More recycled Gespenster Krimi covers

The last few posts have all been about old Marvel comics so Today we´re doing something different : the recycled covers from GESPENSTER KRIMI.

Since I have already written at length about my long relationship with german pulp novels ( another word might be dime novels or penny dreadfuls but I like the term pulp better ) like PROFESSOR ZAMORRA, JOHN SINCLAIR or DAMONA KING I won´t go into a long explanation here.

Suffice it to say that they are still published by BASTEI , one of the pulp novel giants in Germany covering everything from romance to western and espionage with the iconic JERRY COTTON series as one of their flagships. They also do a lot of paperbacks ( I have read hundreds of them ) and don´t ask me how many comics from them I have read. They used to publish such western comics like JERRY SPRING, BESSY, BONANZA, BUFFALO BILL, LASSO, RAUCHENDE COLTS ( Gunsmoke ), SCHWARZER WOLF and probably the most famous german western comic SILBERPFEIL.

They also published classic pulp comics like Lee Falk´s THE PHANTOM, the adventure series WASTL which turned into a superhero series when I was reading it as well as french classics like LUC ORIENT, DAN COOPER, BRUNO BRAZIL, RAHAN, ANDY MORGAN, THE BLUE BOYS or THE SMURFS.

One of their biggest part of comic publications were comics based on tv series and they did everything from BIENE MAJA, HEIDI, CAPTAIN FUTURE and HE - MAN to ALF and COUNT DUCKULA. Not to mention SANDOKAN, STAR TREK, BLACK BEAUTY or KUNG FU. They also had a lot of classic american funnies like DENNIS, THE MENACE, CASPAR or FELIX. The entire list of publications is too long to list ( check out their entry on DER DEUTSCHE COMIC GUIDE for that ) but thanks to them german comic readers came to read Vincente Segrelles EL MERCENARIO, Marvel comics like NICK FURY, LONGSHOT, GEISTER REITER, PUNISHER and - one of my personal favorites - independent comic ABENTEUER IN DER ELFENWELT.

And Terry Hooper would have my head if I forget to mention MYKROS.

But their best know series are the horror titles SPUK GESCHICHTEN and GESPENSTER GESCHICHTEN, the last one running from 1974 to 2006.

But let´s get back to our topic ( I´ll post more covers from BASTEI´s comics Tomorrow if there is enough interest by readers ) : unlike series like JOHN SINCLAIR or PROFESSOR ZAMORRA the main horror series where those and others originated GESPENSTER KRIMI ( Zur Spannung noch die Gänsehaut ) ceased publication on April the 16th 1985.

Until then 597 issues had been published and all these pulp novels needed covers. To cut costs sometimes covers were used twice although in some cases it might also have been out of deadline reasons. Of course most often they used new covers and sometimes different covers for the same story. Here is GESPENSTER KRIMI 94´s John Sinclair story DOKTOR TOD.

Here is the cover for the same story in the 2nd edition of JOHN SINCLAIR ( the first edition continued from GESPENSTER GESCHICHTEN so this was the first time the story was published under the JOHN SINCLAIR title ).

The same cover was used for the audio drama of the story and the 3rd edition. On the 4th edition ( I DID say that it is one of Germany´s most successful horror pulp novel series, yes ? ) they used a different cover.

Sometimes they used different covers for the same story, sometimes they used different covers for different stories and sometimes they used the same cover again and again for different stories. And sometimes they used covers from other magazines or other sources as a basis of their covers. Since I can only speculate on the reasons for that this post is concentrating on where some of the covers may have originated. With an emphasis on comics and the first ones are Marvel comics. Yes, it seems I can´t stop talking about Marvel comics even if I decide to do something different. Which may not come as a surprise to those of you who possess a certain knowledge of the subject. Because the person / undead monster depicted in the first GESPENSTER KRIMI cover of the post bears a striking resemblance to a certain antagonist of everybody´s favorite wallcrawler.

The skin tone was changed from white to green but apart from that it was lifted from the 22nd issue of the spanish edition of VAMPIRE TALES.

Another Marvel inspired cover is issue 88 of GESPENSTER KRIMI

and here´s the original, the second issue of Marvel´s DRACULA LIVES !

 And here´s another Dracula inspired cover on GESPENSTER KRIMI 87

this time based on the first issue of the spanish DRACULA LIVES ! comic

which was quite different from the original US version.

A part of the cover was also used for this book - or whatever it is.

And we´re staying with Marvel´s version of Dracula. The secret origin of our next cover goes all the way back to THE TOMB OF DRACULA issue 6.

In the issue a certain Monster of the Moores makes an appearance

who looks a lot like the monster on the cover of GESPENSTER KRIMI 539.

Another re - used Marvel horror mag was MONSTERS UNLEASHED ! 10.

It was not only used for the cover of GESPENSTER KRIMI issue 301

part of the cover was also used for issue 204 of PROFESSOR ZAMORRA

and a slightly altered version appeared on the spanish comic mag CIMOC.

One last Marvel based cover is issue 26 of JOHN SINCLAIR´s 2nd edition.

Which in this case was not based on an actual Marvel comic but rather the look of an actor who stars in a television show based on a Marvel comic.

But Marvel comics were not the only comic company whose covers were used for this. GESPENSTER KRIMI 399, Das Rätsel des Monstersees.

And here is SILBER GRUSEL KRIMI Band 431, Phytonias Schlangenclan.

And here´s the original cover, DC´s WEIRD WAR TALES issue  70. The skeleton crew has been replaced by a hot chick which is an improvement.

Another comic publisher whose covers ended up on GESPENSTER KRIMI was Warren. The cover for 266, Die weiße Göttin ( The White Goddess )

was the same as the cover on issue 54 of the spanish edition of CREEPY.

GESPENSTER KRIMI 565, Ein Freund aus der Hölle starring Damona King

recycled the cover of EERIE issue 133 ( although mirror - inverted )

which was also used on this collection of Robert E. Howard stories.

Our next cover is JOHN SINCLAIR 251, not a GESPENSTER KRIMI issue,

which is also the cover for issue 44 of spanish horror comic DELTA.

Both are slightly altered versions of Warren´s EERIE magazine issue 58

while the unaltered version also graces the cover of RUFUS 16.

And I have kept the best for last. Classic horror movies have always been an inspiration so it´s no wonder that Boris Karloff from THE MUMMY

appears on the cover of issue fiftythree of EERIE,

on issue nineteen of the spanish edition of CREEPY,

and on issue 30 of the spin - off title VAMPUS.

The Boris Karloff part was also used on GESPENSTER KRIMI Band 325

Geisterfalle Bombay and GRUSEL KRIMI Band 484, Druidenfluch.

You can also see it in the background of GESPENSTER KRIMI Band 580.

And that´s all for Today. There are still dozens - or hundreds - of covers left but this post is long enough as it is. And I don´t want to bore my readers. Now I would like to include the link where I found most of theses covers ( I´d like to say that I´m that knowledgeable that I discovered this all by myself but that´s not true ) but I have no idea where that was. Maybe I´ll find it again someday but for now I can´t provide that link.

Speaking about links, before we come to the videos of this post I want to mention Today´s celebrity birthday babe Ami Dolenz who turns 46. Yay !

Ami Dolenz has been in such cinematic gems like PUMPKINHEAD II and STEPMONSTER but she´s probably best known SHE`S OUT OF CONTROL.



It´s a pretty funny movie with Tony Danza who has to deal with the fact that his little ugly duckling has turned into a Playboy centerfold. And the beach scene with the bouncing action ( which got a PG rating ) is a guarantee that it will be still be shown late at night in coming decades.

I have written about Ami and her films in my MIDNIGHT MOVIE MADNESS : PUMKINHEAD post and since this post is all about horror stuff I wanted to post the link. By the way, I´m stil looking for pictures of the comic book from STEPMONSTER with the instructions on how to kill a Tropopkin.

If you don´t know the movie STEPMONSTER, don´t fear because it´s a forgotten gem ( or utter piece of crap depending on who you ask and how important seeing a young but very buxom Ami Dolenz in underwear is for your enjoyment of a movie ) of american cinema but if you want to know more about it just check out Doctor Iron´s hilarious synopsis of the movie at DOCTOR IRON`S SWAMP OF HORRORS or Dan Kinem´s review on VHShitfest . It´s also included in MOVIEWEB`S A Two Corey´s Halloween list which brings us The Essential Horror Movies of Haim and Feldman.

Just recently german Schlager singer and cultural icon Udo Jürgens passed away. He was best known for such classics like ICH WAR NOCH NIEMALS IN NEW YORK, ABER BITTE MIT SAHNE or GEFEUERT ( I posted that one ). One of his greatest hits was MIT 66 JAHREN ( with 66 years ) and it has since then become the inofficial anthem for german senior citizens. The song proclaims that life really starts at 66 and for Udo who managed to still give concerts with 80 years it seems to have come true. He was on the stage for 60 of those 80 years but for a whole generation he will always be remembered as the guy who sang the intro to Tom & Jerry. 



A video that´s more in synch with Today´s topic of pulp horror is MONSTER MASH by Bobby Pickett and the Crypt - Kickers.



The next video is a different take on the song and I mainly picked it because of Vincent Price´s intro about how inventive humans kill.



I like obscure superhero videos and my last one is a clip I haven´t seen before. It´s the Superhero Party from SATURDAY NIGHT LIFE with Margot Kidder as Lois Lane and Bill Murray as Superman. Other party guests include the Hulk, the Thing, Spider - Man, Ant Man and the Flash.



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my new old comic reads

Last week I was going for a new record with three posts already in the can and a fourth one planned for Sunday. But as usual, I didn´t do the Sunday post and this week I didn´t get to post.


On Monday my brother´s room was getting new windows. And because my room is next to his, and the house is built so cheap that when you take off a part of his wall you also take off a part of my wall I had people going in and out of my room the whole day. On Tuesday my brothers decided to swap room so they had to get all of their stuff out. Which meant that my room also was full of their stuff and I spent most of the day taking my clothes out of the cupboard and into the cupboard again. Which made my carpal tunnel syndrome in my right hand come back.

On Wednesday my brothers were still busy with putting their stuff in order and because some of my stuff was in what used to be the work office I had to go to the cellar a few times. I think the main reason why my brother agreed to swap rooms was because he couldn´t get me to take my stuff out of his room. I swear, he´s like Caligula, Garfield and Dr. Doom rolled into one - on acid. He always tries to get what he wants, like it says in THE PRISONER : by hook or by crook.


In any case I don´t want to bitch about my brother, that would take at least a whole series of posts. So on Wednesday I finally got my room back. On Thursday I would have had time to post but I have a business appointment. It seems I´m starting a new company. Yes, I was also surprised. I mean it´s not like I have anything to do like translating comics or writing a blog or all this other stuff. No, that doesn´t take any work. It´s done in 5 minutes. And it´s not important what I want to do anyway.

That´s all a waste of time. So we´ll see how this new company will go.

But let´s talk about comics, which is the focus of this blog now that I finally have time to write.

Lately I have been re - reading a lot of my old comics. Just the other day I read FINAL CRISIS - LEGION OF THREE WORLDS ( must have been the dozenth time ) when I came to that passage where Brainiac 5 mentions the first LEGION OF THREE WORLDS mission. Now I did a bit of research but I´m not sure if that is a part of the existing continuity. The war of Zoom against the Allen family has been documented and XS´ history coincides with the story. But I think the really original LEGION OF THREE WORLDS story hasn´t been told yet.


Someone mentioned that this story was probably what Geoff Johns originally wanted to tell but that he had to change his plans because of FINAL CRISIS. But who knows ? I also read something from a guy who was like analyzing how parallel universes really work ( in comparison to how it works in the story because we all took that course in school ) and explainig why the story doesn´t work.

And all I wanted to do was to say : hey, dude, chill out. It´s only a made up story. It´s not real. It doesn´t matter if the chances are a billion to one or that that´s not supported by scientific facts. There also are no scientific facts that say that it has to be bad weather whenever I leave the house. It just happens. Swear to god, I never understand why some people think too much.

In any case, I hope we get to read the first LEGION OF THREE WORLDS adventure eventually. Right now I´m not reading a lot of Legion stuff. Because of the 3.99 $ price on a lot of comics I missed the first issues of the new LEGION OF SUPER - HEROES book and now I have to wait for the trade.


And of course my brother is reading the Superman series that doesn´t have to Legion co - feature so I´ll also have to wait for that trade.

I think they will come out in April or June next year. So maybe I´ll find some back issues at this month´s Stuttgarter Comicbörse. But I don´t have much faith because the number of dealers who have US comics is growing smaller and smaller each time.

Another comic I re - read was ELQUEST by Wendy and Richard Pini. The thing is that I was cleaning my shelf porn ( there was a lot of dust on the books ) and started to thumb through all my old issues of ELFQUEST. At the same time there was an episode with Wendy and Richard Pini on Fanboy Radio that I listened to and I got the old comicbug again.


Now the comics were not as good as when I read them the first time. But not because the story doesn´t hold up qualitywise - it´s still above a lot of the stuff that´s published Today in that regard - but because I already knew most of the plot twists and surprise. ELFQUEST is still one of the best comics out there.

The funny thing is that I often hear comicfans complain about the fact that comics are translated into other media. Well, I have to say in my case I would never have started reading the comic if I hadn´t read the book adaption first.

Back then my main source for comic books and paperbacks was a small newsstand near the city hall in Ludwigsburg. It wasn´t a big newsstand but I had a good selection of paperbacks, pulps and comics. I bought my first issues of SCHWERMETALL


( HEAVY METAL ) and U - COMIX


( kind of a funny mag with american and franco - belgian underground material ) there and because it was near my busstation I was there at least once a day.

I bought an issue of JOHN SINCLAIR,


PROFESSOR ZAMORRA


or DIE SPINNE


every other day. So one day I saw an issue of ABENTEUER IN DER ELFENWELT but they were already at the third or fourth issue. So I wasn´t sure if it was worth it to try it. From Today´s point of view 4 Deutschmarks is nothing ( right now that´s like 2 EUROS ) but back at that time I had a pretty small budget. But there was also a book adaption published from Goldmann Verlag ( I think ) that was translated by Wolgang Hohlbein ( sorry, I couldn´t find a better picture ).


At that time he wasn´t the famous fantasy writer of CHRONICLES OF THE IMMORTALS and mostly known for writing DAMONA KING,


PROFESSOR ZAMORRA and other pulps.

I bought the adaption, I read it and I really liked it. The only problem was that at that time there were no professional comicshops and since the only issues the newsstand had were issues 3 and 5.


So I went to all newsstands, papershops or stationary shops in Ludwigsburg, Eglosheim, Neckarweihigen...wherever till I got the missing back issues. Back then being a comicfan meant a lot of legwork.

So I started reading Elquest which was published by BASTEI till issue 37.


Issue 38 was announced but they never published it. Later on CARLSEN republished some of the issues but at a much higher price. They also published some of the following stories but not all of them were drawn by Wendy Pini. It was also difficult to read them because they were rather expensive and there was a lot of short series instead one long one. The price for the BASTEI issues had gone up from 3.80 Marks to 6.80 Marks and I think the CARLSEN issues were even more expensive. I never quite got the hang of the reading order so I passed on them.

There was a series later on in the pamphlet format but I have no idea where they ended up. I don´t know if they stopped publishing them or if I just stopped buying them but I don´t think I finished them.

I used to go to the HEINZELMÄNNCHEN comicshop in Stuttgart and I always looked through the new publications there and whenever they had a new Elfquest issue out I got that. But since the shop closed I mostly just go to my comicshop in Esslingen and mostly just for picking up the stuff that´s on my pull list. Sometimes I´ll go to the Fantasy Stronghold in Ludwigsburg but that´s mostly just a lot of cardgames, Yu - Gi - Oh and Naruto. It may be that I stopped reading Elfquest when the shop in Stuttgart closed. Weird, how important a good comicshop is for your reading habits. Back when I had more comicshops to go to I read more comics outside of superheroes.


Anyway, one of these days those old issues of Elfquest will pop up and maybe I can complete my collection. I have been doing a bit of research about ELFQUEST because I thought it would be about time to start WORLD´S GREATES COMIC BOOKS. The thing that I found really unbelievable was how many people dissed the series because of some of the adult content in the stories. It´s not like it´s outright porn but obviously showing adults having sex is too much for some people. I mean, what do those people think where all the little elfes come from ?

I have to say that was one of the things I liked about the series. Since it was an independent comic Wendy and Richard Pini didn´t bother with the restrictions mainstream books have. Which wouldn´t have made any sense.


Maybe I´ll find some issues at the Stuttgarter Comicbörse but who knows ? In any case ELFQUEST is one of the comic classics that has my absolute recommendation. If you haven´t read it yet you should definitely give it a try. It´s totally Airwolf !

Speaking of who ( what an elegant segueway ) the post I wanted to do on Sunday was about DR. WHO. While being on the website of Los Comic Geekos I found a link to the 3D animated series DREAMLAND with spanish subtitles on YouTube. The animation is not half - bad and the story is really interesting.


article about DR. WHO - DREAMLAND

review of DR. WHO - DREAMLAND ( with spoilers )



Here you can watch the normal version :



There is also another animated series called The Infinity Quest which looks a bit like fanmade animation. But it´s funny to hear the actors with their original voices and it helps the wait till the next season of Dr. Who airs in Germany. Which will beprobably in 2014 if I know my german tv stations.



And with that our time for Today is once again up. I just hope all this stuff about old german comics wasn´t too boring for my german readers.

As I already have three videos from YouTube on this post I won´t add a third one so there will be no Green Lantern related clip Today. Sorry.

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