Monday, May 08, 2006

on hiatus

You have probably already noticed that there have been no new posts the past few days. Well, if you are one of my two readers ( hello Phil, hello Lamond ). The reason for that is that I don´t have that much access to the computer anymore. One of the main occasions during which I was writing the post for this blog was the time when my older brother was working from 20.30 hours to 23.00 hours. But the working place is closed down now for a few weeks and he spends all his free time in front of the computer screen.

The second occasion was during the day whenever he was sleeping and the computer was free. Since I now have a 1 EURO job in Kornwestheim ( which I have to correct : 1,50 EURO per hour ) I have to get up pretty early and because I´m still not used to sleep before that I don´t get much sleep. Which means that now when my brother is sleeping during the day I will be sleeping too. And when I´m not sleeping there is my younger brother who spend shours in front of the computer. The last occasion on which I wrote the posts where after my older brother had gone to bed which was between 01.30 hours and 07.00 hours in the night. And that is when I have to sleep now so there is no chance I will get to write a lot in the next few days. When my brother bought this computer he said it was solely that I had a computer to use since he had another for his graphic work and didn´t want me to use it all the time. Then he started to use the computer on occasion to surf the web since he didn´t want to use the other computer for fear of viruses. Now he spends more time on it than me. Which means that I normally spend my free time waiting to use the computer and if I finally get to use it it takes me hours to read through the forums and message boards and whatnot since it has been several days I was there the last time.

If you wonder how this post comes about : I´m writing this before I go to work just to let you know what´s up with this lazy german guy who hasn´t updated his blog in the last days. I know the main reason for writing a blog is to write down the daily happenings of my life as long as they are fresh in my memory. Well, I guess I have to bend the rules a little there because right now this is my life : having no time to post on my blog. So all the posts about my preparations for the COMIC SALON ERLANGEN, the reviews of comics and all the general discussions of the ninth art have to wait till I have more access to the computer. I don´t know how long this will be but my brother has to start working again someday.

So it´s time to finish this post. It´s past seven in the morning and I have to go to work.

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  • Friday, May 05, 2006

    BITS & PIECES

    On Thursday I was at the job agency with the result that I now have a 1 EURO job in Kornwestheim. I did not get much sleep before going there because our alarm clock was broken so I had to search for another which took 15 minutes.


    So I went to bed a quarter of an hour later than I had hoped. Of course the alarm clock went off two hours early so I put it two hours later. This time it didn´t ring at all and I almost overslept. When I was finally at the job agency I had to go to Kornwestheim and find the museum where I will be working from Monday on which took quite some time to get there. I did get up at 9 and when I was finally back at the station in Kornwestheim after the job interview I went to a diner which I knew from the last time I worked in Korn-westheim as a call agent. To celebrate my last days of freedom I ordered an extralarge doubleburger which was way bigger than I expected. Thank god I hadn´t ordered fries ( which I usually do because they are excellent ) or else I would have busted a gut or something.


    Anyway, when I got back home I called the job agency to report that I was now a proud mem-ber of Germany´s alpha primitives after which I was so tired that I went straight to sleep. Which I did till 18.00 hours. I got up and discovered that my brother had been to the comic shop. So I studied the PREVIEWS for the rest of the day and read some of his comics. And I will write more about that but first I have to get to the things I could not write about in my last post.

    While I was searching for the right addresses for the post about the podcasts I found some interesting sites I wanted to share. The first one is a german fanfiction page about Harry Potter. Now you might say that there are probably a lot of those pages. That´s right but on this one you can actually download it as a podcast. Isn´t that cool ? Anyway here is a link to the episodes

    The next thing I discovered that there is now a COMICCAST of BODY BAGS online. That´s right, the comic by Jason Pearson is now avail-able as a free down-load at i Tunes. It´s not just a chaep version of the comic it also has some moving parts and cool voices. The only problem so far is that you can only get the latest episode ( which is episode 4 ) from i Tunes. But I have found some links that can get you up to speed. Link number one is for a page where you canload the first part but only as a m4v file. Which means you need the latest version of Quicktime to see it.

    Sorry, the link doesn't work anymore

    This link is a google video page where you can watch episodes 3 and 4.


    The last one is a page where you can get the latest episode and subscribe to it for your i Tunes ( remember : it´s free ) just click on the blue link that says Videopodcast. To get all of the episodes from i Tunes you have to open an account which i didn´t want to do. But maybe you already have one and that´s not a problem here´s the link

    Sorry, this one doesn't either

    As for new comics like I wrote earlier my brother got the following new issues :

    SENTRY 8, BLACK PANTHER 15, WARLORD 3, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 531, HOUSE OF M SPIDERMAN TRADE, ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN 93, SENSATIONAL SPIDER-MAN 25 ( yes, he´s the big Spider-Man reader in the family ), THE AMERICAN WAY 3, BATMAN 652, SKYE RUNNER 1, BIRDS OF PREY 93, NIGHTWING 119, SUPERMAN 651, BLUE BEETLE 2 and MAJESTIC 16.

    Also on Friday my order from blackdog finally arrived which was :

    VILLAINS UNITED INFINITE CRISIS SPECIAL ,SGT. ROCK THE PROPHECY 4, BLOOD OF THE DEMON 14, ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR 29, YOUNG AVENGERS 11, THE THING 5 & 6 ( by Kieron Dwyer ), NEXTWAVE 1 & 2, NEXTWAVE : AGENTS OF H.A.T.E. 3 & 4 ( 1 as DIRECTOR´S cut because they had it at the same price as the normal edition ), FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDERMAN 6 & 7, SHAMAN´S TEARS 4 & 5 ( only 0,37 cents each ) 6 & 7 ( only 0,28 cents each ) and TUROK 31 ( 0,84 cents ) 32 & 33 ( 0,47 cents )the famous issues who will make a man out of me according to Dave´s Longbox.


    But I will be putting this to the test next time when I have read some of the issues. My next post will be about the issues I have read so far especially WARLORD 3 and FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN 6 & 7. It won´t be pretty.

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    And I shall shed my light over dark evil,
    For the dark things cannot stand the light,
    the light of the Green Lantern.

    Wednesday, May 03, 2006

    SUBZERO´s favorite comic podcasts

    Today my topic is comicpod-casts. There are a lot of them on the web and since I down-loaded the newest episodes today I wanted to write about the sites I normally go to.

    The first one on my list is a relative new one and it is the first german comic podcast which is of course in german. There are three episodes available at the moment. The brain behind this podcast is Michael Bloch who is the owner of the comicshop ComicCorner at the main station of Munich under the escalator. I did my military service in Munich and there were three places I would go to buy american comics. Number one was Jürgens Comicshop which was the biggest comic shop I had seen at that time. Whenever we were off duty I would be knee deep in comics searching for hidden treasures till they threw me out - normally because they were 20 minutes past the closing time. The second one was the foreign press section of the newsstand in the main station where they also had american comics but mostly older ones. For example if I was at Jürgens Comicshop they would have the newest issue of FLASH maybe issue 21. And at the newsstand they would have older issues like FLASH 16 and 17. Now if I needed the issues between 17 and 21 I would go to the third comic shop which was a little shop under the escalator. So maybe I have been to the place where the ComicCorner is now.

    But I was speaking abut the podcast. The name is Die Comic Kolumne it is entirely in german and the issues so far have been no longer then 30 minutes. In every episode three comics are reviewed : one a classic comic, the second is a brandnew one and the third is a manga. In the second episode ( the first one is just a teaser and only a few minutes short ) the reviewed comics are V wie Vendetta, Die Wellenläufer and Die tollkühnen Abenteuer der Ducks auf hoher See. Episode three is about Sillage, Die Purpurnen and Tränen Warcraft 2 - The Sunwell Trilogy. Especially important is for me that things like the printing quality or the coloring are mentioned. What is strange is that the last episode is from March and I couldn´t find any new podcasts since then.

    Edit : the podcast has ceased to exist

    Wow, that was longer than I expected. Just wanted to do a short mention but when I start on a rant........Okay. The next one I normally go to is Los ComicGeekos a comicpodcast produced in El Salvador for REAL aficionados de comics. It is in spanish so like the first one you should know the language. I like this podcast because it´s always funny although I had to learn the lingo first. In the beginnig I didn´t know what cheras or paquines are. The crew of the comic geekos consists of Ticoman, Britoman, Julius, Rick Escamia, el Sensei via skype ( who is like Charlie of Charlie´s Angels who only participates through an electronic device ) and the lovely Candy Candy ( que si....es buena...persona ). They have various sections like e-mails, a versus of comic charakters, today in the history of comics, comic news or special reviews of comics or certain creators or animes. You can put yourself in their frapper map of world domination and vote for them on podcast alley. Voten, cabrones ! Normally the episodes are one hour long but in special cases they can be a little longer to give enough time to the various subjects. The newest episodes I have seen are about MAZINGER Z the anime everybody knows who grew up in a spanish speaking country. Maybe you already heard of them but if not here´s the link

    Next on my list is ComicGeekSpeak which is probably the best known podcast about comics. It`s in englisch and it is currently at episode 132 but it also has the extra episodes of SECOND CHANCE where they develop their own superhero, the BOOK OF THE MONTH episodes which are indepth reviews ( which means they spoiler the hell out of it ) of comic milestones like ANIMAL MAN, TOMB OF DRACULA or THE DEATH OF CAPTAIN MARVEL and much more. The crew of Comic Geek Speak ( who are like the Bizarro version of los comic geekos or vice versa ) are Brian Deemer, Peter Rios, Jamie D, Shane Kelley, Kevin Moyer and Matt. I hope I got the names right because I could only get the first names from the site and had to find out the last names by listening to the episodes. I guess watching all the episodes of CASE CLOSED did pay off. They are podcasting for more then a year now ( I think ) and have already more than 150 episodes which can be up to one hour and a half. On the normal episodes which are mostly spoiler free there are different sections like reading the e-mails or " stump the rios " where basically listeners try to stump Peter Rios the human comic encyclopeidia with a three part question. But I shouldn´t write to much about it just go to their site and listen to the episodes where they have such illustrous guests as MarvWolfman, Gene Colan, Dan Slott or even Stan Lee himself. You can find them at ComicGeekSpeak

    When I have uploaded all new episodes of there I go to fanboy radio. This is also a very exciting podcast with lots of reviews and interviews and the always funny " sub or flub " section. The hosts are Scott Hinze and Oliver Tull with additionla contributions by Britta Natwig. Fanboy Radio (FbR) is a radio talk show about the comic book industry, its art, creators, and fans. Each week, two hours of comics commentary are highlighted by insider interviews with top creators, news, and live calls from listeners like you. Some of the top names in comics have stopped by the show to talk about their crafts, give their opinions, and offer exclusive news items to FbR listeners. Artists, writers, colorists, letterers, Company Execs, etc, have all found their way onto FbR and it's friendly environment. The world of Indie comics and creators, as well as animation, TV, and film, are also well represented in the FbR show archives. Consistently breaking, celebrating, and poking fun at the geeky FANBOY stereotype is a staple of the show. From the most die hard fan to the newest of the new...all are welcome. Casual... loose... smart... fun... this is not your father's comic talk show! Fanboy Radio broadcasts live from the KTCU studios in Fort Worth, Texas. Fanboy Radio is heard twice a week:Sundays at 6:00pm CST, broadcast LIVE from the Fanboy Studios. During this show, they usually feature Q&A sessions with some of the most important and influential personalities in our field...and Wednesdays at 1:00pm CST, a pre-recorded episode (not a re-run) is broadcast that focuses on the lesser know aspects of the hobby. They have interviews with Keith Giffen, Robert Kirkman and Joe Quesada on their website

    Comicology is a podcast produced by Neil Gorman which focuses more on independet comics. There are of course many reviews about mainstream comics but there is a wide range of indie comics you can hear about on this show. Not that there are no indie comics on the other shows I mentioned. But you probably already know the site at Comicology

    Another comic podcast is MEANWHILE by T Campbell and David Belmore and the show is basically the two talking about anything and everything related to comics. Recent topics have included V For Vendetta, the sexual harrassment suit that's got the comics community up in arms, and comics encyclopedias. T Campbell is not the former artist of Danger Girls who has changed his name and appearance to take on the idendity of an unsuspecting radio host. And here is a link to the main page

    I have to admit I haven´t listened to the last episodes of Comic News Insider but only because they are way ahead of what I read. So I have to wait two or three months till I can listen to the next show without fear of spoilers. The site is at

    I read comics is a comicpodcast with a different viewpoint or as it says on the website : Comic talk from a real live girl. Comic books, graphic novels, animation – all things comic and cartoony, with your host Lene Taylor. Think of it as the New York Review of Comics. For me it´s sometimes weird to listen to a podcast that while complaining about how women are drawn ( or how her boobs are drawn ) goes on for minutes telling me how wonderful japanese gay hardcore mangas are. That´s the part I usually fast forward but to each his own. So if you don´t know the show it´s worth listening to and you can get the episodes here

    Now there are two more shows I have to mention. The first one is NOT a podcast but you can listen to it on the web. The ComicZone is a radio show at World Talk Radio with a wide array of interview guests or better said the who is who of comics. The host is Vincent Zurzulo and they have a new show on their site every week. This is the first comic radio show I listened to and I´m a big fan ( I even have borrowed their motto on a few occasions : It´s all about peace, love and comic books ! ) you can find all the shows on the archive page

    The last one is not a comic podcast either. It´s Red Jazz Radio a podcast about jazz music. You can find the link to their website in my link section and normally I listen to the episodes while surfing or writing things like this webblog. They feature a lot of music by the artists themselves and they always tell you where to get the music because not all of it is available in stores. Because the main focus is the music you can fully enjoy the songs without somebody talking over them. I´m not a jazz afficionado but I know what I like and the mix of the show hosted by Cory Scribner ( I hope I got the name right ) seems to hit the nail so far.

    And that´s all for today. The post has gotten longer than I thought so I didn´t get to post some interesting links I found while searching for podcasts. They will be the topic of the next post if I don´t get the last comics I ordered tomorrow. I´m going to proof read the post tomorrow since I´m really tired now and the computer starts to behave strangely. I hope I can get three and a half hours of sleep before I have to go to the job agency tomorrow.

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  • Tuesday, May 02, 2006

    Pimp my blog

    There have been no new posts for this month because I have been adding more preview links to the previous posts. It´s a little difficult to go from writing a thread for people who know next to nothing about comics to writing my own blog on the internet.


    Most people who read this blog ( all two of them probably ) are comic afficionados so I don´t know how necessary it is to post news, articles or previews since everybody already knows where to get them. But I have decided to include previews for the books I mention on my blog because I´m not only writing for people in America I´m also writing for people in Germany or Spain. So I´ve been working on the old entries for my blog because I think this is the best moment for it.


    So far there is one website with a link to this blog which I want to give a shoutout to. Phil & Lamonds Comic Kolumne is a comicblog with tons of reviews about american comics. Of course it´s all in german but if you are reading this in Germany and know the language check them out. Their reviews are short and invormative and up to 95 % spoilerfree. There is an overview of the series INVINCIBLE by yours truly on their site and many others which are even sorted after publishers. You can find them on my link section. Hey, the title of the post is PIMP MY BLOG so of course there is a lot of pimping going on.

    As I said this is now the best moment to include more previews to the old posts because as I can see from the comments there can not be that much people reading. So if you´re new around here you´ve just come at the right time. This is the new blog now with 50 % more preview material and 50 % more bling bling and hot chicks.


    It´s hard out here for a pimp.

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