Author: Michael Davis

You Must Be Kidding Me, by Michael Davis

You Must Be Kidding Me, by Michael Davis

  • News
  • September 26, 2008

I actually had a comic book article all ready to go this week. Then I turned on the news and heard that McCain wants to cancel tonight’s presidential debate to lend his hand to solving “our” financial problem.

Ours?

You must be kidding me.

My Manhattan home is mere blocks from Wall Street. Trust me, its still WORLDS away to me. There’s a famous bronze bull that stands tall there. I swear that bull would come to life and chase me away like’s it a German Sheppard and it’s 1964.

“Ours,” my ass. Nope, this is all yours, G.O.P.

Oh, McCain is willing to make up tonight’s debate by substituting it for the vice presidential debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden, I guess so Palin will put down her shotgun and help save the country in this time of need.

Obama said he wants to have the debates stating that the county wants to hear from the two people who are running for President to see what they have to say on the subject. He also said a President will be called on to handle more than one thing at a time…duh.

I wonder why the G.O.P will not let reporters talk to Palin? Hey, Mr. Right, why the chuck won’t you let reporters talk to her? This woman will be half a heart beat (that’s right, half) from the most powerful job in the universe (except for mine) and she is being shielded like she’s radioactive.

I would not hire a baby sitter to sit with YOUR kids without talking to them. I can’t believe this. Why is there no OUTRAGE at this?? Remember McCain said “I can’t wait to unleash her on Washington!”

“Unleash her?” “UnLEASH her?” Oh, I forgot. Pit bull with lipstick.

Nope, more like pit bull shit. I have a pit bull; they are not afraid of anything. Palin hides behind her handlers like a scared puppy. I ask again, Mr. Right, why can’t we talk to the bitch? Hey, she called herself a dog; I’m just using the correct word for a female one… bitch.

When in the HISTORY of Presidential politics have the American people been denied access to their V.P. candidate?

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Luck Be A Lady? No. Luck Be my Bitch. By Michael Davis

Luck Be A Lady? No. Luck Be my Bitch. By Michael Davis

  • News
  • September 19, 2008

I am not a lucky guy.

I have never won anything in my life. If I was the only one to enter a contest and the person in charge was my mother I would still lose. I went to Vegas once and hit the jackpot on a slot machine and it was voided because I was told the machine was “defective.” I was too young and stupid to raise a fuss.

That’s a true story.

I have faced death on more than one occasion and survived, but I don’t consider that lucky. I consider that a preview of what will happen one day soon. I have always felt I was living on borrowed time, but that is a story for another time. I have never found any money, or been picked at random for anything great because I was in the right place at the right time.

I have been held up at gun point, stabbed (twice), been arrested for walking to my car during a gang sweep WHILE wearing a chucking $2,000.00 suit I’m sure the cops assumed I was a member of the Bloods because my tie was red. These and a zillion other things have happened to me over the years.

What kind of luck is that?

As much crap as I talk about being from the projects and the sense of bravado and attitude I’m TOLD I project (thanks Russ), I’m a romantic at heart. Yep, I like a good chick flick every so often while drinking Tequila, cleaning my guns and being fed grapes one at a time by my Asian wife and my girlfriend while my six underage kids work to support me and my drug habit because all REAL men live like that. OK, that’s not all true…there are seven kids, but one is really ugly and I don’t think it’s mine.

Short story. Once, around twenty years ago I was sitting on a subway train when I caught the eye of a strikingly beautiful woman. She was Latino and made Angelina Jolie look like a crack whore who was just run over by a train, no, 20 trains, one after another.

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Lipstick Jungle Fever, by Michael Davis

Lipstick Jungle Fever, by Michael Davis

  • News
  • September 12, 2008
 
I’m in Mexico. I hate it here.

Next week I have to be in Japan and I will most likely hate it there also. Why do I hate it here in Mexico? Well, beside the fact that my ability to get on the Internet is hit or miss and I may have to send this column in is by re-writing it from on one of those “Internet café” computers – better known as “suck the money from the American assholes” – there is the massive attack on my very being to buy a damn timeshare.

From the moment I stepped off the plane I was harassed like a freshman pledge during Hell Week. I was offered everything from free meals to cold hard cash just to “come to a short presentation.” Telling these people I was here on business did nothing to stop their assault. I could have been shot in the head and they would have asked me if I wanted to stop to take a look at some timeshare property on the way to the hospital.

Why will I hate it in Japan next week? Because I hate to travel and I hate being in any country where I know they hide some resentment to America. I know that some people in Mexico and Japan have issues with us. From what I see when I look around Mexico the people are friendly and helpful…but every so often I see daggers in their eyes. I was told the average wage here was six dollars a day.

SIX DOLLARS A DAY.

We spend that much on a cup of coffee from Starbucks.

I don’t think that’s why some people here hate us. I think they hate us because of malls.

Yeah, I said malls. I needed to buy some stuff so I went to a mall. I’m thinking that at six bucks a day as a living wage there should be some great bargains at the mall. The mall I went to was no bargain, in fact it was crazy expensive.

Then I realized something. Those malls in Mexico are not for the Mexicans.

No. They are for us, the Ugly Americans.
 
That’s why some here hate us.

So here I sit in a country where most people make six dollars a day and I’m sure they hate me. I’m even surer that they think that Americans are idiots. We live in the richest country in the world and the two candidates are not talking about terrorism, or nuclear weapons or oil prices. No, they are talking about lipstick.

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Country First, by Michael Davis

Country First, by Michael Davis

  • News
  • September 5, 2008

Martin Luther King was never a prisoner of war like John McCain. Nelson Mandela never flew a combat mission over Viet Nam like John McCain. Gandhi was never a commanding officer like John McCain.

According to right wing rhetoric, none of these people would be able to lead in America for they would be attacked for their lack of experience. What all of these people share with Barack Obama is the ability to inspire other people.

I am not suggesting that Obama is in any way in the league of those above, but there is something to be said for inspiring people.

Some people like the Republicans don’t see that. This from The party of Lincoln, as they like to say. The “party of Lincoln.” Wow, that is saying something. They always bring that up when they want to make a point.

Lincoln was President in 1861. It’s now 2008. That party is over.

How over? Lincoln is known for one thing and one thing only to the masses: he freed the slaves. He gave black people their freedom in this country. Did you see the sea of faces at the Republican convention? There were thousands of people there, and I’m not kidding when I say this: it looked like you could count the black people on two hands. How is it possible that the Republican Party frees black people from bondage and black people stay away from the Republican Party like Stevie Wonder stays away from driving the Indy 500?

I watched the “Country first” video that the RNC produced and showed at the convention. When images of Ronald Regan, Barbara Bush and McCain were on the screen the crowd went wild. When images of Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks were seen… nothing.

No applause. No reaction. Nothing.

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If You’re Not There, You Just Won’t Get It – Conclusion, by Michael Davis

If You’re Not There, You Just Won’t Get It – Conclusion, by Michael Davis

  • News
  • August 29, 2008

This is the last segment in this month long saga. If you are anything like me, you are sick of this. I mean four weeks of me reliving history is a bit much even for a guy who LOVES history. To that point, all I watch on TV is All My Children (the greatest show ever!), news, and The History Channel. I don’t even watch the shows I write or have created. I’m not kidding. I have never watched an episode of any show that I have been involved in.

I love history and I thought when I started writing this it would fill me with a wonderful sense of nostalgia.

Wrong. Now I’m just pissed.

Don’t get me wrong, Milestone is and will always be a BIG part of my life and career and I’m very happy to clear up some misconceptions about Milestone… particularly my involvement. Take a look at the previous installments to read about some of those misconceptions surrounding Milestone, Christopher Priest and DC’s “ownership” to name but a few.

Here’s my BIGGEST problem and the misconception that burns me to this day. There have been many, MANY articles and or books that have featured Milestone. A lot of them have said that I left Milestone quick, fast and in a hurry.

That, like the promise that Bush would be a good president, was a compete and utter lie. There’s more truth in the belief that the world is flat and women in L.A. don’t care about what you drive.

I was there the moment Milestone was created. I did not leave until two and an half YEARS after that. The writer Les Daniels (who’s books I enjoy, by the way) wrote in his book, DC Comics Sixty Years Of The World’s Favorite Comic Book Heroes (1995) “A fourth partner, Michael Davis, quickly left to run Motown Animation.”

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If You’re Not There, You Just Won’t Get It, Part 3, by Michael Davis

If You’re Not There, You Just Won’t Get It, Part 3, by Michael Davis

  • News
  • August 22, 2008

 

This is part three of my Milestone Media story I began two weeks ago. If you are reading this segment first, please read the other two installments, not so much for background but so I don’t look like a complete moron.

On a faithful day I walked into a Milestone meeting and was met with a pointed finger and this statement directed at me.  “I cannot work with this man.”

Now there are those in the industry who see me as overrated, lucky or a con artist.  That’s partly because my public persona is over the top. I tend not to explain a lot about how I do stuff, I just do it. I have never been one to share information about details on certain aspects of my business. Let me try and clarify what that means: if you invite me to a party and I say no, that’s all you are getting. You are not getting a detailed description why I’m not going or what else I may be doing or instead of going to your party. To me no just means no. It does not mean that you are a bad person, it does not mean I am. It just means no. Look; I just don’t pay attention or care about what or why anyone does anything.

I never ask personal questions when I get a no. I don’t care why you make a decision; it’s your decision. I have no right to expect an explanation from you unless it affects me in some way that matters to me. I was that way in 1991. I’m still that way in 2008 but I’m less hardcore about it.

So when a Milestone member pointed his finger at me and said “I cannot work with this man.” My first reaction was anger. I knew what I was doing to build Milestone and resented the fact that I was being put on the spot with this bullshit. I thought at the time it was all motivated by my personality, and some of it was. In retrospect I realize another part of the issue with me at the time was my methods and how I did things.  The meeting went on for a while and became heated.

Wait a sec.

 

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If You’re Not There, You Just Won’t Get It, Part 2, by Michael Davis

If You’re Not There, You Just Won’t Get It, Part 2, by Michael Davis

  • News
  • August 15, 2008

This is part two of the Milestone Media story I began last week. What follows is a brief overview of last’s week article.

Read last week’s article. End of overview.

Denys Cowan, Christopher Priest, Dwayne McDuffie, Derrick Dingle and myself started meeting about building Milestone a few days after Denys rallied the troops. I remember that Priest was a freakin dynamo! This guy would show up with reams of information at every meeting. He was also very inpatient, if we were stalled on something Priest would present a variety of different ways something could work, just to move the process along.

I loved his energy. I loved how he saw the importance in every detail and even when we butted heads (which was often) I respected his point of view. Dwayne wanted to make sure that our books were the best they could be. He stressed professionalism and excellence over everything. He dismissed with respect what was being done in comics then as “What they are doing. Not what we should do.” Derrick was all about the business; he wanted to make sure that we were protected and smart about our business plan. Denys was focused on the magnitude of Milestone – what we could be and our sense of history. Me? I wanted to make sure that we brought new talent into the industry that included people of color.

Yes, Derrick wanted the business to work on a grand scale. Dwayne wanted excellence in everything we did. Denys to make history. Priest to create a dynasty. I wanted to find talent that could make Milestone the absolute best place to be. All of these made up Milestone. Notice that none of these objectives had anything to do with keeping the company black or excluding anybody with regards to race. Shit, we were too busy trying to make this a GREAT company to worry about it being a black company.

Oh, and there was a non-black member (although unofficial) to Milestone. Her name was Chantal d’Aulnis. Chantal was a V.P. at DC Comics and a friend who gave us invaluable advice in the beginning. No, she did not create any characters, or write any (creative) bibles, her advice was along the lines of. “Look at the way that deal was done.” Or “Maybe you should ask that question of so and so.”

This was important because she gave us a matter-of-fact look at who we were. One of the BIG misconceptions about Milestone is that we were owned, created by or part of DC Comics. Over the years we have tried to answer that clearly but somehow it never quite took, so I’ll try and say it clearly here. MILESTONE WAS NEVER OWNED OR CREATED BY DC COMICS.

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Milestone: If You’re Not There, You Just Won’t Get It, by Michael Davis

Milestone: If You’re Not There, You Just Won’t Get It, by Michael Davis

  • News
  • August 8, 2008

Denys Cowan and I were hanging out watching the crowds inside the convention center at the San Diego Comic Con. It’s 1991. As we walked the floor we were kidding around as always. Kidding around and looking at girls. Hey, that’s what we did when we walked the floor at conventions. We joked and looked at girls. We tried looking at guys but we both agreed that made us look pretty… gay.

We were having a pretty good time when Denys got quiet. I thought it was because of this real fine Asian girl we were looking at. Denys turned to me and said “We should start a comic book company that will create some characters of color.” I said, “That’s the stupidest idea I have ever heard. Will you look at that girl?” Denys did not look. That’s when I realized that he was being serious. I said “That’s a great idea.” After that we spent most of the rest of that day and evening talking about what the company could be and whom we should include. This is the first time I have really talked about Milestone outside of a VERY few interviews over the last 15 years. Milestone is the story of five – that’s right FIVE black creators and we all have a story tell.

This is my Milestone story…

Denys and I spent the rest of that day and evening talking about what the company could be and whom we should include. In 1991 there were ample black creators we could have included but we wanted to make sure we got this right. It’s important to note that we were not trying to be exclusive by only inviting black creators – we wanted to create black superheroes and wanted to do so with black creators first. If you really look at Milestone you will soon realize that we were never a black company, we were a black owned company. In truth we were a true multicultural company that counted among our talent many, many different races. We went out of our way to include talent from many different walks of life.

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The Day The Earth Moved, by Michael Davis

The Day The Earth Moved, by Michael Davis

  • News
  • August 1, 2008

I had a particularly bad day after the San Diego Comic Con was over. I don’t feel like sharing nor do I feel like writing about it. There are times when I don’t trust myself with my Mac and I fear whatever I write at those times would come back to haunt me. It’s like they say, never go shopping for food when you are hungry. I’ve done that and come home with 60 boxes of Twinkies.

I will allow myself to write when I’m mad about some injustice or something stupid, but when I’m sad or remorseful I’d rather just go with something I have in the can. When I first got the ComicMix gig I wrote a bunch of random articles to be used in case I was on vacation, sick or in case I had to deal with something on a personal level that required my time.

So, yesterday there was an earthquake that hit 5.4 on the Richter scale here in Los Angeles. What follows is a now-timely piece I wrote over a year ago when Mike Gold first offered me the ComicMix gig…

Why in the Hell do I live in Los Angeles? I hate it here. I hate the restaurants, I hate the fake people, I hate the what do you do and how much do you make and what car do you drive mentality that seems to resonate in this city. I hate the fact that I joined a gym like a sheep and almost never went. What an idiot I am!

Me, Michael Davis, joining a goddamn gym?? AHHHHHH!! Why the Hell would I join a gym?? I’ll admit it I joined because everyone in L.A. belongs to a gym. I wanted to belong as well.

What the FISH was I thinking? I’m not in shape? Hell yeah I am, ROUND is a shape!

I don’t need a damn gym. If I want exercise I can simply do what any black man does in Los Angeles… run from the police.

When I realized that I was becoming like the very sheep I hated, I quit the gym. In the year I belonged I went MAYBE five times.

Some people think that the weather is what makes people stay in L.A. Let me tell you something: where I live, the temperature hit 116 last summer. It was SO HOT that my dogs don’t want to go outside. They said to me (YES, they actually SPOKE) “Let us use the bathroom inside. We will leave the seat down, we promise… woof.”

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I am the man! OR I am Sorry! by Michael Davis

I am the man! OR I am Sorry! by Michael Davis

  • News
  • July 25, 2008

It’s the Friday of the San Diego Comic Con and I’m either having a great time or I’m miserable. Why one or the other? Well, I threw huge a party last night and it was a smash or was cancelled or it sucked.

I’m writing this a week before, on Friday July 18, 2008. I have a TON of work to finish before the con and a TON of work to do for the con, so I know there would be no way in France I would have enough time to finish this column. So I want to revel in my greatness or apologize.

If you came to the party and had a great time, I know, I know. I’m the man! If you could not get in because it was too packed, I’m sorry.

If you showed up with three people who were not on the guest list and saw me at the door of the club or called me on my cell and I came and got you in, I was glad to be of help! I know I’m the man!

If you showed up with three people who were not on the guest list and saw me at the door of the club or called me on my cell and I told you there was nothing I could do because the invite CLEARLY said your name was on the list and if you wanted to add somebody we would try but there was no guarantee and you left mad and went back to the top of the Hyatt where you sat alone because everyone was at MY party… sorry, but I did tell you.

If you stood on the general admission line and not the VIPs line and I saw you and walked you in past the crowd, please stop thanking me. You’re my friend. It’s the least I could do.

If you stood on the general admission line and not the VIPs line and waited a long time to get to the door and when you did they informed you that you could have walked right in because you were on my list, I’m sorry about that there must have been a grip of people there and it was confusing.

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