I blame the society

I haven´t posted much since my last post ( which now that I write it down sounds stupid and redundant ) because I started to work again. And even if I don´t work every day on the other days I´m just catching up on my sleep or have to buy stuff or do something else for the job.


On the other hand I really like that I can work again because now that I don´t work for the rest of the week I am kind of disappointed. Especially since I bought some new shirts for it. Yesterday I didn´t do much of anything even if I have a thousand things on my plate. I recently did a translation for THEM OR US in spanish and have send the first version in. I´m not sure if I should do the second story they sent me right away or if I should do the english version of the first story.

Right now I haven´t heard anything new from Karl Nagel who wanted to send me a full version of InDesign. Right now I´m using a free version which has some problems. Anyway, the translation was more difficult than I thought because some words were very specific. But I think the next story will be a bit easier.

It seems that I had forgotten to put up the download link for those who still haven´t got issues 0 and 1 of THEM OR US. I have put the link in the post with my last update about the magazine but you can also download the pdf versions for 99 Cent each here - THEM OR US download

For this post I wasn´t sure what I should talk about since I have read so much stuff in the meantime. A few weeks ago I was at the comicshop in Ludwigsburg FANTASY STRONGHOLD but couldn´t buy the ones that seemed interesting because I knew that sooner or later I would see them for half price on conventions. So instead I went to the PANINI message board where I got three of them for half price. I also wanted to get the first TRINITY trade but since my brother got the first trade from the comicshop a few days later I skipped on that.


But more about that in some other post since I have decided to write a bit about the latest comics I read. Some of this stuff was destined to go into a new SOLICITATION post but since I have read most of the comics I have saved for the solicitation posts I´m going to put it into the relevant comic section. This way I can even include some links - which may be a bit old for some readers as I haven´t doen many news link posts lately.

MAGOG TO SOCIETY

One of the consistantly best written titles at DC is JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA and I´m not just saying that because Power Girl is on the book.


When the book restarted with a new number 1 one of the main reasons to keep it on my pull list was artist Dale Eaglesham. I really liked him on VILLAINS UNITED and the fact that he wasn´t on the following incarnations of the title is probably one of the reasons why I sold all of the issues. So I was pretty sure that the art would be great but I wasn´t so sure about the stories. Not that I thought Geoff Johns would slip up since he already had done a pretty decent run of the title.

Which is kind of an understanding since he´s one of the guys who reinvented the book. But he´s also heavily invested in writing the GREEN LANTERN franchise and preparing ( now it´s in full effect ) BLACKEST NIGHT so I thought he could be stretching himself too thin. So far JUSTICE SOCIETY was the one title who outdid JUSTICE LEAGUE even when Grant Morrison was on JLA. As it turns out all my worries were in vain. After a few done in one issues that were among the best standalone issues I read in a long while the supersaga THY KINGDOM COME just blew my mind.

I really like all the stories that have come out so far and it´s difficult to pick a favorite but THY KINGDOM COME is one of the classics for future generations. Especially since the story has been collected into three trades. I really would like to get a complete edition but I´m not sure if it will ever be done. On one side because I´m not sure how high the demand is on the other because the sheer size of it - it had to be collected into three trades after all.


Regarding the story I don´t want to say too much since I don´t like to spoiler stuff but I´m going to reveal a few things. If you don´t want to be spoilered just jump ahead to the links after the JSA THY KINGDOM COME trade reviews from my fellow partner blog COLLECTED EDITIONS.

The story begins when Starman - Starboy Thom Kallor from the Legion of Superheroes - opens a black hole through which Superman from KINGDOM COME is sucked into our universe. KINGDOM COME is one of my all time favorite stories and not only does THY KINGDOM COME build upon the events of the story - although it is more of an altenative ending - but comic legend Alex Ross provides some art for the issues. He even does one of the specials all by himself which of course is beautiful and it is also his first penciled and inked issue.

Now the funny thing about reading Starman´s dialogue is that you can´t understand it when you are reading it. Because it sounds like the usual stuff crazy people say but in the case of Starman it´s a result of his journey through the multiverse and it only makes sense later on. Everything he says is true and he practically spoils a lot of stuff. But because you only learn the context a few months down the line it´s more like prophecies than anything else. Back to THY KINGDOM COME : the news of an alternate Superman brings in the Justice League and leads to a few interesting scenes as the Superman of our world meets his older twin - well, kind of.


It is also nice to see the interaction between this other Superman and Power Girl who lost the cousin of her world during CRISIS ON INFINITE WORLDS and again at the end of INFINITE CRISIS. She´s one of the few who really knows what it´s like to loose your entire universe ( Superman from our universe has also lost his whole home planet but Power Girl lost her whole universe ) so there is a kind of older brother - sister relationship forming between the two which isn´t very surprising since the Superman from the KINGDOM COME story is more like the Superman from Power Girl´s world.

Of course it wouldn´t be connected to KINGDOM COME without a villain called MAGOG who goes around killing superheroes but once again not everything is as you expect it. But I have already said too much so I just want to add that during the story many new characters join the Justice Society - thus really deserving the name society - and they are just in time for the big battle royal finale. The special thing about the Justice Society is that it is always about legacy as three generations of superheroes fight and live alongside learning from each other and it´s not always the older heroes who are the teachers. What is so great about the story is that there are some specials thrown in before the big brawl that shed some light on the pivotal players like Power Girl or Superman from Kingdom Come done by such great artists like Alex Ross or Jerry Ordway.


Of course the society wouldn´t be the society if there was no dissention in the ranks that this time goes so far that they split up and fight against each other. It has often been said that superhero comics are trite but with the way Geoff Johns shows the different faiths and philosophies of the characters that argument is undone. Naturally there are also the big fights but I think the story achieves a good balance between action and quieter moments. A really big saga that I can´t recommend high enough to everyone who loves comics especially since you can get part 1 for 14.99 instead of 19.99, part 2 for 14,44 instead of 24.99 and part 3 that normally goes for 24.99 for a measly 9.40 at amazon right now ( amazon.de ). Which means that instead of 69.97 you pay 38.83 which is 31.14 bucks less. I´m talking about the hardcovers here. And there are only 5 copies left of part 1 and 2. If you want to know more here are reviews to all three trades from COLLECTED EDITIONS :

thy kingdom come first trade / second trade / third trade



some preview pages :

preview issue 18 / issue 19 / issue 20 / issue 21

preview issue 22 / kingdom come superman special


Well, as great as THY KINGDOM COME was it was also sad news because after the BLACK ADAM story by Jerry Ordway that followed it Dale Eaglesham finished his stint on the book with an issue about Stargirl´s birthday party. He is now going to be the new artist on FANTASTIC FOUR ( as most of you already know having read the first issue ) but I´m not sure if I´m going to follow him on the book. After Brian Hitch ended HIS run on Marvel´s first family the title is off my pull list and i´m probably going to check out the new issues before deciding if it goes back to the pull list. Anyway. here´s an interview with Dale Eaglesham about the end of his run on the Society - Dale Eaglesham ends JSA

Of course the big question was who was going to be the new artist on the book. I feared it might be Pasarin since he did so many of the issues and specials during the THY KINGDOM COME story and I also hoped it would be Jerry Ordway. Instead fellow paisano Jesus Merino is now the new artist and after having read his first issue I have to say they couldn´t have chosen a better one. In America Jesus is mainly known as Carlos Pacheco´s inker on all the good looking stuff but in Spain he´s also known as an artist on such books like TRIADA VERTICE that followed the popular IBERIA INC by Fonteriz both penned by none other than Carlos Pacheco. He also did JAQUE MATE and HANNIBAL GRIS for Laberinto Comics.





As someone who has done a few team books he can pull off the dozens of characters of the Justice society and make them look good - even Power Girl who wears her regular simple oval cleavage window instead of the new strangely formed one she has in her own series and which must be hell to draw. And it´s good that Jesus can draw so many characters because the first issue of the new writing team of Bill Willingham and Matt Sturges does not only have every member of the Society it also introduces two new members.




more preview pages from issue 29 :





The issue has a battle royal with as many - if not more - villains as heroes and ends with a bang.


Just the right way to kick of a new era of greatness that will also lead into two new tie - in titles JSA ALL STARS and the new MAGOG title. Together with Power Girl´s own book that are now four JSA related books. I´m not sure if that is a good thing but as always with the society I´m willing to stay my final verdict till the books come out. So far I haven´t been disappointed even if I´m a bit worried about Freddie Williams as the artist on JSA ALL STARS. And even if the new book is not that good we still got Jesus Merino on the regular JSA book that still goes for only 2.99. Eat this, Quesada. You can have top notch writers and spectacular art on a 3 Dollar book.

There is also a JSA VERSUS COBRA series coming out but since I prefer Gene Ha to draw the more realistic stories I don´t think I will buy it. Although I have to say that he draws a really nice Power Girl.


edit : Gene Ha doesn´t draw the interior but only the covers. Interior artwork is done by longtime Justice Society artist Don Kramer. I must definitely check this out.

new jsa all stars title / giffen and porter start magog title

magog 1 preview / jsa society panel

Wow, that was quite a lot about the JSA and initially I hoped to cover a few other titles like TEEN TITANS or BOOSTER GOLD now that the first issues with the back up features have come out. I guess that will have to wait till another post.


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

If it involves you, the Huntress, Lady Blackhawk and a bottle of grappa Dinah alrady told me. And all I have to say is : Well played, Sir.

A Comicbook Orange relaunches and other comic news

My shoulder injury is worse than I thought so I have to go to the hospital for some surgery. The good news is that the chances for a recovery are much better this way.


So after a few days of being really miserable - mostly because I could only sleep in a seated position for short periods of time - I´m feeling better now. Which means that I´m ready to post again. Since I´m typing with only one finger now this post will be rather short with just some quick news. I was at the comic shop last week and got my first FREE COMICBOOK DAY comics but I will cover that in a seperate post.

I also thought of renaming the blog THE SOUND OF ONE HAND BLOGGING but then decided against it. Nevertheless if you want to use it you know where to send the royalty paycheck. On to the comic news :

A Comicbook Orange relaunches


Everyone´s favorite comic review show relaunches on their own. They have a spiffy new webiste that can be found under a comicbook orange where all the old episodes are......and hopefully some new ones. And of course you can also still find them on YouTube.

THEM OR US ! - the end

Yes, the first issue of DIE ODER WIR ! is also going to be the last. Additionally to the legal problems ( as detailed in older posts ) Karl Nagel is facing some health problems which make it impossible to continue publication of DIE ODER WIR ! That´s something I can totally understand because the health is most important.

And while it´s sad to see another fine comic publication - from which the german comic industry could have benefitted - go down the drain because of censorship the good part is that the creative team is going to work on some other projects. Who knows, we might even get to see the finished material for issue two in some other comic.

For those who missed the 0 issue and couldn´t get number 1 you can download them for 99 Cents here :

THEM OR US pdf download

COMIXENE - the end ?

Speaking about german comic publications I wanted to mention the COMIXENE. For years the magazine has faced the same two problems of it´s own making : constant lateness and minimal shelf life. While proclaiming to strive for a high level of professionalism the people behind it are mostly making the magazine for themselves and not their customers - or their ad clients.

In most cases they wait for special articles and specials for certain comic movies or comic releases. Which would be okay if it didn´t cause the next edition to be delayed again and again. Because if the magazine is late it means the ad clients are not happy because they have a deadline and in some cases will cancel their ads. Which in turn means having to find new ad clients. Which becomes increasingly difficult if you´re known for being always late.

And it´s not much better for the readers. Because waiting for the special articles means a new release date which is in most cases after every other media source has already covered it. It is understandable that a comic publication wants to cover a movie like HELLBOY.


But businesswise it makes no sense to delay a whole issue for one article - especially if it comes out one month after the movie started.

On top of that you never know when the new issue will be out if you are not constantly on the internet. I mean why is there a thread on the comicforum about when the newsest issue of COMIXENE is out ? Isn´t that what websites were invented for ?

Okay, if you have a subscription you will get the newest issue no matter when it comes out. But shouldn´t they try to reach people through other outlets like newsstands ?

Which brings us to the second big problem : the COMIXENE has virtually no shelf life. It is an unwritten rule to predate your publication so it has a longer shelf life. If a magazine has printed the month of May on the cover it means that on the first of June it gets sorted out and sent back to the publisher. Which is the reason that magazines that come out on May have the month of June on the cover.


You may remember this from way back when there were newsstand editions of Marvel comics. I know how excited I was when I started to buy american comics and had the current month on the cover. Back then Marvel comic coming out in May had July on the cover. Anyway, back to the COMIXENE. It´s bad enough when the issue that was announced for the middle of April comes out at the end May.

But putting the month of May on the cover of a comic magazine that comes out on the 27th of May......that´s like shooting a horse before the race has begun. Many people beside me have tried to make this clear to the editorial staff but so far all attempts have failed. For me there were only two possible solutions to the dilemma :

a - do the specials seperately. If you insist on making special movie coverages or other special reports do it in a special issue. That way you can still express yourself artistically ( which seems one of the main reasons why the people involved write their stuff ) while bringing out your magazine in time. As an added bonus you keep your ad clients happy and have more money for another issue.


b - increase publication. If you want to include specials in your magazine that are not ready at the scheduled deadline you have to put it in the next issue. And if you don´t want to wait two or three months till the next issue you should think about changing the publication from from every two months to monthly. That way you can either keep the regular volume with a lot of work and much more articles.

Or you can cut the volume in half, concentrate a bit more on comic related stuff that has no expiration date and maybe lower the price. In any case this would also benefit your ad clients.

Well, it seems that the COMIXENE found another alternative. Because the magazine is constantly late ( and vanishes real fast from newsstands ) but they still want to bring their readers the latest news they are going to offer a newsletter. Which will be mailed to all subscribers who have the special COMIXENE card.

Now it may be just me but I always thought people buy comic magazines because they DON´T want to use the internet to get news about comics. For me that´s like giving up.


Anyway, maybe I´m just miffed because one comic magazine goes down even fighting tooth and claw while another one does it´s best to run itself out of business.

Like always we have run out of time since this post has become longer than planned. Next time we will come to more comic news or my account of my first free comic book day. We will see.

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

top ten posts

more posts of interest

Total sellout

If you have read one or two of the latest posts you may have noticed that something has changed on this blog. Yes, I have sold out.


Well, not completely. On Monday my brother was nagging again if I get some money from all the links I posted so I filled out an application for a partnership with amazon and Today I got the green light. So I spent the whole day going over my old posts and adding amazon links so you can get stuff directly through this blog. But don´t worry. It´s not like I put in a link for every comic I mentioned. I have put links to amazon before. The only difference is that now I get some of that money my readers will spend when they follow the links on this blog.

Which means that at the current readership I should receive the first amazon shopping certificate in four or five years. The weirdest thing is that amazon actually accepted my application. Wow.

Anyway, not only have I added some links - or rather replaced the old links with the new ones - but since I had to go over all my old posts I also added some Civil War banners and of course the ususal " new to the blog ? check this out " links. The banners because it may look strange if you have more than one post on a page but it is a clear sign that a post is finished. And it looks better if you have only one post.

I have also added some not - Civil War banners but I swear to keep the babefactor to a minimum since I know that some of my readers are very sensitive about that.


And I included the links at the end of each post because you never know from where somebody will land on your blog. They may find the main page but they also may land on some random post and maybe they´re more likely to check out the best of the best than the main page. I want to make this blog as reader friendly as I can.

So that´s what I did today till the computer died on me. The last hour the computer constantly froze and I had to restart several times but I wanted to at least finish the big KRABAT post in case I can do the follow up in the next few days. I have finally seen the new Krabat movie so if I post the link to the old post everything is ready.

Sometimes it´s a bit difficult to find an appropiate banner for a post but the thing I´m really lacking at the moment are clever quips or cool soundbites to post at the end. Well, I hope I will find some good ones in the next weeks.

I thought I would start with the solicitations today but on the other side I´m glad that I had to make a new announcement since there are a few things that I forgot to mention in my last post or that have come up rather recently.

Autistic child saved by Spider - Man

BANGKOK. In a really heroic effort as " Spider - Man " a firefighter in Thailand saved an autistic child from a window ledge.


On Monday a fire brigade in Thailand received the distress call of a school for handicapped children. An eight year old autistic child had suddenly gotten scared an had fled to an open window on the third floor.

The boy couldn´t be persuaded to come back till his mother mentioned his affection for comic book heroes.

This gave firefighter Sonchai Yoosabai an idea : he ran back to the fire station to get a Spider - Man costume he usually used during fire drills in schools - as soon as the boy saw Spider - Man he came down from the window ledge and ran into his arms with a big smile.

original article ( in german )

THEM OR US ! - next round


There´s another article about DIE ODER WIR this time on the internet edition of the FAZ. I´m just posting the link since the translation of the last article was a b - word. I will do it if there are readers interested...aah, the sacrifices I make for my faithful followers. Anyway, what I find interesting is that while they accuse the magazine......well, of exactly what ? Treating an important subject of german society BEFORE it really got important ? Being able to predict the future ? Whatever is the case here : I wouldn´t berate others from such a moral high ground if I put up headlines that include the words " in the line of fire ( im Schussfeld ) " in an article related to a school massacre involving fire arms.

trash magazine under fire

And now for some comic related clips :

Iron Man vs Bruce Lee

You may have already seen this but you can just watch it again and again. I whish Transformers had been this cool.



The Brave and the Bold - Terror on Dinosaur Island

This is mostly for myself since this cartoon show hasn´t arrived in Germany yet. I don´t know much about it aside from the trailer I saw and which totally rocked ! Anyway, how can you go wrong with a title that includes the words " Dinosaur Island " ? The only downside is that it´s split into three parts.







And that´s all for today. I probably won´t continue adding banners and links to the blog Tomorrow since Today was pretty exhausting. Maybe I can start with the fun called solicitations in my next post.


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

top ten posts

more posts of interest

THEM OR US - the next scandal

At the end of last month I wrote a post about the problems Karl Nagel was facing with the first issue of his new comic magazine DIE ODER WIR because a lot of newsstands refused to put it on display. The main reason was the cover that showed a student pointing a gun at a teacher.


At that time I wrote : Okay, not the most tame cover image but I have seen worse on some comics or magazines. It is a current topic and where will this all end when we can´t even treat these subjects ? Ignoring it won´t help to solve the problem. Maybe Germany only wants comics that are afraid to stick the finger where it hurts.

Well, at that time I didn´t know how important this topic would become. For all those who don´t know on March the 11th 17 year old Tim K. went to his former school the Albertville - Realschule in Winnenden wearing black combat gear and carrying his father´s beretta and 200 bullets of ammunition. Three hours later he shot himself after killing 15 people.

So of course the media was all over this turning it into the usual media circus. Newspapers seemed to have a competition going on about who could come up with the bloddthirstiest headline, there were constant updates on the tv news with specials and all kind of discussions. The paparazzis were out of control and in one case even tried to get pictures of the bodies right at the funeral home. Naturally everybody was using this for his own agenda and politicians were no exception.


This is not the first time something like this has happened in Germany and like usual nobody is really interested in finding the real reasons behind it. All politicians want is a scapegoat to pin this on, some new laws and good publicity to get re - elected. The first thing they always go for are the internet, killer games on the consoles and of course violent movies.

The fact that we have increasing cases of students going on a killing spree the more censorship we put on comics, games and movies is of course ignored by everybody. Germany is one of the countries with the most censorship and still they want more. But like I said nobody wants to really solve the problems. Just find something you can pin it on, make a name for yourself and then forget about it.

And one of the targets of these new witchhunts is sadly DIE ODER WIR. Even before this happened there was an open investigation against the magazine but now it could land on the index for youth endangering reading material. Doesn´t sound so bad. The youth should be protected. The only problem is that in this case youth means from the age of zero to 100 and beyond. Because once a magazine or comic is on the index the restrictions also apply to adults.


Because in Germany the law acts from the principle that it also has to be forbidden for adults because youths could get it from them - don´t ask me how. So the index for youth endangering reading material is in reality the index of stuff the german government doesn´t want its citizens to read. But by saying it´s endangering to youths it sounds like they are providing a service for the society instead of taking away the civil rights of their citizens.

And in this light the first issue of DIE ODER WIR is in the news again because the german magazine DER SPIEGEL ( the mirror ) published an online article that glorified the illegal refusal of the distributors to distribute and to display the magazine as an act of heroism. There´s an old saying that any publicity is good publicity but I´m not so sure if that´s true in this case. For all my readers who have problems reading german here´s a translation of the article from SPIEGEL online :

Killing Spree comic leads to controversy

by Christian Fuchs

Because of the catastrophe of Winnenden a media dispute has become up to date : the press distributors refuse to distribute a violence - comic. Is the sanction justified or a case of censorship ? After all it´s a teacher and not a student who goes on a rampage in the comic.


Do bloody video games or splatter - comics influence young people´s readiness for violence ? After the killing spree of Winnenden there are new discussions about this. If the answer is yes then a sanction of the magazine distributores seems almost prophetic.

At the end of February the magazine distributors enacted a boycott of the comic magazine DIE ODER WIR refusing to display the comic. An internal investigation through an attorney´s office from Munich had the result that the magazine was classified as " not apt for free delivery ". Lawyer Karl Ulrich Witte deemed the " excessive depiction of violence " in one of the stories in the comic as " strongly endangering to youths ".

In the comic " Enough for Today " a teacher is going on a killing spree for twelve pages in the Berthold - Brecht - University because of the constant mobbing by his colleagues. The story reminds us of the school massaker of Erfurt that took place seven years ago - and now again of Winnenden.


The magazine distributor´s boycott was almost a nationwide sales stop because all 58 magazine wholesale companies in Germany followed the advice to not deliver the comic to newsstands and supermarkets.

Plagued by controversy

The distribution - stop was risky because the magazine had not been officially indexed ( sorry, there´s no better word in the english language - I wonder why ) by the Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons in Bonn. Until Friday of last week there has been no request for indexing. The German Journalist Organisation ( Deutscher Journalisten Verband DJV ) critizised the distributors for their conduct. Economic associations are not allowed to make decisions about the content. Hendrik Zörner from the DJV called this " a form of censorship ".

Part of the print run had to be destroyed. Meanwhile the publisher from Hamburg Karl Nagel offers the comic as a download via his website for 99 cents and renounces accusations that his comic is a blueprint for violence : " Then you could take The Sorrows of young Werther ( famous book by german author Goethe about a young man´s suicide ) as an incitement to suicide. " says Nagel.


The authors were not interested in the killing spree but rather in the intellectual exercise : what would happen if there was a teacher under the mask instead of a student ? " Because of that our story is not suitable as an example for students because here it´s the teacher who goes on a rampage. " Since last week the disrtict attorney´s office of Bremen investigates because of suspicion of glorification of violence against Nagel.

The magazine distributors were already critiqued in 2004 for distributing the art magazine " Steinstrasse 11 " with a restricted sale recommendation because of pornographic parodies of Donald Duck.

the original german version of the article

And that´s all for today. I could go on and on but I´m not so sure if a discussion about the real problems young students face today is really that interesting for my readers. Next on this blog : another round of my popular solicitation monologues. I want to increase the post frequency although I was pretty good the last few days. I mean I didn´t post on Tuesday and Wednesday but I did two posts on Monday and one of them was really long. So an average of 4 posts in 5 days is not so bad.


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

top ten posts

more posts of interest

THEM OR US - the big scandal

Finally I can write a new post even if it isn´t my long anticipated big TEEN TITANS post. For a few days I have wanted to post this but other things came up and at least I have a good excuse - or at least an excuse.


First of I was a bit sick the last few days. My unemployment solicitation has been finally approved : that´s the good news. The unemployment office has not accepted the fact that my mother is not part of our household thus reducing my HARTZ IV once again well below the minimum : that´s the bad part. My mother says that the important part is that I´m again on health care but I´m just sick of working my ass off for an alimony. Okay, it´s more than last time...ten bucks more I could spend on comics.

But I mean I´m doing everything that the unemployment office wants from me. Can´t I at least get what the politicians proclaim is the absolute minimum to exist ? Why do I only get a third of that ( or not even that much ) while our government is giving billions to banks who flushed their money down the toilet so they can give their managers who caused our current crisis big paychecks ? From now on it´s quid pro quo with me. Anyway, finally the money for the last three months has arrived.

Yes, it really took the unemployment office three months to ask for some documents I had with me the first day I solicited my HARTZ IV ( or in my case I only get HA I ) and to make up their mind that after asking me the same thing three times deciding that they didn´t believe me and to just ignore everything I told them. Why do they even bother to ask in the first place ? Because the longer it takes for the solicitations the longer it takes for you to get your money. Who knows what they do with our money while we wait.


And of course the longer it takes for jobless people to get approved the longer they can keep them out of the statistics. I mean if they have already given up on getting people a job the least they can do is make the statistics look nice so our puppet governeur Angela Merktnix looks good. This week I watched the speech of the new president elect Barrack Obama and I was almost in tears. It´s like Amerika is the real world and Germany is Bizarroworld.

Man, the way this is going Germany is going to be a third world country in three years tops.


So, I finally got some money and I went to Ludwigsburg to buy some long overdue stuff : a calendar for the studio, an ink cartridge for the printer so I can finally write some job applications and some razors so I could finally shave today. But as always I caught a bit of a cold while being outside - or rather the cold I already had worsened.

I also was staying up till the wee hours in the morning the last few days and sleeping very sporadically. I hope that when my mother is in Spain again ( beginning Monday ) I can return to a regular schedule. Now that the first step with the unemployment office is finished I hope I can sleep better. So in the last days there was always something coming up so I didn´t get to start on the TEEN TITANS post. I´m still re - reading the John Byrne DOOM PATROL issues and I still enjoy them. I know it´s not the most popular take on the team but being unfamiliar with all the previous incarnations I found it very entertaining.

Speaking of John Byrne I forgot to mention that I haven´t had a chance to check out his work on STAR TREK. He´s doing some of the new comics for the franchise and now that I have a bit more comic spending money I could buy some issues. While being in Ludwigsburg I wanted to buy the new volumes of CASE CLOSED but I only found one shop that had the missing numbers and they didn´t have volume 53 which is the one after the last I read 52. Again with the 52. Anyway, I will have to order it through amazon or from a comic shop.


I wanted to buy the volumes to see if there was something new I could write about the book after my first post about it. There is a discussion on a german comic message board right now ( which in light of my next topic is kind of funny because the guy who started it all has been compared to Frederic Wertham )that german comicblogs write waaaay too much about american comics and american superhero comics in general and not enough about french BDs or manga and although I don´t think that is true with my blog I COULD write a bit more about european comics. I mean having more access to that kind of graphic literature I should spotlight it from time to time for all my readers who don´t know the stuff.

What do you think ? Do you want to read more about comics outside of the general mainstream ?


One of the reasons I don´t write that much about BDs is that right now I still have to pay the comics I review or write about myself so I wanted to use the opportunity to remind everybody out there that they can send me review copies. So to MARVEL, DC, Image, Dark Horse and all the other publishers out there : you can send me your stuff. I won´t be offended if you send me the ULTIMATE NEW FRONTIER DELUXE HARDCOVER or something. Promise. Of course this also goes for small publishers. Just send me the stuff you want to pimp.

So, what else was up ? Another big thing was DIE ODER WIR ( Them or Us ) the brainchild of Alligatorfarm mastermind Karl Nagel which is a new newspaper sized comic magazine printed on newspaper for 99 cents. Yes, that´s right. The general idea is that most comics in Germany are too expensive ( true that ), are printed on quality paper you don´t really need ( true that ) and with way too intellectual stuff ( double true ). Comics in Germany are almost exclusively done for collectors which is one of the main reasons why the german comic market is not well.

So Karl Nagel, publisher of the PERRY comics


based on the german science fiction cult pulp magazine PERRY RHODAN


has decided to produce what we really need : cheap comic trash entertainment for the masses. Especially in Germany the cultural aspects of art are taken way too serious even if everybody knows that the really fun things are the trashy things done for satirical or entertainment purposes only. Now four months ago the zero issue of DIE ODER WIR was published as a free comic but issue 1 - which was released just a few days ago - may very well be the end of the new comic magazine.


One of the newsstands distributors was not sure if it was okay to distribute the thing and contacted a lawyer who said that the comic is endangering and corrupting the youth. What people outside Germany don´t know is that there is still a lot of censorship left over from the Third Reich. Back then it was done to eliminate " anti arian culture " now it is done to " protect innocent youths ". Basically it´s still the same thing only now they have an excuse to tell you what to read, listen, watch and even think. But I already wrote about that at length in a few other posts so I won´t go into the details now. Well, the important thing is that many newsstand owners got wind of the whole thing and were afraid to display the comic.

They had ordered it but they didn´t put it on display so the clients couldn´t buy it. Which means that the first issue may well be the last. Since it´s waaay too expensive to start a lawsuit the first idea Karl Nagl had was to destroy the remaining copies of issue one. Which is what the newsstands will do as well - at least officially. I have heard somewhere that because it´s too expensive to have the unsold copies shipped back normally they just get thrown into the trash. Only that there are some newsstands that just say they destroyed them while selling them behind the back of the publishers.


And since the first issue is sure to become a collectors item many newsstand owners are going to make a lot of money with that. Of course there are some newsstands who still sell the issue like any other publication they get. I bought a copy at the newsstand at the train station in Ludwigsburg which usually doesn´t have a big selection of comics. I mean they have the newest issue of HORRORSCHOCKER usually one or two months after the other newsstands. But they had the issue. Maybe because it had the newspaper size. Who knows ?

At the moment the remaining issues haven´t been destroyed and Karl Nagel is trying to find a solution. Maybe some kind of mail order service for a higher price or selling the next issue through other outlets than comic shops or newsstans. What´s so depressing sbout the whole scandal is that for ONCE somebody wants to produce cheap comics for the masses in Germany and it all crashes and burns very quickly. POWER FREAKS all over again. By the way the whole thing started because of the cover that shows a student with a gun about to shoot a teacher. Okay, not the most tame cover image but I have seen worse on some comics or magazines.


It is a current topic and where will this all end when we can´t even treat this subjects ? Ignoring it won´t help to solve the problem. Maybe Germany only wants comics that are afraid to stick the finger where it hurts. On the other side this comic was started to offend by catering to the basest instincts and if starting a scandal was the goal it has suceeded on all levels. Again, I didn´t get to the TEEN TITANS but I think I will now read the first issue of DIE ODER WIR before taking a nap. Here are some related links :

issue 1 announcement

review of issue 1 from the FAZ

latest news about issue 1

the message board thread

Karl Nagel blog

Alligator Farm homepage

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

top ten posts

more posts of interest