Year: 2002

Well, the saga of Gwen is apparently being eagerly followed over on “All the Rage,” and we wouldn’t want to leave them (or you) hanging. So here it is:

Gwen will be working Saturdays, 11 to 5, at the New England Comics Allston Store. She actually worked in one of the other stores yesterday. When one customer bought “Supergirl,” she gave him a big thumbs up and said, “You should always buy this comic.” He looked at her in utter bewilderment and said, “Yeaaah, it’s, uh, pretty good,” and then beat feet out of there hastily.

So swing on by Saturdays and say hi.

PAD

The next NEW FRONTIER novel will be finished within the week and shipped off to Pocket Books. Working title is “THE GOD CHILDREN.” Pub date isn’t set, although obviously it will be in 2003, and quite possibly before the next Harry Potter novel. This will be followed by another NEW FRONTIER hardcover, which will feature–among other things–a look back at Calhoun’s Academy days.

PAD

Just came back from rolling in the PBA Pro/Am tournament at the Syosset Lanes in Long Island. As one might surmise, I was an Am.

I’d been incredibly afraid to enter the tournament, especially because I’ve been in a real slump lately. Then again, being incredibly afraid of doing something is often a good reason to go and do it (provided you can’t get yourself killed in the process.) So short of someone beaning me with an Ebonite, I figured it was safe enough.

Extremely glad I did. I had a great time bowling alongside the pros, who were all really nice, and I actually did reasonably well. Granted, it was no-tap, meaning that taking down nine pins with the first ball counts as a strike, so there was that cushion. But I was converting my multi-pin spares, and had Kathleen and Ariel cheering me on besides. My scores were 183, 191 and 208, which wasn’t bad, especially since I’ve been struggling as of late, plus I was nervous. I doubt I’ll win any prize money (the Pro/Am runs through Wednesday), but my goal was to go out there and not suck, and I accomplished that much, at least.

Plus we had a brilliant back-up plan. If I was doing lousy, Kathleen would spill water on her lap, jump up and shout, “Honey! My water broke!” And I’d quickly apologize for having to depart, but hey, gotta get the wife to the hospital, and off we’d go. Fortunately we didn’t have to go that route.

We’ll be back at Syosset next Sunday when they broadcast the Pro/Am live at 1:00 PM
EST on ESPN. So if you tune in to ESPN then, you might see us. I’ll be the one wearing the SPIDER-MAN soccer shirt.

PAD

Due to Kathleen’s impending delivery date, we knew if we wanted to see the revival of “Man of La Mancha” on Broadway, we’d need to go sooner rather than later. So it was that we were there in the first performance of the first premiere.

Well, it’s certainly in a *lot* better shape than the other premiere we recently saw (“Dance of the Vampires.”) But hëll, look at the material. And this time out, they didn’t screw with it the way they did at the Goodspeed Opera House a year or two ago–cutting songs (“What Does He Want of Me?”, “The Gypsy Dance”), or deciding to have Quixote speaking in a Castillian accent (transforming “Dulcinea” into “Dulthinea,” giving it a distinctly Daffy Duck sound.)

Solid to excellent casting. Brian Stokes Mitchell as Quixote doesn’t quite capture the air of madness in the old man, and he motors through Cervante’s pivitol speech about having seen life without milking the world-weariness and pain Cervantes has experienced, but you can’t argue with the man’s pipes. His “Impossible Dream” becomes a showstopper. Ernie Sabella wrings every last laugh out of Sancho (although Ariel looked up at me loyally at the end of the show and said, “You were a better Sancho, daddy.”) Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio has a far more comprehensive theatrical track record than I’d realized, and I think she has the potential to be one of the great Aldonzas. She not quite there yet, though. She conveys some nice sneering contempt every now and then, but the broken spirit and burning bitterness of the tavern šlûŧ isn’t fully in evidence. And you really need that to make her transformation at the end more striking. On the upside, she’s a lot better than Sheena Easton or (oy) Sophia Loren.

And hey, comics fans. The production was directed by Jonathan Kent.

PAD

It occurs to me we should have a centralized place to solicit comments when something of mine comes out. So on Fridays when a comic of mine comes out, we’ll do a “NU? WHAD’JA THINK?”

Curiously, a line of dialogue was dropped out on story page 10. The exchange, between Superboy and Mxy, is supposed to go like this:

SUPERBOY: Me and my buds, Young Justice, ran into a teen version of you. Why, we helped make you the, uh, man you are today.

(Mxy looks stunned.)

MXY: That was…you?

SUPER: Yeah!

MXY: That was you guys?!?

SUPER: That’s right! You remember?!

(And a giant robotic booted foot slams down on Superboy, wiping him out of the frame.)

Sfx: WOOOOM

(Angle on the foot, slamming down into the pavement.)

Sfx: THOOOM

(Worm’s eye view of the robot, about thirty stories tall, lifting its foot in the act of walking, and we see Superboy smeared on the bottom of the robot’s foot. Mxy is thoughtfully scratching his chin.

MXY: Can’t say as I do.

For some reason, the “That’s right! You remember?” line vanished. So Mxy’s “Can’t say as I do” reads very oddly.

Also, without desiring to give major storypoints away, I feel the need to respond to initial confusion from readers. The Superman who appears in the story and talks to Kara is *not* the real Superman. He is an actor whom Mxy endows with Superman’s powers. So all of his dialogue and advice to Kara is through the prism of a guy who has actor friends who have dealt with overzealous fans. Unfortunately, although this was made abundantly clear in the text, apparently a coloring error (the fake Superman from the current Man of Steel, which this ties in with, has red hair; the one in SUPERGIRL does not) prompted some readers to think that this was simply Superman being insensitive.

The Kara storyline is a tricky one. The problem is that Kara’s first instinct is to find Superman. If she finds him first crack out of the box, he’s immediately going to take charge of the situation, and I’m no longer writing a SUPERGIRL story. I’m writing a SUPERMAN story where Linda Danvers is a supporting character at best. The fake Superman who was going to be in MOS provided the perfect answer. Unfortunately, the colorist apparently didn’t know to make his hair red, and bam. Instead of the perfect answer, we have confused readers.

The joys of comic books.

So whad’ja think?

PAD