The working dead

I know the title sounds a bit ominous but since I have slept approximately less than six hours in the last three days combined that´s exactly how I feel. And to top it off I´m sitting in an internet cafe right now writing this post instead of heading home to get some sleep.

Back when I was unemployed not being able to sleep was not that big a problem because I did what most people nowadays do when they can´t sleep : surf the internet. I mean, that´s where most of my posts on this blog came from. You can´t sleep, you fire up the old machine and it´s once again time to wax about comics. Is there anything better in the world than that ?

But when you have to work you have to get up at a certain time ( or at least try to get up at something approximating that time ) so you can´t spend hours in front of the computer until you´re either finished with your post or so tired you hit the sack. Whatever comes first. But that´s not an option anymore when you´re a working class stiff especially when your old computer´s not as reliable as it used to.

There has been a longer wait since my last post but only because I tried to write from the privacy of my own home instead of using an internet cafe. I guess I´m just stubborn this way. I tried for too long to find a way to do it at home but the blue screen is almost a permanent thing - if I manage to get the computer to boot at all. It's like the machine has digital Alzheimer. So I probably have no other choice than to buy a new laptop and in the meantime use the internet cafe.

Which is kind of difficult if I want to write about certain comics because I have all the material at home. So I will probably write more about things you can find on the interwebs like new previews, top ten lists and news. It´s been a while since we had a news post around here so that´s a nice change of topics. And in regards to my independent comic reading list - I can take a hint. I mean, at first the computer started acting up whenever I mentioned the topic but now he has gone into full strike mode to eliminate even the slightest chance I might do so. So the topic is shelved for the moment but not forever.

IT ALSO IS NEVER AS GOOD AS THE SECOND TIME

Like usual there is something that goes back to a previous post, in this case the one about Dark Horse reprints of the classic Warren EERIE comics in their EERIE ARCHIVE collections. Now, while the last one I mentioned - volume 11 - has gone back to the price of 37 EUROS volume 10 is currently available for 19.63 EUROS. There are only 6 copies left so don´t wait too long. And if you want a little bit more info about volume 10 you can find it here .

IRONING IT OUT - DELOADED

This is my fourth and final attempt to finish this part of the post. I thought since it´s  really not possible to do a just review without having the book in question at hand I cut my second session at the internet cafe short and tried to finish this at home. I really felt that I would be doing a disservice to my readers if I didn´t include all the things you can only see with the actual review copy but my computer bailed out on me after 15 minutes. So I´m once again at the internet cafe with some notes I made at home. It´s not the perfect in - depth review I wanted to make after three failed attempts I have to finally wrap this up :

Since we are on the subject of amazon there is something I absolutely wanted to mention before going on to other things. There´s a book sold at a real bargain price right now and there are still 14 copies left.

The book in question I´m writing about is IRON MAN OMNIBUS - Volume 1 by David Micheline, Bob Layton and John Romita Jr. I know it´s a big sucker, in fact you probably need a weapons license for that thing. It definitely qualifies as a foreign object in wrestling.

Now this is one of Marvel´s new 99.99 mammoth books and usually I wouldn´t dream of going anywhere near this sucker. Even if you get it from an internet comicshop or from amazon you pay between 85 and 75 EUROS which is out of my normal price range.

The reason why I still was adamant about mentioning it on my blog is that RIGHT NOW amazon Germany is offering the collection for 56.95 EUROS which is totally mindblowing. I don´t want to influence my readers into buying these comics or those.....well, that´s a lie. I do. I admit it. I try to warn my readers about comics which - I think - are a waste of money and steer them to some books that I think are more deserving of their hardearned dollars ( or EUROS in this case ). I´m not ashamed of that. And I also want to inform my readers of every comic bargain I come across. That doesn´t always work out as planned since some of these bargains are going faster than I can post them but I´m still trying my best. Because as somebody who has to pay for the comics on his blog out of his own pocket ( except the comics from BLACK TOWER COMICS that they send me out of the goodness of their heart and which I´m way behind on reviewing - sorry ) I know that sometimes you just can´t afford those nice hardcovers you´d like to buy. Especially with most comic books now going for 4 bucks. You just pay a lot of money for your usual subscription and there is nothing left for things outside of your pull list.

So, whenever I come across on of these bargains I feel obligated to mention it on my blog. Okay, back to the IRON MAN OMNIBUS, like I said, usually not something I would consider buying and at first I was not going to buy it. Bargains are one thing but 57 bucks is still a lot of cash for one book. But there were two factors that finally changed my mind about that.

The first one was being able to actually hold the book in my hand at my trusty comicshop and seeing how big it is. The second one was that last year I ordered the third volume of the TEEN TITANS OMNIBUS.

Now the thing never arrived and since it has been rescheduled to June I canceled my order but I was willing to pay pretty much the same amount of money for a collection that has only 792 pages. So that convinced me to order the book, especially since I don´t have to schlepp the thing home myself. And there is not much you can do wrong with the material collected in here. I mean this is probably as good as it gets with IRON MAN stuff, the gold standard so to speak - at least for my generation. The dream team of Micheline, Layton and John Romita Jr have created most of the classic Iron Man stories and a lot of them are included in this volume like DEMON IN A BOTTLE ( which just made the number 1 spot on Comicbook Resources list of The 25 Greatest Iron Man Stories Ever Told and the writing team of David Micheline and Bob Layton is currently in the lead on their Best Iron Man writer poll ), HULK IS WHERE THE HEART IS ( number 18 ) or DOOMQUEST ( number 3 ). Especially Bob Layton has been connected to the book - or better the Iron Man franchise since I think he was involved in the movie versions in some capacity - in some way over the years may it be as a writer, artist or inker.

Heck, Bob Layton may be one of the first inkers whose work I sought out and to this day I still look his stuff up whenever I ink something metallic or shiny. He´s just the godfather of heavy metal inking. And John Romita Jr is just one of the go - to guys when you have to put robots or mechas in a book. It´s either him or George Perez for me.

Back to the collection, it has 994 pages and collects the first legendary run by this comic creator trifecta - issues 115 to 157 -  that pretty much was a big thing when I was reading comics in my school days. John Romita Jr was just starting to stretch his artistical legs and like Marvel never gets tired to say the trio managed to capture lightning in a bottle.

The stories in this book include the aforementioned DEMON IN A BOTTLE story which I first read in the spanish version ( which was EL INVENCIBLE HOMBRE DE HIERRO which sounds waaay cooler than Iron Man ) and it´s one of the few Iron Man trades I have. The collection also features issue 147, the first american Iron Man copy I ever possessed in which BLACKLASH, the new modified version of Whiplash has his first appearance. I must have read this copy a few hundred times which may be the reason why the splash page is kind of etched into my brain.

And I still remember this particular text : " Three heads nod. And nod. And nod. "

There are a lot of other things I still remind of the issue like newly hired SI Vice President Yvette Avril saving the day only to have her thunder stolen by Public Relations chief Artemis Pithens as he takes credit for it. Or if I remembered correctly Iron Man just assumed it was Pithens who was the hero of the day and Artie didn´t correct him. Well, that´s the male chauvinism of the 80s at work here. I don´t want to go into more detail here but for those who want to know more about the issue they should definitely check out Gutter Talks review of Iron Man issue 147  called FIDDLING ABOUT WHILE STARK INTERNATIONAL BURNS.

Speaking about firsts, a lot of people and things are introduced into Iron Man lore in this volume that have later on become canon like Justin Hammer ( now known from his appearance in the second Iron Man movie ), the dreadnaughts, the stealth armor or the outer space armor. You also get Tony´s legendary clash with Dr. Doom during King Arthur´s time, a brutal battle against the Hulk, Namor, Madame Masque, the Melter, The Living Lazer,Blizzard and the Titanium Man.

Additionally to the 42 issues in this collection the hardcover also has 58 pages of extras including a re - colored version of issue 144 ( not issue 114 as it was misprinted in my copy ) that was done for IRON MAN : REQUIEM, one page about the true story of Jarvis´ resignation letter in issue 127, unused covers, covers for issues 113 and 114 by John Romita Jr, 13 original penciled and inked story pages, splash pages and covers, a calendar pin up, the hilarious one page story WHAT IF IRON MAN HAD A EATING PROBLEM ?, Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe character profiles and armor schemantics, the introductions for the DEMON IN A BOTTLE and the DOOMQUEST trades as well as covers for the POWER OF IRON MAN, DEMON IN A BOTTLE, THE MANY ARMORS OF IRON MAN, IRON MAN VS DOCTOR DOOM and DOOMQUEST trades. There´s also John Romita´s new cover for this collection and I should mention that of course all the original covers are included.

Now one of my brother told me that I´m always buying books I already have and in this case it´s right that I have read some of the issues in one form or the other. But since those are scattered issues at best and the ones I read were either in the spanish version that were missing a few pages or the german version which were mostly the dreaded Condor Pocket Books that reduced the size drastically and cut off most of the text this is the first time I have them all in the original size, with all pages and the original text. So I think for me it´s a good investment. 

Okay, this is the end of my sales pitch although I never was very good at this. I´m not one of these persons who can do the whole salesman spiel and belive me - I was involved once with a position that would have been very lucrative but I´m just not cut out for it. I´m more the kind of guy who presents a deal with all the pros and cons and that let´s the client decide on his own. So I never went into sales.   

The only thing I want to add that if you were already thinking about getting this book now is the right time, especially if you don´t have the DEMON IN A BOTTLE hardcover ( which alone will cost you around 24 bucks ) or any of the other trades contained in this collection.

Well, as usual that´s all I have time for Today, as the counter on the internet cafe nears the 2 hour mark. I´ll try to complete this post Tomorrow if the internet gods are willing and with a bit of luck the hardcover will also be delivered at home. I don´t envy the guy who has to do that. There are not many links I can add that were essential to making this post ( otherwise than the ones I already included ) but be sure to check out The Comics Cube´s Top Ten Most Influential Comics Artists No 9: George Perez , it´s a great read and required for all people who don´t know him.

Now usually I put one video at the end of the post but since it has been so long since my last post I want to include to videos of movies that might have been overlooked by the regular movie goers.

The first one is WRECK - IT RALPH which really surprised me and is one heck of a film with a story that starts deceptively easy but has a deep message. And I think we can all relate in some way to the hero. I totally have to congratulate Christian Ulmen who does the german voice of Ralph. He´s a guy who I normally find enourmously irritating but he does a terrific job here. If you don´t have the greatest of times watching this movie you really need help.



The second one is JACK REACHER, in my opinion Tom Cruise´s best movie of the last years. Here in Germany it played in movie theaters closed to the public and it´s a damn shame if you miss this one.



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

I´m always careful about horses. It´s the women that get me into trouble.

A few things about my last post

It seems that my plan to blog about independent comics is doomed since every time I start something comes up that stops me from writing about those great comic reads I enjoy.

So since my computer is starting to go crazy again here are a few things I have to mention in regards to the last topic. Let´s hope that when I got them out of the way I can finally do some indie titles and let´s start with the last thing first. A big part of the last post was about old horror comics and especially Dark Horse´s new hardcover editions of the old Warren publications CREEPY EERIE and VAMPIRELLA.

IT´S NEVER AS GOOD AS THE FIRST TIME

I hope those readers that are into that kind of stuff ordered volume 10 because the price has been upped again and it´s now at 35 EUROS. I have finally read the whole fat book and I really love it. And if you also ordered it and wondered what happened to the contents of issue 51 - it´s not a hoax, it´s not a dream, there is no issue 51. Unlike other comic companies Dark Horse has decided not to make their customers pay twice for the same comics. So since issue 51 is the BEST STORIES EVER issue and has mostly reprints only the games are printed in the book. Now, you may like this decision or not it does have its merit. Okay, on one side if you only buy this one hardcover than you might feel you got the short end of the stick. On the other side if you buy the entire collection you might feel exploited if you have to pay again for the same content. I mean how many times have you complained that Marvel reprints the same comics in their trades again and again and again ? It´s like they say, you can´t please them all but at least Dark Horse is trying something different.

What´s not different is that right after I confessed to spend too much money on comics I go and order Dark Horse´s CREEPY ARCHIVES VOLUME 11. I know, I´m irredeemable but the book is down from 27 EUROS ( which was the price when I wrote my last post ) to 20 EUROS and there are still 8 copies left. And what can I tell you that I haven´t said in my last post ? If you loved volume 10 you will go crazy over volume 11. Like I said it has possibly the only collaboration of Will Eisner and Richard Corben in comics history with Richard Corben providing the coloring for one of Will Eisner´s SPIRIT stories. There´s also a solo SPIRIT story by Will Eisner in this volume as I think it became a regular feature in EERIE.

On top of that there is a story by Neal Adams and the usual plethora of spanish comic masters that was the staple of the Warren comics from that time. If you have waited too long with volume 10 here´s a second chance to try one of them big hardcovers for a bargain price.

CAN DC SAVE POWER GIRL AND THEY REALLY TRYING TO ?

That´s another leftover from my last post. I spend a lot of time writing about the new series WORLDS FINEST and how the Supergirl from Earth 2 in that series is not the same as Power Girl.

Well, it seems that the same realisation is dawning on the creative staff at DC since she will be getting her old costume back in issue 12. Now the real reason is : is it enough to save the title from cancellation ? My answer is that it´s still possible IF they can solve the art problem. It just gets worse and worse and the book seems like a revolving door for fill in artists. They need to get one artist - no matter who it is as long as he´s in the middle of the playing field - and get him to stick for at least six issues. Kevin Maguire can do more pages but ultimately they have to figure out a way to put in more pages by George Perez. And not rushed pages like in the last few issues but his usual polished quality. If DC needs to get some other artists to fill that gap - fine. But they should do it like Marvel when they had Frank Cho and Arthur Adams work on HULK. Just get a Who´s Who of babe artists on the book or some of the old school guys like Mike Zeck, Ron Frenz or Ron Lim on it. I don´t know why DC always has to make everything so difficult.

AND NOW A BIT OF SELFPROMOTION

Longtime reader may recall that three years ago I wrote about some of my work appearing in an issue of the american HEAVY METAL comic. No, not comic art, it was the translation of the short story VODOO DERIVATE written by Bernd Frenz and illustrated by Carsten Dörr. Here´s the link to the post where you can read the whole story.

Well, at that time I had done two translations, the second one for another story by Bernd Frenz, STAR BRIDE illustrated by Martin Frei. You may remember him as the artist on the KOMMISSAR EISELE comics I mentioned in my last posts about the Comicbörse Stuttgart. Now when I did the translation of STAR BRIDE I expected that it would see print soon after the VODOO DERIVATE story but there were some editorial problems or such or I don´t know. I have no idea how the whole thing works and neither the guys from HEAVY METAL nor Bernd Frenz are accountable to me. I did the translations as a favor and really didn´t expect to gain anything by it. So when I didn´t hear about the second story I thought that was that and forgot about the whole thing.

Until I got an e - mail from Benrd Frenz with a link that STAR BRIDE is finally going to see print in issue 261 of HEAVY METAL.

So this is the second time my name is going to appear in print in an issue of the actual american HEAVY METAL comic.

Which makes me kind of proud although I just did the translation of STAR BRIDE, which could also have been BRIDE OF THE STARS but I see why Bernd went with the shorter one of my suggestions for the title. What would be cooler if I actually had a copy of the issue but this time I had no luck at the foreign press newsstand at Stuttgart main station. But I don´t want to be nitpicking. There´s an article about the comic on Comic Report ( sorry, only in german ) so I wanted to give props to my homeys.

What can I say ? I´m just glad that it´s actually in print.

SOME BLOG PIMPING THAT MAKES ME LOOK LIKE A PAUPER

Because it´s really not good form to end this post with accolades of my greatness here´s something to bring me back to reality. While I have barely passed my 400th post, my fellow blog partner over at DIVERSIONS OF THE GROOVY KIND just did his 1500th post featuring none other than Jack Kirby with his first issue of 2001 - A SPACE ODYSSEY.

Groove always has the best of 70s comic nostalgia like splash page features with Sal Buscema and Joe Staton and this post is no exception. I don´t know if there´s anybody interested in pop culture who hasn´t seen the picture but as somebody whose appreaciation of Jack Kirby has grown immensly over the last decade I urge you to check it out if you don´t know the comic. 2001 is one of the most famous movies ever and I can´t begin to describe the joy of seeing the iconic imagery of the movie interpreted by the King himself.

Just breathtaking. And you haven´t seen his big double page spreads with the spaceships. Make sure to check this out, apparently Jack Kirby continued the story of the Monolith in 10 issues of an ongoing, regularsized 2001 - A SPACE ODYSSEY comic. Which is also the origin story for Machine Man for all Marvelites. I don´t know if it´s reprinted somewhere but I sure would like to read it.

And that´s all we have time for Today. Hopefully the computer is not going to cause any troubles during my next post so we can finally come to my indie reads. But before we close there´s always the matter of the video at the end of the post. Sadly I posted the video of the HEAVY METAL movie in my last post because that would have been really fitting for this post. Instead I´m going to post another forgotten item of pop culture, namely the animated movie ROCK & RULE. Yep, we´re continuing the animation movie theme.

While ROCK & RULE may not be famous for its superb animation - although it was quite state of the art in 1983 - the main attraction is the soundtrack that includes songs by Debbie Harry, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Cheap Trick and Earth, Wind and Fire. Like HEAVY METAL I got this one from amazon for 5 bucks. I watched it in the original language version because you can hear the songs better than in the german version which was kind of too quiet but the problem with the original version is that you sometimes can´t hear what they are saying. There are two versions of the movie in the two disc edition I got, the regular theatrical version and a so - called canadian version which is a VHS recording. Since I haven´t watched the canadian version I´m not sure what exactly it is but it may well be the uncensored version. Anyway, not the greatest animation movie ever made but if you like the artists involved it´s a great way to spend a few hours. It also includes the first animation feature from this canadian company called THE DEVIL AND DANIEL MOUSE as well as the making of it and of ROCK & RULE so like I said - a few hours. Here´s the trailer



and the full movie for you to check out :



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

Atomic batteries to power. Turbines to speed.

Instead of indie titles : talk about Non - Power Girl and old horror comics

It´s been a very long time since my last post but as usual I have been megabusy. So busy in fact that I forgot to mention in my last post that it was the 400th post. Way to celebrate that anniversary by trashing Marvel.

I really don´t like to dwell on the negative but it´s not like DC is doing any better. I mean in the last PREVIEWS I read DC announced it´s big CERTIFIED WHAT THE F?%%&§§$ MONTH, meaning that each comic that month would include one certified WHAT THE F moment. Well, let me tell you something DC : I don´t need no WTF guarantee and I don´t need you to remind me how F - ed up your books are right now. Man, this NEW 52 is just one big, collossal, continuous WHAT THE F experience for me.

WHAT THE F - WORD DID YOU DO TO POWER GIRL ?

Since we´re on the subject of the NEW 52 I have finally started reading the WORLDS FINEST series because while I wanted to save them for a special occassion the art really wasn´t getting better the longer the series went on. It is a given that if you have somebody like George Perez working on a monthly book he will get less and less pages finished as the series progresses due to the time it takes to produce art of such a high quality. But in the last few issues his pages have become less frequent and more and more like sketches than finished art.

Additionally there have been more and more guest artists in the pages and for some strange reason DC seems to have lost the little black book.

That´s the only reason I can guess that they have the pages drawn by guys I never heard of instead of the old veterans that are still out there but for some reason don´t get work in the industry anymore. With Norm Breyfogle working on BATMAN BEYOND UNLIMITED it sure can´t be so hard to have him do a few pages with Power Girl. Or what about Kerry Gamill ?

I just got the FALLEN ANGELS Marvel Premiere Edition and I think he hasn´t done any comic pages in decades. This guy could draw rings around most of the guys who fill in the pages of WORLDS FINEST any day.

Maybe it IS true what uncle Sal said about a lot of the old artists like Ron Frenz, Bob McLeod or Mike Zeck being out of the business because they weren´t okay with cutting down their page rate to 40 bucks.

Not that the art on WORLDS FINEST is the only problem with the book, the story is a bit wishy washy and when you get right down to it the character of Supergirl is still not the same as Power Girl. Aside from the fact that they are both Superman´s cousins in their respective universes they are different like night and day and apart from what some comic writers want you to believe comic characters are not interchangable. The creators seem to be aware of the problem themselves as they make sure Kara´s costume gets shredded now and then - and very often in the space that was Power Girl´s magical cleavage window - as to say " Hey, we know she´s not the REAL Power Girl but DC just doesn´t understand so let´s make the best out of it. " but even with frequent reader service you can only get so far. 

I really thought with a book about Power Girl and Huntress DC couldn´t screw this up but it seems the old curse strikes again. Yep, most books with hot superheroines don´t have good art, suffer from weak stories or don´t dare to live up to its potential. And I guess here we have all three. The first 4 issues were promising but it sure went downhill fast.

ALWAYS WITH THE HORROR COMICS

One reason why I haven´t been posting much lately is I haven´t had much luck with the internet. Either I didn´t get access because my brother had the cable or I was too tired to spend some additional hours on the interwebs or I needed all the time to go through all the spam for this blog.

And when I really wanted to write another post my computer was acting up crashing when I tried to get online and giving me the blue screen a lot. On Tuesday I wanted to write this post but it was impossible to get online. Today it seems to be okay but just to add another wrinkle and don´t make me feel neglected blogger has changed the setting for uploading pictures. For some unfathomable reason it seems now impossible to decide how big the picture will appear and on which side ( left, center or right ) the picture is going to be posted on the blog so you have to add some HTML for that manually. For the placing of the picture I have already figured that out but I have no idea how to change the size. Thanks again, Blogger. It seems I´m still posting too often for their taste so they decided to slow me down.

Back to comics and my personal recommendations I spent too much money on comics this month and one of the reasons was I just couldn´t pass up the opportunity to get one of those dreamy Dark Horse hardcover collections of the old EERIE magazines. These suckers go for 50 dollars a pice so I knew that when I saw volume 10 for 23 EUROS at amazon.de I had to order it.

Growing up as a comic reading kid in the 80s you just were used to more anthology titles like the kids seem to be Today and you got them where you could. Of course there were german comics that I could get at stores like MV COMIX, ZACK or later on U - COMIX and SCHWERMETALL.

And when I was in spain there were such classics like 1984,

CIMOC,

EL TOTEM, ZONA 84

or EL VIBORA

but the occasions on which you could find some issues of the legendary sci fi or horror anthologies like CREEPY, EERIE or even VAMPIRELLA ( which shot the hormones of most prepubescent teens into overdrive ) were few and far between.

With luck you could find an issue or two at a comic convention or in some forgotten corner of the comic shop so I really wasn´t exposed to too much of it. So to finally hold such a fine hardcover in hands is a real treat for such a consummate horror fan as myself.

Which is why I wanted to post this earlier since there are still 11 copies left. Okay, it´s number ten - which is probably one of the reasons why it´s in the bargain books section - and if you really are intent on starting with the first volume this doesn´t help you much. But if you have a real fondness for those old horror mags from the seventies like myself and want to know if it´s really worth to pay 50 dollars for one of these suckers this is a very good chance to find out first hand.

I haven´t read all of it yet but it really is a nice book to hold in your hand and it really looks great on the shelf. I have to say, my new shelf porn really starts to fill up nicely. Contentwise I have to quote a bit from the introduction by Batton Lash and say that with this volume EERIE started to experiment a little, starting serialized storylines with recurring characters and bringing in science fiction. Which was not everybody´s cup of tea judging from the letters page. Yes, that´s right, the book includes all the letter pages, the contents pages, all the ads like the stuff you could order ( werewolf rings, giant rubber flies, or famous monster kits ), the beautiful covers

and even two horror - themed, cutout game spreads, complete with rules, created by Bill DuBay and reprinted in color.

And the selection of involved artists is no less impressive. There were a lot of spanish artists working at Warren at that time and you can find them all here. The interior art is done by paisanos Jaime Brocal ( who does a stunning 19 page story about Lillith in the first reprinted issue as well as the Mummy serial ), Esteban Maroto ( who writes and draws the Dax serial ), Martin Salvador ( see art below ),

Ramon Torrents, Munes and Aldoma while the covers are courtesy of Luis Domingues, Sanjulian and Enrich.

And there are also great stories by non spanish artists like Tom Sutton ( who starts off the Dracula serial with an incredible entry ), Rich Buckler and Paul Neary who later on inked a lot of Alan Davis´ stuff like his first EXCALIBUR issues. If you are a fan of classic monsters there´s a Dracula serial here, one about the Werewolf by Rich Buckler, one about the Mummy,

possibly one about Marvin the Death Thing as well as Dax the Warrior. Which is more science fiction then horror but a continuing serial nonetheless.

So if horror comics are your thing definitely check this out as you can´t go wrong with this price tag. And - I know I´m terrible when I´m excited about something - if you like it amazon.de also offers volume 11 for 28 EUROS. I know, it´s not as cheap as volume 10 but this volume also includes comics by Neal Adams and I think one of the few collaborations of Will Eisner and Richard Corben. Oh, and you just have to read the amazon review for volume 11 called EERIE, THE MONSTER SERIALS & THE BRITISH ARTISTS by Diego Cordoba if you are interested in spanish artists. This guy is just a fountain of knowledge. Here´s a short excerpt :

Alberto Breccia, the argentine artist who would inspire so many of the Spanish artists in the late 60's / early 70's, would develop his very peculiar style of inking pretty much through trial and error, and a part of genius as well. Cutting himself one morning while shaving, he pulled the razor blade out and when he was about to leave it on the sink, he noticed it left behind a series of trails pretty much like the lines he obtained while inking with a pen.

This gave him the idea to use a razor blade not only to ink, but to scratch the board and so obtain different effects on his inking. This wouldn't go unnoticed among the Spaniards, who began scratching their boards with a razor blade to extreme effects.

Breccia's extreme use of shading and shadows, leaving only slits of white on the board to give more depth to his drawings, would also be of a great inspiration to the Spaniards. Dino Battaglia, the other source of inspiration for the Spaniards, was an Italian comic book artist who in the early 50's worked for another Italian publisher who had moved to Argentina along with such Italian luminaries as Hugo Pratt and Alberto Ongaro. He used a very peculiar way of inking, working not only in heavy blacks, but with grays he obtained with a " souffle - au - cul ", a sort of metal tube divided in two sections; one part went inside the ink pot, and through the other you would blow as through a peashooter.

Blowing through one of the metal tubes, would cause the ink to rise through the other tube, thus obtaining an ink splattering on the surface you blew onto. This splattering, similar to what an airbrush does, but much more coarser, and depending on the force with which you blew, would appear almost gray in print.

This method of graying was very much appreciated by the Spaniards, who didn't know how Battaglia obtained this effect. However, they soon discovered that by dipping a used toothbrush in ink, and then rubbing the bristles with a ruler onto their artboards, they could obtain a splattering effect.

Another trick was using an old sock dipped in ink, and then applying it onto the paper. You would obtain a splatter - like effect as well. As soon as this was discovered, all the Spanish artists were either dipping their toothbrushes, socks, or any clothing with a coarse weaving, into their ink pots and applying / or rubbing them onto their artboards. These effects are used by almost the totality of the Spaniards in the late 60's/ early 70's, and you can pretty much see it in all the stories they did for Warren.

A really interesting read. And a last tidbit info, Alberto Breccia is best known for what might be one of the most important comic strips in history : MORT CINDER. His writer on this was Héctor Germán Oesterheld and to longtime readers the name sounds familiar since he also wrote EL ETERNAUTA, which I mentioned on September 2011 when the artist from that comic Solano Lpoez died. Man, that guy sure knew how to write.

As usual here are some pages to check out : vampirella covers

eerie archives volume 10 preview / eerie archives volume 11 preview

Before closing this post for Today I wanted to mention the obligatory celebrity birthday which on this ocassion is swimsuit model Tylene Buck who celebrates her 41st anniversary.

She also goes under the name of Brandi Wylde and even was a wrestling diva. Tylene began working for WCW as an NWO party girl always seen with Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner and others.

They later repackaged her as Major Gunns, the valet for the Misfits in Action. She later turned on them and joined Team Canada and managed Lance Storm. She was one of my candidates for the SEARCH FOR POWER GIRL series waaay back when it was still on this blog. Besides being one of my most used templates for banners I casted her as Ice in my Justice League movie ( the role of Power Girl was already taken by Nicole " Coco " Austin ) as well as Ms Marvel in the Avengers movie casting.

But she would be perfect for any superheroine who´s blonde and sexy. I wanted to give a shoutout to her and wish her many happy returns since she made me very happy every time she was on as Major Gunns when she was giving mouth to mouth or wearing a bikini.

Ah, the good old days when hot wrestling women and the Nitro Girls were shown on german tv - sometimes even in bikinis. Those were the times. And speaking of bikinis make sure to check out Tylene Buck in the IRON MAN swimsuit videos where she wears some supertiny microbikinis.

Todays video is another tie in to topics of earlier posts. After watching the TIME MASTERS animation movie I found the HEAVY METAL DVD at amazon for 5 bucks which really isn´t that much for a classic.

The clip below is the flight scene from the Taarna sequence which used Moebius artwork as a basis. My recommendation is get this movie since you can probably find it really cheap if you want to see how animation looked like before the manga wave hit and everything was still done by hand. For all comic aficionados this is doubly interesting since it not only has the obvious comic connection but the DVD I got includes the rough cut with a lot of pencil work and some deleted scenes.



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Strength of the Earth and power of all mankind I summon you !

Best time to quit Marvel ? Right NOW !

It´s getting colder again and against my better judgement I´m not lying in my bed and relaxing but hacking away at the keyboard for another post. I really want to increase my post frequency but Yesterday was another day I spent going through the hundreds of e - mails that had accumulated since my last post.

Here in Ludwigsburg it has been rather warm these past few days, more like what you´d expect during a german fall period. At the Stadionbad most of the snow has melted but from now on it´s getting colder again.

Like I said, Yesterday I didn´t get to do much but I placed my monthly order at the online comicshop and I suddenly realized that I´m only reading one monthly Marvel comic : WINTER SOLDIER.

And I don´t have it on my pull list. I also started getting the first issues of the new Marvel NOW series CAPTAIN AMERICA and FF but they are also not on my pull list. With both books I buy them mainly for the art and on Captain America the story is already getting on my nerves. It reminds me too much of the JONAH HEX SPACE COWBOY book.

Anyway, I don´t really expect Marvel to manage keeping Mike Allred and John Romita Jr on the books for more than 6 issues ( 12 at the most ) which will be the time I make my exit stage left.

Now if you have read my posts last month you may find it strange that my recommendation was the big AVENGERS VS X - MEN hardcover which was mainly there to get us to the point of entry for all the Marvel NOW books and now I´m telling you that it´s the best time to drop Marvel altogether. Well, while I did recommend the hardcover the main reasons were that you can get it at a real bargain price at amazon and it´s a big superhero brawl with really good art. Storywise more " connect the dots to the next big event " but in the art departement a real heavyweight. But to tell you the truth I have a feeling that it was the swansong of the X - Men and that there are not going to come many good stories after this. Like most of the actual output by Marvel the franchise has it´s best days of the future in the past.

Which was one of the reasons why I decided to stop getting the floppies of the x - universe. With the last two big events ( X - MEN SCHISM and AVENGERS VS X - MEN ) I have bought the floppies and the hardcover and that really isn´t something I can afford to continue doing.

And with AVENGERS VS X - MEN I was really going to wait for the trade. So now I´m going cold turkey on the X - MEN. So far I always bought the german edition but now they have gone from offering 4 issues for 5.95 EUROS to 3 issues for the same price and that´s just too expensive. Especially if you get only one issue of X - MEN and two issues of some other x - title. Because then you pay 6 bucks for one issue of X - MEN and in my opinion even 4 bucks for one comic is a lot of money for one book. You better make sure that book is one hell of a read when you have to spend that kind of money. And quite frankly, except for the big events the x - titles were a bit disappointing for the last year. Yes, there was WOLVERINE AND THE X - MEN, but I had to jump some issues because of Chris Bachalo´s art and for the proper x - book, reading that was more out of habit than because of a real love for the book.

Okay, you might say that I´m not really going to stop reading Marvel books but it really feels that way. There is still issue 5 of FIRST X - MEN but it´s the last part and I mainly read it because of Neal Adams art. I just love seeing that man doing a monthly title. The story made no sense in this whole mess the x - universe has become. And really, for somebody who started his pull list many decades ago with only Marvel books I have to say that the rest of the current incarnations of the Marvel books are horrifying to read. All the books I used to follow for years and years.

Thor has gone from the best Thor book ever written under the penmanship op Walter Simonson to something that really makes no sense, no matter how you look at it. The whole thing with Asgard being on Midgard makes no sense.

What´s more, I don´t think it´s even possible because Asgard is a different dimension than Midgard and logically can´t occupy the same space without one destroying the other. Not as extreme as matter and anti - matter but almost as impossible. Just ask Walter Bishop or watch a few episodes of FRINGE to get educated.



It´s like trying to cram a big apple pie into a bucket filled with ice cream. It´s not possible without either destroying the pie, destroying the ice cream, destroying both or ending up with half of the pie and half the bucket of ice cream melting on the floor.

And you could see the consequences of that in the AVENGERS PRIME series where the laws of physics ( or magic or whatever lays down the rules in Asgard ) broke down. You know, I really thought they would be done with all that but they still keep on with the Asgard on Midgard thing. What´s worse they change so many things I don´t even know what´s what anymore in Asgard. Like with the Odin.

He´s dead, he´s back, he´s dead again, he´s alive but in a seperate dimension from which he can´t come back but suddenly Loki brings him back in spite of that and now he´s back somewhere where he never can get back from - again. I just don´t care. Give me an Odin who´s pulling a fast one of the Asgardians and having his Odinsleep every week anytime. I mean that´s what Odin was always doing in those Jack Kirby comics I used to read. He was always busy with some plan that resulted in f -ing up Thor´s life in one way or the other, mostly robbing him of his powers or diminishing them by half or any other excuse to leave him almost as weak as a kitten so the other superhero who gueststarred had a fighting chance. And Odin was always sleeping the Odinsleep.

Really, in almost every issue I read he was either preparing for the Odinsleep, sleeping the Odinsleep or waking up from the Odinsleep. There´s really not much else he did which might have been one of the reasons his wife was Frigga. You can guess why she was called that. On the other side, ruling a land like Asgard with such pains in the a - word like Thor and Loki can really wear you out so maybe the whole Odinsleep was just an excuse to hit the pot or drink a few barrels of met.

You know, after all those years I finally know how Odin must have felt because, boy, when I get finished with my work at the Stadionbad I sure do feel the need for the Odinsleep coming over me. Or in my case I could call it the Subzerosleep. Although that hasn´t quite the ring like Odinsleep.

But back to the current Thor book Odin isn´t the only one who´s confusing right now. I mean what´s the whole deal with Loki ? First he´s a guy, then he´s a hot chick, then he´s a guy again and then he´s dead and gets resurrected by Thor as a kid. Who writes such stuff and can we ban the substances he´s smoking ? Because they are not healthy. I mean, for all the trouble Thor had to go through the last two years with Loki with the whole SIEGE thing and always trying to kill Thor and destroy Midgard and Asgard. And then what´s the very first thing he does when he finally gets rid of that menace ?

He goes " Boy, I do miss my stepbrother. He sure did lighten things up around here - when he wasn´t trying to kill me, my father, my race, this planet and the whole universe. You know what ? I´m going to bring him back. " like he was abusing some substances himself. I mean Thor never was a big thinker. But so far he never was stupid. No, you really can´t read Thor anymore. I mean I got some issues of the new MIGHTY THOR series at the last Comicbörse in Stuttgart for a buck each - by the way a big thank you from the people trying to make sense of Thor for another relaunch and another Thor book - and it was like I had suddenly crossed over to the parallel universe from FRINGE where they have a Red Arrow.

There are the gods from Broxton or some other british town ( I guess, geography was never my strong point in school ), Loki is running around with his old personality trapped in a raven and Asgard is ruled by three women and is still on Midgard. Now I´m not sure but female leaders were rather uncommon in norse society.

And it just goes on and on with the other Marvel books. I mean ever since BRAND NEW DAY you couldn´t read an issue of Spider - Man with a clear conscience but now they have taken all that´s left and flushed it down the toilet. And I´m not talking about AVENGING SPIDER - MAN which kept getting worse and worse and worse with each issue.

The book has become so bad that I´m not sure which issue is the worst one yet : the one that turned Hawkeye from a confident and strong character into an insecure whiner who thinks he´s worth nothing without his archery skills or the one with Deadpool and the Hypnohustler in the same issue. Or the issue where Aunt May and Peter are so far out of character that it´s like reading about wo totally different persons. No, it´s the same on the regular spiderbooks. I guess Spider - Girl was the only exception qualitywise and Marvel sure tried to shut that book down often enough.

For years you could see that Marvel has run out of ideas for stories ( unless you count bad ideas ) and have capitulated intellectually. Which gives us storylines like SPIDER ISLAND where everybody has spiderpowers.

But now, in the final issue of AMAZING SPIDER - MAN, number 700, they have put Doctor Octopus in Peter Parker´s body and killed off Peter. I don´t know but I have no intention of reading a book with Doc Ock wearing a Peter Parker suit trying to get it on with MJ. That´s just all kinds of sick and disgusting. It´s the whole " The Green Goblin did it with Gwen Stacy " thing all over again.

What is it with Today´s writers that they keep loading crap on MJ ? First she´s not good enough for Peter so Joe Quesada comes up with BRAND NEW DAY, before that she was terrorized by Venom and kidnapped by a stalker. And now Dock Ock is putting the moves on her. I tell you, if Peter Parker ever returns ( and from the looks of the last pages of issue 1 it looks like he´s already back ) Mary Jane is going to need decades of therapy when she finds out she has slept with Doctor Octopus. Okay, Marvel may decide not to go that far but then why start the whole thing in the first place ? Why go down that path if you´re not willing to go all the way ? Not that Marvel hasn´t done so before. They always start something then get afraid of their own courage.

Like when they covered up Shanna´s boobies in that Frank Cho series. Boy, who´s still waiting for the uncensored version of that to come out ? I tell you, not as long as Joe Quesada´s around. The only one I really pity with the whole thing is Frank Cho who should have learned his lesson then. But Marvel is devious in that way. They say it was only a mistake and it will never happen again and they throw the big cash on the table to get Frank Cho to work for them on such comics like AVENGERS VS X - MEN 0. And just when it looks like everything´s fine they go and f - up the new SAVAGE WOLVERINE book. You know, we should all boycott the book just out of solidarity with Frank Cho. I always said the next book by Frank Cho with Shanna in it I buy is the uncensored version of that miniseries Marvel f - ed up and it seems Marvel is trying to hold me to it.

And it doesn´t look like the rest of the Marvel NOW books are any better. Okay, we got Ed McGuiness on NOVA but Nova is just a little kid now and if he keeps getting younger with each relaunch we will soon have Baby Nova.

Yes, I bought the new AVENGERS ASSEMBLE book ( never use the word ASS on an Avengers book ) but only because they had Rocket Racoon in it. And speaking of Rocket Racoon : does Marvel have an insidious plan to ruin my life or is there some other reason why no book that has the guntoting space raccon in it doesn´t have good art ? And if not for long. I know that they have a new GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY book because of the upcoming movie. Which I hope they don´t f - up too much. But Steve McNiven is not really one of the guys who gets me to buy a book. And can anyone explain to me why Iron Man is suddenly on the team ? Nope, besides from the upcoming WOLVERINE book by Alan Davis there don´t seem to be that many books by Marvel that I´ll spend money on. Okay, I´ll buy anything that Alan Davis does but as long as the company has five different DEADPOOL books it´s their own fault they won´t get much money from me.

Not that I´ll totally stop buying Marvel comics. There are still three trades of Chris Claremont´s X - MEN FOREVER I haven´t read and with THUNDERBOLTS I´m at least three volumes behind. So I´ll be getting that as well as more of the old stuff like more ESSENTIAL trades or the first issues of John Buscema´s AVENGERS run with Roger Stern. Yes, Marvel does seem to read my blog from time to time as they seem to adjust their publishing plans accordingly. I mean, I write a post about how I really liked the british Avengers poketbook that includes the BRIDE OF ULTRON story and how I think this would be great as a Marvel premiere hardcover and the next thing I know it´s done. I write that I want more John Buscema hardcovers and the next thing you know they publish a new trade with the first AVENGERS issues that were not available until now. Okay, it´s a trade and not a hardcover but that may be next.

One thing that´s bothering me is that now that I have much more hardcovers it seems to me the prices for them have been going up in recent years. I mean one reason why I wanted to tell my readers that amazon is offering the AVENGERS VS X - MEN hardcover at a bargain price was that in my opinion 75 bucks is a bit much for it. But that´s the topic of one of the next posts. For now I just want to say after DC crapped all over their universe Marvel seems to have followed suit. And I´m mainly off the big two and reading much more independent titles. It´s not that I hate Marvel or the characters. Au contraire, I love them.

The only problem is that they have been absent from their own books and I´m not going to waste any money on that. Especially when such great books like CAVEWOMAN and ARCHER & ARMSTRONG are coming back and COURTNEY CRUMRIN is becoming a full color monthly. Combined with such stalwarts like SAVAGE DRAGON, LOVE AND CAPES and USAGI YOJIMBO and such heavy hitting newbies like MUDMAN and BULLETPROOF COFFIN

- or the new DARK HORSE PRESENTS anthology that delivers with each issue - there are enough books that I can spend my money on. And I hope we can talk about all of them in my next post as this one has been a bit of a rant. But you have to do those from time to time to get it out of your system.

Todays video is from Comic Girl 19, as I have promised to post more shows of her in an earlier post. This is the 15 minutes special that tells you all about the death of Peter Parker. I would say it´s full of spoilers but I´m afraid I already mentioned most of them. So that boat has already sailed the haven. Anyway, enjoy and I hope I can post again next week.



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I killed Captain America with a hammer and they made me queen of the world.