More recycled Gespenster Krimi covers

The last few posts have all been about old Marvel comics so Today we´re doing something different : the recycled covers from GESPENSTER KRIMI.

Since I have already written at length about my long relationship with german pulp novels ( another word might be dime novels or penny dreadfuls but I like the term pulp better ) like PROFESSOR ZAMORRA, JOHN SINCLAIR or DAMONA KING I won´t go into a long explanation here.

Suffice it to say that they are still published by BASTEI , one of the pulp novel giants in Germany covering everything from romance to western and espionage with the iconic JERRY COTTON series as one of their flagships. They also do a lot of paperbacks ( I have read hundreds of them ) and don´t ask me how many comics from them I have read. They used to publish such western comics like JERRY SPRING, BESSY, BONANZA, BUFFALO BILL, LASSO, RAUCHENDE COLTS ( Gunsmoke ), SCHWARZER WOLF and probably the most famous german western comic SILBERPFEIL.

They also published classic pulp comics like Lee Falk´s THE PHANTOM, the adventure series WASTL which turned into a superhero series when I was reading it as well as french classics like LUC ORIENT, DAN COOPER, BRUNO BRAZIL, RAHAN, ANDY MORGAN, THE BLUE BOYS or THE SMURFS.

One of their biggest part of comic publications were comics based on tv series and they did everything from BIENE MAJA, HEIDI, CAPTAIN FUTURE and HE - MAN to ALF and COUNT DUCKULA. Not to mention SANDOKAN, STAR TREK, BLACK BEAUTY or KUNG FU. They also had a lot of classic american funnies like DENNIS, THE MENACE, CASPAR or FELIX. The entire list of publications is too long to list ( check out their entry on DER DEUTSCHE COMIC GUIDE for that ) but thanks to them german comic readers came to read Vincente Segrelles EL MERCENARIO, Marvel comics like NICK FURY, LONGSHOT, GEISTER REITER, PUNISHER and - one of my personal favorites - independent comic ABENTEUER IN DER ELFENWELT.

And Terry Hooper would have my head if I forget to mention MYKROS.

But their best know series are the horror titles SPUK GESCHICHTEN and GESPENSTER GESCHICHTEN, the last one running from 1974 to 2006.

But let´s get back to our topic ( I´ll post more covers from BASTEI´s comics Tomorrow if there is enough interest by readers ) : unlike series like JOHN SINCLAIR or PROFESSOR ZAMORRA the main horror series where those and others originated GESPENSTER KRIMI ( Zur Spannung noch die Gänsehaut ) ceased publication on April the 16th 1985.

Until then 597 issues had been published and all these pulp novels needed covers. To cut costs sometimes covers were used twice although in some cases it might also have been out of deadline reasons. Of course most often they used new covers and sometimes different covers for the same story. Here is GESPENSTER KRIMI 94´s John Sinclair story DOKTOR TOD.

Here is the cover for the same story in the 2nd edition of JOHN SINCLAIR ( the first edition continued from GESPENSTER GESCHICHTEN so this was the first time the story was published under the JOHN SINCLAIR title ).

The same cover was used for the audio drama of the story and the 3rd edition. On the 4th edition ( I DID say that it is one of Germany´s most successful horror pulp novel series, yes ? ) they used a different cover.

Sometimes they used different covers for the same story, sometimes they used different covers for different stories and sometimes they used the same cover again and again for different stories. And sometimes they used covers from other magazines or other sources as a basis of their covers. Since I can only speculate on the reasons for that this post is concentrating on where some of the covers may have originated. With an emphasis on comics and the first ones are Marvel comics. Yes, it seems I can´t stop talking about Marvel comics even if I decide to do something different. Which may not come as a surprise to those of you who possess a certain knowledge of the subject. Because the person / undead monster depicted in the first GESPENSTER KRIMI cover of the post bears a striking resemblance to a certain antagonist of everybody´s favorite wallcrawler.

The skin tone was changed from white to green but apart from that it was lifted from the 22nd issue of the spanish edition of VAMPIRE TALES.

Another Marvel inspired cover is issue 88 of GESPENSTER KRIMI

and here´s the original, the second issue of Marvel´s DRACULA LIVES !

 And here´s another Dracula inspired cover on GESPENSTER KRIMI 87

this time based on the first issue of the spanish DRACULA LIVES ! comic

which was quite different from the original US version.

A part of the cover was also used for this book - or whatever it is.

And we´re staying with Marvel´s version of Dracula. The secret origin of our next cover goes all the way back to THE TOMB OF DRACULA issue 6.

In the issue a certain Monster of the Moores makes an appearance

who looks a lot like the monster on the cover of GESPENSTER KRIMI 539.

Another re - used Marvel horror mag was MONSTERS UNLEASHED ! 10.

It was not only used for the cover of GESPENSTER KRIMI issue 301

part of the cover was also used for issue 204 of PROFESSOR ZAMORRA

and a slightly altered version appeared on the spanish comic mag CIMOC.

One last Marvel based cover is issue 26 of JOHN SINCLAIR´s 2nd edition.

Which in this case was not based on an actual Marvel comic but rather the look of an actor who stars in a television show based on a Marvel comic.

But Marvel comics were not the only comic company whose covers were used for this. GESPENSTER KRIMI 399, Das Rätsel des Monstersees.

And here is SILBER GRUSEL KRIMI Band 431, Phytonias Schlangenclan.

And here´s the original cover, DC´s WEIRD WAR TALES issue  70. The skeleton crew has been replaced by a hot chick which is an improvement.

Another comic publisher whose covers ended up on GESPENSTER KRIMI was Warren. The cover for 266, Die weiße Göttin ( The White Goddess )

was the same as the cover on issue 54 of the spanish edition of CREEPY.

GESPENSTER KRIMI 565, Ein Freund aus der Hölle starring Damona King

recycled the cover of EERIE issue 133 ( although mirror - inverted )

which was also used on this collection of Robert E. Howard stories.

Our next cover is JOHN SINCLAIR 251, not a GESPENSTER KRIMI issue,

which is also the cover for issue 44 of spanish horror comic DELTA.

Both are slightly altered versions of Warren´s EERIE magazine issue 58

while the unaltered version also graces the cover of RUFUS 16.

And I have kept the best for last. Classic horror movies have always been an inspiration so it´s no wonder that Boris Karloff from THE MUMMY

appears on the cover of issue fiftythree of EERIE,

on issue nineteen of the spanish edition of CREEPY,

and on issue 30 of the spin - off title VAMPUS.

The Boris Karloff part was also used on GESPENSTER KRIMI Band 325

Geisterfalle Bombay and GRUSEL KRIMI Band 484, Druidenfluch.

You can also see it in the background of GESPENSTER KRIMI Band 580.

And that´s all for Today. There are still dozens - or hundreds - of covers left but this post is long enough as it is. And I don´t want to bore my readers. Now I would like to include the link where I found most of theses covers ( I´d like to say that I´m that knowledgeable that I discovered this all by myself but that´s not true ) but I have no idea where that was. Maybe I´ll find it again someday but for now I can´t provide that link.

Speaking about links, before we come to the videos of this post I want to mention Today´s celebrity birthday babe Ami Dolenz who turns 46. Yay !

Ami Dolenz has been in such cinematic gems like PUMPKINHEAD II and STEPMONSTER but she´s probably best known SHE`S OUT OF CONTROL.



It´s a pretty funny movie with Tony Danza who has to deal with the fact that his little ugly duckling has turned into a Playboy centerfold. And the beach scene with the bouncing action ( which got a PG rating ) is a guarantee that it will be still be shown late at night in coming decades.

I have written about Ami and her films in my MIDNIGHT MOVIE MADNESS : PUMKINHEAD post and since this post is all about horror stuff I wanted to post the link. By the way, I´m stil looking for pictures of the comic book from STEPMONSTER with the instructions on how to kill a Tropopkin.

If you don´t know the movie STEPMONSTER, don´t fear because it´s a forgotten gem ( or utter piece of crap depending on who you ask and how important seeing a young but very buxom Ami Dolenz in underwear is for your enjoyment of a movie ) of american cinema but if you want to know more about it just check out Doctor Iron´s hilarious synopsis of the movie at DOCTOR IRON`S SWAMP OF HORRORS or Dan Kinem´s review on VHShitfest . It´s also included in MOVIEWEB`S A Two Corey´s Halloween list which brings us The Essential Horror Movies of Haim and Feldman.

Just recently german Schlager singer and cultural icon Udo Jürgens passed away. He was best known for such classics like ICH WAR NOCH NIEMALS IN NEW YORK, ABER BITTE MIT SAHNE or GEFEUERT ( I posted that one ). One of his greatest hits was MIT 66 JAHREN ( with 66 years ) and it has since then become the inofficial anthem for german senior citizens. The song proclaims that life really starts at 66 and for Udo who managed to still give concerts with 80 years it seems to have come true. He was on the stage for 60 of those 80 years but for a whole generation he will always be remembered as the guy who sang the intro to Tom & Jerry. 



A video that´s more in synch with Today´s topic of pulp horror is MONSTER MASH by Bobby Pickett and the Crypt - Kickers.



The next video is a different take on the song and I mainly picked it because of Vincent Price´s intro about how inventive humans kill.



I like obscure superhero videos and my last one is a clip I haven´t seen before. It´s the Superhero Party from SATURDAY NIGHT LIFE with Margot Kidder as Lois Lane and Bill Murray as Superman. Other party guests include the Hulk, the Thing, Spider - Man, Ant Man and the Flash.



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Happy birthday cult siren Linda Kozlowski !

Today I just want to give a quick shout out ( yeah, like that has ever worked before ) to Linda Kozlowski, who celebrates her 57th birthday.

She has left the movie business because of the roles she was offered but back when she was still looking hot she starred in the ever so popular movie series of CROCODILE DUNDEE opposite ex - husband Paul Hogan.

Yeah, leave it to the germans to come up with a subtitle that makes no sense whatsoever. First of all they always have to attach some stupid subtitle to any movie and then it must make absolutely no sense. WTF is " Crocodile Dundee - a kissable crocodile " supposed to mean ? The main character is not a crocodile, that´s just his nickname in the movie, duh.

But let´s get back to celebrity birthday babe Linda Kozlowski. Rather than for her acting abilities she´s most famous for sporting a very revealing swimsuit in the first CROCODILE DUNDEE movie which is still the best.

And I´m not only saying that because of the famous scene in which Linda revealed which incredible ass - ets she had " down under ", so to speak.

Daimn. baby got some serious back ! Man, can you imagine how hot it would have been if she would have starred in one of those rap videos ?

And I´m not talking about some of the lame rap videos that we have Today. Something went terribly wrong with rap videos along the way.

When I saw my first rap videos - and this was way back when Mtv was still playing music videos 24 hours a day - there´d be a song about crossing the street to buy some ice cream and there would be at least a dozen scantily clad, super hot women in it shaking their behinds, dancing very suggestive or outright simulating sexual intercourse or at least oral sex.



Then there was that time when the guys in rap videos would talk about having intercourse and with how many women and the video would be about flowers, ponies and rainbows. Something suggestive like a train going through a tunnel would be the absolute limit. Thankfully this was just a passing trend and we are back to rap videos with plenty of hot babes in it. And just in time to benefit from the whole twerking craze.



But like I said, as wonderful as Miss Kozlowski´s exposed derriere is, the first CROCODILE DUNDEE is a great movie in itself that was nominated for 3 Oscars and 3 Golden Globes of which Paul Hogan won the Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Comedy / Musical. It also was nominated by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, the BAFTA Awards and won a BMI Film & TV Award and the Goldene Leinwand ( Golden Screen Award ) in 1987.

The sequel wasn´t as good but I want to mention it because the poster that was selected for display in movie theaters was not the first version.

This was the first draft : as you can see the color of Linda´s clothes were changed as to better display her figure and instead of being in the middle of the city Paul Hogan is now towering majestically above the skyline.

All the posters were done by movie poster veteran Dan Gouzee who did hundreds of classic movie posters like the original CLASH OF THE TITANS or the James Bond flicks MOONRAKER  and A VIEW TO A KILL. Especially that last one was very popular in its time ( in great part due to featured model / singer / performance artist Grace Jones ) and I remember that I was just one of the many teenagers who had it mounted on his wall.

He also did the posters for SUPERMAN II and SUPERMAN IV. The first is not so well known because usually they go with the photo movie poster.

For me the new Superman movies were always a big deal and you could read all the latest news in the SUPERMAN BATMAN comics from Ehapa.

There were always some extra stuff in the comics like articles, posters, games or prize competitions, sometimes even with huge cash prizes.

Back then I was a semi regular reader which means that I always bought an issue when Jose Luis Garcia Lopez or George Perez did the interior art.
 

Which doesn´t mean that I didn´t buy other issues fnow and then because sometimes I did buy it just because of some crazy story but every time George or Jose Luis did an issue I was all over it. The names of artists were not always given but I think I started noticing that the same names came up in all the stories I especially liked. And I began looking for that around the time when they had started doing that on a regular basis.

Since the name of the title was SUPERMAN BATMAN there was also a lot of Jim Aparo stuff in the books from issues of THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD,

BATMAN or DETECTIVE COMICS and everything in between. Although sometimes it´s hard to find out from which series the covers where and I suspect there are some that were exclusively done for the german issues.

Looking at the SUPERMAN II poster I realize that I forgot that Valerie Perrine was in it. That´s one thing they botched in SUPERMAN RETURNS.

Here´s a deleted scene from SUPERMAN with Valerie Perrine :



Many people don´t know it but centerfold Valerie Perrine was also in one of the best known scenes from the first CANNONBALL RUN movie ( I´m not sure who did the movie poster for that one but Dan Gouzee did the poster for the sequel ) and the reason for that is that she´s uncredited.

The most remembered scenes from that movie involve the Lamborghini Babes played by Tara Buckman and cult siren Adrienne Barbeau. I have written about Adrienne before who was in such cult classics like THE FOG, SWAMP THING, ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK and - arguably - CREEPSHOW.

Now I don´t think I have to explain the Lamborghini Babes whose main trick to avoid getting hassled by the cops is flashing some cleavage.

Which doesn´t work on this cop played by Valerie Perrine.

Here´s a video that includes both Lamborghini Babes scenes :



There are quite a lot of tangents in this post but before closing the subject of birthday babe Linda Kozlowski for Today I want to include a video with her famous thong swimsuit scene from CROCODILE DUNDEE.



And since you never know when it will be deleted here´s an animated GIF.

Today´s first video is - as kind of an ode to Valerie Perrine - The Monkees with the song of the same name. It´s the remix since that is my favorite.



I always wanted to do a post on HONEY WEST but since I never was sure if it was a comic series based on a tv show or a tv show based on a pulp novel series or a pulp novel series based on a comic I never did a post.

To tell the truth, I´m still not sure but at least I know for sure that there was a tv show with actress Anne Francis and here´s the first episode.



It´s been a while since I posted a cosplay video but I just had to post this one with Ardella´s Power Girl cosplay . Okay, one reason for that is that she really puts a lot of effort into filling out the costume ( I won´t even pretend that I´m not meaning this literal here, who am I kidding ? ).

The other one is that the optimist in me had hoped that the whole cosplay bashing was a thing of the past but it seems it still continues . Even as someone who has been a comic fan for decades I still have problems with these kind of trench warfare but before I get all exited and launch a long rant I´m posting this link to a video where Ardella explains the real problems with sexy cosplay instead ( which sadly is how other people respond to it ). Be that as it may that should never prevent people from having fun - which is what cosplaying is all about - so here´s the video.



And I couldn´t possibly talk about the problems in the cosplay community without mentioning cosplay ambassador extraordinaire Yaya Han.

I still haven´t given up on doing a post about my favorite costumes by Yaya Han ( like Chun Li ) even if I have problems keeping it professional and not let myself get distracted by her stunning physical attributes.

Nevertheless I have just found too many videos with her I want to post that it´s impossible to cram it all into one post even if I do someday miraculously get around to do it. So here´s one with Yaya as Chun Li.



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End of the Essential, start of the Epic ?

We´re starting off a new year so I thought about how to best kick off things in 2015. But since nothing really groundbreaking occured to me let´s continue where we left off : me talking about old Marvel comics.

I also want to use this post to do a bit of comic pimping since I know that so soon after the holidays most people are burnt out of spending money.

Which probably has something to do with all the Christmas presents you buy. I have to say, I think this year I gave away some really neat presents and although I didn´t get everything I wished for it all leveled out in the end. My philosophy for Christmas is more akin to boxing in the regard that I expect to get - at least - as good as I give and with a bit of help I achieved that. And when I say help I mean getting some presents for myself. Because we all do that. Now, come on, don´t deny it. We all do.

Anyway, normally I don´t list the Christmas presents I got but since it ties into Today´s topic I´ll make an exception. Because I don´t want a certain reader to think I´m bragging. And to tell you the truth mostly it´s too depressing to list my Christmas presents but this year was pretty good. I got the book ZOMBIES FOR ZOMBIES and a new edition of BATMAN - DAS ERSTE JAHR from my sister. I always get some weird books from her and mostly it´s hit and miss. Not that it´s bad stuff but since she´s not so much into comics like her brothers it´s very much like a lottery. Okay, as a quick example : one year we all got Discworld novels. Terry Pratchett is a bestselling author and I love the movie, animation or comic adaptions of his books. But I just can´t read his stuff. I tried his books a few times and I don´t know what it is I never make it through the first chapter.

So the presents are not bad per se - I bet a lot of people would love to get Terry Pratchett books as presents - it´s just more that I´m spoiled. I have already leafed through the zombie book a little bit and it does seem to be quite funny and entertaining. And although I already DO own a copy of the german version of BATMAN : YEAR ONE ( from ComicArt ) it has seen better days. So it´s nice to have a back up for when it finally falls apart.

So with my sister I concentrate on the gifts I get for her. And this year I hit a bit of a snag because I can´t remember what I got her last year.

Usually it´s the latest trade from Azarello´s WONDER WOMAN run ( she loves that book ), one or two trades from Stephen King´s DARK TOWER comics ( she´s also a big Stephen King fan ) and something else comic related preferably with the Legion of Super - Heroes or the X - Men. But like I said, I don´t remember what I got her for Christmas last year. I was already thinking about coming up with a clever plan to sneak into her house to get a list of all the comics she already has but as I´m more of a invalid couch potato than a ninja the only other option would have been to ask her husband to do the undercover stuff for me. So instead I got her the first 3 trades of Marvel´s adaption of THE STAND ( in german ). I already had the second and third trade in german and just had to buy the first one. As a compulsive comic collector it always bugs me when I have some trades in german and some in english especially if one version is on hardcover and the other one in softcover. So this was also a chance for me to upgrade and I already found the second hardcover AMERICAN NIGHTMARES on the PANINI message board for a reasonable price.

I also wanted to give her the DVD of Nick Knatterton´s complete cartoon series but since one of my brothers told me she would probably not enjoy them as much as me I gave them to myself as a present. To level this out my sister got the DVDs of CHARMED I originally bought for myself. THALIA was selling their backstock at seven EUROS per piece and since they are usually more expensive I grabbed all they had left. CHARMED is one of the series where I have watched a lot of episodes ( mainly after season three which is when Shannen Doherty left the series and Alyssa Milano became the main hottie on the show ) but I never got around to buy it on DVD.

The only problem is that I later found out the reason why THALIA got rid of all their backstock is that there are now new editions of the DVDs.

So far all the seasons of CHARMED had only been available in two parts and each part was priced between 10 and 15 bucks. But now there are new editions where you get one full season in one set and the price is between 13 and 15 bucks. So you can´t sell your old DVDs because the new DVDs are cheaper. Even with the discount from 10 EUROS to 7 EUROS I paid more for the DVDs then I would have at MÜLLER. And those are only half a season so now I have to try and find the other parts somewhere.

But back to my presents. From my younger brother I got the first two trades of GUARDING THE GLOBE which is a series I always wanted to read. It´s not as good as INVINCIBLE but it´s still in the Invincible universe and the art by Todd Nauck in the second volume is really great.

I wanted to get an omnibus for him but since he still hasn´t read the ANNIHILATION OMNIBUS he got the latest AXE COP and SUPERGIRL trades.

SUPERGIRL is one of the few good titles DC still puts out but I think with the upcoming DOOMSDAY and RED LANTERN crossovers ( where it looks like it´s that time of the month for Supergirl ) this will be the last trades I give away as presents. The fourth one was already very difficult to read because so much of the story took place in other titles and I don´t think it´s going to improve from here on. The same goes for the art because I´m not sure if Mahmud Asrar will continue on the book beyond this point.

Last but not least I got an amazon gift certificate from my older brother after the birthday fiasko which I will hear about for the rest of my life.

The thing he got from me was the JACK KIRBY`S FOURTH WORLD - OMNIBUS VOLUME 1 hardcover which I had to get at an online shop so I had to order it ahead of time. I wasn´t sure if it would arrive in time so I also got ESSENTIAL THOR volumes 1 to 3 but the Jack Kirby omnibus got here before Christmas so the Thor Essentials will probably become his birthday present. He likes everything Kirby but I think the omnibus I got him for his last birthday didn´t thrill him too much. The Fourth World stuff is more up his alley and he already told me how great the book is.

Now you might ask what I did with the amazon gift certificate. Well, not too long ago I pimped a whole bunch of bargain priced comics but since I already ordered most of the good stuff there was not much left for me.

Really, where reading material is concerned I really can´t complain. I´m halfway through the Celestial Madonna Saga, I still have to read volume 5 of ALL NEW X - MEN to read as well as volume 3 of SWAMP THING and volume 8 of MAN OF STEEL. Besides that there´s the THANOS ANNUAL and the INFINITY REVELATION graphic novel not to mention TALES OF THE BATMAN - DON NEWTON and the IRON MAN by David Micheline, John Romita Jr and Bob Layton omnibus. So ..... time for a victory dance !

Also I didn´t want to use if just to get comics that I would order anyway since Christmas is the one time of the year where you go for the special stuff. Which for me meant looking for another omnibus, preferably from Marvel since DC still has problems with the binding of the omnibus books.



Longtime readers know that I have a big hankering for the SECRET WARS II omnibus but since it´s not available from amazon I have to buy it at an online store which means I probably have to wait until I have won the lottery before I can order that. So what I got instead was the X - MEN : INFERNO PROLOGUE omnibus which I mentioned in my Christmas post about Marc Silvestri´s X - Men . Normally this goes for 125 dollars but I think I picked just the right time because it was at 82 EUROS and it´s back at that price again but I ordered it when the price was at 75 EUROS.

Which was a really good price if you keep in mind that I covered some of it with the gift certificate ( my brother isn´t that generous ). But what I really want to talk about is the OTHER book I put into this order which is ESSENTIAL HULK volume 1, still available at amazon.de and currently priced at 7.50 EUROS. That´s a really good price for a 20 dollar book.

Now there were some ESSENTIALS in my last post about bargain books at amazon and you might be wondering why that is. Well, like I wrote the last time - and I was able to get comfirmation on that in the meantime - Marvel or rather Disney is ending the ESSENTIAL line in favor of the new Epic Collection line. A lot of comic readers seemed to have problems with the ESSENTIALS because of their lack of color but I liked the format. As somebody who has delved a bit into inking I always savor the opportunity to see inked pages and in the case of Gene Colan and Tom Palmer´s TOMB OF DRACULA I even prefer the black and white version to the regular version. With some books the inks are so strong you don´t need color.

Other reasons why I liked the ESSENTIAL line is that it is a cheap way to read a lot of comics, especially comics that were not collected before.

In some cases it was because they were fringe books about third stringers like Son of Satan, Brother Vodoo or the Living Mummy. Of course there were other books that were more mainstream like KILLRAVEN or IRON FIST or main titles like FANTASTIC FOUR or SPIDER - MAN but a lot of the stuff was either out of print or only available as MARVEL MASTERWORKS. I just recently got my first volume of that line and I have to say without the hefty discount from amazon I would not have been able to buy it. I mean a 260 plus pages hardcover for 32 EUROS is at my pain threshold for prices but normally this book goes for 70 dollars. Who can afford that ?

Sorry, but 70 or 75 bucks is what I normally expect to pay for an omnibus. Which are even more expensive going for 100 or up to 125 dollars lately. Okay, the page count is higher going from 600 or 700 pages to 1000 or even over 1200 pages for some of them but with the X - MEN : INFERNO PROLOGUE it is just over 800 pages with the 125 dollar price tag. I know the MARVEL MASTERWORKS have gone up to 70 dollars after they included more pages but even before that 50 dollars per book was a steep price.

So while some comic readers might be thrilled to get some new trades in full color it´s not such great news for us comic fans who don´t have a huge comic spending budget. Now since I haven´t gotten any of the Epic Collections yet I can´t comment on the quality but the price is already in the prime category. According to Disney the reason for ending the ESSENTIALS was basically one guy saying : " These stories have to be in color. " but in my opinion it´s all about the Benjamins and I´m not talking about everybody´s favorite blue - eyed Thing, Benjamin J. Grimm here.

You can always tell what kind of comic market a certain country has by the amount of cheap comics that are available whether in black and white or pocket book format. And if some of them are sold over the newsstands.

As somebody who has lived for quite some years here in Germany I can tell you that we are at the upper echelon of possible comic prices. There are no cheap comics available here - period. There never was anything comparable to the ESSENTIAL or SHOWCASE PRESENTS books in Germany and also no cheap black and white pocket books even though PANINI is the main distributor here and they have big success with their BIBLIOTECA MARVEL line in such countries like Spain, Italy and France. Okay, one of their arguments is possibly that after the horrendous pocket books by the Condor Comic Verlag pocket book editions  didn´t have much hopes of success because most comic fans were angry. But most of Today´s comic readers read tons of mangas in that format and I guess if you asked them about this their only response would be : " What´s a Condor Comic ? "

Of course this does not explain why there are no cheap comic editions in the ESSENTIALS or SHOWCASE format available but what I heard most from comic companies is that comic readers in Germany don´t want cheaper paper or black and white comics. Which I can´t believe since I know there are quite a lot of sales of ESSENTIALs and SHOWCASEs here. There is also the argument that cheap comics don´t sell which was refuted by the success of the distinctive Comic Libraries by the FAZ - which were pocket books for 5 EUROS - or BILD Zeitung - which were big hardcovers for the same price. Now whenever those two editions are brought up in discussions with comic dealers or comic publishers their main argument against it are that those could only be done by working with a big successful newspaper. Which cannot be repeated exactly why ?

Fact is that in Germany comic companies always want to dictate what comic readers have to buy and at which price and at the moment there is only one comic collection sold for a reasonable price at newsstands and it´s not instigated by PANINI Comics but by the french company hachette.

I have mentioned this collection before but for those that haven´t read those posts ( or have already forgotten ) it´s a collection of hardcovers that include six to eight issues from a series and the first book was sold for 4 EUROS, the second one for 9 EUROS and all following books for 13 EUROS. Which in Germany is still a pretty good price for a hardcover.

Now coming back to the Epic Collections, like I said I haven´t gotten one of the trades so far and I don´t think that´s going to change in the near future. Because lately I have been going for hardcovers for stuff I already have in single issue form and it´s something I want to read over and over. For that a nice hardcover is just perfect. With comics I don´t already own I sometimes go for the trades but the cheaper option were the ESSENTIALS. Now concerning the hardcovers with the high price of the MARVEL MASTERWORKS I rather see myself buying some omnibus books. The price difference is not that big and the page count is three or four times as high. And the Epic Collections are not really thick so I don´t get a lot of issues with them. They are not really cheap so I don´t save money. And they are in color but so are the single issues I already have.

Now Disney says they want to start with runs that have not been released before or are out of print. Which I find hard to believe because all issues in AVENGERS EPIC COLLECTION : THE FINAL THREAT are also in the THE PRIVATE WAR OF DOCTOR DOOM and THE BRIDE OF ULTRON hardbacks.

Which may be one of the reasons why THE PRIVATE WAR OF DOCTOR DOOM - a 30 dollar HC - is still available for 11.50 EUROS from amazon.

Amazon is making way for the new trade collection line and is getting rid of their stock of books that contain the same material. In the case of the ESSENTIALS there is the short term bonus of getting some volumes at a discount price but in the long run there goes one way to read comics cheap. Okay, you might argue I just picked one trade at random and drew conclusions for the whole line. So let´s look at some other epic trades.

JUDGEMENT DAY collects the AVENGERS issues that were already collected in the ASSAULT ON OLYMPUS hardcover, the AVENGERS ANNUALS that are part of THE CONTEST, the first X - MEN vs AVENGERS mini series and the EMPEROR DOOM graphic novel. This one is a real hodgepodge and while some parts of it may be hard to get most comic readers already have it.

Now I´m ready to give them the benefit of the doubt because you could argue that this is the only part of the second John Buscema AVENGERS run that´s not available in trade and that most of the issues in BEHOLD THE VISION come after the second Avengers omnibus. But this stuff has been released in the MARVEL MASTERWORK editions as well as all the issues from EARTH`S MIGHTIEST heroes which are also included in the first Avengers omnibus. Yes, maybe Disney also wants to get rid of the MARVEL MASTERWORKS line in favor of the omnibus books but I highly doubt that because they just raised the prices from 50 dollars to 70 dollars per book and that´s not something you do when you want to discontinue a line. Also, Disney is not a company that is known for saying no to money.

There are some interesting parts of the Epic Collection like CAPTAIN AMERICA : DAWN`S EARLY LIGHT which has the first issues by Mike Zeck but also the John Byrne run, probably one of the most reprinted comic runs in the entire Marvel history. No idea why it had to be included here.

Another trade where they fumbled the ball is FANTASTIC FOUR : INTO THE TIMESTREAM. Instead of taking the chance and putting both parts of this story - the AVENGERS and the FANTASTIC FOUR issues - into one trade so you can read it as it was meant to be read they just put Simonson´s FANTASTIC FOUR issues into the book. Along with some other stuff. In their defense you have to say that probably nobody at Disney knows that one story was written in two different books. " What do you say ? It´s the same writer on two different books ? So it is one story in two parts ? And what is this crossover thing you talk about ? People really buy many books just to read one story ? Man, we should capitalize on that and maybe turn it into an annual event. " Man, those greedy Disney people are so stupid.

FANTASTIC FOUR : ALL IN THE FAMILY doesn´t exactly collect the best Fantastic Four material but I guess they wanted to have it out there because it comes directly after the John Byrne omnibus 2. There is some stuff in these trades that I have pimped myself like STREETS OF POISON on Captain America and especially with IRON MAN where the first part of Tony Stark´s descend into alcoholism after his short brush in DEMON IN A BOTTLE is collected in THE ENEMY WITHIN. There are also two trades that collect both ARMOR WARS stories, the second one even has the complete run by John Byrne ( his name DOES come up a lot in this post ).

My last comments on the Epic Collections by Disney is that there are two trades I may buy and the first one is WOLVERINE : MADRIPOOR NIGHTS.

Among other stuff this contains the first 16 issues of Wolverine´s first regular series and it´s something I haven´t read before ( mea culpa ). I´m not sure if this material deserves the hardcover treatment and since I´m not that interested in the issues that I might go into the catacombs of my comic shop to look for the back issues I might just get this one.

The other Epic Collection is THOR : WAR OF THE PANTHEONS and the reason why I might just get this one although I already have all the single issues ( as well as the Alone against the Celestials story in trade paperback and the War against Set part in a spanish hardcover ) is that after writing so much about the period after Walter Simonson´s run on THOR I realized that it´s one of my favorite parts of the book. Yes, I´d have liked it more if this would have been in a hardcover or if they had started after issue 400. But maybe there will be another trade that covers those issues. My brother always says that I buy too much stuff I already own but it would be nice to have it all in one nice trade. It´s much easier to write these Thor posts if I have the reference material handy and the hardcover IS in Spain and who knows when I can go home to pick it up.

If you are also on the fence about this here are some preview pages of the Thor trade. The reproduction looks nice but I´m not sure if I need it.

To wrap things up : I don´t know where things are going this year but it seems comics will be more expensive than ever. Yeah, what else is new ?

So, we talked a lot of comic books and prices and nearly not enough about the INCREDIBLE HULK by Sal Buscema. I thought this would be a great chance to go into a great period of the book but it seems there were other things on my mind. We will cover the stories in ESSENTIAL HULK 7 in a future post and if you haven´t already ordered it don´t wait too long.

Before we come to the videos of this post here is the short link section. For those who have not read enough about the new Epic Collection line here´s an interview with Marvel´s SVP of Sales David Gabriel by John Rhett Thomas on the MARVEL MASTERWORKS RESOURCE PAGE. Also since this is a new year some of my readers might have expected a post about the best comics of 2014. But since I mostly read old comics this year and the other series are always the same I skipped that. In any case you can find the most exhaustive list selection of best of on TRADEPAPERBACK .

Our first video is for all the people who want to dip their toe into comics because they have seen a few movies and it could be very helpful. There really should be more of these out there. Anywhere, this comes from ADVENTURES OF A COMIC NEWBIE, a new comic vlog I found and it explains the difference between single issues, trades and graphic novels.



My next video ties in with the Thalia videos from my last post. Another spanish music icon from my youth is the great, late PERET here with his most famous song BORRIQUITO in an almost psychedelic clip. Mas que tu.



As far as obscure music clips go the song Sakin Gelme by MAZHAR FUAT ÖKZAN is probably my no va mas. I don´t know anything about the band and it´s the only turkish CD I have. I saw the clip one night on the turkish tv station we could get at that time which I watched quite a lot because they had a game show called PASSAPAROLA with a really hot dance troupe.



Anyway, at night they played pop clips and at first I thought it was a new music video by Genesis until I realized they sang in turkish. I liked the clip so much that I watched the turkish tv station for weeks until they repeated the song. I taped it - yes, back then a VCR was the top electronic recording device - so I could write down the name of the song and the band so one of my turkish friends could get me the CD.



And since I could not possibly finish a post without some 80s animation here is the complete ROBOTIX series from 1985 for your viewing pleasure.



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