Meanwhile in a little village in Spain.....

I wanted to let my readers know what I have been doing since my last post and what could be a better opportunity than the day horror hostess / movie star / cult siren / pop icon Cassandra Peterson a.k.a. ELVIRA a.k.a. Mistress of the Dark celebrates her 62nd birthday.

Since I already did three posts about her I just wanted to use the opportunity to remind you and if you haven't already read then, just use the " Elvira " tags to get to the posts.

Besides Elvira there are three more celebrity birthdays Today : exotic swimsuit model Jewel Santini ( 27 ) who I'm not sure if I mentioned her in a CASTING THE GIRLS OF X - MEN post for the role of Psylocke

Stacy Kamano ( 37 ) who was on the BAYWATCH HAWAII tv show

and singer Anastacia ( 43 ) who is very popular in Germany but probably mostly known outside of it for the song EVERYTHING BURNS on the first Fantastic Four movie soundtrack.

So, when I'm not busy finding excuses to put hot babes on the blog what am I doing in the meantime ? To tell the truth I wanted to write something Yesterday but because - for some mysterious reason - internet explorer can't connect to the internet anymore and firefox plays haywire with my layout I kept putting it off.

It's now five days since I came back to the old ghost town called El Castell de Montornes and I'm still not finished with setting up shop. On Thursday I found most of the comics I left last time I was here. At first I thought I had only left some issues of BIBLIOTEKA MARVEL - LA PATRULLA X by John Romita Jr but I found a ton of other comics ( the first 6 HULK issues by Ed McGuiness, some GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY issues by Paul Pelletier, some FANTASTIC FOUR issues by Brian Hitch, the spanish issues of SUPERMAN / BATMAN by Carlos Pacheco, the Power Girl issue of THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD by George Perez, LEGION OF THREE WORLDS 1 also by George Perez, etc. and a lot of comics I got from the last Salon del Comic de Barcelona I could attend ) but while looking for a certain unread comic I saw the day before I found them all buried under tons of other stuff while the drawers where they had been previously were almost empty.


So I spent most of the day putting all paperbacks and books on the bookshelf and putting all the rest into the drawers again in the right order.

Yesterday we went to Tarragona, which is the next big town after Torredembarra because they have a MediaMarkt and other mediastores where we bought some Playstation stuff for my brother and a Corte Ingles where I got some new jeans and boxer shorts which isn't easy at my size. And it's even more difficult to find this clothes in Germany.

I thought I could do a post but instead I was busy downloading two episodes of FRINGE I missed because I was on the road on Monday and some episodes of the ninth season of SMALLVILLE. They are now showing them in Germany on RTL II but I already missed the one from this week because they showed it at 03.00 at night and I'm not sure if I can see the next ones. Right now I'm going to sleep pretty early - at least at my standards which means between 01.30 and 02.00 at night - and if they continue emitting it that late I'm going to miss them as well. I know that downloading stuff from the internet should cause me a bigger moral dilemma but sometimes it's the only way to watch episodes you have missed.

And yes, I tried watching them online but it's just too big of a headache. And in the case of DR WHO it's the only way since the german network gave up after the second season.


I haven't gotten around to watch any of the episodes yet because while I was downloading them LA SEXTA was showing two new episodes of HUMAN TARGET which for some reason is called HUMAN SHIELD here in Spain. I know that they changed the character of Christopher Chance in the series and that he's acting more like a bodyguard who shields his clients than the original DC comic character who made a target out of himself by becoming the client - but can we please keep something from the comic ? At least the title ? It's bad enough that the name of the original creators Len Wein and Carmine Infantino is buried almost at the end of the credits.

Speaking of HUMAN TARGET, my brother got the first season on DVD ( of course he bought it here since the german version is probably censored ) and as I re - watched the episodes before coming here I noticed two things.

First : the character of Christopher Chance is introduced rather gradually to the audience, revealing bit by bit per episode thus keeping us interested without boring us with too much detail. When all the missing pieces of the puzzle are revealed in the last episode it's one of the best payoffs.


Second : it may sound like a cliche but the show was much more ass - kicking when it was still a boy's club. I don't know if it was just a coincidence that the new female members of the team arrived at the same time the episodes became less daring. Maybe that's what happens with every tv show when it is successfull and the second season is planned. Somebody decides that there has to be more eye candy and they want to smooth out the edges a bit. But that's all speculation anyway.

Now some people may find it strange that I of all people am complaining about eye candy on a tv series. And it's not really a complaint as I say the more hot babes on one show the merrier. No, I'm not really complaining because both new members of the cast are great actresses, really bring more energy to the team dynamic and they ARE hot. Don't get me wrong, HUMAN TARGET is still a darn good show. But if you compare the first season with the second one you just can't help noticing that the first season is just more basic and it's more actionpacked.

Two other things I have to mention on the subject : the new intro music is just awful, as there seems to be a rule that the music for the second season has to be an utter violation of the original one.

And also : what the f - word happened to Armand Assante ? In the final episode of season one he makes his big entrance and he's all ready to ride into the gates of hell with Chance and Guerrero and in the next episode of season two he's nowhere to be seen and he's not even mentioned.


They just continue as if he never was in the previous episode and in my opinion they lost a lot of potential there. The producers of the show probably didn't want to pay for him on another episode but they left the whole thing between Christopher Chance and his former employer hanging in the air without any kind of resolution. I know I was totally : " What the f - word ! Did I miss an episode ? " and even went on the internet to check the original american episodes. If you want to know one way to damage a good tv property this certainly helps.

As for going to the comic convention in Leganes, I have checked the train schedule and the tran ride alone from Torredembarra to Madrid would take me almost 3 hours. Since I don't have any relatives in town ( at least ones I know ) I would have to go there and return on the same day. That would mean the first train I could catch would leave at 09.00 and I would arrive at Madrid around 12.00 with at least one additional hour to reach Leganes. For the ride back I had to at least leave at 16.00 to catch the last train to Torredembarra, which would limit my window of opportunity to 3 hours to go to the convention, find out the schedule of the signings and manage to be one of the firsts in line to get a drawing of Carlos Pacheco. So, unless some miracle happens don't expect to see me at Leganes this month.

Since I'm in Spain I also checked a few german websites and you may have already noticed that YO DIGO NO - one of the links on the blogroll - finally has some new posts. The first I want ot mention is this one about CHAMPIONS LEAGUE OF AMERICA a new webcomic by Enrique Machuca, Pepe Díaz y Jose Aguilera. They plan to update every Wednesday and I'm not sure but I think I have seen the promo picture somewhere else.


They also have a pretty funny video. My favorite parts : by the writer who read WATCHMEN and didn't understand it AND the artist who kept eyeing KINGDOM COME until the comicshop owner threw him out.



The other one should be especially interesting for my german readers since it's about a trip to Berlin . Well, at least the ones who understand spanish.

What I find interesting is that everybody seems to like german food ( beer, sausages, bread, sweets ) but there are some german customs that seem strange to foreigners. I mentioned some of them but I have been told that I'm an extremist in this sense. Well, it seems other people find certain things as alien and weird as me.


This traffic light is not for people who do acrobatics on their bikes

It also seems that people always see the comic Mekka somewhere else except in their own counrty. And that there seems to be an urban legend outside of Germany that DC and Marvel don't want to be published by the same company ( in Germany both are published by PANINI ).

I also found another post about a trip to Berlin from a spanish blogger who was pretty smitten by the town. Since I haven't been to Berlin myself I don't know how accurate it is but the few people and comic artists I have met so far all had a bit of an inflated ego like Berlin is the center of the world or something. What's funny is that in one of the comments somebody comments that Berlin reminded him very much of Spain during the 80s - for all those readers that don't believe me that Germany is a few years behind other countries. Another fact that isn't mentioned in Germany much is that the Nazi uniforms were designed by Hugo Boss.


German version of famous spanish comic MORTADELO & FILEMON

Since I already mentioned the spoof of the new Justice League comic let's talk about the real thing. The first issue of what's supposed to be one of DC's future flagship titles is already out and the reactions are less than extatic to say it diplomatically. As I haven't had the chance to read it myself ( from all I've heard the better option might be to wait for the trade ) here are some opinions by other people. Most of them have spoilers so if you plan on reading the new nunber 1 you should read this afterwards.

First up is ROBOT 6's J. Caleb Mozzocco who asks the question How many Justice Leaguers can fit in the first issue of a Justice League comic? , comparing the new number 1 to previous first issues of the League as a few people were a bit disappointed by the total count of Justice Leaguers in the new first issue. A more indepth look can be found on Brendan Wright's blog THE WRIGHT OPINION where he compares the new number 1 to Grant Morrison's first JLA issue , more than anything else to show that Jim Lee's statement I guarantee you if we did a story that had every single member in it, people would say, “This is not for new readers! It’s too complicated!” is wrong.


I don't know what it is but there are always people in the comic industry who see their own inability to do certain things as a sign that it is impossible. When clearly it is not. I myself have heard people make the most farfetched claims that I know aren't true. You can't do a Justice League story that has every member in it. You can't make a german superhero comic. You can't tell a good story for an adult audience in 5 to 8 pages. Just because you can't do it doesn't mean it's imposible, dude.

Speaking about how to write ( or how not to write ) good comics Scott Beatty has a wonderful expose on 6 stories that changed how I read and write comics and having read 5 of those 6 stories I can attest that he has managed to select really great examples.

And speaking about examples here are a few more reviews about the new Justice League and other new DC books which give the books different ratings. Of course most of them are filled with spoilers so beware !


As they are Operacion Mandrill - Justice League 1 ( spanish ) , La Chingana de Batmito - Justice League 1 ( spanish ) , Zona Fandom - Justice League 1 ( spanish ) , La habitacion numero 26 - Justice League 1 ( spanish ) , Ti_Leo meint - Justice League 1 ( german ) , The beat - Flashpoint 5 and Justice League 1 , La habitacion numero 26 - Justice League International 1, Green Arrow 1 and Hawk and Dove 1 ( spanish ) , La habitacion numero 26 - Resurrection Man 1, Suicide Squad 1 and Deathstroke 1 ( spanish ) and the most spoilerrific one Circulo comiqueros argentinos - Flashpoint 5 and Justice League 1 ( spanish ) .

Still on the subject of DC's 52 new titles the poll results are finally in and it seems the reader's favorites are ACTION COMICS 1 followed closely by ANIMAL MAN. What's significant is the drop from 1389 votes on ANIMAL MAN to the next title, DETECTIVE COMICS 1 with 571 votes. Click here for all the results. To close the news section there are new previews for JUSTICE LEAGUE 1, GREEN LANTERN CORPS 1 , AVENGERS THE CHILDRENS CRUSADE 7 and AVENGERS 17 among others. You can find the full list of Marvel previews right here.


So I will hopefully catch up on my FRINGE and SMALLVILLE episodes this weekend. As I won't go to Leganes I have a bit more spending money and as I have already gotten the stuff for my brothers I will probably go to Barcelona on Monday or Tuesday. This time I have more time to visit FREAKIS and NORMA COMICS.

As I have already mentioned it, here's the video to show that, yes, Anastacia IS on the official Fantastic Four soundtrack. And they even have a Fantastic Four comic with a John Byrne cover in the video.



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Home again

I finally made it back home and right now I have to get used to the spanish keyboard where - for instance - the letter " y " is right above the letter " h " because it's used more often. And the spanish spellcheck marks like every word as wrong, since english words don't make any sense in spanish.


Yesterday I spent most of the day in transit and like usual it all ended with a catastrophe. Or at least a small catastrophe. Maybe I really should turn all my various travelling adventures into a comic book as somebody once told me. As in most cases when I have something important to do the next day I couldn't sleep the night before so at six o'clock in the morning I decided to go on the internet for one last time. Afterwards I showered and got dressed, not that showering helps since most often I sweat a lot when traveling but without showering it's even worse for the other people travelling with me.

As I still had a few hours to kill I went to an internet cafe where I had to print some letters for job applications I had to do. Originally I had planned to eat at the Burger King at Stuttgart airport but I was just too hungry to wait another 2 hours so I used the McDonalds coupons I got left. The others had already found it's way to the trash bin but I had saved two just in case. At the train station in Ludwigsburg I thought about getting something to read for the subway ride but bringing comics to Spain is like going to a bar with a bottle of Jack Daniels. No matter which comics they have in Germany, compared to Spain those are " aficcionados " how they call it down here.


And in any case, I spent most of the time on the subway sleeping. As well as most of the flight. What really miffed me was that no matter when you have to fly, there's always one person at the checkup right before you who slows the whole queue down. It's ten years after 9 - 11 and there's still ONE person left who doesn't know that you are not allowed to take liquids on a plane. Where do these people live ? And why do they leave their caves just when I'm traveling ? I had more than an hour left after check - in and arriving at the gate so I used the opportunity to catch up on my sleep and do a drawing of a carnivorious massage chair, an idea I had after using the massage chair at the waiting area. If I had known then that I would get a massage on the train ride home I could have saved 2 EUROS. I tried to get ice cream from a vending machine but I guess it was empty since it just kept returning my coins. Or maybe it just didn't like me.

Using the electronic self check - in machine I have nobody else to blame for the fact that I got a seat directly behind the wings of the plane. Which is good in case the plane breaks into a hundred pieces before crashing - because you are on the part that flies - but not so good if you want to have something to look at during the flight. Well, except the wings and how the different parts move, separate and connect with each other.


Flying is just not my thing. I'm not particularly fond of heigths and I also don't like to get on rollercoaster rides. I prefer to get on a plane ( where I pretend to be on a long rollercoaster ride ) than on a rollercoaster but the worst part is going up the gangway. And to pinch it, when I had finally managed to sit down at my window seat ( or better wing seat ) I wanted to take off my jacket and - ripped it ! I'm not sure but I think I ripped my last jeans jacket on the last flight I had been on. Maybe I should start taking of my jacket as soon as I'm at the airport.

The last few days it had been hot or cold in Germany with lots of downpours inbetween but as soon as stepping out from Barcelona airport I was hit by a wall of hot air. Here it's still very hot and I was sweating the whole way to Torredembarra. Originally I had planned to head into Barcelona and get something to eat but when I arrived at the train station at Barcelona Sants it was already half past seven and NORMA COMICS closes at half past eight. So I had to hurry up if I wanted to buy some comics before heading into the badlands known as La Pobla de Montornes.

I know, it sounds a bit crazy but out here you have to drive half an hour before reaching the first outpost of civilization and they have no comics there. So it's either get some comics first or read what's left to read in the house which is one volume of CLASSICOS DEL TERROR. And that's not the best thing to read when you are alone at night with a dozen of morocans whose life would be much easier if they killed you and buried your body somewhere. And out here there are hundreds of places for that.


At the airport I had already bought two tickets, one for the train to Torredembarra and one for the metro ( which set me back 13 bucks from my already tiny comic spending budget ) but it involved a lot of walking from the train station to the metro station and then to the comicshop. The subway thankfully had air condition but between rides ( you have to use to different lines to reach Arc de Triompf ) it was still hot and I was pretty exhausted. At the airport I hadn't bought anything cold to drink ( because at that time I still thought I would have the chance to get something to eat and drink at Kentucky Fried Chicken which has no chain stores around Stuttgart ) so out of fear I could end up dehydrated I bought a coke zero from a vending machine which was really, really hot.

Since I was really thirsty I drank it anyway but only in small sips all through the train ride to Torredembarra. I finally arrived at the NORMA COMICS store a few minutes after eight ( just after getting of at Arc de Triompf I had a sudden panic attack because I realized I wasn't sure if the comic shop was really at that station ) and was looking for some comics but there were just a lot of mangas and art books there.


One of the clerks told me that all the superhero stuff was downstairs so I went one level below - well, it was like coming home. All the comics you can think of, all the stuff that comes out in german ( but at a lower price, so you have to at least take 5 bucks off the german price ), the american series and some editions that aren't even published in America. Or at least not collected into new volumes.

They had some nice hardcovers but as they were around 30 bucks I couldn't get more than two. The first thing I looked for - of course - was the CLASSICOS DC edition by Planeta DeAgostini of Norm Breyfogle's Batman comics. I wrote about this collection in March but I didn't think that they had already finished the five volumes. I also found a compilation of Gene Colan's JEMM - SON OF SATURN series


and also two hardcovers of Marv Wolfman and George Perez' first 28 issues of NEW TEEN TITANS. And also tons of other cool comics. The hard part in german comicshop for me is to find something to buy that I haven't already read or that you can't get at a better price and with better quality in the original american version. My biggest problem in spanish comicshops is narrowing it down to the few comics I can afford.

As I could only buy two of those nice hardcovers ( and the shop was also five minutes away from closing ) I bought the first volume of Norm Breyfogle's Batman at a whopping 352 pages for 30 bucks and the first volume of NUEVOS TITANES. I had thought about getting the american edition of the NEW TEEN TITANS omnibus through amazon since they only charge 50 bucks for the 75 dollar hardcover. But having the chance to get it for 35 EUROS ( 464 pages !!! ) with the second volume already out, well I just couldn't pass that up. For a quick moment I thought about getting the second volume since the only copy of the first volume had a slight crack but I think I already have most of the issues contained. The first volume has issues 1 to 16 and I think my collection starts with issue 20.


I also wanted to buy some issues of DOLMEN but the newest issue wasn't out yet and apparently they had no back issues. I probably could have gotten some at the FREAKIS comicshop but by the time I would have gotten there they would already be closed.

So now I had two thick volumes to read, I had my bottle of hot coke and I even managed to get the last train to Torredembarra for the day. But because it was already a quarter to eleven there were no cabs at Torredembarra station and I had to find a cab to take me to la pobla. After waiting for ten minutes to see if all the cabs had just gone out I walked around a bit and found an open chinese restaurant where I could convince one of the waiters to phone me up a cab but he couldn't get a connection. At least I got a cold can of Fanta at the restaurant but aftwerwards when I was looking for a cab, walking towards the centre of Torredembarra I realized that spending my last coins hadn't been such a great idea. I think it was the moment when I finally found a public phone that I came to that realisation.

While I was still walking towards Torredembarra I asked two guys where I could find a cab and they kindly drove me all the way out past la pobla to where my mother lives. I still think it's one of my greatest achievements to direct the car through the labyrinth of streets in the dark and in my exhausted state. Finally I had arrived at my destination and since my t - shirt was soaking wet all I wanted was a cold beer and a shower and not necessarily in that order. As luck would have it beer was one of the few things the almost empty refrigerator contained so after one of the best showers of my life ever I could lie back with a cold one.


I guess not even Marco Polo had that much fun on his travels.

Since Today's post has been about traveling ( and alcoholic beverages ) and not so much about comics......sorry...... here's one of the best commercials I've seen. The man who walked around the world.



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Finally I get to do a new post

Okay, this is too weird. I haven´t even properly started the post and already I have to stop it and do something else.


And this has been going for weeks - as you can see by the date from my last post. I guess we all know that Captain America week is over by now so really, time for a new post. But before totally closing the subject of Captain America, Comics Alliance has done another one of it´s great COMICS EVERYBODY post explaining the history of Captain America .


I´M LEAVING ON A JET PLANE I KNOW WHEN I´LL BE BACK AGAIN

Now you might ask what I have been so busy with, me being unemployed and all. Well, one of the things is my impending trip to Spain which has totally caught me by surprise. I had to finish a lot of things like books I had started to read or comics, tidy up my room a bit, watching the first season of HUMAN TARGET and basically doing my travel preparations.

Part of that was finally getting to watch episode 8 of the sixth season of DR. WHO " Let´s kill Hitler ! " and let me say this : just when you think this show has reached the epitome of greatness they one - up themselves. Here´s the trailer so you can judge for yourself :



Another part of my travel preparations was ( and still is ) finally posting all the bookmarks I had saved for future posts on my taskbar. As I´m going through them in reverse order I may post ones that will be at the bottom of this post first and the ones who will be at the top last. So it might look a bit awkward until this post is really finished. Yup, just when you had thought you had all my quirky posting habits worked out I go and add a new one.

One link I totally have to post ( mostly because I may have need of it myself later on ) is for the XII Jornadas de Cómic y Manga de Leganés which will take place at the 24th and 25th of September at La placa de España. I had no idea where Leganés is but apparently it´s near Madrid and you can see the location here .


I don´t know if I really can attend as I´m having a small travel expense budget and my mother´s not so keen on me going to comic conventions when I´m in Spain ( one of the reasons why she invited me over to Spain only AFTER the Salon del Comic de Barcelona, innit ? ), but I´m in the country at the time and if it´s possible I will visit the con. So far not many artists are confirmed but on the top of my list is Carlos Pacheco, as always. Maybe this time I can get a proper Power Girl drawing. And ask him who´s on his new X - Men team. In any case I´m taking my second copy of X - MEN SCHISM 1 with me when I´m going to Spain and with a bit of luck I´ll have it signed.

THERE MUST BE 52 WAYS TO LEAVE YOUR LOVER

We´re heading of with DC´s new 52 book relaunch and first up, for all who missed it here´s an article from Robot 6 about the 52 commercial that´s really quite embarrassing and looks like something two stoned college students cobbled together in their basement - in the 80s.

Rolling Stone has an interview with Grant Morrison about the death of comics and I have to say that´s one topic that never seems to get old.


In April 2006, when I was just starting with this blog german magazine DER STERN prophesied " der death of comics " and now they have regular articles about comics themselves. I´m 44 years old and for as long as I can remember reading comics - from the age of 10 or 11 - everybody has always said that comics are dying. So, I´m not going to hold my breath till that happens because even IF it should really occur there´s still enough for me to read for as long as I live.

There is also another interview with Grant Morrison at Comics Alliance about his Batman megastory and his upcoming work on ACTION COMICS, one with Paul Levitz on his Legion of Super - Heroes books, one with Jeff Lemire about Animal Man, one with Yanick Paquette about Swamp Thing, one with Gail Simone about Batgirl and Firestorm, one with Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang about Wonder Woman and one with Geoff Johns and Jim Lee about Justice League.


And two new previews have been released for Justice League International 1 and Batman and Robin 1 .

I KISSED A SUPERGIRL AND I LIKED IT

Now I don´t know how trippy Grant Morrison´s new take on Superman will be but it can´t be as crazy as this Superman story from CBR´s I love you but you´re strange series about Golden Age Superman´s inappropiate sexual fixation on his cousin.


And this is not the only story from that time that goes in that direction, as I recall one story in particular where Superman tried to get Lois to stop hounding him with those damn wedding plans, by pretending to have found a superpowered girlfriend who in the end turend out to be Supergirl in disguise. Of course to convince Lois that this was his new girlfriend he had to make out with his own cousin and if the comics code wouldn´t have been in effect at that time who knows to which lengths the Man of Steel would have gone. Just to get rid of Lois of course. It´s not like he enjoys kissing his cousin or doing other things with her. Man, compared to that the new Superman books will be pretty tame, I guess.

And speaking about the new Superman I guess this costume starts looking really good compared to the new Robotech Superman outfit.


RETROACTIVE DREAMS

Since we´re riding the nostalgia wave and talking about old DC stories I have gotten a few issues of DC´s RETROACTIVE line and I have to say in some cases the reprint stories are better than the new stuff. Which is kind of embarassing and doesn´t bode well for the whole relaunch thing. I got the WONDER WOMAN 1980 issue but mostly for the reprint that has beautiful art by the late Gene Colan.


It seems this particular reprint was picked because it features the first appearance of Silver Swan, the antagonist of the new story but also because Wonder Woman changed her emblem in the issue. And as we all know DC comics is all about change. Be that as it may, seeing the reprint in nice color instead of the usual black and white of the reprinted material I buy, through Marvel´s ESSENTIALS or DC´s SHOWCASE edition makes me wish DC would do a new collected edition of Gene Colan´s run on Wonder Woman. I remember reading the issues when they came out in Germany and as most issues of WUNDERGIRL ( how Wonder Woman was called in Germany ) are either lost, in bad shape or buried somewhere where human hands cannot touch them - or any combination of the three - I would like to have a possibility to add them to my collection.

I sadly missed the GREEN LANTERN 1970 issue


as everybody keeps telling how great Neal Adams´art is but I managed to get my hands on GREEN LANTERN 1980 ( some preview pages ) . Now a lot of Green Lantern fans may say that their favorite artist on the book has always been Neal Adams or Mike Grell or Paul Pelletier. But the artist I mostly associate with Green Lantern is Joe Staton because he drew most of the german issues I read and later on he did the fantastic GUY GARDNER REBORN series and the first issues of Guy´s new title. Which where the fun issues before he turned into an alien Transformer.


So it was a real thrill for me that DC picked him as the artist for this RETROACTIVE issue. And the reprint has even art by the great Dave Gibbons. As the only issues I read of his run are some spanish trades my brother bought a long time ago this is another run I would like to see collected from DC.

From the Flash I got two issues, the first one is FLASH 1970 which I only got because of the reprint with beautiful art by Jose Luis Garcia Lopez. He really is one of my favorite artists and if you want a comic with wonderful black and white art by him, Brian Bolland and P Craig Russell get a copy of THE SPIRIT 17 by DC. Back to FLASH 1970 the story is boring and Sal Buscema´s inks are wasted on the art.


The FLASH 1980 issue is much better reuniting Bill Messner - Loebs and Greg LaRoque who did some of the best work on the title including THE RETURN OF BARRY ALLEN which was about the time I got on the book. The reprint story is another great example of their work so all in all another 4.99 well spent ( those books are a bit priced which is the reason why I was so picky with them ).

Now, here are my two absolute highligths of the RETROACTIVE line, the first one being BATMAN 1990 featuring the return of one of the best creative teams to EVER grace the insides of a Bat - related comic : Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle.


This mythic two - fisted combo rejuvenated the Batman, injecting an amazing amount of energy into a dwindling franchise. You can read more about my appreciation of Norm Breyfogle at length here and here but let me say that all those issues of Archie comics ( which I will get as soon as they are available via amazon ) haven´t diminished his ability to do kick - ass Batman stories. He´s as good or even better than in the reprint story. One of the things I´ll be looking for first when I´m in a comicshop in Barcelona are the reprint volumes of his Batman issues.

But my absolute favorite of them all - and I usually don´t say that without having read the comic - is the JUSTICE LEAGUE 1990 issue by Keith Giffen, J. M. DeMatteis and Kevin Maguire.


Maguire has been underused lately in such weird anthology titles like WEIRD TALES which he clearly demonstrates in this issue featuring the best league of them all. I really can´t understand that he ( or Jerry Ordway ) are not part of the new DC. So, these were my picks from the Dc RETROACTIVE line and I have to say, for me it´s a sign of bad management when you put the 4.99 price tag so big on the cover without mentioning that is for 56 pages. DARK HORSE has no problems writing on issue 3 of DARK HORSE PRESENTS that it´s 104 pages thick. There are only two negative things I can say about this comic : it doesn´t have enough pages and the coloring is much too dark for this kind of paper.


Justice League 1990 review by Dad´s big plan´s Cap´n Carrot

Since DC also has a new movie in cinemas here´s the history of Green Lantern explained via another edition of Comic Alliance´s popular COMICS EVERYBODY ! series.


BETTER THE DAREDEVIL YOU KNOW

Over at Marvel - and this is probably a few months too late since the book is probably on it´s third or fourth issue - a special audio version of issue 1 of the new DAREDEVIL comic is available. A good idea and a clever way to promote this new number 1.

What´s a really bad idea is Marvel bribing comic retailers to destroy DC comics , namely ripping off 52 covers of any new 52 comics by DC and sending them in for a variant version of FEAR ITSELF nuber 6. The cover is by Ed McGuiness and let me just say that, no, I´m not posting it because as long as I pick out the material that goes on my blog I´m going for art I like or that fits the mood of what I have written and even I have standards. So if you want to check it out use the link but I´d rather post a cover by Rob Liefeld.


I SEE A RED SPIDER AND I WANT IT PAINTED BLACK

Another thing I wanted to add is this article about Black Spider - Man or rather how wrong it is to call him the black Spider - Man. While I can understand where he´s coming from I have to mention that it´s one thing to have a new character who happens to be black and another thing if you want to have a lot of media attention by doing a new version of an old one - just this one is black.

Come on, we all hate it but this is exactly what happens at comic companies. Remember when after RETURN OF THE DARK KNIGHT they all did new versions of the same characters - just grim and gritty this time ? That´s just how the business works and sometimes black is just another gimmick. I don´t know how the newsmedia will evolve but from my experience most so called journalists ( and I´m not including the enthusiastic comic fans who do excellent work on hundreds of webpages and blogs ) are just lazy, uninformed and borderline alcoholics. They hate to do research and when they can slap a headline on the article like NEW BLACK SPIDER - MAN most of them do.


As the comicshop has cancelled my brothers subscription to ULTIMATE SPIDER - MAN under misterious circumstances I´m not up to date on the series but I think Miles Morales will have to prove himself to the readers. Like Jaime Reyes, the new Blue Beetle, he has to show that he has more merit than just being black Spider - Man and that he´s not just the token ethnic minority hero. In the end that is what people will remember no matter if he´s black, white, yellow, green or blue.

Speaking about repercussions here is an interview with Peter David about X - FACTOR and the fallout from X - MEN SCHISM.

SQUIRREL GIRL SHAKE YOUR BUSHY TAIL

The issue to this preview has already come out but I´m posting it anyway. It´s NEW AVENGERS 15 written by Brian Michael Bendis with art by Mike Deodato and while I´m not really a fan of the FEAR ITSELF tie - in issues with all the talking head pages I just have to endorse this comic because it features one of the best Avengers ever : Squirrel Girl. If there was one redeeming quality of Dan Slott´s " the little limited series that could but didn´t dare " GREAT LAKE AVENGERS it´s making the concept of Squirrel Girl cool. After landing a gig as Luke Cage and Jessica Jones´ new nanny in this issue Squirrel Girl enters the Octagon against Wolverine with unexpected results.


There was a poll some years ago, about which female Marvel character male fans would go out with and while most picked their favorites based on how hot they are in the comics my favorite would be Squirrel Girl because hanging out with her would be so much fun. And really, those Marvel artists can make any female look hot so your best bet is to go with personality.


I have already posted one COMICS EVERYBODY link explaining the history of a Marvel character upon which a movie was made - just recently - so here´s another one, about Thor .


Not much independent stuff Today, just this video from CBR tv with Jeff Smith in which he talks about BONE and RASL.



But if I haven´t already mentioned DO pick up the first issue of Terry Moore´s new series RACHEL RISING and if you have missed his fantastic ECHO series, it´s now collected in one whopping volume. So you have no excuses left.

THAT THING YOU DO

Lastly, time for some old business. You may remember that a few months back I posted some pictures of Marie - Claude Bourbonnais from a comic convention with another fellow female cosplayer dressed as female Loki ( Foki, Woki, She - Loki, Shoki ? ).


Thanks to a reader ( I owe you, Rodrigo ) I now know that she goes by Lafiel or A Riddle on the internet. Here´s another picture of her incredibly detailed Loki costume.


She also makes an awesome Black Cat and when I see her pictures I wonder why there has been no Black Cat in the Spider - Man movies so far ? Really, it´s not as difficult to pull of as Sandman or Doctor Octopuss and I´m going out on a limb and say audiences would not be adverse to it.


Although, now that Disney ownes Marvel how big are the chances for the Black Cat to appear in uncensored form in a movie when this costume


was even banned from the comics continuity ? Back to Lafiel ( I´m trying to avoid making any A Riddle jokes here ) I know that some of my readers have problems when there are too many pictures of sexy females in my post but I just had to include a few more to show how much detail she put into her costumes like into this Huntress outfit.


For the next picture I have to say I´m not sure if I´m supposed to know who that is, as I´m not so versed in video game or anime characters but once again, great costume.


And before you question yourself, it´s already too late for me to ask myself if I´m a dirty old man. According to a post by a female blogger I read last week I´m already a perv for finding someone attractive who´s younger than me. Which is kind of a problem when you´re 44 years old.

Because most hot looking women are probaly under the age of 44 at which the air really gets thin. I mean really, now I have to change my value set and ignore the way I have been thinking up until now ? From now on I´m only supposed to find women hot who are around my age, which still leaves me with the likes of Catherine Bell, Charisma Carpenter, Debbe Dunning, Maria Gracia Cucinotta, Monica Bellucci, Pamela Anderson, Sofia Vergara, Rosie Perez, Salma Hayek, Ninel Conde ( strangely all three of these latin movie stars celebarte their birthday in September ), Halle Berry and Janet Jackson. But it would mean thinking that women like Christina Hendricks or Erica Durance are attractive would be inappropiate for me because they are 11 years younger than me. I thought in this day and age we had overcome this whole " age restriction " thing when it comes to relationships but it seems it´s still a big thing.

Okay, back to Lafiel in a totally state - of - the - fact not pervy kind of way were I´m just mentioning on the side that she´s attractive without drawing too much attention to it because we all want to concentrate on the costumes without going for the pitchforks and torches.


Now I didn´t just mention her to post some pictures of her envy - inducing costumes ( makes me want to go out and make a costume for myself for my next comic convention ) but mainly because I got some links to add. Here is a page with some of her pictures from Flicker and you can find her official homepage with all the bells and whistles and links to Deviantart, Facebook, Twitter and all the other social networks right here . We really need to support dedicated fans so spread the word.


Since I´m clearing out the bookmarks from my taskbar Today´s video is one I think I haven´t posted yet. It´s the opening musical number from the special Dr. Who episode on Craig Ferguson that couldn´t be aired.

It´s really brilliant ( like almost everything related to The Doctor or Craig Ferguson ) and really a must see. On the show Craig has Chris Hardwick from The Nerdist Podcast who´s also a comedian and a big Dr. Who fan ( he did the Nail Gaiman interview I posted in July ) and current Doctor Matt Smith as guests. I´m really sparse with download links but since it´s never going to air in Germany here is a link for all those who can´t find it on the internet. The show aired on November the 16th 2010.



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Great Lakes Avengers represent !