Comicbörse Stuttgart 2011

Last Saturday it was once again time to saddle up, grit your teeth and jump headlong into the maelstroem we call Comicbörse Stuttgart. Just like last time I needed a few days to get around to do a post on it.


I already said that it would be a few days before my next post which is kind of a self - fulfilling prophecy on this blog because it always takes me a long time to do posts. Yes, I´m still a bit bummed out about having to do the post about JUSTICE LEAGUE - GENERATION LOST again but my problem has never be what I could write about. It was always more a problem of choosing about which one of a dozen subjects I´m going to write TODAY. I got a huge pile of comics at the comic fair in Stuttgart and since it´s starting to erode I wanna comment a bit on the swag I got before it vanishes forever on the desks of my brothers.

Or in the hidden passageways of my own comic collection.

The GRATIS COMIC TAG 2011 was a fiasko this year as I had decided to go out and live the experience that many found so invigorating last year. Well, I should have stayed in bed and that´s all I have to say about it. I´m going to do a longer post on the comics I managed to get from the 44 that were offered this year. And I will tell all about my long descent into hell on that occassion but now I´m focussing on the Comicbörse Stuttgart.

One of the things that still baffle me is that regardless of how many times you tell yourself that THIS time you are going to start with the table where you bought so many cheap comics the last time you NEVER find that table. Or if you find that table it´s once again the last table you check out.

Happened last time, happened this time.


What also seems to happen each time is that I mention the same things every time I write about the Comicboerse Stuttgart. I just hope I can keep from putting too much redundant stuff into this one.

After my bad experience at the GRATIS COMIC TAG I decided to sleep as long as I could and make my treck to Stuttgart whenever I am rested. As usual things didn´t go as planned and I woke up pretty early. So I took a shower, finished packing my stuff and took some public transportation to find some german comics.

When I go to my regular comicshop I mostly just get the books I have on my pull list and since I don´t go to as much comic conventions as I used to events like the comic fair in Stuttgart are my only way to get up to date on german comics and also to get easy access to them. Starting out is always a bit difficult for me and I always need a few tables till I have reached full " comic buying mode " and the old engine has reached it´s working temperature. Which in most cases means that the first table I check out is the one from GRINGO COMICS.

They always have new stuff and they usually have more new titles then I alone can get. This is one of the few occassions where brothers come in handy since you can split up the series. There was no new KOMMISSAR EISELE comic out but there were 2 new books from KOMMISSAR FRÖHLICH. Since that´s my brothers series I got the new TUMBA comic DIE FRATZE DES TODES ( The ugly face of Death ) which is a spin - off of KOMMISSAR FRÖHLICH since Tumba is part of the supporting cast.


KOMMISSAR FRÖHLICH is a black and white crime series written and drawn by Stephan Hagenow in the vein of the german crime series you see on german tv. Like in most german tv series the main character is a commissioner ( which may have something to do with the fact that Germany´s two state - controlled tv stations have a tendency to glorify bureaucrats ) but unlike most german crime series I have seen the main character is a sarcastic, chain smoking and disillusioned hardcase. You get the impression that he´s pretty much seen too much in his job and that´s why he´s so bitter about humans in general.

I have read the first 3 stories of KOMMISSAR FRÖHLICH ( who of course is anything but ) and all of them deal with pretty heavy stuff and it´s really not for the faint of heart. TUMBA is inked by Geier who transforms Stefan Hagenow usually pretty expressionistic pencils into a more realistic looking artwork akin to Michael Lark. Which adds extremely to grounding the horror of the story in reality.


The cover by Geier is another masterpiece and although I haven´t read it yet what I have seen so far looks pretty solid. It´s one of the comics I bought without thinking twice about it.

preview tumba die fratze des todes

Geier also handed me the fourth and final collection of HORST and I have to say I feel a bit guilty that I haven´t managed to continue with the translations. There´s just too much stuff that always gets in the way.

The other comic I bought at the GRINGO table was DER HARTMUT HAT EUCH ALLE LIHB ( Hartmut loves you all ) by Haggi and I didn´t even have to look inside.


At this point HARTMUT has become a german comic mainstay and I have to buy 2 copies of every new issue anyway since one of them always ends up as a gift to my brother in law. He doesn´t read a lot of comics but HARTMUT always cracks him up. I have already written a few times about the series so I won´t do it again now but this is one comic that gets my unconditional recommendation for - basically everyone. I don´t think that there is any gender, age group or social class that wouldn´t enjoy the book.

Since I already mentioned the GRATIS COMIC TAG 2011 I wanted to say that I managed to get 7 new comics which are THE GOON ( which includes a preview of STEAM NOIR of which the artist was present ), MOSAIK, UNGEBREMSTER SPASS VOM BSE VERLAG, COMIC FESTIVAL MÜNCHEN, ICOM, CANARDO and GREEN MANOR. Together with the 5 I already got ( POLLY & DIE PIRATEN, TALES FROM THE VAULT OF THE GRINGO, DIE TOTEN SPECIAL, DIE MUPPET SHOW and WEISSBLECHS GRATIS GRUSEL GEISTERSTUNDE ) that´s enough to do a post about the GRATIS COMIC TAG issues this year although I hope to get my hands on a few more before that.


Which I have to admit sounds quite greedy but while I try to get as many GRATIS COMIC TAG comics I can it´s mostly to be able to write about it. And I´m giving most of them away anyway. From last year I have given away at least 5 and I´m planning to do another free giveaway when I´m done with the posts. I think I have a few left from last year that were prizes for the big anniversary contest and all of them are going out.

As is the idea of the GRATIS COMIC TAG I picked some series I normally don´t read like MOSAIK, or CANARDO. The CANARDO comic contains the full story WEISSE VÖGEL STERBEN LEISE ( White birds die silently ) and it´s a good example of the gritty stories the Canardo series tells. It´s like Kommissar Fröhlich with animals.

At the moment I´m reading the GREEN MANOR comic which includes the first volume.


GREEN MANOR is a collection of short stories about bored, rich members of a Gentlemen Club in London whose main ocupation seems to be to plan ( and sometimes implement ) the perfect murder. Not a series I would have picked up normally but so far it seems to be exactly the kind of series I love. I´m definitely going to keep it in mind once the RUSE series ends.

Back to the Comicbörse Stuttgart, the next comic I bought was MECHANIKO WIRD ERSCHAFFEN ! ( Mechaniko gets created ! ) by Yves Ker Ambrun with dialogues by Antonia Pont.


Yves Ker Ambrun also has the album ES DARF NICHT WAHR SEIN ( It cannot be true ) out but since I´m more a superhero guy I bought the MECHANIKO comic.

The retro art alone was enough to get me to buy the comic although 6.95 EUROS for a 24 page comic ( no ads ) seems a bit much. Even if it´s full colour. But that´s one of the reasons to go to such events, to eliminate the middle man and buy directly from the creator. I also got a pin and some free postcards and Yves really is a swell guy. We talked a bit about drawing tools while he was doing a sketch for me and I even could give him some tips where to get a pentel brush which for me is the best inkpen brush I have used so far. Which means that after a few years I still haven´t managed to ruin it.


Yves art on MECHANIKO reminds me a bit of James Fry, who once was at the top of my artists list and although the whole comic has an enticing retro Flash Gordon charme I think that nostalgia is not it´s only merit. The classic look and storytelling are very appealing even to casual comic readers and I really hope it can reach a broad audience.


You can read the first 21 pages in english here and you can get the german comics here

Up to here all comics I got were at normal price but I got all the following with the usual discount. It´s the only way I can afford some of the more expensive hardcovers as the prices for comics in Germany are pretty high. And I´m always looking for possible Christmas gifts since I like to do the shopping when there´s an opportunity instead of the last minute. Really, Christmas and birthdays are not enough. We really need something like El dia del libro so I can give away more comics.

For my own collection I got GREEN LANTERN SONDERBAND 23 : AUFSTAND DER ALPHA LANTERNS which collects the complete five - issue storyline Revolt of the Alpha - Lanterns that ran from issue 48 till 52 of GREEN LANTERN CORPS.


I´m still behind on my GREEN LANTERN CORPS issues so this was a welcome chance to close a big chunk of that particular gap. I´m not an ardent fan of Ardian Syaf but here his art looks better than usual thanks to inker Vincente Cifuentes. And of course you can´t go wrong with evil Cyborg Superman as the villain. That´s what comics need : more evil robot twins. Tony Bedard has been one of my favorite writers since he started on NEGATION and here he delivers his usual level of quality.

I also got the 3rd volume of RED ROBIN which - pretty fitting - features 3 of the 4 Robins running around in the Batuniverse right now. Jason Todd is missing and for my taste he can stay in his own stories for all I care. You know, there was a time when Batman was a loner but now there are 4 Robins, Ex - Robins and whatnot loose in the DC universe.


I got the first volume of the RED ROBIN series at the last Comicbörse Stuttgart but I couldn´t find the second one. Which I really should get one of those days although having read the big showdown between Tim Drake and Ras Al Ghul in volume 3 ( which collects issues 10 to 12 plus Batgirl 8 ) it takes a way a bit of the suspense. A good read though. The only thing that was a bit irritating - but that´s more a complaint with DC in general - is that Stephanie " let´s kick off the biggest gang war of Gotham´s history to impress Batman " Brown is now the new Batgirl. She tried being Spoiler, she tried being the substitute Robin and now she´s the new Batgirl ?

Well, it seems that the DC universe is not that different from the real world. Just keep failing in enough cases and somebody will give you a costume just to shut you up.

And finally I got DAREDEVIL 7 - DIE RÜCKKEHR DES KÖNIGS ( Return of the King ) by Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark at the same table.


I also got volume 5 at the previous event but since volume 6 seems to have sold out at the publisher I will have to order the english version if I can´t find it at the SAMMLERECKE. I have been in a number of comicshops since I got volume 5 but so far all are missing volume 6. I really have to do a long post - or better : a series of posts - about the DAREDEVIL series although I felt the last two storylines were somehow similar. Matt finds a woman ( who is often handicapped like him ), falls for her, she falls for him, he reveals his secret to her, than some of the usual Daredevil s - word happens and in the end the woman leaves him while her life is f - ed up forever.

In some cases this gets repeated till the woman´s life is even more f - ed up and a wedding is optional.

Don´t get me wrong, I still enjoyed the stories, especially DEVIL IN CELLBLOCK D, but either Matt is not too bright or the greatest masochist on God´s earth. At this point he should be aware of his track record with women and he should know better than getting involved with any female. On the other hand the heart wants what the heart wants and it seems supermen are not that different from normal men.

I also bought the hardcover of CAPTAIN AMERICA - WINTER SOLDIER by Ed Brubaker ( again ), Steve Epting and Michael Lark ( also again ) even though I have all the issues.


But at 12 bucks I couldn´t pass it up and it fits really nicely next to my other CAPTAIN AMERICA hardcover which is THE DEATH OF CAPTAIN AMERICA - THE BURDEN OF DREAMS. Once I didn´t grab the chance to order the MAN WITHOUT A FACE hardcover when it was available at amazon for 6 bucks because I listened to other people and I have regretted that decision ever since. With my budget I can´t buy a lot of hardcovers and most only when they are at bargain price. So since then I grab all the chances I can get.

I wanted to come back to the table later for THE ESSENTIAL HOWARD THE DUCK but as usual money got a bit tight at the end and it´s really not that urgent.

At the next table I got the big trade collections that are possible candidates for Christmas presents. I got volumes 2 and 3 of Stephen King´s THE STAND with a slight discount and it mainly depends if I already got my sister the first volume.


I think I did but my memory these days is a joke.

I also got the JUSTICE LEAGUE - RISE AND FALL collection with a 5 bucks discount.


It contains all issues from RISE OF ARSENAL and FALL OF GREEN ARROW in a nice bound hardcover. Me being a huge fan of JUSTICE LEAGUE - CRY FOR JUSTICE I knew I was going to get the issues sooner or later since this is the resulting fall out from the series.


Another collection I was itching to get although I got all the individual issues was DAS MARVEL - PROJEKT by Ed Brubaker ( and that´s the third time ) and Steve Epting ( once again ).


At this rate Ed Brubaker should think about getting a seperate account just for my money. Sorry, old accountant joke.

I´m thinking about giving this one away as a present but it´s just so nice - looking and shiny. And I got it at a real bargain. The regular book is priced at 30 bucks but I got the limited version ( 333 copies ) that usually sells for around 40 bucks for 20 because it was slightly damaged. Of course I only remembered why I usually don´t buy Captain America comics in german when I flipped through the pages. They have to change all the Swastikas. This time they didn´t change them to squares with a cross in the middle and instead they used this:


I´ve always found it ridiculous that german legislation has forbidden to show Swastikas in comics while you can still see them in movies. My idea for this would be why not go all the way with this whole political correctness crap ? Next time just change it all for this one :


I didn´t find the new SOLO album - some dealers didn´t even know it was out - but I found the second album of Eriks Detektiv Deschamps VERLIEREN SIE NICHT DEN KOPF ( Don´t loose your head ). Here in Germany Erik´s mostly known for his neverending DAEA EX MACHINA online comic that also appears in printed form in the pages of COMIX.


I never got around to read the first album that my brother has hidden somewhere in his room but maybe we can exchange comics. In any case even if I only got a 20 percent discount any comic with Erik´s artwork is worth buying.

preview pages detective deschamps 1

preview pages detective deschamps 2

As I said in the beginning I finally found the table where I got the issues of JUSTICE LEAGUE - GENERATION LOST last time. This time I found the following for 1 EURO each : ZATANNA 6 and 7, GREEN ARROW 5, FLASH 7, GREEN LANTERN LARFLEEZE CHRISTMAS SPECIAL, DC UNIVERSE HOLIDAY SPECIAL 2010 and JLA / THE 99 issues 1 - 5 ( of 6 ). Tom Derenik who does the art on JLA / THE 99 is one of my favorite artists but somehow I can´t keep up with his books. I remember putting the book on my mental pull list when I read that Tom was providing the art but as always I later forgot all about it.

So far I have only flipped through the issues but I´m a bit confused why Wonder Woman is wearing her new costume and the other heroes call her Diana and seem to know who she is. I thought her storyline was supposed to be contained to her own title but now it is leaking through all other titles like SUPERMAN, JUSTICE LEAGUE - GENERATION LOST and now JLA / THE 99.


I also got the first trades of RAI, HARBINGER and SHADOWMAN for 1 EURO. At that price you don´t have to think too much about it and although I already had all the issues of SHADOWMAN I could fill gaps in my HARBINGER and RAI runs. Meaning I only got some numbers around issue 8 from the big UNITY crossover so I´m on the safe side with the first numbers. Not that it was absolutely necessary but at this price you can´t do anything wrong.

There also was the SUPERMAN / DOOMSDAY : PREY trade for one buck but I already got that one and I really don´t need it twice. DC should have left DOOMSDAY alone instead of doing so many miniseries about him. I swear at some point it seemed like all Dan Jurgens was doing seemed to be coming up with new ways to do another story with Doomsday in it.

All in all I really got a huge pile of comics at a really good price and I´m probably be reading a few weeks before I have finished them all. With a bit of luck I can do more extensive reviews on some of them.


As I had already gone way over budget I decided to call it a day and paid SATURN in Ludwigsburg a visit on the way home. The week before I had bought the 8th season of SMALLVILLE ( which oddly enough has Doomsday as the big anthagonist for Clark ) as they are finally starting the 9th season Today. With my memory more resembling a piece of swiss cheese than anything else I had already forgotten the whole 8th season and I missed the first episode and the death of Lex Luthor.

Since I still had some money left I wanted to buy the 7th season but they were already more expensive. It looks like SATURN doesn´t always think GEIZ IST GEIL and put a higher price tag on all SMALLVILLE seasons in anticipation of season 9. On my way to the Comicbörse Stuttgart I ate at BURGER KING and since I still had a double cheeseburger left and a small bottle of mountain Dew I only stopped at the local ice cream parlor to get some ice and at the Netto for some Mirinda light. After eating I slept till wrestling was on and I also didn´t do much on Sunday.


In fact Today is the first day that I´m on the internet again. All in all this was a very successful day at the Comicbörse in Stuttgart but although I will go to the next one I´m glad that it´s not before December. Really.

I´m not sure if I already posted the Muppet´s version of QUEEN´s classic Bohemian Rhapsody but since the Muppet comic was one of GRATIC COMIC TAG comics here´s a little reminder was the show was so popular in it´s day.



New to the blog ? Everything you need to know about TALES FROM THE KRYPTONIAN : top ten posts / more posts of interest

My second Erlangen Diary - Day 1

Before starting the report about my misadventures at the 14th Comicsalon in Erlangen I have to mention that this year I had no preparation whatsoever. Usually when I know that I´m going I take certain safety measures that I didn´t get around to this time.


As I already mention in this post why I couldn´t prepare I´ve decided to write how I usually prepare :

step 1 - stop buying comics at least three months before. This goes strictly for german comics. When I´m in Erlangen I usually try to get a lot of sketches, which means going to all the signings I can. Sometimes you have to buy the newest comic to get a sketch so it´s better not to have bought the comic in advance. And there is of course the fact that you get comics cheaper at the con than in the shop.

step 2 - make a battleplan for the sketches. This usually means finding out who will attend, who I´m interested in and deciding on the order in which I´m trying to get sketches. This is always subject to change. In some cases I even bring some special issues to sign but that´s an exception. Normally I get the comics I get signed there.

step 3 - trying to get as much money together as I can. Comics can be cheap at Erlangen but food and lodging isn´t. And to top it all off you can spend a year´s salary in Erlangen. So you have to be a little conscious of your spendings.

Step 1 was not that much of a problem. Since my budget is always tight as it is there wasn´t many german comics I did buy aside from the occasional WEISSBLECH production like HORRORSCHOCKER. And the last time I was there was 2006 so there were a lot of comics I still didn´t have.


Step 2 was a complete no - go because I opted for finishing the HORST story instead of getting information about the signing schedule. And as for step 3 - I had to make do with the budget I had. Which was becoming shorter at the first gas station when I paid my half of the gas money.

Initially I had planned to go by train but thanks to my brother we took the car. And I really have to say thankfully because without it I have no idea how we would have reached my hotel that was 10 kilometers outside of Erlangen. No wonder nobody from the Comicforum had ever heard of it. I had managed to get all my stuff in one big suitcase which I picked because it´s the only one where the camping chair fits. At my age it´s impossible to stand in line for hours so I have to bring the chair with me. Too bad I didn´t need it. Okay, when I was waiting at the busstation at the second hotel where I stayed it came in pretty handy.

Looking out the window I´m reminded that initially the weather forecast prophecied good weather from Thursday to Sunday and the sun didn´t come out till Saturday. I didn´t pack much stuff : my small sketchbook, my new big sketchbook, showering gel, toothbrush, towel, underwear and t - shirts to change, a few more t - shirts ( just in case ) and the usual assortment of stuff like gloves, a scarf, pencils, other stuff to draw, the mp3 player etc, etc.


This time we took a different route that was much faster that my brother had found through the internet. But this wasn´t the only surprise for me : besides doing the navigation I was also promoted to chronicle of the journey which in this case meant recording the trip with the camera. Now that in itself is no big deal IF you know it before or get a bit of training. All I got was a ten second crash course how to turn the camera on and I have to say if you keep that in mind I wasn´t so bad. I don´t know if my footage is usable at all but hey, you want quality you gotta be a bit more patient.

All in all the trip wasn´t that bad and we soon arrived in Erlangen. Somehow it was all still familiar but also different. We went to get the tickets ( we always get tickets for the whole four days ) and then decided to eat because we still had some time till they opened the doors. My brother thought that we would be late because he thought they would start at ten but since they started at noon we still had some time. Now we have had bad experiences with going out to eat during conventions but this time I have to say we really lucked out.

In retrospect I have to say that we might have spent too much money on food but that´s something I have to watch the next time around. We went looking for a restaurant in the sidestreets because you find better ones away from where all the tourists go. Most of them were closed at the time, like a restaurant that had albondigas but we found the MIKE`S EKU STEAKHOUSE where the prices were in the middle range but the food was excellent and the helping more than sufficent. The waitress was a nice girl and the service was excellent. I tried to find the website but it seems there is only one for the main restaurant in Fürth.

So we started the convention with a good experience and a full belly. Usually it takes me a bit of time till I´m at operating temperature which usually happens after I have bought my first comics. This time I was a bit overwhelmed by the sheer size of it and because it was pretty packed for the first day.


I had no idea who was signing, what the programm was, which discussions were held or which exhibitions were planned, so instead I tried to find some people who I wanted to talk with. Since the lay of the convention is always the same I went to the section of the german indie publishers where I met GRINGO COMICS Girl Friday Holger Bommer.

Of course I had no idea what new comics they had - it´s easy to loose track with the amount of output they have - of which the ones that interested me most where the new HARTMUT issue HARTMUT SUCHT DEN SUPERSTAR and the second book of KOMMISAR EISELE a comic by Martin Frei


( sorry that I forgot that you wrote the stories ) about a swabian police officer. Of course he has a woman as his new partner that just has been transferred to the swabian Kripo and doesn´t know much about the swabian people and their customs, who serves as the identification figure of the reader - at least the ones who are not swabian. It´s full of local colour which is part of it´s charme.

The art is different than in other works by Martin Frei like my favorite SUPERBABE or others but that´s one of the things I like about his art. It´s always adapting and although it is still recognizable as Martin´s individual style it always changes according to the needs of the story. Here´s a preview from the first book.


And I really don´t have to say much about the adventures of HARTMUT, do I ? I already wrote a bit about it here and there´s not much to add. One of THE best german comics even for people who don´t read comics. I promised to buy a copy in the next days since I always have to buy two : one for my own collection and one for my brother - in - law. And if I can buy them in Erlangen or at another convention I can even get it signed.

With the promise of a future purchse ( I bought the new HARTMUT issue on Sunday ) I then went to the WEISSBLECH COMICS booth ( I´m not sure if I gave Geier the new spanish translation of the newest HORST story before that or right after it ) where I made my first purchase of the day and got my first sketch of the convention. The sketch I got was Charon the storyteller from HAMMERHARTE HORRORSCHOCKER by mastermind / publisher / writer / artist Levin Kurio himself and I bought the big " Weissblech year´s worth of comics convention special " which is all the publications of this year which is roughly 32 bucks of comics for meager 25.


Included are HORRORSCHOCKER issues 21 and 22, WELTEN DES SCHRECKENS 2 and 3 and XXX COMICS 10. Since I already had issue 21 of HORRORSCHOCKER Kevin was so nice to switch it for WEISSBLECHS WELTBESTE COMICS - WOLLÜSTIGE VAMPIRE AUS DEM WELTALL and he even threw the new free mini comic ( WEISSBLECH does the best mini comics ever ) and the GRATIS COMIC TAG into the package.

This took out a big chunk of my comic budget but it was totally worth it. For me as a fan of horror comics and comics like TALES FROM THE CRYPT, WEISSBLECH is the leader in the segment of high quality comic trash entertainment in Germany. Good writing, good production value and always with the top german comic artists doing some stories. In this bunch I have to say that Kolja Schäfer was really standing out. He had the stories PAPIERHELDEN ( paper heroes ) - which is reprinted in the GRATIS COMIC TAG issue - and STRAFVERSETZT ( transfered for disciplinary reasons ) in HORRORSCHOCKER 22, he did the Kala lead story DIE MUTTER DER BERGE ( the mother of the mountains ) in WELTEN DES SCHRECKENS 2 and the back up story ICH WAR ZEUGE DER INVASION DER SUPERLADIES ( I was a witness to the invasion of the superladies ) in WEISSBLECHS WELTBESTE COMICS - WOLLÜSTIGE VAMPIRE AUS DEM WELTALL.


So I got the full Kolja Schäfer package and judging from his impressive art and his awesome coloring I can guarantee that we will be seeing more of this talented artist in the pages of WEISSBLECH and maybe in some other projects.

preview pages from HORRORSCHOCKER 22

And with this I´m coming to the end of this day´s post since it´s time to go to bed for me. In the next part we will continue with my adventures on the first day of Erlangen like how we didn´t find our car ( always a favorite in Erlangen ) or what happened at the country party.

Of course some other comicfans were faster than me so if you want to read more about Erlangen 2010 here are some links. Sorry, it´s all in german :

Erlangen report from Comicstammtisch Leipzig

Erlangen post by Sarah Burrini

Erlangen post by Grizzlyfear

the official coverage by splashpages

New to the blog ? Everything you need to know about TALES FROM THE KRYPTONIAN :

top ten posts

more posts of interest

What I did LAST weekend

As always I´m a bit behind on my posts because I wanted to post this on Sunday - of last week......not this week. In fact I have been so busy that I totally forgot that A COMICBOOK ORANGE is back on the air - so to speak.

A COMICBOOK ORANGE RELOADED - SEASON FOUR


Yes, after the seemingly endless hiatus A COMICBOOK ORANGE is back better than ever. Aside from offering the usual greatness there are some lightning quick reviews added. So I´m tempted to say : more bang for your buck...if it wasn´t for free. That´s right : FOR FREE !!! So what are you waiting for ? There are tv stations that would kill for that kind of content. Or was it there are tv stations that I would kill to get this content instead of the crap they are actually showing ?

In any case make sure to check out the new episodes if you are a regular viewer. And if you are new to the site - boy, are you in for a rollercoaster ride. What do you mean where can I find it ? It´s right there on the left, fourth link from the top.

TOP TEN THINGS TO DO WHEN YOU´RE DEAD IN LEONBERG

Okay, my weekend was not that dramatic but when I finally arrived at the town hall in Leonberg I felt more dead than alive. I hadn´t slept very much the night before but because I wanted to meet someone there I wanted to arrive early. Also I have to add that I´m still recovering from my shoulder injury and even short walks wear me out a bit. So doing a marathon from the subway station all over the town of Leonberg ? Not a good idea.


Now I´m not sure if I have ever been to the Comicbörse ( comic fair ) in Leonberg before. Back in the day when we were publishing POWER FREAKS we went to all comic conventions or comic fairs we could find. No matter if it was in Erlangen, Essen ( hmm, both begin with an e ) Stuttgart or near Stuttgart we were there. No comic event was too small because the thing is that we sold almost as many issues of POWER FREAKS at a small comic fair like Stuttgart as in Erlangen which is the biggest comic convention in Germany.

That´s of course not counting the copies we gave dealers to sell on a commission basis. So we went to a lot of those small comic shingdings and Leonberg might have been one of them. If it was it has been so long ago that I totally forgot how to get there. But if there is one thing that distinguishes men from women it´s the adamant believe that we will always find our way no matter how unfamiliar the territory. We think we are like bats only we emit some kind of macho waves that pull us in the exact direction we want to go.

Okay, I´m not as convinced of my abilities in that departement that I won´t ask directions. The only problem was that either the people I asked where not from Leonberg or they had never heard of the comic fair. Because as usual I had left all information like the direction at home. So I went up and down all over Leonberg till finally deciding to head in the general direction of town hall to see if I could find any information about the comic fair.


It was pure luck that it took place right in town hall.

Now the comic fair in Stuttgart is not a very big comic event. It has a big room full of lots of tables with comics in all shapes, sizes and forms as well as everything you could imagine connected to pop culture. It´s not a big comic fair. But compared to Leonberg it´s huge.

You don´t go to the comic fair in Leonberg to buy a lot of comics. No, you go there to meet people, chat a bit about comics and get a few comics at bargain prices. I was there to talk about the next step of HORST´s quest for world domination about which I will give further notice when we have reached step two. We had our conversation cleared everything up and I already got the necessary program for the translations. It took me two days to finally get everything in working order but I have already finished the first draft for the first story. But like I said : more about that when we´re taking the next step.

For the translations for THEM OR US ! I have finished the first two stories and sent them in. Now all I have to wait for is a printed version for proof reading before going online. But back to the comic fair.


I wanted to go to the bank on Friday but I was ten minutes late so I had to get some money on Saturday before going to Leonberg. Not that I was planning on buying a lot of comics but I was totally broke and needed money for the subway and to buy something to eat so I got some money from the cash machine and my budget to spend on comics was 50 bucks max.

When I arrived at the comic fair the first thing I did was checking out the dealers tables. There were a handful of tables at the foyer and a seperate room that had about ten or twelve more tables. First I checked out the tables in the foyer than I went into the seperate room to look for the person I was supposed to meet. Naturally the first table I went to was the one of GRINGO COMICS our former partners in crime with the always indispensable Holger Bommer present. If you ever go to a Gringo Comics table at a convention or another comic event in 90 percent of the cases you will meet Holger there.


THAT´S MY STORY AND I STICK FIGURE TO IT

Back before we did POWER FREAKS my brother did an album together with the Gringo Comics guys called EINSAME SEELEN ( lonely souls ) who released it under the special label AMIGO COMICS that was solely created for that release and hasn´t been resurrected since. It was supposed to be released in standard comic book size but they somehow convinced my brother to do it as an album. It would have worked better as a regular sized comic but my brother found it really flattering and - well, now it´s water under the bridge. We wanted to do other projects with them but somehow that never came to pass, then we did POWER FREAKS which was pretty much the end of my active comic career but we have stayed in contact.

They publish a comic called DIE ABENTEUER VOM HARTMUT ( Adventures of Hartmut ) which is kind of difficult to explain though the idea is pretty simple.


It´s a funny book for kids and adults in which the whole stories - which are the adventures of a kid called Hartmut - are told as stick figures. Sound like the easy way out but it´s quite difficult to tell everything with stick figures.

Besides the funny art the stories are about different things and the writing is making fun of the german orthographic reform. My brother in law doesn´t read many comics but he always finds this comic hilarious and I have given him quite a few over the years as christmas presents. Which means that I always have to buy two because I need a copy for myself. Anyway, this comic comes with the highest recommendation since I don´t know anybody who doesn´t like it.

get more info about hartmut from the gringo comics homepage

read more hartmut strips at carlsen comics

LOST IN GERMAN TRANSLATION

After meeting with the person to discuss this project I went to another dealers table and got DAS SAGTE NUFF 2. A few weeks earlier I already got issue 11 at my usual comic shop at half price.


DAS SAGTE NUFF is the labor of love of Jakobkurtzberg a.k.a. Daniel Wamsler and of course the title of the mag is one of the funniest and worst translations of the famous NUFF SAID blurb that was on all the Silver Age Marvels.


And that´s what all the magazine is about. Every issue is full of one man´s love for the Silver Age Marvels and it explores the way in which the issues came out. In each new number you can find fascinating articles about the comic series, how they were published in Germany and more about the background.


Because back then the original issues were often censored, pages were cut, they published the issues in the order they wanted instead of in chronological order and some issues never were published in Germany.

On the other hand there is material that was done exclusively for Germany ( those who read my COVERSTORY posts may recall the extra content for the german issues of SUPERMAN BATMAN ) that was not reprinted in the States or only in such compilations like SUPERMAN FAMILY. The issues were initially a huge success because there is an active collectors community in that segment of the collectors market in Germany but it has died down a little bit.


One of the reasons for that might be the hefty price of 7 EUROS per 48 page black and white issue. It´s surely not because of the content which is always entertaining, funny and educational. It even has exclusive content like pages that were never before printed in Germany or exclusive interviews with comic book creators like Gene Colan. So far I´ve got 4 issues but I want to collect the whole set which will now be easier since the series will end with issue 12. So far it´s scheduled for release in winter 2009 and from the content info that has been leaked on the internet it will be the best issue yet.

I think it´s really sad that such an ambitious project dies but who knows - I´ve been told that printed comics are dead so who knows ? It might go the way of THEM OR US ! and find a new lease on life through the internet. In any case so far there was no issue that disappointed which can´t be said about many german comic publications.

das sagte nuff homepage with pdf previews of issues 1 and 8

the blog of das sagte nuff

TWO FOR THE PRICE OF ONE....AND A HALF

After buying this issue there wasn´t much left in my budget. A dealer made me an offer that was very hard to refuse : both german hardcovers of GOTHAM NACH MITTERNACHT that collect the 12 issue series GOTHAM AFTER MIDNIGHT and which are 25 EUROS each together for 35 EUROS. That´s a discount of 15 EUROS which is a pretty good deal.

The only problem was that I already have all the issues and if I wanted to buy them in collected form I would prefer it to be a.) in the original english version and b.) in one tome. To buy both parts in german it would have to be as a christmas present and I really couldn´t see that. Which was a real pity because it was a good price and I probably won´t get an offer like this again.

What I was really looking for was the german version of SUPERMAN AND THE LEGION OF SUPER - HEROES. My sister is a big Legion fan but I think she still hasn´t read the files I gave her last year for christmas of the story. So I wanted to buy the comic but they didn´t have it so I had to buy it this week when I went to my usual comic shop. It was hard for me to buy it because the price is the same as for the english hardcover version via amazon.de ( which is normally priced at 25 US dollars).


But it´s a christmas present and I know if I buy the english version my sister might not read it because it´s too difficult. They had other comics at the table and I wasn´t sure if I should take the JLA story THE SECOND COMING or the Batgirl / Catwoman story from Batman Confidential THE BAT AND THE CAT. I was also undecided because I could probably get the english hardcovers for the same price as the german softcovers but when the dealer made me the offer of getting both for 20 bucks that was just too good to say no.

At least the translation was done by an able person. Now I had already read the JLA story on the internet ( for some strange reason the german THE SECOND COMING collection has the cover of the american SANCTUARY collection )


so I knew it was good. The reason why I was looking for the collected version instead of the issues ( usually I prefer the single issues ) was that there were some guest artists in the storyline and they are easier to suffer ina collection. Don´t aks me why that is. It´s a fact and let´s leave it at that for now.....this post is already starting to grow much longer than it´s supposed anyhow.

Now THE SECOND COMING is a story that I can recommend even if some people might not like the aspect that it starts as a regular JLA vs.Amazo storyline and turns into a full blown ELSEWORLDS story. I love parellel world stories ( even if it´s not a parallel world in which everybody dies ) so it was right up my alley.

THE BAT AND THE CAT now that I didn´t enjoy that much.


Firstly I think that Kevin Maguire is often attached to comics that are never as funny as his JUSTICE LEAGUE stuff. There are rare exceptions like the METAL MEN co feature he´s doing in the pages of DOOM PATROL with his old partners in crime Giffen and DeMatteis which really should be the main feature. And there are such total train wrecks like their DEFENDERS mini series.

Anyway, while THE BAT AND THE CAT is not one of the really bad comics by Kevin Maguire there are some aspects in the story by Fabian Nicieza that I didn´t like. The whole hedonist club / naked Batgirl scene seemed very forced to me as I already knew you really weren´t going to see much. The whole thing seemed more aimed to get attention on the internet than to really serve the story.

Maybe that´s just because as someone who comes from Spain and who has seen much more naked women in comics than the general american reader it´s not that shocking or interesting to me. I mean we all know that they won´t show full frontal nudity and I always find it weird if american comic writers insist on including scenes which they know their artists will not be allowed to draw. At least not without covering up all the parts that are the reason to write such a scene in the first place. Which in my opinion makes the whole exercise a waste of time and comic pages.


But to each their own and I bet there are a lot of comic readers who especially liked that part. My second minor problem was that since it´s an untold story ( of which there are quite a few floating around at the moment ) about the one and only true - blue - accept - no - substitutes - golden - oldie Batgirl it didn´t feel like it had any real importance. On the other hand you have to give credit that they stayed true to the characters and didn´t feel the need to re-write continuity like in the BATGIRL : YEAR ONE mini series which really torpedoed the whole book.

So THE BAT AND THE CAT is not an essential Batman story but it is a good read with solid storytelling and great art by Mr. Maguire. Maybe it´s better that I got the german versions since I´m not sure if the hardcovers would be really necessary for my collection.

Now after buying those two collections ( the post was initially supposed to be shorter based on that I hadn´t read the comics when I planned it ) I was almost at the end of my budget but I still wanted to find some american issues at dollar bin price. I wandered through the dealers tables but most of them had german comics so that in the end I returned to the table where I had bought issue 2 of DAS SAGTE NUFF. There were some comics for 1 EURO and I decided to invest my last money in POWER MAN AND IRON FIST 93 to 97 as I was pretty sure I don´t have those particular issues.

POWER MAN Y PUNO DE HIERRO


Now I said that I was pretty sure I don´t have the issues because it´s not that easy to say if the issues are polybagged ( which they were ) and I´m not at home. The first issues I ever read of the series were the spanish versions which always had different painted covers than the US version and I´m not sure they had all the pages. I still have most of those old LINEA 83 issues from ZINCO because they are still in pretty good condition and the art by Kerry Gamill is just fantastic.


It´s a real shame that he´s gone to do film design stuff instead of comics but I guess that there are things that are more important like eating or being able to pay your rent. Especially in times like these. Anyway, I already did a post about the old ZINCO issues of THE DEADLY HANDS OF SHANG CHI MASTER OF KUNG FU and all the others so I won´t delve into that topic again. Till this day I don´t know why Marvel still hasn´t done an IRON FIST or SHANG CHI movie with someone like Toy Yah since that would be one of the easiest movies to make. That´s a total no brainer in my opinion. Now instead I want to say a bit about these new POWER MAN AND IRON FIST issues I bought.

There was one issue that looked interesting but I remembered the cover because it was the same as a french comic I bought while doing my student exchange back when I was at school. The guy I was exchanging with was only interested in football and the only member of his family who connected with me was his grangfather. So I bought all the comics I could get so I had something to read. I still have it in my collection somewhere and I remember that the art was not that great so there was no need to run the risk of buying it again.


Even if it meant being able to finally read and understand the damn thing ( my french is not that good because most french comics are translated to german and most of them are disappointing anyway ).

I don´t like to buy something without knowing how the art is so I said that I wanted to open the first one and if the art is not too bad I would buy all five issues. Now the artists in the first issue was Denis Cowan which would have meant no deal a few years back. But since reading Mike Grell´s GREEN ARROW series he´s on my list of underrated artist so I bought the issues. It´s strange how your perception of an artist can change based on a few issues. Before reading the GREEN ARROW issues he would have been on my list of artists to avoid.

Anyway, the art in the other issues is done by Ernie Chan ( who is sometimes credited as Ernie Chua - at least in the beginning of his career ) and Mike Mignola on inks in the last wo issues. The stories are typical 80s bromance buddy stories without representing a special highlight of the series. With bromance I mean that POWER MAN AND IRON FIST has always been the big buddy movie turned comic book at Marvel the same way that GREEN ARROW AND GREEN LANTERN was at DC.


There are a lot of superheroes who forge a special kind of bond over the years like Hawkman and the Atom or the Flash and Green Lantern but there is this one connection that is specail. There are soul brothers which go through thick and thin and who lay their live down for another no matter what. That´s one of the things that make these comics stand out and it´s always been an integral part of the POWER MAN / IRON FIST stories. Thankfully it was given new life in the pages of NEW AVENGERS and IMMORTAL IRON FIST. It´s one of the few things Bendis did right along with Spider - Man´s dialogue and the whole Luke Cage / Spider - Man comedy duo.

Now there may be some people who would not like the issues because of their standard run of the mill content but I think it was one of the reasons why I bought the issues. Of course I would have preferred if the issues were the ones that John Byrne based his IRON FIST story for NAMOR on but I´m not sure if you can get those issues from the dollar bin. And in any case these issues contained all the stuff I liked about the series like Luke Cage living above the movie theatre, Coleen Wing and Misty Knight and the crazy villains with fantastic names like Chemistro ( more about that in a moment ) and of course the yellow shirt outfit with the chains and the afro.


Now Ernie Chan - who did the second and third issue all by himself - might be best known for inking John Buscema on the best run of CONAN ever. But he´s a good artist in his own right which he already demonstrated on a few issues of THE INCREDIBLE HULK which I have the fortune to have in my own comic collection thanks to BIBLIOTEKA MARVEL. On the Hulk he did ink Sal Busema and he did a few fill-in stories in-between.


The storiy in the five issues I bought revolve around a villain called CHEMISTRO who apparently is the second one to wear the name and a special weapon that has the power to transform things which means he can turn wood into rubber, people into glass or lead into gold. At first he´s just you basic villain but later on he tries to become the new hero - for - hire for the criminals of Times Square. Now back at that time you didn´t have to scientifically explain how something like Chemistro´s special gun is possible - since it was totally unimportant for the story - but the one thing that kept going through my mind was that if I had a gun that could turn lead into gold I sure as hell would not go fighting superheroes.


I would spend the rest of my days at home watching cartoons on tv, reading comics and turning the trash into gold to pay the rent. I mean isn´t that what everyone would do ? Go up against one of the best martial artists in the world and his pal with unbreakable skin ? When I can buy whatever I want with a simple zap of my gun ? Yeah, right. Don´t count on me fella. Besides that I really like the stories even if the big THIS ISSUE WILL CHANGE LUKE CAGE´S LIFE FOREVER issue doesn´t change anything at all. In fact it dissuades Luke Cage from leaving Times Square to go on without him.

The subplot in the issues is about a pink disco ball that somehow seems to resonate with Iron Fist´s powers but who is stolen by the wolfwoman who killed his mother - no kidding. Now I have to see if I can find the following issues at the Comicbörse in Stuttgart to find out what that was all about.


The creepy thing is that while reading the comics I constantly heard the voice of Green Lantern John Stewart from the JUSTICE LEAGUE animated cartoon in my head doing the part of Luke Cage.

So, money well spent. After I spent the rest of my budget on these issues I went on another long trek back to the subway station and finally went home. I was so tired that I went to sleep and aside from watching wrestling and taping FIREFLY I didn´t do much on Saturday. I was still tired on Sunday which is the main reason I didn´t do this post last week.

Anyway, this is what I did last week. Since it took me a while to write it all down it has gotten longer than expected so I´m ending it now. It´s already 4.15 in the morning so I won´t watch more episodes of DR. WHO. I´m going to post this on my blog and all the corrections, additions and pictures tomorrow because it´s voting day in Germany and I have to do my best to finally send Angela Merkel packing.


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