The other option would be to just throw out some postings and let all you out there in the blogoverse scratch your heads trying to figure out who that crazy, deranged, brain-damaged pervert is. And I don´t think that would be the best way to start this relationship.
So.....my parents came to Germany from Spain seeking work. Although american comics were pretty scarce and far between at that time I had the privilege to read many Marvel comics ( most of them CONAN by Roy Thomas and John Buscema ) through my aunt´s husband who was an GI.
All my life I always wanted to be in comics but I made the big mistake to read an article in one of the german Spider - Man publications about how it is impossible to earn a living with comics in Germany. Being young and impressionable I believed it and wasted much of my life finding the right job although I already knew what would be the perfect job for me.
Nevertheless I never gave up reading comics. Of course I had to bear every comic collector´s trauma : my mother threw out all my comics when I was 14 years old. However, she should have known better because if there is one common thread in my family it is stubbornness.
Throwing out all my comics just meant that now I had to build up my comic collection again. Only bigger and better than before. Of course I, like everybody, had to learn a real job which was part of a deal I made with my parents. The deal was if I learned a normal job I could do whatever I wanted afterwards - my parents would be sleeping better knowing I had something to fall back on if things got bad.
So I took on becoming a car mechanic at the german railway company of all places ( Deutsche Bundesbahn ) and it just so happens that one day the hand of fate directed me to the international press section at the main station in Stuttgart. To my surprise I discovered that they had quite a selection of Marvel Comics so that I began to frequent it on a regular basis investing a lot of the money I earned in comics.
Which led to me following a few series every month and of course when they were delayed or they missed one issue I asked if they knew when the new comics would be shipped or when the missed issues would ship. Now don´t let anyone tell you that persistance will not help you get what you want. In my case I was obviously so persistent that they gave me the address of the comicdealer who sold them their comics. They were just too happy to get rid of me - which led to my first comic subscription beginning with SHE-HULK and AVENGERS WEST COAST ( both from John Byrne - now how lucky was that ? ) and ending with 20 to 25 titles on my pull list.
Okay, I don´t want to go too much into the story of my life at this point.
You are probably already bored to death, cursing my name and going like : " A pox on you SUBZERO and all your firstborn !!! " whirling a painted chicken over your head. This is just to give you a little background information how I made contact with the comicworld. I really started reading american comics about the year 1984 and have been collecting and reading them ever since. In the year 2000 I discovered the german comicforum where I began posting and discussing comics as SUBZERO 2000. And for a while I participated enthusiastically having all the typical flame wars and trying to improve the german comic scene.
I wrote some controversial articles which got published on a german comicwebsite ( actually 2, the third got lost in the mail ) but after a while I just got frustrated with preaching to the choir. I had the feeling that I was just going through the motions, knowing before posting what the answers would be and not really changing anyone´s opinion. I was just arguing with guys who were already reading comics ! And I did not have the impression that I was accomplishing anything. And then fate intervened again.
Somebody from another website posted a request on the comicforum that they were looking for someone who could write about comics on their forum. So I immediately grabbed the opportunity ( not that there were any other volunteers ) to write about comics on a forum with people who mostly read books and don´t know that much about comics. So I started on April 24th in the year 2003 writing in the Elfenbeinturm about comics with a thread that started with a really intense dialog. In the last few months it has more and more become my own comicblog with me writing about what just came to my mind concerning comics which means that essentially I have been writing my own comicsblog for the last year. Wow ! Surprised you, didn´t I ? You already forgot about me mentioning this being my first REAL comicblob in the beginning. Ha ha. Got you there. Anyway since I already was writing some kind of comicblog I began thinking about the next step - opening a real comicblog all of my own. Reading Dave´s Longbox the last year really planted the idea in my brain that if I could only achieve a tenth of brilliance that is Dave´s Longbox I could possibly bring a little joy into someone´s life. With a little luck I don´t get banned in the first three months and can help to bring a little more fun and positive energy to the comicbloggoverse. The goal was to have it running in time for my three year anniversary at the Elfenbeinturm ( which by the way is german for ivory tower ) which will be in a few days.
The next step was deciding in which language to write my comicsblog. In german it would be easiest to write for me and of course there are not that many german comicblogs. And boy, they really need a good one that kicks ass. Spanish would also be an option since that´s my patria and I always found the spanish comic readers to be more kindred souls and sympatico than the german comicreaders. I have more in common with them in most questions of taste and preferences. In the end I decided to take the option that allowed me to cause the most damage - writing in english and reaching the most readers therefore being able to poison the most minds in the shortest amount of time. Choosing a title was a much bigger problem and in the end I threw all the possible titles I had out of the window. I ended up doing a brainstorm session writing all possible titles down on a piece of paper. And since FAN WITHOUT FEAR was too close to the title of a Daredevil website I settled on the actual title which already says a little about me. I´m a fan of the old TALES FROM THE CRYPT comics from EC ( along with the other titles like HAUNT OF FEAR and VAULT OF HORROR ) which I read in reprints. I´m also an avid reader of SUPERMAN and all his series over the years. So the title is a little nod to two of my favorite comic genres : superheroes and horror.
So what will I be writing about ? Although I took inspiration from Dave´s Longbox I´m not going to do the exact same thing. First of my comic collection is not as big as Dave´s extensive comic library. Second I don´t think I´m half as funny and entertaining as Dave. And third why waste time on a secondrate copy ? Just read Dave´s Longbox. So here I will not be writing about the embarrassing comics of my collection because at the age of 38 there is nothing left that embarrasses me. I don´t get embarrassed - period. Just ask my brothers. I will write about comics I own, comics I just read and what I think about them. If I liked them, if I didn´t like them, why I liked them...or didn´t. Was it worth the money or not ?
Since I´m not only reading american comics in the original version I will also write about the differences with the german or spanish versions.
How is the translation ? What got censored ? Which version is the best ? Having worked in a printing company here in Germany for many years I will of course also be writing of production quality. Which comics are poorly reproduced or have like awful printing and which hardcovers broke the first time I opened them before even beginning to read. I´m going to write about the comics as they come out and I read them which means that all the comics I will be writing about already have come out in America for three to four weeks. So there is not much of a chance that you will find much spoilers here. Unless you have been living under a rock for the last year with no comics to read.
I´m going to post some pictures which are all covers from comics or previews which can be found on official websites. Mostly from the monthly solicitations of Marvel and DC. And I don´t have ANY money so there is no sense in suing the hell out of me - unless you are satisfied with being paid in old issues of SPIDER - MAN : YEAR ONE from John Byrne.
Now that is all for my first post. I hope it was interesting and did not just waste your time. If I manage to get this comicblog up and running I hope you come back when we get to the interesting part. For now I´m going to leave you with the motto of the comic zone comicradioshow :
Peace, love and comicbooks !
New to the blog ? Everything you need to know about TALES FROM THE KRYPTONIAN : top ten posts / more posts of interest
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