The Four of the Fantastick go off the map, but do there be dragons there? Whad'ja think?
PAD
Baghdad (AP)--The world was shocked to learn that Saddam Hussein has been preemptively cloned and is currently in utero. A perfect clone of the recently hanged butcher--said to be eight weeks along--has been revealed to be "doing fine." The identity of the Iraqi woman carrying the deceased dictator's clone is being kept strictly secret.
Immediate cries for the abortion of the fetus were resisted by the Iraqi government at the behest of the Bush White House. In a short statement, President Bush stated, "As a civilized nation, we must fight for the sanctity of human life except in those instances where we decide it's not sacred...and this is obviously not one of those times."
Officials have declared that, shortly after the clone is born, it will be put on trial for slaughtering the Kurds, found guilty, and be executed. Upon announcement of that decision, there was much celebrating and shooting off of guns. Stray bullets were responsible for the accidental deaths of three children and two more US troops.
PAD
Saddam is dead. Executed.
First, I'm opposed to capital punishment. Period.
Second, just what Iraq needs: A high-profile martyr to rally around and provide reason for an even more massive explosion of violence than we've already seen.
PAD
Back at my computer after our sojourn to visit Kath's parents (with a stop along the way to see mine as well) and am hard at work on two projects: A "Fantastic Four" original novel, and a "Sandman: Year One" one-shot.
Also, a tip of the hat to board denizen Garrett Sims who tipped me that Amazon.com was running a mad sale on Garman GPS devices. I picked up the exact model that navigated us so adeptly to Georgia and back, knocked down a whopping 67% off retail. I love post-Christmas sales.
PAD
Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #15 hits the stands this week, featuring Deb Whitman's bookstore signing plus a cameo that's already being noted at various websites. Whad'ja think?
PAD
With our house sitting firmly ensconced, we embarked upon our annual drive down to Kath's parents. To save wear and tear on the family vehicle, I typically use my Amex membership rewards to pick up some huge Avis car for the voyage. And this time, just for kicks, I also opted to rent something I'd never seen before: the Garmin brand GPS.
Holy cow, how cool is this thing.
On a screen about the size of a hand-held video game, it gives you a constant view of the road up ahead of you, with a pink band of color charting your intended path. You can set it for any address in the contiguous United States and it will give you door-to-door directions, along with constant info as how much distance you've covered, how much further you have to go, your ETA, etc., as well as constant voice prompts courtesy of a polite female voice that we've dubbed "Majel."
But that's not all. First of all, at one point Majel informed us of an accident two miles ahead and offered to chart an alternate route, enabling us to sail around the jam. Second, when we hit a miles-long traffic back up (courtesy of an accident on the OTHER side of the road; even Majel can't perceive rubber-necking delays), we triggered the "detour" function, got off the highway, and lost no time using the surface streets. Probably the best aspect was that, since I prefer to drive long distances at night, I was faced with impenetrable fog at 4 AM. My visibility couldn't have been more than ten feet in front of me. No problem thanks to Majel: The display on the screen was unaffected, giving me half a mile of "visibility" as to when the road was going straight and, more important, when it was curving. It took me less than a minute to master the art of glancing between the screen and the road and consequently moved through an extremely hazardous traffic situation with complete confidence.
I don't know that I'm going to go plunk down the retail price for one, but the rental price was certainly worth it. And if you do a lot of travelling, I can't recommend enough having one of these gadgets.
Oh...happy holidays to anyone inclined to celebrate it.
PAD
I finally saw "Borat" the other day, and there was something about it that bugged me about it for quite some time afterward. It took me a while to figure out what it was.
It made me wonder because throughout much of the film I simply wasn't laughing. I winced a few times (particularly during the scene where the naked Borat is wrestling with his equally naked, staggeringly obese producer). I loved the sequence where a TV weatherman desperately tries not to break down laughing when Borat, after participating in an achingly embarrassing on-camera interview elsewhere in the studio, keeps wandering into the middle of the weather report while searching for an exit.
Most of the time I just watched it. Others around me were howling, but I felt disconnected from it, as if I was missing something. And I didn't know what.
After giving it some thought, now I think I do. And it stems from the following realization:
Andy Kaufman did this first, and better.
Although the film has a nominal narrative through-line (Borat trying to get to California to wed his spontaneous dream girl, Pamela Anderson), most of the film's humor derives from ambush humor. That is to say, people have Borat sprung on them, and their filmed reactions provide the film's humorous core.
There's nothing new in this. Alan Funt was doing it with "Candid Camera" and "Candid Microphone" before that. Ashton Kutcher does it on "Punk'd."
The aspect of it being a foreigner who puts people ill at ease made me think of Kaufman, and how right he got the same basic concept. Think of his quintessential "foreign man" routine, in which he stood before a crowd who, in his pre-"Taxi" days, didn't know him from a hole in the wall. In his odd little voice and bizarre accent, he would do a series of impressions, one worse than the next, and all with little-to-no difference, one from the other. The humor came from the audience not knowing how to react: To laugh or cry or just feel embarrassment because this foreign guy's act was just so ghastly. The longer it would go, the more convinced people became that this wasn't a put-on, but instead just the worst comedy act ever. After each terrible impression the foreign man would say, "T'ank you veddy much." His closer would be, "the Mister Elvis Presley." The audience's moan would be gargantuan as they braced themselves for this hideous performer's butchering of the King. Whereupon Kaufman would launch into the best impression of Elvis, ever, blow the audience away, snap back into the foreign man and say, "T'ank you veddy much."
The payoff wasn't simply the Elvis impression. It was the self-realizing laughter that the audience had been "had" by a master comic mind. The pay off was the subjects of the hosing coming to understand how they'd been messed with, and also laughing at how uncomfortable they'd felt when, in fact, they'd been played.
There's no payoff in "Borat." Not to any of the sequences. Because Sasha Baron Cohen and his people didn't play fair, as Kaufman did, as Funt did. There's no "Smile! You're on Candid Camera!", no "T'ank you veddy much." No one who was victimized on "Candid Camera" ever wound up on TV against their will. They had to sign releases after the fact. Everything was above board. Here, the producers cheated. Most participants were told that this was being done for a documentary that was being shown only in Kazihkstan (however it is you spell it) and would never be seen in the US. To all intents and purposes, they believed they were "off the record." They signed the releases under fradulent circumstances and only discovered long after the fact that they were unwilling stars in an American comedy. There's never a moment when Baron Cohen drops character and people find out they were fooled, and laugh at their own credulousness. We laugh at their foolishness, but they never get to, and consequently we, or at least I, wind up feeling sorry for them.
Much has been made of the gun store owner who, when asked by Borat "What would be the best weapon to kill a Jew?" gives recommendations without batting an eye. But when I watched the sequence, Borat's accent was so thick that he could have been saying, "the best weapon to kill you," i.e., the general "you" meaning a person. That may not have been the case, but still, it's a possibility.
I probably wouldn't have these concerns if I'd gone into the film without knowing its history or the reactions of the people involved (a suckered Romanian village, for instance, wherein various citizens were characterized without their knowledge as rapists or violent). I don't mind people being held up for ridicule, as in "Candid Camera." But I mind it when they're being lied to about it, and set up for someone else's benefit and aggrandizement. The only ones I have no sympathy for is the aforementioned news broadcast where they had Borat on as a genuine Kazahk journalist, and thus looked like idiots for doing so. They're a damn news program; why was their research department asleep in checking Borat's credentials? They deserved to be ridiculed, with or without their knowledge and consent.
But most of the people in the film didn't.
Which just makes the film a ninety minute exercise in cruelty.
Sasha Cohen's reported excuse/rationale is that he wanted to expose the dark underbelly of anti-Semitism in the United States because such attitudes could lead to the Holocaust. Well, y'know what? Considering the massive and intense anti-Semitism that's rife in France, in Germany, in the Middle East (where they hold Holocaust cartoon competitions and Holocaust denial conventions) and even in Baron Cohen's own England, I somehow have to believe that if the world faces the prospect of another Holocaust, the US isn't going to be at the forefront of it. He didn't really pick the US because he thought the Holocaust might happen here, in this country, one of the only consistent allies that Israel has ever had. He did it because we're a big target and an easy target. Which is fine. But he shouldn't be claiming there's anything to his choice of targets other than just that we're an easy one.
Just as his subjects were. Easy targets.
It's easy to make people look stupid...especially when their single greatest mistake is trusting someone and trying to react to them with the best hospitality they can muster.
I'll take trust over deception any day.
PAD
The First Amendment is the cornerstone of our business. Without it, the comics and graphic novels we make and enjoy would not be as vital as they are today. But we live in an environment where our constitutional rights are constantly under attack, and that's why the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund exists. For twenty years the Fund has defended the First Amendment rights we depend upon, and to make sure we're around for another twenty years, we need your continued support.
This winter, the case of Georgia v. Gordon Lee will enter its third year. Since embarking on this defense in 2005, the Fund has spent over $72,000 defending Gordon Lee through numerous proceedings - including answering three sets of charges arising from the same incident. The Fund successfully knocked out five of the seven counts Lee originally faced, including both felony counts of "Dissemination of Unsolicited Nudity/Sexual Conduct" and three of the five misdemeanor "Harmful to Minors" counts he originally faced. However, Lee still faces two remaining misdemeanor charges of "Distribution of Harmful to Minors Materials." If convicted, each charge carries penalties of up to 12 months in prison and a $1,000 fine. This case will finally go to trial early next year, and we need your support to have the money on hand for a vigorous defense.
Defending Gordon's rights in Georgia isn't all the Fund has done this year. Including costs from the Lee case, we've spent a total of $70,000 on our legal mission work in 2006. This work included two significant advocacy cases: an ongoing challenge to Utah's draconian new Internet censorship law, and participation in the victorious outcome of Lyle v. Time-Warner, a California case that threatened free speech in the creative workplace. We have also assisted libraries on graphic novel challenges, including a letter in support of keeping Fun Home by Alison Bechdel and Blankets by Craig Thompson in the Marshall, MO public library system.
The Fund also expanded our educational advocacy work with the publication of Graphic Novels: Suggestions for Librarians and The Best Defense: The CBLDF Retailer Resource Guide. These publications are helping to educate libraries and booksellers on how to defend against the threat of censorship.
To continue these efforts, and to prepare for the casework at hand, we need you to take this moment to make a contribution to the Fund. If you need to renew your CBLDF membership, or if you have yet to join in the first place, now is the time. If you're a retailer, please consider signing up at the $100 level or above, to get your own copy of The Best Defense.
If your membership is current, I thank you, and ask that you consider making an additional gift. If you can't donate money, you can still help with a donation of original art, signed scripts, and other items that we can auction to help raise the money needed to maintain our work in the coming year. By donating money, collectibles, and/or time, you will help us continue to perform our very important work. And, of course, your contribution to the CBLDF is tax-deductible to the full extent permitted by law.
The work of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund -- to defend the First Amendment rights that we depend upon to read, make, buy, and sell comics -- has not abated in the twenty years since our establishment. Please do your part to keep the Fund fighting the challenges we currently face, and whatever threats are on the horizon, by making a donation today.
Your friend thru comics,
Chris Staros
President
HOW YOU CAN HELP
Make a donation to the CBLDF
Sign up for membership!
Order a special CBLDF premium!
Bid on the CBLDF's eBay auctions
Ending this week: one-of-a-kind Frank Miller, Will Eisner,
Neil Gaiman, and Moebius art & memorabilia, and much more!
For more information go to http://www.cbldf.org
I've been receiving consistent complaints from readers and would-be readers of "Fallen Angel," the award-winning (well, my mom likes it) series from IDW. They're telling me that their local comic shops aren't providing it. I don't mean that the shops simply aren't ordering shelf copies (although sadly enough that's often the case.) I mean that fans are actually ordering the book in advance, putting it on their pull lists, and the stores STILL aren't getting it in.
Invariably the stores blame Diamond Comics Distribution. But my admittedly informal surveying of a fairly reliable base of retailers indicates that they actually have no trouble obtaining copies of "Fallen Angel." They receive the book when they order it, and reorders are readily available. No one disputes that the occasional shipping mishap can and will occur, but thus far the evidence would seem to indicate that any retailer who routinely is "unable" to obtain "Fallen Angel," well...let's just say such claims seem a mite dubious at this point.
Several retailers suggested that I make available a list of those who have no trouble obtaining and providing "Fallen Angel" to willing customers. Between the upcoming second IDW trade collection, the impending release by DC of the long-awaited next collection of the DC "Fallen Angel" run, and IDW's announced hardcover deluxe collection of the first 13 issues for later in 2007, I'm optimistic that the customer base will only grow.
So I am indeed going to make a list of "Friends of the Angel" public, both on this website and in the pages of "Fallen Angel" itself (so that anyone who had serious trouble finding that particular issue can learn of an easier way to obtain future issues.)
Any retailer who is willing to, or is already, consistently providing "Fallen Angel" to any and all customers can be included on the list by simply sending an e-mail to me at PADGUY@AOL.COM and put "Friends of the Angel" in the subject header. (He should also make clear if he is set up for mail order service.) This way if a customer in Shelbyville is told by his local retailer that, gee, that "Fallen Angel" book is just impossible to get, he'll find there's a store over in Springfield with a retailer who will be happy to provide him a copy of the latest issue while declaring, "Best...comic...ever."
PAD
Ariel and I shot in the PBA Pro/Am yesterday at AMF Babylon Lanes. It's not really a cutthroat tournament, but more for fun. You bowl with six pros over three games and it's a pretty relaxed atmosphere.
I started off well with a 263 and a 256. However my strike line seemed to wander away to nearby Bay Shore Lanes midway through the third game, never to return, and a couple of late-frame crappy splits left me with a 171 for the third game. Ariel, meantime, started slow with a 174, but then rebounded with a 193 and finished with a resounding 210. Several of the pros commented to me about the quality of her technique, including top-ranked female bowler Kelly Kulick, who is Ariel's bowling idol. Overall Team David was more than satisfied with the outing.
Kathleen and I will be attending the ESPN finals today at 1:00 PM EST. We'll be seated somewhere behind the bowlers (as opposed to the sides). I'll be wearing a red PBA shirt. Don't look for a guy with a full beard since I shaved most of it recently and just have a long mustache now. Or just look for someone seated next to Kathleen. Odds are 50/50 that's me.
PAD
Dear Dick:
No, I'm not being insulting. In the intro to SUPERMAN II: THE RICHARD DONNER CUT, you say that your friends call you Dick. So I'm speaking to you now, as a friend.
You blew it.
I mean, so much of your version of S2 was vastly superior to the original theatrical, Richard Lester release, that it's staggering. Ill-timed humor was removed, scenes with the Kryptonian villains that went on endlessly were quite correctly trimmed. The revise of the Niagra Falls reveal of Clark's dual identity was a vast improvement. Everything was better, better, and--to use, shocking, the double comparative--more better The sequences with Brando, the explanation (at last!) of how Clark regained his powers after tossing them away. I had a minor quibble when Superman's defiant "General...would you care to step outside?" was replaced with a different and much less effective line, but as I said...minor.
And then...then, God help us...came the end. Which I will now blow below because there's no other way to address it:
In the first film, the one moment that infuriated me beyond all measure was when Superman turned the world back.
In the second film, the one moment that infuriated me beyond all measure was when Clark literally sucks Lois' memory out of her head.
So what did you do?
You removed the brain sucking from the second film...AND REPLACED IT WITH A REPLAY OF SUPERMAN TURNING THE WORLD BACK?!?!?!
WHAT KIND OF A DICK THING WAS THAT TO DO?!?
Yet again Superman reverses time. Not only is all damage by the Kryptonians undone, not only does Lois now once again forget his ID, but you actually show the Kryptonians being hurled back into the Phantom Zone and sent hurtling back off into outer space...which means, as you yourself admit in the commentary, "they could return."
How does this make sense on ANY level? No, I'm not talking about the nonsense physics of reversing the Earth's rotation. I'm talking about the fact that if this is Superman's routine MO, why in God's name did he bother with the entire sequence in the Fortress to remove their powers? The first time he was unable to defeat them, why didn't just say "Screw it," reverse time, and be done with it? This is even MORE lame than when he did it the first time, since presumably it was a desperation move and he didn't know if it would work or not. But now, it's apparently how he handles every inconvenience. Plus, now Superman--who had depowered the criminals and made them helpless--has now put them back into the predicament from which they could quite possibly escape again and, re-empowered, create more chaos. This is an improvement how, exactly?
It also makes the scene at the end when Clark comes back and avenges himself on the bully even MORE annoying to me. I always felt it was beneath Clark, once he was reempowered, to bitch slap the bully. But you said in the commentary that you felt it was necessary because you didn't like that, in a Clint Eastwood movie, he didn't come back and take down a bullying sheriff who threw him out of town. HOW IS THAT RELEVANT? This isn't Dirty Harry; it's Superman. But putting that aside, the sequence now makes even less sense since the bully now has NO IDEA WHO CLARK IS, BECAUSE--since Superman turned back time--THE BULLY NEVER BEAT HIM UP. So basically a sequence which was annoying to begin with has now become senseless because here's how it plays: A trucker is sitting there minding his own business, and some guy with glasses walks in, trash talking him, starts a fight and ends up throwing him into a pinball machine. WTF?
You really had me until the last five minutes, is all I'm saying, and then you let me down. You let me down, Dick. And worse...you let down Superman.
Your pal,
Peter David
Slightly belated, I know. Kath got me the complete set of "Monty Python's Flying Circus." Weep in jealousy, suckers.
Matt Adler sent along the following link to an article you might find of interest. I'm not mentioned by name (God forbid) but one of my stories is descibed in detail.
http://www.jewishpress.com/page.do/20113/Chanukah:_A_Time_For_Superheroes.html
PAD
For those readers living in the UK who would like to try out Fallen Angel for free (or who may have missed it last month), Economic Comics are giving away 10 copies of Fallen Angel #10 to the first 10 people who request one.
Simply send your name and address with a short message using the following page...
http://www.economic-comics.co.uk/contact_us.php
...and a copy will be sent to you absolutely free of charge.
Your details will only be used to send you the comic and no further contact will be made. UK addresses only. 1 per household. Fallen Angel #10 is MR rated.
PAD
Yes, it's Padapalooza this week. Normally I wait until Friday to put these threads up in order to minimize spoilers getting out there before people have a chance to buy and read the book, but people seem hot to discuss these issues--particularly XF #14. So...whad'ja think?
(And again, if anyone's LCS didn't get in "Fallen Angel #11," particularly in instances where you advance ordered it and it STILL didn't show up, I'd like to know about it.)
PAD
When "Fallen Angel" first launched from DC Comics, I played fast and loose with the notion that Lee was actually Linda Danvers, a.k.a. Supergirl. A number of hard core Supergirl fans, frustrated that I merely remained coy about it, wandered away from the series because they wanted to know what was up with Linda. When the series moved over to IDW, I revealed the true origin of the Fallen Angel.
Let the word go out, far and wide, in best nudge, nudge, wink wink fashion: Any fans of my run on Supergirl--particularly those who are torqued because Linda Danvers was consigned to oblivion in the DCU--must, must, MUST pick up "Fallen Angel" #14 and #15 when they come out next year.
Trust me.
PAD
Martin and Carrie Nodell were the original fun couple of conventions. Carrie adored Caroline, partly because Caroline is, well, adorable...and also because--and please forgive me if I'm misremembering--"Carrie" was short for "Caroline," so they shared the same name.
When Carrie passed away, I talked with Marty on the phone, and he told me he was so certain that he--whose health was more frail than hers--would be the first to go. He seemed stunned, and so were we all.
Now the creator of Green Lantern is with his beloved Carrie, where there is No Evil, escaping one's sight or otherwise. I have an autographed lantern that I bought from him sitting right here on my desk. I will always beware its power.
PAD
I've been rattling this around in my head for a while now, and Bush's reportedly tepid response to the Iraq Commission's report--and his recent comparing of himself to Harry Truman--has forced me to the conclusion that, yes, he should be impeached.
Now the response one often hears as to why this is a bad idea is that it automatically means: President Cheney.
I disagree.
History shows that impeachment of a president does not automatically mean power devolves onto the vice-president. Impeachment is merely the first of two stages required to remove someone from office. Two presidents have been impeached in our history; in neither instance did the vice-president wind up as commander-in-chief.
I don't think he needs to be impeached to be removed from office. I think he needs to be impeached to get his attention. Bush has ceased worrying about how his policies are impacting upon our soldiers and their families and the people of Iraq and--let's face it--the global community, in terms of their own interests and their relationships with us. His major concern appears to be about his legacy and his place in history. If he thinks his place in history will be as the first president to be impeached and removed, that might be the cold dash of water in the face he needs.
Besides, it's only just: If a president can be impeached over getting a blow job from one person, certainly a president can be impeached over giving a screw job to 250 million people.
To paraphrase "Heroes"--"Impeach the President; Save the World."
PAD
Next Saturday, December 16, Ariel and I will be bowling in the PBA Pro/Am at Babylon Lanes. We're in the 3:30 squad, so anyone who is in the area and has nothing better to do is welcome to come by and cheer us on.
Kath and I will also be attending the ESPN broadcast on Sunday, December 17, at 1 PM. We'll be seated somewhere in the back area behind the bowlers (as opposed to the sides).
PAD
I do not typically embed films in this blog, but I thought this was so hysterical, I wanted to make sure you all saw it.
PAD
The newly released study on Iraq has claimed that, if matters continue as they are, "The global standing of the United States could be diminished. Americans could become more polarized."
The report went on to observe that the Pope is Catholic and bears defecate in woodlands.
Geez, is it possible for Americans to become *more* polarized?
Much is also being made of Gates candidly stating that the United States is not winning the war in Iraq. However, I don't think he actually said we're *losing* it. It reminds me of Otto in "A Fish Called Wanda" declaring that we didn't lose Vietnam, angrily claiming, "It was a tie."
Personally, I'm thinking it's only a matter of time before the Democratically elected head of Iraq is unDemocratically capped or subjected to a violent militia-driven overthrow. Maybe *that * will finally qualify as a civil war to Bush.
PAD
IDW is putting together the next "Fallen Angel" trade paperback and is looking for previously published reviews at established reviewing sites that can be used for pull quotes. Any reviewers who frequent this site care to submit theirs?
PAD
Every week, over on Newsarama, they do a thread in which fans discuss, nominate and vote on a "Moment of the Week"--a sequence in a comic book that was particularly memorable.
Well, I just turned in the script for FNSM #18, and I've got a sequence in there so icky that I am positive that it will easily land on the MOTW thread when it finally comes out, and probably have a good shot at being the top vote getter. When I first conceived of it, I described it to Kathleen and she was literally squirming with disgust over it. When I finished the actual scene, I gave it to her to read and she was no less freaked. No, it's not gory or involving disemboweling and nobody gets raped. It's just...well, it's really pretty sick. And it involves Betty Brant and a date that goes horribly awry, and that's all I'll say about it.
Geez, I hope it doesn't get flagged by editorial.
PAD
Well, last night's episode of "Battlestar: Galactica" is easily the most hard-hitting of the season...in every regards.
Spoilers below...
I don't know if the "Military tradition" of "The Dance"--in which anyone of any rank can challenge anyone else to a boxing throwdown in order to blow off steam--is a genuine tradition or something they simply came up with in the episode. But it resulted in one hell of a show, steeped in drama, and thwarting the notion that an SF series must always be tricked out with high-tech special effects.
We finally learn the reason for Starbuck and Apollo's anger toward each other, and discover that--as the most monumental hatred typically is--it's rooted in passion. Boy, *that's* a storyline that would have been pretty groundbreaking if they'd done it with the original Starbuck and Apollo, huh. It also gives us a rather nifty way to declare your love for your significant other: Stand buck naked and howl to the skies that you love the other individual. The best thing, of course, is that we learn why the two of them ran aground...but we don't learn *all* of the why. Yes, Kara turned around and got married to someone else after acknowledging her love for Lee, but we don't really get a *definitive* why. We can speculate. Severa possibilities come to mind. But ultimately her mind remains unknowable, and I think it's better that way.
Yet despite the episode being flogged for its Apollo/Starbuck smackdown, the high point is still seized by the confrontatio between the Admiral and the chief. Priceless was Tyrol's expression as he expects it's only going to be for laughs...only to find himself stunned on the mat ten seconds later while "the old man" stands over him telling him that they're just getting started. Adama's bloody-faced speech some minutes later simply underscores the incredible injustice of this series being continually ignored for Emmy consideration: Edward James Olmos, whether acknowledged as such or not, is giving the best primetime performance of a lead actor out there. Plus I like the ambiguity of the did they just?/nah, they're still fully dressed, but.../did they...? sequence during the flashback of Adama and Laura cuddling under the stars.
Just a wonderful series. I reiterate: Anyone who is ignoring the show because of the title is really screwing themselves.
PAD
Anyone in the neighborhood, I'll be appearing along with the rest of the X-Factor creative team at Jim Hanley's Universe over on 33rd just off 5th. We'll be there from 5 to 7 PM.
To the best of my understanding, Hanley's has sold out of X-Factor #13, so if you want that signed, you'll have to bring copies from elsewhere.
PAD