The false Joe did post on the O'Neil message board, and was outed by two people who obviously know his modus operandi.

Denny didn't answered yet, but i like the reaction of Tony Isabella:

www.comicscommunity.com/boards/dennyoneil/

"Without getting into the Byrne/David/O'Neil history, I would ask we take down the temperature a notch.

And by "ask", I mean...knock it off or i'll delete your asses.

If anyone can provide me evidence of someone posting falsely under the names of other fans and pros, please send me this via e-mail.

I can and will block such posters from posting in the future.

Thanks for your cooperation.

Tony Isabella

WFC Agent 007

Licenced to Delete"

JB posted that:

"When I confronted Denny, later, he professed complete ignorance of the whole thing. And, of course, he absolutely assured me there was no way in hell he would ever have authorized David handing out xeroxes of the end of the story."

But Peter David says that the pages weren't from the end of the story where Guardian died - that they were a dream sequence from a later issue.  If that's so, neither of them is lying. 

But it was a stupid move for those pages to be shown at all, especially if as JB says, the readers had known at that point (guess it would have been 3 months in advance?) - that a member of the team was going to die.

My collection of JB's AF run has some annoying holes in it - is there a color collected edition available?  If nothing else, all this hoohah has made me want to read that great storyline again.

David is quick to unleash the L-word. In this case, against something he admits happened. What's sad is that he gets people willing to listen while he talks out of both sides of his mouth at once.

Happily most of us weren't spoiled.

Unhappily my favorite member of the team died.

Thanks, Howard. You here underscore something I think many involving themselves in this have forgotten: that in those days before the internet, before PREVIEWS, before WIZARD, it actually was possible to keep secrets, provided we tried hard enough. It actually was possible for, say, Phoenix to die, and the readers not know about it until the issue was in their hands. Or for Guardian to die, and the readers -- oh, wait. . .

Hmmmm...I've just deleted the posts at the Denny O'Neil board which were, in my opinion, poorly phrased questions designed to incite a certain reaction and also designed to cause trouble.

NOTE: If others try this, I will delete their messages, too.

On a side note: Denny is a professional writer.  I can't imagine that he would ever authorize ANY SPOILER or ANY WORK by ANY WRITER that was working for him all in the name of publicity.

I'll believe Denny every day of the week and twice on Sunday.  And always over Peter David.

MPH

Sorry, but the below really gets under my skin:

Scott said:

Looking at it that way, believe it or not, considering it was 1984 at the time, I would believe Peter David.

Why?

You were a superstar in 1984.  You were a top-notch, sizzlin' hot, high selling creator.  This is not to say you aren't now, but I mean in the eyes of the major publishers this is who you were at the time.

Now, let's say an editor makes a bad decision that has infuriated the # 1 creator at the company at the time.  Knowing that DC would welcome this creator with open arms, is he going to take the blame, possibly ticking off the creator enough that he jumps ship or is he go to blame some guy in sales and marketing who he will never really have to deal with (or at least he thinks he never will)?

For that reason, I definitely believe Peter over Denny.  Now that doesn't mean I think his whole version of what happened is correct.  It just means that I believe that one small piece of it.

>>>> 

SER: Scott, you’re basically saying that Denny O’Neil is not just a liar but not enough of a professional to admit he’d made a mistake – that he would lie to JB in order to save his job. Maybe this is another example of “Internet society,” but if I’d read the above about *me* and how I’d handle a similar professional situation, there would be no words for the fury I’d feel. This is really the basest of insults for anyone who values his professional reputation.

What’s worse, I think, is that you seem to realize that PAD and O’Neill would have equal reason to spin the truth, yet you choose to call O’Neil the liar for no legitimate reason. That really burns me.

And, frankly, we shouldn't even be talking about Denny O'Neil. His name should have never been brought into the discussion. Even if he did OK the release of the pages, PAD still handed the out.

I know that I myself hate the type of  professional mentality in which someone takes credit for anything positive but always shifts everything negative to someone higher up on the food chain (as someone who is in the latter position, I find it especially annoying).

"Sorry, you have to stay late to work on this project, Bob, but Boss Man insists upon it!"

"Hey, you can go home early today -- and you've got a raise. Don't worry, I'm always looking out for you!"

I *hate* that.

Back in the interesting part of the thread...

One effect of the internet has been to make more material available: buying comics online, finding information on what might be worth tracking down, communicating with creators (hello, John) and so on. I've bought comics I wouldn't have after recommendations here. Definitely gains there.

IMP.

I'd also like to add, that JB has never EVER told anything but the truth when questioned about such items and, whenever he tells a story, IT IS ALWAYS THE SAME...PAD, well...consistent telling of stories isn't a strong suit.

I believe both JB and Denny.

'Nuff said.

MPH