I wanted to post this sooner but as always there were some posts I had to do in - between and as you might have noticed my last post got longer and longer. Which always happens when I write about wrestling and especially female wrestling. And as always I found the best videos after I finished the post - complete episodes of WCW and WWE wrestling ( that shows how old I am, I actually remember the WCW and that before that there was the NWA federation ) - so I went back in and added a few videos. The quality is not the best but Today´s wrestling fans might want to check out some episodes from wrestling´s golden days. Maybe I can put one of them in Today´s post if there is nothing urgent in the entertainment section.
Anyway, coming back to Today´s topic this is the second part and while we had mostly horror and crime comics in the first part here are all the science fiction, war, crime and adventure comics for boys but also satire mags, superheroes, western, romance books and such weird concepts like psychoanalysis and Tales Designed To Carry An Impact that were part of the new direction Bill Gaines tried out after the Comics Code Authority was put in place by his competitors to practically run him out of business.
Since there are no important birthdays I missed since my last post that I covered in previous years and I´m still a bit tired from my last post I have decided to forgo the usual birthdays so instead of a science fiction heavy entertainment section we have an all german edition. We start with one of Germany´s best known children´s books author Janosch who celebrates his 87th birthday. Now when I say children´s books I have to add that his books are enjoyed by kids and adults alike - at least by those who have not lost touch with their inner child - and that he has also written books for adults. And when I say author I want to clarify that he also illustrates his books. By 1980 he had published over 100 books for children in nearly thirty languages of which one of the best known is Oh, How Beautiful Is Panama. I guess one of the reasons for that is that everyone can relate to that feeling of following your dream. Here is the version from Janosch´s Dream Hour but it has also been adapted as an animated feature film.
Speaking of feature films, Today is also the anniversary of Joachim " Blacky " Fuchsberger who was in a plethora of those going back to all those black and white Edgar Wallace movies that left Germany´s streets empty when they first aired on tv ( which coined the word Straßenfeger which literally means street sweeper ) to literature adaptions like Erich Kästner´s The Flying Classroom. He was from Zuffenhausen here in Stuttgart so I always saw him as a local boy. Women wanted him, men wanted to be like him, boys wanted him to be their Dad. Or at least their cool uncle. He kind of personified the virtues of german men and came always across as smart, literate but not condescending. I guess they broke the mold with him.
A contemporary of Joachim Fuchsberger is Wencke Myhre and boy, did I have the hots for her in the worst way when I was still going to school.
Because she was not only funny and had the tireless body of a playmate of the month when she was in her prime but her wardrobe could even rival Caroline Munro´s Sinbad outfit or the uniforms of the female members of the Legion of Super Heroes. Fashion went horribly wrong somewhere from being only one step above lingerie in the 80s to what women wear now.
The video I picked is one with Michael Schanze ( who became famous with the kids game show Eins Zwei oder Drei so you don´t have to explain him to people from my generation ) and the preview picture of Wencke Myhre alone is worth the price of admission. I have no idea how she pulled it off but despite her stunning physique and always wearing mini skirts and plunging cleavages she never was typecast as a sex symbol in Germany.
Since this post is about EC Comics I wanted to include a video about MAD Magazine which was very popular here in Germany. They even had to produce a lot of new material for the german MAD because in America it only came out four times a year while it was published monthly here.
When I write about german comics - or mention things in Germany for some other reason - you can get the impression that I hate living here but while it can be a struggle there are things that are awesome in Germany.
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Das Berühren der Figüren mit dem Pfoten ist verboten.
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