300 posts and counting - out with the old, in with the new

Like I predicted last year I´m doing my 300th post in 2011 although I hadn´t counted on it being so late. But as usual I had planned to do something special for the 300th post which didn´t work out.

So I´m going to take a page out of the comics of my youth where the big celebration numbers were a feat in itself and the really important and revolutionary events happened in the issues with the uneven numbers.


First of all I want to thank all my readers for sticking with me and especially the ones who have participated in the big Christmas contest. The comics are already on their way to the candidates with the most right answers. I hope you have fun with the reading material and maybe we can do something similar in April when this blog celebrates it´s fifth year anniversary.

So, before I´m overwhelmed by 2011 I think it´s time to lean back and take a look at what 2010 brought us and what´s in store for 2011. With 36 posts this year I managed to get the lowest posting rate so far. But taking into account that I was mostly laid out this year because of my accident or partaking in the special course of the unemployment office it´s not such a bad quota. On the last few months I did 4 posts per month - on average - and I hope I can keep it at that.

But it wasn´t just a hard year for me. As predicted by myself on this very blog the bad economy and the price increase to 3.99 lead to poor sales in 2010 : sales of comics, graphic novels and magazines to comic stores declined slightly in 2010, slipping 3.5 percent from 2009, according to a year - end report released Thursday by Diamond Comic Distributors. John Jackson Miller’s estimate places the North American market at between $410 million and $420 million, down from the 2008 peak of $437 million. I guess numbers would have even been worse if DC wasn´t so determined to keep the 2.99 price tag.

BLACK IS BLACK, I WANT MY BABY BACK

Maybe the low sales have something to do with the fact that there seems to be a competition going on about who can come up with the ugliest costume. One condition : it has to be inside the pages of a actually printed comic. Here´s Vampirella´s new costume ( or lack thereof ) :


Talk about taking an iconic costume and ruining it. I think she´s gonna suffer the same fate as Lady Death who also donned street clothes to gain more mainstream appeal. The only problem was she went from being a big fish in a small pond to being a small fish in a big pond.

But Vampirella isn´t the only comic woman who got a makeover for the worse :


Can anyone explain to me why every time DC wants to improve sales for Wonder Woman they have to " re - imagine " her ? It´s like going to the garage for a broken muffler and they rebuild your car from scratch. That´s one of the reasons Power Girl´s history was so complicated.

Someone once wrote in an article about the X- Men that " it´s not necessary to re - imagine the X - Men. It´s enough to remember them . " Which is why sales are down. Instead of constant re - starts the comicmarket needs good stories that use the characters as they are. And since we´re on the subject of worst makeovers ever here´s Spider - Man´s new " gay Chorus Line meets sado - maso by way of Madonna " outfit. Clearly the winner of ugliest costumes ( so far ) :


I pity the fool who has to draw the fishnet parts of the costume every time from now on. Talk about unneccessary headaches. Oy. And is it just me or do all of these new costumes have a lot of black ?

But let´s first turn our attention to 2010. As it has been the habit here, we start with the digital side of the business as Robot 6 presents a rundown of 2010 in digital comics , Wired presents the best new webcomics of 2010 and The Webcomic Overlook has a list of the webcomic moments of 2010 .

Before we go any further I´m issuing a spoiler warning for this post which I normally don´t do. But if you can´t read all the comics that come out because of a tight budget there may be a few spoilers in the following lists of best comics or best moments in 2010. Be warned.

In the normal comic reading circles Comics Should Be Good finished it´s Year of Cool Comics archive that contains 365 kick - ass entries and Ain´t It Cool News has a roundtable that takes a look at DC and Marvel and 2010.

WE`RE JUST WAITING FOR THE HAMMER TO FALL

Speaking about Marvel, one of the Marvel title that´s mentioned on most best of 2010 lists is THOR : THE MIGHTY AVENGER, by Roger Langridge and Chris Samnee which despite it´s acclaim by readers and critics alike has been canceled .


Which is really no surprise, keeping in mind that Marvel has been unsucessfully trying to kill one of it´s best Spiderbooks, namely SPIDER - GIRL for years.

One of the reasons why the book failed to catch on with the general comic reader ? Maybe it has something to do with the fact that there are at least 5 different Thor series out there due to the upcoming film. I know Marvel´s motto has always been to flood the shelves with product to overpower the competition but that doesn´t mean the only Thor book left after the dust has settled will be the best. I don´t know how long Marvel can keep on bleeding money. Thor : The Mighty Avenger sounds like an interesting read that tries to " re - boot " the book for the general reader but I thought this was supposed to be Straczynski´s job. Well, till he left to write Wonder Woman and Superman. Although he´s also left Superman in the meantime ( more about that later on ).

And speaking about the regular THOR title, I have now come back to reading the monthly because my paisano Pascual Ferry ( Hola, Pascual ) is doing the artwork but the story is just too far out, really total WTF material. Especially the part about Thor missing his mischievious brother Loki - who always tried to kill him, his friends, destroy Asgard and most of the universe while at it. Ah, this Loki, he´s a real character.

As for Pasqual´s art it´s stunning as always and I really want to know why Marvel doesn´t release it as a black and white book. It would really look much better. So it looks like the best Thor series right now is THUNDERSTRIKE even if it´s only a 5 issue mini.


YOU`RE SIMPLY THE BEST

Normally I would now comment on the books I found blew the competition away in 2010 but first I´ll let some other bloggers chime in. Publishers Weekly has a list of the best mangas in 2010 as do Comics Worth Reading , Manga Xanadu and Comics and More

Here are ComicBook Resources´ 10 best comics of 2010 ( I didn´t read any of the books besides Batman & Robin ) and here NewsOk´s 10 best periodical comics of 2010 of which I only read two , and I have to say Supergirl really sucks, sorry.

No really, that comic shouldn´t be anywhere near a top 10 list. As shouldn´t CRY FOR JUSTICE and BATMAN ODYSSEY, two series that have entertained me quite well this year ( especially the first one which was the better Justice League book for the first part of the year ) and who nevertheless can be found on Comixology´s The Year in Stank countdown .

More best of 2010 : I managed to read 3 books of Comics and More´s 10 best superhero comics and one of Techland´s 10 best comics , Ping Motherbox Ping has a list of Best of the Year Awards , Girls Read Comics has their own Best of 2010 list as does The Weekly Crisis and over on The Daily Cross Hatch the artists choose the best damn comics of 2010 .


Echland presents the best graphic novels in 2010 , Comics Alliance the best graphic novels and comics and Mtv´s Splashpage the best graphic novels, comics and webcomics . And for completists there´s ComicBook Resources´ 100 best comics of 2010 and Multiversity´s best and worst of 2010 list although I don´t concur in regards to the GROUNDED storyline in Superman. For me it´s one of the best stories in the last few years that was of to a wonderful start although the quality drop in the interlude issues is extreme. But it seems DC is already torpedoing it.

Chris Roberson is the new writer for Superman and J. Michael Straczynski is out to focus on graphic novels because the new storyline proved to be unpopular with a lot of readers. Well, that means that was it for me and Superman because that was the only story in the last few years that had any merit. It seems DC doesn´t know a good story when they have one.

Who does know a good story is Ian Robbinson at Crave online who includes DC UNIVERSE legacies in his 20 biggest comic book moments of 2010 which - in my opinion - had one of the best isssues of the year that featured wonderful art by Mr. Crisis, the great George Perez himself.


As it will take quite some time until the TITANS GAMES graphic novel comes out ( George has already finished his part but it also has to be colored and such ) I will be re - reading the comic a few times in the next months.

To finish our 2010 part - and start the 2011 part - Techland tell us what I was grateful for in 2010 and Robot 6 has a look at the 50 best covers of 2010 before taking a look at 2010 and making predictions for 2011 .

LET`S TELL THE FUTURE. LET`S SEE HOW IT`S BEEN DONE

I even managed to be quoted on MIKE STERLING`S PROGRESSIVE RUIN blog with one of my predictions for 2011 that you could make in the comment section . You should really read them as there are some really hilarious ones. Now here´s the part where Mr. Sterling quoted me :

Subzero coldly predicts : “All the people who claimed none of the CrossGen books were any good after the company went bankrupt will be bitching that they aren´t as good now that Marvel does them. They will still buy them.”

Oh, sure, almost certainly. I am wondering when the first Marvel crossover will involve the Crossgen properties, too.


Neat,huh ? You can read Mr. Sterling´s comments on the predictions on these posts : part 1 , part 2 and part 3

Here a few creators do a resume of 2010 and speculate about 2011 and you can find more creators picks for 2011 part 1 and part 2 . Techland shows what they´re looking for in 2011 as About Com Manga has 25 most anticipated mangas for 2011. On my list ? The return of RUSE in 2011 although Marvel doesn´t put butch Guice on art ( although they could ) and a new Powerman and Iron Fist series which hopefully won´t suck.


Although the whole " re - imagined by Marvel " tag - line sounds like a lot of hot air I´m glad that the title is back. If it´s successful there may be more CrossGen titles which will be coming back. Back in the day when CrossGen was at it´s height I had at least 10 of their titles to read each month. And when I say each month I mean each month because in all of it´s first 5 years there was only one month were titles came out late.

And that was because the distributors changed the date for distributing the comics from Friday to Wednesday. I hope other companies would take note of that. I mean I love to have Frank Cho or Arthur Adams on monthly books but it also would be nice if they came out - at least - semi - monthly. Okay, in the case of Arthur Adams it´s understandable since he has to take care of his newlyborn offspring. But I think it´s a huge snafu by Marvel´s publicist departement that it wasn´t able to make that fact known to fans and we had to learn it from other sources.

I mean everybody can understand that a man has to care for his family. And I prefer an issue with great art by Arthur Adams that is a bit later than an issue that comes out in time but with rushed art. And since we´re on the subject of Arthur Adams it seems that his variant cover for SECRET AVENGERS got nixxed by Marvel and replaced by one from Chis Bachalo. Don´t know why, maybe they want to bring the Arthur Adams cover as a poster to make more money.


SECRET AVENGERS has been one of my top series of 2010 because this one got it all : gorgeous art by Mike Deodato, hot chicks like Valkyrie on the team and they even have Shang Chi in the latest storyline. Who could ask for more ?

It seems SIEGE has really paid off for the Avengers titles as John Romita Jr. keeps hitting them out of the ballpark on AVENGERS, Alan Davis is finishing a stellar run on AVENGERS PRIME and AVENGERS - THE CHILDREN`S CRUSADE brings back the sorely missed Young Avengers. Even if it could come out more often. NEW AVENGERS is the book I´m wishing was on my pull list thanks to Stuart Immomen´s dashing art and a Spider - Man who can´t get a break...heck, even AVENGERS ACADEMY seems to be a good book.

My only gripe with Bendis that he seems to be out to destroy me. No, really. What is it with you Bendis, can´t you let me have one little piece of happiness ? I´ll get you for this.

THERE`S SO MUCH TO DO AND I`M TIRED OF SLEEPING

If you don´t frequent the comic newssites very often ( like me ) there may be some stories you might have missed like Stan Lee getting his own star on the walk of fame or that DC is bringing back lettercolums which has lead to a huge outcry from a lot of cybergeeks for whom writing an actual letter on paper with a pen seems to be a huge effort. Some are already trying to boycott that. Geez, if you don´t like them don´t read them like I do with the Fantastic Four lettercol.

You know, they will not cancel the lettercolumns for storypages. It´s a given that the stories will be cut to 20 pages. The only question is if it´s going to be one more page of ads or the lettercolumn.


Back when I started reading american comics I almost never got them in order or with huge gaps between issues. so for me the lettercolumns were the only way to find out what happened in those issues I missed. And I also could find out stuff that I hadn´t noticed or wasn´t aware of because I was new to the title. So unlike some other who are afraid of everything that harkens back to more than three years and isn´t STAR TREK I´m looking forward to lettercolumns.

By the way, Erik Larsen needs more letters for his SAVAGE DRAGON mag ( some comics out there never got rid of them in the first place ) so if you always wanted to give him a piece of your mind now is the right time. The chanches to get your letter printed are pretty good.

WHEN HEROES GO DOWN THEY LAND IN FLAME

And finally we have the Death of Spider - Man . No, not the regular series, that´s dying a slow and agonizing death ever since BRAND NEW DAY, the character Spider - Man is dying. At least the ultimate version. I wish Marvel would make up their mind. First they start the Ultimate line, then they flush it down the toilet, then they bring it back as Ultimate comics and now they´re tearing it down again. I´m just tired of it all.

But Marvel has also a really novel idea : they are going to kill off a member of the Fantastic Four in 2011 thus making the team the TERRIFIC THREE.


It´s no wonder readers are betting on who is going to buy the farm ( most bets are on poor Ben at the time ) and when he will be back. Since I got back to the title after Dale Eaglesham had left mainly for Steve Epting´s art I don´t care as long as it´s a good story. Which till now it has been. So I´m just enjoying the ride.

HONEYMOON SUITE

Another comic title that has managed to garner some heat and hyperbole thanks to some death and drama is ARCHIE. They finally married him ( although to Betty AND Veronica in two alternate universes ) and have introduced the first gay character of the series.


Not every one is pleased with the new succes of the books. But you probably already know that since you are reading all the new posts on Comicbits Online ( which can be found on the blogroll ) as soon as they come out, right ?

I have to say Mr. Hooper is almost convincing me to start reading ARCHIE. Which is aided by the fact that one of my personal favorite Batman artists of all times : Norm Breyfogle. I would buy the ARCHIE issues right now if they had them at my comicshop but I will probably have to get the collected edition via amazon.


And speaking about amazon I have managed to get quite a few hardcovers for my collection at bargain prices. I´m also reading more and more series in the trade format although it can take quite some time before I can catch up on them.

BETWEEN THE PEN AND THE PAPERWORK

Like always we a have a few comic creator links : the comic college has a spotlight on Charles M Schulz , Fantagraphics interviews Stan Sakai who celebrates 25 years of Usagi Yojimbo, The Huffington post has an Al Jaffe interview and there are two interview Robert Kirkman whose year just gets better and better thanks to the WALKING DEAD tv series and the resulting media attention. As a follow up to an earlier post here´s another interview with Felicia Day who seems to be on a roll with her THE GUILD comics. More mainstream related are the interview with David Finch and Mark Waid .

In an interesting essay 212 ponders the question why so many comic blogs write about mainstream superheroes .


Well, for my part I have always said that it has something to do with the fact that I don´t get any review copies ( aside from the fact that I love superhero comics ) . As long as I have to pay for the comics I read myself there are only so many I can get each month. I would love to read all those critically acclaimed comics but till some review copies find my way it´s just not in my budget. Sorry.

It may be a small consolation that if I read a mainstream superhero comic that sucks ( mostly through the comics my brother has on his pull list, like Supergirl ) then I will most assured say so on my blog. What´s DC going to do ? Send me less review copies ? Start writing a good Supergirl series ?

And I always say : if you´re tired with the big two because of the constant megacrossovers, killing of characters only to bring them back two issues later and the unending stream of retcons you could try out SAVAGE DRAGON or INVINCIBLE, two of the best books out there that are subject to one writer´s unique vision. I know this blog could offer a wider range of subjects which is the reason that I devoted two months to the WORLD WITHOUT SUPERHEROES posts. So far I didn´t get much reaction to it so I don´t know how popular it was with my readers.


To finish things of Ben Morse at The Cool Kidz Table explains his fondness of teen superheroes and gathers the Jewish Justice League while Austin Hartmann compiles the ten best drinking buddies in comics

If you have managed to get this far it´s time to wrap up this post. I´ll let my personal comments to 2010 for another time. As usual here´s a video, this time the YOUNG JUSTICE pilot for the new animeted series. Is it just me or is Robin´s excitement beginning to border on the annoying ?



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


Too late for pause....too late for peace. Namor has murdered Ul-Uhar....so he must die.

Why comics rule so much more in spanish

Man, I really hoped to do some comic relevant post Today but it´s once again a post with videos. Well, it´s comic related because it´s about Marvel cartoons but not comics - comic related if you get my meaning.


Quite some time ago ( in fact in June of 2007 ) I wrote that I liked some of the spanish names for superheroes better than the original names. Moon Knight, Avengers or Iron Man doesn´t sound as Airwolf as Caballero Luna, Vengadores and Hombre de Hierro.

Quote from myself : PEDAZOS DE ODIO ! Now doesn´t that sound better than any original title could ? Sometimes the spanish translations have a better ring to it than english. I mean Iron Man sounds cool but the spanish name " Hombre the Hierro " is just oozing with machismo. If I was a wrestler that would be the kind of name I would go for. Or even better " El mucho grande Hombre de Hierro ". Yeah, that´s perfect.

Watching the 60s Marvel cartoons I found something that just shows how superior the spanish adaption can be to the original work. I know that sounds contradictory but I want all the readers who remember the opening title of the 60s Thor cartoon show to get an earful of El Poderoso Thor :



Now doesn´t that sound infinitely better than the original version ? And they said disco was dead. But wait, you haven´t heard nothing yet. Just wait for the theme song for Hulk - or la Masa how he was sometimes called in Spain. That´s almost like the bellcanto of big operas.



Now I didn´t know these songs because - 1 - I haven´t seen a lot of these cartoons in the spanish version or - 2 - if I did it was a long time ago and I don´t remember.

Apparently they were done under the name of Capitan Memo Aguirre by Juan Guillermo Aguirre ( born 1951 ), better known as Memo Aguirre, a famous Chilean singer whose voice has been heard all over Latin America, particularly during the opening acts of superhero cartoon shows during the 1980s. They were done for Latin America but were exported to most spanish speaking countries.

Here´s the title song for El Hombre Araña or Spider - Man how he is also called. A catchy little tune. The video is with footage from the Spider - Man movies with Tobey Maguire. Sorry, but I couldn´t find one with the full spanish opening.



Man, I want a CD with these song SO bad. I would totally buy this if they had it on amazon. Or like my paisanos say : Compratelo ya !

Here are a few more songs from the Hombre Araña cartoons. I can´t decide which is my favorite, especially that SPIDER POWER song sounds like a sure hit.



And since we had so many spidersongs already here are some from La Mujer Araña how Spiderwoman is called in Spain. The show stars Jessica Drew who also fought more mystical opponents in the comics - I think. Her powers are a bit different from our favorite webslinger.



Last but not least a few tunes from Los Cuatro Fantasticos. How could I ever live without it ?



And to show you that it´s not just some prank by some spanish guy who took some intros and put music on it here´s an episode of La Mujer Araña called LA VENGANZA DE DRACULA. Because nothing says " Merry Christmas " like vampires.


Actually vampires, werewolves and a few Frankenstein monsters.

In the story Dracula is out for revenge ( hence the title ) on Dr. Van Helsing who lives in his castle after defeating Dracula. The cur, how dare he ? It just serves him right to get turned into a vampire as well as all the freeloaders who are crashing at Castle Dracula.

Meanwhile Jessica is at the cinema watching ALIEN SPIDER with Jeff ( who´s always trying to get some quality time with Jessica ) and Billy ( the little brat who always makes sure Jeff gets none ) as her spider instinct picks up a disturbance in the force. Under the excuse to get some popcorn she goes to confront Dracula and shoots some bolts on him. When she gets back the thing with the popcorn is never mentioned again as both Jeff and Billy think that was just an excuse to leave the cinema because tia Jessica was just scared.

Dracula - who managed to escape - naturally he is not satisfied with turning Van Helsing and his party guests into vampires ( with some special rayo vampiro that he shoots from his hand ). No, he also digs up the Wolf Man and Frankenstein´s monster.


Who also transform people into werewolves and Frankenstein monster by using beams they shoot out of their eyes ( Wolf Man ) or their metal bolts ( Frankenstein´s monster ). So in short there are a lot of beams shooting back and forth.

Jessica ( who always pretends to have fainted to become Spiderwoman - ay, mujer ) even gets turned into a vampire / werewolf hybrid but thanks to a nearby labaratory she can cook up a chemical cocktail that turns her normal. Ah, the 60s, when superheroes had the scientific knowledge to whip up an anti - vampire - werewolf - elixir in no time flat.

So here are Dracula, the Man Wolf and Frankenstein´s monster in spanish ( although only Dracula has a speaking role while the other two just growl ) and more innocent bystanders turned into classic movie monsters than you can shake a stick at. And in the case of Frankenstein´s monster there were really some people crazy enough to shake a stick ( or a pitchfork ) at him.



So that´s all for today and next time we´ll be talking comics - promise. There are a few days left till the deadline for the big Christmas contest so drop me an e - mail. You can find the rules and everything else about the contest here so enter and wins some comics.

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

SUBZERO´s lazy video post

There hasn´t been a loot of posts on this blog in the last few days because I was waiting for a few comics I ordered. Sometimes when I´m waiting for new comics I get writer´s block - I don´t know why.


It´s not like I have nothing else to read, I´m re - reading my BIBLIOTEKA MARVEL THOR issues with the big Celestial Saga where Thor meets Odin´s missing eye and the mistery of his mother is revealed. The story is so entertaining because Roy Thomas took all the elements of the Niebelungen saga and the elements from nordic folklore, added some giant space gods and a few pantheons and just put it through the blender.


Besides reading that I´m also finishing book 5 of the collected ANDRAX edition from CrossCult. But somehow I didn´t have the impulse to write.

Some of the stuff I kept myself busy with were :

fellow blog Collected Editions interviewed for Berliner Tagesspiegel

Collected Editions top 10 JLA trades

the reason why Uncle Scrooge is called Dagobert in Germany

business cards of superheroes ( and villains )

10 unforgettable tv christmases

playing blockbreaker - highly addictive !

I also watched a lot of stuff on YouTube. Some people may tell you that there´s nothing good on YouTube but that´s because they don´t know how to look for it.

In my last post I had already posted two clips from the PRISONERS OF GRAVITY series, one of them with comic legend Jack Kirby. Through a video posted on ComicBitsOnline ( Terry Hooper´s blog that I hope you are reading especially if you are interested in some british comics that also appeared in the german KOBRA comics ) I found another video about Jack Kirby. It´s a bit shorter but nevertheless interesting if you haven´t seen it before.



The next thing I found were the animated movies NEXT AVENGERS - THE HEROES OF TOMORROW and PLANET HULK. Now I didn´t like the NEXT AVENGERS movie because by making the main characters even younger than in the comic they totally ruined it. Yes, there are some people in marketing who may think that by making the main characters younger their target audience can identify better with them.

Which is totally untrue because when I was a kid reading comics I identified with my heroes even when they were 15 years older than me, had a lot more money and weren´t even spanish. I know that a lot of comic readers are campaigning for superheroes who have the same gender, ethnic background, appearance or sexual preference as them and I say that´s okay. The superhero universes try to reflect the real world and as such the more diverse the better. But I never was interested in such superficial things because I always was more concerned with what´s inside a hero. What makes him tick. Everything else are just labels and a lot of noise - meaning nothing.

On top of that it also makes no sense to let kids of that age endanger their lives by figthing crime. But the worst thing were the metal boob thingies on Thorgirl. That´s just sicker than lego Catwoman shaking her hips.


It cannot recommend this movie.

On the other hand I liked PLANET HULK movie much more, especially that they exchanged the Silver Surfer with Beta Ray Bill. It looks just too stupid when Norrin Radd uses his surfboard as a giant shield like those elves in Final Fantasy with the giant sword. But you can see for yourself. Here are the links ( as the embedding was disabled ) :

next avengers - heroes of tomorrow / planet hulk - part 1

Now since it´s Christmas in a few days you may still have to get some presents. This year I was thinking about give away some animated movies but then I decided to stick with comics. That´s quite predictable but that´s just how I am. But back when I was thinking about getting some animated movies I was considering the DC movies.

The last one I gave away as a present was GREEN LANTERN - FIRST FLIGHT and I really like that one.


Just last week I watched it again because I´m a bit anxious for the new GREEN LANTERN movie and it was as good as I remembered. My only problem is that DC does so many of these movies. UNDER THE RED HOOD is already out as well as the SUPERMAN / BATMAN - DOOMSDAY and ALL STAR SUPERMAN has already been announced.

With my small budget I´ll have to wait till they are in the DVD shops to rent. Now if you have a tiny budget for comics and other pop art things you may opt for the cheaper version of the DVDs. Because DC always does two versions. The only problem with that is that there are exclusive short films among the extras on the special editions. So, to make your decision easier ( or more difficult - who knows ) here are two of the short films that were included in UNDER THE RED HOOD ( Jonah Hex ) and in SUPERMAN / BATMAN - APOKALYPSE ( Green Arrow ).





What I also considered were the WATCHMEN motion comic and the TALES OF THE BLACK FREIGTHER movie ( I have forgotten which one comes with the UNDER THE HOOD documantary - nice segueway with the Batman animated movie by the way ). I wasn´t sure how good they were but even if I have some qualms about motion comics ( I ´ve seen some bad ones ) the WATCHMEN version looks pretty good. Sorry, I only could find the spanish version. Here´s the first part of the first chapter.



And here´s TALES FROM THE BLACK FREIGTHER - in german. My, aren´t we multilingual Today ? This is a pretty good film even if you keep in mind that it should be part of the regular WATCHMEN movie.



Now there are a few movies I would like to buy for Christmas presents but I can´t. Because I can´t find them anywhere or I didn´t think of them when I ordered the Christmas presents. The first is from the last category and it´s the classic 60s cartoon THE HULK. I couldn´t believe it but there are really DVDS of this out there at amazon, SATURN or Weltbild. In fact it´s a 2 DVD set that contains the entire series.

The HULK series does have a kind of cheesy intro but the art is based on the actual comicbook drawings by Jack Kirby. And the dialogue is from Stan Lee. Even if I didn´t know that as a kid I would have been tripping if that had shown this on german tv. And the animation looks like the motion comics that are so " vogue " Today. So, no, that is no new idea. So without any further ado ( as they said in those days ) Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you : the Space Phantom !



Now, if you begin to think : " Boy, this SUBZERO fella such has weird taste. " Then you haven´t seen nothing yet. Because my next pick would be NICK FURY : AGENT of S.H.I.E.L.D. starring David Hasselhoff in the lead role.

This may sound crazy but the more I see of the movie the more I want to see it. The Hoff is like Nick Fury if he had stepped out of a comicbook in this movie and they even use the old " We thought you were dead. " " I got better. " shtick. Here are 8 minutes from the movie.



And to top it all off here´s my number 1 pick for a Christmas present : Roland Emmerich´s Fantastic Four movie from 1991 ( with Roger Corman as executive producer so you might have heard of it as the roger Corman Fantastic Four movie ) that was never released for cinemas. Yes, the special effects are laughable from Today´s point of view but in every other aspect it´s pretty good. The actors looke like the Fantastic Four in the comic book, Ben Grimm really looks more like his printed version and they even pull off the original Dr. Doom costume. Something that none of the two new movies managed.



So that´s all for Today. I hope some of this helps you with your Christmas shopping and if not the deadline for the big Christmas contest hasn´t expired yet. There are still good chances of being in the top five judging by the entries I´ve received so far.

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

The big Christmas contest

Today instead of looking back on 2010 I thought it was time for the promised Christmas contest here on Tales from the Kryptonian. And to get you in the right mood here´s a bit of music for you.

click here for the track

Now I wanted to do a contest for quite some time to say thanks to all my loyal readers. Tales from the Kryptonian will have it´s 5 year anniversary in 2011 and I thought it´s about time to give back something.


As longtime readers may know I don´t get many review copies so all the prizes come out of my personal comic collection. I´ll try to get to my comicshop before the deadline expires so I can get more comics from the GRATIS COMIC TAG to include in the package.

The stuff I give away is in great part promo stuff, Free comic Book Day comics and other goodies. But I´ll also include some normal comics which I have two of because of a trade I bought or that it was reprinted in a comic. Now I can´t promise that you will get all the good stuff but if you have some preferences ( say, you would rather have comic d than comic a ) be sure to mention it. Today I have gone through my longboxes and this is the stuff I have come up with so far :

3 copies of COMIX issue 7 ( they were intended for a contest I never got around to make ), COMIX issue 8, MAX comics 10 : Hyperion vs Nighthawk, MAX comics 26 - Punisher : Die lange kalte Nacht, Marvel Exclusiv 26 : Daredevil Höllenfahrt, X - Men Sonderheft 6 - Generation M, X - Men Forever 6, X - Men and Spider - Man 1, Delete 3, Gratis Comic Tag Hellboy


Gratis Comic Tag Ythaq, Gratis Comic Tag Star Wars Clone Wars, Curse of the Mutants Saga, Invincible Iron Man 1, Invincible 0, Savage Dragon 0, Free Comic Book Day Image Summer Special, Free Comic Book Day William Shatner presents, Free Comic Book Day Mercy Sparx - Under new management, Free Comic Book Day Archie presents the mighty Archie Art Players, Free Comic Book Day Wolverine - Origin of an X - Man and last but not least Vampire Boy 1 - Die Auferstehung.

And yes, most of the Free Comic Book Day comics are from last year because from the 12 or 14 comics I ordered this year only 4 have arrived so far. But I´m going to split the pile up into 4 or 5 nice packages.

Now you may ask yourself what you have to do to get some of this stuff. I could give it just all away to spread some holiday cheer but I know how much fun a good hunt can be. So here´s the contest rules. At the end of my posts - under the links to the top ten posts on this blog - there is a banner and under the banner I like to put some funny quotes from comics.


Now I know I have been a bit lazy with this in my last few posts. Which is in part due that i´m not always writing a post when I come across a great quote. Or I´m writing a post and I don´t come across a good quote. Because I´m mostly looking for ones that still sound good when they are taken out of context. And not all of them are quotes from comics.

What you have to do is to send an e - mail with 5 quotes ( don´t want to make it too difficult ) and from which comic they are taken. Now you may take last 5 quotes or you can pick 5 random quotes. Also, it doesn´t matter if they are from a comic, from a movie or from somebody famous. The important thing is that you send 5 quotes and the corresponding comics. And I´m not so anal that you have to know the exact issue number. However the more exact your answers are the higher your chances of winning.


Okay, what happens if you can´t identify 5 quotes ? No problem, the packages will be going to the contestants with the most correct answers. Which means if you only have 4 and all others only have 3 your chances are pretty good. Yeah, I know kind of overkill for the 3 readers I have. But who knows, it could be fun. Anyway, send your answers and your preferences for comics via e - mail ( you can get the address by clicking the " view complete profile " link ) and put " Christmas contest " in the about line.

Now because I have to send the comics by mail contestants from Germany have better chances to win. Most of the comics are in german anyway, sorry. Oh yes, the deadline will be on the 24th of December. It is the big Christmas contest after all.

So good luck and I hope I can add a few more comics to the list till then.

Today´s videos are from the show PRISONERS OF GRAVITY from the 80s ( at least I think so ) that I first encountered on Neil Gaiman´s blog. The first one is an episode about Jack Kirby and the seond one is all about Watchmen.





I also wanted to mention that I´m still open for some review copies and if anyone wants to sponsor the contest with some comics that would be great. If you want to exchange links for your blog just send me an e - mail ( although it should be a blog that has something to do with comics or pop culture ) because the new spam function blocks some of the comments.


And in case you haven´t noticed there´s also a link to my amazon store with my personal recommendations on this blog. Okay, enough pimping for Today. Next time another look at things that were Airwolf in 2010.

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Because.....there are.