Now it has taken me a few days longer than I expected to finish my last post but the promised follow up post about all the other EC Comics titles that were not horror books is still in the pipeline. As those readers that pop in here on a regular basis and do not just wait until the posts are finished can attest the post went through a series of re - writes because at first I put everything in, then I came across real life Power Girl Giselle Gomez Rolon and after adding all the animated GIFs and videos there was just too much stuff about hot women in it so I threw everything out that was related to birthdays from the day before. I even managed to put in a few video as links but I may have written too much about Monica Farro.
Before starting this post I thought about taking some of her pictures out again but on the other side I don´t want to fuss too much over the posts. At least I deleted some of the NSFW text passages. Anyway, back to the topic of the day when people tell me that I just don´t like what Disney is selling as Marvel comics Today because I´m too hung up on them olden days and that it´s all because of the nostalgia. Well, the thing with nostalgia is that there has to be something you can get nostalgic about.
It´s true, everything is someone´s first comic as old issues of DEADPOOL being called classic now attests to but here are two counter arguments. First off, I was never a reader who thought the old ways were best in comics and I was always open for things that shook up the status quo. I mean, some of my favorite runs on books are not those that everybody sees as classic but more the underappreciated or undervalued runs. It´s true, some of them may be considered classics now but just a decade ago nobody would have cited the runs on UNCANNY X - MEN by John Romita Jr or Marc Silvestri nor John Romita Jr.´s run on DAREDEVIL or Paul Ryan´s marathon on FANTASTIC FOUR, Ron Frenz´s run on THE MIGHTY THOR and John Buscema´s second run on THE AVENGERS ( I also have a soft spot for Steve Epting´s period, especially THE GATHERERS Saga ) as their favorites.
Most of these have gotten more attention lately due to the fact that Disney´s current output is so abysmal that compared to that most of the old stories read like comic gold. And some of it has come out in Epic Collections so that readers can easily get them. The other argument I want to make is that it´s not so much a case of me weeping because I don´t like the current comics. It´s more about getting depressed when realizing how far they have fallen. And - yes - Today´s comic readers can´t relate to that because they don´t know how glorious Marvel comics used to be. They have no sense of history and they didn´t experience the pure excitement and sense of adventure and grandeur that seeped from every page of these sloppy translated, misprinted expendable entertainment.
And there were no special stores were you could get missing back issues in pristine condition. The only way to read some older issues were cheaply produced trades were four issues were just glued together under a cheap cover. Anyway, through all their defects they were more exciting to read than most of Today´s Disney output - except for the occassional reprints in MARVEL MASTERWORKS, Epic Collections or the likes which is one of the reasons why most german comic readers still cling on to those old comics from Williams Verlag. So let´s stop talking and show some of that analog excitement or like one translator so aptly put it : Das sagte Nuff !
I specifically am including the pages dealing with Der Rote Rächer ( Red Guardian ) a story in DIE RUHMREICHEN RÄCHER that led to a discussion if Williams Verlag should continue publishing the AVENGERS issues even if the stories dealt with a worldview that was tainted by the anti communist agenda of McCarthy or skip those issues. Back then there were a lot of people who thought that politics should not be part of the story. Which helps to illustrate my point about how much comics have changed since then as Today´s comics have even worse SJW propaganda on every page.
I have no links for this post and since I already covered Today´s birthdays in this post we get straight to the videos starting with this guy who is very excited that he found some Williams Marvel Comics at a flea market.
Back when I was reading only german comics I was very dependent on the translations which included the names. Now granted while it sometimes was more accurate and cringe worthy at the same time like with Doktor Untergang and outright terrible like with Blitzmann there were some cool translations and I think that the german versions of american comics have lost something. Nowadays kids grow up being more fluent in english than in their native language so comic companies in German don´t even bother to look for a german equivalent of Green Arrow, Flash or the Suicide Squad - especially since that could hurt revenues from tv shows or movies. I for once am glad that I had the privilege to grow up reading the adventures of Silberstürmer, Waldwolf, Blitzschwalbe, Negativblitz and Doppelgesicht.
Speaking of translations, not only is Ben Grimm voiced by the same guy who does Homer Simpson in Germany in this cartoon from 1978, he is also called Der Klotz which means Brick which is also the name of the main character in the first and only issue of Power Freaks. Sadly I don´t live in America because if I did this would be grounds enough to file a lawsuit.
Now I was looking for clips of german music from the time when Marvel comics were published by Williams Verlag when I found some complete episodes of Musikladen. Which may pre - date them but for me it´s close enough. There are quite a few episodes of this cult show on YouTube and I don´t have the time to watch them all so I picked one with Arabesque which people from my generation remember as the all girls band where Sandra started. The show also has live performances by The Gap Band, Motörhead and Queen ( Flash from the Flash Gordon movie with Sam Jones which is of course based on the classic comic strip by Alex Raymond ).
Speaking of comic adaptions, I have posted the Spider - Man movies from the 70s a few times but I don´t think that includes the german version.
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Jetzt geht´s rund !
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