pimping stuff ( and other news )

This time around I wanted to pimp some stuff as well as make a few important announcements that are long overdue. The first big thing I´m pimping is the May 2010 issue of HEAVY METAL.


The reason is that the issue contains the story VODOO DERIVATE by Bernd Frenz and Carsten Dörr which yours truly had the privilege to translate last December.

They needed somebody to translate the story as their usual translation guy was not available and they knew I was doing the translations for the HORST comic. And it seems they even colored it ( the print version in the german comic magazine KURZ SCHLUSS was in black and white ).


So anyway, I don´t know if there will come some money of this gig ( which I would invest in new comics or a new laptop depending on the amount ) but it sure is a thrill to read your name in an actual issue of HEAVY METAL. And in the same issue as Milo Manara.


Here is a link where you can see more preview pages

The next announcement is the 28th Salon del Comic de Barcelona which this year takes place from the 6th of May till the 9th at the Fira de Montjuic.

Last year I couldn´t go because of my shoulder injury and I don´t know if I can go this year. I sure would like to see the guys from Rantifuso again ( I must be three or four issues behind their actual issue ) and get my hands on a copy of the X - Men comic by Chris Claremont and Milo Manara which still hasn´t come out in Germany.

Or get some new issues of DOLMEN the best publication about comics now that WIZARD has put its main focus on comic movies, toys, video games and such stuff. The problem is that when I go to a convention I like to go for the whole time because otherwise it´s just not worth the effort. Normally I can bunk at my aunt´s apartement since she lives alone and can use the company. Even if I´m at the convention most of the time. But that way I can at least go to the convention every day, I can shower before I get there ( which is very important when meeting comic pros - or the chick dressed as Catwoman ) and I can go there one day earlier or stay one day longer if I´m still tired and meet some relatives while I´m there.


Now this year my mother told me that I can´t do that because my aunt is too old now and she can´t care for me. I just need a place where I can sleep more than anything else but it seems I have to look for an alternative. Which means getting in contact with my cousins down there and see if I can sleep over. Right now I wouldn´t even need a bed since I´m still sleeping on the couch because of my shoulder problems. Otherwise I would have to look for a hotel to stay at or just go for one day or the weekend. Which in my opinion is too much trouble for just one or two days. And you would always ask yourself if you would have had better luck getting sketches on the days you weren´t there.

So I don´t know if I can go this year. Nevertheless here are some links. The first one is for the main page where you can get info about the Salon del Comic de Barcelona past and present as well as about the Salon del Manga.

Here you can get the all important general information like a map, how to get there and the opening hours which this year are :

Thursday 6 of May : from 10:00 till 20:00 h.
Friday 7 of May : from 10:00 till 21:00 h.
Saturday 8 of May : from 10:00 till 21:00 h.
sunday 9 of May : from 10:00 till 20:00 h.

Tickets are 6 EUROS and as usual you get a free comic for your ticket at the FICOMIC booth.


Artists this year include Jeff Smith, Jock, Ethan van Sciver, Gene Ha, Lewis Trondheim, Tanino Liberatore, Jaques Tardi and underground legend Gilbert Shelton. You can get the full list ( which will probably be updated ) here

Of course that´s just the tip of the iceberg since a lot of artists are not included in the list and in most cases you only get the full information at the convention when you get the convention booklet with all the signing info. For instance last year neither Jordi Bernet nor Carlos Pacheco were announced. But it´s a safe bet that if EL JUEVES is present that Mr. Bernet will show up or that if PANINI has a booth there Carlos Pacheco will show up if he has the time.

Maybe this time I can get a Power Girl sketch by Carlos Pacheco since I couldn´t get one by Adam Hughes who was supposed to come at the last Salon I attended but had to cancel at the last moment.


And - last but not least - there are the usual expositions which this year include The rhythm of comics, an expositon about the relation between music and comics, a retropsective about Vasquez, one of Spain´s best known comic veterans, an exposition about Hal Foster´s Prince Valiant that shows some original pages, Joso goes Hollywood which showcases some of the great artists that have come from Spains premier comic school like Pascual Ferry or Salva Espin. Other expositons are about comic artist Ana Miralles ( who did the art for this year´s poster for the salon ), The revolucion of the brushes ( last year´s winner for best art and breakthrough writer ), The blind snakes ( last year´s winners for best work and best script ) and - best of all - a showcase of Rantifuso ! Yay !

Speaking of comic conventions, last year they managed to put the Salon del Comic de Barcelona and the International Comic Salon in Erlangen at almost the same date. So you had to choose to which one you wanted to go which in the end made no difference to me since I couldn´t go to neither one. This year the International Comic Salon in Erlangen is taking place from the 3rd till the 6th of June which means that if I can´t go to Barcelona maybe I can go to Erlangen. We´ll see. In any case here´s the link although it doesn´t include much info at the moment ( like a picture of this year´s poster, natch ) :

Internationaler Comic Salon Erlangen 2010

Now back to some pimping which will be only for my german readers : as some may recall I made an announcement a few months back that HORST would make a triumphant return to print. And that I would post more information when the time is right.


Well, dear fans of Germany´s most famous rabbitt the time is now. PANINI is reprinting all the HORST material in 4 paperback editions of which the first one is already available. As someone who is only tangentially involved ( I should be getting to finish the next translations ) I don´t have a comp copy so you will have to wait for my review till I can get my hands on one. What I can say is that the colored pages I have seen on the web look fantastic.

Of course it wouldn´t be PANINI if they hadn´t managed to put some kind of f - word - up into it. One of the reasons I buy so little german comics is that german publishers like PANINI manage to ruin it all at the last moment. Be it that they have to include some really awful stories with fantastic ones, they have printing errors or really bad translations. If it´s not one thing it´s the other. Well, seeing as HORST is already in german and colored I thought they couldn´t ruin this one.

Huge mistake ! It seems someone at PANINI decided they had to " modernisize " the text. I can´t even imagine how much this must gall the involved artists. Okay, I have to see an actual issue to see how bad it really is....but the idea alone sounds stupid. That´s one of the instances of publishers f - word - ing comics up that I hate the most : fixing something that´s not broken just because somebody has a stupid idea. Which additionally costs more money and time and effort.

Anyway, I hope it´s not too bad since I wanted to pimp this thing heavily and get some copies for gifts and stuff. Because if the german edition is successful maybe we can get interest up for english and spanish editions and I may even get some cash. Or PANINI could make their usual f - word - ed up translations and even force us to delete our version. Who knows ?



In any case here are some HORST preview pages

And since we´re talking about HORST here are the links to the original blogs

HORST - german version

HORST - english version

HORST - spanish version

Speaking of HORST, it´s one of the free giveaway comics at GRATIS COMIC TAG, something nobody in Germany really expected.


Yes, it´s true, german comic shops are giving away free comics. This must really be the end times. After the financial crisis and natural disaters in Haiti and Chile now another sign of the Apokalypse. Or another sign for hope.

On the 8th of May ( yes, it´s during the Salon del Comic de Barcelona ) Germany´s comic shops are - finally ! - following the american example and giving away free comics and they managed to put together 30 comics for this. You can get the info about the participating shops here and here is a list of the available titles which include HORST and the fine folks from HORRORSCHOCKER Germany´s best horror anthology title.



So that´s all for today. I hope it wasn´t too long and there was something interesting for you in it. And it won´t be too long till my next post.

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You know, I got in this mess to begin with because of people screwing around in the air.

new links for the weekend

Since I still don´t have a new computer I thought it was time to do another link post so that you have something to read over the weekend. As always I have scoured the web to find some content that might interest my readers.

Bendis big finale on his Avengers Opus


Six years ago Bendis started his stint on Earth´s Mightiest Heroes with the premise of revamping the Avengers franchise and boosting sales. Now he´s going to begin the last chapter together with superstar artist John Romita Jr in a new ongoing series. You can read more about it here but be careful, there are some spoilers involved.

You may have seen some shilouettes that were given as promo materila but since I don´t like to speculate here are three candidates :




Also talking about the Avengers ( among other things ) is Tom Brevoort in this interview with Sean T. Collins on ROBOT 6.

Meet the new boss - same as the old boss

With SIEGE well under way it´s time to look back at the dark times at Marvel over the past year and see which big impact it had - or not. Over at THE WEEKLY CRISIS guest poster Warwick Johnson ponders the question if Norman Osborn´s DARK REIGN has really been that evil which is a really funny and thought provoking read.

SIEGE - Marvel´s newest fiasko ?

Since I already mentioned SIEGE and how little DARK REIGN accomplished from what it set out to be here´s a nice analysis from COMIKS DEBRIS about what DC and MARVEL are currently doing wrong - not the least of it forgetting that it´s not 2005 anymore. Seems the more those comic companies emphasize that the next big crossover WILL matter the less impact they really have. Or has DARK REIGN come up in that many Spider - Man stories lately ?


Reinventing the wheel - again

Speaking about mistakes by DC, I´m not so sure if FIRST WAVE - the new series by Brian Azzarello and Rags Morales - is such a good idea. I mean DC just went through INFINITE CRISIS and FINAL CRISIS to make their universe easier. And now they´re starting again to make it complicated.

On top of that the idea of a pulp version of the DC universe doesn´t seem so novel to me. Of course Rags Morales will guarantee that it looks good but we will have to wait and see to find out if this will enrichen the DC universe or not. At least they will use othe pulp characters like DOC SAVAGE or the SPIRIT again which is always a plus.


You can read more ( with some spoilers ) on PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

Kick some....well, all the good jokes are done

Sinc e we already heard of one of John Romita Jr´s collaborators here are two interviews with Mark Millar about his upcoming KICK ASS movie and other things comic. I haven´t read the book since I already missed most of the series and am now waiting for the release of the collected edition. I also have been avoiding most movie trailers so I won´t be spoiled which means that I can´t tell you if I like it or not.

And that´s all for this edition. I hope you have a nice weekend and I´m just about to watch this week´s episode of SMALLVILLE.


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Sex is the most awful, filthy thing on earth, and you should save it for someone you love.

What it is

So there haven´t been any new posts since the first week of January. With the access to a computer rather limited till I can afford a new one it´s rather difficult to prepare all the stuff - which usually takes a few days.


Another thing that was playing havoc with my posting schedule was that I wanted to wait till I had finished another HORST translation. Well, the main problem was that it was a rather long one. And to add another wrinkle to it there was a character that talked with an austrian accent which I decided to translate to my version of " ghetto lingo " Dolemite stile. Well, for the spanish version I went even further and decided to translate it to castellano which added another two weeks. Which I promise to never do again. It sounds okay but I´m still not 100 percent sure if all of it is correct.

I don´t know why but the translations take me longer and longer. Right now I have started another ten page epic - in english - and I should have finished it for some time now. But something always comes up. Two weeks ago I first had to go to the unemployment office on Monday and then to the doctor on Thursday to get a date for surgery. Usually I try not to go to Ludwigsburg more often than once a week because it´s very expensive. But it just couldn´t be avoided. Right now I have to look for a new laptop but with the little money I get and my health problems it´s just difficult. In January my bank billed me for activity costs which took almost all my money so I had to wait with spending money till February.

Another thing is that without daily access to a computer I am so far behind on news that it´s not even funny.


So no solicitation posts, no news post and since there haven´t been any good bargains at amazon since my last post about it.....it´s just difficult to find something to write about at the moment. And on some days I´m so depressed because of the weather here in Germany ( always cold always snowing ) that I don´t feel like writing at all. I´m not getting much sleep either so on some days it´s difficult to walk or think straight much less think about writing. Okay, A COMICBOOK ORANGE has started it´s new season but I´m already three weeks late with that announcements. I could write about some of the comics I have re-read since I ran out of new comics to read. But since they are old comics that´s not a pressing matter.

I thought about doing this on a new segment titled THE WORLD´S BEST COMICS or doing a CrossGen special about RUSE, ROUTE 666 and NEGATION ( since these are some of the books I read ) but it´s better to wait with atarting new segments till I have a new computer. Another book I re-read was KANE but I made the mistake of ordering issues 19 and 20 with my last order from blackdog ( to get ULTIMATE X 1 which of course was sold out ) before finding out that there are two trades left that I haven´t got.....and they start with number 19. So maybe I can get my money back for those two issues in any case I´ll wait with my post about KANE till I have read the two trades.


So anyway, the reason why I´m writing this is that the german version of Halloween has started ( called Karneval, Fasching or Fasnacht depending on which part of Germany you live in ) but instead of going partying with a selfmade disguise I had a shoulder operation. Yes, can´t get enough of the surgery. On Monday ( Rosenmontag ) I had the surgery ( with general anaestetic ) but instead of staying at the hospital like last time I had to go home afterwards with a drainage in my shoulder.


Now I don´t know if that was because the hospitals are full at the moment because of the many injured people now that there is so much snow. Maybe it´s because the german health insurance has to save money. My brother said it was because I´m unemployed. I´m not sure if that´s true. In any case it was very weird walking around with a tube in my shoulder and a bottle.

Today they pulled the tube out and put a patch on it but it really hurts. In two weeks they have to remove the stitches and I hope I´m feeling better till then.

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The past is never dead, it is not even past.

Adam Hughes` lost GEN13 comic

For this post I´m taking a page out of the ever popular COMIC BOOK LEGENDS REVEALED website by Brian Cronin.

COMIC LEGEND : There is a GEN13 comic by Adam Hughes that was finished but never printed.

STATUS : False.


There is a GEN13 short story done by Adam Hughes but it was published ONCE and it was even reprinted.

The reason why it´s believed to never have been printed is that, like THE SECRET GOSPEL OF MAXWELL LORD nobody has ever seen it. Myself included most people have only seen some penciled pages or the inked pages on the internet. It was by sheer luck that I discovered otherwise.

Of course everybody knows that Adam Hughes did the 2 issue miniseries GEN13 ORDINARY HEROES of which the second was delayed almost indefinitely - like always. Back then the book was one of the bestsellers that attracted the best of the best. Nowadays it´s not even a shadow of it´s former glory. Like the copy of a copy of a copy that looses quality each time it´s copied GEN13 is only the shadow of a shadow of a shadow of what it used to be. In each incarnation not only the quality of the art suffered but also the writing. Till nothing except the name remained.


But like always comic readers who buy it today don´t even know how good it was ( or else they wouldn´t keep buying that drivel ) or if they buy the ORDINARY HEROES comics they have no idea that the second part was delayed. I myself bought it as it came out - the original version as well as the spanish version which is back in Spain and which was one of the few comics I had in Spain.

Aside from that Adam Hughes did the covers for the GEN13 / SUPERMAN crossover as well as lots of covers pin ups or cards. I don´t know if Adam Hughes was also supposed to do the art on the SUPERMAN crossover but in any case it fell through and somebody else did the art ( I think Lee Bermejo ).


Apart from this GEN13 stuff there were some GEN13 pages floating around the internet that seemed to belong to a third GEN13 comic but those were only inked pages so I dismissed the idea. I mean you would have heard if a superstar artist like Adam Hughes had done another GEN13 story, right ? Now, the first hints of the possibility that this comic was more than a comic book legend was when I bought a sketchbook in Spain that had all the pages of the comic. And although they were just the inked pages they had the full dialogue and word ballons.

Somehow there seemed to be more to this. But all my searches on the internet were fruitless. No chance of finding anything about it - besides the pages I already had. And the name tags weren´t helping either since most of them were just labeled GEN13 ot TBP. But my luck changed two weeks ago when I found - I can´t remember for the life of me were I found it - a picture of one of the pages labeled THUNDERBOOK.

Now what the hell was a thunderbook ? Searching for a few days revealed that IMAGE did an anthology book called WILDSTORM THUNDERBOOK that indeed included this long sought after GEN13 story by Adam Hughes. Now the problem was to find it.


Just before Christmas I was doing my usual comic order at blackdog when I found that they had ONE COPY of it. Against better judgement I ordered it and gave it away as a Christmas present. Lo and behold. The great mystery had been solved. Now to write a post about it on my blog. The end.

Wait. It´s not so easy. Which kind of help is that for my readers ? Am I really going to tell them that there exists another GEN13 story by Adam Hughes only to tell them that it was printed in a thing called WILDSTORM THUNDERBOOK which they won´t find at any comic shop ? That´s a dilemma.

Just in my last post I posed the question if PANINI really wants to sell comics. Now the question seems to be if IMAGE falls into the same behaviour. Was it really never reprinted anywhere ? Another couple of days of research brought the answer.

There exists a collection of the GEN13 ORDINARY HEROES story. And there was a reprint of that trade that has a new cover and includes the Alan Davis GEN13 bootleg issues as well as the GEN13 short story called WHAM form the WILDSTORM THUNDERBOOK.


As I already had the ORDINARY HEROES comics as well as the Alan Davis issues I never looked at the trade so I never discovered the story. Since I don´t know the original trade I have no idea if it also includes the short story but I know the new collection does.

Now I have checked my usual sources. My comicshop does have one copy but since there is no picture I don´t know if it is the new printing with the new cover. I will have to check that out the next time I´m there. I looked at blackdog but they don´t have it. At amazon there are three available and although it seems to be the right one ( they have the right ISBN number which is 1401204279 ) the price is waaay to high. And since you can´t get it directly from amazon you never know in which condition they will arrive. I really can´t recommend it.


I also found that they have it at ANDYS COMIC EXPRESS but without the ISBN number I can´t confirm it. So you will have to wait or you can get it now if you want to take the chance.

Here´s the black and white version :

get the trade at andys comic express

the trade info by DC

So, mystery solved. I hope this was new for some readers and that I´m not the only one who didn´t know this comic existed. Happy hunting no matter if you want to try your luck with the thunderbook or the collection.


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Warren--that´s Bullseye, I need you to take him of the board.