Master of Kung Fu Monday with Gil Kane !

It´s been a while since I have done one of these posts and in light of the upcoming SHANG - CHI : MASTER OF KUNG FU omnibus books I thought I could extend Gil Kane week a bit longer and post his covers for the series.

For the last few days I tried to post more DC covers by Gil Kane because in my last Black and White post only 6 out of the 26 I posted were DC.

But something else always came up and prevented that. Like on Saturday when I was all ready to go - especially since it was Robi´s birthday - but then I went looking for some original art and spent the day and most of the following Sunday putting all the stuff I found in order. So to make a boring story short after getting every piece of Gil Kane art available on the internet I have divided it up into theme groups so there will be several posts appearing in the next few weeks. Like this one right now.  

Speaking about the omnibus books, I´m still not sure if I should get volumes 1 and 2. I would like to read it all but art wise I´m much more interested in Mike Zeck´s art than anything else and I don´t know if volume 2 is worth spending so much money for 8 issues of Mike Zeck art.

Even with the lower prices at amazon volume 1 is still at 88 bucks which is just a bit above my price range. The 2nd volume doesn´t come out until September but I don´t know how low the price on that one will go. If it does get lower at all. Right now there are two really very reasonably priced omnibus hardcovers at amazon.de, STAR WARS : THE ORIGINAL MARVEL YEARS OMNIBUS 1 for 70 Euros and 2 for 75 Euros but I´m not sure if I really want to read those that urgent or if that´s the nostalgia kicking in. I thought about getting one of them as a belated birthday present for my brother but once I got my hands on them I would probably keep them for myself. I don´t think the way he behaved lately he really deserves them. But at the moment I´m a little tight with money anyway.

The problem is that I fear this is another instance of a once in a lifetime opportunity like with the X - MEN : INFERNO hardcover that was offered at half price and I didn´t buy it just because I had bought the trade a few months earlier. The thing is the hardcover had some additional content and now that I have the X - MEN : INFERNO PRELUDE and X - MEN : INFERNO CROSSOVERS this is the one that would complete the set.

So I´m checking daily if those omnibus books are still at that price and hoping I can order them at the right moment. In any case I will probably order volume 2 first because it has not as much Carmine Infantion art in it and as it is in the bargain books section the price may go up again pretty soon as volume one is in the regular book section. The price on that may also go up again but probably not as quick as can happen with the second volume. You see I haven´t really made up my mind yet. 145 Euros is a lot of money to spend but if you get 250 dollars worth of comics that´s not so bad and I would only need volume three to complete the series. Which may also be at a more reasonable price once the first two volumes have sold enough. And if I buy the books and don´t like them after reading I can always use them as collateral and exchange them for other omnibus books like the SHANG - CHI : MASTER OF KUNG FU.

But that´s all speculation so let´s continue with the Gil Kane covers before I go completely off topic and have to write another post for this.   

Gil Kane did three more covers for the series but since those are some of the fabled GIANT SIZED issues they will be featured in a Giant Sized post - maybe two. Marvel really only did these specials from August 1974 to December 1975 and the vast majority of the covers were by Gil Kane.

I couldn´t do a MASTER OF KUNG FU MONDAY post without mentioning Old Groove from the brilliant DIVERSIONS OF THE GROOVY KIND who started it all and since I´m not sure I posted this here is his latest post in that series, The Phoenix Gambit - Part I : Temples of Time from MASTER OF KUNG FU 59 by Doug Moench, Mike Zeck ( this was his first issue ) and John Tartaglione. For those of you craving more kung fu entertainment there is also a post on The Sons of The Tiger and White Tiger and one with the first adventure of The Sons of The Tiger from DEADLY HANDS OF KUNG FU, which will be also reprinted in an upcoming omnibus. Man, this is the year for enthusiasts of Bronze Age Marvel martial arts series. And speaking about enthusiasts of Bronze Age Marvel martial arts series, Joe Linton at THE PERIODIC FABLE has a three part essay on the innovative storytelling in MASTERS OF KUNG FU by Paul Gulacy ( part 1 / 2 / 3 ).

We start Today´s birthday roundup with one that is already over but it´s an important one. Like I have already mentioned last Saturday german comic legend Robi a.k.a. Horst Brack, der Bestrafer celebrated his 56th birthday. He has written scripts for tv shows and hit movies like The Miracle of Bern - although I think he never got as much credit as other people who were less involved and who got interviewed all the time. Right now the movie has been adapted to the musical format and it´s one of the biggest shows although I doubt there´s any money going Robi´s way. For the hungry comic masses Robi is best known for writing countless comics like the underground cult series MENSCHENBLUT or HORST.

Longtime readers may remember that I announced the german website of HORST as well as two more as I was doing the translations to english and spanisch . But because of various reasons, health problems, computer problems, software problems and all this tedious life stuff I did my last translations in June 2010 but the old stories are still there to read.

I don´t think there is a printed edition in english or spanish available ( hence the two blogs ) and for my german readers who don´t know the comic I can only recommend to get the original issues although most of them are in black and white. There was a new edition released by PANINI that collects the complete works in four trades but for some reason they thought they had to change the text. Which normally happens with new editions of foreign material - each publisher has to do his own translation - but with german comics ? Anyway, don´t worry if you can´t find the old issues. Besides this all stories have new lettering that makes it easier to read, the colors look gorgeous and there is plenty of bonus material.

Another hit series by Robi is ALRAUNE, beautifully drawn by Toni Greis and I don´t have to explain this series to german comic readers because everybody has this - at least the male part of the comic community.

Somebody once said this is the kind of porn comic that has such good writing you read it with both hands. And the art is so hot you wish you had a third hand. The 8 issue series has been collected in two hardcovers which are totally worth the money because for the first time all the pages are in color. I have both volumes and you can find it at the homepage of Schwarzer Turm or at good comic stores just don´t go to amazon because the price for it is ridiculous. Anyway, I don´t think there are more issues of LUNA coming out and usually I would say I´ll get the latest gossip in Erlangen but with the new health problems ( now the other knee is wasted ) and my non existent comic budget this may be the first time I won´t attend. The last time was pretty bad with my injured knee and I was practically a young god compared to my current state of health. So happy birthday Robi and much success from here if we don´t meet in Erlangen. 

We´re staying in the adult entertainment section with our first birthday of Today which is PLAYBOY´s Miss November 2000 Buffy Tyler. The buxom blonde ( 36D - 24 - 34 ) of german descent turns 38 and besides appearing in PLAYBOY videos she was in the movie Frostbite and the Howard Stern Show. I remember her because back at that time I was still buying and reading the PLAYBOY magazine on a semi regular basis. Ah, the good old times when there were plenty of naked women to be found in PLAYBOY. 

We have two DOCTOR WHO related birthdays, the first is David Tennant who has his 45th regeneration. He is of course known as the most popular Doctor in New Who and his long stay on the role has set the standard for all who followed ( no pun in - tennanted ). Currently he is on Broadchurch and Alias where he plays the evil Purple Man Zebediah Killgrave. I have started watching that show with my mother but after a few episodes she lost interest. I guess she like the action spectacle like Agents of S.H. I. E. L. D. more so I´ll have to finish it on my own. The second birthday is Eric Roberts who turns 60 and although most people prefer to forget it he portrayed the Doctor´s nemesis The Master in the movie with the eight Doctor Paul McGann. I was looking through the videos and I picked this one because it was the last time I was really surprised by a regeneration.



Today talk show host Conan O´Brien also celebrates his 53rd anniversary and sometimes he really has the best job in the world because he gets to interview such gorgeous women like Angie Harmon who - surprise - would love to play She Hulk in a movie. Although I´m not sure Disney would let her play her as a drinking, promiscuous, behind kicking gun toting chick.




Since there are not a lot videos about Shang - Chi on YouTube here is one with the master Bruce Lee after which Paul Gulacy modeled his version.



Since I will probably not write about Mangas inthe next future here´s a rather long documentary ( over one hour ) for my german readers.



Okay, you know this was coming. There can be no post about this kind of subject without the obligatory Yaya Han video. She´s the best, looks absolutely stunning and always comes up with great new cosplays.

I really thought I had to post one of the few bookmarked videos I have left but just then I came across this new one from FANTASY BASEL 2015. Yaya´s part is a bit short for my taste but perfect as always. She nails it. 



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Daredevil hijacks Black and White Saturday

Like always I totally blanked on the fact that Today is the Day of German Unity so all the shops are closed and my plans of buying some ice cream are nixed. Last year I reviewed a german comic in homage to this special holiday but because I have nothing prepared about german comics I won´t be doing that. I still wanted to do something special and since it has been a while since I did a BLACK AND WHITE post here are some special gems.

I have written a lot about Ann Nocenti´s and John Romita Jr´s DAREDEVIL run but the Frank Miller run on the title is still considered by many comic readers, critics and afficionados as the gold standard and if you see the beautiful splash page from DAREDEVIL issue 182 it´s easy to see why.

Only in black and white can you see the brilliant ink work by Klaus Janson, who I don´t like on all books he did but who is pure magic here. He and Frank Miller just clicked and it is in great part thanks to the work of Klaus Janson that the comic was such a success. As somebody who has dabbled in art and inking myself I know that you can learn more from a page of original art than from hours of lecture and even if I don´t have the money to buy expensive originals I try to get as many Marvel ESSENTIALS as I can get. I know it´s not as good as an ARTIST`S EDITION or the recently released ARTIFACT EDITION of Frank Miller´s DAREDEVIL by IDW - while we are on the subject of Daredevil art - but it´s better than nothing.

Recently I ordered a dozen ESSENTIALS from amazon´s " new and used books " section, which in the end was not as big as a bargain as I hoped. Getting a 20 dollar book for 10 bucks plus 3 for shipping and handling is a good deal, especially when you get some for 8 or 5 bucks but if you think ordering a bundle of books from the same dealer will lower the collective price for shipping and handling - well, let me just say that you are sadly mistaken my friend. If you order 6 books from the same dealer that´s still 3 bucks for shipping and handling each which means 18 bucks total. Now knowing the prices of the Deutsche Post you know a package would have to weigh more than 2 kilos to get anywhere near that postage but on the other side it´s probably one of the reasons why they sell 20 buck books for 10 or 9 bucks. But I don´t want to complain, I made a good deal.

And while the ESSENTIAL DAREDEVIL were canceled before reaching Frank Miller there is still some great art in them like this cover by Wally Wood.

DAREDEVIL is a great series to read in the ESSENTIAL format because to be honest not all the comics in the ESSENTIALS are the best of the best.

In my last post about the ESSENTIALS and the DC SHOWCASE PRESENTS I clearly favored the ESSENTIALS but I have to state for the record : yes, there is some great art but for every George Perez, John Buscema - or Gene Colan in the case of Daredevil - you have a Bob Brown, George Tuska or Don Heck. Who in their own right are great comic artists and I have already planned to do a post on one of the unsung heroes of my comic collecting youth : Rich Buckler. But you wouldn´t buy a MARVEL MASTERWORKS because of them. Also those artists sometimes don´t have the greatest stories to illustrate which means that while I want to read those issues and have them in my collection I don´t want to spend much money which makes them perfect for the black and white format.

And since we are on the subject of Daredevil and Gene Colan I wanted to mention that I recently acquired DAREDEVIL 363 because of the artwork.

I may have picked it up at the " comics per kilo " section and it´s an issue I was missing in my comic collection because I stopped with issue 362.

As usual I had perfect timing. By the end of Ann Nocenti and John Romita Jr´s run DAREDEVIL was on my pull list and back then if a new creative team came aboard I waited a few issues until making a judgement. So after a fill - in issue by Mark Bagley Lee Weeks became the new penciler with Ann Nocenti staying on board until issue 291 ( Kieron Dwyer did the art on issues 289 and 290 ) handing the reigns over to D. G. Chichester.

Lee Weeks stayed until DAREDEVIL issue 300 ( Ron Garney did the art on issue 296 ) although he provided covers for the consecutive two issues.

I remember that it was a pretty decent run, especially the LAST RITES finale, and I know that I bought all the issues but I can´t for the life of me remember whatever happened to them. Maybe I sold them, maybe they are in some dark corner and only surface when I have gone and bought all those issues again - who knows ? I know where all the following issues are. Which of course are the ugly ones. Because from here on it´s a bumpy road following DAREDEVIL. D. G. Chichester stays as writer and we have two issues by W. C. Wyman ( man, there were a lot of initials in comics in the 90s ), one issue by Ron Garney until Scott McDaniel - under the name Scott Alan McDaniel - takes over as regular artist starting with DAREDEVIL issue 305 ( again, guest art by Kevin Kobasic on issue 316 ). 

And this is where it really get ugly. The two part story in issues 305 and 306 with the brilliant villainess - wait for it - the Surgeon General ( oh, the humanity ! ) may be one of THE worst Daredevil stories ever and after the less than stellar DEATH MAN`S HAND crossover with PUNISHER WAR JOURNAL and NOMAD in issues 307 to 309 I was out for good.

So I can´t say much about what happened between issues 310 and 318 but judging from the cluster - f - word that was FALL FROM GRACE ( issues 319 to 326 ) I would say that missing those issues is one of the reasons why I managed to maintain my sanity. I remember there was a lot of hype about the story at that time and that it was pimped by all kinds of people not the least my comic dealer at that time but I didn´t let them pull the wool over my eyes on that one. Years later I got the german trade of FALL FROM GRACE out of sheer curiosity how bad of a train wreck it really is and let me tell you it is incredible. And for anybody who doesn´t believe me I´m offering the trade as a no prize. I certainly don´t need it here.

Anyway, out of FALL FROM GRACE - where Scott McDaniel did his best Frank Miller SIN CITY impression - came one of the ugliest Daredevil costumes ever which Matt Murdock would wear beyond D. G. Chichester´s and Scott McDaniel´s exit in Daredevil 332 ( Sergio Cariello does the art on issue 328 ). Or so it seems. Gregory Wright takes over as writer for the FATHOMS OF HUMANITY five parter with Tom Grindberg on the art before D. G. Chichester returns with issue 338 credited as Alan Smithee.

Now if you have a bit of movie knowledge - and let´s face it : in Today´s day and age it´s more probable than any comic book knowledge - you may know that Alan Smithee was a secret pseudonym film directors used when they wanted to disown a movie. It´s pretty much common knowledge.

Anyway, if a writer is credited as Alan Smithee you know that there was some kind of trouble and in the case of D. G. Chichester he insisted that he would be credited as such on the last five issues he was contractually obligated to write after he had learned that he was going to be replaced as writer on DAREDEVIL by group editor Bobbie Chase. Yup, even without help from Disney the guys at Marvel knew how to screw with each other.

You learn something new every day and I´m just grateful that Alan Moore doesn´t know about this whole Alan Smithee thing or he would probably demand that DC changes all his credits on new editions of WATCHMEN to Alan Smithee. I mean he is already credited as " The original writer " in all the MIRACLEMAN reprints by Disney. I just wonder how long it will take until he is credited as " The writer formerly known as Alan Moore " ?

But coming back from one of the best limited series in comics ever ( I´m explicitly not calling it a graphic novel because it is not a graphic novel despite how many people call it the greatest graphic novel ever ) like WATCHMEN to the crap fest that was DAREDEVIL from issues 343 on.

Which may be total speculation on my part since I haven´t read those issues. Maybe DAREDEVIL 343 by Warren Ellis and Keith Pollard is a really intricate examination of the human condition. Maybe issue 344 by the new creative team of Bwa - ha - ha Justice League writer J. M. DeMatteis ( more credit initials from the 90s ) and artist Ron Wagner was so totally Airwolf they just had to make DAREDEVIL part of the MARVEL EDGE line.

Remember those ? When Marvel had the brilliant marketing idea to publish all of their " edgy " books under the MARVEL EDGE banner ?

At the least it was one surefire way to avoid all these books. Not that it managed to keep me away from the book longer than issue 346. Which was not good. Like I said maybe the issues before this were better than fried bananas covered in chocolate on a stick. Issue 346 was something else. It was also poked through with a stick but the brown substance covering it all was surely no chocolate. I don´t remember much about the story - it is too painful - but it was a crossdressing, genderbending, amnesiac doubleganger, multiple Daredevil costumes at once stolen identity crisis kind of thing. And not in a good Grant Morrison way.

I mean, I tried to stay with the title because of the artists they brought in like Gary Nord, Shawn McManus or Cully Hammner at the very end of this volume ( of course I got those - grrrrr ) but something was just missing.

They brought back Daredevil´s red costume, they brought back Foggy Nelson, they even brought back Karen Page but even the best efforts of writer Karl Kesel seemed unable to bring the much needed critical and financial success back to DAREDEVIL needed to save it from the chopping block. So DAREDEVIL issue 362 by Karl Kesel and Gary Nord was my last.

Enter Gene Colan.

Yup, sometimes my timing sucks. And when I say " sometimes " I mean almost all the time. So the DAREDEVIL book was closing up shop and for whatever reasons Marvel decided to go out with a big bang and managed recruiting the artists who had made the book into one of their " must read " books decades before Frank Miller put pencil to paper : THE Gene Colan.

Gene Colan does six issues towards the end, issues 363, the Minus 1 issue Marvel did with most books in the summer of 1997, issues 366 to 368 and issue 370. Apart from issue 363 I don´t think I have seen any of the other issues during one of my many visits to the comic shop but on the other side I haven´t really looked for them. And if you really need to check them out they are all part of the new Daredevil Epic Collection WIDOW`S KISS. Here comes my usual complaint about the gutter loss which according to the reviews at amazon a lot of people have problems with as well as with the low quality of the material in this collection.

Remember this is towards the not so great end of the title and besides die hard Daredevil fans most people won´t be fooled by the Gene Colan namedrop. Man, this post got totally sideways from where it started.

Since this already morphed from a " Best of black and white art " into a Daredevil post I wanted to add that while David Mazuchelli´s collaboration with Frank Miller on BORN AGAIN is also part of the Daredevil Olympus nobody ever talks much about all his other issues he did on DAREDEVIL.

Besides issues 227 to 233 he provided art for issues 206, 208 to 217, 220 to 223, 225 and 226. I´m curious if there were any memorable stories.

Even though this was more of an impromptu post there are always some Daredevil links I haven´t posted yet. First is MICHEL FIFFE with a post about his love for the Ann Nocenti / John Romita Jr Daredevil run and RIP JAGGER`S DOJO has many posts on Gene Colan which I probably haven´t posted yet : Gene Colan RIP , Marvel´s Space - Born Artist ! , Out of the Holocaust ..... A Hue ! , The Mask Of Strange ! and Strange Looks ! .

BIG GLEE has a view pieces of original Gene Colan art, BLAH BLAH BLAH has a three part Batman story : Jungle Jeopardy by Doug Moench and Don Newton from BATMAN 365, Laugh Killer Laugh by Doug Moench and Gene Colan from DETECTIVE COMICS 532 and The Joker is Wild by Doug Moench and Don Newton from BATMAN 366, you can find the Gene Colan interview Roy Thomas did for ALTER EGO issue 6 on TWOMORROWS PUBLISHING and there is always THE INVINCIBLE GENE COLAN BLOG if you want more.

And since this post started out as a " Best of black and white art " post in honor of Today´s holiday Day of The German Union or Unification - I´m not quite sure - here´s a gorgeous black and white piece by Toni Greis. 

Because of the holiday I chose to post videos about Germany and what better way than to start with another episode of LIFE IN GERMANY that is all about what germans like to do during the Tag der Deutschen Einheit.



The next video from GERMANY VS USA is about awesome german products you might want to purchase before your return home.



Another typical german thing is - you might not believe this - comedy or like german stand up comedy was called back when I was young : kabarett or nonsens. Famous group Insterburg & Company is one of the bedrocks of german kabarett and I think I already posted another video with them.



Now I thought about what else is typical german and what could be more typical than Germany´s most famous MILF ? Don´t forget the german Fräulein ! Sonya Kraus is on german tv every time, all the time and if it´s not as host of her various tv shows which are constantly on reruns or as a guest on another show she´s on a special. You can bet your bottom dollar that if there is a special about the Day of German Unity she will be in it.

Sonya Kraus became famous for her skimpy outfits and her stunning body which she is not afraid to use to her advantage. Her most famous quote is :  " Your breasts can open doors for you. " . And other things too ....

As a former model Sonya did many shootings but while she confessed to read the PLAYBOY and look at other naked women in the pictures she has only done shootings for MAXIM and FHM. I think she did a nude shooting for a calendar or charity but so far she hasn´t done PLAYBOY pictures.

The clip I have chosen is from Sonya´s appearance on the game show DIE PERFEKTE MINUTE ( The perfect Minute ) and at that time there was a big brouhaha because she had very big breasts after being pregnant and the press was having a field day because the show was advertised as being " family friendly ". Now I don´t know what could be more family friendly that a pair of big breasts but then I also had not ignored all the promos where you could see Sonya´s new " porn boobs " as the press called them.

What do you know, it really IS like staring directly into the sun.

Anyway, Sonya appeared on the show wearing just jeans and a tight t - shirt and an ample cleavage and when she was handling these balls with great care - no pun intended - ( I never quite got what she was supposed to do but I didn´t care either ) and leaned forward for once in the history of german television the camera guy did what he was supposed to do and filmed it. At least SOMEBODY at Sat1 knew why people buy a High Def tv.

Despite all the hype - or maybe because of it - the show got the highest viewer rating that day and even doubled it in subsequent reruns.



Usually I include a cartoon video but since most of the ones I watched as a kid are made in Japan I picked MÄNNER OHNE NERVEN ( men without nerves ) a show that presented classic slapstick comedians like Laurel Hardy when he was still a solo act, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd and so on. The show was narrated by the late great Hans Dieter Hüsch who also made all the sound effects and spoke all the actors - even the women.



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Erlangen - getting there and back again

It´s been a week since I came back from the Comic Salon in Erlangen and it feels kind of surreal. Looking back now I could almost think it didn´t happen if it wasn´t for the huge pile of ( new ) comics I have to read.

And I´m saying " a huge pile of new comics " because there´s another pile on my desk with old comics that I have to put somewhere pretty soon.

Because just Yesterday I got two packages : one with my latest order from amazon and another from my online comic shop. Normally this is a good thing and I spend most of the weekend reading new comics and bagging and boarding my comic collection but right now I just don´t know where to begin with. On one side it´s great to have that many comics to read but one of the downsides of finding all those comics you had missing in your comic collection at conventions is that you have to put them in the collection and I haven´t the foggiest idea where to find my issues of SHAMAN´S TEARS or how to fit all the WEISSBLECH comics into the box.

( HORROR SCHOCKER just celebrated it´s 10th anniversary, congrats ! )

Thank the comic gods above that I still have the FLASH longbox under my desk and I found the place where I previously put my old VALIANT trades but I already had to take out some stuff from my comic shelf to put in the Legion Archives and the second ALRAUNE hardcover. I´ll either need a new box ( probably more than one ) for my trades and comics or I will definitely have to get rid of the computer desk to put in another shelf.

Which would probably be the better solution because I need a place to put my album sized comics like HORROR SCHOCKER and Black Tower comics.

But I really don´t want to complain because it´s always good to have a lot of comics to read. Yes, at the moment my desk looks like it was hit by a comic bomb but eventually I will get it all cleaned up once I have read all the stuff I got at Erlangen - and written about it on my blog. So right now you are probably wondering why it took me one week to start the post about my latest trip to the 16th Comic Salon in Erlangen. And you are without any doubt expecting to hear some wild adventures with me rescuing some damsels in distress and pulling off some daring escapes.

Well, the truth is much more mundane. I just was tired. I´m not as fit as I used to be and my knee injury especially made Erlangen less exciting.

THE HOPPLING - AN EXPECTED JOURNEY TO COMIC SALON ERLANGEN

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Okay, that sounds a bit melodramatic but if you have read this blog for a while you know that I like to exaggerate. A bit. On occasion. But I´m not kidding in this case.

Erlangen is not as much fun if you can´t walk at least 12 hours straight. Because not only do you have to keep walking when you are at the con since there are not that many sitting accommodations available. The general idea is to get the people moving from table to table so they can browse - and hopefully buy - more comics after all. But if you want to attend the discussions or visit one of the many comic expositions that means more walking. And there never is somewhere to sit down at an exposition. You know, I only organized one art expo in my life ( although I helped prepare at least a dozen when I was working at the art museum in Kornwestheim ) but I did make sure there was a chair and some food and drinks so that the visitors could sit down and take time to study the art.

But that´s not the topic of this post. Maybe I will chronicle my adventures into the world of art if there are enough readers interested in that. Okay, back to Erlangen. Yes, you can take a break in between and go to your hotel ( which I did often since my hotel room was not that far away from the convention ) or get something to eat ( which in my case mostly were restaurants along the way to the hotel because of my bad knee ) but I didn´t have the stamina to go out afterwards - I was just wiped out after six or seven hours of walking. So I missed out on all that excitement.

And that IS a big part of the Erlangen experience. Not only seeing all the latest comics in Germany in one place but to go to the comic exhibitions.

To partake in the panel discussions, spend some time drinking with old buddies and hopefully rub shoulders with comic pros, see some cool cosplayers and talk with other comic fans while standing in line to get comics signed and hopefully some sketches from your favorite artists.

SKETCH AS SKETCH CAN

This is one of the reasons why I also said this was the best of times. Because I managed to get a lot of sketches for my bigger sketchbook.

Oddly enough this was the first time I went to Erlangen without having any particular artist that I absolutely wanted to get a sketch from. And of course I ended up with more sketches than last time. Because there was nobody announced that garnered my special sketch attention ( with a few exceptions but most of them were signing at the PANINI booth and trying to get a sketch there is mostly a waste of time since comic fans have to participate in the PANINI version of The Hunger Games to get lucky ) I decided to leave my little sketchbook at home. There are only a few blank pages left so I only take it with me for special artists and I get the better ones with the big sketchbook anyway. I also thought that I would probably only loose it somewhere so it stayed in the drawer. But I managed to get some really cool sketches including one from Toni Greis which is like the Holy Grail for german convention goers because Toni only manages to do a few sketches each day. Not because he´s lazy or slow but because he puts so much work into it. So the wait to get a sketch is totally worth it.

( Cosplay goddess Yaya Han by Toni Greis, sadly not the sketch I got )

Another reason why my trip to the Comic Salon Erlangen wasn´t a total bust is that it is still Erlangen, the biggest comic convention in Germany.

Especially now that the Comicbörse in Stuttgart is cancelled until further notice it´s one of the best places to get comics at a bargain price. Plus you can get many comics signed and with a little sketch from the artists.

You can buy stuff directly from the creators so every cent goes directly into their pocket and you can find some very rare comics at the comic flea market which takes place every Saturday morning right outside the convention. Which has the nice side effect that there is no entrance fee to be paid so it´s always full of people, some of them come directly from doing their weekend shopping who want to spend their change on comics.

And that´s what it´s all about. Getting some comics. So I will be talking a lot about the comics I got this year because there is not much else I did. No fancy stories about parking the car somewhere and then walking for hours and getting completely lost because we couldn´t remember where we parked it this time around. There will also be no strange adventures at parties or bars mentioned because after the con I mostly went to my hotel room and watched tv or read some comics. Also since this is not the first Erlangen diary I´m not sure if I should write something about the town itself. Most german comic fans have already been there and if my readers from abroad are interested in it I have to say I didn´t get to see much of it besides the stretch between the hotel and the convention center.

This time I was lucky to get a hotel room that was pretty close because as always I waited much too long for booking. It was a bit expensive but because of my health condition I opted for the closest one I could find.

ONE FOOT IN ERLANGEN AND THE OTHER ONE ON A BANANA PEEL

Over the past years I have stayed at quite a few hotels ( and if you have read my previous Erlangen diaries you already know some of the horror stories involved with that ) but I don´t think I have been at the HOTEL STADTHAUS before - although I can´t be sure since I stayed at two different ones last time. My room cost 245 EUROS for the three days ( 95 EUROS for the holiday and 75 for the following two days ) and the hotel was really nice although I have three complaints. Well, the first one is not really a complaint and it was only bad for me because of my injured knee : naturally I had a room on the second floor so I had to climb the stairs.

My second complaint is also not a real gripe but more something that just irritated me on a personal level. There was no door to the washing room.

Or better the washing compartment of my hotel room. I know, this is just a personal preference but I found it just weird that there was no door at the section of the room that was designed for taking a shower. I mean, not that there was anybody who came into my room during my stay in the hotel but if there had been one he would have gotten a clear view of me being on the crapper or stuff straight from the door. And now comes my third complaint which is the real one. A big problem was that the floor of the shower got very slippery once it was wet. I almost slipped and fell on my first day and I was very careful taking showers for the rest of my stay. But the slippery wet shower floor and glass door is a deadly combination.

Now leaving the shower deathtrap aside the hotel was really nice, there was free internet at the rooms ( not that I took my laptop with me, that was another thing I could loose ) a tv where I could watch wrestling and the bed was really comfortable. In fact, I slept better in that bed than in my own and if I hadn´t been terribly weak and puny I would have nicked the mattress. Hey, everybody takes a souvenir from the hotel room.

Anyway, normally I don´t write that much about my hotel rooms ( at least I don´t think I do since I haven´t re - read previous con diaries ) but this time I spent rather much time in it. Usually you just get up, shower, eat breakfast, then go to the convention to walk around and buy comics until it closes, go back to the hotel room to take another shower, then you go out to party or meet people, go back to the hotel to sleep, rinse, repeat.

The hotel room is just a place where you can crash between convention days and keep your stash of comic books until it´s time to leave again.

Thank goodness Erlangen is only every two years, otherwise it would kill me. Although the first day was very high duty. I still don´t know if it was a blessing or a curse that we arrived late on the first day because while we missed the first three hours I would have probably not made it through the day otherwise. I aimlessly wandered around the con floor a lot since the comic dealer where I bought so many hardcovers the previous time wasn´t there anymore and they also had switched a lot of the tables.

I had planned 200 bucks from my comic budget for that table and now it wasn´t going to happen which threw me off my game. The budget was 245 bucks for the hotel room - which really meant setting aside 300 since there were always some unexpected expenses involved with hotel rooms and it´s not a bad idea to tuck away 50 extra credits for the last day of the con. Then 450 bucks for comics and 400 for everything else and the latter one had already taken a big dive. Before going to Erlangen my brother went to a garage to change from winter tires to normal tires ( normally I would have done that but because of my knee I just couldn´t ) and he had to buy new tires since the old ones were just too used up.

Don´t get me wrong, safety always comes first and I wouldn´t have preferred to make the trip to Erlangen with used up tires but my part of that expense combined with 50 EUROS for gas money took away half the budget for eating, drinking and everything else. Like I said, we arrived in Erlangen late because while I had packed pretty much everything I needed the day before my brother did it that morning and to make matters worse we had to get back home to fetch the paper with the name of his hotel.

Thankfully we had only gotten to the first gas station so it wasn´t that big of a detour. Speaking about detours : what is it with those annoying car navigational systems that they always want to go in opposite direction ?

I swear, I have never heard " Please turn around at the next possibility. " so often in my life. I think the only time the car satnav didn´t say it was when we actually DID turn around to get the paper with the hotel´s name.

And the machine also never wants to take the route you want to take. No matter where you want to go and how you want to get there it finds a different way. Because it went so smooth last time we wanted to go by Würzburg again but it took me five tries until it finally accepted that and plotted our drive to Erlangen. It always wanted us to go via the A 18 from Heilbronn which is the quicker route but also the most frequented one.

So I don´t know if we just picked the better route or if we got lucky since most people had already gotten to their destinations and we were just too late but the drive to Erlangen was really uneventful and besides two short parts with construction areas nothing happened. Even the weather was quite warm. In fact, the weather was all around wonderful the whole four days of the convention. Normally it rains on at least one day of the convention but apart from a really cold wind blowing on Friday ( it really paid off that I insisted to pack the Peter Parker pullover ) it was always warm and nice. Thank god for the small comforts of global warming.

Now getting back from Erlangen, that was quite another story. It was everything the drive to Erlangen hadn´t been. There were constructions almost everywhere, we were constantly in traffic jams and it even rained.

The two biggest industrial locations in Germany are Stuttgart and Munich. And the two towns with the worst streets in most need of repairs are Stuttgart and Munich. Because our clever german government wants to " compensate the other cities " so they can be on the same level because that way they can compete with Stuttgart and Munich and therefore ALL the other cities get money for construction work first. Yeah, it´s your hard earned tax Euros at work right here. Never mind that cities like Berlin don´t compete on the same level as Stuttgart or Munich. Berlin competes with cities like Bremen or Dresden. But Stuttgart competes with Paris, Barcelona, Moscow or New York. So Germany has two cities who can compete with the other global players but instead of helping them german government regulations shoot their kneecaps off. Thank you, Angela.

Okay, after that uncharacteristic political tangent let´s get back to this year´s trip to the International Comic Salon in Erlangen. Was it worth it ?

Yes. I wasn´t a healthy as I would have liked to be and so I missed out on a lot of stuff but all things considered it was a good con. The drive there was pleasant, the hotel was nice and nearby, I didn´t go over budget ( I even had some money left on the last con day ), I met up with all the usual suspects ( and Geier really didn´t bite my head off if you were wondering. He says he would never do that but I suspect he could totally do it without putting too much effort into it if he really wanted ), I got a lot of books at a good price, I closed some gaps in my comic collection while adding a few new ones and I even got a few surprise goodies.

I DO know however that I will probably not go to Erlangen in 2016 if I am not 100 percent fit again but this time around not going wasn´t an option anyway since I had already booked the hotel and asked for a free day.

But we will talk about all of that that in detail in our next Erlangen Diaries installment as I´m afraid it´s once again time to bid my readers farewell.

CLOSING OUT WITH TONI GREIS AND THE MYSTERIOUS COPYCAT

I have to work Tomorrow and I want to be up for that since I already had to stay away from work on Saturday because I wasn´t feeling so good. I did work on Monday and Wednesday which is another reason why I didn´t post earlier. Then I had to rest after work and I was at the doctor´s office on Thursday and Friday so I didn´t get much rest those days which could be the reason I felt sick. I had an MR imagining on Friday but I have to wait until Tuesday when I have an appointment with the orthopedist to find out what the test results mean. Here´s hoping I don´t need surgery.

I also tried to stay away from the internet because the three times I did go on the internet I ended up surfing until five o´clock in the morning.

Even when I tried to do this post it took me too long to find all the pics I needed ( of all the comics I got ) and in the end I decided to postpone it until the next day. Just Yesterday I spend a lot of time looking for pictures of Toni Greis. I wrote about him in the past and you may remember him as the artist of the erotic masterpiece ALRAUNE which was also translated to english and published by Eros Comix in color and the sci fi comic LUNA. The second album of the color version of ALRAUNE is finally available in Germany and the last two chapters of LUNA are still pending publication.

( another Toni Greis masterpiece with his signature ASS - ets )

First I was looking for pictures that looked like the sketch I got or the pencil drawings he sold at the con. Then I had to sort out the ones that were safe to post on the blog - in this case I was even glad that a lot of the pictures are explicit where sex or violence is concerned. But when I was finished I had to power off the laptop because it was too late to start a post and I decided to do it when I could start at ten in the morning. I know I may have gone a bit overboard with the pictures of Toni Greis but I really want to feature more of his art since he´s probably not that well known outside of Germany and I think he deserves the exposure. And if I have learned one thing about pictures on the internet in my nine years writing this blog it´s better to have and not need then need and not have.

One last thing I have to mention is that I found another site that copies my blog . Last year I found this blog which copied all my posts up until Friday, November the 4th 2011and the new one has all the posts until March the 4th 2014. Now I don´t know if I should be annoyed or flattered that someone liked my posts so much that he went to all the trouble of copying them. Maybe he thinks my blog gets more traffic than it actually does ( which may be a reason why I get so much spam in the comment section ) but then he´s in for a rude awakening. At the moment I´m not taking any steps because with the way blogger acts sometimes I think it´s a good idea to have a place on the internet with a back up of your blog.

At least the posts in their first draft from since I can´t see the changes I made in the posts after the first versions. Which are really a lot. Pictures of hot babes are added, new text passages too, more links, new sources found and facts verified are just a few cases where I go back and redo posts. It´s just too bad that most readers don´t go back to read old posts so they miss out on the amazing new stuff I added. My only consolation is that some of my readers may not be checking out the blog on a daily basis so their chances to read the posts in the finished form are higher. In any case I just wanted to let you know that if you stumble upon this other blog by chance I didn´t change the layout or the color scheme and your address to get the full TALES FROM THE KRYPTONIAN experience is still right here.

So next time we will come to more comics, more convention, definitely more Toni Greis butt pictures and maybe even some cover hommages.

Since this is most definitely the last post for this month I think it´s time to take a little summary. With six posts this month it was a regular month even though I didn´t get to post anything last week. With two posts about Doctor Who and one about Black Tower Comics it was a very British month but I also managed to cover cosplayer Yaya Han ( no pun intended ), some classic Bronze Age Kung Fu comics and the biggest german comic con this year. Also the readership seems to be up with two days going over 1.100 clicks per day, one cracking the 1.200 clicks bar and Today´s record of 1.400 hits and rising. What a way to go, my faithful readers, and I hope I can justify the increase in readership with the quality of my future posts. 

Speaking about the Queen of Cosplay, originally I wanted to put a Yaya Han video at the end of the post ( I think she´s so incredibly hot ! )

but then decided not to. I try to mix things up a bit on this blog and keep them fresh and exciting so I don´t like to put two videos about the same subject in consecutive posts. Unless it´s a series. Then that´s completely fine. And I´m still hoping to get around to do My Big Yaya Han Post ( the intro to the big Yaya Han post was so long that I had to give it a post of its own ) and I don´t want to run out of videos with her prematurely.

There are quite a few good Yaya Han videos on YouTube with her sporting different outfits at various conventions although the comments get quite repetitive and boring after a while. It´s just so sad and unimaginative what people come up with on the internet. Anyway, since Today´s topic is Erlangen here is a video for all who couldn´t attend. Dentroo videooooo !



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