#11 – Peter is an angry man that loves comics

Peter is a close friend of both of us.  He’s also…special.  We normally try and edit the interviews here at IWAN for readability, typos etc.  However, in Peter’s case we thought this would subtract from the poetry that is his chat logs.  Bill Shatner, are you interested in doing a dramatic reading?

Peter: yes

GinDrunk: Ready?

Peter: shoot

GinDrunk: Being that we’re all friends here, would you be comfortable talking about your experiences with the Rage?

Peter: yes

my rage is a part of my mystique

to deny it is to deny an essential quality of myself

also, denial means I will wind up in jail due to inappropriate acts of rage

I was almost ejected from a Samsung store due to my rage

GinDrunk: Samsung store.

What could enrage you in a Samsung store?

Peter: It’s one of those demonstration only “stores”

with free internet

I was trying to hopstop

but the floor model was not connecting to the internet properly

no web addresses would type up when I used the keyboard

after about 3 minutes of trying I growled at the computer

and slammed my hands on the keyboard

a gentleman who worked there came by

he worked there

said that I couldn’t do that

and I would be asked to leave if I kept it up

then he helped with another computer

making sure that it actually worked

telling my girlfriend this story prompted her to say

WOW, you do have a temper

GinDrunk: Did you say anything to the nice man that worked there?

Peter: I apologized and said I couldn’t get the device to work

denial would have caused me to withhold an apology

GinDrunk: What did you want to say?

Peter: I wanted to put my fist through the machine

I had comics to buy

I had a date later

I needed directions and I needed them quickly

GinDrunk: So, has this Rage always been with you? What’s your earliest memory of experiencing it?

Peter: I once attacked a little league coach I had

I must have been like 6 or 7

we were playing basketball at his house

the entire team

it was fun

but then I got to throw the ball

I couldn’t pick who to throw it to

after

30 seconds

he took it from me

and checked it at random

I snapped

I was crying

and pounding at him

with little fists

I got a time out

GinDrunk: Where could a little boy possibly get such anger?

Genetics?

Peter: it’s definitely in the blood

my birth has a terrible temper

my grand father on my father’s side has a bad temper

and his father, my great grand father, was the same way

angry

yelling at the drop of a hat

the occasional throwing of things

my birth mother threw shoes and toothbrushes all the time when I was a boy

as part of “arguments”

it’s probably why I always make a point of discussing things with my paramours in a very monotone voice usually

I hate to be that hothead that goes off on his lady friend

GinDrunk: Sounds wise.

Given your familial history and predilections, have you ever considered…anger management?

Peter: I tried it once when I could get therapy for free in college

acknowledging was the biggest thing

once I saw it

it was easier to keep it under control

and away from people

now

situations

like

bad computers, administrative errors,

the weather

those I let go and just rage at

directing it

like how Batman directs his bad feeling at crime

GinDrunk: How does one direct one’s anger at the weather?

Peter: I yell at it

oh

and bad drivers

I yell at them all the time

a few weeks ago

I was walking friends to catch a train

we jaywalked across the turnpike 20 feet from my family’s home

a six lane road that my father would not let me cross alone till I was in highschool

I jaywalk it everyday now

as we were crossing

one car was coming down the road at us

he had to slow down

for about 30 seconds at most

to let us across

but he let us know that he was pissed that he had to do it

so

as he drove away

I danced in the middle of the street flipping him off with both hands

then he stopped and asked me angrily if I was twelve

I went right up to him and asked if he had somewhere more important to be

he said something

then I asked if he had an appointment down the road

he was blocking off two lanes of a busy three land road at this point by the way

some one else comes out because

they thought this guy had a break down

then the driver just went along

I think he realized he was about to obstruct three or four cars coming towards us

jaywalking

saved my friends and I five minutes of walking

he could have done us a favor and slowed down

I don’t like people who act like pedestrians have no place on the road

so I like to vent at them

when drivers leave there cars hanging out in the middle of a cross walk

I slap the bumper

remind them why they’re supposed to back the fuck up

GinDrunk: Bold. To say the least.

Peter: I am a bold man

Premise Guy: Do you ever see yourself getting behind the wheel?

Peter: I see myself getting a license

but I have never cared for cars

not my thing

GinDrunk: So, cars aren’t your thing…

What is?

Peter: I enjoy comic books with a savage ferocity

GinDrunk: When did this “appetite” first appear?

Peter: My father always bought me comics when I was little

I had probably 30 Spider-man comics

and 30 Ren & Stimpy

by the third grade

with let’s say 20 of various others

I started getting collections at that time

Marvel Masterworks

which had the first 6 Amazing Spider-man, and his first appearance in Amazing Fantasy 15

the dark phoenix saga

GinDrunk: Sounds magical.

How many comics would you say you have now, years later?

Peter: I still have many comics from before 7th grade

but I haven’t thrown out a single issue or collection since 1998

about 1 hundred collections

and close to 1700 single issues

GinDrunk: Wow. Would you consider yourself an avid comic enthusiast, or an expert?

Peter: hmm

I’m reminded of a Kids in the Hall joke

they have a biography type show

about an old entertainer

and they have an old professor looking man in a suit duscussing live TV from the fifties with great knowledge

and vigor

after he’s been talking for 30 seconds

a subtitle appears at the bottom of the screen

“old Guy that watched a lot of TV”

so let’s say

young guy that reads a lot o comics

you could pass me off as an expert

maybe hustle some rubes with comics trivia

GinDrunk: Is this interest in comics here to stay? Indefinitely?

Peter: I think so.

At least in terms of development,

it’s relatively easy and cheap to create a comic as compared to a short film or pilot episode.

Movies have been using comics (story boards) for decades, and the last 10 years have been movies realizing how great this pool of talent and properties is for them.

There won’t be a shortage of new comics.

Too many young creators see how you can strike it rich with nothing but a catchy premise and a good looking miniseries.

So corporate interest is assured.

It’s like how music starts can still get movie and tv gigs even though the music industry’s existence is debatable right now.

GinDrunk: What do you have to say to people that think comics are kinda…childish?

Peter: Calling a medium childish is like calling a color ederly.

It’s a means of expression; and those don’t have age limits or difficulty settings.

It’s like how some people think writing is an easy job. They use the example of it being a job where you just hang out in front of a word processor in your undies.

That completely misses the point.

The dance of words and pictures is incredibly complicated.

I remember when I was younger I called cinematography bullshit.

I was called on it, and rightly so, it was a means of expression I didn’t understand.

So I tired to belittle in an adolescent attempt to inflate my ego.

It’s a bad habit I notice with intellectuals.

It’s much easier to come off as smart and important when you can just write off somebody’s life work as beneath you.

GinDrunk: Insightful.

Peter: thank you

GinDrunk: Less cerebral speaking, what would you say is the most ridiculous comic book character you’ve come across in your studies.

Peter: I’m going to have to go with a Jack Kirby creation. The man was more creative than he could keep up with.

He created this character called The Black Racer

He was this cosmic embodiment of death

that wore full yellow and red medieval armor, a cape with a big Dracula collar, and he flew around on skies.

he even had ski poles

he was also a black man

and he would posses the bodies of different people on different worlds to call people to the next life

or “back to the source” as Kirby calls it

but it gets better than death on skies

I read his first appearance for the first time

and it involves him using the body of a catatonic soldier to claim the lives of mobsters and gods

Faustian

he can finally move, but only to kill

that could be a hell for a veteran

then the issue ends with this crippled man staring directly at the reader

with a narration box explaining that he know who the Black Racer’s next victim is.

COULD IT BE YOU?

Jack Kirby wanted me to fear for my life.

to fear skies

and skis

GinDrunk: Thanks Pete!

Peter: De nada