Surprise : Flash Friday with Greg LaRoque !

You probably expected to see my post on FLASH 133 - which I had to post pone to do the birthday post for Curt Swan last week - or the special FLASH FRIDAY I mentioned Yesterday ( you know, the one for which I went all the way to the Sammlerecke in Esslingen to prepare for ) but since Today is Greg LaRoque´s 63rd birthday we´ll have to do the special FLASH FRIDAY next week and FLASH 133 .... when I get to it. It´s been delayed since January so one more week is not going to make a big difference.

Greg LaRoque has worked on a plethora of titles both at Marvel and DC but the two books he´s mainly known for are LEGION OF SUPER - HEROES and FLASH. As everybody who has followed this blog for some time knows I´m a huge fan of the Legion and any excuse to put more Legion content on the blog is fine by me. But we had a lot of Legion of Super - Heroes covers in Yesterday´s post in honor of Tom Peyer and to tell the truth I am not so up to date with Greg LaRoque´s Legion issues as I am with his Flash issues. And it IS Friday so FLASH FRIDAY with Greg LaRoque it is. We will have to do another post with his work on the Legion of Super - Heroes at some other day. But don´t worry, as I have already proven over the last weeks nothing gets shelved indefinitely here on TALES FROM THE KRYPTONIAN.

Now that it was settled that I was going to make a special FLASH FRIDAY post for Greg LaRoque´s birthday the question was about what it should be ? The special FLASH FRIDAY post I had planned to do is a review of the recently published THE FLASH - A CELEBRATION OF 75 YEARS and how it compares to the german counterpart FLASH ANTHOLOGIE - 75 JAHRE ABENTEUER IM ZEITRAFFER. But the thing is that there is no issue from Greg LaRoque´s FLASH run in the US edition. So I thought about finally doing one of my long post poned FLASH posts - either DEATH IN COMICS : THE DEATH OF BARRY ALLEN or THE RETURN OF BARRY ALLEN - but then decided against it. For one, I still need to put a lot of work into the posts and I have to finish Yesterday´s post so I don´t want to spend all day on this post. Also these two posts are like my FLASH FRIDAY trump cards so I want to hold on to them a bit longer. And then there is the thing that writing about the last one involves one huge spoiler so I want to do that as late as possible. So instead I was just going to post one issue of FLASH.

Okay, all that was left to do was to pick one issue from Greg LaRoque´s entire run of FLASH that showcases his great art, Jose Marzan´s fantastic inks, William Messner - Loebs wonderful writing and also shows what a great character Wally West as the Flash was. No pressure there, right ?

Luckily for me it was not as difficult as it had been since there was one issue that came up in all the reviews of THE FLASH - A CELEBRATION OF 75 YEARS on amazon as the one issue that should have been included, the same issue that IS included in FLASH ANTHOLOGIE - 75 JAHRE ABENTEUER IM ZEITRAFFER. I don´t want to completely shoot my bolt here because I still plan on doing the review post but I think a lot of people who bought the US hardcover were disappointed because they came in with a wrong premise. It is not THE BEST FLASH STORIES FROM 75 YEARS nor GREATEST MOMENTS FROM 75 YEARS OF FLASH HISTORY. As it says it is meant as a celebration although if you look at the way how disparate the selection of stories is the word acknowledgement would be more appropriate. Anyway, we will discuss all this and more at length in another post. For Today I give you Nobody Dies from FLASH issue 54 which is not only a big fan favorite but also William Messner - Loebs´ favorite issue from his entire FLASH run.

With the number of FLASH FRIDAY posts I have done you must think there are no Flash related links left to post but as it is there are always some that are overlooked or fall through the cracks. Like the post on DIAL B FOR BLOG about Simpsons Super Spectacular 12 in which Milhouse becomes the Golde Age Flash and also Hawkman, Black Lightning and a bunch of other super heroes. And speaking of Jay Garrick, Dennis E. Power has an extensive post on WOLD NEWTON UNIVERSE : A SECRET UNIVERSE about one of the oddest DC super hero groups, The Inferior Five. You may ask what this has to do with the original DC universe speedster ? Well, one of the members of the Inferior Five is Herman Cramer who was adopted by Jay Garrick and there are more ties to other super heroes / pulp heroes like Superman, Wonder Woman, Tarzan or Ellery Queen throughout the teams weird family and history although I´m not exactly sure how much of this is official DC canon and how much of that is Dennis E. Power´s own deductions. In light of the NEW 52 and the REBIRTH the question arises what is official canon and if there is such a thing at all but nevertheless this is an interesting read. Apropos, one thing I don´t write often enough - although it is in my blog description in the blog header - are the foreign editions of US comics and QUIÉN ME MANDARIA A MI ? has an extensive archive on Classicos DC which published The Flash but also other series like Jim Aparo´s The Brave And The Bold issues, The New Teen Titans, All Star Squadron or Orion. My spanish readers are probably already be aware of the books but other spanish speaking people might find it interesting.

We start Today´s birthday countdown with inker Wade Von Grawbadger, not because he is the youngest candidate but because his year of birth is unknown. He is best known for inking Tony Harris on Starman and Stuart Immomen on a plethora of books from New Avengers to All - New X - Men.

We DO know however Sophie Howard´s year of birth so it´s pretty safe to say that she turns 34. The mega busty page 3 girl started her career as a stripper at the age of 17 and was once named as having Britain´s Best Boobs. What I find a bit strange is that there is no picture on her imdb entry but I guess as a former glamour model ( whatever that may be ) with the stunning measurements of 38G - 26 - 34 all the pictures of her the staff had were from magazines such as Maxim, Nuts or Loaded and emphasized other parts of her body and not her face. Speaking of pictures I thought I had already posted something about her but apparently the picture below was not among it and it was extremely difficult to find in good quality.  

Billy Zane celebrates his 51st birthday who was on season 7 of Charmed with sexbomb Alyssa Milano , in the episode Well Cooked Hams from the Tales from the Crypt tv series and Tales from the Crypt : Demon Knight.

He also did the voice of Jason Blood / The Demon Etrigan on The New Batman Adventures but Today I want to focus on another comic book hero namely Lee Falk´s The Phantom whom Billy Zane portrayed 1996 in a much underrated movie. There are a few video reviews of the movie on YouTube but I chose this one because it has a lot of info about the comic plus a tip where you can see an even better cut of the movie. Even if you don´t go for the fan edit you might try and watch the movie in black and white.



Speaking about The Phantom I think I have already posted this link but just in case I have not you can find Sal Velluto´s blog THE GHOST WHO DRAWS and also check out THE ART OF SAL VELLUTO for more great art.

Next we have Playmate of the Month April in 1986, Teri Weigel who turns 55. Because of Teri´s perplexing physique and her protruding torpedo shaped sweater puppies she became quite popular and was in a few specials from PLAYBOY. She also was one of the few playmates who also appeared in PENTHOUSE although not as a Pet of the Month. She was just everywhere during the 80s. She later had her breasts enlarged and did porn but she looked best in her appearances on Married with Children. 

And we are staying in the 80s as one of Mtv´s best vjs EVER Ray Cokes celebrates his 59th birthday. Here is a video from the time when Mtv still played music videos most of the time and Most Wanted was must see tv.



Speaking about 80s must see tv, Edward James Olmos who turns 70 is best known to Today´s television audiences from shows like Marvel´s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. or Battlestar Galactica but for me he will always be the silent and charismatic Lieutenant Castillo from Miami Vice. No offense, but one of the things that always bugged me on the rebooted Battlestar Galactica series was the idea that the humans created the cylons. Although it would explain why two of the models were such hot sexbombs like Tricia Helfer and Grace Park. On the other side the cylons would never had to go to war against the humans because if you have an unlimited amount of copies of Tricia Helfer and Grace Park there is no male human who can resist you. I guess those toasters were still lacking in basic knowledge about humans.

Back to Miami Vice here is a fan made trailer from the episodes that centered on Lieutenant Castillo who was the real star of the show.



Our last birthday shoutout goes to the great late Ricardo Rinaldi who has left a footprint in the german comic scene not only through his work for the Kauka Verlag on series like Fix und Foxi and Die Pichelsteiner ( the last one was especially popular because of curvy cave woman Petra ) but also as one of the founders of the International Comic Salon Erlangen in 1984.

Since I had a clip from DC´s Legends of Tomorrow in Yesterday´s post our FLASH related video gives you a bit more background knowledge about Savitar in the comics seeing as he is the main villain in the third season.



Usually I end these posts with the Flash video but because Today all the videos are so short I want to close things up with a longer one. And since we are still missing a cartoon video here is another 80s throwback, Rock & Rule which I recently came across while looking for something completely different. It is a repost but the movie is good enough to deserve it and I am just too lazy - plus I also have to finish Yesterday´s post after putting all the bells and whistles on this one AND watch an episode of TnA iMPACT Wrestling I found just the other day because I´m only human - to go back and overdo a post that is almost four years old. As I will be probably busy the next two days check out last year´s post on Karl May and Winnetou since Tomorrow is Karl May´s anniversary. And now : enjoy Rock & Rule.



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Maybe this Agamotto dude just wants his eye back.

Totally unexpected Tom Peyer Thursday !

You probably thought you were getting the next installment of THORSDAY WITH ERIK LARSEN or - at least - another post singing the praise of SHANG CHI, MASTER OF KUNG FU as it is Doug Moench´s 69th birthday and I had planned something similar when I read that it´s Tom Peyer´s birthday too.

Now the name Tom Peyer has probably not come up very often on my blog and you won´t probably see it on any Best Of or Favorite Writers lists so I may be forgiven for not knowing which comic books he had written from the top of my hat. I then did what anybody with half a brain would do : I went to the internet to improve my superficial knowledge with half - truths and unverified facts. And surprise, surprise, Tom Peyer has written or co - written some of my favorite series. Because I spent most of the day preparing Tomorrow´s super special FLASH FRIDAY post I am just going to post some covers - kind of like the highlights of his career - but don´t think I made it easy on myself because I started with over 200 covers and had to bring it down to 23. So here are the covers I selected and each of them has the Subzero seal of approval. Oh, you might notice that some of the books are covering a certain area or time frame of the DC universe.

With this wide range of comic series there are a lot of links I could post but there are some who are specific to a planned post so I´m going with links that don´t fall into that category. There are always more Legion links and first Chris Sims at the old address CHRIS´S INVINCIBLE SUPER - BLOG explains why Princess Projectra is the toughest woman in comics, YOU ARE COMIC ? has a post on the L.E.G.I.O.N. series and then Tom Bondurant in his column Grumpy Old Fan at COMIC BOOK RESOURCES talks about how the NEW 52 deprives itself of a lot of what made the DC universe such a complex and well crafted world by erasing and replacing the Legion of Super - Heroes with Justice League 3000. For more on the Reboot Legion - as well as anything else Legion related - check out THE LEGION OF SUPER BLOGGERS and to read an actual Legion of Super - Heroes story you can depend on our trustworthy friend Old Groove over at DIVERSIONS OF THE GROOVY KIND who not only serves up his usual mix of far out retro comic art and timeless four colored greatness but on top of Murder Most Foul by Jim Starlin and Josef Rubinstein from Superboy and the Legion of Super - Heroes 239 but also the behind the scenes scoop why Jim Starlin never continued working on the Legion and what Steve Apollo has to do with it.

Speaking about Starlin´s work at DC, SUPERGIRL COMIC BOX COMMENTARY has a post on DC Comics Presents 28 where Superman teams up with Supergirl and which was part two of the three part story arc in which Mongul was introduced. Back to more Starlin goodness from DIVERSIONS OF THE GROOVY KIND we have a post with his glorious splash pages for the Warlock series and for more two - fisted action ( pardon the pun ) with Marvel´s gold skinned Jesus figure you can read the three part saga with Her by Mark Gruenwald, Jerry Bingham and Gene Day consisting of The Coming Of Her from Marvel Two - In - One 61, The Taking Of Counter Earth from Marvel Two - In - One 62 and lastly Suffer Not A Warlock To Live from Marvel Two - In - One 63. And to wrap up the link cavalcade check out Enji Night´s fabulous Supergirl cosplay at DAILY COSPLAY where she recreates the famous Adam Hughes cover but also Schpog´s inspired female version of Superboy on NERDGASMO and LES ENFANTS DE LA BD . Kudos to you all.

We start Today´s very short celebrity birthday list with retired mega porn star Dylan Ryder ( sometimes billed as Dylan Rider ) who turns 36. Because of her stunning physique ( 38E - 27 - 36 ) she became very popular in the MILF genre and there is no male who would not love to discover that she´s My Best Friend´s Hot Mom, My Wive´s Best Friend, My Dad´s Hot Girlfriend or My Fist Sex Teacher. Born as Shannon Lybarger she was a drug and alcohol rehab counselor before working in the adult movie industry.

She took a break from movies and became a correctional officer in Arizona but once word got out about her porn past it made life uncomfortable. Dylan finally became fed up with her male colleagues and female superior judging her for being a whore on camera and went straight back to the porn business. I put Dylan as Janet Van Dyne in my Casting The Avengers movie post ( which I still have to transfer to this blog ) and you know that depraved Hank Pym would do more to her than just slap her around a bit.

It´s not discussed much in the comic books but he probably assaulted her sexually too and there´s a reason why somebody who can shrink suddenly has the urge to get bigger. Speaking of Avengers movies Dylan also starred as The Poser in XXX Avengers and played the lead role in Katwoman XXX which delivers on all the bases Halle Berry´s Catwoman fiasko didn´t. That movie could have benefit from a few special 18+ action scenes with Halle.



Speaking of Catwoman, I already mentioned that Today is Doug Moench´s 69th birthday who has written the Batman books forever and a day. He also wrote most of Marvel´s successful Bronze Age titles for a period and of course readers of this blog know that my favorite from that bunch is THE HANDS OF SHANG - CHI, MASTER OF KUNG FU. Which Marvel is finally releasing in omnibus form and next month the third volume comes out which is the one I have been waiting for. It´s going to be all Mike Zeck artwork and if push comes to shove I would even pay full price for this one even if it means waiting until the FREE COMIC BOOK DAY issues for 2017 come out. Because one of the benefits of ordering from my regular online comic shop is that you get one free comic per every 10 Euros of your order which is not such a big deal when you order some comics for 50 bucks but with an omnibus that nets you 10 or 13 free comic books I prefer to wait for some worthy issues. Now while I won´t do a special MASTER OF KUNG FU post this year ( which is not that big of a deal since I did a special Doug Moench post last year ) I still want to put some Shang Chi content on the blog beginning with sharing CHRISTOPH ROOS post on Kung Fu comics.

We continue with the first part of Doug Moench´s Crossing Lines story which was serialized in the first eight issues of Marvel Comics Presents.



Our final birthday of the day is german author Erich Kästner who was a big part of the reading at school - at least when I was going to school - and many of his books like Emil and the Detectives, The Flying Classroom or Three Men in the Snow that we had to discuss in class had been adapted as movies ( in some cases more than once ) which made homework much easier. One of them is Lottie and Lisa ( Das doppelte Lottchen in german ) - or The Parent Trap like Hollywood renamed it - and it´s one of the films I can watch all over again mainly because the then cute as a button Lindsay Lohan played the title role. Of all remakes it´s the most entertaining one.

I was disappointed when I found out that Lindsay wasn't a real twin and this was all Hollywood's magic at work. I remember when she had real boobs and every man, teenager and prepubescent boy used her underage rack as jerk - off material / viagra substitute. Her body was out of control.

She was every male´s wet fantasy and there was a website dedicated to her that had a countdown to her eighteenth birthday. I bet she helped a lot of young kids hit puberty a few years prematurely through her films. I always thought Disney threw away a huge opportunity when they didn´t cast her as the lead in a life action movie of Kim Possible. Think about it : both Lindsay Lohan and Kim Possible were at the height of their popularity around the same time. It´s really mindboggling that nobody ever made the connection between those two up and coming teenage girl idols. A Kim Possible movie with Lindsay Lohan ( when she had big boobs ) would have totally rocked especially with some bikini scenes with Shego thrown in.

Although Disney shrank her perky peaks in the Herbie Reloaded movie.

To give you an idea what a Kim Possible real life movie with Lindsay Lohan might have looked like here is Rumors in reminiscence of her brabusting glory days and the unfulfilled promise her youthfully bouncing breasts.



Coming back to Erich Kästner, with all the adaptions of his work I thought that there must be some cartoons but I only found some ugly computer generated trailers for some possibly upcoming film. The best animated clip I found is from Conference Of The Animals and it´s a really short one.



I also wanted to include a longer video so I went looking for the better known ones like Three Men In The Snow but I once again came up empty.

There are a few versions of Emil And The Detectives on YouTube probably because it doesn´t talk down to kids. In the story the grown ups are not very helpful as they don´t listen to Emil and don´t believe him and in the end it is Emil and his newfound friends who bring the thief to justice.



Since all videos you get when searching for Legion are from the Marvel series and one of the other big teams Tom Peyer has worked on is the Justice Society Of America I thought why not go with a video from their current incarnation on the popular show DC´s Legends Of Tomorrow ?



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Bittedankeschön !