Archie Panics, Proposes to Ver…

Posted by Bob Greenberger on August 20, 2009

Archie Panics, Proposes to Veronica http://bit.ly/19xQ8I

Archie Panics, Proposes to Veronica

Posted by Bob Greenberger on

I don’t often review comic books here. But, after reading the much heralded Archie #600, I wanted to give it a look.

When word first leaked that Archie Andrews was getting married to Veronica Lodge, my first thought was that the normally conservative company was going to do a cautionary tale about pre-marital sex. Yep, I figured this was a shotgun wedding because the high schools teens were finally going to start acting like today’s teens.

Then we learned this was to be a glimpse into a possible future. Having comic-fan-turned-producer Michael Uslan write the event is certainly newsworthy and for the first time in years, I bought myself an Archie comic.

Boy, was I disappointed. We open with the Archies performing their final gig at the high school and then, still on a high, Archie returns home and his parents tell him it’s finally time to select a college. Okay, odds are, the final performance comes before graduation which makes it mid-May to late-June depending on where you live. As we all know, college room deposits and acceptances tend to be due May 1 so by the time the band finally performs, this was a decision that should have been made.

Regardless, Archie suddenly can’t handle the pressure and goes for a late-night walk and goes “up” Memory Lane and finds a fork in the road and by taking the left fork enters a potential future where the rest of the six-parter takes place. We jump four years to find that virtually the entire high school gang has wound up at the same place: Statue University. That is a staggeringly unimaginative stagnation for the characters, especially Dilton Doily, whose genius would have led to scholarships and opportunities away from home. And here he is still worried about being seen as a nerd when these days the nerds have become the cool folk.

Archie is fretting over not thinking about what comes next for his friends. Well, clearly, Michael has forgotten what it’s like in college. All of senior year is spent fretting over this, prepping resumes, going on interviews, asking one another for advice. That he does not have a clue is staggeringly wrong. That he is graduating and says, “I’m gonna look for a job” without any sense he’s done this the last six to nine months is dumb. Archie likes history. That’s cool but he seems clueless as to his options and his father’s dismissive comments don’t help.

So to review: after four years of college, Moose is off to manage a chain restaurant while Midge is going into her own business but Reggie is going to be a Used Car Salesman? Betty, about to be a Buyer Trainee at Sacks Fifth Avenue, is the only one with a job that sounds right for a graduate. Dilton moving on to Grad school also works. Again, Michael essentially shows that after four years these characters have stagnated and nothing is different including the aimless Jughead.  Instead, it would have been interesting to see Reggie turn into a sharp business school grad who has found a great sales position while Moose channels his energies into the military.

We then move on to Archie receiving a hefty check from his parents as a present and he uses it to buy Veronica an engagement ring, impulsively proposing at the jewelry store. We aren’t given any reason why he chose Veronica over Betty after all these years and with both women leaving town, he should have faced a harsher dilemma.

She accepts and in a dramatic twist, Jughead and Betty watch through the store window, silent witnesses.

The two then tell Mr. Lodge who surprisingly welcomes Archie with open arms. To me, his character was always about class and protocol so were I writing this, I would have had him furious that Archie, a grad without prospects or a plan, did not come to him to ask permission.  Archie was always a pain to the Lodge family and seen as beneath Veronica as a romantic partner but here he is, hiring Archie into a position without respect to his training. Veronica, the very epitome of spoiled brat, loves the ring rather than characteristically deeming it the wrong size, cut or setting and having it redone.

Uslan nicely keeps things moving along as the news spreads with everyone fretting over how Betty was taking the news. We finally close with Veronica and Betty chatting and we see Betty has, er, flown the coop.

The “what if” concept is nothing new and making this a lengthy event is a nice touch but I wish it felt right. Instead, the characters don’t come across as young adults ready to conquer the world, stuck in the same amber they have been since the 1940s. The emotional pathos is also all surface and our hero comes across as desperate, swinging from panic to proposal.

I’m in this for all six issues and can hope things get better from here.

The Weekend Wrap-Up

Posted by Bob Greenberger on August 17, 2009

Our weekend was a very full one, taking full advantage of having Kate home.

Friday was a quiet day. Deb and I avoided our computers for the most part and kept one another company. We found ways to stay occupied although we were both handling the somber day pretty well. Kate arrived in the mid-afternoon and we went to visit Robbie. It was sunny and quiet, peaceful.

Kate hadn’t eaten since early so we got her a Rawley’s hot dog (if you ever come to Connecticut, you must stop there) and then we hung out at home for a bit. To continue staying busy we went out and saw (500) Days of Summer which was thoroughly delightful and deserved every accolade it has received.

On Saturday, the girls went to their weekly knitting group while I wrote. We then had lunch with Robbie’s close friends Brooke and Naomi, which was a great chance to catch up and share the anniversary with them. The afternoon was filled with more work for me and errands for the ladies.

That evening, though, we all got dressed up and hightailed it to Westport where Jennifer Honeycutt got married.  Jen is Marianne’s older sister, with Marianne being Robbie’s other really close friend. Jen has been our housesitter and was tremendously supportive last year. She and Ryan had an outdoor wedding overlooking the water and it was quite picturesque. The reception was a blast and you know it was a good wedding when every generation was on the dance floor. We had a chance to chat and catch up with those we knew and made some new acquaintances as well.

Tired and droopy, we got up early Sunday and hit the road for Sterling Forest and the New York Renaissance Faire. It was to be a family affair with Deb’s three uncles and various cousins in attendance but things morphed, as they tend to. The New Hampshire contingent bowed out but we were joined by Heather and Krystal, who were invited along during knitting the day before.

Despite the sun and heat, we had a great day with most of the women purchasing new outfits or accoutrements. We heard good music, saw silly performers, and cheered lustily during the human Chess Match and the Joust. Once the wonderful pub sing ended, we headed for home, tired but quite happy.

And now it’s Monday. I have conference calls and the usual work to do. It’s back to RTM work with a committee meeting tonight.

But, before I dive back into a normal work week, I do want to thank one and all for their e-mails and public posts. Your support continues to mean quite a bit to me, Deb, and Kate.

A Year Later

Posted by Bob Greenberger on August 14, 2009

Robbie left us a year ago tonight and it’s been a year full of memories and memorials and grief.

Looking back, the time between receiving word the leukemia recurred and his death was incredibly fast. A dizzying downward spiral marked by the lung surgery but an increasing number of complications. Deb and I look back over the log I kept and rereading what happened and in reading last August’s notes, it is painfully clear how sick he was and how the complications pointed towards a sad ending. I was also reminded of how much discomfort he was in those final weeks but still wanted to fight this, admitting only in the final days how tired he was getting. One of my biggest regrets is that there wasn’t a real chance for any of us to really say goodbye. I keep being told he knew how much we loved him, but I just feel robbed.

He fought to the end and then was at rest. For Deb, Kate, and me, though, rest has been hard to come by. Our sleep has been interrupted; thoughts of him greet us many mornings. Little things continue to trigger bouts of sadness and depression; anything from a plotline on television to seeing something that makes us think of him. We have more good days than bad, but there come times – holidays, birthdays and the like – when life comes to crashing halt.

As a result, dealing with his effects has been tough and a long process. We have been in his room a handful of times beginning to sort through his things and after a while, we had to leave. Bit by bit, things were donated or tossed; the most personal of items were put into storage. It felt difficult boxing up his life, putting it away for safe-keeping. While in San Diego for the con, Deb’s brother Jim and his wife Jen came over and helped Deb complete the process. We then brought in a painter and fresh carpeting, preparing to turn his room into a guest room but with different colors and furniture, another bit of erasure that leaves me feeling empty.

In May, the granite marker was installed at the cemetery and seeing it that day made everything feel more permanent than it had since the funeral.

Over the past 12 months, contact with the doctors and nurses has dwindled to now just the occasional exchange via Facebook. His friends have slowly moved on with their lives, occasionally still posting on his Facebook page or being in touch with us. The grief hangs heavy over several of them and no doubt they keep their distance as part of their healing process. Tomorrow, though, two of his closest friends will have lunch with us and we will attend the wedding of another close friend’s older sister so we’ll be there to support one another.

Also during this past year, the outpouring of tributes and acknowledgements of his life have been overwhelming and impressive. Maryanne Honeycutt organized fund raising so a memorial bench and tree be planted at their high school with a ceremony planned for the installation. Naomi and Marina organized Relay for Life teams in his name. Farpoint held a memorial panel and named a Masquerade Award in his honor while Shore Leave printed lovely tribute from Peter David and inaugurated a charity Poker Tournament in his honor. The American Red Cross is benefitting from the donations raised during what appears to be a now-annual Celebrity Roast at Shore Leave.

He’s being remembered in print, as well. David Mack dedicated his first original novel, The Calling, to him while Peter David and Robin Riggs named a pirate ship after him plus a dedication in the first issue of IDW’s Sir Apropos of Nothing miniseries. Ann Crispin has based a character on him in her forthcoming Captain Jack Sparrow novel. She read me portions of it at Shore Leave and I was most touched.

In these and other ways, Deb and I are increasingly reminded of how many lives he touched. And how we were loved and supported in so many ways by friends, neighbors, and family. Believe it or not, there remain a few frozen food containers in the freezer from the constant supply of meals that made his seven month ordeal more manageable for us. I continue to marvel at the memory of the lengthy line of people during his wake and how full the church was for the funeral.

While gone in form, he’s still with us in memory. Obviously, I’d love to understand why such a random disease chose him and why he couldn’t beat it. I’ve daydreamed about what sort of adult he would have become and if he would have achieved his potential; who he would have married and what sort of children would have been the result. A part of me realizes that when Neil and I go, the Greenberger family name most likely vanishes, or at least this branch of the extended tree and that saddens me.

In the days leading up today, we’ve been at a loss as to how to mark the occasion. Deb doesn’t want to answer the phone and no work will get done. Kate’s taking the train and once we collect her, we’ll go visit the grave. And when the tears dry, no doubt talk about him and comfort one another.

Hopefully there is an afterlife and he knows we miss him.

A Farewell Look at the Final Four

Posted by Bob Greenberger on August 10, 2009

I have to give credit to ABC for giving its small number of fans a chance to see the final episodes of Eli Stone, Pushing Daisies and Dirty, Sexy, Money. Since they were already produced, “burning them off” as it’s called, certainly allowed them to earn some revenue against expenses.

Fortunately, in all three cases the producers had enough of a head’s up to tie up the major storylines putting a button on each series.

As reviewed over at ComicMix, I thought they did a nice job closing out Pushing Daisies, especially since the comic continuation will be read by a tiny fraction of the viewing audience. Emerson got to glimpse his missing daughter and Chuck was finally ready to reveal her existence to the grieving aunts (one of whom was actually her biological mother). The fairy tale series could easily have had a card reading: And they lived happily ever after.

Eli Stone continued to move the character arcs along with a growing thread for Eli’s purpose on earth, having these visions and how he handled them differently than his tortured father. The legal cases remained interesting if a little far-fetched and quickly dismissed, but the human drama remained strong. Having Eli and Maggie reconnect was a nice tangible reward for our hero but better yet was the sense of closure he received by having a vision wherein he had a chance to speak with his father. While feeling a tad rushed, the entire series wrapped pretty nicely and I will miss this one tremendously.

Father issues were the driving force behind Dirty, Sexy, Money as Peter Krause’s Nick allowed himself to be sucked into the seductive world of the Darlings so he could find out who murdered his father, Dutch, the Darling’s consigliore. The show was an intentionally over-the-top prime time soap with one outlandish sub-plot replaced by another, constantly stirring the pot. It was a guilty pleasure for us but not essential watching. Still, we were intrigued to see how things would wrap up and here, it was clear the production team had a lot less notice. The final episode, aired Saturday, was a rush as it tried to close out each and every storyline. Along the way, knowing we were promised the answer to Dutch’s death, I began to guess. My fear was the under-utilized Donald Sutherland would be the obvious candidate and therefore they’d take the easy way out. But, over the final half-dozen episodes, it was clear Blair Underwood’s scheming capitalist was taking orders from someone and as he started to explain himself
to Nick in the finale, I saw that they’d reveal Dutch faked his death and he was the one out to destroy the Darlings. And sure enough, in the final moments, Underwood said Dutch was alive and the last shot was the stunned look on Nick’s face. Rushed and untidy, the series ended abruptly and I wished they had at least one more episode to have done a better job.

NBC also gets kudos for allowing Kings to complete its run on Saturday nights. Apparently, during the press tour last week, touting the new season, Angela Bromstad, president of prime time entertainment, said of the series, “I think that it was an amazingly big swing and a great production, and Michael Green is a phenomenal writer… I think our challenge now — and hopefully what you see with the new shows is in a really crowded marketplace — you have to sell something. People want to know what something’s about. That was a very complex idea. It was a show that was originally developed when I was there before [with] Laura Lancaster. We thought it was too highbrow and sophisticated to sell in a 30-second spot. It doesn’t mean we’re not looking for big ideas, but they have to be big ideas an audience can grab onto and relate to.”

Too high-brow to sell in an ad? How absurd. I’d fire the ad staff before giving up on the series.

Kings wasn’t perfect, but it was a fascinating look at a “what if?” scenario set against the Biblical story of Saul and David. It had a look and a language unique on all broadcast and cable television. It had a vision and a purpose and was filled with relatively unfamiliar faces, allowing you to be invested in the characters. Creator Michael Green was abandoned by his network and it was fitting the final scene was of David, now exiled, finding his way in hostile territory.

Running for Re-Election

Posted by Bob Greenberger on August 8, 2009

Now that everything is filed with the Town Clerk, I just want to go on the record and state that I am running for a third term as a member of the Representative Town Meeting.

When I first began serving, finishing out someone’s term in the spring and fall of 2005, I wasn’t entirely certain what I was getting myself into. I joined right in the middle of the budget process so had to master thick volumes of numbers (which I never handle well) along with learning Robert’s Rules and the players involved.

I liked it enough to run for a full term in November 2005 and was easily elected since the Republicans that year didn’t run a single candidate for the five seats in District 8. I was quickly named chair of the Finance Committee and while I’m no genius with numbers, still managed to run things well.

With experience came knowledge, and as I walked the district in the fall of 2007, I was confidently able to hold forth on issues pertaining to the town, and even some statewide matters. I found my voice and spoke from the floor as needed and served the party when needed, taking it on the chin once or twice.

In November 2007, I won a second term and this time there were challengers so I worked at campaigning, extensively walking the district and chatting with voters. With significant turnover, I found myself a veteran voice and was encouraged to take the role of Moderator – which effectively means I run the meetings, trying to coral 50 representatives and handle a sometimes feisty public. Being an annual election, I guess I did well enough when the Republicans seconded my nomination for a second year.

And now, it’s time to run again. The Republicans have found five worthy opponents and District 8’s residents will no doubt be hearing from us all. I have enjoyed serving and continue to gain a greater understanding of how things work and why they don’t always work better. While the time commitment isn’t too bad, it’s still a serious commitment given our votes can involve millions in borrowing and a town budget well in excess of $200 million (including education). This is not a post to be taken lightly.

I’ll say this now and repeat myself in November. Wherever you live, whatever else you do, please read up on your candidates and the issues. Ask questions. Vote. But vote as an informed member of the electorate.

This Week’s Work

Posted by Bob Greenberger on August 6, 2009

Much to my surprise, I managed to whip through the first draft of a project far faster than I expected. I revised the sample chapter on Tuesday, got an enthusiastic thumbs up from my editor and went right to work.

Now to be fair, the project is a mere 8000 words long and when I finished the draft a short while ago, it weighed in at 10,200 words. There’s room to edit and polish, tightening things as we go. Best of all, since this is intended to be a heavily illustrated work with captions plus this text, there’s some wiggle room. It’s off to a beta reader right now and I am putting it aside until Monday or so since the deadline isn’t until August 24.

This frees me now to polish the piece for Star Trek Magazine since my editor, bless him, actually read it while supposedly on vacation. That’ll take a short while and then it’s finally time to complete the Green Hornet short story which is actually a tad overdue.

The nice thing about delivering the large research project to DC is that they take some time to absorb it and I am free to tend to all of this before I get the green light to begin writing for them. I’ve been making the most of that time, as you can see, and am feeling pretty good about where I am. Best of all, I can take all of tomorrow to work at DC and not feel guilty about not writing.

Along the way, I’ve also been in touch with people about the Howard Chaykin Retrospective which is the main focus of my time once the Hornet is delivered.

On the one hand, I’m being very productive and making all of my masters happy. On the other hand, the freelancer looks at the shortening To Do list and gets worried the work will dry up again.  The trick is to avoid the tiny voice of panic, stuffing it back into a dark corner of the office until he really needs my attention. After all, there remain proposals out there being evaluated, stuff being approved at the licensee and other irons in the fire.

My work with Avalanche Comics Entertainment also keeps me occupied as we reach the halfway point of the latest project (again for Microsoft) and are already beginning contracts on the next one. And then there’s the consulting I’m doing for a start-up that has been very quiet of late and looks to be ramping up again later this month.

See, that little voice can be ignored. For this month, anyway.

A Busy Week for Everything but Work

Posted by Bob Greenberger on August 1, 2009

What a week this has been. Adjusting back to East Coast time wasn’t too bad, but things were disjointed so the work got done in fits and starts.

Tuesday, I managed a full day at the desk and made some serious headway on the latest project and should actually have something done and ready to present on Monday.

Wednesday, I was scheduled to work in the morning then run to LaGuardia to collect my niece Corinne, who was flying from Indianapolis on her own for the first time. The weather was iffy and delays were expected. Delta dutifully sent me text updates until the plane is delayed to arrive at 3. The problem was that the texts stopped even though their website and other sources indicated the flight was going to be even later. Poor Corinne, after spending hours on the Pittsburgh tarmac, the plane was finally canceled at 4:30 and she was being sent back west.

After wasting money on tolls, parking, lunch, an emergency magazine, etc., I headed home. The following morning, Corinne was put on a new flight which was delayed this time because it needed a part that was being driven up from Kentucky. Fortunately, the skies were clear and she arrived a mere hour late.  So, we spent some quality time at home as Deb taught her how to knit and we chilled that night with Race to Witch Mountain on DVD.

Friday was rainy but we braved the elements anyway, bringing Corinne into NYC for the day. By the time we arrived, the rain stopped and the clouds slowly parted. We took her to the Top of the Rock, atop the NBC building at Rockefeller Center and let her gaze out on Manhattan, Queens, Long Island, New Jersey and so on. Afterwards, we had lunch then took a tour of Radio City Music Hall. From there we meandered through Times Square and then trained back home, a little hot and sweaty but satisfied.

Kate finally made it through the traffic and joined us for a nice dinner out which was capped with the surprise arrival of my delayed birthday presents. Deb gifted me with the much coveted Blu-ray DVD player (with the flat screen to follow once the tax refund arrives) while Kate showered me with British candy. Most excellent food, gifts, and company.

This morning, though, the lack of work the last few days burst like a dam and I’ve finally had a few sustained hours at the desk to deal with everything that has turned up. Good news is that I managed to keep atop most everything for the Microsoft custom comic strip and other consulting. The real delay has been finishing up a database for DC that should have been done by now along with my Green Hornet story.

Atop that, this morning I received another short assignment for Star Trek Magazine, which gives me a few things to work on while DC considers my submission. Marvel has also commissioned me to write something for their Marvelman Primer, due in November.

The best professional news of the week was word that one of my many collaborative projects has sold. Once the deal is complete and we’re given the green light, we’ll be talking about it, but I’m excited since I’ll be writing the second story.