World´s Greatest Comic Artists : Moebius

As you may have heard one of the greatest comic artists of all times, Jean Giraud better known as Moebius has died in France at the age of 73 last weekend. I myself got the news from ComicBits Online and have decided to not include this in my last comic news post since he clearly deserves a post all of his own. The word genius barely scratches the surface of how brilliant the man was.


I guess more than hundred websites are writing about how influential he was, what an exceptional artist he was and what a great imagination he had which managed to influence others so easily. And it still is not enough.

collection of links by german comic website Comicgate

american comicbook industry remembers Moebius

extensive article about Jean Giraud / Moebius by Jim Vadeboncoeur Jr

I once read in an interview with Adam Hughes that his definition of being famous is if there is one person in every country who knows who he is. Well, with Moebius I think there are very few people on the planet who DON´T know who he is. Most people in America probably know him from his collaboration with Stan Lee on the SILVER SURFER miniseries.


But my favorite work by Moebius has always been the INCAL series with John Difool. Written by Alejandro Jodorowsky the series had everything you could want in a science fiction series : spirituality, social criticism, incredible new concepts, crazy science, lots of aliens, sex, humor and John Difool even gained superpowers for a while.


The initial series was so successful that a second series followed with the adventures of John Difool before the events in the Incal story written by Jodorowsky and drawn by Zoran Janjetov.


The INCAL series also introduced the Meta - Barons which spawned it´s own series once again written by Jodorowsky this time drawn by Juan Gimenez.


And also another album that I bought that was started by Travis Charest and he never finished. Reading the story it´s evident that it was much to repetetive to catch his attention for long ( think videogame : search item a, fight adversary to get item a, collect item a, power up, search item b, rinse, wash, repeat ).

But back to Moebius. With so many people writing so eloquently about him ( like Sean Witzke in his post about how Moebius changed his life ) I feel a bit inadequate and also I have never been one for writing good eulogies. So I have decided to do what I always do in these cases : write about the comics I read. I´m not sure if my little story ( well, little, let´s hope we can finish this in one post ) is so different from other bloggers but since I live under the delusion of having a lot of readers from America I thought it might be interesting for them. Also there may be other people who only know some of his work so let´s start. As usual this will be one of my longwinded rants with uncountable off topic tangents so be warned and better get something to eat and drink and visit the bathroom for a final time.

HOW I FIRST DISCOVERED MOEBIUS

Now the whole story is a bit complicated when you think of it, because when the INCAL series had come out I already knew who Moebius was although I kind of didn´t know who he was, and the first time I discovered him was really the second time I discovered him but I didn´t know it at that time.

Nevertheless I think this is the best point to start. In previous posts I have already written a bit about the german comics I used to read in my youth and one of them was SCHWERMETALL, the german version of the french comic magazine METAL HURLANT known to my readers from the United States as HEAVY METAL.


Back at that time, which was probably during the 80s ( yes, I not only lived them, I also remember them ), there were no specialised comicshops and you had to buy your comics at stationery shops or at newsstands. Our stationery shop in Neckarweihingen didn´t have any comics for adults, just the regular issues of MICKY MAUS, FIX & FOXY, SUPERMAN, BATMAN, DER ROTE BLITZ, SPIDER - MAN or the other superheroes published by Ehapa or Condor.

But there was a newsstand in Ludwigsburg at the Arsenal Station that had a really good selection of pulp novels, magazines and comics. From the outside it didn´t look like much but when you stepped inside the walls were just crammed with tons of sci fi or fantasy novels by Philip K. Dick, Asimov, Stephen King, Robert E. Howard, Robert Asprin, Roger Zelazny or Michael Moorcock. They also had all the great horror pulps I used to devour during my school years like JOHN SINCLAIR, PROFESSOR ZAMORRA or DAMONA KING.

They had all the superhero comics that were published at that time and it´s also where I got my first issues of U - COMIX and SCHWERMETALL. Although I think the first issue I read was one my older brother brought home. I was totally fascinated by this collection of intelligently written sci fi stories with just mindblowing art that also wasn´t afraid to show some nude females now and then. Which was a big deal for me in my teens.

Anyway, as luck would have it I was going to middle school in Eglosheim at that time so I had a monthly ticket and I had to change busses which I always did at the Arsenal Station. Sadly the newsstand isn´t there anymore but I must have spent hundreds of hours leafing through the pages of all those wonderful comics. It´s where I got my first issue ..... well, of probably almost everything printed in the 80s I bought.


So I started reading SCHWERMETALL on a somewhat regular basis. Like I said there were no special comicshops where you could get back issues so if you couldn´t find an issue at one of the other newsstands you had just missed it and had to wait until they later released collected editions that were just four or five issues glued together with a cover on top.

So I got my monthly dosis of Jeff Jones, Phillipe Druillet, Caza or Moebius from those issues. Just hearing the names again I get all nostalgic and am tempted to look for any old issues I still might have. Back then I was kind of overwhelmed how much this Moebius guy did in each issue, not knowing that he was one of the founders of the magazine. I think at that point he just did short stories which should not be taken as a statement about the quality. One comic in particular, THE LONG TOMORROW written by Dan O'Bannon was a major visual influence on Ridley Scott´s movie BLADE RUNNER .


But that was just the beginning as Moebius started his first series with an iconic creation : four stories without words starring an alien with a strange headgear and a weird flying creature exploring questions like the inherent goodness of man. Arzach was born.


As predicted I can´t tell the whole story in one post ( I spent most of the day looking for the necessary pictures for this post and doing other research things ) and since it took me over a week to finish my last post I´m ending this one right now. Next time we will be talking about more Arzach, more Moebius, possibly even Major Grubert and how I discovered that I had already discovered Moebius. Hopefully.

But with a blog named TALES FROM THE KRYPTONIAN I can´t end this post without posting one of Moebius first forays into the realms of superheroes : his Superman pin up that was printed in SUPERMAN 400 which came out in 1984, the year in which I graduated.


It says everything about Superman that everyone else seems to miss. While clearly an idealized form of a man, he is not the muscle bound lunkhead you often see. Almost every other artist draws the character as a generic, hunky looking guy, ranging in age from 20 to 35 or so. Here, Moebius has made him truly look like an alien.

And you can read the full analisis of this masterpiece on The Ballad of Theo Huxtable from where I shamelessly pulled my quote .

Since this post is all about Moebius Today´s video is the documentry MOEBIUS REDUX : A LIFE IN PICTURES for anyone who hasn´t seen it yet.



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When you least expect it - comic news

Yes, I know I have been a bit sporadic in posting these over the last few months but most of the stuff I came across was DC news and that was just too depressing. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.


But there are also some positive news that I wanted to comment on in the world of comics. The last few days I´ve had the flu, in fact all of us here at home have it. But my brother who works for the post is the only one who can afford to get a sick note. Not that I think it would help me much since I´m feeling better on the days I have to work than on the days I can stay at home.

I have been trying to finish my last post for the last days but it seems that every time I put my mind to it something else comes up. Well, Today I was putting the finishing touches on it and looking for some final things to add when I came across a few comic news that I finally decided to put in this post.

JUST WHEN YOU LEAST EXPECT IT - SECTION ZERO RETURNS

When I was still entertaining the notion of ever finishing my last post I was thinking about doing a post called WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE MEN OF TOMORROW ? in the near future. And I still might. The thing is, whenever I order new comics I usually get them in nice comic bags and I use them to bag other comics.

But I don´t put one comic into a bag, put a bord in and then close it. No, the way I do things is I put three, five, six or how many comics I can fit into the bag and try to do this with whole series. At the moment I have most of the comics in my reading box and most of the other important comics in my room bagged so that when about two dozens of comic bags had piled up on my table I had to go back to my old longboxes. And the one I picked was the one that contained the issues of ACTION COMICS, ADVENTURE COMICS, MAN OF STEEL and SUPERMAN starting with John Byrne´s relaunch of the character.


I don´t know about you, but whenever I bag a series ( at least if it´s a good series ) I can´t help it but I start to flip through the pages, look at the art and then I´m reading an issue here and there.

Which lead me to the realisation that I started reading the SUPERMAN books in their Golden Age. Somehow DC managed to put out three ( and later four ) monthly SUPERMAN books that you could read on their own but also worked if you read all of them. There was a little Superman logo on each one with a number that told you in which order to read them and the artists list was really impressive : John Byrne, Jerry Ordway, George Perez, Mike Mignola, Lee Weeks etc. Well, being the nostalgic fool I am I wanted to do a post about those artists that were among the regulars and who don´t get much work Today like Kerry Gamill, Bob McLeod or Jon Bogdanove. And possibly find out what they are doing now.


One of the names on the list was Tom Grummet who became one of my personal favorites because he was the artist on NEW TITANS when I started reading the book which was just before the WILDBEEST HUNT saga, one of the best Titans storylines ever. Which - not surprising - hasn´t been traded yet.


Well, Tom Grummet has done tons of books after his heydays on SUPERMAN / SUPERBOY like NEW EXILES or X - MEN FOREVER and is now working on AVENGERS ACADEMY ( I think I mentioned this last month ) so I was not sure about including him but it seems I have another reason to write about him. In the comic industry there are always the comics that become a success, those that never had the potential to succeed and those that were destined to greatness but for whatever reason failed to take their place in the comic pantheon. Tom Grummet has worked on two such books ( at least that I can think of ) and while the really brilliant POWER COMPANY that was cut short way before its prime still languishes in comic limbo SECTION ZERO is making a triumphant return.

If you have never heard of SECTION ZERO, in 2000 a few prolific artists gathered under the Gorilla banner of Image to do their creator owned series. There were some really great books like TELLOS that was cut short by the death of Mike Wieringo


and it seems the whole Gorilla imprint of iMAGE was cursed as most of the other titles suffered a similar fate. George Perez´ CRIMSON TIDE managed to finally get the second issue in the can but stopped after that, SCHOCKROCKETS never made it to the second season, I think the only one that was really finished was Mark Waid and Barry Kitson´s EMPIRE series. A really great series about what happens if the villain finally DOES triumph over the hero.

Another series with great potential that ended after only three issues was SECTION ZERO and the Hollywood pitch would be a cross between X - FILES and WAREHOUSE 13 although this came out before there even was a WAREHOUSE 13. A really original series with great art by Tom Grummett and a brilliant story by Karl Kesel. Reading each issue you just couldn´t wait to find out what happens next - until the book ended.


Well, now the series is back although only as a webcomic so far
courtesy of the original creative team of Karl Kesel and Tom Grummet. And the best twist is that they are playing the story so that in the book also 12 years have passed. I for one can´t wait to find out what happened to my favorite freaks in the meantime and who knows, if the series has enough success in it´s second try there might even be a printed edition somewhere down the line.

JUST WHEN YOU LEAST EXPECT IT - VALIANT COMICS RETURNS

This may not be as unexpected for my longtime readers as I already reported in June 2011 that while the DC universe was flushed down the toilet Valiant Entertaining was planning on bringing back the properties published by Valiant / Acclaim Comics.

Well, finally the publishing schedule has ben confirmed and they are giving the starting shot with X - O MANOWAR on May 2nd followed by HARBINGER on June the 6th . Then BLOODSHOT in July and ARCHER & ARMSTRONG in August ( interview with writer Fred Van Lente ) .


Now this may be finally some good news after the whole DC fiasko. I mean, I heard that one sign of the Apokalypse is when AQUAMAN is the best DC book and it currently is. Which in theory could mean that either the new AQUAMAN book is sooo good or that all other books suck. I think at the moment both statements are true. But Back to Valiant.

" I think there was a reason why Valiant had such a tremendous impact in the industry, initially, " Valiant Executive Editor Warren Simons told CBR in January. " I think the characters they have really are exceptional. When I was thinking of coming onboard the company, the first thing that I did was research the IP. The thing that I found, time and time again, whether it was X - O or Harbinger or Bloodshot, the core concepts driving the characters really are fantastic. When you have that, you have the foundation for a really incredible universe. The thing about Valiant is that it's not just about a single comic; it's about the tapestry of the larger universe and how these characters play a role in it. "

Yes, the concepts of the series were really great in some cases ( I haven´t read all the books so I can´t be sure ) but where most books lacked was in the art departement. I´m not saying that it was really bad but it was just too old school in some cases, with which I mean there was good layout, exposition and solid storytelling but it lacked in dramatic art, action sequences and sheer " blow your face off " graphics. Now don´t get me wrong, I read a good amount of the series but in the graphic departement they didn´t give the big ones competition. At least in the beginning. Later on they managed to get people like Bart Sears, Andy Smith, Joe Quesada ( yes, at that time he was a regular artist ) or Brian Hitch and that´s when they really took off.


Since some of my readers might not be familiar with the idea behind the series I thought it would be good to write a bit about them, first the books that are going to be relaunched and then about the rest of the books I read. As usual this will all be drenched in off topic remarks and funny anecdotes that my readers seem to enjoy. So let´s start right away.

X - O MANOWAR

The first. The best. The gold standard.

Okay, I´m not sure if X - O MANOWAR really was the first series Valiant published, it might as well have been HARBINGER or HARDC.O.R.P.S. But for me X - O MANOWAR was their big book.

The idea of the series was as simple as it was brilliant and after you heard it you wondered why nobody thought of something like this before. It´s Conan the Barbarian in Iron Man´s armor.


Aric of Dacia is a Visigoth from the 5th century who gets abducted by spider aliens but manages to escape with one of their battle armors. Because he travels at light speed it´s the 20th century as he finally arrives on earth and he has the usual problems adjusting to 15 centuries of technological progress until he becomes the head of a multinational corporation. And I´m really a sucker for timetravel stories which means this was right up my alley.

So you got the Rip Van Winkle timelost aspect, you got the Conan with Iron Man´s armor aspect, you got the corporate espionage and intrigue aspect and you even had some rather brilliant remarks on modern society.

And the thing was that the armor was more sophisticated than Iron Man´s armor at that time. It had a camouflage mode long before Tony Stark incorporated his cloaking device, it could morph to incorporate new tech and every few issues it would look different.




Because it kept adapting to its human host who was evolving as the series went along. And you weren´t confined to one main character. Unlike Marvel or DC Valiant took risk like somebody else wearing the armor - a woman to be exact.


For a certain time they shared the armor or took turns or something like that and I think she even took over for a bit when he was busy with his corporation. They even had storylines in which Aric was eviscarated by a robot dinosaur and was trapped in the armor for ten years or one in which the armor was destroyed.


While the series started out strong and had great storyarcs it really kicked it into overdrive with issue 44 when Ron Marz took over writing duties and Bart Sears became the new artist. As Bart´s level of quality would have endangered a monthly schedule Andy Smith did the art on alternating issues and since he drew very similar to Bart Sears at that time it gave the book a unified look.


Those were really the best times of the series until they decided to go with the old " Oh, it was all just a bad dream. " trope when they had to wrap the book up.

When Acclaim later tried a relaunch the whole book crashed and burned because someone had the brilliant idea of replacing Conan the Barbarian ( or Aric the Visigoth in this case ) with the ultimate computer geek. Which may make sense but it´s not very entertaining. Someone like Aric was interesting because he would use the armor in unexpected ways and he was used to fighting on the battlefield. But stick some science kid into the driver seat and you got - well, what every kid does when he´s playing MEDAL OF HONOR or HALO. And do I really need to read a comic for that ?

So, the original X - O MANOWAR series was a really good read and it´s one of the books I´m going to keep forever in my collection. I don´t know if I have all the issues but if not it´s ALMOST complete.

HARBINGER

Okay, I have to admit I didn´t read many issues of this one. I probably have the issues that were part of the big UNITY crossover that all had covers by Frank Miller and Walter Simonson. I bought the trade with the first issues along with two other Valiant trades on the last Comicbörse in Stuttgart because they were selling them at one table for an Euro each. At that price there isn´t much you can do wrong.


Of course the first thing I noticed was the art which was a bit unspectacular but the story was their kind of take of the X - Men. When it came out I wasn´t really interested in some cheap X - Men knockoff but I have to say after reading the trade they played it much more real world style. I´m not sure how much Jim Shooter had with the series but I´m sensing hints of his NEW UNIVERSE in here. Not really a bad series and I might be interested in reading more.

BLOODSHOT

There´s only one issue I have of this series, issue 30 which was drawn by Norm Breyfogle and I ordered from blackdog comics for 1 EURO or less.


I think the story was about a guy turned into the perfect soldier by nanotechnology but at the time it came out I just wasn´t interested in another gun toting musclehead.

ARCHER & ARMSTRONG

Now this was a series I most definitely read and that was in greatest part because of the art of Barry Windsor Smith who did a lot of covers for the Valiant books.


Archer & Armstrong has been called " The best buddy team book of all time. " by Ain't It Cool News, and " Superhero buddy book of the decade " by Wizard Magazine. Ain't It Cool News also said that " Not since Batman & Robin has a more important duo hit the comic world. "

Archer is the world´s greatest hand - to - hand fighter, an expert marksman, a cross between Bruce Lee and Ghandi who was raised in a monastery. Armstron is a desilusioned, overweight and really strong immortal who would rather have a nice drink or tell a tale of his inceredible adventures than fight for justice or honor. He´s like a pissed off Hulk with Wolverine´s longevity but on a grander scale. He´s what Highlander would have been if he had been cool.


Of course those two totally opposite characters have to band together and the main point of the series was the interaction between those two. As I am a big fan of Michael Moorcock´s Eternal Hero epos I was especially interested in Armstrong and his brother who also got his own book.

Armstron also has a mysterious satchel that contains a variety of mysterious and interesting artifacts that he has accumulated throughout history, and like the satchel of Shaman from Alpha Flight it´s depths are said to be endless. Now as somebody who also has a satchel that he takes to work I can relate to Armstrong and I know that you can´t possibly know everything you packed into your satchel. Why, just Today I found a CARAMAC bar in it that I had totally forgotten.


Or sometimes I think I have something in it only to find out later that I must have taken it out at some point. It´s crazy which kind of things you can find in your satchel.

So I totally believe that he remembers certain things he put in while he draws a blank on other things especially when he put them in while he was drunk or without really looking. And another thing we seems to have in common is the look. I may not wear the barret and my pants are rather blue than pink but aside from that we could have been separated at birth.


SHADOWMAN

This is the one you probably know in videogame form. If X - O MANOWAR was my number 1 Valiant series SHADOWMAN was a close second. I really liked the setting of the story and the simple design of the costume. The whole look and feel of the series reminded me a bit of the NIGHTMASK series although I´m pretty sure they are completely different. The book is about jazz musician Jack Boniface who barely survives being attacked one night and from then on feels the urge to find criminals and punish them when night falls. Which could be problematic if that was all there is to it. But after the attack he has changed and he becomes stronger, wilder, more resilient but also more violent.


The whole New Orleans setting with the vodoo stuff and the morbid cemetary scenes and the jazz music was something I found really intriguing as well as the fact that they never clearly defined Shadowman´s powers. They kept it a bit vague so that it may be connected to vodoo or the darkness or maybe just Jack going crazy but too many comics fall into the trap of overexplaining the main character´s powers and end up being boring. SHADOWMAN was anything but and lastest the longest which was around 80 issues. This was the second trade I bought at the last Comicbörse in Stuttgart and even though I already had most of the issues ( the first ten issues are hard to find ) I didn´t regret buying it.

So this book was all about mysteries, the dark things and - of course - playing jazz on your saxophone with your bike in a graveyard.


And he met Aerosmith.


ETERNAL WARRIOR

Now this was the aforementioned brother of Armstrong Gilad and as it also was an immortal in the ETERNAL WARRIOR vein ( it´s even in the title, dude ) I just had to read the book.


Where Armstrong was desillusioned and wary of the ways of the world Gilad was much more of an action hero going out and kicking butt. And while ARCHER & ARMSTRONG had clear hints of what Highlander might have been ETERNAL WARRIOR definitely showed it. The art was rough in some cases but all things considered an enjoyable read.

NINJAK

I was young and needed the money. No, wait. That was Joe Quesada, not me. All joking aside it was of course the great art by Joe Quesada who at that time was just starting to be known.


I mostly have the issues with his art in it and I think I stopped buying when he left the book. No idea what the book was all about, but I guess it was something with - ninjas ? Not that it really mattered.

THE VISITOR VS THE VALIANT UNIVERSE

Another book I bought solely for the art. You see ? I told you later Valiant comics had some exceptional art on them. Brian Hitch drew this when he was still very much Alan Davising his style although you could start to see hints of individuality.


Two issues that came out and had lush art by Brian Hitch and in the story this Visitor guy alien ( I think ) went up against the whole Valiant universe, as the title says.

And isn´t it just the best when a dozen of heroes fight or pile on some well deserving alien ?

RAI / RAI AND THE FUTURE FORCE

This is the third trade I bought at the Comicfair in Stuttgart last year and in this case I didn´t have any of the issues since I never read the series. Which is kind of strange since I´m very into things like asian culture, their views on duty, obligations, legacies and family. I guess the whole deal with RAI turning into RAI AND THE FUTURE FORCE deal got me confused so I never tried this one.


As far as I can remember this Rai thing is like a hereditary thing and the mantle of protector of Japan. There´s this new guy who is Rai in some kind of futuristic version of Japan who has to take the role of protector of a nation but not everybody´s happy with that. Large parts of hte population are against him and there´s also the whole deal with his predecessor as Rai - Daddy dearest.

A series I would have enjoyed if I had tried it, I´m sure.

SOLAR, MAN OF THE ATOM

Not to be confused with this guy, who is called Solar Man.



SOLAR, MAN OF THE ATOM is another book I should have read as I heard it involves time travel, weird science and a normal human gaining almost godlike powers. Together with MAGNUS, ROBOT FIGTHER and TUROK, SON OF STONE this was one of the three characters which was originally published by Gold Key comics and which are currently written by Jim Shooter for Dark Horse.


MAGNUS was the one series my brother was reading and I was kind of jealous because it had really good art. I´m not sure where I had read some MAGNUS stories before ( maybe in some issue of MV Comix ) but I remember some pages done by Russ Manning that I really liked.

Russ Manning was my favorite artist on TARZAN but I have very few comics from him. I think I might have one issue of an obscure comic that reprinted old newspaper comic strips and that had pages from Russ Manning´s TARZAN and Will Eisner´s SPIRIT in it.

QUANTUM AND WOODY

I know that it´s not really a Valiant series. After all the Valiant comics had been canceled Acclaim tried another go by relaunching a few series in an all - different way but they all weren´t as good as the previous incarnation. Except QUANTUM & WOODY which is one of the funniest books I have read in my whole life bar none.


The team of Priest and Bright really kicks it out of the ballpark with this one and if you ever wondered where I got my mannerisms and vocabular from, this is the true origin of s - word, f - word or n - word. This was truly the best superhero buddy comic. And it even had a goat in it. With a mask and a cape if I remember correctly. This book gets my unconditional recommendation and if you ever see one of the trades somewhere and you haven´t already read it go and buy it. You will bust a gut laughing.

And with that I think I have covered the most important parts of the Valiant comics published. There are a few things I could add as well as some stories but it´s once again time to wrap things up as it´s again very late. And it´s been more than a week since I started this post.


Since I mentioned MAGNUS ROBOT FIGHTER and Russ Manning Today´s video shows some Magnus art by the master himself. Now on one side I have no idea why this hasn´t been turned into a major feature film by now. On the other hand I´m afraid it will be turned into something like Disney´s new JOHN CARTER OF MARS movie.



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Beware the ides of March

Today´s ( and in fact the next few days ) post is going to be another post where I cram various topics into one post like I have done in the past. And I guess I´m still doing so I´m not sure why I deemed this intro necessary. So let´s get on with it.


MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, EH, I MEAN SCHISM

So, Today I bought another german comic, X - MEN SONDERHEFT SCHISMA : GETRENNTE WEGE which is not ( as the cover suggests ) the brilliant X - MEN SCHISM miniseries but rather the german edition of X - MEN PRELUDE TO SCHISM. I can pretty much understand why they went with the cover by Alan Davis since I myself wouldn´t slap any of the original covers of the prelude miniseries on a comic I wanted to sell.

The german comic has 100 pages for 6.95 EUROS which is a good price but unless you are a really dedicated hardcore fan of the X - Men or the ultimate completist you really don´t need this comic. According to Marvel this is The prelude to the X - Men Event of 2011 ! What does it mean to be a leader ? What does it do to a person ? What do the choices you make mean about the person you are ? This is a story that delves into these issues and will give an X-Men reader what they need to know about their favorite mutants - before everything changes !

Sadly the comic doesn´t deliver on any of those counts. The story doesn´t have anything to do with SCHISM and rather feels like one of those " shelved " issues Marvel used to have ( and probably still has ) for the event an issue was delayed. Then there were finished comics in a drawer that had nothing to do with current continuity and could be inserted anytime. Like those shelved comics the PRELUDE TO SCHISM doesn´t have anything to do with it and really is only a waste of time.


If you are one of those guys who likes the parts in an action movie best where people are just standing around and talking a lot then this is a comic for you. Because that´s what you get here. A lot of standing around, a lot of talking and a lot of recap of ancient X - Men history. During the whole story some undisclosed threat is approaching but it never is specified which threat that is and it´s not like there is something coming in SCHISM that you could foretell or forsee from this miniseries.

The whole premise of the story doesn´t make any sense like Paul Jenkins wrote it without knowing what is going to happen in the big event it´s leading up to. The recapping of X - Me history is rather sketchy and arbitrary and not very well done. Another thing that bothers me is that in almost every story involving Magneto they come up with a different name for him. His name is Erik Lensherr, dammit. Can´t writers do their homework ?

Now this could be saved by good art but like the writing it´s subpar, mediocre at best. Even though it´s cheaper than the US trade your money is better spent by getting the hardcover from amazon which is now sold for the same price as the trade 14.95 EUROS. And you have Carlos Pacheco, Frank Cho, Alan Davis, Daniel Acuna and Adam Kubert on one of the best x - events of the past years. Highest recommendation.


THE CATWOMAN´S MEOW

In my last post I mentioned DC sexing up Catwoman ( yes, in the all butt edition ) and I wanted to illustrate the point a little further. Of course at this point everybody knows about Catwoman´s on - panel sex acts with Batman in the first issue of the New 52 series in which she didn´t wear much clothes either. DC seems to be bent on playing her character in that way for the time being which you can see on one side by her depiction on some of the covers that really needs no further explanations.


And for everyone who wants more than just some nice pictures there´s the Bishoujo Catwoman figure that really empahsizes her most prominent features.


You can find an in - depth ( no pun intended ) analysis of the figure on this post . Now don´t get me wrong, I´m all for superheroines strutting their stuff but I´m getting some weird vibrations from DC´s mixed signals to fans. One hand is teasing me with pin up Catwoman, the other hand is covering up my Power Girl from head to toe. It´s either totally scizophrenic or DC is trying to cover all the bases while feeling the desperate need to do things different.

I´m not reading the new CATWOMAN book so it´s only speculation but maybe they want to go back to her past as a prostitute which wouldn´t be the first time they go back to it as chronicled by Comicbook Resources Abandoned and Forsaken entry on it . It´s really an interesting read and you can find many other fascinating storylines that were nixxed like Magneto being Xorn, the death of Aunt May or Prometheus going from majorly brilliant and unbeatable supervillain mastermind to pushover milksop and back again in their archive .

A HORSE IS A HORSE, OF COURSE, OF COURSE, AND NOBODY MAKES OUT WITH A HORSE, OF COURSE, UNLESS THIS HORSE ...

Speaking about weird stories and archives, I already mentioned in one of my posts that I was kind of hoping that now as DC seems so desperate that it restarts all titles with a new number 1 and is rehashing old storylines ( not to speak of old 90´s Image Comics art ) they would also return to the whacky stories of the Golden Age. As an example I cited one article of the I LOVE YA BUT YOU´RE STRANGE series about Golden Age Superman´s inaproppiate sexual fixation on his cousin Supergirl.


Well, Supergirl was of course not exempt of some inaproppiate stories with weird sexual implications like ANOTHER STORY WHERE SHE DISGUISES HER SO SUPERMAN CAN PLANT A WET ONE ON HER , HER AND WONDER WOMAN GIVING UP BEING SUPERHEROINES BECAUSE IT WAS TOO MANLY and THAT TIME SUPERGIRL MADE OUT WITH HER HORSE . So I guess DC can only blame themselves for all the jokes about Supergirl and her horse. By the way, the horse ALSO MADE OUT WITH LOIS LANE in another story. You can find the full extend of depraved and weird comicbook stories of Yesterday ( and maybe Tomorrow ) in their archive .

THEY SAY THIS CAT LUKE CAGE IS A BAD MOTHER...

Today I went over the latest solicitations for Marvel and DC ( yes, I know I´m way behind with it ) when I came across this DEFENDERS cover.


And looking at it I had the idea that Pam Grier would have been a cool choice for Misty Knight in an HEROES FOR HIRE movie. She played the tough cop / private eye in COFFY and cult classic FOXY BROWN and she could deliver the action sequences. As a bonus she´s really hot and she has taken off her clothes a few times in her movies.


Of course that would mean that you would cast Richard Roundtree, Mr. Shaft himself for Luke Cage. I mean is there anyone cooler than Shaft ? I don´t know how much getting rid of the stache would affect his performance ( maybe we could keep the stache since they made Kingpin black in the Daredevil movie ) but I can just see him as the hero from the hood who ends up behind bars, unjustly convicted for a crime he didn´t commit. Now that I think of it HERO FROM THE HOOD does have a certain ring to it. I think I better copyright that before somebody else turns it into a comic or movie.


So the next question who is going to play Iron Fist. Keeping with the time period and the talent available I would like to say Bruce Lee but since Daniel Rand is not really asian looking Bruce Lee would have to play Shang Chi ( in a guest appearance of course ).


As Iron Fist we could either take David Carradine who took over Bruce Lee´s part in the original KUNG FU series or one of Bruce Lee´s pupils, the young Chuck Norris.


Then we also need somebody to play Daniel´s father for which Steve McQueen would be great. He could be the overarching father figure and he would only appear in the first part of the movie and then die a tragic death. So you wouldn´t have to pay him that much money and actors just love to play a great death scene. Dying in a movie is one sure way to get an Oscar.


As for Coleen Wing I would probably go for Raquel Welch. Not really original you might say ( especially coming from me ) but she looks good, is athletic enough to do the action parts and I don´t see somebody like Sophia Loren or Doris Day playing the part of swordwielding dragonlady.


You know, for the life of me I can´t understand why, with all the comic movies Marvel is doing they haven´t done a HEROES FOR HIRE, IRON FIST or THE DEADLY HANDS OF SHANG - CHI MASTER OF KUNG FU movie.

They are doing all these expensive movies where you need tons of special effects instead of doing a martial arts movie that would be much easier to do. And don´t tell me martial arts wouldn´t rock in 3D. We´re talking about IN YOUR FACE KUNG FU, dude ! On the other side, now that Disney has made Marvel their bitch they wouldn´t do a decent fight movie anyway. The end product would be something like " The greatest fighter is the one who can defeat himself ! " B.S. or worse.

Still, if it was up to me just take IP MAN´s Donnie Yen as Shang Chi, GREEN HORNET´s Jay Chou as The Cat, Beyonce as Misty Knight ( definitely with the afro ), TEKKEN´s Christine Monteiro Kelly Overton as Coleen Wing, Michael J White as Luke Cage, SMALLVILLE´s Green Arrow Justin Hartley as Daniel Rand, Russel Crowe as Papa Rand, Tony Yah as Steel Serpent, Ken Watanabe as Lei Kung the Thunderer and Mark Dacascos as Yü Ti and make the damn movie.

You know, apart from Steve McQueen and Bruce Lee you could even take my cast from above and make a HEROES FOR HIRE movie that takes part 20 years later. Of course this is only a mental exercise. So, if it was up to you, who would you cast ?

SO YOU SAY IT´S NOT SUPERHEROES IF IT´S EUROPEAN ?

I was just catching up on my reading of the excellent blog COMICBITS ONLINE when I found this interesting article on The Improbability of the British Super Hero .


Now, european superhero comics are something that interests me very much and not only because I published one of the few german superheo comics to this very day.

If this doesn´t interest you you might better skip this whole part. I never understood the idea that " only american creators can do superhero comics " that is propagised not only by american people but also by people in Europe, most often when asked why they don´t make superhero comics. There is this idea that superheroes MUST always be skyscrapers and always be in America. That european creators can´t do good superheroes.

Well, this is the greatest piece of s - word on a stick I have ever heard. What about the british invasion ? Not to bring the big guns but maybe you´ve heard about this little comic called WATCHMEN that´s only ..... well, possibly the best superhero comic there is. And it was done by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. Who surprisingly are not american. I mean where would the comic industry be Today without the works of Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, Warren Ellis, ( to some extent Garth Ennis ) or the art of Brian Bolland, Alan Davis, Brian Hitch, without such works like WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE MAN OF TOMORROW, FOR THE MAN WHO HAS EVERYTHING, THE KILLING JOKE, V FOR VENDETTA, ANIMAL MAN, SWAMP THING, PREACHER ?


And that´s just those british guys. As a paisano form Spain I´m always happy to see some spanish artists dab in the superhero pool and I even got the book with all the spanish artists working on superheroes. Carlos Pacheco, Jesus Merino, Salvador Larocca, Ramon Bachs, I could be name dropping like crazy. But you get my point.

American comics have always had european creators or creators who don´t come from America and even when you get to the Who´s Who list there are a lot of gys from abroad on it : Jose Luis Garcia Lopez, George Perez, Mike Deodato Jr, hell, we even got people like Jordi Bernet or Jose Ladronn doing superheroes. Heck, John Byrne and Dale Keown are from Canada, Canada I say !


So where do people get the idea that superheroes can only be done by american creators ?

I don´t know. When we began the long odyssey that future generations would come to know as POWER FREAKS we heard the same thing over and over again. It´s impossible to do german superhero comics. Now it´s more like : It´s impossible to do more than one issue of a german superhero comic. And I´m sure if our number two had ever come out it would now be it´s impossible to do more than two issues of a german superhero comic. But the thing remains that most everybody we encountered thought it was impossible to do a german superhero comic and take the comic seriously. Not make a gag comic or a parody or a funny superhero comic.

And the thing is most people couldn´t really explain why they thought it was impossible. Most people just accepted it as fact and never bothered to try if it really was impossible. Well, now that POWER FREAKS didn´t go as planned people took that as proof that it was impossible from the start but they also can´t deny that the impossible happened. We published a german superhero comic that was a serious comic and the universe stopped. The laws of physics were negated and for that point in time we had bested fate. Which are the moments an artist lives for.

Okay, end of my longwinded rant but you see I don´t give much credit to this urban comic legend that superhero comics can only be made by american creators / people / comic companies. For years I´ve been a huge fan of Paul Grist´s JACK STAFF ( who also worked on an issue of CAPTAIN AMERICA, and that as a british artist ) and I especially love JACK STAFF because it´s NOT an american comic.


I love it for the british setting but also for the rich history of british comics that are part of this universe with Paul´s own versions of MYTEK, ROBOT ARCHIE, EYE OF KELLY, STEEL CLAW or SPIDER. Those were british comics but they also appeared in the german KOBRA magazine so I guess the nationality of the product was not that specific if german readers could also enjoy it. So what´s my point ? Don´t let people tell you what´s possible and what isn´t. Especially when it comes to superheroes there are a lot of things that are taken as facts but which have no real evidence to back it up. And if you want to do superhero comics, no matter if you´re from England, Spain, Australia, India, Afrika or the planet Krypton just do it.

By the way, one thing that I´m still hoping for in JACK STAFF is one of my dream crossovers : SPIDER vs SPIDER - MAN. Paul Grist already has a SPIDER - like character in the books so it´s not impossible to do his version of the wallcrawler and let those two butt webheads. Although it would be a bit confusing in the german version since The Spider was called Spiderman ( without the hyphen, that´s why the distinction is so important ) in Germany.


SEEMS IT ALWAYS RAINS IN NORTHERN PORTLAND

Here´s something else from COMICBITS ONLINE, this time it´s a clip about the local comic scene of Portland which seems to be a fertile ground for independent comic companies like Dark Horse or Top Shelf or small press comics in general. Maybe a nice town to visit, it´s got good public transportation but don´t forget to bring your umbrella.



And speaking about the comic industry, this sums it up really nice ( also found on COMICBITS ONLINE thus making it a perfect hattrick ).


Last but not least, here´s a funny strip and I can´t remember where I found it :


As one of the few blogs that travels in time - since I´m probably writing this after most people have read this post - I can´t end the post without a Doctor Who related clip ( I´ve currently made my way to the second season ) so here´s the Tardis taking off for the first time. Next time we´ll be going over some comic news that have piled up in the meantime.



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