Longtime visitors know that I use a lot of copy / paste in these posts because otherwise it would be impossible to write as many posts as I do.
Or at least such long ones. Sometimes I outright use the same stuff I did before, sometimes I just tweak them a little bit and sometimes I just use it for reference so I know about what I have written, what I wanted to write about in more detail but forgot and so on. It´s also what I make the tags for. It´s true those can help newer readers find more about certain topics but they are also a big help for myself when writing these posts.
Things get complicated when I am most certain I have already written about something but can´t find a tag. Which is the case with the next two birthdays and wouldn´t you know it they are both comicbook related.
Because coming to the 1st of May we find Tim Sale who turned 64 and I am most definitely certain I must have written something about him because I once stood in line at a convention to get something signed and a sketch from him. But I can´t for the life of me find anything about this con experience on the blog. So I will have to wing it because I don´t have the time - or the necessary artwork - to make a proper spotlight post. Plus I am already writing four posts at once, I don´t need to add a fifth one.
Anyway, what I am sure I MUST have mentioned is that I am not such a big fan of his color oriented mini series he did for Marvel. A lot of it seems to be dwelling in the past and while HULK : GREY, DAREDEVIL : YELLOW and HULK : GREY are pretty decent stories I won´t have any trouble parting with them, now that I have to sell off huge chunks of my comicbook collection. What will hurt a bit more are the mini series BATMAN : THE LONG HALLOWEEN, BATMAN : DARK VICTORY and the prefacing annuals.
Before THE LONG HALLOWEEN the annuals gave us a taste of what Tim Sale was capable of but with THE LONG HALLOWEEN Batman regained what was missing from his books for years : a good old fashioned murder mystery.
Man, writing this seems soooo familiar. I must have written this before.
Anyway, while it puts a big chink in the armor of The World´s Greatest Detective that he can´t crack a case for a full year we also have to keep in mind that if he solved it in ten minutes we wouldn´t have gotten this great mini series. So these are some books that I would definitely like to keep but there are just too many and they are too heavy to ship them all to Spain. I guess I will just have to buy them again when I´m at my new home - provided I have any money left to do so. There must be some hardcovers that collect this stuff, maybe even some omnibus book.
What I am definitely trying to keep is SUPERMAN FOR ALL SEASONS which for me is one of the indispensable Superman stories of all times. In the Top Ten Superman stories it´s up there with other classics like Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow ? and For The Man Who Has Everything, Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely´s All Star Superman or Joe Kelly and Doug Mahnke´s What´s So Funny About Truth, Justice And The American Way ? etc. Jeph Loeb´s writing has always been of varying degrees of interest for me but while he did some excellent work on the Batman stories with Tim Sale here he hits it out of the ball park.
The other comicbook related birthday from the 1st of May is Phil Foglio, he also celebrated his 64th anniversary and Tim Sale I am most definitely certain I must have written something about him somewhere but I can´t find anything. What´s more Tim Sale inked him on Myth Adventures which may be one of the first books where I saw Phil Foglio´s art. I´m a big fan of Robert Asprin´s fantasy series ( ouch, another big part of my library I will have to leave behind ) so one would think I wrote something about that.
The second series by Phil Foglio I am sure to have mentioned somewhere is his adult series XXXenophile since it is one of the most unique adult comicbooks I have ever read. In most series of that type you will find unsavory sex or persons being forced to have sex against their will or at least blackmailed or coerced to do it. With XXXenophile you will find none of that. It´s all consentuous sex between adults ( even if it is with adult aliens, demons or ghosts ), it´s all humorous and always with a happy ending. And not too seldom a little bit of life lessons thrown in. What´s more, while all of the stories of this anthology series are drawn by Phil Foglio they are inked by a Who´s Who of comic artists like Peter Hsu, Hilary Barta, Kelley Jones or Adam Hughes. The single issues are probably impossible to find but there have been some reprints that collected the entire series just recently. Hmm, I´ll have to see where I stashed them.
Speaking of which, my brother started reading Girl Genius and I´m glad that I didn´t continue it when he got behind with collecting the series, not because it´s bad but because that would be another series I would have to get rid of now. And I am most definitely sure that I must have mentioned this series because Phil Foglio was one of the first comicbook artists who switched from doing only printed issues to doing the entire comicbook only and only printing a collection when he has enough pages for it finished. His clients even got the entire comic for free online and there was a page which would give you detailed information how many pages where already written, penciled, inked, colored, lettered etc.
Anyway, maybe that´s one of the series I will get into at my new habitat.
Continuing the celebrity birthdays from our last post we find our first candidate on April the 30th and it´s somebody who should have gotten her cult siren entry years ago. Here in Germany everybody knows mega MILF Verona Pooth ( formerly Verona Feldbusch ) who celebrated her 52nd birthday but to the outside world she´s not so well - known. She had a bit part in Driven with Sylvester Stallone and Til Schweiger but it was cut.
In Germany she became famous after divorcing from Dieter Bohlen - a big music and tv show producer - and for presenting Peep, a show about sex.
This can be a touchy subject and be quite embarassing but Verona pulled it off by being open, honest, funny, sexy...well, basically being herself.
On the show there was another hot babe : Dolly Buster who was born in Czechoslovakia but immigrated to Germany. At the age of 18 she worked for the Federal German Border Patrol where she was at first shunned and then ignited the envy of her female co - workers because her mindblowing physique garnered her the unwanted attention of her male co - workers who tried to dicktame her in the worst way. And after six months of being sexually assaulted on a daily basis Dolly said : " Fuck that ! " - quite literally - enhanced her already bonerinducing body to 38E - 25 - 35 measurements and got into the porn biz where she quickly became on of the biggest stars in Germany. You can read more about her in this post and coming back to Peep Dolly did a quiz segment on the show and is the only cast member who was in all of the episodes. Because after Verona left they tried out various other female hosts but none of them was successful.
Verona was also famous for her bad grammar but she turned that into an asset with various commercials like the one that led to the zipper scene.
Many women call Verona simple and stupid but she´s anything than that because she took her really small popularity and became a countrywide phenomenon doing sexy photoshoots, being on tv shows and in movies.
She won a golden record, Miss Germany in 1993, Miss Intercontinental the same year, Miss American Dream in 1995, the German Comedy Award for funniest commercial in 2000, the Maxim Woman Of The Year Award in the category businesswomen and she even got the Brisant Brilliant Award in 2004 for her social engagement. Verona is a successful businesswoman.
I have mentioned her in quite a few posts now but I still haven´t gotten around to do a proper cult siren entry for her. And the main reason for that is I´m still hoping to find material on her wardrobe malfunction on TV Total where she couldn´t get her zipper down because of her giant boobs.
The incident happened on the tv show TV Total hosted by Stefan Raab ( I swear in Germany only despicable human beings get tv shows ) where she appeared in a blue bodysuit with a commercial. The zipper was halfway open and Stefan asked if she couldn´t shut it because of her big boobs.
Verona replied that she had wanted to leave the zipper open - pulling the zipper open to her navel - but the producers had told her no, so she had to close it up a bit - and with that she closed it again. Which got her a great reaction from the audience. Well, like I said, I couldn´t find the clip.
Another great moment of german tv history involving Verona´s titanic twin torpedoes happened on Stars bei der Arbeit ( Stars at Work ) hosted by Paul Panzer with special guest Kaya Yanar and despite the title it did not show stars at work - which would be showing them at what they do every day - but instead had them trying a job they hadn´t done before.
One of their most famous episodes was the one with german 34C - 24 - 34 über MILF Busenwunder Verona Pooth for obvious reasons. Verona is so incredibly hot that Paul Panzer´s glasses were actually all fogged up when she took off her jacket and revealed her breast assets ! While Kaya Yanar was drooling all over Verona´s voluptuous treasure chest Paul Panzer´s brain had apparently shut off because of a severe case of boob overload.
Goddamn, that gal has some huge knockers ! Anyway, I did get the DVD of the first season of Stars at Work and it´s totally worth it for this episode.
We are back to May the 1st where we still have a few celebrity birthdays left starting with Douglas Barr who turned 71. He´s best known for his role of hapless Howie Munson, Colt Seaver´s cousin on The Fall Guy. As my followers know I watched The Fall Guy religiously so I must mention him.
Longtime readers know that while Markie Post was practically in everything that was on tv in the 70s and 80s she became one of my ultimate sex phantasies on the show The Fall Guy which every male that was alive in the 80s remembers - and we will get to the reason why.
Like most growing teenagers I watched that show religiously but the biggest part of its appeal for me were sexbombs like Heather Thomas and Markie Post who didn´t appear as often in a bikini as I would have liked.
Well, Heather Thomas did since that was her main purpose on the show but Markie Post´s appearances in bikinis on The Fall Guy were very few.
I AM SUFFERING FROM ( MARKIE ) POST TRAUMATIC SEX SYNDROME !
Markie Post played bail bonds contractor Terri Michaels ( who replaced previous bail bonds contractor Samantha Jack played by Jo Ann Pflug ) beginning with Season 2 and at the beginning she played a minor role.
But Markie Post knew that she was destined to super stardom, so when the opportunity arose that one of the producers of the show who was a bit smitten with Markie appeared on the set she managed to set up a few meetings - just to discuss her role of course. Even though he claimed to be happily married the business meetings turned into private meetings which were then relocated to a secret no - tell motel where Markie used her relentless body and her natural ability to spread her legs better than a fillipino hooker to give the lucky guy who was hung like a horse a Kama Sutra crash course with more than the twenty three positions in a one night stand including sexual practices that are illegal in fourteen states.
After Markie had successfully dicktamed the guy six ways to Sunday during these weekend long squirt marathons he was only too eager to convince the rest of the guys in charge what a complete waste it would be to have somebody like Markie on the cast without letting her " show off what her Mama gave her " like they say Today and the rest is 80s tv history. So Markie got more involved in the stories where she stole the scene from Heather Thomas as soon as she donned a bikini ( mainly in season three ).
80s Power Girl Markie Post is probably the best known cult siren on the blog because not only have I done many re - posts of her original post .
I also keep mentioning her in other posts and her original post is in the Top Ten Posts widget that appears on every post. Since I have done so many different versions it is not so tragic that I did not do a re - post last year even though I did the last version of her cult siren entry in 2016 .
THERE`S SOMETHING ABOUT HEATHER THOMAS - AND HER BLUE BIKINI
But The Fall Guy didn´t just have 80s Power Girl Markie Post they also put blonde bombshell Heather Thomas in the show right from the beginning.
She played stunt body double ( and what a body it was ) Jody and her job was to keep the male viewers hooked by providing eye candy. She was in all episodes except for an episode in the first season. Yes, fan service is not as new as some people might want you to think and Heather Thomas mainly got the part because of her absolutely amazing bikini figure. OMG !
It took a few episodes before she could strut her stuff but once the tv guys got a taste of Heather it happened more often and the famous blue bikini scene was quickly added to the new intro of the second season.
For generations of adolescent young boys the only highlight of the week was the short moment when Heather appeared in her famous blue bikini
But Jody Banks was the reason guys watched The Fall Guy ..... well, apart from Colt who was just too cool. Which is something that I realized later when the show was in reruns. When it first aired I couldn't watch many episodes but later on I caught them in the rerun. And I realized that Colt suffers from what many writer refer to as " The Superman Syndrome ".
It is the effect certain characters like Superman have on some writers - because he's perfect and invulnerable it's difficult to get the reader to connect with him and they don´t know what to do with him. Which can lead to strange storylines, relaunches and ultimately even to reboots.
If a character is never in real danger and is perfect in everything he does - nobody cares for him. He's boring. Colt can do whatever - stunts, fights, drink, sex - he's always the best. Which is the reason why when you watch the episodes the second time you realize that Howie is the real hero.
That's right. Howie is the one who is not perfect. Quite contrary ! You can almost be sure that he fails no matter what he tries. What makes him the hero is that he keeps on trying no matter how often he fails. Studying was apparently not his thing so he decided to do the most dangerous stuff he could think of - becoming a stunt man to pay back his cousin Colt Seavers.
And he just jumps into the pool without looking if there's any water in it.
And yes, that's the comic relief in most episodes but for me Howie personifies the guy who accomplishes things through sure determination and endurance. He has no super powers like Colt but he just puts on the Superman costume and tries to fight Lex Luthor. When you see the show the first time as a kid you want to be Colt because he´s just perfect but when you watch it again after you´re older you begin to admire Howie.
Another thing I only got when I saw The Fall Guy for the second time was who the people Colt Seavers knows are. When I first saw it I didn´t know most of the famous guest stars on the show with very few exceptions.
I knew some of the actors or actresses but with most people I only knew that such - and - such was a famous singer, actor, director or whatever because it was mentioned in the episode. Yes, I have to admit that when I first saw the episode with Elvira ( " October The 31st " episode 7 of Season 4, in which Jody Banks is Elvira´s stunt double and I have to say, either Heather Thomas has bigger boobs than Elvira actress Cassandra Peterson or she used a ridiculous amount of padding to achieve Elvira´s trademark cleavage ) I had no idea that she was a world famous horror hostess. Which in no way diminished my enjoyment of said episode.
Another thing about The Fall Guy I found very strange - or better about american tv series in general - was how many people were bounty hunters. It didn´t strike me as a very safe profession : you are chasing bad guys and criminals, you risk personal injury and a single stray bullet can get you into an early grave. Despite this all there were dozens of tv series with bounty hunters in it long before Dog, and in Renegade even the main character who was on the run from bounty hunters was a bounty hunter.
By the way, if you have never seen Renegade ( Oh, how I envy you ! ) you should avoid it at all costs unless you´re a big fan of Gambit or Lorenzo Lama´s wife, natural born 34C - 25 - 36 stripper starlet Kathleen Kinmont .
Anyway, a former cop who is on the run from bounty hunters and works as a bonty hunter. Isn´t that the worst idea ever ? I mean, how does he know that he´s not going to meet another bounty hunter while he´s hunting a fugitive and then the other bounty hunter suddenly recognizes him from the wanted poster : " Hey, I know your face. You´re that other dude the police is searching. You´ve got a bigger reward than the guy I was after in the first place. I think I´m going to bring you in instead. "
Not that Renegade was the epitome of logic but how did they miss this one ? And they even had an episode in which all the bounty hunters met.
What I didn´t know was that all one has to do is absolve a one week course and pay a 50 Dollar fee to get a bounty hunting license. And if you catch the right one the reward is more than you can earn in a regular job.
Coming back to Heather Thomas, thanks to her absolutely stunning 37 ( ! ) - 23 - 32 measurements and the exposure in The Fall Guy she became a famous pin up model with posters in every hormone driven boy's bedroom.
Heather even managed to replace Raquel Welch on the number one spot !
Usually I keep the celebrity birthdays of one day in one post but once again this section has become too long so we will have to continue it in our next post which will be all about Phil Foglio´s XXXENOPHILE. We are starting the final lap with ten other great Supermans comics you should read although I am not 100 percent sure about this Top Ten list since Superman For All Seasons only got an honorable mention while Superman : Earth One made it on the list. Even if it only got the number 10 position.
I always try to include at least one longer video because of the pandemic situation and lately there were a lot from Michael Rosenbaum´s Inside Of You podcast. Lately I have started to listen to them while writing these posts and since Tim Sale drew a lot of Batman comics I chose the episode with Kevin Conroy who is for some people THE definite version of Batman.
From the definite version of Batman we come to one of the worst : korean rip - off Batman. If you think Kevin Conroy as Superman - killing Batman in Crisis On Infinite Earths was bad get a fistful of this dude.
Since we had a lot about german culture in this post Today´s music video is Vermissen by Juju featuring Henning May and I guess I am going to miss many a things when I have to leave Germany forever in a few months now.
From all the tv shows about cars Viper is the one nobody remembers even though it has some comic connections. The series was created by Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo who worked on The Flash with John Wesley Shipp and Bruce Bilson who had also worked on that show directed some of the episodes of Viper. 78 of the episodes were written by Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo and 13 episodes were even written by Howard Chaykin.
America had Herbie and Great Britain had James Bond but Germany had Dudu and Jimmy Bondi. Who are not as famous but much more relaxed.
New to the blog ? Everything you need to know about TALES FROM THE KRYPTONIAN : top ten posts / more posts of interest / best of the best
Keine Angst, Dudu macht das.
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