OUT OF THE PAST, a great noir flick, one of my favorites, and the words that flashed across my brain as I read this E-mail that Father Geek my alter-ego received today. Yeah I remember this guy, about 6' 4" 165 lbs always had a great load of old silver age comics on his tables, I had heard that he went to work for Marvel or DC or something like that, guess not. Well here's what he had to say, nothing earth shattering, but it confirms some things we've heard coming out of other places...

Hey, Father Geek;

I run a comic book store here in Burbank, Ca. It's right by the studios, so we get all of the studio guys in at least once a week. Bruce Timm and all of the Bats/Supes guys come in at least once a week. Kevin Smith has stopped in whilst working on the "Clerks" cartoon. Mark Hamill stops in occasionally (usually wanting me to get him some toys), etc..

You and I use to sell at the San Diego Comic Convention together in the early 1970's and I remember Harry use to run around shoving this plastic chain saw up people's butt like he was right out of TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE when he was 2 and 3 years old. I had a long black ponytail then, but there's not enough hair left to make one now and what little's left is pure white and I've porked out alot since the last time I saw you back in about 78 or 9.

Anyway, the other day two guys came in and had a fat stack o' Spidey books they wanted to buy. Turns out they were Sam R.'s assistants, so I told them to put down the John Byrne and Howie Mackie and walk far, far away. I hooked them up with The Essential Spidey trade paperbacks and that Paul Jenkins story arc that was in Webspinners. Then we talked.

Sam doesn't like the script, and wants to rework it. I applauded that and asked if they had read Harry's review of it. They said not yet, but they would. They said that Sam was leaning toward two villians (Green Goblin and Sandman), but they were trying to talk him into just one. We talked about the problems with overcrowding in the Batman movies and they said that there wasn't any weight in the EW article about casting. I told them that it was important for Pete to be a bit nerdy, not a pretty boy and it isn't always a easy thing to be Spidey, it winds up being a problem sometimes and they agreed.

They asked me what I thought about changing the orgin and I said that there was absolutley no need for any of that crap, that it just wouldn't wash with the fans, and that we don't need any of this someone new finds out the secret ID every movie bullshit either.

They were really excited and really open to talk about it and see what I thought. They took a card and my name and said they'd be in touch. Who knows?

It was fun to give my two cents and see where the thing is heading.

Hope this is interesting to you. I got excited. Print what you think is interesting or none of it, just keep up the good work.

Your Fellow Texan