Tagged: Michael Davis

My Way, by Michael Davis

  • News
  • October 31, 2008

And now, the end is near;

And so I face the final curtain.

My friend, I’ll say it clear,

I’ll state my case, of which I’m certain.

I’ve lived a life that’s full.

I’ve traveled each and every highway;

And more, much more than this,

I did it my way.

For whatever reason ComicMix has decided not to continue featured articles from me and our other columnists. Three weeks ago I turned down an offer to write for another site because I’m to busy for another deadline. That’s what I told the site. Truth is I have two things going for me, the first is I’m damn sexy, the second is I’m loyal like a puppy. O.K. I have one thing going for me, I’m loyal like a puppy. No, wait I do have two things going for me: I am damn sexy, even if I do say so myself.

Now I find myself with a bit of free time and you know what?

I don’t want to write for another site.  I like it where I am.

Look, I’m living the goddamn life of Riley here. I’m creating TV shows, I’m writing books, I’m about to run another entertainment company, I’m doing just fine without the weekly drag of coming up with stuff for ComicMix.

But I love this shit.

I have a great life and I have few regrets. One thing I like about me is I put it all out there. Love me or hate me, I put it ALL out there. Won’t you guys miss that? You need a guy like me to love or hate. You need me to piss you off and you need me to make you laugh. Of course I’m speaking of ALL the ComicMix columnists and using myself as an example. You need us. Not just me…really.

If I may take a moment and just talk about me…Asian girls…YOU NEED ME.

Look, I’m trying to be serious here. I’m sorry to get off track. On the serious tip, Asian girls you REALLY need me.

Anywho, I mentioned I was loyal like a puppy and my loyalty makes writing for another site not sit well with me. I mean ComicMix was unlike any other site out there and a great deal of that is because of the columns. You hear that powers that be at ComicMix? We helped build you. We help create the ‘mix’ in ComicMix.

You need us.

Don’t you?

No?

Well then if that’s the case, I’m now officially pissed!!! You motherfuckers think you can just use me? Did you think you COULD STEAL MY IDEAS? DID YOU THINK YOU COULD STEAL FROM MICHAEL DAVIS? FROM BEN SIEGEL? FROM MEYER LANSKY??

Sorry. I was watching Bugsy. 

I’m just kidding about the pissed part also. I’m not pissed. How could I be?  This was a wild ride and a lot of fun, but really, won’t you miss my rants? Won’t you miss my Death Ray? Won’t you miss how I get all deep and tell you stuff that you never expected from me? Won’t you miss the witty way I connect two seemingly impossible points?  Won’t you miss my annual Comic Con columns? Won’t you miss my tales from the hood? Won’t you miss, is you stupid?

Hey, now that I think of it; powers that be at ComicMix, IS you stupid?

Nah, I know it’s all about the business, guys. Or maybe not. Maybe just maybe the powers that be just hate me and instead of doing away with me (they can’t because of my massive power in the industry. Oh you think I’m kidding about that massive power? You have no idea who the Frank you are dealing with buddy. You try getting 25 rooms at Comic Con the WEEK before the con because some idiot canceled the rooms you had set up. Hell I got those 25 rooms back with ONE phone call. Then get that same idiot who thought she had some juice and canceled the rooms in the first place to apologize to you like the little bitch she was. Tell me how that works out for you. You get Ludacris, yeah THAT Ludacris to host YOUR Comic Con party. Tell me how THAT works out for you) wait a sec, where was I? Oh yeah, maybe just maybe the powers that be just hate me and instead of doing away with me they get rid of all the columnists just so it does not look like it’s all about me. Why would the powers that be go though all this trouble.

Why? WHY you ask?

Because I’m black.

See that? Did you see what I did? In one, way to long paragraph I bragged about my power, dropped some serious knowledge about my reach, insulted some hotel executive and made a joke.

Won’t you miss that? Wait! The one thing missing is a sad story from my childhood; and an Asian girl reference. So insert the following passage in there someplace:

My stepfather came home drunk. This was not rare but this time he had a puppy. Man, I was glad to see that puppy. That puppy meant to me that my stepfather was trying to do the right thing; he was trying to reach me with that puppy. “Is that for me?”  I asked already knowing the answer in my heart. The very same heart that was filled with love for this man at this moment. “IS WHAT FOR YOU?” He answered…loudly. “The puppy.” I said with a smile. “WHAT PUPPY?” He said again, loudly. I started to answer assuming this was his way of playing a game with me when I noticed something strange, my stepfather had tipped his head back and was bringing the puppy to his lips…

He was trying to drink the puppy. 

I found out later that he dropped his beer coming out of a bar and when he went to pick it up, he picked up the puppy instead.

“Ugh.” He said as the puppy (perhaps sensing danger with his puppy sense) peed in his mouth. “Tastes like piss.” He said while pausing…before he tipped the puppy to his mouth again.

Won’t you miss that? I know, I know so will I. Wait; I forgot the Asian girl reference. Here you go:

“Tastes like piss.” He said while pausing…before he tipped the puppy to his mouth again. Years later I would tell that story to an Asian girl hoping for understanding, hoping for love. Hoping she would love me… long time.

SEE? Won’t you miss all of that? Sure you will.

Well this does not have to be goodbye. I’ve gotten a lot of requests over the years (some with $ backing behind it) to write a blog. So that’s what’s I’m gonna do. I love ComicMix so much I’m not going to write for another site I’m going to write for me.

You can find me every Friday (I hope) at michaeldavisworld.com. I may or may not do more than one a week but I like this Friday thing. All this said, if Mike Gold wants me back at ComicMix I’m there. I have nom idea how I will do without the massive amount they were paying me there. I guess it’s back to my paper route; I have to get my milk money somewhere. 

I hope that I have been an interesting read at least. This is the 90th article I have written and I have loved this run. I’m grateful for the time I’ve spent here and look forward to seeing you all at michaeldavisworld.com.

I also wish ComicMix well. It’s still my favorite site on the net and Mike Gold will always be my friend. Regardless of him firing me…because I’m black.

Thanks, to all my follow columnists and to the un-official columnists, Vinnie, Russ, Marc, Reg, Jeremiah and last but not least my boy Shane. I’ll leave you with this:

For what is a man, what has he got?

If not himself, then he has naught.

To say the things he truly feels;

And not the words of one who kneels.

The record shows I took the blows –

And did it my way…

GOBAMA!!   (more…)

In My Life, by Michael Davis

  • News
  • October 10, 2008

 

Though I know I’ll never lose affection / For people and things that went before / I know I’ll often stop and think about them…

In My Life, by Lennon and McCartney
 

I was thinking about my departed sister the other day. I always think about her but more so this time of year because her birthday is approaching. My sister Sharon died a tragic death leaving a part of me forever sad. That’s a part of me, for the most part I’m an upbeat guy but there are some times when I have to be alone to just think about her and cry. I’m not talking about tearing up, I cry, sometimes so uncontrolled I shake like a child out in the cold without a coat. I call those times when this happens to me my “chick” moment.

Make of that what you will.

When these “chick” moments happen, I have to sit in place for some time before I can return to normal. Now that’s funny, who would have thought me… normal?

I know that some people see me as a fast-talking driven dealmaker. I also know that some people see me as a lucky SOB or asshole. I’m fairly confident that talking to people about me you will get one or a combination of those three descriptions.

I’m fairly confident that is what you will get. I’m positive that you will not get this: “Michael Davis? Him? Oh, every so often he breaks down and sobs like a little bitch.” Well you may get that now because of my big mouth, but up until now you would not have.

Yes, this is ComicMix and yes there is a comic book article coming but please allow me to have a moment here. Speaking of moments I had a “chick” moment last night. I was sitting in my office and I started thinking about my sister. I was fine for about five minutes until the song You Are Not Alone, by Michael Jackson came up on my iTunes. My sister was attacked and left to die while people walked passed her all night thinking she was drunk or high on drugs. No one stopped, no one helped. Her life, which could have been saved, simply faded away.

Sharon hated to be alone. She was always with friends or family so when You Are Not Alone myself out of these “chick” moments I try and think about what’s good in my life. This time I started thinking about my friends. Man, do I have great friends. I don’t have many but as a friend of mine once told me, “You know good people.” I do know good people. That made me feel a bit better.
(more…)

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. (more…)

ComicMix Columns & Features for the Week Ending August 31, 2008

  • News
  • August 31, 2008

As we bid goodbye to August and so much more, we mark endings and new beginnings.  Our production head and cofounder Glenn Hauman returns with not one but two installments of his way-too-occasional column, our news editor Bob Greenberger’s been posting up a storm, and it’s rumored that ComicMix has some interesting things coming down the pike, but I couldn’t possibly say.  I just do a column and these roundups:

As we enjoy our federal holiday away from the office, let’s salute all those freelancers who don’t get paid when they don’t work — and, sadly more than a few who don’t get paid even when they do.

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.” (more…)

ComicMix Columns & Features for the Week Ending August 24, 2008

  • News
  • August 24, 2008

The traditional summer vacation week has begun, with most family-types heading to familiar retreats and time shares before the kids return to school, while politicos gear up for their quadrennial conventions with pundits in tow. Gonna be a weird week, I’m thinking. But we’ll still be here, bringing you our regular columns and features. Here’s the roundup from this past week:

Loads and loads of hugs to our newly-hired news editor, Bob Greenberger! Want my old ComicMix business cards?

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.

  (more…)

ComicMix Columns & Features for the Week Ending August 17, 2008

  • News
  • August 17, 2008

You know, it’s not like the Olympics broadcasters on NBC get paid to talk for a living or anything.  I actually heard one of them exclaim, after Michael Phelps won his record-breaking eighth gold of these 8-8-08 Games, "This has never happened before, and may never happen before!"  I immediately looked around for a TARDIS.  Then again, I keep confusing "Citius, Altius, Fortius" ("Faster, Higher, Stronger") with the opening from the Six Million Dollar Man ("better… faster… stronger") anyway, so there you are.  Meanwhile, ComicMix columnists have been jumping some hurdles of our own for  you:

How can geeks be this into international competition?  Well, when else are you gonna see dressage and badminton and water polo and trampoline?  At least, in between the endless bouts of beach volleyball?

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

  • News
  • August 15, 2008

milestone-hat-6156711This 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.

(more…)

ComicMix Columns & Features for the Week Ending August 10, 2008

  • News
  • August 10, 2008

Don’t bother me, I’m watching the ‘lympics.  As if I followed any of these sports at any other time.  We’ve had some good sports here in ComicMix too; here’s a bit of what they’ve done for you this past week:

Now will someone please put some proper shorts on those female volleyball players?

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