And tell me ( Doctor ) Who do you love ?

Normally I don´t like to do two posts about the same subject in a row but since my last post seems to be pretty popular with the kids ( with 1.249 hits it´s way above the normal readership level ) AND I kind of promised it here are the websites I came across during the making of my last post.

Yes, things seem to be picking up on the blog since this is the third time that I have cracked the 1.000 hits per day benchmark in the last two weeks ( 1.089 and 1.162 respectively ), a trend I hope to continue here.

Now this is going to be only a short post with the links I would have put in my last post but you can´t always do those long post. Although truth to tell, ALL the posts I do are planned as short posts - or at least the vast majority - and then they turn into these marathon ramblings because I just keep adding and adding stuff. Case in point, while I am putting all the research links here I already added some links in the last Doctor Who post as well as more text and pictures. In fact, just this morning I was writing another text block on it. But that´s okay because I didn´t find them researching the post so they were never planned for an extra post.

Before starting I want to mention that the following links are neither listed in any particular order nor sorted according to importance, their excellence or the quality of the content. When I do the research on my posts I´m mainly looking to verify something, get some interesting facts or more often find some particular or cool pictures to post. Which is quite important for us bloggers who don´t know how to get pictures otherwise.

So the order in which the links are listed is not an indication of the quality in any shape or form which also would be impossible for me to do since I haven´t read much from the blogs or websites beside the little tidbits I needed for the post. I´m only human and as long as the day has only 24 hours there are things I have to leave for later. Also a guy has to sleep.

 
So without any further ramblings ( yeah, too late for that ) here are the links that I think deserve their own post, Doctor Who and otherwise :

First up is CLASSICAL GALLIFREY ,  a website that has no new posts after December 2012 but nevertheless it´s an invaluable resource for Classic Doctor Who since it has detailed posts with long descriptions and indepth thoughtful analysis of every episode of the Doctors One to Eight. It also has a lot of neat pictures upon we bloggers depend. I came across the great post on ENLIGHTENMENT which is really fantastic and though I was tempted to copy some of it for the post I decided against it in the end. I have stated in my last post why this is the best Doctor Who episode with Tegan but you owe it to yourself to read the post to see that other people agree with me. And not only is ENLIGHTENMENT rated as the best Tegan story it is also number eleven on the Top Twenty Classic Stories charts.

Another reason why I think the site is so great is that the navigation is really easy since it not only has labels for people like the various script editors, but also there is an index and links for all the different doctors at the top of the blog which leads you to a list with links to all the episodes.

Now while the blog focuses on the production and writing ADVENTURES WITH THE WIFE IN SPACE is more of a fun read. It´s basically transcripts of the conversations devoted Doctor Who fan Neil Perryman has with his wife Sue while watching the episodes. It´s funny, entertaining and - for somebody like me who has no knowledge of british pop culture and tv series - full of fascinating facts and tidbits. So far I have only read part of the entries on THE ARC OF INFINITY and ENLIGHTENMENT ( those posts are really long ) but I totally recommend it for new Who fans. In fact the blog is so outstandingly good that it is available as a book by amazon.

Now I´m not sure if I haven´t posted the link to Tansy Rayner Robert´s TANSYYR blog before but I´m putting it here just in case I DID forget.

While not an exclusively Doctor Who blog it DOES cover tv series and that includes The Doctor. If the first two blogs were too specific for you and you have just begun to delve your toes into the Whoniverse ( how I envy your journey ) the blog has an introduction to Classical Doctor Who and individual posts on the Doctors. I found A MODERN WOMAN´S GUIDE TO CLASSIC WHO : THE FIFTH DOCTOR YEARS ( 1982 - 1984 ) which gives you a basic idea about the Peter Davison Doctor as well as detailed info on his companions. It also breaks down the best stories to watch and lo and behold, The Black Guardian Trilogy is listed as best marathon watch and Enlightenment as most lavish dark fairy tale ever told in Doctor Who.

Our next link is Steve Hill´s DOCTOR WHO IMAGE ARCHIVE and like the name says it contains a plethora of pictures. It´s archived according to Doctors, companions, monsters etc. Of course there is an entry on Janet Fielding complete with a biography and a character outline for Tegan. For more about our favorite companion from Down Under you can also go to TWA , which is the official homepage of Tegan´s Worldwide Admirers.

Another veritable treasure trove of Doctor Who related pictures - and also animated GIFs ! - is NOT TONIGHT DALEK and while it has no new posts since the end of November 2013 it´s still four entire years worth of pics ( with more than 1400 posts in 2011 alone ) with anything Doctor Who related from episode pictures to behind the camera pictures to Doctor Who badges, Doctor Who milk chocolate and even the Dalek boardgame.

Now you might think that the picture from my last post of the Master reading an issue of Doctor Who Monthly is from that website but I actually swiped it from greatbriton´s PICSPAM ! Doctor Who ( Five ) archive . 

With our next entry TEGAN we actually go into overtime since it´s already past midnight. You might think it´s all about one of the companions but it´s actually an acronym for Tardis Experiences Great And Numerous and it covers all the Doctors from Classic Doctor Who to the New Who stuff.

THE DAILY P.O.P. is not a Doctor Who only site but it has a section for the Doctor Who audio dramas from Big Finish which I know are a big part of the Doctor Who canon. It helped many a Whovian to overcome the lonely Doctorless periods - especially the Wilderness Years - and you can follow the labels to that like the one with the Peter Davison audio dramas .

The audio dramas are also a part of DOCTOR WHO REVIEWS which is all about The history of Doctor Who ( November 1963 to July 2011 ) and has posts with pictures on 1.074 adventures in space and time : ordered, analysed and enjoyed. It even offers a timeline that incorporates the tv episodes, the audio dramas and the graphic novels. How neat is that ?

Talking about neat, it can´t be pure coincidence that the newest entry on THE TIGER WHO CAME TO TEA - another website dedicated entirely to Doctor Who - is on Enlightenment . This post helped me a lot because it covers all the episodes and has a truckload of pictures. Thanks for that.

Back to not Who exclusive websites, pop culture site SHADOWLOCKED has an archive of Doctor Who reviews and also an entry on ENLIGHTENMENT . Ditto goes for THE PROJECT76 BLOG ( link to the Doctor Who archive and Black Guardian Trilogy entry ) and DVDACTIVE  which has another Black Guardian Trilogy review with pics. Which brings us almost to the end.

Fellow blogger and german comic icon Geier would probably bite my head off if I forgot to mention his newest webcomic and since our paths are most likely to cross in Erlangen I don´t want that to happen. The name of the strip is DOKTOR WER and it´s kind of a german version of The Doctor

although his ZURRIA ( Zeit und relative Räume im All ) looks more like a portable toilet. The new installments can be found on the DOKTOR WER facebook page and the readers get to vote on how the story continues.

I think it´s a great idea and there are even Sunday pages in color.

       
Last but not least is MORE OLSENS THAN YOU CAN SHAKE A STICK AT at CEDAR AND WILLOW which hasn´t anything to do with Doctor Who.

I only came across this because it claims that Jimmy Olsen and Lucy Lane are really covers to disguise Turlough and Tegan, traveling companions of the Fifth Doctor Who, on such adventures where they crossed over. These adventures were mostly taking place in the 1980s. While I can neither confirm nor deny that it´s an extensive post on Jimmy Olsen in all the different media that includes a Jack Kirby Chronology. Also I just had to post a link to a website that mentions cult siren Betty Brosmer and has an awesome post on Power Girl ( with T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agent Dynamo ) .

Again the post has taken much longer than planned ( we´re already two and a half hours over the limit ) so you see why I gave this its own post.

Next up we will - hopefully - have more comic related content, either the long awaited All - Star Squadron post or more Inferno Crossovers stuff. I really have to get back to that topic very soon because the folder with the AVENGERS issues has been lying on my chair for over a week now ( I took it out of the shelf storage to write about issue 300 which is a 64 page spectacular ) and it´s really just in the way. You know, if somebody who is new to TALES FROM THE KRYPTONIAN comes across this blog he might think I´m a guy living the UK since everything on the first page of the blog is a lot of Doctor Who and a review of a british independent comic.

So I´ll post more european stuff in the near future - it would be a real waste to not use all the material I have prepared on spanish comics from Bruguera, SUPERLOPEZ and MORTADELO & FILEMON - and I´ll definitely do another cosplay post since the last one was so well received. It will probably be a post about cosplay goddess Yaya Han and I will have to watch my phrasing on it because I don´t want to get into any trouble.

Because words can have a double meaning very quickly when well endowed cosplay girls are involved and I´m most likely to get carried away here.

What can I say ? I´m a still active guy and asian girls are my kryptonite.

And Yaya is just one extremely talented lady. Get a load of this bombshell.

And not only that, Yaya also dresses up like some of my biggest erotic fantasies. But I´ll try to restrain myself and be halfway professional and focus on the costumes. By the way, since we´re talking about my favorites : her Chun Li outfit is on the top of my list and since I can´t possibly fit all the pictures into one post you will see a lot of them in the next posts until I run out or tire of them ( NEVER gonna happen ). I have posted the biggest size I could find of this picture ( 1.6 MB ! ) so be sure to open it in a new window to study all the detail work on the dress.

In our last post we didn´t have a Doctor Who related video at the end of the post but this time I´m including one although it´s a bit sad. While we are still waiting for the next Doctor to arrive this video counts down 11 THINGS WE WILL MISS ABOUT THE ELEVENTH DOCTOR. My hat ( or fez in this case ) is off to the brilliant Matt Smith who did a really outstanding job as everyone´s favorite Raggedy Man in the Tardis. Geronimo !



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You mean you're deliberately choosing to go on the run from your own people, in a rackety old TARDIS ?

Why not ? After all, that's how it all started. 

( Doctor ) Who´s your Daddy ?

The last weeks I have been watching more DOCTOR WHO ( or better Doctor Who Classic because they haven´t started with the Peter Capaldi on New Who ) and I have finally entered the Peter Davison period.

I should probably be preparing for Erlangen, updating my comic lists and looking for a new trolley and such but since I have one more week to go than I thought ( and there´s nobody announced I have a special interest in ) there is still time to do a few posts. So I thought one thing I could do is give my readers an update on my DOCTOR WHO viewing especially now that I have started with the Fifth Doctor. And it´s about time because Tom Baker´s stint on that show is almost longer than his signature scarf.

I mean, nothing against Tom Baker, he´s really great and THE iconic version but there comes a point where you are craving for a new Doctor.

I WANT A NEW DOCTOR, ONE THAT WON`T HURT MY HEAD

The strange thing is I could never remember Peter Davison´s name but as soon as he became the new Doctor I could - although I forgot some of the other Doctor´s names. As for my new Doctor I have to say he hasn´t won me over one hundred percent yet but I guess that´s how it always goes. At first you don´t like him, then you get to know him better and when you have finally grown fond of him something happens and he regenerates.

And you don´t see him again unless a multi Doctor story happens. Which is always a good thing. And I got THE FIVE DOCTORS still ahead of me which has the most Doctors in it - so far. Yes, I have skipped a bit ahead and already seen it once but now I have not only seen and experienced all the different incarnations of The Doctor, I also know who all those companions are to which I was quite oblivious when I first watched it.

And speaking about the companions, Today I watched ENLIGHTENMENT ( the last part of The Black Guardian Trilogy ), which must be THE best story with Tegan Yovanka in it. I have to say, Janet Fielding has really won me over although at first Tegan was a bit of an annoying character.

COME FLY WITH ME ( IN THE TARDIS )

Although in her defense I must say she probably had the most reason to be since she practically gets hijacked. Okay, she does walk into the Tardis willingly, but then she is thrust head first into something she doesn´t quite understand and there is this weird guy who promises to bring her back to Earth at the exact moment and place she left but he never does.

There´s always something else coming up that´s much more important and while it´s nice to save the universe once or twice it also would be nice to get home sometime. And it´s not like The Doctor treats her very nice, he´s almost condescending in her behavior towards Tegan. Okay, she may not have the academic intellect of Nyssa or be a mathematical genius like Adric but come on, isn´t it The Doctor who always says that everybody is special ? So it´s no wonder that she´s a bit burned out after all her adventures especially after being taken over by an evil presence.

I`M LEAVING IN A BLUE BOX, DON`T KNOW WHEN I`LL BE BACK AGAIN

But what really blew me away was how unceremoniously The Doctor just dumps her at Heathrow airport after TIME FLIGHT. It´s like " Oh, we must get away, no time to wait for Tegan. Good riddance. " and that´s all.

There´s no way around, it was appalling. And so quick after loosing Adric. But hey, that´s how it goes with The Doctor. So I kept watching and next is THE ARC OF INFINITY which begins with two students in Amsterdam, one of them mysteriously disappearing. Now the other one has to go to the airport to meet with his friend´s cousin that has just flown in from Australia and who turns out to be none other than Tegan Yovanka.

( Tegan´s highlight in THE ARC OF INFINITY : episode two 14.57 min )

 Lost her job, got a new haircut, a new outfit and just when she thought it was safe again to go to an airport she gets sucked into The Doctor´s shenanigans again. I should have known when Australia was mentioned.

WELL, I´M IN SUCH ECSTASY, I´M A BOOB TUBE DEVOTEE

Anyway, after everything is resolved Tegan´s back again in the Tardis, tag teaming with gal pal Nissa and this time her stay was more enjoyable because she WANTED to be in the Tardis. I really like her pixie haircut and her new outfit better although I had to look up the word " boob tube ". I always thought that was only used for the television because there is either one in front of it or there is a pair of it on screen. So color me surprised when I found out it´s also used for a piece of women´s clothing.

Which Janet Fielding fills out quite nicely if I dare say so myself.

 ( another Tegan highlight : MAWDRYN UNDEAD episode two 12.40 min )

But that´s not the only way in which she fills out her role much better ( pun intended ) the second time around. There is also a second encounter with Amara in SNAKEDANCE - the snake spirit which possessed her in KINDA - and I almost couldn´t find this four parter on the internet.

But I´m glad I did because not only is the civilization they come up with in the story done well, Janet obviously is having a ball playing the bad girl.

( Tegan´s best parts from SNAKEDANCE are in the second episode )

And her interaction with Nyssa is also different now that Adric has left the trio ( I´m not going to spoil how ). There is just a different dynamic.

YOU AND ME AND THE DOCTOR MAKES THREE

Which is soon replaced by a very different dynamic once Turlough is on board. I´m not going to spoil what his part is but Tegan doesn´t trust him from day one and rightfully so. What kind of name is Turlough anyway ? I never heard such a name. Is it even a real british name ? Anyway, by the time ENLIGHTENMENT begins Nyssa has already left the Tardis crew.

( Tegan´s second best performance : TERMINUS episode four 5.50 min )

 So Tegan is the only female companion and since The Doctor and Turlough stick together investigating - as always - she gets a bit of a spotlight on her and has her best scenes when she´s simply breathing heavily.

It´s no wonder this alien is so hellbent on getting to know her better. He is trying to get his poetry going all " You´re my everything. Without you there is no existence. " and stuff but Tegan wants none of that and simply says " Goodbye, you Douchebag ! " after which he vanishes into thin air.

( Tegan´s best scene ever : ENLIGHTENMENT, episode one 15.00 min )

I know, for a lot of people the best scenes in ENLIGHTENMENT of " the mouth on legs " ( I´m not sure if that means she talks a lot or she has very nice legs ) are the ones when Tegan wears that dress at the party.

But for me just gimme Tegan in her tight white outfit breathing heavily.

Now I know that the whole post must give you the impression that I´m some kind of sick perv ( Which I most certainly am, let´s be honest. ).

And that I´m meticulously watching each episode of DOCTOR WHO hoping to see some female skin ( especially since I have added not only the particular episodes but also the exact minutes of Tegan´s highlights ) but to tell the truth I had to go and re - watch all the Tegan episodes because prior to ENLIGHTENMENT I hadn´t really paid any attention to that.

Yes, I liked Tegan´s new outfit better but mainly because I thought it fits her better ( no pun intended here ) and I was that happily engaged in the stories. There might have been the short moment in TERMINUS where Janet´s " talent " came to the forefront but I very quickly got back to enjoying the series. I´m not the most perceptive guy ( the whole thing about TORCHWOOD being an anagram for DOCTOR WHO had to be explained to me ) and in this case it really took Janet Fielding almost popping her boob tube in ENLIGHTENMENT to make me take notice.  

     
I may be biased in my oversexed ( or is it undersexed ? ) reasoning for this being the best Tegan story but it´s also the best I have seen so far.

Now for my german readers it´s quite difficult to get Classic Doctor Who on DVD but at least in the UK there are various DVDs. There is a set that includes TIME FLIGHT and THE ARC OF INFINITY and another called MARA TALES which has KINDA and SNAKEDANCE. But if you want the best of the best with Tegan just get THE BLACK GUARDIAN TRILOGY set which includes MAWDRYN UNDEAD, TERMINUS and ENLIGHTENMENT as well as many extras like Peter Davison and Janet Fielding recounting a well - known tale they´ve told for years on the convention circuit about what happened one day when Janet was wearing her " boob tube " and Peter asked her to put her hands in the air ... ( click here for the DVD specs )

By the way, I want to give thanks to the person who picked this outfit but I´m not sure who it was ( again, no pun intended ). According to Janet she had more input in her second stint and even got to pick her own outfits but on the other side Peter Davison mentioned that she was always complaining about her top being uncomfortable and pushing her stuff up. Which could have totally been an " after the feact " thing because that´s how the 80s were : you picked your clothes depending on the current fashion trends only to find out later how uncomfortable they were.

So kudos to whoever decided on that particular outfit for Tegan.

DOCTOR, DOCTOR, GIVE ME THE NEWS ( ABOUT SEXY COMPANIONS ) 

And to keep things balanced Tegan is almost totally covered up in the next story. No kidding, she´s wearing like a huge blanket for most of the time.

At least I think that´s what it is since I haven´t seen it yet. Oh, come on, a big part of the female companions on the Doctor Who tv show has always been to draw more male viewers in ( or the Dad´s like I read in one article ) as this newspaper or tv mag clipping I found online proves.

And speaking about sexy companions and newspaper clippings one of the things I´m looking forward to is Nicola Bryant who plays Peri Brown.

Her tenure on the show was met with raised eyebrows in some quarters as series producer John Nathan - Turner admitted that his intention was to pump up the sex appeal of the ageing series by casting the young actress who was often seen wearing low - cut outfits in the show.

Nicola on her costumes : " Displaying cleavage was not an in - character move for Peri, but it was a very in - John Nathan - Turner thing to do."

Now Peri´s Hello also means saying Goodbye to Peter Davison in THE CAVES OF ANDROZANI which most Whovians consider one of the best stories with the Fifth Doctor ( although Peter said in a behind the scenes feature that his death scene was upstaged by Nicola Bryant´s cleavage ).

It also means that I get one of the most controversial Doctor´s as Colin Baker has been described as the worst Doctor ever as well as the most unlucky one because he was a big fan and while he wanted so much to make it work ultimately he was given the short end of the stick . I bet he counted himself lucky to have Peri on board to soothe the waves a bit.

Ah, yes, you can say what you want about those Time Lords but you can´t fault them for their uncanny taste in women. I mean even the Master took Peri hostage and not because there wasn´t anybody else around.

He´s totally planning to knock boots the way he´s checking out her butt.

The master may be an evil genius but he´s also a man of refined taste.

Back to Peri Brown, while some of the outfits on Doctor Who mean bad 80s fashion fads like headbands it also means gratuitous cleavage

spandex in all colors ( the producers were very fond of spandex )

and even some bikinis - Yay ! I just hate it when they have a good looking girl on a television show and they callously squander all that potential.

" I mean, basically...as far as I was concerned...my character got started in a bikini and never got dressed, it seemed ! What a good start ! "

To read more about Nicola on Peri, costumes, working with the Doctor´s, joining Doctor Who, leaving Doctor Who and more follow this link . And here´s a long interview from 1992 with Nicola Bryant and Colin Baker.

So that were my two cents about Tegan Yovanka and I´m excited ( not in that way, sheesh ) to watch THE KING´S DEMONS after finishing this.

Now normally there are links I mention that helped me to make this post but since I have decided to wrap things up at the computer at least at one o clock I will either include them Tomorrow or put them in the next post. Because there are just so many interesting Doctor Who related sites that I found and it would be a shame to bury them at the end of the post.

And speaking about the end of the post, that " wibbly wobbly timey wimey " at the bottom is just a little something I put at the end of the post until it´s finished and it has nothing to do with Janet Fielding´s or Nicola Bryant´s breasts even if it may have looked so while I was writing this.

Since I can´t find a good Tegan video on YouTube in time ( you can look for yourself if you want ) here´s another installment of Stan Lee´s COMIC BOOK GREATS series with icons Harvey Kurtzman and Jack Davis. Enjoy !



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He should have told me that's what he wanted. I coulda shown him Brisbane.

The return of Return of the Gods ( What ? )

I´m sorry to disappoint all readers that want to know who that sexbomb from our last post is but since it´s Terry Hooper´s birthday Tomorrow I wanted to review the latest comic I got from BLACK TOWER COMICS, the graphic novel RETURN OF THE GODS - TWILIGHT OF THE SUPER HEROES.

Now some longtime readers might think that I finally lost it. First he already wrote a post on RETURN OF THE GODS when he thought he had already written one but in reality he hadn´t - and now he writes another one because he has forgotten he already did. Subzero´s gone bonkers !

But that´s not true ( or if it is it doesn´t have anything to do with this post ) while I already wrote a lengthy review of the 197 page paperback ( or rather 198 page paperback since you always have at least 2 pages but that´s what you get when you just take the specs from Lulu ) in this post Today´s topic is the new and improved 332 page edition of the epic saga.

THIS IS HOW IT STARTED. THIS IS HOW IT ENDED. 

Now the use of the word " epic " is no hyperbole on my part. If the old paperback could be compared to CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS the new version is more like WATCHMEN. The story is the same as before ( and you can go to the old post to read all about it ) but what the new 130 plus pages ( !!! ) add is sheer scope. One of the things I lamented in my last review is that you don´t get a lot of background on all this heroes who are unknown to anybody but the most avid scholars of british superheroes.

Well, ask and you shall receive, because one part of the added pages is more background on the various heroes that appear and also some who don´t appear but play a part in the bigger tapestry of the history.

And speaking about tapestries : another big part of the added pages is a large prologue ( I think it´s 90 pages before we are at page one of the previous version ) with a Watcher like observer who acts as a guide.

In fact there are various characters in the new version of RETURN OF THE GODS that provide greatly appreciated exposition for the reader. It´s a sad fact that in most comics by the big two continuity as well as caption boxes have gone the way of the dinosaurs but here both are used to the advantage of the comic. I have always felt that you get more invested in characters when you know more about them and this version proves it.

Like a complicated mosaic that is assembled one stone at a time, little bits and pieces are added to the bigger picture and while not everything might be super important it enhances the fact that it is all connected somewhere. I don´t want to spoil too much but let me just say that after reading this comic you might have a better understanding how the Black Tower universe - in lack of a better name for it - works. That´s one thing Marvel used to be very good at, this idea of an interconnected universe where heroes that live in the same town would meet. Nowadays you have the feeling that every series is their own universe and even the same characters act and talk different depending in which book they appear.

But let´s get back to the expanded edition of RETURN OF THE GODS.

I´m not sure if all the added material is new material - I think I have seen parts of it in Black Tower´s Adventure series - what I DO know is that it makes it a more pleasurable reading experience since the reader is not so much thrust into things. Instead a slowly increasing feeling of danger and doom begins to build towards impending disaster on every front. And speaking about more pleasurable reading experiences this new edition reads much better than the previous version but not only because the expanded page count allows for a grander scale of things. No, while the biggest chunk of the work is still the old stuff all the speech balloons and the lettering is much bigger which makes it easier to read in that regard.

Now you may ask yourself  why should anybody go to all the trouble of not only adding over 130 pages but also rework almost 200 pages of old material - in some cases the art was also polished up - for a new edition when you have just finished a nearly 200 pages book. Let´s call it a book.

I wrote in my last review that it was a paperback and while you may technically call it that it´s not your regularly sized US standard comic but in the album format. So I´ll call it a book - especially when it has been expanded to over 330 pages. Well, according to Terry Hooper, the first version was just a paperback reprinting the parts that had previously appeared in the pages of BLACK TOWER ADVENTURE but the nucleus of the story which was first called THE ULTIMATE GAME and later evolved into THE COSMIC FULCRUM has been in his head much longer and so his subconscious mind was sowing the seeds for that way ahead without him realizing it. From his interview with Frank Barrell about this new version :

After Return was published I was rummaging through an old box looking for an old reference image and found a thick wad of A3 pages – about 45 pages in total that were the build - up to the original strip - I thought those pages had been lost years ago. I read through it and realised the pages actually explained a few things and was paced for the big event. 

That put me in a rather odd position.

I had a week or so to decide whether or not I wanted to leave Return as it was or to tidy up the old pages and make it more complete. I also realised that there would have to be new  pages drawn to bridge the various story links. Then I thought that this was a chance to once and for all explain everything that had been going on in Black Tower strips since 1984 and explain the incorporation of the old Golden Age characters and their origins. It also helps to set up The Green Skies book in late 2013.

I figured the final book would total 250 - 260 pages so when I finished it and found over 300 I was a little taken aback.

I´m not going to copy the whole interview - which is a really interesting read and has more preview pages of which I have included some in this post - but as the sole writer, peciler, inker, letterer, editor and everything else on RETURN OF THE GODS ( except maybe some of the art from the classic UK comics characters ) Terry Hooper has achieved a herculean task only comparable to such fine works like George Perez incredible art on the Justice League / Avengers crossover or Kurt Busiek´s writing on Avengers Forever. I know, some people might say it would be easier for him since he is the writer of all the Black Tower comics but I think that alone is a feat not many people can pull off. This book is clearly a labor of love.

A love for super heroes, a love for gods and the mythical battles between them and mere mortals but also - and foremost - a love for comics. And not only for the adult, brainy comics that you read when you are a much older and jaded reader but much more for the silly, goofy but incredibly amazing fantasy yarns you read as a wide eyed kid. You can see it by the characters Terry includes in the book even if it is only for a few pages like in the example of THE IRON WARRIOR - at least that´s who I think it is.

Now I know what some of you might be thinking. I´m not interested in british comics or british super heroes so is there something for me in it ?

Of course there is. Yes, if you have a knowledge of british comics you will probably enjoy this comic more. And I´m saying " probably " because I have no proof of that. I´m the first to admit that I don´t know much about british comics or british super heroes and the bit I do know comes from reading issues of the german KOBRA comics and the things I have read in the Black Tower comics. Which could be totally made up. That´s right, Terry Hooper could be faking all this historical references and like Bendis´ THE SENTRY all the backstory could be a lie. Now Terry would never do such a thing but it would be possible. How would I know ?

Now what I do know is that it is like a certain wrestler said : it doesn´t matter. Even leaving all that aside it still is a fun read that will captivate you for quite some time. Yes, it´s a much better read now but it is also a much longer one - which is a good thing with most comics Today being over far too quickly in comparison to what you paid for them. I wanted to make this review earlier but I just couldn´t because it took me two entire days to read the thing. This comic has the size of a phone book ( well, at least The Yellow Pages ) and while I could have probably read it all in one sitting I´m glad I took the time that was necessary to read it properly. If I had read it in one day I wouldn´t have done anything else that day not even eat or go to the toilet. And my brain would have probably exploded.

Because while I already read a big part of it there are so much big concepts and ideas crammed into that it can only be a british comic. If you have read my earlier review you know that this comic really has everything : super heroes, normal heroes, new gods, old Lovecraftian ( is that even a word ? ) gods, time travel, parallel worlds, magic, monsters, vampires, even pigs in space become terrifying reality with the horrific Boarmen from outer space that invade earth while the bulk of its heroes are away to fight the elder gods from outside our plane of existence.

Add to that all the new stuff that explains and expands the entire story with new characters who try to influence the outcome, benefit from the whole situation or who are condemned to sit helplessly on the sidelines and you have a comic that has everything you would ever want in a comic.

Yes, it´s not by any " hot " creators but in this comic the dead don´t get revived after a few months to start with a new number 1 and the death toll among the heroes is rather high. Nevertheless it´s not all gloom and doom although I fear that there is much worse to come in the following GREEN SKIES brouhaha. And while some people may not give it a try because it´s in black and white I think they are missing out. With 330 pages of pure high octane comic " punch in the face action " for only 19 bucks you won´t find a more fulfilling read for a quiet, long weekend.

So, this comic gets a big recommendation from me especially since this weekend is Whitsuntide so with Sunday and Monday being a holiday you might want to read a good comic that´s just fun. I know that the last few months even checking out the previews of Marvel or DC gives me a big headache with all the crap that happens in the books and if you had the same experience and you want a break from it all you might try this one. 

You can get RETURN OF THE GODS - TWILIGHT OF THE SUPER HEROES on this Lulu page ( I´m posting the link so you don´t order the 198 page version by accident ) and you can find more of Terry´s books following this link or through the links on my blogroll or on Terry´s ComicBits Online blog. Also, if you want to find out more about Terry Hooper, here are the links to Terry Hooper on Lambiek and Terry Hooper´s DeviantArt page .

So this was my review for RETURN OF THE GODS and for all readers who are missing the pictures of hot babes I have to apologize. I thought about doing my casting for a Justice League movie last month because Christina Hendricks was on that list ( she and Janet Jackson who both celebrated their birthday in May ) but then I got caught up in all the little details to prepare it and that took me too long. The thing is that I had posted my casting choices on my old blog and a lot of the pictures would not have been safe to post here ( with that I mean naked breasts ) so I redid a lot of the pictures. Sometimes being a perfectionist is a curse not a gift.

Of course now that I have finished that I´m not so sure if I should post it because when you look at it realistically it was just an excuse to post lots of pictures of hot actresses on the blog and I know there´s always a part of my readership who has problems with that. So unless there´s a huge demand for that I will have to postpone my JLA casting - at least until somebody else from that list ( Pamela Anderson ) celebrates her birthday.

( Big Barda picture courtesy of Michael Dooney on DeviantArt )

I wanted to concentrate more on comic related content anyway. With Erlangen approaching soon - and me needing more time to regenerate from work lately - I haven´t had much time to post and I´m not sure if I can manage to do another post before Erlangen. Which is another reason why I wanted to do this post now in case it´s the last one for a while.  

Since one group of antagonists in RETURN OF THE GODS are some old gods like in the stories of Howard Phillips Lovecraft Todays video is the one hour and a half documentary FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN about the force behind some of the most influential horror writings in the 20th century.



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