Suddenly : Erlangen !

Yes, I was pretty convinced I wouldn´t go but what else was I supposed to do the whole holiday long ? And even if I could not go for the full four days I didn´t have to work until Sunday. So I decided to spend the first two days with comics, comics and more comics....and a bit of rain, but that´s always a given on german comic conventions.


Now true to form I only decided to go to Erlangen at the last minute which meant that on Wednesday after work I had to organize everything. Since I could only attend the convention at the first two days this meant I could not travel back with my brother which meant getting a ticket for the train.

I managed to get a ticket at a relatively moderate price although I didn´t realize it was a stopping train and we would go through every one - horse town on the way back. But more about that later.

So I had my ticket which meant the next step would be to look for a hotel room. As I had waited for the last moment this could have been a problem but since it was only for one day I found a few hotels that had vacancies. I also could have just partied through the night from Thursday to Friday - a suggestion by my brother - but unlike him I tend to see my visits to Erlangen more of a vacation than an opportunity to surpass the twelve labors of Hercules. So getting to sleep in a nice bed is fine by me. One of the hotels with still available rooms was even the hotel were my brother stayed but for money reasons and to stay a bit on my own I decided against it, which was not my best idea. Now with my ticket and my hotel room reservation the only thing left to do was packing the suitcase - or in this case the trolley case. On my last conventions I always took the trolley and it´s always more comfortable. I decided to take the big one because it´s the only one in which the folding chair fits.

When you get to a certain age standing in line for hours is not as much fun as it used to be and even if there was no particular artist announced where I went " Oh, I absolutely have to get a sketch from him. " it´s better to be safe then sorry.


It´s always better to have and not need than to need and have not. And even if I only got to use the folding chair a few times when I was last in Erlangen it sure came in handy when I had to wait half an hour for a bus because there was no bench or other place to sit on at the bus stop.

Now I especially bought this folding chair in Spain, because I couldn´t find an adequate here. Because you need one that´s comfortable, but not too big to fit into a suitcase. It has to be light because you will have to carry it but it must also be sturdy enough to carry your weight. So unless you want to embarrass yourself at the convention you better try it out before buying. And it has to be easy to fold and unfold.

Like I said, there was nobody on my signing list so I didn´t have to pack any comics for signing. And since I have most of the things you need for bad weather ( woolly hat, gloves, scarf, two umbrellas ) and all necessary drawing materials in my working bag anyway I only had to take out a few things and put in my sketchbooks. I also packed some clothes to change after the first day but although I now had everything I needed I couldn´t shake the feeling that I had forgotten something important. Which is just a thing. You always think you have forgotten something even if you didn´t.

Anyway, on Thursday I woke up right on schedule and took a shower before putting the trolley into the trunk of our car. Since there was only the folding chair and some clothes in it I also put my other bag in it but I was pretty sure it wouldn´t work out this way on the way back because then the trolley would be full of comics. I hitched the ride to Erlangen with my brother so the first 20 bucks I spent were for gas but nobody rides for free. This year my brother had decided to take the route we took the last time we came back from Erlangen because - even if it wasn´t shorter than our usual route - it sure was a lot more relaxed and easier to follow.


We even did make good time until the last kilometers when we ended up in one of the only three traffic jams of that day. Twice. So instead of around twelve o´clock - which is when the convention begins - we arrived sortly after one o´clock but all things considered we had worse trips to Erlangen. We even got off the Autobahn a bit sooner than necessary but that was okay.

Since it had already started we decided to enter the convention quickly and not go to the hotel. Even if my brother was surprised I didn´t leave the trolley in the trunk. Yeah, right. I´m hauling this baby all the way to Erlangen only to leave it in the trunk and spend the whole day schlepping all the comics around the Kongresszentrum. No thanks.

The reason why you take a trolley is so you can have the heavy or bulky things with you but only when you need to. You put the bottles of water there or your comics or your jacket when it´s hot. And I really spend a lot of the first day putting my jeans jacket in the trolley and getting it out again. Because outside it was kind of chilly, then it was rather hot inside, then I went outside and it was cold again, then it got warmer, then it started to rain, then it was back again to the convention, then out again.......just endless fun.

No really, whenever Erlangen takes place and no matter how the weather is before it, it always has to rain at least once during Erlangen. The last month had ended with pretty sunny and warm weather but the nearer we came to Erlangen the colder and rainier it got.


Which didn´t interest me that much once I was inside the convention. Although I have to confess I almost forgot that I had to pay for tickets. Normally I just take the four day ticket which is cheaper but this time I had to buy tickets for the two days I was staying.

This time around there was no meticulous game plan to get as many sketches as possible since most of the interesting artists were signing at PANINI and the comicfans have to do a triathlon to get a sketch. I never can understand how they organize these things and it really does seem like the most important thing for the guys from PANINI Germany is that they get to hang out with their favorite artists.

Usually the first thing I do is walk around, greet the usual suspects, shake some hands, kiss some babies, well, what us comic celebrities do when we meet every two years. But since I only would be in Erlangen for two days ( and I had to leave at 15.00 hours on the second day to catch my train home ) I didn´t have as much time to take it all in. Instead I went looking for the one table where I wish I had spent more time the last time around. There is always this ONE table were you just rush through and you tell yourself you will come by a second time but then the convention is over and you never got around to it. There was a table where they sold trades and comic hardcovers for 10 EUROS each and last time I only picked three or four of them.

In the meantime I´m buying much more comics as hardcovers so the table was twice as important now. After 20 or 30 minutes of wandering around without any clue ( which I pretty much continued to do for the rest of my stay at the convention ) I found the table, and like expected there were dozens of people going through the piles of trades and hardcovers.


I was just going through the fourth box when I had the idea to ask one of the staff if the hardcovers in the bookshelf above the table was also at 10 EUROS each. Which is a good bargain price even compared to most of the amazon offers. I think I spent at least an hour there in which I must have gone through all the boxes twice until I had a pile of around 23 trades and hardcovers.

Now since the offer was Buy 11 trades / hardcovers for 100 EUROS ( You get one for free ) and I didn´t want to spend 200 EUROS on the first table I had to thin it down a bit. One of my rules has always been to never spend everything at the first table you get to and although I had singled out this table in particular to spend my first money I didn´t want to have to drag around 22 heavy hardcovers for the rest of the convention. So I made one pile with the comics I didn´t already have, a second pile with all the comics I already have in single form and a third pile with the few hardcovers I just couldn´t leave because at 10 EUROS it´s a price you can´t beat.

Now which hardcovers did I pick ( and they were all hardcovers ) ? First THUNDERBOLTS - SIEGE and THUNDERBOLTS - FEAR ITSELF. Thunderbolts is one of the books where I made the switch from single issues to trades - or rather hardcovers in this case - but where I´m way behind. They are not in sequence but I´ll have to get them sooner or later anyway so this was a no brainer. As were AVENGERS ACADEMY - PERMANENT RECORD and AVENGERS ACADEMY - WILL WE USE THIS IN THE REAL WORLD ? which are volume one and two of the series. Ever since it started I heard nothing but good things about the book but somehow I missed my window of opportunity at amazon. I almost ordered the first four hardcovers from amazon last month but now Í was glad I didn´t.

Another series I always intended to follow was GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY which I left when Paul Pelletier went to another series ( I think WAR OF KINGS at that time ).


I had looked into some scattered issues the following months but the art was really not that interesting. Still I wanted to find out how things went from the last issue I read from Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning so I picked up volumes 2, 3 and 4.

Okay, so far all new books and we´re at seven books already. Now I picked two books from the You deserve to be shot in the head if you don´t buy these pile namely AVENGERS ASSEMBLE volumes 4 and 5. For 10 EUROS each. Since I already have volume 3 I just had to pick these two so that when I get around to re - read them I can do all three in one sweep. Now the art in them is a bit all over the place and I think volume 5 is the weakest in that departement. It has only three issues by Alan Davis, some by Ivan Reis and Kieron Dwyer and one by Brent Anderson. Okay, volume 4 doesn´t have more issues by Alan Davis but most of the rest is done by Jerry Ordway and Steve Epting with one issue by John Romita Jr and Norm Breyfogle thrown in. Still, it´s one big story and now I only have to find the first two volumes which won´t be easy. They have just been reprinted in softcover but if I really buy comics I already have I don´t want it in softcover.

Now I was at nine books which meant that if I could pick another one there was a free one in it too. So the next one I decided on was also from the pile of books I already had, namely the seven part ETERNALS miniseries by Neil Gaiman and John Romita Jr. So far I only had the single issues but I have already re - read them three times. My brother bought the german trade - bummer - but I wanted to get the hardcover because I´m not sure if the comic was really done for single issues or if it was just broken up into seven parts. Like MARVEL did with the MAN WITHOUT FEAR series by Frank Miller and John Romita Jr. First it was announced as a graphic novel but then Marvel had some doubts and released it in single issue form to be on the safe side. The bad thing was that the collected edition came out only three months after issue five. So all the readers felt kind of cheated.


Now I´m not saying that the same thing happened with ETERNALS but you can´t help but notice that there are none of the usual last page splashes or cliffhangers in this story. So I hope this reads much better ( or a little better since Neil Gaiman´s writing can´t really improve being of the usual exceptional high standard ) and the variant covers that are included look much better than the regular covers. I never understood why they slapped such fugly covers on the regular issues when they had all those gorgeous covers by John Romita Jr.

Okay, mission accomplished - pile narrowed down to ten hardcovers. So for number eleven I picked the new hardcover printing of AVENGERS - THE KORVAC SAGA which would have been my next pocketbook from amazon anyway. These last few months I have found a few pocketbooks by PANINI UK at amazon and I have to say I really like them. I don´t know what the reasons are why PANINI doesn´t do any pocketbooks in Germany ( maybe the german market is still reeling from the horrible Condor pocketbooks ) but it´s a real shame. I already have four X - MEN pocketbooks - two from the regular series and two from John Byrne´s X - MEN THE HIDDEN YEARS - and the last one was AVENGERS - THE BRIDE OF ULTRON. It contains the issues 158 to 167 and it´s all written by Jim Shooter with incredible art by John Byrne, George Perez, Sal Buscema and George Tuska.

You know, after he quit Marvel Jim Shooter has gotten kind of a bad rep by some people and I almost forgot that he not only wrote one of my favorite megasagas at Marvel, SECRET WARS which was the first one period, but also some of my favorite issues of AVENGERS. Now the next pocketbook that is announced on the last page of The Bride of Ultron is THE KORVAC SAGA ( which features the first appearance of the Guardians of the Galaxy ) so instead of getting the pocketbook for six or seven bucks I picked up the hardcover - for free.


This is my fourth hardcover of these classic story reprints after PROJECT PEGASUS, ASSAULT ON OLYMPUS and THE OVERTHROW OF DOOM and I have to say I really like the full package. There are always all covers included and some factsheets from the OHATMU or somewhere else. The only thing I sometimes miss - but that might just be me because I´m spoiled by the spanish BIBLIOTECA MARVEL editions - is a foreword or an introduction explaining what´s so special about the story I´m about to read. For those who haven´t read this classic tale I don´t want to spoil too much ( you better skip the next paragraphs ) but this is the one where the Avengers blow it. I didn´t get to do a special post on Valentine´s Day but if I ever did one this would be one of the stories I would pick. Because it basically is a love story even if it has the usual fighting and space aliens and end - of - the - world - stuff and capes and tights.

This is the story of Michael Korvac who fell in love with a woman, how he became a god to lay the universe at her feet and how the Avengers killed them for it.

Short and sweet. Okay, I had picked the comics I wanted to buy and even got a nice comicbag to put them all in. Not that I really needed it but when you buy eleven books you should get a bag. And it´s a really nice, sturdy bag. So, this was my first purchase in Erlangen, which was around 290 dollars of hardcovers for 100 EUROS, not a bad deal. Right about now was the moment when I was glad I picked the big trolley since surely all the hardcovers wouldn´t have fit on the bottom of the smaller one. That´s not something you want to do : put hardcovers on top of another. At least not more than you have to.

Okay, that´s enough for Today as I´m starting to make more and more typos and you´re probably as exhausted from reading all this as I am from writing it. And we have only gotten to my first two hours or so.


Whew ! I will continue my account of my visit to the Comicsalon Erlangen 2012 in my next post where we will hopefully get to the other comics I bought on the first day, what else I did at the convention and what happened after the doors closed. For me it´s time to do some cooking and watch the episodes of ONE PIECE I missed while in Erlangen.

Since I wrote so much about the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Korvac Saga here´s a clip form the animated tv series AVENGERS - EARTH´S MIGHTIEST HEROES. The art is a bit blocky but most cartoonshows imitate the style of BATMAN ADVANTURES without really trying to understand why it was so successful. Anyway, despite of the art the cartoon show is quite good, with lots of action and really funny. Just like the old Avengers book used to be. What´s especially good is the interaction between the team members and it seems only the Wasp and Hawkeye seem to get along with the Hulk.


As usual this episode is mixing classic elements ( in this case the Korvac saga ) with the newest developments which is the reason that they didn´t use the team of the Guardians of the Galaxy from that story but the newest version with Adam Warlock, Star Lord, Groot and - best of all - Rocket Racoon. I mean it´s worth to watch the episode just for the racoon. Now since the second season hasn´t started in Germany there are some download links for the full episode for my german readers here , here , here and here .



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Okay, well, you go figure the " gig " out and I´ll be over here figuring out what exactly I´ve been put on this Earth to do, how I ended up in a magical Kung Fu city where no one teaches anyone Kung Fu, and what I´m supposed to do when the cosmic powers of a big firebird dump themselves right on my head.....

Classicos DC - The brave and the bold - part 1

I still haven't finished my report of the comic convention from hell but I wanted to write about the comics I have read as long as they're still in my memory. Not all of them but for more than a week I have been wanting to write about Classicos DC - The Brave and the Bold.


And since I have already collected all the pictures I'm going to need for the post and I just finished reading the last volume today there's no better time for this than now. Especially since I have finally access to the laptop even if it's only for one hour. So here's the first part of the review.

There have been many incarnations of THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD apart from the actual one ( besides the actual team up book, and the original there was one starring Green Arrow and Butcher and one starring Flash and Green Lantern ) but today I want to speak about the spanish edition of PLANETA DeAGOSTINI.

Planeta is the company that has the rights for DC comics in Spain although it's mostly known for it's plethora of collections of books, magazines or any other collectibles from Dinosaurs to miniature ships coming in weekly parts. Classicos DC is a line that presents DC stuff that is either new or that is difficult to find in spanish comic shops. Classicos DC BATMAN The brave and the Bold is in black and white but not all collections under the Classicos DC line are - KAMANDI is black and white but others like TEEN TITANS or Walt Simonson's fantastic ORION are in color. Don't ask me why some get color and others don't.

I'm just glad that they printed the ORION collection in color since it gave me the chance to read this modern masterpiece by Walter Simonson even if the binding is not that good. It seems that Walt Simonson is best when he writes about gods or godlike beings since he's one of the few comic writers who understands that writing superheroes is writing the big comic opera.


Now while Planeta's Brave and the Bold collection is in black and white it's in the pocket book format. Again there are spanish comic collections in black and white that have the same format as the DC SHOWCASE collections like the one for CAPTAIN MARVEL but I have no idea why some titles get the big format and some get the small format. I bought the first volume of Brave and the Bold while I was at the comic convention from hell. On the last day of the convention I still had some money left that I wanted to spend on the DEATHNOTE replica notebook but somehow forgot. So instead of that I invested it in as many volumes of BIBLIOTEKA MARVEL with John Romita Jr. that I could find ( 5 volumes of X - Men and 1 of Iron Man )and in the first Classicos DC BATMAN - The brave and the bold. I missed my chance to ensure that all my enemies die in screaming agony but at least I got to read really good comics. Which is everything you need on your tombstone : At least I read some really good comics.

Now with a price tag of 14,95 Euros for each 300 plus pages volume you might say : " Hey, that's almost as much as the DC SHOWCASE books. Why not go directly to the original versions if the only difference is the size ? "

Well, that's because that's not the only difference. The Classicos DC line ( as the Biblioteka Marvel line ) not only offers a lot of comic bang for your buck but it has always two introductions and one text at the end giving you more details about the comics you are going to read.


Especially in the Biblioteka Marvel editions the editorial is doing a terrific job of writing interesting pieces about the comics of each volume, the artists and editors that have created it, the historical context, the history of the characters and so on and so on.

And that's something that I miss with the ESSENTIAL and SHOWCASE collections. Another point - at least for the Biblioteka Marvel line - is that with a price tag of around 5 Euros you can decide if you buy one volume, three or more depending on how much money you have. Not an argument with the Brave and the Bold. No, the most important thing for me was that the spanish edition collects ONLY the Jim Aparo issues ( with a few exceptions by superstar artists ) which is what I'm interested in. So I don't have to buy a comic that has all the other stuff - I get all the Jim Aparo stuff in one neat package.

Maybe I have already mentioned it but I'm a big fan of the late Jim Aparo. I always liked his style and for me his version of the Batman is the one that counts. To this day I cringe whenever I see a Batman with those short ears and without the yellow emblem because to me that's not how he is supposed to look. So when the first issue of the DC SHOWCASE editions of The Brave and the Bold came out I looked for it in my comic shop but there was not enough Jim Aparo in it for my taste so I didn't buy it. I have said it before and I will say it again : DC needs to give Jim Aparo his own collection. The man has done a ton of stuff for them and it's a shame that not even after his death they can give him a bit of respect.


And with that I mean a bit more than a PHANTOM STRANGER SHOWCASE here and a SPECTRE collection there. But back to the Brave and the Bold. Since I prefer to write about comics I have read I'm writing about volumes 1, 4 and 5 of the collection. I have not bought volumes 2 and 3 because of the horrible quality of the printing. One downside of having worked in a printing company for almost ten years is that I'm unable to buy comics with bad printing and printing errors. Especially if the comic contains errors that I know are there because of laziness. One of my mottos in life has always been : It doesn't matter which job you have as long as you do it right. So when I see a comic with poor printing and it's evident that the guy at the six color speedmaster or whatever machine they used just was to lazy to look after the water I just can't spend money on it.

Now in the volumes 4 and 5 there are one or two stories that are printed really awful. All the lines are blurry, the words are smudged and it's almost impossible to read. But in the volumes 2 and 3 almost all the stories are like that. If we would have printed a comic like this in my old printing company we would have thrown the whole edition in the trash. We wouldn't have had the courage to show this to any client. Nobody would have paid us for producing this crap. Like I said before working in a printing company I might have bought it but now I just can't. Especially when I don't have that much money to begin with and the prices for comics are increasing.


So that was the negative part of the review.

Being a fan of Jim Aparo it's interesting to see him evolve along the lines of The Brave and the Bold going from a capable artist to finding his definite style that should become his trademark for years to come. Especially his early work is much more detailed altough I also like his later slick artwork which you can see even better without the heavy technicolor coloring of the times. One of the things that I as an inker like about the ESSENTIAL and SHOWCASE editions is that you can study the inks really good. There are even some instances like the ESSENTIAL TOMB OF DRACULA collection where the black and white edition is even better than the color version.

I know that there are comic readers out there who don't read black and white comics but that's their loss. A friend of me doesn't watch movies that are in black and white - period. I think he made an exception with SIN CITY but in that case he argued that there are colors like red, yellow or blue in the movie. But he still doesn't watch black and white movies. Which for me is stupid if you really love movies because you miss such classics like HAUNTED HOUSE, CASABLANCA, HIGH NOON, CITIZEN CANE, PSYCHO or Dr. CALIGARY. Not only have these films had a big influence on the whole movie industries but as a comic artist you can learn a lot from watching them. Not only about how to make a captivating narrative and how to structure your sequences but especially in the old black and white movies you can learn a lot about using shadows and how to contrast black and white on your page. So my tip for all aspiring comic artists out there is : watch more black and white movies. But don't copy them. As the motto of the Three Musketeers says : adapt, adopt and improve.


And that's all for the first part. Strange how things sometimes start with a review of a comic and end up with tips about how to make comics. Next time I will have more time on the laptop so maybe I can wrap this up in the second installment.

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My spanish vacation - Part 5

Once in a while the computergods seem to smile on you.


Today Firefox suddenly worked again and even shows the clips on my blog ( thank god I didn´t do any double posts in my last entry - what I found out today ). I just finished to rebuild my picture archive for the blog and even downloaded a pletora of new episodes of ComicGeekSpeak to listen to while writing. In fact I´m listening to the Book of the Month Club Episode 3 which is about THE WALKING DEAD.


In addition today is Monday which means that they air BLADE and two new episodes of ALIAS nonstop. So I just tape it with my VCR so when I watch it later I can skip all the commercials. And I save 45 minutes because of that too. The only other thing on tv today is Mike Hammer which I will tape on the other vcr. So no tv for today, everything´s locked and loaded and I even have access to all the you tube bookmarks I made last time.

So let´s get back to my first day at the comic convention in Barcelona. There are still a few fanzines I have to write about that I didn´t cover in the first four parts Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4

Whew ! Almost lost my whole post. Thankfully blogger now automatically saves your draft or I would be royally screwed now !


Anyway, the first one is SUPERHEROES AL DESNUDO ( superheroes in the nude ) from FLAsCinDER. Priced at 1,50 EUROS this 40 page, glossy paper manual for the superhero of today is a cool tongue - in - cheek how to guideline to become a superheroes. From how to acquire superpowers to how to get a superhero costume up to fighting etiquette this one has it all.



And while it makes fun of a lot of superhero cliches it´s all in good taste. You can tell that deep down the artists behind are superhero fans.

For every superhero fan this should be a must read. And there´s a villain´s manual to boot. Speak about working both side of the equation. Anyway, here´s the link to the FLAsCinDER blog

The next one is COMPLEJO DE CACATUA which also includes some superhero spoofs but a little more risky. Still funny but more like MAD magazine. As you can tell from the cover.


I wanted to list the link for www.radiofreakie.com but the website doesn´t seem to work anymore.

Now not only did I get the 52 magazine size COMPLEJO DE CACATUA for 2,50 EUROS but a goodybag with 3 other fanzines for free. ME PARTO......CON UN HACHA - especial olvidados- is like the name says a 20 page special with forgotten characters from radiofreakie. And if you read it you also know why these characters are forgotten. There are some nice ideas and solid art but you get the feeling that it doesn´t " click ". It´s interesting for fans of radiofreakie and comic historians. For all others.......


EL ESTORNINO 2 : FREDDY´S NIGHTMARE ( of which I didn´t find any picture ) is like a elseworlds spoof of THE CROW that includes the crow ( of course ), Freddy Krueger, Chucky, Dracula and Blade. And SUBZERO ! The art is rather simple but the story is interesting although it sometimes goes to much off topic and almost loses sight of the main story at times. Not the best parody I have read but also not the worst.

The third one is TIB 3 : Tubie in Black Investigators ( also no pic ) which I haven´t read yet because of the apalling artwork. The comic seems to be about a investigation team like MEN IN BLACK only with antropomorphic animal investigators.

So that wraps up my visit to the fanzine area on the first day. I also went to the area with the normal comic dealers were they had everything - and I mean everything.


There were many comics I have in my collection from the dark times. Which means the lost years between when Williams stopped publishing Marvel comics and Condor began. During that period most american comics I read were the spanish translations which often had some pages missing.

While searching for material for this post I found this website were you can find tons of cover scans and a huge database that details how the comics were published in Sapin and which pages are missing.

And since we´re talking about those old comics I thought it might be interesting for my readers to see which spanish comics ended up in my collection. Especially since they have different covers than the original comics.

This comic has another issue of the story of Cap trying to find out more about his past. I remember that it´s drawn by Sal Buscema and it was a continuation of the french issue I read. I´m not sure if this is really in my own collection, I think my brother bought it. But since we have been swapping and exchanging comics back and forth for years ( depending on who followed which series at that point ) I can´t really tell.


This cover is from a collection that includes five normal issues of MOON KNIGHT. Which for Spain means taking five normal comics, slapping a new cardboard cover on it and just gluing it all together. But they are all in consecutive order. This one had five issues of the fabulous run by Bill Scienkiewicz which to this day are the only ones I read. I still haven´t gotten the money for the ESSENTIAL MOON KNIGHT.


This is the only other one.


Now since you couldn´t get Marvel comics in Germany you couldn´t afford to be choosy. Hence the Defenders. This issue has the infamous story in which the Hulk goes shopping ( I don´t remember under which circumstances exactly ) and buys a whole shopping cart full of canned beans. And the Defenders are eating beans for the next weeks. For some people this may be the worst comic story ever but for me it is just pat of the special charm of this particular team. I mean the< were not the Avengers or the Fantastic Four. They were more like the working man´s super hero team. Like the Giffen - League but a few decades earlier.


Part two of the story. As you can see the Valkyrie is a part of the team. I always wondered how they could get away with her costume during the comics code. Especially the big metal thingies. I wonder if they were padded.....


Anyway, I always liked the concept of the Valkyrie though they changed some things like the original Valkyries rode on wolves not on winged horses. I think that was added to attrackt more female readers. And she was once married to Thor though both of them don´t remember anymore. Yeah, I bet Thor remembers some things....like the honeymoon. He just SAYS he forgot so he doesn´t have to pay alimony.....that pig !!!


Where were we ? Yesterday I didn´t get to finish my post so today I´m continuing although I´m having the flu and have to go to the bathroom every five minutes. But let´s go on with the spanish comics.


This were the first issues of DEMON IN THE BOTTLE I read. The art team of John Romita Jr. and Bob Layton is still one of my all - time favorite Iron Man art teams. I wonder what Bob Layton´s doing right now......Marvel could use a few good inkers right now. Like on Moon Knight.....


PEDAZOS DE ODIO ! Now doesn´t that sound better than any original title could ? Sometimes the spanish translations have a better ring to it than english. I mean Irom Man sounds cool but the spanish name " Hombre the Hierro " is just oozing with machismo. If I was a wrestler that would be the kind of name I would go for. Or even better " El mucho grande Hombre de Hierro ". Yeah, that´s perfect.

I don´t know if DEMON IN THE BOTTLE has been published in Germany. Which should not be too surprising since history shows us that not always the best stories get translated to german. Maybe one of the reasons why comics are not so popular in Germany is that we don´t always get the best. Most times quality is sacrificed for the hip, flashy and hot......that is not remembered after two months. That and the crappy translations.


Okay, what is it with Cap and Iron Man ? Speak about history repeating itself. They always seem to fight as if some guy at Marvel is always pitting them against each other.

Now, all kidding aside in this issue Iron Man get´s a lesson in self defense techniques from Cap while Tony totally blows his secret identity. Like anyone is going to believe that Tony´s in such a surprisingly good shape because he plays a lot of Tennis. And least of all Captain America.


This is the last issue from DEMON IN THE BOTTLE storyline that I could get in spanish which ends just before the big showdown between a pissed off Iron Man and dozens of Hammer´s hired super villains. Daaamn !!!! That really sucked. It took me many years to find out how the story ended.


Now that´s not the last issue of Iron Man I read. Judging from this comic Tony must have survived the battle somehow.


Another issue of John Romita Jr / Bob Layton goodness of Iron Man fighting some strong guy underwater.


I know, the cover is just painfull to look at. Don´t worry, the art inside is much better. But you see how desperate I was to get Marvel comics that not even this cover could scare me away. Any decent comic fan would never have opened this comic to check out the art inside - because that would mean having to touch the cover.


This is without doubt one of the gems of my comic collection. Altough many years old this collection of five issues of the magnificient THE DEADLY HANDS OF SHANG CHI MASTER OF KUNG FU ( called EDITION DEDICATED TO THE MARTIAL ARTS KUNG FU KARATE in spanish ) is really one of my prized posessions. And not only because of the wonderful art by Mike Zeck on the top of his career.


The comics in this collection are the final issues of Shang Chi´s fight to stop his father Fu Man Chu from taking over the world. The big showdown between Shang Chi and Fu Man Chu takes place in a freaking flying saucer. How cool is that ?


Another Shang Chi comic that includes the story VIENTOS DE MEDIANOCHE ( winds of midnight ) one of the best...if not THE best story of the whole series. I think this comic got me more interested in mangas than any manga I read becuase it introduced me to the asian way of thinking and their sense of poetry. And there´s a gorilla in it. I already said it but you can´t argue about the quality of a comic with a monkey on the cover.


I don´t know how many times I have bought this comic. In one of his columns at image Erik Larsen said how he always buy the same comics over and over again. Well, he´s not the only one. I have this comic in french. I also have this one which is the spanish version in color from BRUGUERA. Then I bought the black and white spanish version that was included in the latest BIBLIOTEKA MARVEL edition. And I bought the german version which I think was a back up story in Spider - Man when CONDOR began printing Spider - Man comics again. Maybe I also bought the german poket book version when CONDOR published their poket book line which in part was responsible for the crash of superhero comics before the resurrection by DINO.

The art team of Sal Buscema and Ernie Chan was just fabulous. One of the many reasons why I don´t think it´s always a good idea to let artists ink themselves. Not that Sal Buscema is not a great artist in his own right. But the inks of Ernie Chan brings it to a whole new level.


No idea what happens in this comic. I only remember the striking cover art with Ka - Zar baptising old green genes while Zabu tries to pick a fight with LA MASA.


Now like in many german comics there often were back up stories in spanish comics that not always had something to do with the first series. Since the Hulk was pretty popular because of the tv series they thought it was a good idea to publish the She - Hulk in the same magazine. And because there is no female form of " LA MASA " she was named HULKA.


More comic book gold from Marvel that was never published in german. Wonderful art by Michael Golden. This series appealed to my love of superhero comics and science fiction.


Another collection of five issues. The funny thing is that I perfectly remember this comic being in my collection. But when Psychoman turned up years later during John Byrne´s Fantastic Four run I totally forgot it. It was like I was seeing this villain for the first time.


Sweet Christmas ! Another highlight from my collection. I became a big Kerry Gamill fan from reading his issues of POWERMAN. Many years later I was delighted when he took over the art in SUPERMAN, contributing to such classic storylines like EXILE or SAGA OF THE RED KRYPTONITE.


One of my favorite comics featuring EL AGUILA which is half Zorro, half Swordsman. Supposed to be a latino character this was especially interesting to read. Being spanish myself it´s always entertaining to experience how other countries sees or portrays us. I wonder if there is a spanish version of Dave´s Longbox " The Pain " banner. Something like " Que Dolor ".


This comic was part of a package from e - bay that found it´s way to me - aside from being already in my collection. So I´m not the only one who had it. The art is not so good in this comic because they got the wrong inker.

Eventually I had to throw away all the comics from the package because the issues were just too shreddered and battered. And they were covered in some kind of dust that I reacted allergic to. But it was cool rereading all those old spanish comics of Iron Man and Spider - Man. There was also an issue were Superboy gets transformed into a fishman and an issue of Green Lantern from the time when nobody knew who the Guardians were. I wonder why they got rid of that. It added a " MISSION IMPOSSIBLE " element to the stories. " Green Lantern of Sector 929652. Your mission....if you choose to accept it...."


I think this is the first issue of the storyline in which Iron Fist and Powerman return to Kun Lun. And it has that freaky nunchaku three part thingie. Martial arts just offer the coolest weapons.


This is definitely a part of the Kun Lun storyline. I remember that it began with the theft of the amulets of the Sons of the Dragon that later turned out to be part of a magic Jade Tiger sculpture. I especially remember a page that was a full fight scene between Iron Fist and a ninja that detailed the fight in a dozen little vignettes. Superb storytelling.

And somehow they used that sculpture to get to Kun Lun. I never found out how the Sons of the Dragon got their amulets back. Or did they ? Anyway, in recent Daredevil issues the White Tiger was wearing this amulet again so they must have gotten them back somehow - or some kind of replacement.


Now that I think of it the White Tiger was always one of my favorite characters. Not that his costume was very elaborate - it´s just a white body with a mask - but it seems the perfect design appealed to me even then. Too bad they got rid of him.


The last part of the storyline. I think the best part of the story was Luke Cage´s reaction to Kun Lun and the whole eastern mindset. The whole concept of Luke Cage, Marvel´s " most street " guy colliding with Lei Kung the Thunderer was brilliant. And are they fighting big salad monsters on the cover ?


Powerman & Iron Fist vs. Dracula. Grito de muerte. Nuff said.


The last issue I have. Featuring once again EL AGUILA this time fighting on the same side as the heroes for hire. Do I have to say more ?


Yeah, baby, now we´re talking ! Rom Spaceknight......Number One ! One of my all - time favorite series. When I found american issues they were already into the 30 numbers. So of the first issues I read the spanish version. I´m not sure if I got number 1 and number 2 in spanish or only number 1.


For some this series may sound cheesy but you can´t find a bigger space opera or a soul more noble than Rom in the whole 616 universe of Marvel - aside from Silver Surfer. I don´t know if the whole concept of an alien coming to save us from an invasion was a product of 80s science fiction inspired by Alien. But the whole idea of hundreds of sleeper agents was relative new then. Which in turn made the whole Manhunter thing in DCs Millenium unoriginal in comparison later on.


Another collection of five issues. The cover is from a story about a human / dire wraith - hybrid. If you need any more proof that this is a 80s series the fact that the evil shapechanging aliens are called " dire wraiths " should be a dead giveaway.


Yeah, I know, it´s Dazzler. I admit it. I read Dazzler, too. What can I say ? It was the 80s. Disco was big in Germany. Dazzler was new. And she wore a glittering skin tight outfit. That´s my story and I will stick to it.


You see ? She even fought Doctor Doom. Now I guess that´s one fact that old Doomy likes to keep to himself. I can just picture Spider - Man taunting him : " Didn´t you fight Dazzler once ? " Some things you can never live down.

Well, that´s enough embarrassing stuff for today. In the next part we will get back to the Salon del Comic in Barcelona and what I did on the other three days. I promise.

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