Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities All Peter David thread

http://www.peterdavid.net/2016/12/22/yes-peter-is-in-the-hospital-no-we-are-not-entirely-sure-why/

I sensed something was wrong when PAD's wife, Kath, and daughter, Caroline, never replied to a fun questions thread that they'd started several days ago.

PAD is not only my favorite male writer, I also feel as though, through his openness and that of Kath, Caroline, and PAD's daughters from his first marriage, that he's a friend. Certainly a truer and more loyal friend than a lot of people I've actually met in person. He means the world to me.

Whether his writing is your thing or not, PLEASE pray for him and/or send positive energy to him.

It might not be as dire as you think.

My Brother-in-law got a weakness in his legs too. I forget what they said the exact condition was. He has made a complete recovery. His was quick too as they said that it could take up to 2 or more years for recovery.


This is not to say that this is what Peter David has. Just saying let's not start morning yet.

Whatever it is, I hope he makes a complete recovery.

At least they said that both a second stroke or a heart attack had been ruled out.

Quis, JP, thank you both from the bottom of my heart. That's exactly what I needed to hear right now.

I had to leave work early. I got less than halfway through the day, until I felt myself to be on the verge of breaking into tears.

And I was in such a state when I made my first post that I'd forgotten that I not only *HAD MET PETER ONCE*, back in '97 at a convention in Orlando, but he was an absolute sweetheart to me, and he really seemed to genuinely appreciate how much I admired his sympathy for, and insights into, a gender other than the one he was assigned and presented as (though even I wouldn't have quite put it in those exact words back in Less Enlightened Times.) Even my *MOM* liked a few of his Hulk stories, especially the issues where Betty and Marlo cement their sisterly bond over a six-pack of beer and Betty drunkenly relates her loony life ("Once, I was the Harpy. I had wings and claws and stuff...I needed lots of backless dresses!!")

Point being, I have lost several *blood relatives* over the past 15-20 years, and *NONE* of their deaths left me feeling gutted the way that even the *possibility* of PAD dying within the next few days has gutted me.

Thank the Gods, I have a great boss who was totally understanding, even given the decidedly unconventional circumstances of my emotional distress, and the couple of co-workers I confided in were fully sympathetic. I've also talked to my best friend on the phone and to my parents in person, and after a lot of lengthy rambling about just *what* PAD means to me, and *why* he means so much to me, came around to understanding where I'm coming from (though, as usual, my father has clearly come around, while my mother still seems to be off in all hell of her own making inside her head.)

To summarize, Peter was is the awesome Jewish uncle that I would have had if my mother had had a brother along with my 2 aunts!!

That's all I have to say for now. I'm going to read the rest of the posts since I last logged off and then get in bed and cry buckets of tears.

Back for a sec just to say that I visited Peter's blog just now to read the comments (no real updates from Kath as of this post, but hopefully no news is good news.) I also somehow managed to conjure up and post a comment. My handle on Peter's blog is RJA.

NOW I'm off to bed, and you all will be happy to learn that after making that post in the thread in Peter's blog, I don't feel like crying anymore, at least for the moment.

Keep those prayers and positive energy coming, Legion Worlders!!

PAD is awesome
So here's some good thoughts for him!!!!

Thanks, Andy, thanks all who posted and all who did not post but sent their positive energy and prayers in silence.

Kath finally posted an update about 30 minutes ago, and it looks like Peter is going to pull through:

http://www.peterdavid.net/2016/12/23/peter-david-update-finally-progress/

I've already made a highly emotional and joyful post on the blog, so for the moment, I will only say that I am grateful that even in the deepest darkness, a light can still sometimes shine.

I just re-read my very spontaneous blog comment in the recovery thread. Heh. I guess I really am less a glam-punk and more a glam-hippie at heart, after all.

But that's OK. So are Todd Rundgren, Julian Cope, and a few other ladies, gentlemen, and people at all points in between, whose names escape me ATM. I'm in good company.

Hey, Pov, I've finally come around, spiritual brother of mine. The prodigal daughter and all that.

(Sorry, Teeds.)

I saw the post on Facebook that he took a couple of steps. That sounds very promising.

Thanks, Quis, for informing me and the other Legion Worlders who don't do FB of that.

He is on the road to recovery with each step. It means the body is healing.

Indeed. Thanks, JFP.

http://www.peterdavid.net/2016/12/25/peter-david-update-christmashanukkah-edition/

It's finally over and I can breathe easily again.

I love PAD more than ever now.

I'd say it's about time I added some things to this thread to make it worthy of its brave, bold, outspoken, tenacious, and talented subject.

Stay tuned...

I've decided to start by demystifying some of the less flattering perceptions of PAD from people who don't know as much about him as I do:

DEMYSTIFICATION #1: THE FEUDS WITH THE IMAGE FOUNDERS

I already discussed this briefly with Cobie in the Image thread a while ago. In a nutshell, when I recently re-read the first of two volumes collecting the best of PAD's But I Digress column for Comics Buyer's Guide, I was struck by how even-handed, fair, and borderline-innocuous his first essay on Image Comics, from February '92, just before the initial launches, was. And I'm saying this as someone who inevitably has a pro-PAD bias in the matter of these feuds. I came to the conclusion that the Image founders, whose average age at the time was 25-30 compared to PAD's 35 going on 36 (and, yes, those few years really DO make a difference, trust me), acted like the thin-skinned, spoiled brats they were AT THE TIME (caps deliberate) and overreacted, and thus they, not PAD, were the initial aggressors. And that they would be even more thin-skinned than PAD is saying something, because as much as I love him, I am well aware of PAD's very human fallibilites, and that's one of them.

But I still stand by my opinion that it was the Image founders who "fired the first shot", so to speak, and that no amount of evolution and progress of Image into the admirable publisher it is today should completely excuse the founders' puerile behavior, nor should it excuse PAD's allowing himself to get drawn into the feud and come close at time to sinking to their level. I think PAD should have reasoned that when you take on a bunch of immature, exhibitionistic, testosterone-crazed, nouveau-riche brats, it's you who is going to end up suffering on many levels.

And, FTR, Cobie quite generously and helpfully pointed out to me that a few of the Image founders, notably Erik Larsen, who, at the time, was one of the loudest and most ignorant and obnoxious ("Who needs writers?") in my admittedly biased opinion, has publicly taken responsibility for his youthful errors in judgment.

Finally, here is the column that unwittingly started it all:

http://www.peterdavid.net/2005/06/29/image-the-beginning/

...and a list of all the subsequent relevant columns that the search engine on PAD's blog turned up:

http://www.peterdavid.net/?s=image+comics&x=19&y=13

I wanted to note that in February 1992, I read that very first column and was glued to my seat every week, grabbing my father's CBG, flipping to the last page and reading But I Digress. I was only 11 years old and this was right around the exact time that I became the lifelong super-fan of comic books.

My Dad had been getting CBG for years at this point, and it was *the* premiere comic book fanzine / magazine out there. Wizard was for "kids" and speculators; CGB was for serious comic book fans and collectors. It was a newspaper format that came out weekly. PAD was already one of the most beloved and respected writers in comics over the last few years and his column surely contributed to CGB's popularity.

Just as I was starting to read just about everything my Dad collected (which was almost everything), I would read this too. In a lot of ways, PAD shaped those years and my entire comic book reading experience. (To a lesser extent so did Mark Evanier with his column and even lesser than that Tony Isabella, who I tend to find a bit annoying). PAD immediately became one of my top creators and I followed him religiously. More than that, I felt like I knew him personally, and I never missed a But I Digress column all the way up until CBG ended just a few years ago.

(As an aside, when I met PAD a few years ago, I told him I started reading his columns when I was 11. He was amused though he was really cranky that day. I wish it was a better experience for me, honestly. He didn't seem to want to be friendly to me or anyone else that day though, and I know he's like that sometimes. But I Digress.)

In those days I was 100% pro-PAD and 100% anti-Image. Even McFarlane, my beloved former artist of Spider-Man who I still followed couldn't way me even slightly.

A few things are notable:

- Erik Larsen was one of the biggest jerks but like Fanfie says, he really has mentioned many times how much he regrets it all, and realizes it. I've never been a huge fan of Larsen but I respect that.

- From all accounts, Jim Valentino was a true gentlemen and worked behind the scenes to try to nip this in the bud before it happened. He couldn't, but managed to walk away with the respect of PAD, the other founders, the Simonson's and many others who were involved.

- Still love that BID column where Walt lent his support to PAD to show the Hulk punching Spawn through a brick building. After all, it started when Liefeld made some shitty comments about Weezie.

- As expected, Liefeld was a huge dick the whole time while Jim Lee was respectful and above it all.

He's gonna be writing a new Scarlet Spider series.

Y'know, there's been some discussion in the Legion forum about whether there have been any other superhero resources, besides "Secrets of the Legion", that were done as sequential narrative rather than the OHOTMU/Who's Who model.

Then, suddenly, it came to me:


Like, "DUH!"

PAD's wonderful "Atlantis Chronicles" mini-series from 1990, one of the first things he wrote for DC, and still one of his best for any publisher.

That's another one I never bothered with. I'm trying remember what Aquaman was like as a character at the time it came out. I possibly got the feeling that they were trying out a number of things to see if something stuck. I've never been taken with DC's takes on Atlantis really.

It's well worth reading, Thoth. Aquaman doesn't even appear until the very end. The story is a lot like what I've heard Game of Thrones is like, just without the obnoxiousness that permeates just about every modern-day TV shows I've ever tried to watch.

Funny you should mention DC's Atlantis, I have the same problem with almost every iteration of Marvel's Atlantis.

It's like the Sub-Mariner is a great character without a decent supporting cast or mythology or rogues gallery.

And Aquaman's the opposite, a bland cipher with all the accoutrements -- and if the latter are well-used, as I feel PAD did in all his Atlantis/Aquaman stories, then it still makes for good comics despite Aquaman.

I'll second the Atlantis Chronicles recommendation. He tries to capture the feel of mythology, not just in the individual stories, but the idea of a cursed family repeating its own history throughout the ages. PAD went on to give Aquaman two sons in his ongoing, and I'm sure if he hadn't left the book over creative differences we would have eventually seen another iteration. And as FL says, it's very Aquaman-light. And what we do see, makes it feel less like Aquaman reimagined into this framework.

Yeah, Gods, PAD's Aquaman ongoing had such an amazing first two dozen or so issues, and then...meh. I mean, it had its moments (I'm especially fond of the Maxima issue, and the misdirection of her cameo in the issue right before it, where PAD tricks the reader into thinking it's the return of Mera; let's just say I like Maxima a lot more than Mera, and leave it at that.)

I particularly consider the first 8 issues, which include the awesome confrontation with the Deep Six, to be an arc whose smooth pacing and sharp story-beats combine to make it near-flawless.

And speaking of PAD writing Kirby's DC characters, I really think he excelled at that -- I love the Supergirl arc where she fights the Female Furies (and I consider PAD's creation Twilight one of the few worthy additions to the New Gods mythos), and the use of Klarion the Witch Boy in the Sins of Youth event, and the Young-Justice-trapped-on-Apokolips arc was powerful and disturbing. And while I was initially disappointed at the lack of grandeur in the final YJ arc, involving Darkseid, I now find it rather refreshing in its understatement and the slyly underplayed irony of Greta's "happy ending."

Just when his health is on the mend, now he gets gutted financially:

http://www.peterdavid.net/2017/03/31/i-am-in-desperate-trouble/

Please help PAD and Kath and Caroline any way you can.

Per Bleeding Cool, PAD is halfway to his goal after two days of his gofundme... Hope he gets that off his back.

Here's the GoFundMe page: https://www.gofundme.com/peter-david-needs-your-help