What’s a Final Frontiersmen?

Posted by Bob Greenberger on July 28, 2004

Well, me.

And yes, it’s a Star Trek reference. As many know, I have enjoyed the series since the 1960s and it has been a key part of my life.

However, the specific term originated with an old friend, Mike Flynn, when he invited me to share his Rotisserie Baseball team with me. Mike helped found one league, which foundered and then quickly joined the team, founded by Bob Rozakis, that rose from its ashes. Anyway, the Federal League is still around, with no one from the initial line-up still involved. Mike, who had been DC’s PR man for a while, was prepping to move to Seattle, with his lovely wife Liz.

Expressing interest in the League and the world of fantasy baseball, Mike invited me to share his team during his final year in New York and then take it over uponhis departure. This was back in the 1980s, long before being part of a League was easy thanks to cyberspace and high speed internet connections. So anyway, Mike says it needs a new name and we brainstormed a few until he suggested the Final Frontiersmen. And the name has stuck ever since.

I’m still having fun with the League. Finished in second place last year and am duking it out for first as I type. There’s about 1.5 points between me and the guy who has finished first the last few years. With our trading deadline matching Major League Baseball’s this week’s moves could spell the difference between finally taking first…or not.

Why am I doing this?

Posted by Bob Greenberger on

Well, gosh, everyone’s doing it.

And if everyone were to jump off the bridge, would I follow? When Mr. Siskind first asked me that in fourth grade, I didn’t have a ready answer for him. It was my only run-in with the principal so I got off lucky, I suppose.

Today, the answer is, of course not. Still, building a web site to promote one’s self and one’s work has become absolutely acceptable. And blogging looks like so much fun. A few days back, I had time to kill–on my birthday no less–so started playing around with the notion of finally taking the plunge. The timing may seem odd, considering most of my 2004 output is already on sale, but now we can chat about the books.

Then I screwed up the FrontPage tutorial and was feeling less than proud of myself. So, I turned to an old pal, Glenn Hauman, and the next thing you know…there’s a web site. It”ll start evolving over the next few weeks, with an official bio and bibliography and the like. I even want to include photos since it jazzes up the site a bit.

I love engaging in dialogue with readers, fans and friends. I may not be as scitillating as my other pal, Peter David, but I’ll try and make it worth having you stop by every now and again.

Hence, some ground rules. I work for DC Comics, owned by TimeWarner. As a result, just because we’re chatting here, don’t expect me to reveal secrets the company would rather contain or have me bash our competition. And since I hope to continue writing Star Trek fiction in the future, don’t try and drag me into a debate over the merits of Paramount’s property. Beyond that, we’re good to go.

What’s going on?

Well, I’m feeling pretty chuffed, as they say. My collection Batman Adventures: Dangerous Dames and Demons, featuring the work of writer Paul Dini and artist Bruce Timm, won the presitigous Eisner Award at the San Diego ComicCon this past weekend. Considering how many reprint collections hit the shelves these days, even making the top five nominees seemed pretty impressive. To win…well, that feels special.

Someone asked me what criteria was used to judge the Best Reprint. I honestly don’t know. I’ll presume it starts with the subject matter but has to include the way it’s collected, what other material was added to enhance the original stories, the design, paper stock, etc. Fortunately, Bruce had plenty of stuff lying around that he was happy to share. His commentary, interspersed throughout, also helped the pacing. And the cover. I was so thrilled to receive it.

Actually, when I first opened the FedEx package and took it out, the image seemed less polished than I was used to from Bruce. It seemed more impressionistic. He also flopped the image without telling me and I stared at it for a while and finally popped off an e-mail acknowledging receipt and questioning the artistic choices he made.

He replied something along the lines of, “What are you smoking?”

So, I turned the page over, and there was the gorgeous cover I was expecting. He works with color markers and I was looking at the side where the dyes bled through rather than the intended original art.

Secrets of the comics revealed.