Month: November 2014

Holiday Gift Suggestions, 2001

Posted By: Peter DavidPosted On:

digresssmlOriginally published January 4, 2002, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1468

Christmas is coming, yes, the most dangerous time of the year. Dangerous in that the suicide rate supposedly spikes, and dangerous because people get reeeaaaaal sensitive about it. I once described Christmas as a “mythical birthday.” What I was referring to was that Biblical scholars doubt that December 25th is the actual date of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. Instead I got deluged with mail from people claiming I said that Jesus didn’t exist and that I obviously hated Christians.

But you know what’s safe to talk about?

Presents.

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BID Mailbag: No More Mr. Nice Guy continued

Posted By: Peter DavidPosted On:

digresssmlOriginally published December 28, 2001, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1467

I was both surprised and not surprised over the reactions I received to my column about my frustrations with fans.

Michael M. of Mechanicsville, MD, wrote in to say, “A few weeks ago you wrote in your CBG column about comic book fans and how basically we’re all a bunch of jerks. Being a fan for well over half my life, I kinda agree with you. Some of the things I have seen at conventions and read online are pretty nasty. For such a wonderful (medium) as comic books, why are so many fans such imbeciles?” Michael then went on to discuss an exception to this fan overview, namely his eight year old son, Jonathan (who obviously is exceptionally bright since his favorite comic was Spyboy.)

I am not surprised that Michael believes that I think fans are “all a bunch of jerks.” I had a feeling that would be the impression derived from the column, mostly as a result of the following paragraph:

Continue Reading “BID Mailbag: No More Mr. Nice Guy continued” →

In Germany for Nexus Con, Part 2

Posted By: Peter DavidPosted On:

digresssmlOriginally published December 14, 2001, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1465

The name of the restaurant in Berlin was, of all things, the American Western saloon. Never in a million years would have I gone anywhere near the place, even in America, but I had been doing my Q&A with the German audience at the Nexus Resurrection convention while my daughter Gwen had gone on ahead to get something to eat. This was the restaurant at the convention center. So that’s where they took her.

I walked in and was stunned.

The décor was beyond belief. The “saloon” was jam packed with all sorts of icons of the American west… such as the 1997 Queens phone book, or a statue of Abraham Lincoln. Clearly they’d simply decorated it with anything that vaguely smacked of America. What was even more bizarre, though, was the spectacle on the dance floor. Germans, about a dozen, clad in cowboy hats, boots, gaudy western shirts that looked like something you’d see on Grand Ole Opry, were out on the dance floor, and they were line dancing in perfect synchronization to “Achy Breaky Heart.”

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In Germany for Nexus Con, Part 1

Posted By: Peter DavidPosted On:

digresssmlOriginally published December 7, 2001, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1464

Back in the 1930s, there was a small shoe store in the heart of Berlin, run by a soft-spoken, unprepossessing Jew named Martin David. He had a wife, Hela, and a small boy named Gunter. The political situation had been deteriorating in Germany, and there were concerned noises from members of the Jewish populace, but there was a general belief that everything would calm down. How bad, it was figured, could it get?

And then one night a brick was hurled through Martin David’s store window, and the shouts of “Dirty Jews!” were heard from outside. Martin looked at the broken glass, at the brick with the word “Juden” etched upon it, lying upon the floor like a still-steaming animal dropping, and then he turned to his wife and said, “Start packing, get everything together. Sell what you don’t need. We’re leaving.”

All the neighbors told them they were crazy. That they were overreacting. That things would go back to the way they were. The Davids, despite the nay-sayers, left anyway.

All the neighbors died in concentration camps.

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What they could do about Mrs. Wolowitz

Posted By: Peter DavidPosted On:

It has now been widely reported that the wonderful Carol Ann Susi has passed away. Some of you may not recognize her name, but you certainly know her voice: She has portrayed Howard’s mother, Mrs. Wolowitz on “The Big Bang Theory.”

This tragedy leaves the series with two options: recast (simple enough) or kill her off.

I think they should take a third route: They should actually introduce the character on screen. That will so startle the audience that the fact that her voice will sound a bit different won’t even register. She won’t be shouting, after all. I dunno who the hëll you’d get to play an obese woman with a Brooklyn accent; it would be challenging.

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