COUNTDOWN TO INFINITE COMICS

Yes, the countdown has already started for comicfans in Germany. It´s 7 days till the comic fair in Stuttgart and 26 days till the international comic convention in Erlangen also known as UNCIVIL WAR.


Which means just infinite comics for me to read for the rest of the year. The comic fair in Stuttgart is a good place to get cheap comics and fill the gaps in your collection. Initially I wanted to wait till next week before visiting my comic shop again. But then I thought it might not be the best idea to have to pay a lot of money for my subscription on the week of the comic fair. Another reason to go to the show in Stuttgart is that there are two or three dealers who will also be in Erlangen and I can go through their comic before Erlangen. So there are less tables I have to go through in Erlangen. I don´t know if there will be a lot of people, last time there were a few more people but this time there could be all the people from Stuttgart who won´t go to Erlangen because of the soccer world championship.


Nobody knows what will be happening in Erlangen. If there will be many people that´s good for the convention. If there will not be a lot of people the place will not be so crowded - which is good for me because than I can maybe get more of a discount. So either way is good. The only thing that bugs me is that the salon del comic in Barcelona is on the weekend before Erlangen and I don´t think I will get a ticket to go. Every year I try to get there and every year I fail. Last year there was no comic convention in Erlangen because it is only every two years but true to form I somehow managed to go to Spain on the exact time after the comic salon of Barcelona and right before the manga convention.


Tomorrow I will be working for a few hours at the museum, not like Friday when I had to work till 15.00 hours. The photographer for the catalogue was there so we were bringing the paintings up and unpacking them. All the while handling them really carefully because some of them are worth about 40.000 EUROS or more. So after a long day at work I went to the comic shop to relax and get new comics. Because this week I had no new comics to read and had to resort to other material.


The first thing I read was MONOGRAFICOS DOLMEN - ARTHUR ADAMS. DOLMEN is a well known comic magazine in Spain that is published in a small format ( I think a little smaller than regular US comic size ). In the beginning it was all black and white but in newer editions there are color pages included. If you ever are in a comic shop in Spain get the newest copy. This is always a good read, they sometimes have news earlier than Wizard and the spanish comic readers take shit from nobody. They don´t candycoat anything and the letters pages alone are worth the price.


But I will get an indepth analysis of DOLMEN when one of my brothers has been in Spain and I can review a recent issue. Now the monograficos dolmen line is a line of specials like the MODERN MASTERS books of TwoMorrows Publishing which focus on a specific artist with lots of interviews and lots of art - which is the next best thing to reading comics. The first issues had Adam Hughes, Alex Ross, Alan Davis and a John Byrne issue I am saving for when the John Byrne issue of modern masters comes out. Because I like to read all the books about the same artist in continuation. It always reminds me why I fell in love with comics and I´m reminded of all the cool comics done by one particular artist. In the case of Arthur Adams it sadly reminds me that there is not so much stuff coming out from him. The book is in the normal album size ( which is called magazine sized in america ? ) and has 100 pages of glossy, thick paper 16 pages in full color for the price of 6,50 EUROS.


Now two weeks ago I was going to my old comics to update my comiclist for Stuttgart and Erlangen. At the first two times I was in Erlangen I had a list and was just looking for the comics but through the years the were less and lesser comics left on the list and I concentrated on other things. But last time there were some occasions were I was going through a 50 cent box and had no idea which comics I had read and which were missing from my collection. So this year I decided to make a list so I know when I have the chance to close a gap in the collection. As I was updating the list I had to pull out all the comics bending myself like a chinese acrobat because my older brother somehow always manages to get three or more tables between me and where I stash my comics. And of course if you can´t reach the place where the comics were originally when you put them back you can´t do it right and there are some issues that don´t fit anymore.


So I had to put some of the comics on my desk where they are waiting till I have a chance to get them in the proper place. Which will be when my older brother goes on vacation and I can move his table collection. Anyway, all the comics which didn´t fit are very special miniseries and I reread already one of them, namely SACHS & VIOLENS by Peter David and George Perez. This miniseries came out in 1993 from epic under the HEAVY HITTERS imprint that had other cool series like MIDNIGHT MEN by Howard Chaykin

DRAGON LINES

by Peter Quinones and Ron Lim ( which was one of the more successful series because after the initial 4-issue miniseries there were

two more issues

) or THE TROUBLE WITH GIRLS by Will Jacobs, Gerard Jones and Bret Blevins ( artist of SLEEPWALKER another superb series ).


I know in hindsight the 90s are called the dark age and that most people say there were no good comics during that time. But as a person that was reading comics at the time I can say there were some good comics coming out if you knew where to look.


Greg Capullo was starting the definite run on QUASAR in January 1991,


the best GHOST RIDER series ever had just started in May 1990 and in 1991 Arthur Adams did three issues of Fantastic Four with the New Fantastic Four one of the most reprinted trades from Marvel.




And there were lots of others.


Now back to SACHS & VIOLENS it was the second team up of Peter David and George Perez after the two issue miniseries HULK : FUTURE IMPERFECT one of the best Hulk stories of all time. Now sometimes I have a problem with Peter David but that´s mostly because I know how good he can be as a writer. I never had any problem to give the man credit when credit is due like on SACHS & VIOLENS. It´s Peter David at his best paired with really detailed art by George Perez who is risking a little more than on other books. If you ever wanted to see full frontal nudity by George Perez this is the book. The story delves into the topics of sex, violence, pornography, murder, snuff movies and white slavery without being exploitative. The two main characters are Ernie Schultz ( nicknamed Violens because of his past as a photographer in Vietnam ) and Juanita Jean Sachs ( or short J. J. Sachs ) who work together as photograph and model. Of course Ernie who is a dead ringer for Ernest Borgnine is madly but secretly in love with J. J. who doesn´t notice his affection for her. This all changes when J. J.´s best friend gets murdered and she goes to avenge her death. Ernie tries to talk her out of it but of course he´s too late to stop her and his only option is to dig up his old battle gear and save her ass. Which finally let´s J. J. see him in a diffferent light. Sadly the series was never continued like other series George Perez worked on like CRIMSON PLAGUE. If you have not read SACHS & VIOLENS check it out you may be able to get it cheap maybe even in the 50 cent bin.


There are more things I wanted to write about but I don´t want this post to go on too long. Maybe I will find the time to write more tomorrow but I may be watching the rest of the CASE CLOSED episodes of the last three weeks. Today I only got to watch 4 episodes so I have 11 left. So till next time : Imperius Rex !

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