What happens in Phoenix stays in Phoenix

Today I´m continuing the topic of the Chris Claremont / John Byrne X - Men run because there are still some things I want to add. Originally I started this in my last post ( as some of my readers may have noticed ) but since it got longer and longer I decided to give it a post of its own :

One more reason to get the omnibus would be to finally read PHOENIX : THE UNTOLD STORY, which I once saw at a comic convention but I didn´t buy because I had no idea what it was and I never saw it again. Bummer.

I´m not sure if it can be found anywhere else. There was an oversized and overpriced hardcover a while ago ( Marvel really does have a problem with doing hardcovers that are much too expensive ) of The Dark Phoenix Saga that was supposed to have it but I only leafed through it at the shop.

The reproduction was really bad for such a big format and if you charge 75 bucks for it it should have more than just the usual content. Which it might have had but I didn´t know there could be the untold story in it so I didn´t look very thorough. Well, according to the announcements it´s now in the second omnibus and it better be because if you want to sell a 100 dollar hardcover ( 65 Euros on amazon ) you better include some special content. So this might be an incentive to get the omnibus. For those who have not read the comics : when The Dark Phoenix Saga was published the editor decided to change the ending which was bad news for Jean.

PHOENIX : THE UNTOLD STORY is the version how it was supposed to happen and because there were not many copies printed - or because most of the copies were destroyed - it´s a much sought after comic.

I don´t want to go into all the detail of why and how the original ending was changed ( you can see some of the original pages above ), because most comic fans know that story but I know that there are readers out there who might find it interesting. So here are some links to read on :

The best internet source for all the unpublished X - Men stuff is - like the name says - THE UNPUBLISHED X - MEN where you can find all sorts of unpublished or rarely seen art from X - Men comics like promotional art, commissions or alternate covers from foreign editions. They naturally have a great post about PHOENIX : THE UNTOLD STORY that explains it all and has original pages both finished and the pencils. There´s also a post you might want to check out about how John Byrne came up with the idea for the New Mutants and if you still haven´t enough of that sort of intel follow their link to SECRETS BEHIND THE X - MEN where you can find well researched articles on stories and concepts that didn't make it to print. 

Another thorough examination of the differences between the original ending and the one that saw print can be found at the very fine website GENTLEMEN OF LEISURE . It goes more into detail about the discepancies and has some comments from John Byrne and Chris Claremont as well as the original splash page to issue 138 ( which may be where I found it ).

Or it may be from this post on the MARVEL COMICS OF THE 1980s website that has the full back up feature from the 1984 printed PHOENIX : THE UNTOLD STORY which is a candid conversation between John Byrne, Terry Austin, Chris Claremont, Jim Shooter, Jim Salicrup and Louise Simonson.

And for fans of my Deja Vue section ( which will be postponed to my next post ) they also have a post with cover homages to Uncanny X - Men 138 .

Okay, I´m doing one cover homage but I´m going to leave the rest of the Days of Future Past covers for my next post because there are just too many out there. Instead I want to post the covers to Uncanny X - Men 135

and The Iron Age 3, a story where a minor Iron Man villain uses the Dark Phoenix to destroy the world and Tony goes back in time to prevent that.

I don´t know if the comic is good because I just ordered the hardcover from amazon. Normally that´s a 30 dollar book and they had it at the bargain section for only measly 12 bucks so I jumped on the chance.

For some reason I didn´t buy it when it first came out although I like time travel stories especially when they take place in the Bronze Age. I saw the first issue in the comic shop ( the one by Lee Weeks and Tom Palmer )

but when I found out that it was going to be continued in various specials with different artists I was too lazy to hunt down the single issues. My comic shop is really great but they don´t stock all series for people who don´t have a pull list. So that would have been a lottery and it´s easier to wait for the trade. It´s also easier to read a story with different artists in a collected version. When you go for the single issues you either skip the artists you don´t like or you regret spending money on the issues. 

One of the reasons why I finally decided to take a chance on it is that they included characters like Captain Britain, Power Man & Iron Fist, Coleen Wing,  Misty Knight and Dazzler who I really like. And a comic with art by Ron Frenz, Sal Buscema and Todd Nauck it can´t be all bad. Can it ?

If you want to know more about THE IRON AGE, here´s an article from Comic Book Resources from when the series was announced back in 2011, you can find more preview images at this post from IGN and Ray Tate over at COMICS BULLETIN has a review of The Iron Age 3 which does contain some spoilers. You can also find some favorable reviews of The Iron Age 1 on Comic Book Resources ( by Doug Zawisza ) and about The Iron Age Omega on Major Spoilers ( by Matthew Peterson ).

Okay, sorry for that short detour. Coming back to the people who made this post possible I also have to thank the guys from MAJOR SPOILERS for their great retro review post where I found more of the original pages from PHOENIX : THE UNTOLD STORY that I posted above. And a shout out to X - MAN`S COMIC BLOG for the random scan of the week which was one more page from the comic. Another megalong article I found during my research is from UNCANNY X NET and it´s Everything you ever wanted to know everything about the Sentinels and then some. All of you rock.

So, two X - Men posts in a row with another possible Deja Vue post on the way, I just hope my readers are not too bored with this. I just thought it might be interesting for all those readers out there who are new to the X - Men because of the movie and want to get some backgroud knowledge.

I just hope my readers don´t expect me to continue posting on a daily basis just because I have been posting for three days straight. I know, some of you might think I´m cheating a bit because I splitted up my last post but I don´t want the posts to get too long. To continue with the stats, this is my 446th post ( Yesterday´s post was number 445 ) so I might reach my goal to make the anniversary post this month number 450. But even if I can´t pull it off I have a big lead with three posts already written this month which is the same number I did in February.

Today´s video at the end of the post has nothing to do with the X - Men. We already had one of those in my last post and I don´t want to get too predictable. Instead here is an alternate scene for the brilliant GRAVITY movie with Sandra Bullock and I think you will get a kick out of it. Enjoy !



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Days of Future Pasts long gone by

With X - MEN DAYS OF FUTURE PAST now being turned into a major motion picture I have been thinking about getting the story in hardcover.

I remember reading those issues for the first time and being a big fan of all the new members from all the different countries but especially Storm and her black " swimsuit with leather boots " costume shown here by Milo Manara on one of the various variant covers he´s doing for Marvel. Drool.

Which may be the reason why I will have to buy his X - MEN : WOMEN IN DANGER a third time. I already have the original colored version and the spanish black and white hardcover but I may buy it a third time because Panini Germany has a new color hardcover that includes all variant covers.

Yep, we comic readers just keep buying the same comics but IF you buy a comic you already have let it be something as good as the Uncanny X - Men run by Chris Claremont, John Byrne and Terry Austin. And believe me, it doesn´t come any better than this. This is the gold standard, the iconic stories that made the X - Men into the franchise they are Today.

Without them there would be no X - Men movies since most everything first appeared here. Even Wolverine ( and Hugh Jackman ) has these stories to thank for his big success because John Byrne insisted to make the only Canadian on the team a more mysterious and cooler character.

And that John Byrne guy really knew how to draw some hot babes which was one of the main reasons why I got hooked so easily by the series.

I wasn´t old enough to buy Playboy so comic massitaas were my porn.

And sometimes it was even kinky bondage porn without my knowing.

Naturally John Byrne was good at drawing everything, not just bodacious babes. Here´s the splash page from the end of UNCANNY X - MEN 114 :

And here is another great splash page with Storm in her yellow bikini, this time the opening page of UNCANNY X - MEN 115, Visions of Death :

Back then the art team combo of penciler John Byrne and inker Terry Austin were really knocking it out of the ballpark on that book with each issue. Here´s another awesome double page spread fron that issue :

And to show you that John Byrne could not only do big kinetic fight scenes here´s a different double page spread from UNCANNY X - MEN  116 :

By the way, before I forget it I want to give kudos to fellow blogger Old Groovy from DIVERSIONS OF THE GROOVY KIND for the wonderful scans of the color John Byrne pages. The blog can be found on my blog roll so make sure to visit there on a regular basis as they always have the cool dope.

You know, John Byrne´s and Chris Claremont´s entire run on UNCANNY X - MEN is one of those comics I buy over and over again no matter how many times I already have it. Or in how many different languages.

I mean this run made an X - Men fan and a John Byrne fan for life out of me when I read it the first time in the spanish version ( longtime readers might remember this post  from my very first month ), I got the german versions as the Condor Sonderhefte or the dreaded Condor Taschenbücher,

I got the DARK PHOENIX SAGA trade in english and the entire run in the form of CLASSIC X - MEN of which some had really great back up stories.

And just last year I bought the DARK PHOENIX SAGA again in german from Hachette because I wanted to have it in a nice hardcover. Even if you have to suffer the german translation, for 13 bucks you can´t complain.

So far I have bought 17 THE OFFICIAL MARVEL COLLECTION books how it is called in Germany ( I know they did a similar edition in the UK ) and I don´t regret it. The first one was only 4 bucks so that it was still a good deal for me even if I already had the Morlun Saga as a spanish hardcover.

The second book was not as cheap - not being the bait to get you hooked - but the first six issues of Joss Whedon´s ASTONISHING X - MEN book for 9 bucks was still a good deal. As were all the following books at 13 bucks.

Of course I skipped some stinky turkeys like AVENGERS DISASSEMBLED or DEADPOOL as well as the ones I already had in omnibus form like DEMON IN A BOTTLE. Or Garth Ennis´Punisher because I don´t think I need it in hardcover because the art by Steve Dillon is so great. No offense, Steve.

THE TROUBLE WITH BUYING HARDCOVERS

My problem right now is that I want to get the John Byrne X - Men run in one hardcover but the guys at Marvel know that so they split it up. What I really want to is the part I don´t have as often, which is everything from the Dark Phoenix Saga to Days of Future Past and the end of the Byrne issues with the return of Alpha Flight and Wendigo. Due to the upcoming movie that covers that Marvel is putting that out but only in trade form.

There will be a hardcover but it will focus on the overall storyline of Days of Future Past which means it will only include the two issues of Uncanny X - Men and other stuff like the DAYS OF FUTURE PRESENT annuals. It means that it will include 3 issues of EXCALIBUR, 2 by Alan Davis ( Yay ! ) but also the awful WOLVERINE - DAYS OF FUTURE PAST three issue mini series ( Yuck ! ). So beware because there are two versions out there.

With Erlangen coming up this year I´m really not sure if I should get this hardcover or one of the omnibus hardcovers or any version of it at all.

I don´t want to spend money for the hardcover only to buy the omnibus later ( I DO like the cover by Stuart Immomen though, nice homage ).

Here´s the original cover for all the fans of the Deja Vue section :

And here´s an inked page from one of the DAYS OF FUTURE PAST issues of UNCANNY that I found on this blog about John Byrne´s art. It´s not run by the master himself and I think I posted the link to the website before.

Since the Byrne run is split up into 2 omnibus I want to wait and see if I can find it for a good price in Erlangen. Otherwise it´s only affordable for me if I find it at amazon with a hefty discount. And I´m not so sure about that since the first omnibus of John Byrne´s run on Fantastic Four is sold at exorbitant rates. Well, only time - and of course Erlangen - will tell.

Before closing shop for Today I have to mention the PENCIL INK blog where I found some of the pages I used in this post. They have tones of material on John Byrne from X - Men to Iron Fist and everything else as well as on other artists like Frank Miller, Alex Toth or Carl Barks.

Since I know that not everybody has such a huge knowledge about X - Men lore like us comic fanatics Todays video at the end of the post explains the comic version of DAYS OF FUTURE PAST. Be warned, spoilers ahead !



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Wonderstruck cosplaying Wednesday

Today I´m giving props to all the wonderful people out there spending countless hours to make comic conventions that much more exciting by dressing up as their favorite comic / anime / video game character.

And let´s be honest - my favorite comic characters as well. Or why did you think I picked Power Girl cosplayer Yaya Han to open the post ?

Yup, any excuse to post more Power Girl, but she´s also one of the best - and most versatile - out there where accuracy with the costumes and sheer number of detail is concerned. So believe me that she will be popping up quite regulary in future posts about the topic of cosplay.

Which has become quite the thing in itself and was just called " dressing up funny " back in the day. And yes, I just said " future posts " - plural - because I have been busy the last few days going through my files of cosplay awesomeness. At first I was looking through the ones I already had but - as usual where my knack for perfection kicks in - I also found a ton of new stuff that I had to put in order. I´m still not finished but I wanted to do a new post before the big anniversary comes this month.

That´s right, it´s almost eight years since I started this little blog to vent my frustrations and - more important - bring a bit of comfort, joy and fun to all crazy comic freakis out there. I may not always been as successful in that as I wanted and I most definitely haven´t been posting as often as I would have liked to but somehow I managed to keep things going here. Through unemployment, depression, exile, illness and almost complete deletion of this blog - not counting going through three computers - I´m still blogging so that has to count for something. Back to cosplayers.

Unbelievable as it sounds I was inspired to this post by a YouTube video that my brother found. Usually his contribution to this blog consists in either keeping me from writing a new post or telling me what I should really write about ( mostly something to do with getting a reputation within the german comic scene or pimping indie comics ) or asking me how long I plan to continue wasting my time with this useless blog.

But he always shows me all the stuff he finds on the internet that he finds cool and there is the casual nugget I want to share with the world, or at least the part of the world that is the interwebs ( or reads this blog ).

Speaking of which : I want to thank all my readers out there for finally breaking the 1,000 clicks per day barrier. I don´t know what happened last Wednesday ( I like to think that it was the new post about the Hulk comics by Sal Buscema and Ernie Chan that went online on Tuesday ) but whatever it was that made the blog get 1,131 hits - let´s do it again. Well, it probably was fellow blogger Terry Hooper sharing the link on facebook since I always try to do that but mostly just eff it up. I´m so useless on facebook. So I probably owe Terry a big " Thank You " packet.

And speaking of thanking people and finally coming back to cosplayers - what a segueway - I wanted to spotlight some of the more unusual, weird or unexpected costumes out there. I know, usually I just post some hot cosplay massitas which is totally fine. But Today I want to give kudos to all the gals and boys, yes the dudes, who do all those costumes you thought you´d never see because you thought it shouldn´t be done, it wouldn´t be done or even couldn´t be done. Which brings us to this guy.

Yes, that´s Inspector Gadget with a giant propeller coming out of his back. Why ? Just because he can. Go Go Gadget Giant Propeller.

First of you got to have a really big set of cojones to even TRY to do Inspector Gadget but it´s doable. But then to say " I´m going all the way, babeee, where´s my giant propeller ? " that´s just totally Airwolf.

Of course there are also some costumes that simply blow your mind and leaves you speechless. Like the next picture of a Swamp Thing cosplayer that is sure to get this post mentioned on Mike Sterling´s PROGRESSIVE RUIN blog ( which is probably where I swiped the picture from anyway ).

Isn´t that one of the most amazing sights you´ve ever seen ? Imagine turning a corner at some comic convention like Erlangen ( which is coming up this June, hint, hint ) and finding yourself facing that.

Now I don´t know about you but this makes me want to try my hand at cosplaying myself. Although I´m not sure how many possible costumes there are for fat people. I know, I could go as fat Batman but I don´t think anybody wants to see that. Also, if I DO decide to go as a comic character I would want to keep it real as far as I would choose somebody who is fat to begin with like Batman´s Detective Harvey Bullock or someone like Naruto´s Choji ( or factoring in my age Choji´s Dad ).

Who knows ? Anything is possible - which brings us to our next picture.

Yes, that really is ONE PIECE´s Usopp ( or Lyssop how he is called in Germany ), the Prince of Lies a.k.a. Sogeking, the Hero of Sniper Island.

Whoever that guy is, that´s totally awesome especially the nose part. 

And speaking about awesome animated tv series : here´s our last male cosplayer for Today rocking it 80s style. By the power of Grayskull, vato !

Which brings us to the part everybody is waiting for : the girls, or better the women cosplayers. Hey, I don´t have any illusions whatsoever about my target audience or why people read this blog ( according to blogger statistics the most common searches that lead to this blog are Joyce Hyser followed by Jamie Lee Curtis, Markie Post and Heather Thomas ).

I mean, I´m happy that anybody at all is reading this. So I don´t care how you found the blog as long as you are reading it. And it was my decision to post about movie cult sirens like the ones mentioned above so there is really no one else I could blame IF I wanted to. But let´s get back to girl cosplay : instead of the usual hot babe I want to start of with a costume that´s just unbelievable. At first I thought it was an action figure and not a real person because it looks just too perfect. I mean, no one would be crazy enough to put in all the work necessary for all this detail, right ?

You just have to respect that. I have no idea from where that is or even if it´s this woman´s own creation but holy s - word, that´s some loco skillz.

To tell you the truth : with half the guys or gals I haven´t got the faintest idea who they are supposed to be. Because I don´t know all the tv shows, video games, animes or movies out there. Heck, I could do at least ten posts with cosplayers where I don´t know who they are cosplaying at. But that would be boring, although I might do a post with female cosplayers called TOP TEN COSPLAYERS I DON`T KNOW BUT WHO I DEFINITELY WOULD DATE. I mean THE TOP TEN SEXY COSPLAYERS WHERE I DON´T KNOW WHO THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO BE BUT WHO I MOST DEFINITELY WOULD DATE is probably more accurate but way to long for a post title.

I mean, I don´t know any of these cosplayers so most of them would fall in the category of cosplayers I don´t know but would date. Okay, I know the names of some of them - at least when I can find them and remember to bookmark certain webpages - but I don´t really KNOW know them. It´s not like we bumped into one other at a comic convention or drank a beer somewhere. Sorry, totally going off on a needless tangent that´s way too personal here, where was I ? Oh yes, with a lot of the females cosplayers I have no idea who they are supposed to be and there are probably a dozen different costumes that fall into the " dark elf " category. Or that´s the same elf done by different cosplayers and as usual I don´t have a clue.

In any case, there will be no additional dark elves in this post but there will be definitely more in the future that will also include one more appearance by Yaya Han. Now the next costume I want to post falls into what I like to call " The giant prop department " for obvious reasons.

Okay, I don´t want to ignore all the hard work that must have gone into making the costume proper but that´s one MF - er of a weapon.

I don´t even know where you can get something like this. Can you get something like this at a shop called " Giant props r us " or what ? Do you have to build it yourself because you can´t get it in a shop ? And how do you assemble it and do you have to transport it fully assembled ? I know that you will get problems if you try to board the Neckarweihinger bus.

And speaking about having problems : after just plain awesome costumes and costumes with giant props there are also the costumes that I should not post because they are most likely to get me into serious trouble.

Which never stopped me before. To be honest, in some cases I´m not sure if it´s real cosplay but all is fair when it´s about posting hot girls.

And this brings us to our next category called LADY LOOKS LIKE A DUDE coined by yours truly after that famous Aerosmith song. It´s all about women dressing up as male characters to sometimes astonishing results.

Man, Mario never looked this good on my Nintendo. Super, Mario !

So I started the post with Yaya Han and I also want to end it that way. One of the reasons is that even if I do various posts just about her I won´t be able to fit all of the costumes she does into them. Another reason is that a lot of her costumes are totally dope, like the one that started the whole avalanche of cosplay pics I had to wade through the last days and which derailed me from posting earlier. Which might have been a good thing since nobody would have taken my post on April Fool´s Day seriously.

Okay, it wasn´t really the picture above that got my attention ( it´s just the one where you can see the entire costume ) but rather this one.

Now all my hormonal urges aside ( I´m just a sucker for ample chested women in revealing windowed wardrobe ) it´s still a great costume.

According to my internet research - which means I found this post on her website - it´s the famous Litchi Faye Ling from a game called BlazBlue or something. You can read all about how she made the costume and you can see all the pictures of it, which you can also find on this post from TWICE AS WORSE. And if you don´t want to wait around until I find the time to post more pictures of Yaya Han you can find some pictures of her as sexy Chun Li here ( ay, ay, ay, caliente massitaa ) and a whole bunch on Flickr .

So this was my deep bow to all the hard working cosplay boys and girls out there on conventions : keep on making those great outfits, you rock !

Okay, I have mentioned it at the beginning of the post and about now you´re probably wondering what this ominous video is ( or you are rather yelling at your computer at the top of your lungs at this point : " What about that eff - ing video ? " ) that was the inspiration for this post.

You might recognize the song although it has different lyrics. It´s a lot of cosplayers just having fun which is what it´s all about : being happy.

By the way, to Andres : that´s totally a Hydra goon Deadpool is hanging out with and not Kickass. Kickass has yellow stripes on his costume and can be seen breakdancing later on in the video. But now, enjoy !



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