Tales from the one legged man in Erlangen

After my last shameless comic shop pimping post it´s time to return to my time in Erlangen at this year´s Comic Salon 2014. Someone mentioned that I made a point ( without realizing it ) for easier access and maybe shuttle buses for older and ( maybe ) wheelchair bound visitors.

Which is right. You never think about these things unless you are affected yourself by it. So if anybody of the organisers of the comic event has read my last Erlangen post they might give this problem some consideration.

Now, continuing with my Erlangen 2014 Diary we already covered the trip to the city ( and back ), my hotel with the shower deathtrap, that I didn´t do much besides going to the con, that we arrived 3 hours late and that the table where I expected to spend most of my comic budget for the first day wasn´t there. As I said, this threw me off my game a bit and I spend the first hours wandering aimlessly through the convention hall. Not to say that I didn´t wander aimlessly around Erlangen at previous events but this time it was also a tough exercise because of my knee. So I did what any comic fan would have done in my position : go with what you know.

Which for me meant to frequent the tables of the usual suspects.

HORROR SCHOCKER TO THE SYSTEM

This is the part which is probably not so interesting for longtime readers of this blog. Because I have written about WEISSBLECH in previous posts.

But as every post is someone´s first I want to mention that it´s one of Germany´s finest providers for what you might call trash comics - and I´m using the term in the best sense here. Publisher, writer, artist, inker and basically one - man - band Levin Kurio is the driving force behind the best horror anthology title in Germany - HORROR SCHOCKER - and many other fine comics that blatantly pander to the basest instincts of the target audience. You will not find any artsy fartsy projects here but rather good entertainment at a reasonable price that always delivers. Who could forget such classics like PATER DRACULA - ER TRINKT DAS BLUT CHRISTI ( Padre Dracula - he drinks the blood of Christ ) or DIE ROTEN RÄCHER

the german version of Rough Cut Comics FREEDOM COLLECTIVE ?

And so one of the must - haves of any comic convention in Germany is the newest NOVITÄTEN - PACK ( Novelty Bundle ) which always contains the latest releases at a big discount. In most cases I try to change some of the issues of the Novelty Bundle for other Weissblech comics but this year I had none of the issues contained. The bundle didn´t have as many single issues as in previous years because one of the comics was their newest and first graphic novel but more about that in just a moment.

First I want to mention the other things that were in the bundle.

XXX - Comics issues 15 and 16 and as the title implies these are porn comics. Weissblech has a lot of titles that sound very raunchy but unlike other comic companies they don´t deceive their comic readers so if you pay for porn you get porn. I still haven´t read all of the stories ( I read one or two stories on my first night in the hotel ) but like always the stories are a bit tongue in cheek without skimping on the erotic parts.

Most of the art is done by the very capable Horst Dounichdy - Glokken, a pseudonym for an artist which most german comic readers will recognize.

Also contained are issues 35 and 36 of HORROR SCHOCKER.

Issue 35 contains the story UNSER DORF SOLL TOTER WERDEN ( Our village shall become deader ) by Carsten Dörr, the highlight of the issue and one of the stories in Weissblech´s 2014 GRATIS COMIC TAG comic.

The issue is rounded up with HASSO which is rather short

and MÜLLSCHLUCKER ( garbage disposer ) which is much longer on the other side. As usual reader views differ as to which one is the best.

Issue 36 is the big anniversary issue - 10 years of HORROR SCHOCKER - and to celebrate that it has expanded to 52 pages for the usual price. As befitting an anniversary issue it contains some of the best artists of the book like Kolja Schäfer, who starts the issue impressivly with DIE WOLKENSTADT DES MUMIENGOTTES ( The Mummy God´s Cloud City ).

Then Levin Kurio takes the art chores - he writes all the stories - with DER SCHATZ DER TEMPLER ( The treasure of the Knights Templar ).

Another of my favorite artists - The Lep - draws ÜBERLEBENSEXPERTEN ( Survival Experts ) based on an original idea he came up with himself.

And last but not least is the brilliant DIE LESENDEN TOTEN ( The Reading Dead ) which is another story from the GRATIS COMIC TAG 2014 issue.

Talking about free comics, Weissblech also had just finished their eight free mini comic which has preview pages from HORROR SCHOCKER 35´s MÜLLSCHLUCKER story and their big graphic novel. These are always great and I have to admit that I always pocketed one when I passed the table with all the info material and freebies opposite the entrance. I love to give them away and most of them will end up in the Christmas contest.

  
I also got the second issue of UNGEHEUER ( Monsters ) which focuses on one of Germany´s best artists, Klaus Scherwinski and while some of the stories have been published elsewhere it´s nice to have them collected.

UNGEHEUER is a rather new anthology and it focuses on a certain artist or a certain theme like issue 1 which was all about zombies - naturally.

They also had the 1st issue of CAPTAIN BERLIN but I already had that.

Which brings us to the best comic Weissblech may have ever published : the incredible BELLA STAR TRIFFT KALA ! ( Bella Star meets Kala ! )

With a price tag of 20 EUROS this is the most expensive comic in the novelty bundle but believe me when I say it´s worth every cent.

Not only is it in hardcover, it´s also 112 ( ! ) pages of uncensored sci fi / jungle adventure in the often imitated but never duplicated Weissblech manner. I called the comic a graphic novel and not only because it is all new material. As this is their first graphic novel ( of hopefully many more ) they have waited for a great story and what could be more epic than the clash of two of their greatest babes : Bella Star, the intergalactic nympho and Kala, the pre - historic amazon ? Of course topless mud wrestling ensues during this titanic tussle of the well endowed alpha females.

But while a big part of the comic is titillation - with a big emphasis on the tit part - the story is just awesome and has anything you could ever want in a comic like aliens, metal bikinis, dinosaurs or black holes. It´s one of Weissblech´s best efforts and I recommend it to all comic aficionados.

I also managed to get a Charon sketch by the master himself, although it wasn´t as elaborate as the one I posted below ( to give you an idea ).

So that was the first table and while I also passed by the folks from GRINGO COMICS and SCHWARZER TURM, I´m going to wait with writing about those parts for the days when I actually bought something there.

THE MYSTERY OF THE TINY COMIC COVERS

Well, I´m not sure if it´s really a mystery but it annoys me to no ends that you can´t find any good pictures of the comics Laska Comix sells.

It was the same last time I wrote about Erlangen and it was the reason why I stopped with the posts: I was spending too much time looking for pictures and in the end I didn´t get around to continue with the posts. I have since found a picture - although a tiny one - of the issue I got then

and I´m only posting it here because it is an homage cover.

I just don´t get it. They make such brilliant comics but their website is totally crap. I don´t know for whom they designed it but it´s surely not meant for people who want to buy their comics outside of comic cons.

Anyway, nevertheless I want to pimp Laka Comix - which is not easy without adequate pictures - so I want to mention the two comics I got at their table. The first one is another LASKA SAMMELSURIUM, number 11 this time ( sorry for the nad picture but I´m lucky that I found one at all )

and you could translate the word Sammelsurium with mishmash, smorgasboard or hodgepodge. So it´s a collection of short stories, sketches, pictures and drawings. All with the usual standard of Laska quality but I have to say I liked the last one better because it included a short story of LUZIE AUS DER HÖLLE ( Lucy from hell ). The other comic I got was WÄSCHER - PIONIER DER COMICS ( Wäscher - Comic Pioneer )

and it´s - of course - about Hansrudi Wäscher the german Jack Kirby who influenced the entire landscape of comics for numerous generations with his comics AKIM ( just your basic jungle guy ), TIBOR ( the jungle guy formerly known as Akim with a new name because of a legal dispute ),

JÖRG ( the adventures of a boy in the year 1633 during the Thirty Years´ War which featured General Wallenstein, a historic figure ),

 FALK, Knight in shining armor,

FENRIR ( which seems like another jungle guy but in reality it are the adventures of an outcast 8.423 years after the last atomic holocaust ),

ROY STARK ( a stuntman, not related to Tony Stark ),

NIZAR ( another jungle hero, this one more Mowgli than Tarzan )

NICK ( the only sciene fiction hero of the Hansrudi Wäscher universe )

and SIGURD ( we will come back to him in another Erlangen Diary post ).

Interesting trivia : Fenrir´s and Tibor´s female companions´ fur bikinis caused friction with the german board of censors and were toned down.

So WÄSCHER - PIONIER DER COMICS contains homages to this dyed - in - the - wool elder statesman of comics and the Laska guys produced it.

But I got a nice sketch nonetheless.

POWER GIRL AND BUST

So my last stop on Thursday was on a vendor´s table with a lot of US comics for 1 EURO. Mostly old CONAN comics by John Buscema but they were not in very good condition and I wasn´t sure which of them I had.

I picked up a whole bunch of RED SONJA issues for my brother

and I also found Mike Grell´s SHAMAN´S TEARS 1 which I was still missing. If I ever find the other issues I can re - read the whole series - unless I´m missing the zero issue. I´m not so sure about that one.

Anyway, I was just ready to pay when I spotted the Power Girl mini bust at the back of the table. Now all jokes about using the words " Power Girl " and " mini bust " in the same sentence aside this was a really rare item.

For decades I have been on the lookout for one of the always elusive Power Girl action figures on german comic conventions and this was the first time one of the good ones was in reach. The downside was that it was priced at 50 bucks but you only live once and I wasn´t anywhere near my comic spending budget for the first day so I thought what the heck. So I clunked down the 50 bucks, the comic dealer was happy, I was happy and I still haven´t gotten around to unpack it. Mind you, I have taken it out of the box to see if it´s not damaged but it´s still in the box on my desk.

One of these days - when I have cleaned up - it will get a place of honor.

And that was basically the first day. I did eat something in - between because without that I would have probably fallen into a deep coma.

Like I said in my last Erlangen post, due to my bad knee I limited myself to restaurants that were on the way between the con and my hotel room which meant that I was trying out a lot of establishments I wouldn´t visit.

So on Thursday I picked the thai takeaway that was right outside of the Kongress Zentrum. I swear, for more than 20 years I have been going to Erlangen but I had never eaten there. Can you believe that ? And the food was surprisingly good. Not like some fancy restaurant from the Micheline Guide but really tasty and not too expensive. I got some of the food to go on Saturday but they forgot to pack a fork and knife so I had to go down the stairs ( and up again ) to freeload one from the breakfast room.

When I got to my hotel ( my brother drove me there using the navsat ) I showered and discovered the shower death trap. Then I was so tired that I went to sleep immediately and slept until a few minutes before ten o´clock which meant it was time for wrestling - on tv mind you, I was in no condition for any kind of sports activity. After watching wrestling I switched through the channels but the only thing that was on was a really bad monster flick with kind of a chimera creature and when I was pretty sure there would be no Länderpunkte ( longtime readers of the blog know what those are all others go to the Simona Ventura post ) I switched off the tv and went to bed. Tomorrow would surely be another strenuous day.

So that´s my log of the first day at this year´s Comic Salon Erlangen and as always I was tempted to cut it short since I really haven´t slept much Today.  But I wanted to finish it, otherwise I´ll never get them done before the end of  this month. I´m not sure what my next post is going to be ( probably something shorter, otherwise I´ll collapse in front of my desktop one of these days ) but I hope this was a little bit interesting.

Today´s first video is about Erlangen, this time from Geekplautze.



BUT WAIT - WHAT ABOUT THE YAYA HAN ?

The second one is a request by a reader who complained that there wasn´t much Yaya Han content lately. In fact it´s been weeks.

I´m still planning to do the big Yaya Han post ( click here for my intro post ) but I have been distracted ( in more ways than one ) by lots of pictures of cosplayer Jessica Nigri and I got caught up in all the drama. Now I don´t want to go into too much detail here - if you know what I´m talking about it´s redundant to mention it here and if not it´s way to complicated to start the topic here - but I just have to say that I´m all for sexy women dressing up in hot costumes and maybe showing off a bit of exposed skin. I´ve always said flaunt it if you got it and we should be really thankful that there are still women out there willing to go to all the trouble out there considering the amount of trolls that are on the net.

If you don´t like it you don´t have to look at the pictures and if you are really such a needy person you can watch those special Jessica Nigri videos on YouTube ( I dare you to last longer than five minutes with the 25 minutes of Jessica Nigri video ! ). And about the whole thing with cosplaying as female versions of male characters I have to confess that in most cases I don´t know the original characters. If it looks good....

So, for my readers who can appreciate it, here is a new interview with the always lovely Yaya Han from Wondercon 2014 in one of my Top Five costumes EVER as everyone´s favorite Street Fighter : sexy Chun Li.



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edit : Yes, I changed the banner I had first posted for this one because I realised that the " I´m with free porn " Civil War banner directly under the Yaya Han Wondercon interview might send the wrong message. Sorry.

My Erlangen Diary Part 5

We´re having a heat wave......a tropical heat wave.....Like Fred Astaire used to sing, a heat wave seeems to sweep over all of us. Germany seems to be melting due to the state the ozone layer is in. The greenhouse effect is in " full effect " like we always said in the 80s.

This kind of reminds me of the Comic Salon in Erlangen which also was very hot. I guess I have already told you about the first three days which leaves only the big finale.

DAY 4 - THE LAST DAY

Today, like the two days before, I was awake at six o´clock in the morning. As this was the last day I wanted to take the opportunity for one last dip in the pool. Yesterday the visit to the pool had been very spontaneous but this time I took a towel, fresh clothes, a bag and showering gel with me. After a relaxing bath in the pool I showered ( the shower cabin by the pool were bigger than the ones in our room ), put on some fresh clothes and went up to my room. The day before I had to rush up the stairs in my wet swimming trunks because I had nothing to change and no towel. Ah, the entusiasm of youth ! After a quiet breakfast I packed my suitcase and waited for my brother to finish his morning routine. Then we went to the receptionist´s desk and paid. The hotel we stayed in had not been the one we originally wanted but I have to say that we could have picked a worse one.

We packed all our stuff into the car and drove to the convention center. If you have been to a convention for the entire duration you know that the last day is always special. You have already been basically everywhere and you try to go to the places which you may have overlooked. The dealers are a little tired and make a last effort to sell their stuff because they don´t want to carry everything back home. As the last day in Erlangen is a Sunday there are less visitors, only the hardcore comic fans who have come for the full four days and the wimps who couldn´t get here during workdays or even on the holiday and for whom this is the last chance.

Like the previous days me and my brother went seperate ways, he with his camera equipment and me with my suitcase. I already had my sketch by Humberto Ramos and since there were no other artists signing on the last day who I had any interest in I decided to just wander through the convention center. Strangely I saw Mr.Ramos on a few occasions during the last day but I didn´t want to leave the impression of a stalker. So I went up to him the first time, thanked him again for the sketch and whished him a pleasant stay in Germany since he said he had to do a few signings the next few days. I only passed the table of the SCHWARZER TURM quickly because I saw that Robi was engaged in a conversation with one of his artists, writers or future collaborators. So I forgot to get an issue of KATZE which had gotten an award the day before and which was a really funny and really small comic. Maybe I can get a copy at the COMIC ACTION in Essen but somehow I doubt that I can make the trip with my current financial situation.

I went to all the guys you only meet at conventions to say goodbye and till next time. Since I had already bought more comics than I initially had planned I took my time going through the comic boxes. I had already filled some gaps in my collection and I had tons of comics to read. The one thing I was still looking for where the german trades of the BENDIS DAREDEVIL run but I couldn´t find the ones I was still missing. At least not with a discount. Because I am curious if the storyline is any good but without a big discount it is just no within my price range. So right now the three trades I DO have are still on my desk, unread and unloved. I´m still not sure if I should wait till I get the other trades or just read them already. But that´s not a decision I have to male right away. There are still between 60 and 70 issues I have not read, 4 Naruto books, 2 DOLMEN and 4 trades. Plenty of time to find the missing trades.

But I did buy some comics. I found two issues of SHAMAN´S TEARS, a few issues of Sleepwalker and some issues of SOLAR and ETERNAL WARRIOR from VALIANT. Then I found the latest book by DANY which is a pin up / comic strip book. I hadn´t even known he had done a new one. After a few hours of looking for comics I sat down at the stairs and began to make the last notes of the comic convention. There were only 30 minutes left so I only managed to write one page. When the final announcement was made that the Comic Salon Erlangen was now officially over I went outside where my brother arrived a few minutes later. Then we put our stuff into the car and started to look for a restaurant where we could celebrate the final day.

We had been to a few places in Erlangen before so we decided to go to a restaurant where we haven´t been before. Two days earlier we had passed a greek restaurant called MYTHOS and because we wanted to try something different we said : let´s check it out. We like to eat fish and you always get good fish in greek restaurants. After a quick look at the menu we both ordered some calamares which was the best decision we could have made. I have eaten my share of calamares in my 39 years. I have eaten calamares like my mother makes them, I have eaten calamares in restaurants, I have eaten calamares on street stand, I have eaten calamares in diners and I have even eaten calamares in fast food restaurants. I have eaten calamares in Spain, in France, in Italy and in Germany.

But this were the best calamares. Ever. Period.

Now I hope my mother never finds out about this and me and my brother have already taken a vow never to speak of this in the presence of my mother. But these calamares were even better than the ones my mother makes. Which up to this point were the be-all end-all for me concerning calamares. Naturally we found it at the last day. The last day. So we finished our stay in Erlangen on this high note and made a mental note that next time the MYTHOS would be our first station in Erlangen.

On the way back we took a slight detour which cost us about half an hour and there was a little traffic jam but nothing too serious. We arrived at home without any problems - at least no problems till getting to the door. Now I had to wait for the right moment to get my suitcase full of comics into the house. In my mind the theme song of MISSION IMPOSSIBLE ( the original version by Lalo Schiffrin not the techno version ) was playing while every fiber of my body was vibrating with anticipation. Now all the years reading LONE WOLF AND CUB and NARUTO finally paid off. Like a ghost I slipped undetected into my room where I buried my suitcase deep into the wardrobe. I waited a few hours before I started unpacking the comics and placing them in a new box on top of my secretary and in huge piles on the other table.

I took a shower and was just glad that I could sleep in my own bed again. It´s nice to come home !

So that was the last part of my Erlangen diary. Nothing too exciting happened but all in all it was a good convention. I got the sketches I wanted although there were not so many artists signing like the years before. And I should have shown a little more restraint buying comics but since 90 % of the comics I bought were from the 1 EURO / 50 cent boxes it wasn´t that big of a deal. Aside from the GREEN ARROW issues I collected quite a swag and I was able to close some gaps in my collection.


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And there came a day when Earth´s mightiest heroes found themselves united against a common thread. On that day the Avengers were born - to fight the foes no single superhero could withstand !

Yeah, sure. Just make a liar out of me why don´t cha ?

Yesterday morning I posted that I would not have any time to write entries in the next few weeks so just to make me look bad today I have plenty of time on the computer. So I decided to get to the reviews right away. Like always I try not to spoil anything and just comment on the important stuff, like, what was good and what turned me off.

SENTRY 8

Well, this was the final issue and I´m not that thrilled. Maybe that´s because the relevation of the big secret was not what I expected. I mean I just read the first original miniseries and this last one. So maybe it makes more sense if you read all three parts. I just have the feling that every time I read a SENTRY miniseries there is still more lying under the surface I didn´t get and the really big secret is not revealed yet. Don´t know if this is good writing or bad writing. I just know that the real Status Quo never changes in Sentry. At the end of the first one it was like at the beginning - nobody knew who he was. And the end of this one was no big turning point for me.

The positive things about the series was the art by John Romita Jr. who never disappoints ( can´t wait for his work on ETERNALS with Neil Gaiman ) and the single issues. I know that sounds weird but although I didn´t like the resolution I found the single issues entertaining, intriguing and they were always throwing curve balls at the reader when nobody was expecting it. So, all in all, it was a good read.

BLACK PANTHER 15

I´m not so sure storywise. The art by Scott Eaton is tight but I just don´t know what to think about the wedding between T´challa and Ororo. Is it just stereotype that two afroamerican people get married ? Or is it just reality ? The story itself was just a prologue to the big event so not much happened.

WARLORD 3

Nothing much to add after what I said about last issue. The more I read of this the more I want to read the old series by Mike Grell. The story is kind of intruiging but sometimes the art is just too confusing for me. In the second issue did the sword just pass through Travis Morgan or did he just avoid it ? Here is a link to a preview if you want to check it out

AMAZING SPIDERMAN 531

The second part of the ROAD TO CIVIL WAR. Some unexpected twists here and there but because of civil war we already know how how the hearing turns out. The art didn`t do much for me. Just an in-between issue for the big event again.

FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDERMAN 6 & 7

Okay, I´m including the links to previews for issues 5 to 8. And I have to say : I´m just too stupid to check out my own preview links. If I had done that I wouldn´t have bought issues 6 and 7 of friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Because I´m not a big Peter David fan. I know that he can be a great writer but for every SPIDER-Man 2099 or X-FACTOR there is a SUPERGIRL or YOUNG JUSTICE. So it´s mostly hit or miss with me.

When I was at the comic shop a few months ago I got hold of issue 5 and was really surprised. THIS should have been the first issue of the series. Just skipping the whole THE OTHER crossover ( because nobody likes a series that starts with the reader having to buy other series to read it ) and beginnig with issue 5. It`s a wonderful story and...it´s a standalone issue. Yep, that´s right, there should be more standalone issues in comics. So I was willing to give the series a chance but what really got me hooked was the art by Mike Wieringo.

So because I forgot to check out the previews to issues 6 and 7 I didn´t know that Roger Cruz is drawing them. Normally I would have skipped them so I don´t know if I didn´t like the book because I was miffed that Mike Wieringo didn´t draw it or because the story didn´t grab me that much. Thankfully Mike Wieringo is back with issue 8 so for the moment I will keep reading the series.

Issue 5 / Issue 6 / Issue 7 / Issue 8

SHAMAN´S TEARS 4 & 5 ( 0,37 cents ) 6 & 7 ( 0,28 cents )

I know what you´re thinking : what the f??*'§$%% ? This is like old comic history but I never really looked at the issues. It was image, I wasn´t soo interested in the art of Mike Grell so it just came out when i wasn´t interested. But I was thinking about getting the SABLE trades because I never read the series and now they come out in nice collections. So I went to Mike´s website and when I was looking at all the nice art I thought : Wow, why did I ever stop looking for his stuff ?

So when I found four issues of SHAMAN´S TEARS for under 50 cents I just had to check them out because my comic shop doesn´t have a 50 cent bin and the only chance for me to get comics for 1 EURO or 50 cents is at comic conventions. So I read the four issues ( the last three even had Jon Sable in it ) and they weren´t that bad as I expected. Right, they came out at Image but the story was not so bad.

The issues of bio engeneering ( which now has been done to death but maybe was rather new at the time the issues came out ) and the indian culture are done interesting without the usual preaching comics sometime do. It is kind of weird that the main character is a wildlife inspector but then again - why not ? There were some gory parts in it ( and it seems I missed some nudity ) but here in Europe I´ve seen heavier stuff. Overall I liked the series especially the long letters page.

So at the Stuttgart comic fair I will be looking for more SHAMAN´S TEARS in the 50 cent bins and the SABLE trades. I think there even was an IRON MAN storyline by Mike Grell which was collected into a trade. This time there is no preview ( I don´t know if there was internet when shaman came out ) but here is a link to the official Mike Grell website

THE THING 5 & 6 ( by Kieron Dwyer )

This is quickly becoming one of my favorite series. Storywise thing 5 nad six are a two part story about Ben trying to give back something to the old neighborhood he grew up in. The art by Kieron Dwyer was not soo distracting for me because I always liked his art since the Captain America issues he did when Johnny Walker ( or was it Jack Daniels ? I wonder who came up with the names and what his alcohol level was ) tried to replace him.

This is a book that deserves more readers. Come on guys, I want to read the big poker game issue. Don´t you ?

BLOOD OF THE DEMON 14

Okay, I admit it. I´m one of those guys who reads comics by John Byrne. I was a little surprised by that myself but it all started with me gettimg the reprints of MAN OF STEEL and FANTASTIC FOUR by John Byrne. When I heard that there was a JLA stroyarc from Chris Claremont and John Byrne involving a new DOOM PATROL team I just knew it was the prologue for the new series ( I was so surprised that most german readers never made the connection ) so I got it with my JLA subscription. Later on I saw some issues of DOOM PATROL at may comic shop so I read those and always wanted to know what happened next. And isn´t that the main criteria for a comic ? Do you want to know what happens in the next issue ? So when more stuff from John Byrne came out in ACTION COMICS and BLOOD OF THE DEMON I just added it to my pull list. Sadly Action and Doom Patrol have ended but Blood is still going on for four more issues. So far the series has been always entertaining and John Byrne can still draw perspectives and skyscrapes like nobodys business. I wonder how everything gets resolved. Just how many demons are there now running around after one year later ?

Some previews for John Byrne stuff

Doom Patrol 4 / Doom Patrol 10 / Doom Patrol 18

Demon 1 / Demon 2 / Demon 3 / Demon 4 / Demon 7

Action 828 / Action 829 / Action 830 / Action 831 / Action 832

ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR 29

Well, I wanted to keep this issue for later but since my brother already spoilered it I thought : What the heck. The story is one of the better time travel stories but what really compelled me to try the series was the fantastic art by Greg Land. I knew of his comic work but never became an admirer till he started SOJOURN for the sadly extinct CrossGen. While you may say what you want about CrossGen and the reasons why it failed there is no denying that many artists careers really took of when they were there : Paul Pelletier, Steve Epting, Karl Moline or....Greg Land.

After the PHOENIX ENDSONG mini and his work on ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR I just hope Greg Land stays a little longer on his next series. I read that coming next issue Pascual Ferry will be taking over the art chores so I will definitely check thoes issues out to see what´s in store. I really liked the ultimated versions of old Marvel characters and can´t wait to see what´s up with Dr.Doom and the zombie versions of the FF.

VILLAINS UNITED INFINITE CRISIS SPECIAL

A INFINITE CRISIS tie in that really shakes up the status quo of the villains in the DCU. Interesting side the Secret Six take in this confrontation I just wonder what will happen in the new mini. I hope the art team stays the same as they sadly changed artists for the Shadowpact ongoing. I just hope Detective Chimp has lots of stage time. Wouldn´t you just love to read a DETECTIVE CHIMP COMICS starring Robin and drawn by Arthur Adams ? I tell you the sales on that comic....well, maybe it´s just me.

SGT ROCK - THE PROPHECY 4

I never was a big Joe Kubert fan till he made a quick drawing for me at a comic convention in Erlangen that looked just terrific without any sketchwork first.

No construction lines just doing the picture with every line going where it is supposed to go.

While the art on the graphic novel he did with Brian Azzarello looked a little raw and crude here he is at his best. One of the great comic pioneers and he still has it going on.


Issue 1 / Issue 2 / Issue 3 / Issue 4

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