Originally published July 20, 2001, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1444
Assorted stuff…
Continue Reading “Assorted Thoughts: Tomb Raider, Sir Apropos, & more”
Month: September 2014
I Don’t Understand Some People Reviewing “ARTFUL”
I’ve been reading the Amazon reviews of ARTFUL and overall I’m averaging four stars out of five. So I figure that’s good.
But there seem to be a spate of One-star reviews that read almost uniformly the same:
“Didn’t keep reading it.”
“Couldn’t read it.”
“Don’t read books about vampires.”
“Read one chapter, stopped.”
Maybe I’m being oversensitive, but how can anyone claim to have an informed opinion about a book that they didn’t complete? Or that they didn’t even start? One person even gave it a one-star review because they never received it? The hëll?
I don’t mind if someone reads a book of mine and declares they didn’t like it, but I don’t see why they feel the need to slam it without having actually bothered to read it.
PAD
I’ve been thinking about Mr. Shaw a lot lately.
I have no idea why. I just am.
Mr. Lance Shaw was my eighth grade history teacher when I was living in Verona, NJ. But before I had him in eighth grade, I heard about him in seventh grade. All the eighth graders would tell us how awful he was. That he was relentlessly brutal, demanding. That he worked them ragged. The horror stories about Mr. Shaw were legendary and if you wound up getting him, then God help you.
When I got my eighth grade schedule and found I had Mr. Shaw as a teacher, my heart sank. I cannot tell you how much I dreaded the class.
On the first day, we filed in, and every student was nervous. We’d all heard the horror stories. Once the bell rang, Shaw surveyed us a moment.
Then he said the following:
“I have two rules. The first is that you will address me as King Shaw or Your Highness.”
We all exchanged confused looks.
“And the second rule is that you will spend from now until the end of the school year telling all the seventh graders what a terrible and terrifying teacher I am. I want you to petrify them.”
That’s when we realized. It was a joke. A massive school-wide joke. Shaw was, in fact, a perfectly nice guy, a great teacher, and had a snarky sense of humor. He had been using his students to spread awful rumors about him so that new students would be terrified of him at first and then love the notion that, No, Shaw’s not a bad guy, we’re just hosing everyone else in the school.
And naturally when we got out of the class and went to lunch, the first thing we did was terrorize the seventh graders about Mr. Shaw.
I’ve no idea whatever happened to him after that, of course, but I hope he stuck with teaching. He was great.
PAD
On the Death Penalty
Originally published July 13, 2001, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1443
“You know the good part about the death penalty in Texas? Fewer Texans.”
–George Carlin
Some years ago, I wrote an issue of The Incredible Hulk which featured a character named Crazy Eight. She was a supervillain or hero, depending upon which side of the law you were on. And she was on death row for having committed a series of cold-blooded murders. She was the Punisher with a string of luck that had run out, and the story involved her final hours and her interaction with Doc Samson. In the last pages, she was strapped to a chair and electrocuted, on panel. She was pronounced dead. Aside from an emotional final page with Doc, that was the end of the story.
When the issue came out, I was flooded… deluged, I tell you, inundated (all right, I got a few letters) from readers who were extremely bothered by the story. Why? Because I’d shown someone being executed.
Happy Birthday Peter David
Kath here.
If you haven’t wished Peter Happy Birthday on Facebook or Twitter, feel free to do it here or even if you have wished him a happy Birthday on Facebook and/or the Twitter.
I wanted to post a Happy Birthday to my husband, my best friend, and an all around sweet guy.
I love you Peter David and wish nothing but happiness for you in the coming year.
Kath ‘the wife’ David
On the set of Spider-Man (2002)
Originally published July 6, 2001, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1442
Spider-Man, having just saved Mary Jane from the clutches of a super-villain, lands with her on the rooftop of a Manhattan building. He exchanges a few words with her, then quickly bolts, vaulting off the roof with a mid-air somersault thrown in for good measure.
From a comic book point of view, this is fairly routine stuff. Except it wasn’t a comic book.
Guest column: Gwen! David
Originally published June 22, 2001, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1440
April 27, 1994
Teacher: So class, today we’re going to discuss where you went on Take Your Daughter to Work Day!
Jessica: My Daddy’s a caterer, and he works in a restaurant!
Lindsay: I went to the gym, ’cause my Mommy’s an aerobics instructor.
Courtney: My Dad’s a doctor. He helps people feel better.
Gwen! (age 9): My Daddy has a very important job. He sits around all day and plays on his computer in the basement. I went with him to the Central Offices. It had a bunch of video games and toys and a Batmobile. Everybody there’s real nice and some of them even spend the whole day coloring! It’s so much fun.
Teacher: Gwen!, what exactly does your father do?
Gwen! (still age 9): He writes comic books!
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