peter going back to X-Factor? :)
MORE STRONG GUY!
--R.J.
Peter, was that Kathleen sitting with you for much of the Stan Lee party? (I saw you sitting with a long-haired brunette with glasses, facing the harbor.) I spoke with her for a bit in the buffet line, but when I got back to my table I kicked myself for forgetting my manners and introducing myself.
(And more kicking ensued when I realized that I got so caught up in schmoozing that I didn't say hi and introduce myself to you, either.)
I think it's funny that you talked to Harryhausen at that party. When we walked in, the first two name badges I saw were you and Ray.
lwk
You managed to finish off Harry Potter on top of everything else? How fast do you read, man?
Leaving the Hulk?
WTF!
Angry over this JAMIE SMASH!
Why don't you leave some of your other work and keep writing Hulk?
Hulk > novelization of Fantastic four and Wolverine.
Bah!
"*sigh* Word just hit the wire that James Doohan passed away this morning."
Jim Aparo has died, too, according to CBG.
He was one of my favorite Batman artists.
Rick
Jason,
Yeah, CGI will get better and better. It's already pretty damn good. Part of the problem--and I chuckle as I call it a problem since it's one I benefit from--is that it allows those of us who are not geniuses to produce stuff that looks ok. Stop motion, on the other hand, really requires a Harryhausen or an O'Brien to look at all good. So a lot of the CGI that we see today is produced by people who are letting the computer fill in a lot of the footage, as opposed to literally doing each frame by hand.
I do wish that some of the folks making low budget horror/SF stuff would realize that their CGI is subpar and kind of limit it a bit. The old school horror movies I grew up with were all the more effective for not showing their crappy monster costumes any more than was needed, forcing them to rely on mood and good editing techniques. Watching a typical SciFi Channel shlockfest (The producers of RAPTOR ISLAND, yeah, I'm talking about YOU!) jeeze, you'd think they had Harryhausen and Dykstra chained to a table producing footage from the way they proudly reveal their cruddy monsters.
I'll have to show my kids some classic harryhausen and see what they make of it. I'd be afraid that they'd laugh but we just watched FORBIDDEN PLANET and they were thrilled by it so maybe there is hope for the future...
Roger Ebert once said something along the same lines as Harryhausen. He said that King Kong (in the original movie) looks fake but feels real; Godzilla (in the new American remake) looks real but feels fake. I agree. I love stop-motion animation and those old Harryhausen movies, and I wish they'd make movies like that today.
Bill Mulligan- "(The producers of RAPTOR ISLAND, yeah, I'm talking about YOU!) "
Seriously, we're going to have to sit down sometime and compare bad movie websites/stories/scars. Also taking the opportunity to second what you're saying about CGI... like everything else, it can be fantastic when used appropriately and in moderation, depending on the flimmaker.
While I join the ranks of those sad to see PAD leaving the Hulk again, well, hey, too much work is a better reason than not enough work. It's not like we're going to be poorer PAD product because of the move. Still looking forward to FNSM.
What a great opportunity to chat with Harryhausen... makes me jealous. Hopefully, my financial situation will have worked itself out come next summer, and the girlfriend and I will be able to FINALLY get to go and experience some of the wonderful things I keep hearing about Comic-Con.
[As an aside, after buying my girlfriend the collected edition of the first four installments of New Frontier and encouraging/badgering/pestering her to read them for literally two years (she's not a Trek fan, regrettably), she FINALLY broke down and read them.
She's now in the process of ordering the entire run. I'm now in the process of enjoying "I told you so" rights for the next year.]
Only $250 for the Batman bust? I may need to look into that.
Sadly, the $250 price tag of the Shakespeare bust was the comic-con special price!
BrakYeller,
Maybe one day a bunch of us will be at the Con together and we can watch awful movies in our rooms until the cops get called. Normally I discourage the taking of dangerous drugs but for San Diego Con I might consider shooting up speed so I can squeeze out every available second.
And anyone who has seen RAPTOR ISLAND...that man IS my brother.
Seriously, I mean, ok, so you have Lorenzo Lamas, some stock footage from the Discovery Channel, your teenage son downloaded Adobe After Effects on emule, fine, you want to make a dinosaur movie. I get it. I sympathize. But don't film the damn movie in VERMONT in the FREAKING FALL and claim that it takes place ON A GODDAMN TROPICAL ISLAND! The fact that I'm watching this piece of crap means I'm dumb but I'm not STUPID. And when the trees, none of which have any leaves left, are only about a quarter inch thick, don't have the dinosaurs able to sneak up on the soldiers. What is this, a Tex Avery cartoon?
If I were Lorenzo Lamas I would, upon watching this mess, have taken every pill int he medicine cabinet and washed it down with caustic drain cleaner.
And yet, the next time it comes on my wife and I will pop some corn and watch it again. Sad, really.
One word: YEAH! I was excited to hear X-Factor is back. I will be there.
Iowa Jim
Now I'm really kicking myself for not going. My buddy Joe Fludd (who says he had a nice chat with you, PAD) was there and says he saw Ray Harryhausen, Ray Bradbury, and Forry Ackerman together. Just as well, I'd probably fall to the floor and do the "We're not worthy!" bow, which would embarrass them all, however well deserved.
I don't know that it would embarrass Forry. Having had the experience of him plunking down next to us at a Comic-Con table and start chatting away a few years ago, I think he's biologically incapable of embarrassment. :-)
[And this is not to say he should have been embarrassed by it -- it was a wonderful conversation and I'm glad to have had it. It was just a bit surprising, that's all.]
Sounds like the con was fun this year -- sorry we couldn't make it. On the other hand, maybe we can make some of the more local events now!
TWL
PAD + X-Factor + Strong Guy = more 'grown-up' Calvin & Hobbes stories?
1 Mr. David,
Happy to hear about the plethora of upcoming work, especially the X-Factor book. The novels should provide an interesting take on characters (wolvie and FF) since only the words will now conjure the images. Make no mistake, I'm a huge fan of comics, but I'll be damned if Howling Mad didn't present some great werewolf imagery, given the psychological underpinnings of the man to beast, or more accurately, beast to man scenario. The opportunity to provide more depth and complexity to characters such as wolvie, and explore the familial relations of the FF in prose is something any writer worth a damn probably couldn't pass up.
It's is bummer however, that the workload will not allow you to continue on Hulk for the time being. If they bring back Jenkins, I'll have a hard time forgiving you (because obviously it'd be your fault ha, ha...ha).
Speaking of Howling Mad, any plans for a movie? I'd read of rumors or plans, or plans of rumors, but nothing concrete. That could be an insanely good black comedy.
That must've been cool to rub elbows with a living legend like Harryhausen. As someone who went to film school and is trying to work in that industry, it's my opinion (which doesn't mean much) that anything he says about SFX is worth it's weight in gold. Now if only that damn film industry would listen...
Good luck with all the upcoming projects, you keep writing 'em, people will keep readin' 'em. Especially Hulk.
-JK
Just so we're clear, I'm not knocking Harryhausen at all. I think the way he so successfully pulled off some of the things he did, combined with the fact he had the vision to even try some of the stuff that didn't work well, makes him a modern movie master and someone that the special effects industry owes a great deal of gratitude. As for the SciFi Channel Originals, they need to cut back and do half as many movies with the same amount of money and twice as much heart, so they can maybe produce something that doesn't look like it came out of a cinematography grad student's final exam. I think someone reiterated that like any tool, CGI can make a good movie great when used properly, and can make a bad movie horrible when used by the powers of evil. I don't think we need to go back to stop-motion, but we sure as hell need to make Hollywood understand they can't add $100 million of CGI onto $20 million worth of movie and then wonder why they flop.
Speaking of Harryhausen, I had always wondered what it would look like if he had designed the 'martial walkers' for the first "War of the Worlds" movie. Its a fanboy dream, but it would be cool if they could 'remake' the movie (or perhaps a film version of the 1938 broadcast), done in a '50s style, with Ray designing and animating the walkers.
Harryhausen would have been an interesting choice to do a War of the Worlds. He did amazing things with the technology he had available to him.
Now, if only something could be done to wipe that Tom Cruise fiasco from my memory.
Since you bring it up, Harryhausen DID try to get people interested in a WAR OF THE WORLDS project, even going so far as to animate some of the martians (they looked very much like the octopus creatures from the novel). I've seen this footage but I've never seen anything else so I don't know if he ever built any Tripods.
Anyone else with a passion for ray should try to get a copy of FXRH, a fantastic magazine published in the eary 1970s. I only have issue 4, the final one, but there is talk of publishing a best of anthology (http://www.archive-editions.com/bestoffxrh.html)
"I certainly wouldn't rule out coming back to it at some point in the near future."
Wheeeee! :D
I read a screenplay for Howling Mad. It wasn't very good. They wrote it strictly as a comedy, without any horror elements, so it basically turned into Walk Like a Man or something (not that I've ever actually seen Walk Like a Man, but it's the best comparison I could think of).
I read a screenplay for Howling Mad. It wasn't very good. They wrote it strictly as a comedy, without any horror elements, so it basically turned into Walk Like a Man or something (not that I've ever actually seen Walk Like a Man, but it's the best comparison I could think of).
So... what you're saying Percy is that one movie you may never see is exactly like another movie...
... that you may never see.
I'm glad to hear that there is still a possibility that you will write other Hulk projects in the future.
I've been a diehard fan of stop-motion animation almost my whole life. As a matter of fact, one of the first comic book stories I ever drew was an EC-type story of a stop-motion animator named “Harry Rayhausen,” who, due to the abuse and incessant deadline pressure from his producer “B.C. Degenerate,” finally snaps -- with horrific results.
I love stop-motion animation, but since CGI came to its own in films like “Terminator II” and “Jurassic Park,” I’ve come to realize that its days are past. Face it, a Conestoga wagon and a team of horses can certainly get you from Missouri to Oregon, but these days, everyone hops on a plane, drives a car, or takes the train. And so it goes with stop-motion animation, mattes and glass paintings. While such older techniques have resulted in some stunning visuals on film in the past, CGI can do the same thing today even better and faster, with far more flexibility.
And, while I loathed the 1976 remake of the 1933 RKO "King Kong" classic for a lot of reasons (including its overall lame special effects), the CGI visuals I’ve seen to date of Peter Jackson’s inspired 2005 re-re-make are simply stunning!
>CGI can do the same thing today even better and faster, with far more flexibility.
Most importantly, CHEAPER.
And CGI has the further benefit of not having to rely on a certain level of genius to achieve great results. Even in its heyday, stop-motion was only really great when a few select artists employed it. Suffer through THE BEAST FROM HOLLOW MOUNTAIN or THE LOST CONTINENT to see what I mean.
On the other hand, I can't imagine FIEND WITHOUT A FACE being as good without the utterly creepy stop motion (And since Hollywood is remaking everything else howcome FIEND never gets mentioned? Huh? And you might as well do ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS while you're at it.
C'mon now, the old school stop-motion style deserves some props, sure. And Tim Burton made stop-motion truly awesome with The Nightmare Before Christmas. But really, Jurassic Park, and countless films since then, managed to help me "suspend disbelief" thanks to the combo of CGI and old school effects, much more than those old Sinbad movies ever did.
I saw the War of the Worlds remake, and enjoyed it, despite the involvement of Mr. Cruise. Do you really think an old school stop-motion version would do so well in the box office in this day and age? Do the fans of that old style out-number the common movie-goers? I doubt it.
CGI can at times be awesome. Stop-motion can at times be awesome. I love them both, but I can appreciate that CGI can do a much better job at entertaining the mass audience than stop-motion. If PJ's King Kong was stop-motion, it would likely go straight to video. Fortunately it isn't stop-motion, and I, for one, cannot wait to see a CGI Kong wail on two T-Rex's at once and hand them their asses. Hurray for mammals!
BTW, it's my first post here ever. I'm a long-time fan of PAD's work (his gray hulk is my all-time favourite character). I love Fallen Angel upside-down, backwards and sideways. I enjoy reading all the silly arguements you have with each other about politics (at least you're passionate), and how sometimes this site is basically Troll Food. Just kidding. Or am I? It's wide open.
Keep on posting, you magnificent bastards ;)
Marc wrote: "Fortunately it isn't stop-motion, and I, for one, cannot wait to see a CGI Kong wail on two T-Rex's at once and hand them their asses. Hurray for mammals!"
About the battle with the t-rexes -- the teaser Jackson showed at San Diego showed two, while Jackson, as I recall, said in his intro there were going to be three.
Marc,
Welcome to the jungle!
I agree with you--if Jackson had gone with stop-motion I'd be filled with fear, simply because I don't think anyone can pull it off now and the audience has been trained to expect CGI. But Ray's point is valid. It's sort of like the way modern cinematography is vastly superior to 3-strip technicolor in terms of realism...but when one looks at GONE WITH TEH WIND or, for that matter, SUSPIRIA, one's jaw tends to drop at the unreal beauty of it.
Longtime Lurker here and only my second post. It was great to hear Peter's interview with my friends out in San Diego. I don't know if posting a link is cool so I'll wait for permission to do so. But it was a real pleasure!
well, been on vacation in NJ for a week (visiting the folks)...so haven't heard any comic news for, well, a week.
first thing I hear is PAD leaving Hulk. I know it's old news by now, and the bitching has been done, but I just wanted to add my $0.02. I'm not a 'long time' comic reader ('long time' being a relative term, obviously)...but my fondest comic book reading memories revolve around PAD's Aquaman and Hulk. Those were always the two books I saved for last, knowing that they'd always leave me with a good feeling about my pile that week.
I'd been out of collecting for about 8 years, having just recently returned. Tried Jones' Hulk, but wasn't my cuppa. When I heard PAD was coming back onto the title, I was thrilled. A little like trying to recapture the 'glory days' (so much else had changed). The few issues that I got to read didn't disappoint.
While I'm thrilled to hear that it's because Peter has too much other work, I'm really disappointed about this. I don't think I'll be picking up the title after Peter leaves because 'the Hulk' just isn't the same as 'Peter David's Hulk'.
Still looking forward to Lee making her reappearance when Fallen Angel begins anew...will check out FNSM, and will certainly be picking up the new X-Factor.
But I will continue to miss Peter on Hulk and Aquaman. Two characters which, IMO, he uniquely defined and continually surprised and impressed.
I guess, as I found out back here in NJ this week (where I found that one of my old childhood haunts, the Parsonage Diner, had shut down), you can't go home again :(
Well, this is most appropriate here, so...
Just finished reading an article that makes it sound like the Transformers movie could be heading to limbo: no script, Bay may leave the film, and the producers aren't agreeing on anything.
If that's the case, is there any chance that the Comic-Con folks, in the future, do not do something so stupid as to allow anybody to take up so much floor space with an 18-wheeler, as was the case with the "life-size" Optimus Prime semi?
It was the dumbest advertising I've ever seen, and even more so when there's no guarantee of a movie.