The All Purpose Comics Industry News Thread

[odessasteps]

14 minutes ago, Matt D said:

I don't think diversity isn't as much as an issue as the lack of balance. It's good to switch things up and develop new inclusive versions of characters. It's probably not a great idea to have Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, Cap (to a degree), Wolverine (to a degree) all off the table at the same time.

I will say it hurts that we lost Spider-Woman, Hellcat, and Black Widow all in the same week. Those might have been Marvel's best three books. I'm not sure what's tops now? Star-Lord maybe?

US Avengers or Ultimates [2]. Maybe x-23's book or even Wasp. 

Royals comes out today. Fingers crossed (since i had a pod with Ewing coming up)

[Matt D]

I liked Inhumans Prime well enough, so I have some hope for Royals too. Ewing's stuff is extremely fun but, I think ultimately it's 15% too fan-fiction-y to be on the same level as the lead writers (Hickman, Fraction, Gillen, Aaron, Waid, Busiek, etc) before him. You see the strings a bit too much. I do think he's come a long way and I love Ultimates' ambition. I also love how effortless Zdarsky's stuff feels in comparison though. 

All New Wolverine is an excellent, excellent book, to the extent that I thought they were going to really screw things up with Enemy of the State II and instead they went out of their way to make sure no one else screws things up in the future with it. Too early to say on Wasp. They're diving into that well quite a bit between that Riri and Moon Girl, and while I like Wasp's "in a world she did not make" feel and her enthusiastic reactions to everything, I think it's still finding its feet. 

[Spritenaut 32]

On 4/1/2017 at 4:10 PM, Cliff Hanger said:

Is this where we talk about Peter David's financial collapse?  Because that's such an insane story, but one I 100% believe after 6 years of doing customer service for the IRS.

On his website, he says they've raised about $66,000 (their tax bill is $88,000) after six days of asking for donations.  

I dunno.  I wish I knew more about this story.  There's no way to judge his ability to repay without knowing more about the specifics, but it certainly seems like he should have been able to work out something in the past 20 years.  He's worked steadily as a comics writer decades and had over 100 novels published (according to Wiki).  Comics work supposedly doesn't pay well, on average, and I would guess penning Star Trek novels pays less than you might think,  Still, I"d be annual income wasn't more than most people's. I feel like, if I'm an IRS agent, I look at his file and see a guy who has steady income and the wherewithal to pay.

Beyond that, there's the scope of this.  Apparently he's had an overdue tax bill for about 20 years.  On his website, he mentioned that the IRS set up repayment schedules over the years, but those always fell through (i.e., he didn't make payments and got way behind again),  He also mentioned that the IRS seemed to forget about him for awhile - the implication being that he didn't make any payments during that time and hoped the matter would fall through the cracks.  The IRS probably made a number of attempts to resolve this before it got to the point where they're "going to take everything" but I'm guessing David hasn't made what they consider a good faith effort to repay.  To me, it doesn't sound like he's made a consistent effort to get this paid off.

I dunno.  I want to be sympathetic, but I also don't want to blindly give him the benefit of the doubt.just because I enjoyed Hulk and Supergirl way back when.  I'm an accountant, so I've heard variations of this story a lot over the years and, more often than not, the client had the means to pay and didn't for whatever reason.  I feel like I should be more sympathetic, but his story doesn't quite sit right with me.  But, again, all I know is the little bit he posted on his website.  I know practically nothing about his yearly income, debts, lifestyle, etc., so it's virtually impossible to judge him fairly.  

I did send him some money, in case anyone is wondering.

[Matt D]

I thought about it but I ultimately did not for a lot of the reasons you mentioned. I did think about it though. If nothing else, there just seemed like a lack of perspective in there somewhere I just wasn't comfortable with.

[OSJ]

Jesus Christ on a pogostick, if I had Peter David's income the last twenty years I could have thrown mine away (and there was at least a decade that I flirted with 6 figures every year). The dude had ample opportunity to make payments and basically blew the IRS off. I can speak from bitter experience that one does not do that. Fortunately my bill was in the low four figures until they slapped on fines and penalties. I argued with them and got the fines and penalties removed by making four payments of over a grand each. Basically, they're quite reasonable when you wave money at them. Above all, the IRS wants that basic fee paid, they don't really give crap about fines and penalties, but by God you had best be prepared to pony up the principal debt. I may be misjudging the man, but it sure sounds like he just hoped they would go away if he ignored them.

[Cliff Hanger]

My best guess as an IRS employee is that he actually DID pay off the 97-8 bill, the statute date for which has long passed, but did it by not making his later years' payments on his self employment tax and contract work.  Now the statute date (deadline to collect) is approaching for THOSE yeats, and so the IRS is pushing to collect by hook or crook while it still can. They had previously flagged him as uncollectible, but when that 10-year deadline is about to end they will play super hardball.

And a lesson here: never shirk your this-year taxes to pay your past-year taxes, it will fuck you up for years.

[odessasteps]

I think i would have been more likely to give PAD a donation after his stroke than for his tax issues. 

Off the top of my head, i think the only go fund me ive donates to was the one for the Gang after his house was destroyed.

[Spritenaut 32]

3 hours ago, odessasteps said:

I think i would have been more likely to give PAD a donation after his stroke than for his tax issues. 

Off the top of my head, i think the only go fund me ive donates to was the one for the Gang after his house was destroyed.

I had no idea that PAD had a stroke.  Haven't followed "backstage" news about creators since I gave up my subscription to Comics' Journal back in the early 90's.  This board is virtually my only source for comic news.

That's why I hate to jump to any conclusions about PAD's finances without more info.  My gut reaction is that PAD probably reported a high level of income most years, but that's conjecture.  I don't know enough about Marvel and DC pay rates, or what the publishing contract for an original Star Trek novel pays, to even make an educated guess how much anyone makes in those jobs.  And, like Cliff Hanger wrote above, PAD probably paid off the original tax bill and is behind on a more recent debt that falls inside the statue of limitations.  But.... that's not what he wrote on his website, so that's conjecture too.

I kinda hope I am misreading the situation.  PAD wrote a few of my favorite superhero runs, and seemed like a nice guy the few times I've met him (years ago; we were both a lot younger.  I still had hair).  It sucks for anyone to get to his age and be threatened with losing "everything."  But, on the face of it, it sounds like PAD stuck his head in the sand and hoped he could get off without paying anything if he wished hard enough.  

[odessasteps]

What he wrote when it happened in 2012

Quote

“We were on vacation in Florida when I lost control of the right side of my body,” David wrote. “I cannot see properly and I cannot move my right arm or leg. We are currently getting the extent of the damage sorted out and will report as further details become clarified.”

 

[Brian Fowler]

I'm considering taking him up on "send a check and a SASE and I'll autograph the books you send along" for a couple of Supergirl trades, but that's more wanting my favorite comic book ever autographed than anything else.

[odessasteps]

Speaking of PAD, he's at a comic/media convention  in Philly i did not realize was happening this weekend. 

[TheVileOne]

On 4/4/2017 at 9:09 PM, odessasteps said:

In other news, waid is the latest creator to leave twitter. 

Props to Mark Waid.  Twitter is a garbage, toxic place and should be destroyed.

[OSJ]

1 hour ago, TheVileOne said:

Props to Mark Waid.  Twitter is a garbage, toxic place and should be destroyed.

Wouldn't know, never been on the fucking thing. Yeah, I have a Facebook account but my wife is the one who uses it. I waste enough time here without screwing around telling people what I had for lunch or posting pictures of my cats (who, BTW are all really cute and photogenic).

[Bustronaut]

Twitter is amazing and Nick Spencer ruins everything.

[Brian Fowler]

Congrats to Marvel for getting past the "diversity didn't sell" controversy and into the "Syaf hid messages in X-Men" controversy.

[odessasteps]

He's a mate of mine but Al on House to Astonish trying to say the Jewelry sign next to Kitty's head in issue was obscured to say "jew" was a ralph digby level stretch. As opposed to Piotr's shirt: hard to get around that one. 

[Cliff Hanger]

Per everyone's favorite industry scandal rag, Syaf has apparently traded in his shovel for heavy construction equipment to dig his grave that much faster.  He gave an interview with Jakarta's major paper and said that since Marvel is owned by Disney, offending "the Jews" was a career killer. (the exact quote, translated by a third party, was "When Jews are offended, there is no mercy.")  

G. Willow Wilson's tumblr post, in which she goes into a lot of detail about competing translations of 5:51 and explains why the common Indonesian translation is probably bullshit, feels like a must-read for context as well.  

[The Unholy Dragon]

Yeah, that comment felt like trying to put out a fire with gasoline.

 

EDIT: But hey! I sold a bunch more X-Men Gold #1 yesterday than a second Wednesday usually sees!

[odessasteps]

New classic style Archie coming out by dan parent (art) & ty templeton (writing and inking).

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2017/04/17/fan-favorite-artist-dan-parent-is-bringing-back-archies-classic-look-with-a-twist/?tid=ss_fb&utm_term=.37ceab5643ae

[supremebve]

On 4/9/2017 at 8:28 AM, Mike Zeidler said:

Twitter is amazing and Nick Spencer ruins everything.

I don't think there is another platform in all of media that is nearly as entertaining as Twitter.  I know there are problems, but I swear every single day someone posts something that legit makes me laugh out loud.  Every time I hear someone bad mouth twitter, I want to tap them on the shoulder and ask them if they know that they get to choose who they follow?  

[TheVileOne]

11 hours ago, supremebve said:

I don't think there is another platform in all of media that is nearly as entertaining as Twitter.  I know there are problems, but I swear every single day someone posts something that legit makes me laugh out loud.  Every time I hear someone bad mouth twitter, I want to tap them on the shoulder and ask them if they know that they get to choose who they follow?  

It's still hot garbage. If for anything running off a brilliant genius like Mark Waid. 

[Brian Fowler]

On 1/31/2017 at 0:56 PM, The Unholy Dragon said:

No shock, but DC cancelled Green Lantern Vol. 2 and the Justice League Breakdowns trade which would have collected Gerard Jones run on the title. 

 

As of yet it's unclear if they'll be altering Flash by Mark Waid Vol. 2 to remove the Jones GL crossover issues or not.

 

On 1/31/2017 at 1:41 PM, Brian Fowler said:

I hope not. Always bothers me that previous Return of Barry Allen collections omit it.

But I certainly couldn't blame them if they do.

Got it today, the GL issues are included (or at least listed on the back cover.)

[odessasteps]

Eisner nominations today.

nomination for Chelsea Cain. 

[Brian Fowler]

Stan Lee's wife Joan has reportedly passed away at 93.

[odessasteps]

Mile High Comics is skipping SDCC for first time since early 1970s.