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 because they can get wet and full of sand.
Anyway, Today it was 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. I have to say that there are a lot of things I like about England like Alan Davis or Doctor Who but the fact that they drink warm beer still creeps me out. It´s almost as bad as the people from Cologne who drink beer out of those small test tube glasses. And don´t get me started on french beer. During my student exchange in Montbeliard they had one called MUTZIG BRÄU which we called SCHMUTZIG BRÄU ( MUDDY BREW ) because God knows what they put in there. These are the moments when I´m thankful for the Reinheitsgebot . But back to my shopping, of course I wasn´t 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 by 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 from another Marvel series WONDER MAN and I can´t believe I forgot this cover. I read the complete series and it was rather good.
Of course such a striking cover motif was also very popular with their Distinguished Competition and they used it very faithfully in this rendition.
A few more homages from DC, this time they take a few more liberties with it.
The next one is Alex Ross´ variant cover for Dynamite´s GREEN HORNET 15. I´m so glad I got the DYNAMITE ART OF ALEX ROSS book when it was offered at a bargain price at amazon, I could just gush over his art for hours. In fact, I´m sure I already did on various occassions.
Another strange one, this time from the horror series HACK / SLASH where I really tried to get into the series. But somehow the quality of the book did not merit the high praises it got in all the reviews. Not that it was bad but I had expected something more.
The next one is a rather peculiar one and comes from Francesco Francavilla.
Our next ones take us again back to Spider - Man himself. A bit loose with the composition this time it´s Mary Jane who takes center stage with this variant cover from the infamous ONE MOMENT IN TIME story that finally explained why Peter and MJ were not married in the BRAND NEW DAY fiasko. I can´t believe that it was because a thief fell on him and he was late. Who writes this stuff ?
Of course the famous panel is also referenced in other comics so here are two panels although I have no idea from which comic they are.
And 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 comic masters 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 !
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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