This Man This Monster Tuesday Pimping

It´s hard to believe but we are already in the middle of March and I´m still pimping ESSENTIAL HULK volume 7 because it´s offered at amazon for 7 to 8 bucks which is a real bargain price for a 20 dollar phone book.

Now longtime readers may remember that I pimped this book as early as January the 6th but I haven´t really written much about the actual comics that are collected here because I always got sidetracked by other stuff.

I originally wanted to post this Yesterday which would have been my first THIS MAN THIS MONSTER MONDAY post but while I had collected a lot of material for the post I hadn´t gotten around to get rid of all the doubles and cut down the rest to the proper size. So because I had to do that AND get rid of a lot of clips that had accumulated on the laptop I could not do the post. The german networks have started showing the new episodes of CASTLE on Mondays and because the new season of EL MINISTERIO DEL TIEMPO is on right after that I was busy with that until 23 o´clock. After that I finished preparing the pictures for the Hulk post but then I was too tired to start a new post and my vision was also starting to get blurry so I went to sleep. What can I say ? I´m getting old and having the Paul Ryan tribute post at the top of the blog for one more day is not that bad.    

So. ESSENTIAL HULK 7. I guess you already have volume 6 in your comic collection since it is THE most important volume collecting the entire part of Sal Buscema´s epic Hulk run that was inked by the great Ernie Chan.

I have already written at length about why this is the best part of Sal Buscema´s HULK run so we can skip that part and come directly to volume 7 of ESSENTIAL HULK. One of the reasons why I ordered it was that it fills a huge gap in my Hulk collection. Because while I had read most of the Sal Buscema / Ernie Chan issues in different translations I hadn´t read the issues between 227 ( which was the last issue in BIBLIOTECA MARVEL HULK 29 ) and 248 ( the first issue of BIBLIOTECA MARVEL HULK 33 ).

So I was curious to find out how Doctor Banner went from being the Hulk for over a week to changing back and forth with his alter ego as usual.

DON`T GO AROUND TONIGHT THERE`S A BAD MOONSTONE ON THE RISE

In the first issues after the ones I already know we have the Hulk bunking at Gamma Base while Doc Samson is trying to cure Doctor Banner and things are finally looking up for him. Or they were if it was not for the evil machinations of Moonstone who has one of her earliest appearances.

And she doesn´t even need her super powers for that. She just uses her womanly wiles and her expertise as a psychiatrist to wrap all the guys around her little finger Doc Samson included. You might think the Hulk could handle her power wise but he´s so totally outclassed brain wise that the poor sap has no chance. Moonstone just uses everyone for her own needs and if she has to turn the Hulk into a raving beast destroying all hopes of him being cured as a convenient distraction that´s just bad luck.

After this the Hulk leaves Gamma Base and makes the acquaintance of  Fred Sloane with whom he goes on a trip that brings him to a team - up with Captain America, the Falcon, Sam Wilson and his nephew Jim Wilson ( who was Hulk´s sidekick in the sixth volume ) and a confrontation with the criminal organization known as The Corporation of which Moonstone is a member. Which is a callback to my french issue of Captain America.

So far I haven´t gotten around to do a post on it like with my issues of GAMMA but thanks to my latest purchases of a few volumes of ESSENTIAL CAPTAIN AMERICA I have now all the necessary material to list all the pages that were left out in the french reprint. Anyway, one of the villains in my french issue of CAPTAIN AMERICA is Animus who makes another appearance here as yet another deadly associate of The Corporation.

Here it is revealed that Animus is actually a chick which make his appearance even weirder since his left breast is exposed.

The Corporation was introduced by Jack Kirby during his second run on CAPTAIN AMERICA and also popped up in stories with Jack of Hearts and Machine Man who guest stars in issues 234 to 237 ( although if you want to be precise we only see an impostor who sets Hulk up in issue 234 ).  

By the way, since I´m pimping a black and white comic I should post more black and white pages but even I can only work with the material I have and I didn´t find that many black and white pages. I will try to include the few I DID find and also add the color version of said page. Which is not a requirement for pimping the ESSENTIALS but I know my readers like to see how the pages differ from the black and white version to the color.

Coming back to the crossover between HULK and CAPTAIN AMERICA I should probably mention that teaming up with Captain America is future Avenger Quasar who still goes by the name Marvel Boy at that time.

Now this is Wendell Vaughn, not Robert Grayson the Marvel Boy that was in George Perez´ FANTASTIC FOUR who went mad and blew himself up.

In this story Quasar is part of the Super Agents whom Captain America was training to replace him as an operative of S.H.I.E.L.D. consisting of Marvel Boy, Falcon, Texas Twister ( is he ever on any of the good teams ? ), Blue Streak who turns out to be a traitor for The Corporation and Vamp who also works for them but without the knowledge of Blue Streak. He has no clue and is basically a red haired Evel Knievel on roller skates.

Before they stormed The Corporation´s secret lair Texas Twister decided to quit the Super Agents and you know you´re in trouble when somebody like Texas Twister decides your superhero team is too lame for him. The heroes manage to thwart the villains plans, Jim Wilson is reunited with the Falcon and just thrilled to find out his uncle is a super hero while the Hulk tries to go after the boss of The Corporation who escapes via a tunnel that goes through a lake. The art in this crossover is consistent and the fact that Sal Buscema was penciling HULK and CAPTAIN AMERICA may have been one of the reasons to bring the story lines together.

YOU PLAY YOUR GAME, YOU GIVE SCIENCE A BAD NAME
 
Before closing the post ( I just knew I had to continue this in a second part ) I have to mention one of the highlights of this volume, HULK ANNUAL 8, guest starring everyone´s favorite canadian Bigfoot.

I must have read this annual in the spanish or german translation because I knew of the existence of Sasquatch before I knew of the existence of Alpha Flight. The story is co written by Roger Stern and John Byrne, the pencils are like with most comics in this collection by Sal Buscema and the inks are beautifully done by the fabulous Alfredo Alcala, just awesome.

The characterization in the story is exceptionally well and you wish the issue had more pages so you can find out what happens next with Maureen Mores Friesen, the young woman who actually manages to befriend the Hulk. Too bad that Walter Langkowski ruins it all again.

I don´t know what it is but most brainy types in the Hulk comics are just colossal dicks. That Doc Samson is just a giant douchebag who has an inferiority complex in regards to Bruce Banner AND the Hulk goes without saying. He really doesn´t score any points in this volume letting himself be used by Moonstone in - almost - any way. And Walter Langkowski doesn´t score any higher either. Remember that this is the guy who sacrificed himself to bring the Hulk back to Earth from the Crossroads which will lead to the destruction of Vancouver. Okay, heavy damage of.

Anyway, true to form the real villain of the story here is Sasquatch who picks a fight with the Hulk just to see who is " the strongest there is " which decimates an entire area of the beautiful untouched nature.

Not only that, there is even a scene where he almost manages to kill Bruce Banner. I mean, okay, the reader knows that he will turn into the Hulk at the last minute but Walter doesn´t know it and he when Bruce´s shirt rips and he seemingly falls to his death all Walter can say is " Ooops. " To satisfy his scientific curiosity he would have killed somebody. Because anybody BUT the Hulk would be dead after that fall. Who is p.o.ed now.

And to top it all of this senseless fight has cost the Hulk another shot at finding a friend and maybe the possibility to live in peace somewhere.

I´m not sure if it is because two writer worked on this but it´s one of those great HULK stories that stay with you once you have read it.

Sadly I didn´t find many original black and white pages from this as one can really appreciate the art without the coloring. This is one of the reasons why it´s worth it to get this as an ESSENTIAL even if they will reprint this material in an Epic Collection a few years down the line. 

So I hope I have managed to wet your appetite enough that you get one of the remaining six copies because I know you will bite yourself in the proverbial butt if you see this later anywhere and have to pay 20 bucks.

But before we come to the link and video section there are three more bargain books I want to mention. First off the hardcover Indestructible Hulk - Gods and Monsters which contains issues six to ten of the series. Normally this goes for 25 bucks but it´s currently at amazon for less than 5 Euros. While the last two issues have been reprinted in a DAREDEVIL trade the first three issues are totally worth it for the Walter Simonson.

A bit more expensive is the IMAGE COMIC hardcover that was supposed to come out on the tenth anniversary of Image Comics but due to the other Image founders besides Erik Larsen it was delayed for four years.

This hardcover with a limited print run of 1,000 went for horrendous prices before going for 25 bucks and it is now offered at less than 10 at amazon. There are four stories drawn by Jim Valentino, Todd McFarlane, Marc Silvestri and Erik Larsen who naturally does the best story, the origin of Dragon which was also included in some other comic. If you want to have that story in a nice hardcover it´s probably worth buying. I know that I got this at some point but I don´t know if I still have it or sold it.

And les but not least ( little play on words here ) is volume 1 of THE TROUBLE WITH GIRLS, the story of good looking hunk Lester Girls who just wants to enjoy the simple life in a small town with a loving wife and go fishing but instead is thrust into a life of danger and espionage where he must endure wealth, fancy cars, palatial estates and beautiful women who just throw themselves at him. Thankfully his faithful sidekick Apache Dick is there to relieve him of his fair share of all that. This is one of the best black and white series lampooning James Bond and other spies / hitmen for hire guys and even if the discount here is probably not that big with a price of 11 Euros I haven´t seen these collection anywhere else. There is a second volume but you have to wait 4 to 6 weeks until delivery. I wouldn´t wait too long with this one as there is only one copy left.  

Today´s link kudos go out to the MANY FOES HAS THE HULK tumblr where I found the Moonstone page from Hulk 228 and the page with Marvel Boy from Captain America 280 is courtesy of MY MARVEL LIFE 1980 where you can find more posts about Avengers 172 , 181 , 202 , 211 and Avengers Annual 9 , Captain America 254 and 266 , Daredevil 151 , 158 , 165 , 171 and 181 , Dazzler 1 , Defenders 75 and 95 , Fantastic Four 208 , 223 and 232 , Iron Man 114 , 118 , 128 , 145 and 149 , Marvel Team Up 74 and 113 , Micronauts 1 , Moon Knight 1 , Power Man & Iron Fist 58 and 75 , Rom 1 , Super Villain Team Up 15, Thor 274, Uncanny X - Men 129, 137 and 141 .

While writing this post I have been listening to a lot of Kate Bush music so I wanted to post the Babooshka video. I think I haven´t posted it yet and it´s the first song I ever heard of her. It took me a few decades before I could see it on Mtv and I was blown away by how hot she was.



Today german Busenwunder Camilla Renschke celebrates her 36th birthday who is of course best known for trying on different bras that can hardly contain her huge puppies in the movie SCHLARAFFENLAND and getting naked in DIE ROSENZÜCHTERIN and TATORT - TOD EINES MÄDCHENS.

In SCHLARAFFENLAND a bunch of teenies want to get locked in a shopping mall to party when everyone is gone. Camilla plays Mary, who is the Power Girl of the group of juvenile delinquents meaning she has to distract the guards with her huge underage pornstar boobies so the boys can steal his keys. There is one pervert security guard that the boys know always goes to the two way mirrors of the changing booths to peep at the women.

So Camilla distracts him by trying to cram her huge melons into various bras while he masturbates. Mother Nature really meant it well when she was giving out boobies. Camilla must have come back for a second and a third helping. I don´t know if the bra really fits but it wouldn´t surprise me if she picked one that´s a bit too small as she needs to get the security guard hard. Camilla´s german bustsize is 85D and I don´t know how much that is in inches but those are some huge puppies, girl.

Man, I´d love to strip search this little munchkin for a few hours. And don´t worry, she plays a teenager but she was already 19 when she did the movie. So you don´t have to feel guilty for getting a rockhard erection.

And we are staying in Germany with underground artist Gerhard Seyfried who turns 68 Today. Here you don´t have to explain who he is since his cartoon collections Freakadellen und Bulleten and his comic Invasion aus dem Alltag are required reading for all school kids. And since his complete works have been collected into two omnibus hardcovers long before Marvel ever had the idea he´s part of most german bookshelves.



Today is also the 48th birthday of italian sex siren Sabrina Salerno but she will get her own post. Meaning I will be re - posting her post from last year since a few of the videos have again been deleted from YouTube. Which is one of the reasons why I added so many animated GIFs to it.

Since I already posted videos from every Hulk cartoon there is here is a cartoon video that still goes in the same direction as the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde theme is a big part throughout the entire INCREDIBLE HULK series.



Last weekend I was once again at the AIGNER bookshop in Ludwigsburg where I found out - again too late - that not only EL ETERNAUTA, the most famous argentinian comic has finally been translated to german ( after 50 years ) there were also a few expositions which I naturally have missed. I think there is one left which is open until April but I´m not so sure if I can find the time to attend. The comic that started in 1957 played against the backdrop of an alien invasion where the snow made people disappear.

Decades later people disappeared because of the military regime and writer Hector German Oesterheld did a remake, a sequel and joined the resistance. After his death the comic was continued by other creators.



Whew, this post has really gotten much longer than expected so as a little bonus for my german readers here´s a video about comics in Austria.



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

More Essential Fantastic Four reading

Since we got a bit sidetracked by the erratic and complicated publishing history of the Fantastic Four in Germany in my last post, I really didn´t get to write much about another of my favorite storylines from ESSENTIAL FANTASTIC FOUR 6, which I like to call The Coming of Gabriel.


I don´t think there is really anything I can spoil about this - the story was first published in 1972 - but if you want to be surprised just skip the rest of this post and get ESSENTIAL FANTASTIC FOUR VOLUME 6.

JUDGEMENT FALLS ON ALL MANKIND WHEN THE TRUMPET SOUNDS

Usually I use the black and white pages from the ESSENTIAL FANTASTIC FOUR volumes but since I first read the story in the colored version I´m making an exception. It´s true, it was the german translation but I couldn´t find any pages of that.

The story with Gabriel starts in Fantastic Four 120 in the story called THE HORROR THAT WALKS ON AIR, written by Stan Lee, with pencils by John Buscema and inks by comic institution Joe Sinnot. A great part of the look of the Fantastic Four issues of that time was due to Mr. Sinnot´s unmistakable inks as we will see when we come to volume 7 of the FANTASTIC FOUR ESSENTIALS ( as you can see hope does spring eternal ). In that volume John Buscema only draws the first four issues before Rich Buckler becomes the regular artist and with Joe Sinnot´s inks it still looks very consistent - but more on that when we get to volume 7.

You know, just this Tuesday I was bagging my old issues of THOR ( remember when that was a book you could read ? ) and I have to say a great deal of the good look was due to Joe Sinnot.


But this post is not about Thor it´s about the Fantastic Four.

When I first read the story with the mysterious Airwalker - who later claimed to be the angel Gabriel - I was really shocked because Marvel had a really realistic approach in their universe which means when a character died he stayed dead ( yeah, those were the times ) and the outlook was rather scientifically oriented which means that it was all based on facts. Or as based on facts as you could get at that time in a comicbook. It´s true, Superman and Batman had their run - ins with devils and angels but most of it without any scientific grounds.

Not so with Marvel, although they had their gods from Olymp or Asgard there always was the underlying notion that while they were powerful, godlike beings there was a higher authority above them, something that religious people could label as God. But what if an angel appeared in the pages of the Fantastic Four like it does in this story ? There is a being like Mephisto in the Marvel universe so it stands to reason that there should be the opposite part. So Reed Richards and crew take this angel at face fact and try to find out what this mysterious being, that has appeared in every country and walks across the air, wants. Which is to announce the end of the world like his namesake from the bible.

And here´s another reason why I wanted to use the color pages : Gabriel´s dress that just looks so much better in color. As soon as I saw him the bright visual struck a chord in me and the roman soldier / superhero design is really brilliant. It´s still one of my favorite costume of Marvel´s more elaborate ones like Jack of Hearts or Dr. Strange´s duds with the mask thing.


Okay, once again it´s End of the World time and it seems there´s not a bloody thing the fabulous foursome can do about it since Gabriel first defeats the Fantastic Four without breaking a sweat and then tells the people of the world - or rather New York City since that is where their battle takes place - there is one way to win his favor : they have to destroy the Fantastic Four !

AH, YOU DON´T BELIEVE WE´RE ON THE EVE OF DESTRUCTION

You have to hand it to Marvel in the 70s, when they did the end of the world they went all or nothing. This comic is like one of them old 70s disaster movies and a superhero movie all rolled into one and printed on four colored paper. So, the Fantastic Four have to go up against an angel who can swat them away like flies, they have everybody out to get them, the police and the military are fighting against them and on top of all that Reed´s brilliant last - minute - invention that was supposed to defeat Gabriel ( how many of these contraptions does Reed manage to pull out of his sleeve anyway ? ) manages only to enrage him. Naturally Gabriel takes out his frustration on our heroic quartett whose only options seem to be to go down or to go down fighting. In short : everything is lost.

Enter the Silver Surfer.


Back then the Silver Surfer only appeared sporadically which added to his popularity but since he usually went up against adversaries like Mephisto or Dr. Doom you knew as soon as he appeared on the pages that now it was " amped up " as the kids say nowadays.

Deriving his strength from The Power Cosmic the Silver Surfer is one of the Marvel universe´s powerhouses who can go the distance with Thor or the Hulk so when even he seems to fall things look bleak. But as usual not everything is as it seems and while the Surfer gains the upper hand in the end all of this means nothing because the real adversary is only revealed at the last page of issue 121.


IT´S THE END OF THE WORLD AND I FEEL HUNGRY

Holy s - word ! That´s exactly what I was thinking when I came to that cliffhanger. Nowadays Galactus and the Fantastic Four are on a first name basis and probably anybody from Aunt May to the Mighty Forbush Man has had an adventure with Galactus and lived to tell about it.

But back then Galactus´ appearance in a comic was more like - that´s it, don´t start reading any long books. Heck, don´t start reading anything at all and you better hope you can finish whatever you´re reading right now. Because Galctus always came hungry and what he eats are planets. And best guess : the planet you´re currently living on has just been added to the menu.

Galactus is probably one of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby´s best creations and I´m not going into the whole debate of who came up with what since that is not only a post all unto itself, but I´m not enough of an expert in that departement to even make an educated guess. Suffice it to say that taking Jack Kirby´s soloworks for DC into account like THE NEW GODS and the whole FOURTH WORLD complex I think it´s clear who had the bigger influence in this.

Though he can look a bit silly with that strange hat - at least under certain artists - he´s a great character and with the right creative team he can really bring it. Like in Carlos Pacheco´s final issues of his much underestimated Fantastic Four run.


And then there are other more forgettable storylines like EARTH X in which a Galactus that ate certain planets because there were babycelestials in giant eggs inside them ( which sounds an awful lot like those Kinderüberraschung commercials : in every seventh planet is a little Celestial ) was just one of a plethora of harebrain ideas that showed that whoever wrote this never read many Marvel comics. I´m not sure but I suspect there were a lot of illegal substances and pharmaceutical products involved in making this comic.

Back to Galactus, I remember I once tried to explain the concept behind him to a friend who mostly read french BD and he really had troubles wrapping his head around a being who so totally endangers whole species and against who you are completely helpless. I don´t know if that was just him or if other readers of french BD would have the same problems but there was apparently a limit to what he could imagine. He was absolutely intent on destroying somebody like Galactus and just couldn´t process the fact that someone of that power level was beyond the reach of man.

Which is also always the problem the Fantastic Four have with him. They barely defeated him the first time he came to town and only because the Watcher bent every rule there is about being a Watcher and practically handed them the Ultimate Nullifier on a silver platter. This time around things are not going to be easier especially since Galactus is much more " hands on " in this encounter where he battles the FF on carnival grounds.


BLACK IS BLACK I WANT MY SURFER BACK

Yup, all this brouhaha just because Galactus wants his old herald back. Okay, he vowed to never menace earth again but since Gabriel brought the world to the brink of destruction and he gives them a way out he´s technically keeping his word. Which sounds a bit like nitpicking but it´s also totally in character for Galactus.

He´s always sticked to the rules that suited him while bending or breaking the ones that didn´t. He stands so tall above anything else that he just doesn´t care. Now on one side I can understand the Silver Surfer´s answer to Galactus offer to serve him again, which in short is : " F - word you Galactus ! " I mean the guy exiled him to earth by buidling a barrier around the planet he can´t overcome. And just because he couldn´t harm those who really bested him without breaking his word. Talk about a sore loser.

Now I´m playing a bit of Devil´s Advocate here but wouldn´t working for Galactus solve all of the Surfer´s problems ? Firstly he wouldn´t be exiled on earth anymore and could roam the galaxies freely once again. Okay, he had to search for worlds that could sustain Galactus but it´s not like he hasn´t done this before and that way he could at least be sure that Galactus doesn´t eat inhabited planets. Or too many of them. And who knows ? Somehwere along the way he may find someone who´s willing to take over the job. Which isn´t too far - fetched since it did happen with a few willing candidates later on.


So after a bit of back and forth the Silver Surfer is ready to take Galactus´ offer but Reed is against it out of principle. Dude, a Reed Richards who´s willing to take on Galactus and possibly doom the world just on principle ? I really would have liked to see some of that chuzpe in CIVIL WAR. I mean he even ignores the president´s orders in this story. Okay, it´s Richard Nixon who was president at that time but this is before Watergate when dissing Nixon was okay.

Unsurprisingly the Fantastic Four are no match for the OG ( Overloomig Galactus ) and although it´s fun to see Ben take him down for a peg in the end Reed´s big idea - which he blatantly swiped from the Surfer - is playing a game of chicken with Galactus.


Basically Reed Richards tells Galactus that if he doesn´t leave the people of earth alone he will blow up his ship thus stranding him on our planet, the same fate he has beset on the Silver Surfer.

Now that´s a bright idea : first get one of the most powerful beings in the universe really peed off and then strand him on earth. No wonder they call him Mr. Fantastic. Although Mr. Death Wish might be more accurate in this case. While Galactus and Reed have an intellectual battle with worst case scenarios the regular humans are not so willing to put their fatih in Stretcho´s negotiating abilities and the army starts another futile attack under the commando of General Thunderbolt Ross. That guy really is Marvel´s posterboy for senseless military destruction by all means necessary.

So for a second time the Silver Surfer agrees to Galactus terms which does him no good because Reed still won´t listen. He returns Galactus´ ship but only to get him to leave earth and when the Surfer tries to follow the ship Reed stops him at all costs and almost pays with his life for it. Thankfully the Silver Surfer can use his power cosmic to restore his health and after Agatha Harkness has established a psychic rapport with earth´s population he can let them in on his big plan. Which is about time since everybody is going bonkers out of fear Galactus might return.


Now Reed Richard´s plan is so brilliant that it´s almost worthy of a Doctor Who story : while he was on Galactus´ ship he set an autopilot to fly into the Negative Zone where Galactus can devour planets for eons ( good for us tough nookies for the inhabitants of the Negative Zone but that´s how the FF´s mastermind rolls ). Which is a really great solution although Marvel never delivered on the potential of that ending, namely Galactus going mano a mano versus Blaastar and Annihillus. Now this would be a great miniseries.

So all in all the whole saga is one big rollercoaster ride in which the hits just keep coming and the stakes are raised higher and higher. There is no filler and it´s got an almost cinematographic storytelling. The ending is also great, especially the reaction of the world going from " Reed Richard is crazy ! He´s going to doom the whole world ! We´re all gonna die ! " to " Yay, Richards and the Fantastic For ! Never doubted you for a second. " without blinking and eye which gets mixed reactions from the Fantastic Four ( business as usual ) and the Silver Surfer ( Those earthling are all mad I tell you. Mad ! ).

Like I said, one of the best stories contained in this volume of ESSENTIAL FANTASTIC FOUR and to tell the truth, I´m still surprised that the storyline hasn´t been traded yet as I really would like to have it in a beautiful color hardcover. But what do I know, I would also trade the Overmind Saga. Although one of the benefits of the ESSENTIAL version is that I don´t have to suffer pantsless Galactus. I bet I´m not the only one who was weirded out by the flesh colour on Galactus´ arms and legs.


And on this note I´m ending this post Today since we´re already going into overtime. I´d like to say that this is the end of my musings about ESSENTIAL FANTASTIC FOUR VOL 6 but there are still a few great stories I haven´t touched upon like the mystery behind the Black Leopard or Johnny Storm and Crystal in the worst break up in comics ever.


If you want to read a bit more about all the craziness with Gabriel, Galactus and the Silver Surfer, the boys and gals from BRONZE AGE BABIES provide a longer analysis of THE RETURN OF GALACTUS in 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 parts and my next post will probably be the long anticipated next Moebius post since I have finally read all my INCAL albums.

Today´s video is kind of a follow up to the HOBBITT animation movie I already posted and which you should absolutely see. It´s another rarity, the famous animated movie of THE LORD OF THE RINGS - THE RETURN OF THE KING which was made for tv by the same animation studio like THE HOBBITT and which picks up the events after Ralph Bakshi´s LORD OF THE RINGS movie.



New to the blog ? Everything you need to know about TALES FROM THE KRYPTONIAN : top ten posts / more posts of interest

A post four this blog´s sixth anniversary

Since we have the sixth anniversary of TALES FROM THE KRYPTONIAN this month I thought that this is the perfect opportunity to continue our ESSENTIAL FANTASTIC FOUR series where we left off last year - the coming of Gabriel.


Like in my last post about the FANTASTIC FOUR ESSENTIALS I will of course mention the german issues and the complicated publishing history of the issues contained in ESSENTIAL FANTASTIC FOUR VOL 6. You may ask yourself why I decided to drag this topic out of the mothballs but as always the main reason was that I started this last year and I always intended to come back to it but as always other things came up. I even re - read my first post on the subject to eliminate some typos not that long ago and got a hankering to continue the series. But the case was that one of the reasons why I discontinued it was that while I had volumes 6 and 8 of the series it was almost impossible to find volume 7. And because I didn´t want to do an incomplete series I left it for later and forgot about it. And that was that.

But life´s funny that way. When you think something is absolutely sure and it´s going to happen and nothing can get in your way - fate intervenes and the most likely thing becomes almost impossible. And also, sometimes when you have let something go and you are absolutely sure you´re not going to find it in a million years - suddenly it´s been right in front of you the whole time. Or it appears somewhere where you always go.

So three weeks ago, while doing my usual order at BLACKDOG COMICS I looked in the ESSENTIAL section and even though I didn´t really believe I would really get it I ordered volume 7 and it really arrived at my home Yesterday.


Which leads us to Today, where I´m still not finished with re - reading the INCAL albums for my next Moebius post and where I also missed writing a special post for the big six year anniversary of this blog. So by default, because there´s nothing else urgent on my plate and to still celebrate this anniversary in some kind we´re continuing our trip through my comic collection of Yesteryear.

We already covered THE SAGA OF THE OVERMIND and I mentioned that one of the reasons I bought ESSENTIAL FANTASTIC FOUR VOLUME 6 in the first place is that it´s the bridge between the last issue of the WILLIAMS VERLAG ( which published the german version of Fantastic Four 124 in November 1978 ) and the first issues by the CONDOR VERLAG around 1980. It´s a bit difficult to set an exact date for this since the DIE FANTASTISCHEN VIER pocketbooks that first came out had lots of reprints of old Fantastic Four stories mixed with issues of The Thing, Marvel Two In One and anything else from Spider - Man to Alpha Flight. And some of the Fantastic Four issues appeared in other publications like MARVEL COMIC SONDERHEFT 2 which had issue 133, the fight between The Thing and Thundra.


But the publication history of Marvel comics in Germany has always been extremely complicated. In my first ESSENTIAL FANTASTIC FOUR post I wrote that german readers had to wait several years to read the conclusion to the aforementioned issue 124 of Fantastic Four which was finally published in a special edition by PANINI COMICS in 1998.


And that´s true for readers of my generation. But what I didn´t know at the time I wrote that is that issue 124 had been published in the german language before Williams even started publishing Marvel comics in Germany.


The thing is ( no pun intended ) that it was first published by the BSV, short for Bildschriftenverlag which published Marvel comics in Germany from 1966 - 1973 under the label HIT COMICS. Now compared to the BSV the comics from Williams were works of art. The BSV published the issues out of order, with a lot of pages missing and under really bad german names. The Fantastic Four got it pretty good with a name like DIE FANTASTISCHEN VIER, which was a pretty accurate Translation, but other series weren´t so lucky as the Hulk went on his rampages under the title HALK, MENSCH - DÄMON - UNTIER ( Hulk, man, demon, beast / monster ),


Daredevil fought crime as DEVIL - MAN, TEUFELSKERL


( although Teufelskerl comes pretty close to the original meaning of Daredevil ) and the X - Men even had to suffer double as they first fought as X - MÄNNER


and then as X - MENSCHEN.


But bad translations of the names weren´t the only problems the BSV had, the translations inside weren´t much better and the covers were put together rather carelessly, the writing was often done by hand and badly at that ( just compare the cover of issue 128 of Fantastic Four from PANINI with the corresponding cover from HIT COMICS as shown above ) and often the covers showed scenes from the issues or pages from the stories instead of the actual covers.


And if they used the covers they sometime redrew them to horrible results.



But that´s a story that´s much too long to tell it here in detail. If you are really interested in this part of german comic history ( and this is really more for my german readers ) you should check out Jakob Kurtzberg´s excellent DAS SAGTE NUFF ! magazine which is really indispensable in that departement.


Sadly it´s not published anymore but so far every issue I read was worth its money even if the price is a bit hefty at 7 EUROS for a black and white magazine. But since he´s probably paying for it out of his own pocket you should really support him. I´m not sure if I already posted some links when I last mentioned DAS SAGTE NUFF ! but here is a list of the 12 issues that were published with the tables of contents and contact info and here is the official blog .

And with that it´s once again time to wrap things up for Today, even if I really didn´t get to write much about the FANTASTIC FOUR ESSENTIALS themselves. But I hope we can get down to the nitty and gritty in our next post. And just so you don´t think I have forgotten that the Moebius posts are only on pause here´s a beautiful rendering of the Idol of Millions, Aunt Petunia´s favorite nephew, the ever - loving Thing by Moebius.


Now I always try to close my posts with a video that has to do something with the topic of the post and the more obscure or weird the better. Originally I wanted to put a documentary about Jack Kirby at the end of the post but since I will have another post where I can do that I went into the deep reaches of comic paraphernalia to bring you the Hanna Barbera THE THING cartoon.

Yes, you have heard right. Thanks to the fine folks at Comic Geek Speak ( link at the link section ) I heard of this animation gem in which Ben Grimm has been accidentially transformed into a teenager who lives the normal student life on campus and who´s trying to score with a female student. He has two halves of a magic ring and when he puts them together and speaks the magic words : " Thing ring, do your thing! " he can transforn into The Thing. Which is practically the whole basis for the series. I tried to find a full episode in the original language but apparently it´s so unpopular that nobody cared to upload it. Instead I found a version which is probably the mexican version since Ben Grimm´s called LA MOLE in it and not LA COSA which is his spanish name. Enjoy ( if you can ) !



New to the blog ? Everything you need to know about TALES FROM THE KRYPTONIAN : top ten posts / more posts of interest