This is kinda cool: I've been informed that my book on writing comics has been nominated for an Eagle award for Favorite Comics-Related book. The following link was passed on to me by the organizers:
http://www.eagleawards.co.uk/vote.asp
PAD
Over on "aintitcoolnews.com," a review was posted of my novelization of "Spider-Man 3." And among the comments that ensued was this howler from an individual billing himself as "HumanEnhancement", which I present without comment...because I'm sure you guys will have a field day:
"Peter David...royally screwed up those "Star Trek" novels he wrote, much like his wife Diane Duane."
PAD
It appears "300" has been dislodged from its top slot courtesy of another comic book adaptation: the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
This is one of those times I wish I could draw. I'd love to see a take off on the popular "300" image except we see Spartan soldiers being knocked off a cliff by the Turtles.
PAD
The chances are that you don't know him. David was a writer, musician and rabbi, husband to Alexandra, in perfectly good physical shape and not all that old.
And just like that, he had a massive heart attack and now he's gone.
Some days you're just left shaking your head and asking "Why?"
PAD
I just find it kind of staggering that Clinton is out of office for six years now and Bush supporters are STILL trying to use him as a WMD: Weapon of Media Deflection. Anytime Bush does anything, they try to deflect criticism by claiming, "Oh yeah, well...Clinton did something similar/dissimilar-but-let's-pretend-it-was-similar, and so how come Bush gets criticized? Huh? How come? Huh?"
As if Clinton was never criticized. As if he wasn't frickin' impeached.
How about this notion, Bushies: How about that Bush and his strutting, preening, self-righteous, holier than thou associates should be endeavoring to be SUPERIOR to Clinton? How in the world is, "Yeah, well...the previous guy was no better!" any sort of a defense anyplace other than in the mind of Bush's most devoted and myopic supporters? If Bush's entire approach to running for the President was "Vote for Bush--We're No Better Than Clinton," there's no way he wins (I'm sorry, There's no way he's appointed.)
What's it going to take for the Bushies to tumble to this? If Bush has an affair in the Oval Office and then lies about it, what's the approach then? "Well, we can't impeach him, because with Clinton it was justified but in Bush's case it would just be partisan politics?"
Actually...yeah. That's likely exactly what they'd say.
PAD
Comments on the latest BSG below...
Baltar's trial resolves in pretty much the expected verdict, but not exactly in the way that I was anticipating. Basically I figured we'd see Lee Adama give an impassioned speech that would sway the five judges, or at least enough of them, to acquit, but I figured it would be part of a summary rather than putting him on the stand and grilling him. Easily Apollo's best scene in...well, months, I think. Possibly ever. And the notion of Baltar being positioned as a reluctant religious figure who, if they play this right, could rival the dying-again Roslyn for influence is particularly intriguing.
But let's move to the two big moments:
Are Sam, Saul, the chief, and what's-her-name, Laura's new assistant who's barely made any sort of impression on me until last week, REALLY four of the remaining Cylons? As revelations go it's not quite up there with my theory that Roslyn was a Cylon, which would really have been a mindbender (not to mention would have neatly explained why Hera's fetal blood cured her) but it's an intriguing reveal. I mean, yes, it could just be a massive mindfrak, but I'm leaning toward yeah, this is genuine. The fact that we have to wait until next freakin' year is no end of irritating.
As for the big reveal at the end (and props to the actress for selling the whole "Yup, I'm gone" concept in interviews), I simply submit what I wrote last week about the subject:
"Have we seen the last of Kara? I wouldn't bet on it. First of all, blondes named Kara have a habit of coming back. Trust me on that. Second, there's two obvious outs: Number one, she was seen eyeing what had to be the eject lever. She could have blown the hatch and ejected before the destruction, and with zero visibility and the DRADIS nonfunctional, Lee wouldn't have known. So she could still be alive. Number two, between all her talk of not being afraid of the other side, and the five unknown Cylons dwelling in a sort of between-death void, it leaves open the notion that she's one of the five remaining."
Do they *really* arrive on Earth next season? I'm guessing not. But if they do, I'm betting that it'll be of higher quality than when the original BSG crew made earthside. Personally I wouldn't mind a scene of Adama or even Tigh standing in front of a shattered Statue of Liberty growling, "You maniacs...you blew it up!"
PAD
Congress demanding answers about potential wrong-doing and a president stonewalling while claiming that executive privilege is being threatened, and so he's trying to offer half-assed compromises that will leave his people the option of lying privately with no chance of consequences instead of lying publicly and facing perjury?
Am I the only person who's flashing back to Nixon/Watergate?
Because if that's really what we're seeing here, then the next thing to happen should be that there's a Deep Throat who conveys to a newspaper reporter/reporters a chain of evidence that leads directly to the President, i.e., that the President ordered the attorneys fired because they weren't in lockstep with his policies and furthermore ordered his AG to lie about it. I think we're going to see the questions being raised of just how much the President knew, when he knew it, and what he did about it. And something tells me Bush doesn't want us to know the answers to those questions.
PAD
Tonight "Lost" will reportedly reveal one of the show's big mysteries: How did Locke lose the use of his legs. So I'm figuring, let's speculate in advance and see if anyone comes remotely close.
As for me, my theory is that Locke didn't actually sustain any physical injury: His loss of mobility is entirely psychosomatic.
PAD
The Democratic National Committee excoriated John McCain because he said on "David Letterman," in regards to the 3000+ soldiers who have died in Iraq, "Americans are very frustrated and they have every right to be. We've wasted a lot of our most precious treasure, which is American lives." They asserted that MCain had insulted "our brave troops." McCain subsequently apologized, believing that "sacrificed" would be the better word.
McCain should have told the DNC to sod off. But since he obviously didn't want to risk an extended imbroglio, he said he used the wrong word. Okay, I'll do it for him: Sod off, DNC. McCain's gut instinct was correct, and furthermore the DNC knows it.
To say that young lives have been wasted isn't to diminish their sacrifice or to demean them. It isn't to say that they themselves threw away their lives in an empty pursuit. It's to say that those who were entrusted *with* their lives, to not put them in harm's way unless absolutely necessary, shirked their responsibility. They've done as crap a job at safeguarding our troops as they did safeguarding the Constitution. McCain's comment was clearly not aimed at the troops; it was aimed at those who sent our troops into a war where they were assured we would be greeted as liberators and be out in no more than six months...while simultaneously destroying our international reputation at a time when, thanks to worldwide sympathy due to 9/11, we could have transformed that tragedy into some sort of true international coalition to fight terrorism.
Wasted opportunity. Wasted lives. The DNC should be ashamed of trying to spin McCain's word choice into political opportunity and push him into using one that is less loaded...and less accurate. "Sacrifice" implies nobility, but there was nothing noble in the administration's actions, nothing noble in lying to the American people, nothing noble in declaring "mission accomplished" while thousands more died.
But if "wasted" is off the table, then fine.
How about "squandered?"
PAD
I know I haven't been around lately, leaving you guys to (tragically) have to think for yourselves (I know, I know...the cruelty). I've been buried in finishing my latest "Star Trek" novel, "Before Dishonor," my first STTNG tale in quite some time. It's due out in November.
I barely finished before I was off to Wizard Con. Had a great time, both on site and off. Off site I had dinner with Harlan and Susan Ellison, along with a couple of intriguing new acquaintances. On Friday I got together with Bill Mumy and family, whom I haven't seen in a dog's age (son Seth has shot up to six feet tall and daughter Liliana, whom some of you may recall from the "Santa Clause" films, continues to look uncannily like her dad.) Saturday night was a Marvel Comics-sponsored dnner gathering where I was seated with Tom Brevoort, Andy Schmidt, Paul Jenkins, Jeph Loeb, Humberto Ramos and Mark Guggenheim (who is, among other things, a writer for "Brothers and Sisters" and convinced me to give that series another shot after the less-than-impressive pilot.)
The convention itself seemed busy but still underattended somehow. Then again, aside from the New York Con, San Diego, and Dragon*Con, "underattended" sums up most of the conventions I've attended these days.
PAD
VP Cheney is scolding the Democrats for failure to "support the troops" simply because they're disinclined to give President Bush an indefinite amount of money for an indefinite amount of time...in other words, because they won't let Bush do whatever he wants. And if there's one thing we've learned about this president, he HATES it when someone stops him from doing whatever he wants.
The thing is, when I think of supporting the troops, I'm thinking of supporting their right not to be mired in an ill-defined mission that treats their lives as easily disposable commodities. I support their right to keep sucking oxygen. I support their right to an honest government that should admit they were sent over there on a political pretext, to search for weaponry that wasn't there, and is now operating on fumes in the middle of an ongoing civil war that's going to be waged whether we're there or not.
As opposed to Cheney, for whom "suporting the troops" is code for "giving Bush carte blanche."
I think I'll take my definition over Cheney's, thanks.
PAD
The latest issues of two titles I write, both of which had the previous issues sell out.
Whad'ja think?
PAD
This one is kind of difficult to talk about and will probably be difficult to read. In fact, I wasn't even sure if Kath and I were going to be discussing it, but she said she wanted to, so I'm following her lead. I'm putting it below the cut line though so you can know in advance that this isn't a typical blog entry.
Kath was having an unusually heavy period. So profuse was the bleeding, in fact, that her OBGYN's office wanted us to take her to the local emergency room last night. One concern was that it was being caused by fibroid tumors; in any event they wanted to make sure the bleeding was brought under control since it was showing no signs of slowing.
We went to the local ER. She was checked in, hooked up to an IV, and they drew blood to run a work up on her. Over the long hours, the attending (whom we starred referring to as J.D. just to remember--we actually started naming all the assorted medical care folks after TV doctors--J.D., Elliot, House, etc.) did an internal, cleared away a bunch of the clots, and said he was going to start her on a medication to slow the bleeding.
Some time later he came back to us, looking rather surprised. "Did they go into detail at your doctor's office as to possible causes?" he asked.
"They seemed most concerned about it being tumors," she said.
He shook his head and said, "Your blood work came back positive for pregnancy. You're having a miscarriage."
We were stunned.
You know that whole "ninety five pecent effective" thing about contraception? Meet Mr. and Mrs. Five percent.
Kath sobbed profusely, emotions roiling, and I just stood there looking like I'd been hit in the face with a 2 x 4.
Anyway...
We left the hospital at 3 in the morning. Ariel was a trouper taking care of a fussy, "I want my mommy" Caroline until all hours, so we let her sleep in and then stay home from school while I drove Kath today to her OB/GYN. He did an ultrasound to make certain that no further work was required, which it wasn't. Her uterus had effectively cleaned up after itself, and the bleeding is already in the process of tapering off.
"One in four pregnancies end in miscarriage," he said.
I had no idea it was that high.
When you didn't even know there was a baby in the mix...and then it's gone...it's like the biological equivalent of the Groucho Marx song, "Hello, I must be going." Except without the whole being funny aspect.
As I said, I wasn't sure if we should even be talking about this. But Kath decided that she wanted to, and if she's going to then naturally I am too. I'm still not even sure how to feel about the whole thing. Right now my focus is on taking care of Kath and trying to make the next few days as stress free on her as possible.
PAD
Steve Rogers. Shot dead.
People have been asking me to comment.
Understand that, if I were a fan, my reaction would be, "Yeah. Sh'right."
As someone working for Marvel, you have to realize that I knew this was coming months ago. And I know what's going to be happening over the next months.
So I can't say anything.
What I will say is, "Dang. It HAD to be the same week as the latest issue of Friendly Neighborood Spider-Man...?"
PAD
You know the big $370 million New York lottery? Well, Kath bought a ticket, and guess what? WE WON!
Not the whole thing. We didn't have all the numbers. Only some. But we still won!
We got three numbers correct.
But we won!
We won...
Seven bucks.
But we won!
Seven bucks...on the ticket which cost us five bucks.
So we actually won two.
BUT WE WON! SEVEN BUCKS!
Any suggestions on how we should spend our newly found wealth?
PAD
Looking at "Heroes" and "Battlestar: Galactica," I combine the two shows to come up with our new spoiler-filled slogan:
"Save Starbuck. Save the Show."
BATTLESTAR: GALACTICA--If there was any single character in the whole of BSG who seemed destined for self-destruction, it was Starbuck. But BSG took a bizarre way of approaching it, having that self-destruction result not from depression, from recklessness, from a loss of hope...but rather as some sort of upbeat, spiritual, "I'm no longer afraid of death" moment.
Which would have been fine if I'd ever gotten the impression that Kara was afraid of death in the first place. As self-destructive as her behavior has been shown to be, once she was behind the stick, she had as much self-preservation instinct as anyone else. We've seen her wounded, we've seen her stranded, we've seen her facing death every which way and she was never deterred by it. So basically we're left with a conflicting message: That she has managed to overcome her personal demons (traceable to her mother, there's a shock: You almost want everyone who has ever blamed their miseries on their parents to have a sit down with Lucy Van Pelt's therapy booth so she can say, "Get over it. Five cents please") so that, no longer daunted by death, she embraces it. The hallmark of BSG is mixed messages, but I have to admit it left me saying, "Huh?"
I mean, was it compelling? Sure. DId it leave me gasping in shock at the end, even though the producers had been advertising that there would be unexpected deaths this season? Yeah. Did it leave me wondering how the hell Lee Adama is going to come back from this since basically this one's on his head: Starbuck wanted to ground herself and Lee was the one who insisted that she get back out there...to disastrous results. That simply *has* to be dealt with.
Have we seen the last of Kara? I wouldn't bet on it. First of all, blondes named Kara have a habit of coming back. Trust me on that. Second, there's two obvious outs: Number one, she was seen eyeing what had to be the eject lever. She could have blown the hatch and ejected before the destruction, and with zero visibility and the DRADIS nonfunctional, Lee wouldn't have known. So she could still be alive. Number two, between all her talk of not being afraid of the other side, and the five unknown Cylons dwelling in a sort of between-death void, it leaves open the notion that she's one of the five remaining.
Powerful viewing that was also disconcerting and annoying. Still, I have to think BSG is gonna take a hit in terms of fan support for this one, a hit that could conceivably damage the show especially when one considers that between the departure of Lucy Lawless's Cylon, the death of Kat and now of Starbuck, strong female characters are dropping like flies. Short term shock value could be hurt by long term anger.
Save Starbuck. Save the show.
HEROES--You have to love a series with a clear idea of what it's doing and a confident narrative thread. The casting remains pitch perfect as Malcolm McDowell shows up as the mysterious Linderman. It takes a confident evil mastermind to have a meeting while wearing an apron. The Red Skull wouldn't be caught dead doing it; Lex Luthor neither. Okay, maybe the Joker, and Doc Doom is already wearing a miniskirt, but otherwise, props to Linderman. I may have heard wrong, but I could swear the two FBI guys were named Alonso and Quesada. I wonder what I'd have to do to have a character named after me and killed in "Heroes," 'cause that would be cool. I can't believe how thrilled I was to see Hiro's sidekick, Ando, make his triumphant and well-timed...if somewhat unlikely...return. The battle of nerves between Sylar and Soresh was positively unnerving. I had thought that HRG would have no memory of Claire at all, so it's good to see that his character wasn't simply taken out of the hunt entirely...although I still have to think he was up and around pretty damned fast for a guy who just took a bullet in the gut (unless there's a super healer in the mix and I just missed that.) The ultimate cliffhanger of the episode was, of course, not much of a cliffhanger at all considering we know that Peter can imitate Claire's healing capability. I would SO love to see him kick Sylar's ass. We'll have to wait until April 23, obviously, to see if that happens.
PAD
Some of the guys in my local bowling league have a vague idea that I'm some kind of writer, but don't know the specifics, and I never make a big deal about it.
That changed a bit yesterday when Howard Stern was doing a Star Trek trivia question: What was the name of Sulu's daughter? Sulu himself, George Takei, was on as he sometimes is, and he made reference to "The Captain's Daughter" written by Peter David. The result? One of my teammates asked if I was the selfsame guy mentioned on Stern. Naturally it was and he spread mention to other folks. So I think my coolness factor was bumped up a bit.
PAD
Kristian Donaldson is interviewed at Newsarama about his upcoming two issues on Fallen Angel. Preview pages are there as well.
And Brad Douglas has a recent podcast interviewing Peter at Spider-Man Crawl Space.
Go forth and enjoy.
And that's not even counting the newest "Fallen Angel" trade from IDW. So...whad'ja think?
By the way, just to forestall the inevitable question: An entire dialogue exchange was dropped/changed in XF #16, rendering a reference to a famous film rather obscure. It will be fixed in the trade. Here's how the bit originally went, picking up midway through page 6 in a scene set just outside a Paris jail:
PANEL C: Same angle as the wall is smashed open, bricks and mortar flying everywhere.
PANEL D: Monet steps through the sizable hole.
PANEL E: Monet stops and looks as a red balloon floats past. Siryn is visible behind her.
MONET 5: Hunh.
SIRYN 6: What?
MONET 7: Just thinking how much I hated that movie.
SIRYN 8: What movie?
PAGE 7
PANEL A: Suddenly the balloon explodes. Monet and Siryn both look startled.
Sfx: BLAAAM
PANEL B: The tattered remains of the balloon flutter to the ground. Monet is looking at the tattered remains; Siryn is looking straight ahead, reacting.
MONET 1: Never mind. It’s moot now.
OFF PANEL 2: Don’t move!
PAD
So here we have two series, one which shows that you can actually do episodes with major revelations without the world coming to an end, and one in which I've more or less given up on EVER finding out what the hell is going on, and am just grateful that we've finally had a character episode that I was really interested in. Spoilers follow:
"HEROES"--Okay, this is how it's done. Hats off to Claire's dad, typically known as HRG (Horn Rimmed Glasses), who has evolved into the most fascinating complex hero/villain on prime time. This episode simply does everything right, from the startling reveals that yet somehow made perfect sense (HRG used to be partnered with Claude; Hiro's father is in this way deeper than we originally thought), to the little moments (a younger Claire helping daddy pick out his signature eye wear). On the one hand we've seen HRG do some truly terrible deeds, but on the other hand, we've seen him overpowered by such paternal devotion to protecting his adopted daughter that he's willing to sacrifice literally everything in order to protect her. Simply fantastic episode.
(By the way, I chatted with Stan Lee at the convention and he told me that his cameo in the previous week's episode was literally cut in half. His second line as the bus driver was a cheery and enthused, "Well...get in!" and then he closed the door with great dramatic emphasis. I think that just would have made that episode a hundred times better, don't you? Maybe we'll see it on the DVD release.)
"LOST"--Oh. Thank. God. No Others. No cages. No endless rain. No sturm and drang and operating rooms. No Jack, which I never actually thought I'd be grateful for. Instead finally an episode focused on Hugo, my favorite character (and not just because Jorge Garcia took the time, even though he was "off duty," to sign an autograph for Ariel during the waning hours of San Diego.) If Locke was the soul of the show...at least, before they apparently forgot he was around...Hugo has been the heart of it. The episode didn't advance the overall "What's up with the island" plot one iota, but nothing has for weeks and, as noted, I've pretty much given up on the idea of anything doing that. So now my attitude is, at least give me interesting character stories, 'cause otherwise I'm switching to Comedy Central or just reading a book. And "Lost" comes through, with the morbidly hilarious (Hugo's warnings of imminent danger are ignored by a know-it-all news reporter who then gets wiped out by a meteor that annihilates her, Hugo's old boss, and his newly purchased chicken restaurant), brilliant casting (Cheech Marin as Hugo's dad: Best dad casting since Hiro's), and a portentous ending that signals the return of, at last, Mira Furlan, the mysterious French woman who is making absolutely no effort to effect a French accent, which is fine by me. I just like seeing her on screen again.
One hopes that this week's episode signals a return to character-driven stories which feature characters I actually care about (did we ever find out how Locke lost the use of his legs?)
PAD