Preparing for John Byrne´s 66th birthday !

I haven´t posted much the last few days because I had to rest from doing posts on an almost daily basis but Today I spent most of the day preparing the material for Tomorrow´s post for John Byrne´s 66th anniversary.

Normally when I do these posts the problem is finding enough material but with one of my favorite writers / artists and the plethora of books he has done the problem here was that I had too much material. I mean I could make dozens of posts about John Byrne and I have already written about him ad nausea so my readers probably know all I have to say about his comic books. Okay, how can we bring it down to a manageable number ?

First off I thought about all the special John Byrne art pieces that I set apart from the main John Byrne folder and which I always plan to post.

So I went through all my folders and at the end I had more than a dozen pictures which is not enough for a post and most of them were in black and white. I thought about doing one of my popular black and white posts but since I prefer to include the color versions that limits the amount of pictures to ten which would have been impossible. If you think choosing something between 20 and 30 pictures of everything John Byrne has ever done try to pick just ten of them. So then I went through all of the John Byrne stuff I already had in a special folder looking for art from his series. Since this is a birthday post I thought I should include his best series - which is totally subjective. And I also tried to use as many foreign versions of covers so that I would not use art I would need later on. 

With that I got more art pieces but the selection was a bit arbitrary. Plus the black and white art and the splash pages didn´t really go well with the covers so that I decided to go with just putting covers in the post. Also since I had to get it down to a manageable number - and since it is my post about John Byrne - I decided to concentrate on the series I have read and enjoyed. So I picked some covers of iconic issues but most often than not issues that were special to me. So for instance you will not see the cover of the most iconic issue of ALPHA FLIGHT or the one which has the best story but rather the issue which was the first american issue I ever bought at a railway station newsstand. Before that I never knew that you could get american comics from there and it opened a whole new world of reading comics to me. So that one issue will always be special for me.

So to make it short - since I have to do another post in a few hours - I managed to narrow it down to 40 covers which I am splitting into two post, this one which is mainly DC covers with a few from other companies like IDW. One reason is that with 40 covers it would have been one hell of a long post, the other is that by doing two posts I can do entertainment sections since I have a few to catch up to from the last few days. Anyway, here are some of John Byrne´s comic series which have brought me much joy over the years. Maybe you will find a few that you want to check out.

Oh, since I only included covers by John Byrne there are none from books where he did the interior art but had covers by somebody else like his ALL NEW ATOM. Which doesn´t mean I didn´t like it. Also his LEGENDS mini series is just celebrating it´s 30th anniversary with a new edition.

As promised we start Today´s entertainment block with the birthdays from last Sunday and the ungodly hot Olivia Munn who turned 36. She is one of the celebrities that make no secret of being a comic geek and as unbelievable as it sounds I have heard she´s even prettier in real life.

Another incredibly sexy woman celebrated her birthday, spanish tv host Berta Collado who is just one year older with 37. I thought I had a video bookmarked from her appearances on Se Lo Que Hicistes but I guess I was to distracted by her sex appeal. Since it will undoubtly take me some time to find some good ones here´s an animated GIF of Berta in various outfits I made since I didn´t like any I found online. Can you believe it ?

And we stay in Spain. Tom Cruise had his 54th birthday on Sunday and while I already posted the video with him squaring off against Jimmy Fallon in a lip synch battle ( read where Tom wiped the floor with Jimmy ) here is a video from the spanish show El Hormiguero ( the ant hill ).



The last anniversary from last Sunday was Franz Kafka´s birthday. His books have been adapted into all kind of media and quite a few interesting comics by artists like Robert Crumb or Peter Kuper.

It´s been a while since I posted a video about comics in german - auf deutsch - but here is one from german tv on the occasion of an exhibition of various graphic novel adaptions of Franz Kafka´s work in 2014.



There were only two anniversaries Yesterday I want to mention. The first is Ute Lemper who turns 53 and I guess she is not very popular anymore since it was extremely difficult to find any pictures of her at all.

There are on the other hand too many videos of her on YouTube to look through them all so because I´m keeping the music video for another candidate here is an episode of one of the best talk shows on german tv.



And I just have to mention Gina Lollobrigida´s 89th birthday. She really deserves the title cult siren. I spend a few hours looking through a website for GIFs but in the end I decided that I like this picture better.

I thought I could add one of her classic movies but neither Fanfan La Tulipe nor Solomon and Sheba are to be found and even her dance as Esmeralda on The Hunchback Of Notre Dame is almost impossible to find. Which by the way must be the book of Victor Hugot that´s been adapted the most times. But just when I thought I had to settle between Guillermo Del Toro´s musings on The Hunchback and Hollywood remembers Gina Lollobrigida I found something from a tv show I actually watched. And watching the series actually paid off as I got to see douche Lorenzo Lamas getting his ass whupped by the butler. That´s for all the episodes of Renegade I had to suffer through to see Kathleen Kinmont´s booty.



Which brings us finally to the present day with only two important dates the first being Bill Waterson, the genius behind Calvin and Hobbes who turns 58. You know excellence when everybody agrees how great it is.

If you haven´t tried this you´re missing out on a wonderful comic with a lot of fun and adventures as only an over imaginative child can have it. No matter if it´s about turning a cloning machine into a time machine by changing the label on a cardboard box, fighting off evil aliens as space adventurer biff or getting the cool hairdo for the school photograph with the right amount of biskin. I remember my brother tried to write one of this typical hardboiled detective stories and despaired when he read how easily Bill did it in just one page. Anyway, Bill ended the strip in 1995 but we still have the collections to re - read. I was looking for a video but all I found was either 3d animation that didn´t really look like the comic strip or minimalistic ones. Maybe there will be a movie in the near future.  

Our second birthday of the day is Huey Lewis who turns 66. Since I could not decide for one of his songs here´s a concert with his best tunes.



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

Productivity is being able to do things that you were never able to do before.

Because I´m sick : more recycled covers

As I spent most of the day in bed with stomach cramps I can´t do a long post ( yeah, like that ever worked before ) so I thought to mix things up a little I could do another post with recycled GESPENSTER KRIMI covers.

This time around I have picked some of the covers that were reused most often. The one above is from JOHN SINCLAIR, not GSPENSTER KRIMI but it was also used for the 20th issue of the spanish horror magazine RUFUS.

For issue 323 of SILBER GRUSEL KRIMI from the Zauberkreis Verlag the cover was changed quite a bit and instead of a hand rising through the earth we have a man sitting at a campfire waiting for Hell´s Emissary.

In a previous issue they used just the devil but they gave him a beard and changed him from a devil to a flying demon terrorizing hapless women.

And on the cover of GEISTER THRILLER 16 even the woman is gone.

Next up is a cover of GESPENSTER KRIMI that is a mash up from two different sources. Here we have issue 314 by Ivar Jorgensen titled Gefangener im Totenreich ( Prisoner in the Realm of the Dead ).

The same cover appears on TONY BALLARD issue 106, The Ghoul Empire.

As well as on an issue of spanish horror magazine DELTA.

Now I´m not sure where the winged creature comes from but it is also on another cover of GESPENSTER KRIMI and in quite better looking company. 

The vampire on the other hand was copied from a Dracula movie poster.

This Dracula also appears on The Literature of Terror, volume one.

As well as on a whole slew of audio dramas from EUROPA.

And the last one - because I already get the feeling I have outstayed my welcome - is what I like to call the wandering skeleton because it´s like this relative you find in all the family pictures. Here we have him on the cover of GESPENSTER KRIMI issue 74, The Island Of The Skeletons.

The same picture can be found on the cover of spanish mag HORROR.

We find the same skull in different surroundings on the mag PANICO.

Here it is on DR. TERROR`S HOUSE OF HORRORS by John Burke.

Which is a movie starring Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and Donald Sutherland. Here is the poster, the skeleton man appears in the movie.

Here we have the skeleton with a full body on Duel With The Satan.

Adult mag SOS, relatos de mysterio, fantasia, suspense y terror.

The third time on a cover for GESPENSTER KRIMI this time with a scythe.

A cover of SPOKENJAGER JOHN SINCLAIR from the Netherlands.

They also used Dr. Terror for the story The Vampire Of Manhattan.

Here we have both on JOHN SINCLAIR 1122, The Prophet Of The Devil.

And that´s all for Today. Tomorrow we will continue with Neal Adams´ Marvel post but until then I have to catch up on my sleep and it looks like our pal skeleton man has some reading to do. Good night and good fright.

Before we start with the entertainment block I have to give a special thanks to CLAUDIUS BRACK , HOERSPIEL and EUROPA - VINYL for providing the audio drama covers and GRUSELROMANE for the covers with Dr. Terror. You can also find reviews of Dr. Terror´s House Of Horror on the websites PARLOR OF HORROR and TRAILERS FROM HELL .

Our first celebrity birthday is Robert Rodriguez who turns 48 and I think I have already mentioned enough times that Jessica Alba should have been naked ( she IS playing a stripper ) and that Robert should get a move on with the next Sin City movie as even Rosario Dawson is getting restless and has already said that her twins won´t stay firm and bouncy forever.

If my mother was telling me that Nicole Kidman has her 49th anniversary she would be no doubt be inclined to tell me for the 100th time that she did not make many films during the time she was married to Tom Cruise. Which according to my Mom was because he didn´t want an independent woman and wanted her to be the mother and housewife instead. I´m not sure if that´s true or if there just was no financial necessity for it. Unlike what many people believe it is still work. In any case she has done a lot of excellent movies since and she was the only good part in Batman Forever.

And I´m not trying to make any kind of statement here but I had this video already bookmarked and I´m already working too long on this post.



Which is also the reason I do not give you the complete litany of John Goodman´s tv roles and movies in lieu of his 64th birthday. You can already guess my favorite movie with him is The Flinstones with sex goddess Halle Berry ( yes, I tried to make one GIF with the complete scene but apparently the strain was too big for the GIF maker ) OMG !

Is it just me or does she look absolutely hot in EVERY movie she´s in ?

Anyway, I think The Flinstones was the movie when I became fully aware of Miss Berry and she became a member of my Top Five Sexbombs Of All Time. And this was still a few years before she showed her amazing stripper qualities and her incredible bubblebutt in The Last Boy Scout.

To celebrate Lionel Richie´s 67th birthday I wanted to post another video from a casting show when I came upon this. Here he is doing a concert at the Festival de Vina del Mar 2016 which I haven´t seen yet but usually the spanish music festivals are amazing. So I hope you enjoy this one.



A bit older is Danny Aiello who turns 83. He has been in a multitude of movies and tv shows too long to list but the first thing I always think about when I hear his name is that he played the father in the Madonna video Papa Don´t Preach. Ah yes, she was young and had a booming body back then. I remember staying up after midnight to see the version with her nippleslip ( sorry, there is an animated GIF for that but it´s NSFW ).

So let´s find out what Today´s kids know about 80s music.



Our oldest candidate is Martin Landau with 88 years and he has starred in a lot of western tv shows and movies like Maverick, Lawman, Tales of Wells Fargo, Rawhide,  Johnny Ringo, Wagon Train, Outlaws, Bonanza, The Rifleman, The Big Valley, the original Wild Wild West, Branded, Gunsmoke, Buffalo Bill and The Hallelujah Trail. He also appeared on The Untouchables, the original Outer Limits, both versions of Twilight Zone, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. , Mission : Impossible, Get Smart, Columbo, Murder She Wrote, The Return of the Six Billion Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman, Ed Wood and The X - Files but to people from my generation he was best known as Commander John Koenig on the series Space : 1999. 

It must be fate that I found The Hallelujah Trail and the german version 40 Wagen Westwärts on YouTube. It´s one of my favorite westerns and one of those movies you watch every time when it´s on tv even though you have seen it a hundred times. Now even though I´m used to the german version I picked the english one because I´m not sure if the german version is uncut. To make matters worse there are different lengths given at imdb which go from 165 to 156 to 146 minutes. I´m not sure if that is because scenes were cut or because there are parts of the movie where you have a black screen with music because that were the intermissions - which movie theaters used to do in dem olden days.



Today is also the day Errol Flynn was born who was the very definition of the word swashbuckler and captivated generations of movie goers. His most famous role is probably Robin Hood which has influenced creators of other movies, tv series, books or comics. There are traces of him in every archery super hero but the most apparent in DC´s Green Arrow.

Mike Grell is one of the artists who heavily drew on the Robin Hood inspiration for Green Arrow in his brilliant Longbow Hunters and the following series. Fans of the ARROW tv show should definitely check out his work. The series is finally being released in trades and while there is no hardcover of Longbow Hunters DC would be stupid if they did not include it in the upcoming Green Arrow : A Celebration Of 75 Years.



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