One bat, two bats, the Bat triumphant !

Well, I had planned to do this post for quite some time but as usual reality collided with my plans. The idea was to first do a post on JACK STAFF and use that post as a segueway for other posts about British comics.


As usual I got sidetracked, first by the TORCHWOOD comic by Paul Grist and then I wanted to write about KANE which was the first Paul Grist comic I read. Still haven´t gotten around to do that. So, in our last post we had a lot comic news and since I try to mix the topics a bit it´s time for a comic review.

So I want to talk a bit about THE BAT TRIUMPHANT published by Terry Hooper at Black Tower Comics. It´s weird but the black tower thing keeps coming up in pop culture. Stephen King used it for his bestseller series, there is a German comic publisher called DER SCHWARZE TURM ( which is the black tower in german ) to which I have ties and Terry Hooper´s comic company is also called Black Tower Comics.

One of the reasons why it took me so long to write about THE BAT TRIUMPHANT is that it was difficult to do the research. Since it has its roots in the British comic scene I´m not so familiar with it and it´s not like I can go to my comicshop and do some research there. There are really a lot of confusing informations on the internet. You see, the character THE BAT in this comic was not created by Terry Hooper. As far as I can tell it was created by William A Ward, a British artist who created a lot of famous comic characters but seems to have faded into the murky British comic limbo.


There is more information about the publisher of the original THE BAT comics Gerald G. Swan. He was one of the most enterprising of wartime publishers in Britain. Although he established his publishing company in 1938, he stockpiled his books rather than distributing them and thus had a supply of paper when it was rationed during the war. As a result he virtually cornered the magazine market and released hundreds of publications in all fields of fiction. Most of his inventory was compiled in the 1940's from a mixture of home - grown talent and reprints from Columbia magazines, even though some of them were not printed until the 1960's.

Here is a small checklist with some of the titles he published :

Gerald G Swan checklist

Having a comic character named the Bat the first question you have is - of course - who was first ?


The Bat or his more famous American colleague the Batman ? And who influenced who ? Since I couldn´t find any facts to prove otherwise I´m going with the story that Batman, who first appeared in Detective Comics 27 in May 1939, was the inspiration for the Bat whose first appearance was in Thrill Comics 1 published in April 1940.

Another thing that made the research a bit difficult is that there were also two other comic characters called THE BAT. One, a British hero who has come back from Hell


the other a superburglar who battled the Phantom ( a British hero, not the famous creation of Lee Falk ).


And of course there are a lot of other bats in comics, first and foremost, the most famous Batman. Then there are all forms of other characters which are derived from him like Man - Bat a.k.a. Kirk Langstrom one of Batman´s rogues.


There is Die Fledermaus, a clear Batman parody on the indie comic THE TICK.


And here in Germany there is FLATTERMANN, written by Kurt Kofron and drawn by Wenzel Kofron for the German Polischansky Verlag.


I´m not sure how successful the comic was but it managed to get three albums printed and probably anybody who reads comics in Germany knows of this comic.


And that´s not counting other derivates like WATCHMEN´s Owl Man or the Owl Man of the Squadron Supreme, the Justice League´s evil counterparts. Also there was a character called Owl Man in some issues of THE OUTSIDERS, but since I left the title before that I don´t know much about it.

But back to THE BAT TRIUMPHANT ! It´s a new original story of William A Ward´s THE BAT, written and drawn by Terry Hooper under the name Terry Hooper - Scharf. The size is european album size ( about DIN A 4 ), 66 pages black and white. Originally a back up strip in Black Tower Adventure in 1994,The Bat proved very popular as an anti - hero. The story was never completed. It is now. And there was another Bat.

1952 saw George McQueen’s Bat appear to fight any and all supernatural menaces. This book contains an original strip plus a new one drawn in 2007. This is the complete book of The Bat!

Now what´s the story all about ? Since his beginnings are in 1940 it´s a bit difficult to have him walking around in our modern era. But Terry found a clever solution for this dilemma without resorting to the old " son takes up the mantle of the father " trick. Although that possibility still exists for a possible sequel.


In 1941,The Bat sets about modernising the backward Duchy of Stahl, over which his dynasty has ruled since 1410 A.D.. The Bat is soon involved in experiments with the infamous Count Cogliostro. One of these experiments involves suspended animation; The Bat deciding he will be the test subject. When he wakes, The Bat finds that not days have gone by but 51 years !

Worse, his kingdom is in ruins and an enclave of Kamora. The Bat tries politics to win back his homeland and when that fails he decides to fight for it! However, he is unaware that some old - and new - enemies ( who have such great names as Schwarzadler, Blaurabe and Stanislaus the Werewolf ) are lying in wait to stop him and all of them want one thing : The Bat dead !

Which is not as easy as they think. The Bat is really a badass hero if he´s really a hero. Mostly he´s described as an anti - hero which is probably more fitting since he has no qualms about using swords or even guns and ( unlike Batman ) has no problems with killing. I mean he liquidates one of his opponents for pulling a knife on him. You so don´t want to mess with the Bat, dude !

Ten lives for a life ! Twenty groans for a groan ! Such is the Bat´s vengeance !


Even as a reader who was not familiar with the previous adventures of the Bat I have to say that this is one fun, action - packed read. Terry Hooper manages to evoke the feeling of Silver Age heroes whose roots lie more in the pulp genre like the great classics without resorting to silly stereotypes or parody. The story is a faithful ( at least as far as I can tell ) addition to the lore of the Bat that doesn´t negate what has come before.

Too often writers think that they have to update characters to modern audiences by deconstructing everything that has come before - so that everything you thought you knew turns out to be wrong ! Like Grant Morrison in ALL STAR SUPERMAN Terry builds upon the existing foundation, filling the gaps in continuity and adding another layer. As well as evil villains, werewolves, the always mysterious Count Cogliostro ( who has appeared in uncountable works of fiction from SPAWN to the latest film about french masterburglar Arsène Lupin ) and a touch of the supernatural.


Artwise it reminds me a bit of the comics around 1940 which sometimes were drawn a bit crude ( you have to remember that a lot of the professional artists were drafted ) but still had a lot of energy and excitement. I mean on the Gerald G Swan checklist ( link above ) it says that all his publications were of irredeemably poor quality. So I don´t know how much of that is intentional. What I can say is that it has solid storytelling and that I especially like his use of blacks.

One of my favorite pages is this full page spread where the Bat confronts three soldiers at the Jugo - Hungarian border. It´s such a great composition. You can find more pages here


Besides the main story THE BAT TRIUMPHANT ! the comic also includes an introduction that explains the genesis of the story, a very brief history of the Bat & Stahl, an article about Bat creator William A Ward and one about the history of Cagliostro as well as other goodies.

interview with Terry Hooper - Scharf about THE BAT TRIUMPHANT

order from lulu ( with preview ) german page

the Terry Hooper - Scharf lulu storefront

order links on ComicBitsOnline ( for England )

order from pothi ( with preview )

So next time we will get to the second part of the comic news with all the creator interviews and the ever popular top 10 lists and other fun stuff I promised.


In my last post I put up the clip for Gary Mitchell´s song IN BRIGHTEST DAY which could become the anthem for the new Green Lantern movie. Here´s another one that could be included : Ring capacity by the band Kirby Crackle.



New to the blog ? Everything you need to know about TALES FROM THE KRYPTONIAN :

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new look

As you may have noticed this blog has now a new look. Like I already suspected when I changed the look for Halloween I didn´t manage to get the old look back.


I forgot to save a copy of the old template and there is no other that looks like the old one I used. Additionally it seems that bloggers number of templates to use has changed from....I don´t know......how many where there ? Hundred ? Now it seems like they only offer....uh....ten. Okay. That´s not good.

Well, I was prepared that this would be the case so I hope the new look is not too distracting. As I had to recalibrate the monitor for various reasons I can just assume it doesn´t look too different. I probably won´t go over the old posts as I still try to find a way to get the old look back. In the meantime I´ll just keep tinkering with the layout till it looks right.

Another thing I lost due to the new look is the counter. I´ll add a new one when I find the time - and figure out a way how to do it. The last time I managed to do it was mostly pure luck.

It´s been a while since my last post because I was - once again - busy with catching up to all the new things on the internet. I think I was at least six months behind on solicitations so I had to sacrifice a few days for that. Right now I have - mostly - caught up on the DC pictures but I still haven´t finished the Marvel stuff.


I also am caught up on previews and man, you are really not up to date if the previews you have to do are from comics you already read last month ! And I also had to burn a lot of stuff on CDs as my computer was once again full with stuff. I just hop I managed to make enough free space to prevent the computer from checking out in the middle of a post.

But since this post is not just to bore you to death with the details of what I have been up to the last days here are some news, links, interviews, top ten lists and the usual collection of stuff for people who visit the important sites as irregualr as me.

COMIC INDUSTRY NEWS

Let´s begin with the most important bit of news which this time comes from the comic industry section.

Paypal unveils micropayments for digital goods

Yes, that´s right. Scott McCloud predicted it and now finally the micropayments are here. This is great news for all comic artists who are doing webcomics because so far the difficult thing was to somehow get money for your webcomic without having to offer a print version or having to charge a lot of money. And what´s also great is that facebook seems to be joining PayPal on this. Now I don´t know how good PayPal is as a payment service but at least this much needed from of payment is finally out there.

4chan piracy causes spike in sales for Underground

Like I already wrote in a post in 2008 there are ways for comic books to profit from scans on the internet. And it seems that Steve Lieber had the right idea when someone on 4chan scanned in all issues of Steve Lieber and Jeff Parker’s comic series Underground and posted it for all to read. Rather than pitching a fit ( which would have been perfectly justified under the circumstances ), Lieber joined the discussion and cheerfully suggested folks kick in a few bucks if they like the book or maybe even, you know, buy it. Then he posted it on his own site for free.

Why did it work out this way ? Perhaps the comic is that good ( I haven’t read it ), perhaps because 4chan helped it find its audience, and perhaps because Lieber took some time to engage the readers and establish himself as a real person — it’s a lot harder to steal from someone you know. I have always said that the music industry wouldn´t have lost so much money if they had spent less time criminalizing their customers and instead would have made more efforts to give them what they wanted : an easy and cheap way to download music.

I mean why is it that it´s easier for a person to get music clip from the internet in an illegal way than go to a music company website or a music store website and say, buy a DVD or Blue Ray disc that has my favorite 10 or 12 music clips ?


Back to Underground : it´s much easier to sell a product if the people already know the product and like it. If you read my post in 2008 you already know that a lot of the arguments in the whole discussion about scanlations and webcomics are totally bogus. People WILL pay money for comics they have already read. IF they like them. Hell, people pay money for comics they already have. There are comics in my collection that I have bought several times and some of them I will probably buy again when there is a new printing available.

So, kudos to Steve Lieber for having the cojones to do the smart thing. You can read more about it here :

Interview with Steve Lieber and Jeff Parker on comicbookresources

Interview with Steve Lieber on techdirt

comments about the case on the Warren Ellis forum

DC and Marvel lowering prices next year

It seems, 2011 will not be as expensive as 2010 as both - DC and Marvel are going to lower prices. As usual DC comics was first to announce that they are going to drop their co - features and lower the prices back to 2.99 $. They also will cut the story page count to 20 pages but before the bitching starts I want to remind people that back when I started reading comics the story page count was 17 pages.

Those were some really great comics and you have three pages more for whatever.


Now Marvel had to react to DC which they did by announcing that some of the new books in January will carry a 2.99 $ price tag. Say what ? Okay according to David Gabriel, senior vice president of sales & circulation the pricing structure is that " for limited series in the Marvel Universe they will price as many of those as they can for $2.99 for a 32-page book. " Oh, and Incredible Hulk will loose it´s co - feature ( did anyone really read that ) and go to 2.99.

So, is it just me or is it another case of DC acting and Marvel reacting ? When this whole thing started DC put co - features on all books they changed from 2.99 to 3.99. Marvel´s answer was to keep the page count as it was and only slowly put in extra content in SOME cases. While DC on made a part of their books more expensive Marvel put the 3.99 price tag on all new titles and most of their old books.

Now DC is changing the 3.99 books back to 2.99 while Marvel will put out some new titles that will have a 2.99 price tag. Marvel doesn´t take me serious. No, that´s how it is. First they say they will change some books to 3.99 and lo and behold, most of their bestsellers are included in that. As well as all new book. Which means if you put a new book on your pull list or have some of their good titles on it - you have to pay and arm and a leg. And now they say that the 2.99 price will be on INCREDIBLE HULK - which is dragging out it´s storyline forever so that most readers have already jumped ship - and new limited series.

Sorry, but that´s ridiculous. DC had to sell a few of their books for 3.99 and have now gone back to 2.99 with 2 story pages less. Marvel has increased the price to 3.99 on most of their books but now you will get the 2.99 price again - not on the books they are already offering but on some new ones.

That will not change anything. Here´s a quote from Jim Lee from this page :

If you're a lifelong comic book fan or buyer and are all of the sudden being asked to pay $3.99 for a book, it gives you a reason to stop collecting in general.


It breaks your spirit because you're going, "Comics cost way too much. This is weekly entertainment. They're episodic, and this makes it too expensive of a hobby to be in." So then they bail altogether... To me, this is all about keeping the hobby as affordable as possible while obviously keeping the same quality and level in the storylines. I think there is a psychological bond that is broken when you keep raising prices and assume they're going to keep buying it because they love the characters.

And one from Dan Didio :

Jim touched upon the unfortunate reality in the business right now is that if you push people out or get too pricey and too expensive, you're pushing them out completely. They're not just dropping one or two titles – they're dropping the hobby. That's the thing. They might come back for the occasional trade, but for me what makes comic book collecting is that periodical nature of going in month in, month out or week in, week out. That's what I love about it, and I think it's that sense of community, the shared environment and shared experience. With so much going on these days, people love that weekly experience. And we want to match that. We don't want to give them reasons to not be buying anymore. As a matter of fact, we're going the complete opposite way, which is one of the reasons why they continue to buy. The way to do that is pricing in a way that is affordable and makes sense and also make stories that they just can't put down and feel like they haven't seen before.

Just what I said when this all began. Marvel has always argued that people would stop reading one or two titles while they knew that in reality people will not just stop buying one or two titles. They will either stop buying Marvel comics because they feel cheated or they will stop buying comics at all. They will buy the occasional trade but that´s it.


So as usual DC is doing something to help readers while Marvel tries to pull another fast one. Not really a surprise there.

STATE OF THE INDUSTRY

Okay, how are comic books really doing ? Here are a few articles so you can make up your own mind. First, here´s an interesting Interview with Gail Burt, owner of Metropolis Comics, located in Bellflower, California, USA which touches upon a few important topics. Like all those variant covers from Marvel are not really incentives - so please, can we stop with that nonsense already ? And it´s not really that profitable to take a book that has good sales - like Deadpool - and throw eight watered down books on the market thus totally destroying the franchise.

And since wer´re on the subject of comicshops here´s an article on James Sime, owner of Isotope comics who has a shop that´s more a comic lounge where customers read comics in comfortable chairs instead of a shop where people just get their comics and rush out.

Johanna Draper Carlson has an interesting article that analyzes just how low sales are that make a book successful.

Nils Bohr said : " It´s always difficult to male predictions. Especially about the future. " Nevertheless Shaenon K. Garrity wrote a manifesto about 10 things to know about the future of comics . This has lead to comments on THE BEAT on Scott McCloud´s blog and an article by Dresden Codak with 10 things to know about the future of webcomics. There is also an episode of ComicGeekSpeak on the subject.

And if you still want to work for Marvel after all my Marvelbashing here´s your guide for an internship at Marvel

To wrap things up, here´s a clip I wanted to post months ago but since I had no audio I couldn´t listen to it. It´s the video to Gary Mitchell´s original song IN BRIGHTEST DAY written as the anthem for the new GREEN LANTERN movie. With a bit of luck and enough fans on the internet Warner Brothers may pick it up for the soundtrack. I think it has a lot of potential so please, if you like it spread it around and post it on your blogs. If you click on the YouTube page there are links to all the usual communities like facebook and myspace.



As usual my time for today is up and I only got to address a third of the things I wanted to mention.


So sorry for so much stuff about the comic industry but I think all of it was important and interesting. In the next part we will get to things that are more fun like creator interviews and the ever popular top 10 lists.

New to the blog ? Everything you need to know about TALES FROM THE KRYPTONIAN :

top ten posts

more posts of interest

A good All Hallow´s Eve to you all !

Welcome, my fellow ghosts and ghouls, vampires, zombies and other creatures of the night. As you can see the blog has changed it´s appearance due to the upcoming frightful festivities like Devil´s Night, All Hallow´s Eve and El Dia de los Muertos.


I also changed the usual header for the black one I did last year ( or the year before ) especially for the Halloween post. I had thought about using it for BLACKEST NIGHT but then I would have had to change the pictures for dead DC guys and that was a bit too work intensive than I had planned.

I just hope I can get the old look back because the template I used is not on blogger anymore. Well, if I can´t get the old look back that´s also okay since I have had this look for almost five years now. It´s about time for a facelift.


Since I have already done posts on hot horror hotties , HORRORSCHOCKER , Krabat , the DARKNESS and DYLAN DOG , Richard Corben´s HAUNT OF FEAR : EDGAR ALLEN POE , Richard Corben´s HELLBOY IN MEXICO and part 1 , part 2 and part 3 of my ELVIRA posts this time I want to spotlight 2 comics that are guaranteed to give you goosebumps. My version of a grindhoouse horror movie double feature.

We got superheroes meeting classic movie monsters, modern movie monsters and witches and even the old crooked man himself. So if you are not going to spend Halloween watching the horror trash movie GUARDIAN OF THE ABYSS, presented by Elvira ( link in part 3 of the ELVIRA posts ) herself, like yours truly you might want to pull up a comfortable chair, put some horror movie soundtrack on your mp3 player and immerse yourself in one of the following comics.

BATMAN THE UNSEEN - writen by Doug Moench and illustrated by Kelley Jones


Back when horror movies began there was no distinction between horror and science fiction movies because many horror movies could be labeled as " science gone wrong ". Some of the all time classic horror movies like DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE, FRANKENSTEIN or X : THE MAN WITH THE X RAY EYES are science based so it´s not surprising that my first tipp deals with another science based horror classic : THE INVISIBLE MAN. It´s one of works of fiction in pop culture with the most movie adaptions from straight horror to comedies. I mean, who hasn´t at one point in his life dreamt of being invisible ?

In this particular horror / superhero crossover it´s BATMAN VS THE INVISIBLE MAN courtesy of Kelley Jones, artist of the wildly successful GOTHAM AFTER MIDNIGHT and writer Doug Moench who penned more than one Bat - tale in his days.


Batman has always been a superhero who could function in almost any other genre, especially in the horror genre, keeping in mind that he walks around in one big fright mask and his usual modus operandi is to scare the living s - word out of the criminals. And a lot of his rogues could star in their own horror movie like KILLER CROC, SCARECROW, the MAD HATTER, MR. FREEZE or MAN - BAT.

Like Norm Breyfogle Kelley Jones is one of the best Batman artists because he can emphasize the horror elements of the character. In BATMAN THE UNSEEN, a five part miniseries, we find a " lost tale of Bruce Wayne as Batman ". Like I said when I first mentioned the series we will be reading more of theses now that they have wasted the O.B. - original Batman. Or better yet, now that they have wasted the O.B., and made him come back through the centuries. I tell you, just writing about it gives me a headache so I´m glad that none of this is mentioned in BATMAN THE UNSEEN.


You don´t have to dive into this particular snakepit to enjoy it. And it got all the ingredients to be enjoyed as it includes the usual murder misteries, a mad scientist who wants his revenge for always being overlooked ( the other meaning of being unseen ), Black Mask and his goons....in short a Batman story like it is supposed to be. The including of Doug Moench´s creation Black Mask also brings the whole topic of masks into the mix which fits the whole Halloween theme. Add to that Kelley Jones always stunning art that seems to lead you directly into the set of a classic crime fiction / horror movie and you have what I call an instant classic.


What I found a bit strange while reading various reviews was how often the words " old school " and " Silver Age " were used. What does it say about the current state of the Batfranchise that the only thing to compare a Batman story that´s well done are the tales of a time long ago ?

Being just a five issue miniseries it is sadly much shorter than GOTHAM AFTER MIDNIGHT but for more Kelley Jones on Batman check out his work on the Kevin Shinick penned JOKER´S ASYLUM II : CLAYFACE. It´s a tale of Basil Karlo, horror movie actor who became a real claymonster.


I hope DC keeps Kelley Jones on the creative roster for such special projects as they don´t seem too keen on offering him a regular book. Which doesn´t surprise me that much when I think about the negative reaction he got here in Germany when last he took over a Bat - title.

preview BATMAN THE UNSEEN 1 / issue 2 / issue 3



HELLBOY - THE CROOKED MAN and OTHERS - written by Mike Mignola and Josh Dysart illustrated by Richard Corben, Mike Mignola, Duncan Fegredo and Jason Shawn Alexander


In my post about HELLBOY IN MEXICO I initially also wanted to write about the 3 issue miniseries THE CROOKED MAN. But like always once I got started the post was more about 80s superhero comics and mexican luchadores than Hellboy. I knew back then that I had to revisit the subject and what better time than for Halloween.

Since I had missed the single issues I had to get the trade that also includes some other stories, and while they are all nice and okay the real reason I bought it is the part with Richard Corben. Let´s be realists. So I´ll keep my comments to that part of the trade. That said, the art by Richard Corben alone is worth the price of admission.


In the Eisner Award - winning miniseries THE CROOKED MAN we, once again, travel to another scenery - one of the staples of the HELLBOY series. But this time it´s the american countryside and Hellboy has to deal with opponents rooted in american folklore, a theme often neglected on the series in favor of more exotic locales. At least for american readers.

One of the inspirations for Tom Ferrell - Hellboy´s partner in this story about witches, devils and the dead rising - was Manly Wade Wellman´s character Silver John, a.k.a. John the Balladeer, the wandering backwoods minstrel with a silver-stringed guitar.


I have to say I thought to be well versed in famous horror novel writers but I wasn´t aware of this forgotten pioneer of horror who also wrote science fiction, fantasy, historical fiction, detective fiction, western fiction, juvenile fiction and non-fiction. And I have to say kudos to his Dad for having the cojones to name his son " Manly " as a first name.

What I liked about this comic is that it manages to cram more action, backstory and stuff about witches and deals made with the devil into three issues than you can find in your usual six issue superhero trade. And the last stand in an abandoned church surrounded by witches and dead corpses is just right up my alley - especially now on Halloween.


Hellboy´s future is also hinted at, one of the things that is also mentioned constantly in the series, and I guess the exciting part is finding out if Mike Mignola really is going to turn Hellboy into the demon that destroys earth.

While this may not be a story filled with shocking twists and turns, it's an engaging tale about temptation and sin, a captivating battle of wills between man, god, and the devil.

And what makes this battle work so well is that the struggle takes place on the grungy Earth, in the Appalachian mountains, circa 1958. This isn't Southern Gothic, it's Backwoods Hillbilly Gothic, and that's a whole lot more disturbing.


There are - of course - more stories in the trade like THE MOLE with art by Duncan Fegredo ( which was first printed in the FREE COMIC BOOK DAY issue ) and IN THE CHAPEL OF MOLOCH that features art by Mike Mignola himself. All in all a really well rounded trade and while I mainly bought it for the Richard Corben part the rest´s not half bad either.

Like with BATMAN THE UNSEEN, if these three issues don´t satisfy your appettite for Richard Corben doing Hellboy, there will be some upcoming issues down the road. And if you haven´t already go and get yourself a copy of THE BRIDE OF HELL, which will be the topic of another post on this very blog.

preview THE CROOKED MAN 1 / preview issue 2 / preview issue 3

Manly Wade Wellman website / Manly Wade Wellman wiki



And that´s all for Today. Initially I wanted to include two more comics but maybe I should give them a post of their own. Till then, happy trick or treating and a joyous Sammhain !

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

A letter from my timelost self

I´m still working on my KANE post. It´s incredible how - whenever I try to write about a certain subject - other things get in the way.


At least I finally managed to finish my COMICBABE BATTLE post about the FIGHTING FEMMES of videogames. As it´s going to be a few weeks till I can do the next installment I´m open to readers requests.

Now the reason for this post is on one side to bridge the time between the COMICBABE BATTLE post and the KANE post. And there are a few things I don´t want to add to the old posts because I don´t want them to be overlooked by my readers. So it´s the usual collection of random coolness that you have grown accustumed to at this blog.

GET YOUR GEEK ON

Over at ComicGeekSpeak there are some new interesting shows online. If you are a regular listener you probably check them out through the link in my blogroll but if like me, you go months without checking in on them you might miss out on a few interesting episodes. I wanted to burn the new episodes on a CD till I remembered that I had already used up all of them to get more free space on the computer. Then I tried to put them on my USB stick but I pulled out the mouse from the USB slot and because I thought there was a computer malfunction I restarted the computer. Which is the reason I had to start this post from scratch. Anyway, somehow I remembered that I could just upload them on my mp3 player which I then did. So here´s my selection of episodes :

First up - and most important - is the new interview with Bob Layton inker, artist, writer, editor, etc. I mean is there anything the man hasn´t done ? He´s like the Forrest Gump of comics. Not only did he work for DC and Marvel, where he was part of THE most influential IRON MAN story of them all. His runs on the character are counted to the definite stories of IRON MAN and Bob Layton as the definite IRON MAN artist.


I know that he was in most good stories I read like the very first spanish ones I had. Aside from that he was one of the founders of VALIANT and later on FUTURE COMICS. FUTURE COMICS had to fold but I got a few issues of them. VALIANT also has met it´s demise but after a very long publishing career giving us such unparallelled classics like X - O WANOWAR ( the better IRON MAN comic at that time ) or QUANTUM & WOODY. From that excerpt alone you should know that this is one guy who has a lot to tell.

For more details about his impressive career check out his wiki page and for everything else go to the official website

Another of comics greats is Jeff Smith who joins the geekspeakers for the Book of the Month review of BONE Volume 1. I had the distinctive pleasure to meet Jeff at a signing in Erlangen and I have to say he´s much mor modest and nice as you would expect from such a superstar.

Another inker on the show is Mark McKenna who´s been in the business for 24 years. You can also get more info on his website. And you should get a kick out of 1000 Comic Books You Must Read with Tony Isabella, the spotlight on the Punisher , spotlight on Hawkman and Hawkgirl and spotlight on Aquaman .


Halloween is soon coming up and as I don´t know if I´m going to be able to post an adequate topic till then here are a few things to get you in the mood. One of the Book of the Month reviews is Kraven´s Last Hunt one of THE best Spider - Man stories ever written that fits right in with the ghastly Halloween mood. Lots of spiders, the ratlike Vermin, the black costume, a psychopatic Kraven and one of the best buried - alive scenes of comics. If you haven´t read this comic - get it for Halloween. You should be able to get a cheap copy from your local comicshop.

Other shows that tie in with the Halloween theme are a conversation with Abnett and Lanning who wrote the really creepy RESURRECTION MAN for DC, the list of the Top Five comic monsters , a conversation with HACK / SLASH´s Tim Seeley and BRPD´s Guy Davis . I hope the HULK is included in the Top Five comic monsters list, if not here´s an episode about everything HULK . It´s weird how the title has gone from one of the best to what it is Today. On Monday I was flipping through Walter Simonson´s Thor where the story with Odin´s floating eye was mentioned. So I thought of rereading my old BIBLIOTEKA MARVEL issues of THOR with that storyline.

To get them out I had to pull out the HULK issues which I began to filp through and then read a bit here and there. The issues had such great art by SalBuscema and Ernie Chan ( much of the stuff was never printed in Germany ) and was written so good and poetic that an hour went by before I realized it. When I finally got the THOR issues out they were rather boring compared to the HULK stuff - so I decided to re - read the HULK issues instead.


Comics really were different back then, much more like literature. And more stuff happend in one issue. If you don´t believe me just read issue 217 THE CIRCUS OF LOST SOULS. All the things that happen in this issue would take up at least three issues if if was published now. And what a great finale :

After these words the brute and the siren are engulfed by a voracious wave that brusquely rips Meriam from the arms of Hulk. And with the groundswell Hulk is once again alone.

He stays a while contemplating the ocean. Later he turns and walks on the beach, leaving only his wet footprints behind him which are swept away in no time at all.

In the end only the sea is eternal.

Again website links for Tim Seeley on Deviantart and the official Guy Davis website .

CONVOLUTED COMICS HISTORY

Comics can sometimes be complicated for outsiders, a fact that I´m always aware of whenever I talk comics with my sister who´s not such an avid comic reader. There are cases where the changing roster of writers trying to out - retcon themselves can lead to contradictory results. And even such " problem solvers " like CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS or ZERO HOUR can be the proverbial cures that are worse than the illness in itself.


But thanks to writer Curt Franklin and artist Chris Haley of the inimitable superhero webcomic " LET´S BE FRIENDS AGAIN " you can read various difficult examples in entertaining and funny shorthand. First up is the history of Aquaman explained ( since I already posted the link to the ComicGeekSpeak episode ) followed by other brainwreckers like Hawkman, Hank Pym, Rachel Summers and - the worst of them all - Xorn. Enjoy them !

HALLOWEEN HORROR MOVIE EXTRAVAGANZA

Another way to get into the right Halloween mood is to read POSTMODERNBARNEY´s rundown of horror movies that range from the best to the worst. Really interesting reading, and like Mike Sterling ( on whose wonderful site I found the original link ) I have seen far too many of the bad ones. Although I´m not ashamed to admit it since I prefer a good trashmovie over the newest arthouse midlife - crisis - of - the - month - movie. And yes, I have also seen waay to many of those.

RETURN TO SENDER

I already mentioned that I did a course that has finished this month. During the first month we did a few strange exercises which also included writing a letter to our future self. For most participants this was a strange concept but as an experienced comic reader I tried to do my best. As we were allowed to include anything we wanted I sent myself ten bucks since I knew that I could put it to good comic use in the future.


As the letter talks a bit about what I expected to do comicwise I thought it might be interesting to include it here.

Hello SUBZERO,

I hope you´re still alive. Now that it´s two weeks since GALA ( the name of the course ) ist over the ominous letter finally has arrived. I´m not expecting any miracles so I don´t expect you to have a job. If you do - super.

You probably didn´t go to Barcelona nor Erlangen, and if you went to Erlangen it probably was with the guys from Splashpages. If you really managed to do the interview with Oscar Jimenez - tell me how it was.

I hope you managed to keep up the translations of HORST. Do you have enough to put it on the spanish website ? I hope HORST is conquering the world.

With a bit of luck you are right now enjoying your own room - if not I wish you a lot of fun cleaning it up.....bwahahaha. Since you probably have more time now I hope you are writing regularly on your blog.

Healthwise I hope your shoulder is better. And I hope the vegetable diet has lead to some success. Don´t give up, dude.


It´s always strange to receive a letter from yourself - unless there´s some money included. Now that I mention it.....the ten bucks are for comics. Since half a year has passed Arthur Adams should be still working on ULTIMATE X. If not I´m sure you´ll find some use for it.

This weekend the big fight with XXXXXXX went down so I hope you have told him you´re sorry already. You probably bought ULTIMATES 2 and then kept it yourself. Or you ordered the COMPLETE EDITION. In any case, I hope that did work out.

Before writing this I managed to get a copy of the HEAVY METAL issue with your translation of VODOO DERIVATE. With a bit of luck you have gotten some money for that and the follow up STARCHILD ( or CHILD OF THE STARS depending on which title they decided on ) has seen print. It would be nice you you could get more of that.

Apart from that it´s probably about time to make plans for the COMIC ACTION since you probably haven´t been to Spain this year. I would really like to participate in the SCHWARZER TURM bootcamp again.

Furthermore your brother hasn´t stopped with his plans how you can " make a name for yourself in the german comic scene " if I know him right. Hopefully he´s not too obnoxious.

However life is treating you right now always remember Thor´s motto : I will never surrender or yield to despair.


Greetings from your past self, SUBZERO

P.S.: If you are a podperson, a clone or my evil self from a parallel dimension : I hope you are taking good care of my comics and stuff. Good luck with your plans for world domination - you loser ! Bwahahaha ! And for liquidating me - f - word you !

So how much of what I wrote has come true ?

I´m still alive and I still haven´t gotten a new job. Which is no big surprise. I didn´t go to Barcelona but I managed to go to Erlangen. I did meet up with the guys from Spalshpages to talk about offering my help for the Oscar Jimenez interview but that never came about. But we did manage to waste a lot of time on it.

I had managed to keep the HORST translations up but the last few months the course took up too much of my time and energy. But I have once again started, which is always the most difficult part. I hope I can finish a story till the end of the month so that HORST can conquer the world.

I do have my own room but I seldom have enough time to put everything in order. And I don´t have as much time as I hoped for so the postings on the blog have been rather sporadic although I hope I can improve it in the future. My shoulder is much better although it still hurts if I move it the wrong way and the vegetable diet is struggling. Going but struggling.


I have apologized to XXXXXXX but I still have to get a special present for him. Since I didn´t know that Tomorrow is his birthday ( it seems he also forgot that ) I haven´t been able to get a present but I´ll think of something this Christmas. And like I predicted I bought ULTIMATES 2 and kept it for myself. It wasn´t such a great idea after all since he can´t read english and the comic hasn´t come out in Germany in the hardcover edition. Shame on you german comic publishers. Whenever I want to spend some money on comics I can´t find quality stuff.

As for the HEAVY METAL stuff, so far I don´t know if the second story has been printed yet and there are also no news on the money front. Thank god for the ten bucks ! Ha ! For the COMIC ACTION it was much too late to make plans since I was busy with other stuff. Maybe next year.

Oh, and I hope I´m not a podperson, a clone or an evil duplicate from a parallel dimension. All in all not too bad.


I just hope I can get to the KANE stuff in the next installment. Grrrmbl.

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