I've read a lot of Peter David's stuff, and enjoyed practically all of it. Read all of his Hulk run... thought it was pretty good, although enjoyed Supergirl, Fallen Angel and Young Justice more. Artists changed quite a lot on Hulk run... and my own favorite was Liam Sharp, but that's clearly a minority view.

But on the much more important question of which celebrity contributors Lawson drove away.... here's my incredibly vague and hazy recollection.

Here goes... actually... Lawson has nearly always been the model of decorum. But didn't he once send Paul Smith completely crack-a-dog?? And wasn't it over something completely trivial such as putting "Good morning" in the wrong typeset or font??

Yes, Paul Smith is on my list. Who would think I'd have chased away more pros than Allen? There's a distinction!

With Paul, whose art I like, a bunch of us were praising Jack Kirby's artwork in a thread. Paul hadn't been around in a while. Then I made some sort of joke -- something about, "Yes, Jack could draw, but what did he ever create?" or something else ridiculous like that. You couldn't take the joke seriously if you had been following the thread. But Paul parachuted into the thread, saw my comment and went apeshit. How dare I disrespect Jack Kirby?!! Fuck you you fucking fucker!!! Etc., etc. Then Smith stormed out in a huff, never to be seen here again.

EDITED TO ADD: I just checked, and the joke I made that set Smith off was that Jack Kirby was a gifted comics artist and creator, but in balance, everyone knows he was a communist spy. (I didn't say it was a good joke. A bunch of us were just riffing back and forth). Ludicrous as my statement was, Smith took it seriously. Very very seriously. And very very badly.

That'll teach him to spend time around here when he could be doing his job, or looking for a job to do. This is Lawson's turf (and Allen's).

Lawson did go crack-a-doodle once. He was arguing with Tony Isabella and was proven right, but then Lawson went so super nuts rubbing it in, seriously more than a wee bit over-kill, Tony left and has rarely been seen around since.

Again I rely on my completely vague memories to conjure up phantoms that might or might not exist:

Hadn't Tony's patience (around about that time) been severely tested by some moaning about his innocent (because it was all comics related) practice of putting a link here to his own blog? I reckon that might have been a team kill, rather than a Lawson solo.

If I were anybody, I sure as hell wouldn't post here.

I think you're conflating two different things.

There were a few people complaining about Tony's updates, claiming they were spam. Some, myself included, disagreed.

Either way it lead to Tony attempting to hang out a bit more than just posting his updates.

At some point later Lawson and forgive me but I don't recall the context or the argument. But Lawson proved Tony to have been wrong on some point. The hi-jinks then ensued. Lawson even admitted he might have over did the victory celebration, others argued that Tony may have brought it on himself by his own actions in the past.

Either way one less pro who bothers to hang out here.

I used to think it was a shame more pros don't hang out. Whether it be egos too fragile to withstand disagreement or a very real concern of wasting time and effort arguing with some idiot who is just baiting you, I think i now understand completely why they don't hang out here after having been caught up in any number of stupid fights myself. So, I think it's probably for the best.

I seem to inspire an "everybody loves me more than you so I'll show you" response.

I claim Kerry Gammill and Rick Parker, btw.

No, no... now that you mention it, he was probably also my favorite. But he only lasted seven or eight issues, following behind Gary Frank's two-year run and Dale Keown's three-year run; then followed by Angel Medina for a year.

I liked Keown's run. It was very reminiscant of Byrnes work. There was another artist that did Freak Force from Image who also was a near knock off of Byrne. Victor Bridges or something like that. And what kept intriguing me about this was that one issue they even had karl kesel as the inker.