The weather in Germany really is extreme - either extremely cold or extremely hot. Last Friday I was complaining about the constant rain and now the last few days it´s unbelievably hot. So it´s time to look for some shade, break out a cold one and just relax. And read some comics.
I thought about doing some special recommendations but nothing comes to mind that is a specific summer - centric comic ( not that there aren´t probably dozens of comics out there that are about summer ) or one that suddenly becomes a better read just because it´s hot outside.
And I think with all the comic pimping I´ve done over the last few posts you´re probably tired of my constant pulp peddling. My amazon bargain picks for this week are still the EERIE ARCHIVES VOLUME 12 and the IRON MAN OMNIBUS, especially the Iron Man book which is at a really ridiculous price. I have to say, together with the two TEEN TITANS OMNIBUS I have my comic shelf is starting to buckle but you really can spend a few days reading those hefty tomes. They´re just not so great to transport. So if you read them at home it´s great but I wouldn´t have to schlepp them to the beach, especially if they get full of sand.
Anyway, Today it´s so hot I broke my rule to never leave the house on my free days to get the two essential things on such a hot day : ice cream and beer. Of course I´m not the only one who had that particular idea so all of the MAGNUM ice cream was sold out and I had to get another brand. Thankfully at least they still had some of that BECKS Green Lemon beer I bought Yesterday.
Ever since PLUS was absorbed NETTO the assortment of goods leaves much to be desired, especially where beer is concerned. They don´t have any good malt beer, only a sickening sweet malt drink and no mixed beer to speak of except BECKS.
I have to say I´m not a regular beer drinker and if I leave it to special occasions, which is mostly to celebrate something or when it´s really very hot like today. Because that´s when a beer tastes extra good. Anyway, because I mostly drink beer on special occasions I tend to go for special brands like Desperado or Budweiser ( which you don´t find in every supermarket in Germany ) or mixed beer. I think I developed my special taste for mixed beer on one of my visits to the Comic Action in Essen.
Me and my brother were rooming with the nice guys from Schwarzer Turm and after the first day was over we all went shopping since we haven´t had time to buy anything during the day. They had a shopping list and everyone had to get some items and return to the shopping cart quickly - preferably before closing time. I remember that beer was one of the items that was on my part of the list and they had two different types of beer. It was some no name brand - like most supermarkets have - and they had regular beer and mixed beer, I think with lemon. My brother just wanted to buy the regular beer but I insisted on getting some of the mixed beer. For my personal consumption if need be. So we did our shopping, returned to the pad where we were all bunking and had the usual fun and games. Man, those guys really know how to have a good time. Anyway, as the evening went on the most asked question soon was if there´s still some of that mixed beer stuff left. I think the next day we only bought the lemon beer. And a good time was had by all.
IT`S THAT OLD SPIDER - FEELING OF DEJA VUE AGAIN, PART 2
In the last part from this series I had posted some covers that pay homage to that famous panel where Peter Parker quits being Spider - Man with the costume in the garbage can.
Well, since then I have come across another batch of covers that riff on the " Spider - Man No More ! " theme which I wanted to post. The first one is Alex Ross´ variant cover for Dynamite´s GREEN HORNET 15.
The next one is a rather peculiar one and comes from Francesco Francavilla.
The last one - at least in this series - is John Romita Jr´s variant cover for HULK 13.
Now I said " this series " because while all these pictures are derived from the " Spider - Man No More ! " issue the picture is not in actuality the cover of Spider - Man 50. The picture on the cover was a very different one and - staying on the subject of the Hulk for a moment - one that was used for the movie poster of the last Hulk movie.
Here´s the original cover to issue 50 of Amazing Spider - Man, masterfully rendered by comic legend extraordinaire John Romita.
But I think we´ll leave those for our next post. For Today it´s once again time to wrap things up for me since I´ve heard the PEANUTS CD three times now and I have to prepare my stuff for work Tomorrow.
If you are reading this in Germany I hope you found a place to chill - as dem crazy kids say nowadays - and you can enjoy the cool evening. And don´t forget to stock up on ice cream, beer and sun tan lotion.
Today´s video of the day is not related to the topic of this post. A few days ago I was discussing with a fellow comicer how some of the best comics are war comics like DC´s THE LOSERS, WEIRD WAR TALES, SGT ROCK, Marvel´s SGT FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS, ALL WINNERS SQUAD or Charlton Comics THE LONELY WAR OF WILLY SCHULTZ. One of the most famous is probably EC´s TWO - FISTED TALES
that ran 24 issues from 1950 to 1955 and had stories by such great veterans like Harvey Kurtzman, John Severin, Wally Wood, Johnny Craig, Will Elder, Jack Davis, Alex Toth, Gene Colan, Joe Kubert, George Evans, Reed Crandall or Bernard Krigstein. Most of the stories were war stories but there also were some adventure stories about cowboys and indians, roman gladiators and well, mainly men doing manly stuff.
In 1992 there was a tv movie produced by Richard Donner which wasn´t half bad and which had an impressive cast with William Sadler, Raymond J Barry, Dan Aykroyd, Lance Henricksen, Brad Pitt and Kirk Douglas. Just the right movie to watch while knocking down a few cold ones. Enjoy !
After a few days rest - and some trouble with the internet connection - it´s time for a new post. Since it´s officially spring now Germany is drowning under a tidal wave caused by constant rain ( newslinks ).
Thankfully I´m not in the parts of Germany that are affected because only thinking about all my comics in the cellar getting wet gives me the shivers. So since the weather is just an open invitation to stay indoors and read some comics here are some recommendations from me.
I was a bit hesitant to do this post since it means that the Spider - Man post on which I toiled so long won´t be on the front page anymore but there are some things I urgently have to post. And the Spider - Man post has to disappear from the front sometime, whether I like it or not.
EERIE ARCHIVES - THIRD TIME´S THE HARM
Yes, another recommendation for one of Dark Horse´s Eerie collections, this time for EERIE ARCHIVES VOLUME 12. Man, I´m really assembling some serious shelf porn in my room with these hardcovers.
I probably shouldn´t order this since I just got the NEW TEEN TITANS
OMNIBUS volumes 2 and 3 but these opportunities don´t come around that
often and so far I have never regretted taking the chance. Plus, lately I have noticed that I like it more to read my favorite comics again and again in the collected edition format.
Now I probably will have to delay my regular visit to the comicshop a
bit longer and I can´t write my post about the GRATIS COMIC TAG 2013
for a few more weeks ( since I still haven´t gotten many of the issues )
but it´s totally worth it. This pretty much blows my budget for this
month but since I´m not going to Spain this year anyway - again - what
better to spend the money on than comics ? I mean, I still have one season of BONES and THE MENTALIST to watch and around two seasons of ANGEL and DALLAS as well as two thirds of the second season of THE WALKING DEAD. My biggest problem right now is finding the time to read all the comics I buy, do new posts here and getting enough sleep.
But back to EERIE ARCHIVES VOLUME 12, like with the other two volumes before the creators list reads like a
Who´s Who of comics with such names like Steve Skeates, Doug Moench,
Wally
Wood, Bernie Wrightson, Richard Corben, Paul Neary as well as spanish
paisanos Isidoro
Mones, Martin Salvador, Leopoldo Sanchez, Esteban Maroto and Jaime
Brocal who have become mainstays of the book.
Once again it´s now offered for a real bargain price at amazon.de which is 22.14 EUROS ( 23,64 with package and handling ) and I don´t expect it will stay at this price very long so you might not want to wait too much. Contained are issues 56 to 60 of the legendary horror anthology series, or more accurately issues 56 to 58 and issue 60 since 59 is another reprint issue and the stories have already been included in previous volumes.
If you have already ordered volumes 10 and 11 you are probably anxious to read the further adventures of Hunter and to find out how Dr. Archeus´ quest - to kill the 12 jurors who sentenced him to death - continues. And you will probably be delighted to start the new series THE SPOOK. And if you still haven´t gotten one here´s another chance to get one of these expensive 50 buck books at half price. But don´t just take my word for it, here are some preview pages from Bernie Wrightson´s part of the book, courtesy of Dark Horse and of course you can take a look inside on the amazon page. Man, I really should get some dough for all this pimping.
LIFE IS EASY - MAKING UNDERGROUND COMIX IS HARD
Speaking about pimping I wanted to pimp a new german underground comic - which regrettably is not the new U - COMIX from Underground Comix. Longtime readers may recalled that I mentioned german cult comic U - COMIX on this blog once or twice before.
Back when I started reading comics for adults U - COMIX was the funny pendant to SCHWERMETALL, the german version of HEAVY METAL, and it had all the great american underground creators in it like Robert Crumb, Bill Griffith or Gilbert Shelton as well as french artists like Maester, Edika, Margerin, Gotlieb or Francois Thomas. With time most greats from the german independent scene contributed and many comic artists who are big stars now made their first steps in this book.
Now there is a new version of it on german newsstands and comicshops from german publisher Underground Comix and with such a name you know they must be fans of the original. Sadly, that´s not enough.
So far Underground Comix has online comics as well print comics like the Christmas Horror Comic anthology and the KAKERLAK COMIC ( about which I already wrote in this post ) and now they make a foray to the newsstands with the new U - COMIX. The first issue was a free comic for the GRATIS COMIC TAG 2013 and the second issue is available right now. My brother brought both issues back from the Comicfest in Munich and he was very disappointed with the new version. As I have heard the entire Comicfest was a bit disappointing this year but that´s what happens when you ignore the old saying to never do a comic convention in Bavaria when Bayern Munich wins any kind of championship. I mean, the regular bavarian probably doesn´t care very much about comics and it really doesn´t help when the city is full of hundreds of drunk soccer fans.
I´m just glad I didn´t take my brother´s invitation to join him that weekend and stayed at home instead. I think it would have been a big waste of time and money.
Now I´m really afraid to make a segueway so let´s stick with the usual BUT BACK TO U - COMIX instead. I really would like to say that this is a worthy continuation of the classic cult comic but I really can´t do that with a clear conscience.
I mean, the talent involved in the comic is not unimpressive and there are even some contributions from Gilbert Shelton himself ( who was one of the guests of the Comicfest this year ) but still it isn´t the same. Now part of that is trying to recreate lightning in a bottle, in this case what was one of the big cult comics in Germany. The other part - at least in my humble opinion - comes from trying to do underground comics without really having an idea of what really is underground. And let´s face it, I don´t think there are a lot of comic artists in Germany who really know what underground is. You see, in Germany EVERY comic artist wants to do underground. Nobody wants to do mainstream. So if everybody is doing underground the real underground would be the mainstream which then leads to such strange incidents like POWER FREAKS being totally underground for trying to be mainstream.
But back to U - COMIX, while the comic in and of itself is not bad it has to fail with the goal it set for itself. Some of the art is really great but too many of the stories are just bland, too long or just not funny. I think the comic which sums this up best is the one about the guy who is on the same plane as german Schlager star Michael Wendler ( you´re so much better of not knowing who that is ) and who is offended because one passenger calls him an underground musician. And that´s the problem.
What some people may define as underground may not be what other people think of as underground because it´s very subjective.
Also, there is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path as a great man once said. In the comic I mentioned the narrator goes on to describe what underground means to him but in the end he´s only reciting the examples the media propagates as underground which means a certain type of music and of course drug abuse.
Now the question is if in these times drug abuse is really part of the counter culture or if that´s just one of the stereotypes that fall into socially accepted norms. Somehow reading this comic you miss a certain edge but not for a lack of trying - instead it seems to be a lack of understanding where underground comix really came from. But maybe I´m just analyzing this too much. I´m feeling like one of these guys who tries to explain the concept of coolness to somebody who has never watched an episode of PARKER LEWIS. Anyway, I´m probably not the most qualified person to talk about underground as I´m probably the least underground - ish human on the planet. The biggest manifestation of alternative culture on my part is still not owning a cell phone. I think I have said my piece and if anybody out there wants to make up his mind on his own ( which I´m always for ) you can find an interview with the guys behind the comic here and a review from somebody who agrees with me here .
FISH SANDWICHES, ALIEN CROCODILES AND TRANSMAT TOILETS - WTF ?
Now you may ask, if there ARE german underground comics ? The answer is YES and one excellent example is Mamei and Leo Kircheis´ ROCKET BLUES - MATIE OR BISMARCK HERRING which won the ICOM Award 2011 .
This comic has everything you expect in an underground comic from weird ideas to over the top characters and an odyssey about the big questions of life that starts with something as simple as a fish sandwich.
Although to clarify things, we are not talking about the kind of fish sandwich you might get at McYouknowwho. No Sir, we are talking about a Fischbrötchen which you get in Dresden - Pieschen at a snack stall where they have 40 different kinds of fish sandwiches. The most common are bismarck herring ( which you can seepictured below )
or maties ( also called soused herring ) also pictured below. You will notice the significant difference right away.
Which brings us to the main focus of the story : our main character, a plain everyman called Laszlo Lommatzsch, is driving on the Autobahn
when an accident - caused by a fish sandwich - propels him into space where he starts on an adventure right out of the pages of Douglas Adams´ HITCHHIKER´S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY. He wakes from a six month coma in a rocketship with amnesia only to find himself face to face with an alien pinguin, a crocodile that is the doctor, a bare breasted dancer, a rocking cleaning woman ( you don´t know how long I have waited to work this Steve Martin reference into my posts ) and the captain Rocket who bears a vague semblance to a german tv show host.
Although I might be wrong about this since it is never really said to whom this Rocket has an uncanny likeness. Anyway, on his quest to regain his memory and find a way home Laszlo comes across teleporting toilets,
a scientist with an exposed brain who looks like Albert Einstein, Nazis in Space and the most important question is if he had bismarck or maties herring before his accident. If only he could remember.
ROCKET BLUES is advertised as an " intergalactic funny sci - fi adventure road movie, in which road means mainly the milky way " and it really reads like one of the old underground comics with it´s epic scale and all too human longings and you wouldn´t be too surprised to find it next to ZIPPY THE PINHEAD or WONDER WARTHOG. The real surprise is that it´s by a german creator team and a rather new comic The art is rough, edgy, very detailed and outright funny. I can´t stress that enough : this comic is hilarious and like all the great works of art it takes something as simple as a fish sandwich to explores the microcosmos within ourselves. My recommendation as the feelgood comic of the week.
As you may have noticed, we didn´t get to talk about NEMI - again - but this post got kind of away from me. Which also is nothing new. But I have been working on this post for over 6 hours now so I´ll call it a day since I have to work Tomorrow.
But no post is complete with a video at the end and Today´s feature is once again Doctor Who related. But instead of another trailer for the big anniversary I thought I should post something my readers - at least the german readers - might not have seen before. This is the 2007 Children in Need Special TIME CRASH in which The Doctor meets.....naaah, that would be telling.
These posts really keep on coming without pause even if I shouldn´t be spending so much time on the internet on the days I´m not working. And to top it all of I really thought I had written my last Spider - Man post.
But like always I just have to mention this on the blog. Man, I really didn´t want to do another post so soon after my last one. Especially since it will take my ultralong post about SPIDER - MAN : ENDS OF THE EARTH from the front page.
It really took me almost a week to finish that and now it will be just gone. But that´s life. So, anyway, since I mentioned in my last Spider - Man post that I think Dan Slott´s Ends of the Earth might be the last good Spidey story for the next years it´s time to take a look back at all the great Spidey stories of the last decades.
Now most of my readers know, what a great fan I am of such classic stories like FEARFUL SYMETRY - KRAVEN´S LAST HUNT, THE DEATH OF JEAN DeWOLF or - probably the most famous one - THE DEATH OF GWEN STACY. But don´t be afraid, I´m not going into another one of my rants.
The reason why I mention it is that on ComicGeek Speak ( which I´m sure you all follow religiously since it´s on my blogroll ) there is a Spotlight series about Spider - Man that´s almost finished. As usual the discussions are in - depth, extremely informative and totally hilarious. I guess you have to take it with humor if characters like Aunt May keep coming back from the dead. Here are the episodes so far :
Okay, the second reason why I wanted to do this post - yeah, it would be a bit measly to just put up these few liks - is that in one of the podcasts Power Records are mentioned. For those who don´t know anything about them ( like I didn´t ) way back in the 70s there were some records released by a company called Power Records which were based on comics like Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman but they also did tv series like Kojak, Star Trek or The Six Billion Dollar Man . And of course they did some based on Marvel comics.
One of those, and it´s mentioned in the podcast, was SPIDER - MAN : THE MARK OF THE MAN - WOLF which was of course an adaption of AMAZING SPIDER - MAN issues 124 and 125. As you can see it was a two piece set which included the recording and a comicbook.
I did some research and there really is a Power Records homepage that has an entry about The Mark of the Man - Wolf where you can see all the pages of the comics. Which comes in handy for all those who don´t own the issue, but they are really too small to read them properly. So if you have the issues you might want to get them. The downside is that there is no audio on the post but I found another website and you can listen to the audio here. Man, I remember reading the german version of the issues and I just loved them. I mean, Spidey and a werewolf ? How could you possibly top that ?
Well, you can also watch the thing via YouTube because somebody apparently made a video out of it.
Now as fate or the internet gods would have it in the audioplay certain parts were cut to bring two issues of Amazing Spider - Man down to 15 minutes. If you watch the video above you will see that they skip over the splash page - probably because splash pages only work visually - but on fellow blog DIVERSIONS OF THE GROOVY KIND posted it this Friday. No kidding, we didn´t coordinate our posts but in his latest post entitled MAKING A SPLASH : MARVEL COMICS 40 YEARS AGO, JUNE 1973 the second splash page is from Amazing Spider - Man 124, The Mark of the Man - Wolf. Which means that the man - wolf story was first published exactly 40 years ago. That´s weird.
Another strange coincidence is that just Yesterday I finished reading my copy of SAL BUSCEMA - COMICS FAST & FURIOUS ARTIST and in the art section there is the reproduction of another Power Records combo pack, this time CAPTAIN AMERICA - AND A PHOENIX SHALL ARISE.
The third Marvel audio by Power Records I could find is MAN - THING : NIGHT OF THE LAUGHING DEAD. You can find comic pages, the YouTube videos and the mp3 audio on SFFaudio´s entry on Power Records .
Now if you are more a fan of the Distinguished Competition COMICS ON THE RADIO has the complete audio for the Batman record from 1975 and there are lots of Superman record audios on THE SUPERMAN HOMEPAGE .
If you remember those records from your youth you might get a kick out of hearing them again and if you haven´t heard them already you definitely should. And there are just dozens of other strange records that can be seen on the blog so be sure to check that out. Oy, that´s so 80s.
And of course there are also lots of videos on YouTube about those recordings like this one about Planet of the Apes. I have seen at least three of the movies adapted.
Man, I can´t understand those people who say they only find crap on YouTube. I always find such incredible gems on the site. I guess it really is one of those cases where you only find what you are looking for.
To get the audios for the Planet of the Apes Power Records just go to HUNTER´S PLANET OF THE APES ARCHIVE where you can listen to them all as well as find transcripts of the tv audio plays and everything else about Planet of the Apes.
IT`S THAT OLD SPIDER - FEELING OF DEJA VUE AGAIN
Since it´s only a few days old I haven´t have had the time to compile many pictures for the section of classic comic cover homages but one of the most used covers is of course the one where Peter Parker quits being Spider - Man with the costume in the trashcan ( which I think is pretty fitting since I technically also quit Spider - Man, at least the new issues ). He did that numerous times so here´s a selection of variations on a theme. Of course this is not complete and if you know some covers I missed please send me a comment.
So that´s all for Today and in our next post we will finally talk about NEMI unless something more important comes up.
Since this post is pretty Marvel - centric ( a thing that I don´t expect to happen very often in the future unless I´ ll be talking about some olden Marvel funnybooks ) Todays video is the intro for the new Marvel Online game. I have heard from reliable sources that the game pretty much sucks but the intro is great.
I know, I didn´t want to do a post Today and use my free day to get the sleep I´m sorely lacking because of my new laptop. So imagine my surprise when I ended up 1000 years in the future instead of all things. Yes, I´m talking about the Legion of Super - Heroes again.
I know that I said my next post would be about NEMI but like always other things happened. I´m wise enough to listen when fate talks and to go with the flow.
So Today I was reading my e - mails and I was going through my mails, checking the comments to this blog which are for the most part spam. Now while doing that I landed on one of my old Legion posts namely the one about the cartoon show where I had included some links to watch the episodes. But because blogger has changed its layout twice since I did that post and because none of the links were working. And it´s one of the posts on the BEST POSTS links at the end of each post.
Therefore I decided to put up some new links and I even embedded some videos from YouTube for those I couldn´t find again. So if you haven´t seen the show definitely go there and watch some episodes since it´s really great. I´m not sure if I have seen all the episodes and I guess after I have finished this post I´ll watch a few episodes while eating pizza. Here´s the link to my Legion post : THE LEGION OF SUPER - HEROES
I REMEMBER THE FUTURE - FASHION CHECK
Yesterday I posted a picture of Halle Berry in a dress that looked a bit like Phantom Girl´s dress from the disco era. Well, while looking for the links I came upon this picture in the second part of the Super Fashion feature on the blog COMICS ALL TOO REAL which is supposed to be close to Dream Girl´s costume. I´m not so sure about the resemblance but I like it.
And speaking about new sections from my last post :
IT´S THAT FUTURE FEELING OF DEJA VUE AGAIN
Like I said in my last post, in this new feature I´m going to post homages to famous comic covers and one of the most famous comic is ADVENTURE COMICS 247 where Superboy gets voted out for Legion membership.
Now this is such a big part of the pop culture subconciousness that everybody from other comic artists to casting shows like American Idol use it. And of course DC was the first to do it, seeing that they came up with it.
This one is a special favorite of mine because it features one of the greatest characters of all time to try out for Legion membership : Arm - Fall - Off Boy. Dude, I still hope Grant Morrison would write a oneshot with him with art by Frank Quitely. That would be like totally Airwolf !
But of course other comic companies also do their own riffs on it.
The next one is from one of the worst comics I ever had the misfortune to read through my brother´s comic collection.
Not only is it badly written and badly drawn, it´s totally derogative towards superheroes and the main character is so stupid that he quits one job where he doesn´t get paid and even goes so far to take on another job to keep the first one. And he hates the first one to begin with. And it´s not like there are other jobs out there than being a sidekick that pay better and where your life isn´t endangered. Dude, just get a regular job with a good salary that you don´t hate. What can I say ? Slackers.
This is a more classic recreation by Alex Ross for the Overstreet Guide.
And last but not least TEENAGERS FROM THE FUTURE, essays on the Legion of Super - Heroes from Sequart. A really good book and my recommendation for Today.
If you are a rabid Legion fan this book will help you remember why, if you are a Legion fan who has strayed from the homefront as I was when I read this book this will ignite your fire again. And if you are not a Legion fan you will be after reading this book.
BETTER - LATE - THEN - NEVER - LINKING LAD´ S NEW ADVENTURES
Yes, it happened again. Today while doing the research for this post I came across a site that had a link to my blog in the blogroll that I was unaware of. As is my policy here I put up a permanent link to all blogs who have me on theirs - unless it´s about porn which would freak out some of my readers. The blog in question is MY COMICBOARD BANNERS AND MORE and I have already added it to the top of the blogroll. Not only can you find fine banners on the website but also pictures of cool stuff like this :
Another link I have to add is for COMICS RECOMMENDED which has recommendations for all comic books in alphabetical order and so also a list for the Legion of Super - Heroes that goes into detail over the GREAT DARKNESS SAGA and the new THE CURSE hardcover that follows it.
Man, it´s one of my big regrets that I didn´t buy the GREAT DARKNESS DELUXE EDITION when it was available from amazon dirt cheap. Anyway, if you want to read all there is to know pop open the links and enjoy your trip to the future. Oh, and credit where credit´s due I found the nice banner for Today´s post there. You can find the full sized picture here .
So that´s all I have time for today. Since I have to work tomorrow I´ll try to get more sleep and relax a bit for the rest of the day. And finish up on my e - mails first of all.
Next time we will talk about NEMI and I´m leaving you with one of the episodes of the Legion cartoon that I´m pretty sure I haven´t seen yet. In MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE Superman who has just built his Fortress of Solitude lands in the bottle city of Kandor - in the future.
