May 03, 2007

FNSM #20 mentioned on ESPN2

The latest issue of "Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man" features a guest appearance by a real-life individual: Kelly Kulick, one of the country's top female bowlers and Ariel's favorite. Ariel wanted me to have Kelly show up in an issue of FNSM, and I obliged her, with Kelly's cooperation (having met her at a Pro/Am a few months back.)

Well, by astounding serendipity, the issue came out today while Kelly was slated to bowl down in Charlotte, NC, in the USBC Queens Tournament. It was being broadcast live on ESPN2. Upon learning that she was down there, I contacted the heroic Shelton Drum of "Heroes Aren't Hard to Find." Shelton agreed to bring a few copies of the latest issue over to where Kelly was bowling at AMF Carolina Lanes. He met her, gave her the comics (and she offered him the opportunity to stay and watch, but it was new comics day so he had to get back to work.)

Kelly was so jazzed that she gave copies to the announcers, and fifty four minutes into the broadcast they suddenly started talking about Kelly's appearance in the book, complete with showing the cover and pages of Todd's art. Best of all, they mentioned it was Ariel's idea, and Ariel was absolutely flying.

For those interested in seeing it, they're rebroadcasting the competition Sunday, May 20 at 1 PM on ESPN. And thanks again to Shelton: Unfortunately they didn't mention on air where the comic had come from, but he busted ass to get the comic over there, so I figured I'd emphasize it here.

PAD

Posted by Peter David at May 3, 2007 12:01 AM | TrackBack | Other blogs commenting
Comments
Posted by: Luigi Novi at May 3, 2007 12:48 AM

Cool. I'm stoked that I have Peter David comics to read today (Friendly Spidey, Wonder Man, and Dark Tower), as well as the Spidey 3 novelization.

Got a question, though, Peter: The novel mentions that Eddie Brock's been at the Bugle for about a week, but that Peter's been there for years. Was this mentioned in the movie? Or at least in the script? I ask, because Brock was mentioned in the first movie, so I was a bit confused as to the time setting.

Great read, though. It really does a good job of showing how things between Pete and MJ could go from so perfect at the end of the last movie to tense and conflicted again. I'm just under halfway through, and hope to finish before seeing the movie. I just read the organic webshooters bit. Nice one.:-)

(Btw, early this morning I finished that sketch of you and Jae as the Gunslinger. Sorry it took so long, but work prevented me from getting to it sooner. Hopefully Glenn will get a scan of it to you soon, but you can see a small verison of it in my MySpace pictures at: http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=18167124&albumID=0&imageID=8644957 . It's a bit, crude, the light doesn't seem to come from a consistent direction, and your gun looks a bit odd, but its roughness stems from the fact that I didn't originally intend it to be seen by anyone but me, so after Glenn expressed interest in it, I tried to tighten it up a bit.)

Posted by: Rob Brown at May 3, 2007 01:25 AM

I was wondering if you really knew Double-K. It's too bad that I missed out on "The Other" since I'm sure everything would make a lot more sense to me if I were familiar with that story. These are the times when Wikipedia's a godsend.

I'll wait until the question "whad'ja think?" is posed to talk more about these week's releases, except to say that I'm going to miss Huan and that I'm glad I'm not the only one who said "infer" when he should've said "imply." :)

Posted by: Wildcat at May 3, 2007 06:46 AM

That's pretty cool, all the way around! :)

Wildcat

Posted by: Elayne Riggs at May 3, 2007 06:50 AM

Wow, what a great story! You go, Ariel!

Posted by: Matt Adler at May 3, 2007 07:25 AM

Awesome. I bet you got major Cool Dad points with Ariel for that one. How many dads can pull that off?

Posted by: Den at May 3, 2007 09:25 AM

Getting your daughter a mention on national TV? Awesome! You deserve two neckties this Father's Day. :-)

Posted by: The StarWolf at May 3, 2007 10:15 AM

Well done - to all concerned.

Posted by: Michael D. at May 3, 2007 10:47 AM

"Unfortunately they didn't mention on air where the comic had come from."

Argh! I can just imagine some of the viewers' reactions: "They still make comics? I haven't seen one at the local drugstore for ages!"

Free publicity for comics is great but this industry needs to raise the profile of comic book stores amongst the general public, somehow, someway...

Not ESPN2's job, but I'm sure you get the gist of my sentiments....

Posted by: Jeff Hotchkiss at May 3, 2007 12:04 PM

Damn I was watching that too! It piqued my interest because there was a girl from Rochester, NY where I'm from originally. Congrats on the mention anyway!

Posted by: Kathy at May 3, 2007 12:38 PM

Way to go, Ariel and Peter! Comics and bowling - together again!

Posted by: Alex A Sanchez at May 3, 2007 01:24 PM

I haven't seen it in a while, but I am pretty sure that Brock was the event photographer whom Peter replaced in the gala event at the begining of the 2nd film (It was either J.J.J.'s son's wedding or return from space or announcement that he was going into space, or something. Help?)

Maybe Brock was working for a different newspaper or was a freelancer, and now he was an actual employee of the Bugle. No Prize?

Posted by: Luke K.Walsh at May 3, 2007 03:01 PM

Awesome!:)

Posted by: Tom Galloway at May 3, 2007 03:35 PM

Congrats to Ariel.

One nit though; "Goggle"? Of course, in the real world, Google doesn't suggest "Did you mean spider ero" for a "spider arrow" search...but Miss Arrow's Wikipedia entry is #6 on the results list.

Posted by: Elton at May 3, 2007 05:36 PM

Nice.

Posted by: Jay at May 3, 2007 07:50 PM

Nice Going PAD!

Posted by: Rob Brown at May 3, 2007 10:25 PM

One nit though; "Goggle"?

Didn't notice that it wasn't "Google" originally. With the impending release of Spidey 3 and how big the franchise is right now, Google would have to be insanely litigious if somebody decided to use two O's instead of two G's and Marvel got sued for it, because it's free advertising, product placement that can't do anything except help Google.

Posted by: David Oakes at May 4, 2007 01:41 AM

You just dont; get this "guest star" thing, do you PAD? I mean, Stephen Colbert has a certain following, and all props to the bowlers. But what's next, the Nobel Prize Winners for Economics?

Posted by: Rob Brown at May 4, 2007 05:32 AM

Well David, I guess the question is whether or not Kelly's insertion into the story did anything to affect its quality. I can't see how it hurt. If the recap page hadn't informed you that she was a real person and you assumed she was just another fictional character who happened to be a very good bowler, would you feel the same way about her involvement?

If I wrote for a living and I felt like putting somebody I knew who was famous (perhaps not world-famous or a household name, but still famous) into a story that needed another supporting character, I'd probably do it. Perhaps even if my friend were not famous. Did you know Kitty Pryde was based on a real person?

Posted by: Peter David at May 4, 2007 09:00 AM

"Got a question, though, Peter: The novel mentions that Eddie Brock's been at the Bugle for about a week, but that Peter's been there for years. Was this mentioned in the movie? Or at least in the script? I ask, because Brock was mentioned in the first movie, so I was a bit confused as to the time setting."

The "real world" answer is that Brock was mentioned in the earlier films as a shout out to the fans. In the script for Spidey 3, it's necessary that Eddie Brock have only been at the Bugle for a short time because the question at issue is whether Jonah should give the staff job to Brock--who, ethics aside, is established as the more talented photographer--or Parker, who's been there longer. It helps provide a conflict that the filmmakers obviously felt was a stronger consideration than hewing to toss-away lines from previous films.

If you want a No-Prize answer, fine: Eddie repeatedly introduces himself as Eddie Brock JUNIOR. Obviously his father was the Eddie Brock referred to in the previous movies and had a falling out with Jonah so comprehensive that Jonah not only fired him, but he did everything he could to forget he ever exist ed--hence his repeatedly being unable to remember Brock Jr's name.

Okay?

PAD

Posted by: Peter David at May 4, 2007 09:04 AM

"Google would have to be insanely litigious if somebody decided to use two O's instead of two G's and Marvel got sued for it, because it's free advertising, product placement that can't do anything except help Google."

Doesn't matter. You don't do things in print that someone would have to be "insanely litigious" to go after. You don't roll those dice; not if you don't have to. "Google" is a nationally known registered trademark. Yes, you can get away with having a character say, "Well, let's look it up on Google." That's no problem. But the script required that we actually look at the page, which meant we had to show a logo. So to play it safe I simply made it "Goggle" to play it safe.

PAD

Posted by: Rob Brown at May 4, 2007 02:28 PM

Doesn't matter. You don't do things in print that someone would have to be "insanely litigious" to go after.

Yup, I get that you don't wanna leave yourself open to a lawsuit if you don't have to. Also that if Google decided to take legal action it'd probably be a given that they'd walk away with a big wad of Marvel's cash.

I'm just saying that it's sad we live in world where you can be penalized for using a company's name or logo in a story where their product is portrayed as *helpful*, despite businesses often paying storytellers good money for in exchange for their products being displayed (just watch Castaway sometime for one of the most blatant examples of this). Where it could be like "Thanks for the free exposure, guys! Now we're gonna take you to the cleaners in court for using out logo without permission, because we're just that greedy!"

Posted by: David Hunt at May 4, 2007 03:14 PM

Rob, I haven't seen Castaway, but I have hard time believing that anything could top the shoe placement from I, Robot.

Posted by: Rick Keating at May 4, 2007 04:33 PM

Luigi Novi asked: "Got a question, though, Peter: The novel mentions that Eddie Brock's been at the Bugle for about a week, but that Peter's been there for years. Was this mentioned in the movie? Or at least in the script? I ask, because Brock was mentioned in the first movie, so I was a bit confused as to the time setting."

Peter gave you two answers to your questions, but here's the real answer, the one the cabal comprised of big business; the FBI; the CIA; the KGB; the PTA; Girl Scout Troop 2357 of Bete Noire; the DuMont TV network (which never went away, despite what people think); the Association for the Preservation of the Buggy Whip Industry; the Republican Party; the Democratic Party; the two remaining members of the Bull Moose Party; and the ghost of Ug the caveman don't want you to know:

There's a strange force which moves through the multiverse in which movies and TV shows (and their characters) live. This force (among other things) inexplicably transformed Harvey Dent from someone who looked like Billy Dee Williams to someone who looked like Tommy Lee Jones; played all sorts of havoc with Felix Leiter's physical appearance; and most recently, pretty much swiss-cheesed JJJ's memory (and those of others, as applicable) of Eddie Brock.

That's right. Movies and TV shows are real and strange forces affect them in often odd ways. There. Isn't that a much more logical and sensible explanation?

What's that? Sure, you can take PAD's explanation over mine, if you wish. But just because he knows what he's talking about....

I mean, what kind of world would we live in if people paid attention to sensible answers and ignored those that, well, aren't? What would happen to all the TV talking heads and spin doctors? And won't somebody please think of the more nutty among the politicians?

Rick

Posted by: edhopper at May 4, 2007 06:33 PM

I liked this issue. I even got over my complete dislike for anything that has to do with "The Other" whick IMHO was the most useless and wrong-headed Spidey story since...well "Sins Past", which really, really sucked.
I have faith PAD will make it work and not force us to Mopey the whole thing. Maybe he can get rid of the silly spikes whille he's at it.
My biggest complaint is the art. Not that Todd is a bad artist, I just don't like the cartoony style for Spider-man.

Posted by: othergrunty at May 5, 2007 04:07 PM

I somewhat guessed that she was meant to resemble a real person.

Posted by: edhopper at May 5, 2007 04:49 PM

Hey Peter, Where's the WW Hulk Prolouge thread. I have a minor bone to pick:-)

Posted by: Sean Martin at May 10, 2007 06:45 PM

Given the recent mentions of Google vs Goggle (aside: you should have used Googol, which is what the company was supposed to be but an early backer spelled it wrong on their check) and not wanting to do anything you could get sued for leads me to wonder.

Did you have to get "double K" to sign something agreeing to be in the book? I'm thinking of all those folks on TV who show up with blurred faces because they didn't sign a waiver.

Assuming something was needed, is that also the case for briefer depictions, such as Colbert recently? (Or yourself marring Bruce Banner, for example.)

Posted by: Sean Martin at May 10, 2007 06:47 PM

Or yourself marrying Bruce Banner, for example.

Damn typos. Still open to mis-interpretation, but better. :-)