Sad to learn that Peter David has died. He wrote some great Hulk stories and lots of other stuff as well, though I know him mainly for his Hulk tales. I think I'll read one of his comics tonight and remind myself (not that I really need reminding) of what a talented writer he was.
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Sad news indeed. Although he wasn't a young man I don't think he,was that old ( mid-late 60s?). I too enjoyed picking up his Hulk tales ,
He was only 68, McS, not much older than I am now. I read part one of Future Imperfect last night, I'll read part two tonight.
Yours was the first notice of his passing I'd read, though I'd heard stories of his ill health for some time now. I'd like to see a good retrospective of his work some day. I liked a lot of the Hulks but didn't get much out of his Aquaman or Supergirl. But I could've missed a lot of things he did.
I think I missed a lot of things he did as well, GP, and I can't recall if I ever read his Supergirl. Aquaman I never thought much of to begin with, so I'd have passed if I ever did happen to see it. You should look at the Wikipedia entry on him, there's quite a bit of info there.
I wrote the following on a public forum and thought you might find it interesting.
At Sandy Eggo I saw PD perform on a panel with Harlan Ellison. As I recall, HE pretended to get torqued at something PD said. PD replied, "I'm just being puckish." HE: "Well, P*** you." Pretty obvious setup but it got a laugh. When some fans/pros formed an attack squad called Enemies of Ellison, David formed Friends of Ellison and immediately got on the bad side of Gary Groth. All that stuff was Big Comics News in the Day but now probably would add up to small potatoes even in the histories of comics fandom.
Thanks for sharing, GP. The Wikipedia entry on David is worth a read if you haven't already seen it. Gary Groth, eh? Am I right in thinking he was a bit of a sh*t-stirrer?
Ah, I could fill a few pages with my opnions on Gary Groth. Ironically, he was a lot like his feud-partner Ellison, being a :bete noire" who upset or antagonized a lot of people. But while Ellison popped off this mortal coil. Groth's still with us-- but on the infrequent times I've looked at TCJ online, he doesn't seem to be doing anything there. Apprarently the magazine came back into print form in 2019 but I've never seen any of the newer issues in shops. I have the impression that once the editors invested all their attention in "alternatives," they lost relevance to the medium as a whole and may just be sustained by a core subscribership, while the company makes its money packaging comic strip reprints. But I could be wrong on this or that point.
I base my 'sh*t-stirrer' remark on the way he goaded Jack and Roz to diss Stan Lee in that 'famous' interview. Still alive? I thought he'd died a few years back - must've been some other comics guy. In fact, just remembered who - David Anthony Kraft (DAK). That's who I was mixing him up with.
That's a fair comment on Groth (the Kirby one), particularly since I suspect that Groth knew, probably better than Kirby did, how much Stan had contributed to the partnership. Now without checking I think the interview was partly a response to Marvel Legal trying to cover the company's ass by sending Kirby a multi-page rights document before he could reclaim any of his art in Marvel's possession. That was a mistake in terms of company image, and I think it might have helped launch further legal action. If Marvel had just given Kirby what art remained-- which I don't think was very much, due to looting of the supply room-- for the same standard disclaimer that other artists were receiving. maybe that would have smoothed the waters. Maybe Groth was genuinely moved by injustice, maybe he was thinking about what made the best story to help move more copies of THE JOURNAL. Or maybe both.
I think Marvel's problem with returning some of the art was that they feared it might be perceived as validation of Kirby's claim that he'd created everything, GP. Jack was making claims that other artists weren't, which is likely why the document sent to him was different than that sent to others. It's hard to know exactly what Groth was thinking, I suppose, but it didn't put Jack in a very good light.
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