Frickin’ freezing. Heat went out to the upstairs, but fortunately the serviceman came quickly. It’s great dealing with a small town oil company.
Saw the Diamond Top 100. “Supergirl” up to #70. “Young Justice” outselling “Teen Titans.” Both cancelled. “Captain Marvel” holds steady while the other U-Decide books fade, but I’m persona non grata at Marvel. Not sure whether to laugh or cry.
PAD
• 
As a fan…sorry to see, but think of it as something to build on with your next project with DC Peter! You’re a great writer, and the numbers, even though they’re too late in the game, show it!
Laugh of course, to answer a rhetorical question.
Besides, some of my favorite comics and stories weren’t what you would describe as best-sellers. rest comforted in the fact you’d outwrite some of these other clowns with both hands tied behind your back.
Incidentally, how well did “The End” do?
PAD:
How do you feel about the way Marvel explained away your composite Hulk, “The Professor,” as being just another Bruce Banner personality instead of a combination of all of them?
I thought that was the deal with Proffesor Hulk from the get-go. Even Doc Samson was concerned for the Hulk, right? Hulk though of it as a blending, so thus he must have been cured. Or am I wrong? I was only able to catch the Proffssor Hulk’s early issues through back issues.
Oh, and Laugh!
Surges:
While PAD was writing The Incredible Hulk we were led to believe that The Professor was a merger of the green angry Hulk, the gray crafty Hulk and Bruce Banner. When that British guy whose name I can’t recall was writing the run just prior to Bruce Jones it was revealed that this Professor personality was just another alter ego and existed independently of grey and green Hulks. Plus, a buttload of new Hulk personalities were discovered during that run …
Whaddya mean you’re persona non Grata at Marvel? Now WHAT?!
Charles F. Waldo
Laugh if you can, cry if you have to. Did Young Justice go up any points recently. It’s not that big a deal that it’s currently outselling The Titans. If it outsells the upcoming Teen Titans book that is replacing it, then it’s more interesting.
Over here in upstate New York it’s “frickin’ freezing” too. The heat is still on and going, but I have to walk to work. I also usually take a multiple mile trek to a bookstore and a convenience store/newsstand to get my comics. Not this weekend. I’m going to have to bum a ride.
Peter, Supergirl #78 was great, this arc has been getting better and better and I think people are only realizing it. The developments in YJ particularly the Secret/Darkseid thing has got me extremely curious and interested. I haven’t read any Marvel books in years on principle sorry but if I did I’d pick up Captain Marvel based on the good stuff I’ve had heard from others. Why the retailers and/or DC/Marvel marketing are so bad in showcasing anything without a “X” or “Ultimate” on it I don’t know. But if it’s any consolation the last issues of YJ and Supergirl are the first things on my pull list because the art is good and the writing even better. Years from now when issues of Supergirl #75 are selling for $30 on Ebay you can have the last laugh.
I would say laguh and cry.
Lets face it, Marvel will eventualy come running to you to take over the reins(spelling?), of an existing book or start a new one completly. That is what you should laugh about. The reason to cry about it is because Marvel is much akin to a blackhole. Marvel is in fact a giant @$$hole of such power that nothing can escape it. Unless of course you are an equaly sized and powerful @$$hole that will negate it’s gravitational pull, you know kinda like Todd McFarlane.
It’s 19
19 degrees in eastern Tennessee! Wow, I envy you. It’s in the single digits here in central Tennessee. The house I live in is heated by wood stoves, and heat leaks out the cracks almost as fast it it comes out of the stoves.
I suppose someone must have said, “It will be a cold day in hëll when they cancel books as good as Supergirl and Young Justice,” and we’re all suffering the consequences.
Don’t let these things drag you down, PAD. You’ve had steady success in this business for decades, maybe it was just time for a downwind. The important thing is to make sure it doesn’t stay this way, focus on other media, keep your name in the game and try to get back on well-selling titles at DC to more or less show Joe Quesada what you can do.
Laugh.
If you cry, your tears might freeze.
We’re having a heatwave here in Georgia. As I type this at 8 a.m. Saturday 01/25 it is 15 degrees. Yesterday morning I awoke to 6 degrees and it hit a whopping 28 as the high.
And I thought the south was supposed to be warm.
Don’t let the numbers get you down, Peter.
Have a great weekend everyone.
Bobby
Bobby Nash
Writer @ Large
I’m very disappointed that YJ is coming to a close. I just recently read all the issues of it and I loved every minute of it. I also read all of SPYBOY; that was entertainment, dammit.
You should convince the head honchos at DC (or Marvel) to let you do another run on THE PHANTOM. Now THAT would be neat.
Hang in there, PAD.
After all, you still write novels, and I find that to be your best work.
I’ve recently turned to Japanese manga for my comics fix, because pretty much all of the Marvel and D.C. comics I find interesting are gradually being cancelled off.
It’s a lot like being banned from your favorite store. You want to buy something, the money’s in your hand – but nobody wants to take it.
#sigh#
It
I, too, am in favor of the suggestion that you laugh — mockingly, and with great scorn — and then go on with your other projects unaffected.
In the meantime, I think I’ll console myself by watching Oblivion and Oblivion 2 again. Zerberts to Marvel and DC.
With your love of Buffy, why has DH never approached you for a mini? Those books fail to deliver in the comedy aspect. The other drawback is the poor art, but with your name it should draw more sales on that regardless of the art.
What about the Tales of the Slayer? I don’t know just typing out loud here. DH seems like an good fit.
It’s kind of sad, really.
Young Justice is being cancelled because somebody had the idea to re-do the New Teen Titans as a TV animation; but to make it “current” they’ll substitute Tim Drake for Ðìçk Grayson, Impulse for Kid Flash, and throw Superboy in the mix
Oh, yeah; we’ll kill Donna Troy to make room for Wonder Girl.
What corporate MORON thinks any old-time Teen Titans fan will watch this hodge-podge of drek? (Apparently the same type of corporate moron that thinks he can write comic books as well as an established writer and challenge him to a public writing duel.)
Face it Pete; DC and Marvel are on the downward paths. Have you ever though about calling Mark Alessi at Crossgen for an interview? I’m enjoying the (almost) entire line for less than $20 bucks a month, and it’s ALL good stuff. Good people, good work ethic; No Editors (hint, hint!)
I’d love to see you writing MYSTIC or THE FIRST; put some life in those moribund titles. If you can write “Q” and Luxwanna Troi realistically, THE FIRST is just cake.
As always, love all your stuff.
~~~JD~~~
PAD,
I’m writing from Windsor, Ontario where it’s -10 C (that’s without the windchill factor). That’s nothing compared to the chill that you get from Marvel these days. Joe Quesada recently responded to one of my emails. He claims that the two of you have settled things. Any comment?
Tom Pearce
Peter, take heart. In my job as a recruiter for a movie market research firm, I have to recruit people for market research and press screenings of movies by getting the attention of passersby on the street OUTSIDE in NYC. (The theater managers in NYC, for some reason, in stark contrast to the friendly ones outside of the city, are mostly prìçkš, who don’t let us recruit inside the lobby, even when the screening is going to be there, and we’ve rented out every seat in their stinkin’ auditorium and ensured huge concession sales for them).
Peter, take heart. In my job as a recruiter for a movie market research firm, I have to recruit people for market research and press screenings of movies by getting the attention of passersby on the street OUTSIDE in NYC. (The theater managers in NYC, for some reason, in stark contrast to the friendly ones outside of the city, are mostly prìçkš, who don’t let us recruit inside the lobby, even when the screening is going to be there, and we’ve rented out every seat in their stinkin’ auditorium and ensured huge concession sales for them).
Btw, Peter, did you see the new trailer for “The Hulk,” featuring the first clear shots of his face and him in action? Even if you missed it during the Super Bowl like me, it’s at http://www.apple.com/trailers.
Laugh.
It’ll confuse people at Marvel.
(Ok.. it’ll *further* confuse them.)
It should be noted (for no other reason than I haved just noted it) that “Should I Laugh Or Cry” is an ABBA song … one of their last.
No connections there or anything. Just one of those funny little bits of trivia to inspire paranoia in those people who read a lot into everything …
Man, do I feel sorry for Peter David. Not that he’s looking for sympathy or anything like that; I like to think the man is above asking people to feel sorry for him. No, I feel sorry for him because it seems like lately the entire comic world is doing its absolute best to take a dump on the esteemed (and pretty dámņ good) comic writer.
First of all, he gets publicly ridiculed by Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada and Marvel president Bill Jemas just because he took them to task for wanting to raise the cover price on Captain Marve/. David partly blamed the lack of advertising and promotion on the title as a reason Captain Marvel wasn’t selling well. Quesada, however, said that much of the reason was that David sucked as a writer. Bill Jemas actually said that he was a better writer than David ever would be (well, Marville pretty much proved Jemas a liar in that regard).
Later, Supergirl gets canceled because of weak sales and Young Justice – which is a really good comic most of the time – gets canceled because DC is launching a Teen Titans comic to coincide with the Cartoon Network animated series due later this year. Apparently, DC was afraid that readers would get confused if there was another comic series with many of the same characters in a title called Young Justice. Yeah, 60 years of conflicting DC continuity barely fazes us, yet we’re going to become drooling idiots and soil ourselves because we see two titles with the same characters?
Now, if that wasn’t bad enough, David is told by Joe Quesada in an online forum that if he doesn’t stop publicly criticizing Marvel, then he’s going to be out of a job. Here’s a partial transcript of a Quesada rant from http://www.joequesada.com:
‘Peter’s books are dropping like flies at this point, Supergirl being the latest, but I’m going to be magnanimous and give him a grace period and consider stuff in the past, left in the past. If he wants to criticize Marvel policy or Marvel higher ups, he has every right, but as I learned long ago if he doesn’t like a situation and if he can’t change it, then he should just stop complaining or get the h#&% out of that situation. If he finds himself lacking the strength or conviction to do that, I’ll do it for him.’
All I could think when I read that was: What a dìçkhëád. He can’t stand the heat that’s generated when someone plays their game — and routinely beats them at it, I might add — and he threatens to fire them. Lil’ Joe and Bill are gonna take their toys and go home if they don’t get their way. So Joe believes that you can heap praises upon Marvel and talk about them all you want – if you toe the party line.
But here’s where I have trouble grasping why Quesada is getting bent out of shape. To the best of my knowledge, the criticisms that David has heaped upon Marvel have all been about policies that are public knowledge. Not one single private meeting or discussion has ever been talked about by David as far as I know. So I or anyone else can criticize Marvel, but David is allowed to only praise them? Sure, I understand that he is working for them, but I honestly don’t feel that Quesada is justified in telling David that he’s going to fire him if he ever criticizes them again.
Here’s the problem with Marvel, specifically regarding Bill Jemas and Joe Quesada: It’s perfectly okay for them to take cheap potshots at comic fans, comic retailers, the Distinguished Competition, and comic writers who happen to be their employees, but when someone comes down on them, then their only resort seems to be either calling them stupid, try to make fun of them in the worst-written comic series ever, or threaten to fire them if they criticize them ever again.
Obviously this is something that Peter David has to decide on his own, but I really can’t see him caving in on this one. It would mean giving in to a couple of men who just don’t seem to understand what it takes to run a company efficiently. I mean, this man is a talented writer, Marvel desperately needs talented writers, and he has loyal and dedicated fans who follow him wherever he goes. We have eight subscribers who are down for every DC or Marvel comic that Peter David writes (except Soulsearcher & Company; just doesn’t seem to be their cup of tea), and we’re just one (relatively) small store. And when it comes right down to it, I kind of doubt that David needs work from Marvel. He publishes several books a year, writes lots of comic scripts and also does movie and television scripts, so I’m assuming that he’s doing okay financially. But why he would want to work for a company that he gave much of his creative life to only to be treated like šhìŧ is beyond me.
Call ‘em like you see ‘em, Mr. David. If Marvel (or anyone else) does something you feel is deserves praise, then by all means say so. But if they do something that is just plain stupid, then call them on it. Don’t compromise your ethics. Your fans wouldn’t want it any other way.
Everytime I pick up a title that I fawn over, get excited everytime there is a new issue, rave to all my friends about how much I love it…it gets cancelled. Nine times out of ten the comic that I am most happy with is one that Peter David wrote. It astounds me that the people who make bonehead decisions have no creative bones in their bodies and are often in charge of the fate of these books. The world of comics has ended because the dimwitted, narrowminded men of marketing are the ones in charge making all these decisions. Their logic for their decisions never ceases to amaze me also. Their reasoning behind cancelling Young Justice upsets me so much that I can feel the anger swelling in my throat. It has honestly gotten to the point where I have dropped Marvel and DC comics…. I can’t take the stupidity and the lust for cash and marketability. Its over.. My pile of boxes will no longer have any more boxes added to it. I’m tired of the frustation.
Comics are failing and Manga is on the rise and people are wondering how can these books be selling when comics aren’t? Because everything stays consistant. Every story has a beginning and an end. There are no gimmicks, no chrome covers, no crossovers, it is what it claims to be. It covers a variety of genres not just superheroes and most of the time the creator of the book is the same beginning to end. It doesn’t get cancelled because the book didn’t sell as well as dragonball Z. Things don’t get rehashed as often and that in of itself is what is driving people to grab manga and leave Marvel and DC behind.
As a sidenote everytime I read an interview from Joe Quesada, I just want to smack him in the mouth. I often wonder why he became editor-in-chief in the first place….i mean besides the fact that the Peter Principal came into play.
PAD;
I don’t know how you feel about Manga, but I hate it. I don;t see what people see in it.