As promised here´s the first post with the ever - so - popular selection of comic news, weird findings and the usual internet curiosities.
It´s been a while since I have read any news at all and concerning DC my life has been better without it. Now some people may say that I´m just bashing DC because they flushed the DC universe I liked down the toilet but I think the trainwreck that is called THE NEW 52 is going more and more off the rails. And I´m not even talking about the recent news that they will have three different artists on JUSTICE LEAGUE. No, the snafus by the DC execs have become so numerous that there is a brandnew website called Has DC done something stupid Today ? where you can get the latest disaster news.
THE FIRE´S STILL BYRNING
Fellow blogger Pedro Angosto at MAN OF BRONZE has added another batch of John Byrne commissions . I have to say I still get a kick out of his cover recreations and DC / Marvel crossovers. As well as his books from IDW. After COLD WAR he has started HIGH WAYS and I think after that wraps up DOOMSDAY 1 is next. Yup, plenty of Byrne stuff for old school fans like me.
In 2010, Archie switched its bookstore distribution to Random House Publisher Services, which lead to a revamped approach to get into the book market, adding more
book formats such as trade paperbacks, and children’s book formats,
said Harold Buchholz, senior VP of publishing, who joined Archie as
head of its book division in 2010. Archie published 11 book titles that
year and by 2012 it published 33 titles. This year the house will
release about 40 titles and it expects to release 50 in 2014.
As somebody who has just recently re - entered the world of Archie after a decades long absence I have to say they are doing everything right. Okay, right now I´m only reading the MARRIED LIFE collections but when I see all the news about Archie Comics I really want to get into it more. Because as good as the MARRIED LIFE series is the wait between trades is really awfully long. On the other side most of the issues I got through FREE COMIC BOOK DAY or other giveaways seem to go into the one - gag story direction which is really not that appealing to me. The great thing about MARRIED LIFE is that it is a long, continuing storyline ( although the first big part is concluded in the third trade ) so I can get involved with the characters over a long period of time. I don´t know if that´s something new to the Archie universe but apart from Norm Breyfogle´s art that has ben the biggest pull for the series.
Anyway, Archie seems to avoid the mistakes other publishers are making and who knows ? Maybe there is a title for me after all......
No news post is complete with some previews and this one has the motherlode. Previews galore can be found at this link from Comicbook Resources which can be found at the blog roll.
My picks : FF 7 , NOVA 4 ( I´m so waiting for the trade on this one, but they got me once again with the racoon - don´t ask ), WOLVERINE 3 ( also waiting for the trade even though it is Alan Davis ), X - MEN 1 ( not sure about Olivier Coipel´s all girls team, I´d have to see more issues ) , WORLDS FINEST 12 ( Power Girl finally back in costume.......her real costume I mean ), AQUAMAN 19 ( I hope Paul Pelletier stay a while on this title ), ARCHER & ARMSTRONG 10 ( best relaunch of a series this year ), SAVAGE DRAGON 187 ( I can´t pimp this book high enough ) and ALL NEW X - MEN 11 by Stuart Immomen.
I have been a fan oif his art since his LEGION OF SUPER - HEROES issues and he´s hitting it out of the ballpark again. I just read his FEAR ITSELF hardcover this weekend and while it´s Marvel´s usual event - centric story that leaves little room for characterisation the art is worth the price of admission. Now the story in itself ( no pun intended ) is not as bad as it sound when you hear " the Red Skull´s daughter resurrects the asgardian God of Fear who gives seven hammers to guys like Hulk, Juggernaut and the Thing and then it´s Armageddon " and to tell the truth when I kind of rushed the reading since I was busy downloading the last episodes of Doctor Who. Since my computer has been constantly crashing the last weeks I´m four episodes behind and......aw, what the heck. Anyway, back to FEAR ITSELF, I finally ordered the thing from amazon when I saw the german monster edition and the beautiful art. I think I´m going to re - read it Today since it does have a few F - WORD YEAH ! - moments and I think the reader has to read it a few times to appreciate it. Anyway, good stuff and I´m anxious to get my first ALL NEW X - MEN hardcover.
Nope, the pic has nothing to do with X - Men. I just like it.
And with that I´m once again over the 2 hour mark at the internet cafe ( 2 hours 45 minutes to be exact ) so I´m going to wrap this post up. Today´s video is one I think I haven´t posted before : Drawing Comics the Marvel Way with Stan Lee and John Buscema. The constant rapping by Stan can get tiresome but it´s a great chance to see one of the true comic masters at work.
I know the title sounds a bit ominous but since I have slept approximately less than six hours in the last three days combined that´s exactly how I feel. And to top it off I´m sitting in an internet cafe right now writing this post instead of heading home to get some sleep.
Back when I was unemployed not being able to sleep was not that big a problem because I did what most people nowadays do when they can´t sleep : surf the internet. I mean, that´s where most of my posts on this blog came from. You can´t sleep, you fire up the old machine and it´s once again time to wax about comics. Is there anything better in the world than that ?
But when you have to work you have to get up at a certain time ( or at least try to get up at something approximating that time ) so you can´t spend hours in front of the computer until you´re either finished with your post or so tired you hit the sack. Whatever comes first. But that´s not an option anymore when you´re a working class stiff especially when your old computer´s not as reliable as it used to.
There has been a longer wait since my last post but only because I tried to write from the privacy of my own home instead of using an internet cafe. I guess I´m just stubborn this way. I tried for too long to find a way to do it at home but the blue screen is almost a permanent thing - if I manage to get the computer to boot at all. It's like the machine has digital Alzheimer. So I probably have no other choice than to buy a new laptop and in the meantime use the internet cafe.
Which is kind of difficult if I want to write about certain comics because I have all the material at home. So I will probably write more about things you can find on the interwebs like new previews, top ten lists and news. It´s been a while since we had a news post around here so that´s a nice change of topics. And in regards to my independent comic reading list - I can take a hint. I mean, at first the computer started acting up whenever I mentioned the topic but now he has gone into full strike mode to eliminate even the slightest chance I might do so. So the topic is shelved for the moment but not forever.
IT ALSO IS NEVER AS GOOD AS THE SECOND TIME
Like usual there is something that goes back to a previous post, in this case the one about Dark Horse reprints of the classic Warren EERIE comics in their EERIE ARCHIVE collections. Now, while the last one I mentioned - volume 11 - has gone back to the price of 37 EUROS volume 10 is currently available for 19.63 EUROS. There are only 6 copies left so don´t wait too long. And if you want a little bit more info about volume 10 you can find it here .
IRONING IT OUT - DELOADED
This is my fourth and final attempt to finish this part of the post. I thought since it´s really not possible to do a just review without having the book in question at hand I cut my second session at the internet cafe short and tried to finish this at home. I really felt that I would be doing a disservice to my readers if I didn´t include all the things you can only see with the actual review copy but my computer bailed out on me after 15 minutes. So I´m once again at the internet cafe with some notes I made at home. It´s not the perfect in - depth review I wanted to make after three failed attempts I have to finally wrap this up :
Since we are on the subject of amazon there is something I absolutely wanted to mention before going on to other things. There´s a book sold at a real bargain price right now and there are still 14 copies left.
The book in question I´m writing about is IRON MAN OMNIBUS - Volume 1 by David Micheline, Bob Layton and John Romita Jr. I know it´s a big sucker, in fact you probably need a weapons license for that thing. It definitely qualifies as a foreign object in wrestling.
Now this is one of Marvel´s new 99.99 mammoth books and usually I wouldn´t dream of going anywhere near this sucker. Even if you get it from an internet comicshop or from amazon you pay between 85 and 75 EUROS which is out of my normal price range.
The reason why I still was adamant about mentioning it on my blog is that RIGHT NOW amazon Germany is offering the collection for 56.95 EUROS which is totally mindblowing. I don´t want to influence my readers into buying these comics or those.....well, that´s a lie. I do. I admit it. I try to warn my readers about comics which - I think - are a waste of money and steer them to some books that I think are more deserving of their hardearned dollars ( or EUROS in this case ). I´m not ashamed of that. And I also want to inform my readers of every comic bargain I come across. That doesn´t always work out as planned since some of these bargains are going faster than I can post them but I´m still trying my best. Because as somebody who has to pay for the comics on his blog out of his own pocket ( except the comics from BLACK TOWER COMICS that they send me out of the goodness of their heart and which I´m way behind on reviewing - sorry ) I know that sometimes you just can´t afford those nice hardcovers you´d like to buy. Especially with most comic books now going for 4 bucks. You just pay a lot of money for your usual subscription and there is nothing left for things outside of your pull list.
So, whenever I come across on of these bargains I feel obligated to mention it on my blog. Okay, back to the IRON MAN OMNIBUS, like I said, usually not something I would consider buying and at first I was not going to buy it. Bargains are one thing but 57 bucks is still a lot of cash for one book. But there were two factors that finally changed my mind about that.
The first one was being able to actually hold the book in my hand at my trusty comicshop and seeing how big it is. The second one was that last year I ordered the third volume of the TEEN TITANS OMNIBUS.
Now the thing never arrived and since it has been rescheduled to June I canceled my order but I was willing to pay pretty much the same amount of money for a collection that has only 792 pages. So that convinced me to order the book, especially since I don´t have to schlepp the thing home myself. And there is not much you can do wrong with the material collected in here. I mean this is probably as good as it gets with IRON MAN stuff, the gold standard so to speak - at least for my generation. The dream team of Micheline, Layton and John Romita Jr have created most of the classic Iron Man stories and a lot of them are included in this volume like DEMON IN A BOTTLE ( which just made the number 1 spot on Comicbook Resources list of The 25 Greatest Iron Man Stories Ever Told and the writing team of David Micheline and Bob Layton is currently in the lead on their Best Iron Man writer poll ), HULK IS WHERE THE HEART IS ( number 18 ) or DOOMQUEST ( number 3 ). Especially Bob Layton has been connected to the book - or better the Iron Man franchise since I think he was involved in the movie versions in some capacity - in some way over the years may it be as a writer, artist or inker.
Heck, Bob Layton may be one of the first inkers whose work I sought out and to this day I still look his stuff up whenever I ink something metallic or shiny. He´s just the godfather of heavy metal inking. And John Romita Jr is just one of the go - to guys when you have to put robots or mechas in a book. It´s either him or George Perez for me.
Back to the collection, it has 994 pages and collects the first legendary run by this comic creator trifecta - issues 115 to 157 - that pretty much was a big thing when I was reading comics in my school days. John Romita Jr was just starting to stretch his artistical legs and like Marvel never gets tired to say the trio managed to capture lightning in a bottle.
The stories in this book include the aforementioned DEMON IN A BOTTLE story which I first read in the spanish version ( which was EL INVENCIBLE HOMBRE DE HIERRO which sounds waaay cooler than Iron Man ) and it´s one of the few Iron Man trades I have. The collection also features issue 147, the first american Iron Man copy I ever possessed in which BLACKLASH, the new modified version of Whiplash has his first appearance. I must have read this copy a few hundred times which may be the reason why the splash page of Iron Man facing off against Blacklash with head of security Vic Martinelli standing behind him. And I still remember this particular text :
" Three heads nod. And nod. And nod. "
There area lot of other things I still remind of the issue likenewly hired SI Vice President Yvette Avril saving the day only to have her thunder stolen by Public Relations chief Artemis Pithens as he takes credit for it. Or if I remembered correctly Iron Man just assumed it was Pithens who was the hero of the day and Artie didn´t correct him. Well, that´s the male chauvinism of the 80s at work here. I don´t want to go into more detail here but for those who want to know more about the issue they should definitely check out Gutter Talks review of Iron Man issue 147called FIDDLING ABOUT WHILE STARK INTERNATIONAL BURNS.
Speaking about firsts, a lot of people and things are introduced into Iron Man lore in this volume that have later on become canon like Justin Hammer ( now known from his appearance in the second Iron Man movie ), the dreadnaughts, the stealth armor or the outer space armor. You also get Tony´s legendary clash with Dr. Doom during King Arthur´s time, a brutal battle against
the Hulk, Namor, Madame Masque, the Melter, The Living Lazer,Blizzard and the Titanium Man.
Additionally to the 42 issues in this collection the hardcover also has 58 pages of extras including a re - colored version of issue 144 ( not issue 114 as it was misprinted in my copy ) that was done for IRON MAN : REQUIEM, one page about the true story of Jarvis´ resignation letter in issue 127, unused covers, covers for issues 113 and 114 by John Romita Jr, 13 original penciled and inked story pages, splash pages and covers, a calendar pin up, the hilarious one page story WHAT IF IRON MAN HAD A EATING PROBLEM ?, Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe character profiles and armor schemantics, the introductions for the DEMON IN A BOTTLE and the DOOMQUEST trades as well as covers for the POWER OF IRON MAN, DEMON IN A BOTTLE, THE MANY ARMORS OF IRON MAN, IRON MAN VS DOCTOR DOOM and DOOMQUEST trades. There´s also John Romita´s new cover for this collection and I should mention that of course all the original covers are included.
Now one of my brother told me that I´m always buying books I already have and in this case it´s right that I have read some of the issues in one form or the other. But since those are scattered issues at best and the ones I read were either in the spanish version that were missing a few pages or the german version which were mostly the dreaded Condor Pocket Books that reduced the size drastically and cut off most of the text this is the first time I have them all in the original size, with all pages and the original text. So I think for me it´s a good investment.
Okay, this is the end of my sales pitch although I never was very good at this. I´m not one of these persons who can do the whole salesman spiel and belive me - I was involved once with a position that would have been very lucrative but I´m just not cut out for it. I´m more the kind of guy who presents a deal with all the pros and cons and that let´s the client decide on his own. So I never went into sales.
The only thing I want to add that if you were already thinking about getting this book now is the right time, especially if you don´t have the DEMON IN A BOTTLE hardcover ( which alone will cost you around 24 bucks ) or any of the other trades contained in this collection.
Well, as usual that´s all I have time for Today, as the counter on the internet cafe nears the 2 hour mark. I´ll try to complete this post Tomorrow if the internet gods are willing and with a bit of luck the hardcover will also be delivered at home. I don´t envy the guy who has to do that. There are not many links I can add that were essential to making this post ( otherwise than the ones I already included ) but be sure to check out The Comics Cube´s Top Ten Most Influential Comics Artists No 9: George Perez , it´s a great read and required for all people who don´t know him.
Now usually I put one video at the end of the post but since it has been so long since my last post I want to include to videos of movies that might have been overlooked by the regular movie goers.
The first one is WRECK - IT RALPH which really surprised me and is one heck of a film with a story that starts deceptively easy but has a deep message. And I think we can all relate in some way to the hero. I totally have to congratulate Christian Ulmen who does the german voice of Ralph. He´s a guy who I normally find enourmously irritating but he does a terrific job here. If you don´t have the greatest of times watching this movie you really need help.
The second one is JACK REACHER, in my opinion Tom Cruise´s best movie of the last years. Here in Germany it played in movie theaters closed to the public and it´s a damn shame if you miss this one.
It seems that my plan to blog about independent comics is doomed since every time I start something comes up that stops me from writing about those great comic reads I enjoy.
So since my computer is starting to go crazy again here are a few things I have to mention in regards to the last topic. Let´s hope that when I got them out of the way I can finally do some indie titles and let´s start with the last thing first. A big part of the last post was about old horror comics and especially Dark Horse´s new hardcover editions of the old Warren publications CREEPY EERIE and VAMPIRELLA.
IT´S NEVER AS GOOD AS THE FIRST TIME
I hope those readers that are into that kind of stuff ordered volume 10 because the price has been upped again and it´s now at 35 EUROS. I have finally read the whole fat book and I really love it. And if you also ordered it and wondered what happened to the contents of issue 51 - it´s not a hoax, it´s not a dream, there is no issue 51. Unlike other comic companies Dark Horse has decided not to make their customers pay twice for the same comics. So since issue 51 is the BEST STORIES EVER issue and has mostly reprints only the games are printed in the book. Now, you may like this decision or not it does have its merit. Okay, on one side if you only buy this one hardcover than you might feel you got the short end of the stick. On the other side if you buy the entire collection you might feel exploited if you have to pay again for the same content. I mean how many times have you complained that Marvel reprints the same comics in their trades again and again and again ? It´s like they say, you can´t please them all but at least Dark Horse is trying something different.
What´s not different is that right after I confessed to spend too much money on comics I go and order Dark Horse´s CREEPY ARCHIVES VOLUME 11. I know, I´m irredeemable but the book is down from 27 EUROS ( which was the price when I wrote my last post ) to 20 EUROS and there are still 8 copies left. And what can I tell you that I haven´t said in my last post ? If you loved volume 10 you will go crazy over volume 11. Like I said it has possibly the only collaboration of Will Eisner and Richard Corben in comics history with Richard Corben providing the coloring for one of Will Eisner´s SPIRIT stories. There´s also a solo SPIRIT story by Will Eisner in this volume as I think it became a regular feature in EERIE.
On top of that there is a story by Neal Adams and the usual plethora of spanish comic masters that was the staple of the Warren comics from that time. If you have waited too long with volume 10 here´s a second chance to try one of them big hardcovers for a bargain price.
CAN DC SAVE POWER GIRL AND THEY REALLY TRYING TO ?
That´s another leftover from my last post. I spend a lot of time writing about the new series WORLDS FINEST and how the Supergirl from Earth 2 in that series is not the same as Power Girl.
Well, it seems that the same realisation is dawning on the creative staff at DC since she will be getting her old costume back in issue 12. Now the real reason is : is it enough to save the title from cancellation ? My answer is that it´s still possible IF they can solve the art problem. It just gets worse and worse and the book seems like a revolving door for fill in artists. They need to get one artist - no matter who it is as long as he´s in the middle of the playing field - and get him to stick for at least six issues. Kevin Maguire can do more pages but ultimately they have to figure out a way to put in more pages by George Perez. And not rushed pages like in the last few issues but his usual polished quality. If DC needs to get some other artists to fill that gap - fine. But they should do it like Marvel when they had Frank Cho and Arthur Adams work on HULK. Just get a Who´s Who of babe artists on the book or some of the old school guys like Mike Zeck, Ron Frenz or Ron Lim on it. I don´t know why DC always has to make everything so difficult.
AND NOW A BIT OF SELFPROMOTION
Longtime reader may recall that three years ago I wrote about some of my work appearing in an issue of the american HEAVY METAL comic. No, not comic art, it was the translation of the short story VODOO DERIVATE written by Bernd Frenz and illustrated by Carsten Dörr. Here´s the link to the post where you can read the whole story.
Well, at that time I had done two translations, the second one for another story by Bernd Frenz, STAR BRIDE illustrated by Martin Frei. You may remember him as the artist on the KOMMISSAR EISELE comics I mentioned in my last posts about the Comicbörse Stuttgart. Now when I did the translation of STAR BRIDE I expected that it would see print soon after the VODOO DERIVATE story but there were some editorial problems or such or I don´t know. I have no idea how the whole thing works and neither the guys from HEAVY METAL nor Bernd Frenz are accountable to me. I did the translations as a favor and really didn´t expect to gain anything by it. So when I didn´t hear about the second story I thought that was that and forgot about the whole thing.
Until I got an e - mail from Benrd Frenz with a link that STAR BRIDE is finally going to see print in issue 261 of HEAVY METAL.
So this is the second time my name is going to appear in print in an issue of the actual american HEAVY METAL comic.
Which makes me kind of proud although I just did the translation of STAR BRIDE, which could also have been BRIDE OF THE STARS but I see why Bernd went with the shorter one of my suggestions for the title. What would be cooler if I actually had a copy of the issue but this time I had no luck at the foreign press newsstand at Stuttgart main station. But I don´t want to be nitpicking. There´s an article about the comic on Comic Report ( sorry, only in german ) so I wanted to give props to my homeys.
What can I say ? I´m just glad that it´s actually in print.
SOME BLOG PIMPING THAT MAKES ME LOOK LIKE A PAUPER
Because it´s really not good form to end this post with accolades of my greatness here´s something to bring me back to reality. While I have barely passed my 400th post, my fellow blog partner over at DIVERSIONS OF THE GROOVY KIND just did his 1500th post featuring none other than Jack Kirby with his first issue of 2001 - A SPACE ODYSSEY.
Groove always has the best of 70s comic nostalgia like splash page features with Sal Buscema and Joe Staton and this post is no exception. I don´t know if there´s anybody interested in pop culture who hasn´t seen the picture but as somebody whose appreaciation of Jack Kirby has grown immensly over the last decade I urge you to check it out if you don´t know the comic. 2001 is one of the most famous movies ever and I can´t begin to describe the joy of seeing the iconic imagery of the movie interpreted by the King himself.
Just breathtaking. And you haven´t seen his big double page spreads with the spaceships. Make sure to check this out, apparently Jack Kirby continued the story of the Monolith in 10 issues of an ongoing, regularsized 2001 - A SPACE ODYSSEYcomic. Which is also the origin story for Machine Man for all Marvelites. I don´t know if it´s reprinted somewhere but I sure would like to read it.
And that´s all we have time for Today. Hopefully the computer is not going to cause any troubles during my next post so we can finally come to my indie reads. But before we close there´s always the matter of the video at the end of the post. Sadly I posted the video of the HEAVY METAL movie in my last post because that would have been really fitting for this post. Instead I´m going to post another forgotten item of pop culture, namely the animated movie ROCK & RULE. Yep, we´re continuing the animation movie theme.
While ROCK & RULE may not be famous for its superb animation - although it was quite state of the art in 1983 - the main attraction is the soundtrack that includes songs by Debbie Harry, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Cheap Trick and Earth, Wind and Fire. Like HEAVY METAL I got this one from amazon for 5 bucks. I watched it in the original language version because you can hear the songs better than in the german version which was kind of too quiet but the problem with the original version is that you sometimes can´t hear what they are saying. There are two versions of the movie in the two disc edition I got, the regular theatrical version and a so - called canadian version which is a VHS recording. Since I haven´t watched the canadian version I´m not sure what exactly it is but it may well be the uncensored version. Anyway, not the greatest animation movie ever made but if you like the artists involved it´s a great way to spend a few hours. It also includes the first animation feature from this canadian company called THE DEVIL AND DANIEL MOUSE as well as the making of it and of ROCK & RULE so like I said - a few hours. Here´s the trailer
It´s been a very long time since my last post but as usual I have been megabusy. So busy in fact that I forgot to mention in my last post that it was the 400th post. Way to celebrate that anniversary by trashing Marvel.
I really don´t like to dwell on the negative but it´s not like DC is doing any better. I mean in the last PREVIEWS I read DC announced it´s big CERTIFIED WHAT THE F?%%&§§$ MONTH, meaning that each comic that month would include one certified WHAT THE F moment. Well, let me tell you something DC : I don´t need no WTF guarantee and I don´t need you to remind me how F - ed up your books are right now. Man, this NEW 52 is just one big, collosal, continuous WHAT THE F experience for me.
WHAT THE F - WORD DID YOU DO TO POWER GIRL ?
Since we´re on the subject of the NEW 52 I have finally started reading the WORLDS FINEST series because while I wanted to save them for a special occassion the art really wasn´t getting better the longer the series went on. It is a given that if you have somebody like George Perez working on a monthly book he will get less and less pages finished as the series progresses due to the time it takes to produce art of such a high quality. But in the last few issues his pages have become less frequent and more and more like sketches than finished art.
Additionally there have been more and more guest artists in the pages and for some strange reason DC seems to have lost the little black book.
That´s the only reason I can guess that they have the pages drawn by guys I never heard of instead of the old veterans that are still out there but for some reason don´t get work in the industry anymore. With Norm Breyfogle working on BATMAN BEYOND UNLIMITED it sure can´t be so hard to have him do a few pages with Power Girl. Or what about Kerry Gamill ?
I just got the FALLEN ANGELS Marvel Premiere Edition and I think he hasn´t done any comic pages in decades. This guy could draw rings around most of the guys who fill in the pages of WORLDS FINEST any day.
Maybe it IS true what uncle Sal said about a lot of the old artists like Ron Frenz, Bob McLeod or Mike Zeck being out of the business because they weren´t okay with cutting down their page rate to 40 bucks.
Not that the art on WORLDS FINEST is the only problem with the book, the story is a bit wishy washy and when you get right down to it the character of Supergirl is still not the same as Power Girl. Aside from the fact that they are both Superman´s cousins in their respective universes they are different like night and day and apart from what some comic writers want you to believe comic characters are not interchangable. The creators seem to be aware of the problem themselves as they make sure Kara´s costume gets shredded now and then - and very often in the space that was Power Girl´s magical cleavage window - as to say " Hey, we know she´s not the REAL Power Girl but DC just doesn´t understand so let´s make the best out of it. " but even with frequent reader service you can only get so far.
I really thought with a book about Power Girl and Huntress DC couldn´t screw this up but it seems the old curse strikes again. Yep, most books with hot superheroines don´t have good art, suffer from weak stories or don´t dare to live up to its potential. And I guess here we have all three. The first 4 issues were promising but it sure went downhill fast.
ALWAYS WITH THE HORROR COMICS
One reason why I haven´t been posting much lately is I haven´t had much luck with the internet. Either I didn´t get access because my brother had the cable or I was too tired to spend some additional hours on the interwebs or I needed all the time to go through all the spam for this blog.
And when I really wanted to write another post my computer was acting up crashing when I tried to get online and giving me the blue screen a lot. On Tuesday I wanted to write this post but it was impossible to get online. Today it seems to be okay but just to add another wrinkle and don´t make me feel neglected blogger has changed the setting for uploading pictures. For some unfathomable reason it seems now impossible to decide how big the picture will appear and on which side ( left, center or right ) the picture is going to be posted on the blog so you have to add some HTML for that manually. For the placing of the picture I have already figured that out but I have no idea how to change the size. Thanks again, Blogger. It seems I´m still posting too often for their taste so they decided to slow me down.
Back to comics and my personal recommendations I spent too much money on comics this month and one of the reasons was I just couldn´t pass up the opportunity to get one of those dreamy Dark Horse hardcover collections of the old EERIE magazines. These suckers go for 50 dollars a pice so I knew that when I saw volume 10 for 23 EUROS at amazon.de I had to order it.
Growing up as a comic reading kid in the 80s you just were used to more anthology titles like the kids seem to be Today and you got them where you could. Of course there were german comics that I could get at stores like MV COMIX, ZACK or later on U - COMIX and SCHWERMETALL.
And when I was in spain there were such classics like 1984,
CIMOC,
EL TOTEM, ZONA 84
or EL VIBORA
but the occasions on which you could find some issues of the legendary sci fi or horror anthologies like CREEPY, EERIE or even VAMPIRELLA ( which shot the hormones of most prepubescent teens into overdrive ) were few and far between.
With luck you could find an issue or two at a comic convention or in some forgotten corner of the comic shop so I really wasn´t exposed to too much of it. So to finally hold such a fine hardcover in hands is a real treat for such a consummate horror fan as myself.
Which is why I wanted to post this earlier since there are still 11 copies left. Okay, it´s number ten - which is probably one of the reasons why it´s in the bargain books section - and if you really are intent on starting with the first volume this doesn´t help you much. But if you have a real fondness for those old horror mags from the seventies like myself and want to know if it´s really worth to pay 50 dollars for one of these suckers this is a very good chance to find out first hand.
I haven´t read all of it yet but it really is a nice book to hold in your hand and it really looks great on the shelf. I have to say, my new shelf porn really starts to fill up nicely. Contentwise I have to quote a bit from the introduction by Batton Lash and say that with this volume EERIE started to experiment a little, starting serialized storylines with recurring characters and bringing in science fiction. Which was not everybody´s cup of tea judging from the letters page. Yes, that´s right, the book includes all the letter pages, the contents pages, all the ads like the stuff you could order ( werewolf rings, giant rubber flies, or famous monster kits ), the beautiful covers
and even two horror - themed, cutout game spreads, complete with rules, created by Bill DuBay and reprinted in color.
And the selection of involved artists is no less impressive. There were a lot of spanish artists working at Warren at that time and you can find them all here. The interior art is done by paisanos Jaime Brocal ( who does a stunning 19 page story about Lillith in the first reprinted issue as well as the Mummy serial ), Esteban Maroto ( who writes and draws the Dax serial ), Martin Salvador ( see art below ),
Ramon Torrents, Munes and Aldoma while the covers are courtesy of Luis Domingues, Sanjulian and Enrich.
And there are also great stories by non spanish artists like Tom Sutton ( who starts off the Dracula serial with an incredible entry ), Rich Buckler and Paul Neary who later on inked a lot of Alan Davis´ stuff like his first EXCALIBUR issues. If you are a fan of classic monsters there´s a Dracula serial here, one about the Werewolf by Rich Buckler, one about the Mummy,
possibly one about Marvin the Death Thing as well as Dax the Warrior. Which is more science fiction then horror but a continuing serial nonetheless.
So if horror comics are your thing definitely check this out as you can´t go wrong with this price tag. And - I know I´m terrible when I´m excited about something - if you like it amazon.de also offers volume 11 for 28 EUROS. I know, it´s not as cheap as volume 10 but this volume also includes comics by Neal Adams and I think one of the few collaborations of Will Eisner and Richard Corben. Oh, and you just have to read the amazon review for volume 11 called EERIE, THE MONSTER SERIALS & THE BRITISH ARTISTS by Diego Cordoba if you are interested in spanish artists. This guy is just a fountain of knowledge. Here´s a short excerpt :
Alberto Breccia, the argentine artist who would inspire so many of the Spanish artists in the late 60's / early 70's, would develop his very peculiar style of inking pretty much through trial and error, and a part of genius as well. Cutting himself one morning while shaving, he pulled the razor blade out and when he was about to leave it on the sink, he noticed it left behind a series of trails pretty much like the lines he obtained while inking with a pen.
This gave him the idea to use a razor blade not only to ink, but to scratch the board and so obtain different effects on his inking. This wouldn't go unnoticed among the Spaniards, who began scratching their boards with a razor blade to extreme effects.
Breccia's extreme use of shading and shadows, leaving only slits of white on the board to give more depth to his drawings, would also be of a great inspiration to the Spaniards. Dino Battaglia, the other source of inspiration for the Spaniards, was an Italian comic book artist who in the early 50's worked for another Italian publisher who had moved to Argentina along with such Italian luminaries as Hugo Pratt and Alberto Ongaro. He used a very peculiar way of inking, working not only in heavy blacks, but with grays he obtained with a " souffle - au - cul ", a sort of metal tube divided in two sections; one part went inside the ink pot, and through the other you would blow as through a peashooter.
Blowing through one of the metal tubes, would cause the ink to rise through the other tube, thus obtaining an ink splattering on the surface you blew onto. This splattering, similar to what an airbrush does, but much more coarser, and depending on the force with which you blew, would appear almost gray in print.
This method of graying was very much appreciated by the Spaniards, who didn't know how Battaglia obtained this effect. However, they soon discovered that by dipping a used toothbrush in ink, and then rubbing the bristles with a ruler onto their artboards, they could obtain a splattering effect.
Another trick was using an old sock dipped in ink, and then applying it onto the paper. You would obtain a splatter - like effect as well. As soon as this was discovered, all the Spanish artists were either dipping their toothbrushes, socks, or any clothing with a coarse weaving, into their ink pots and applying / or rubbing them onto their artboards. These effects are used by almost the totality of the Spaniards in the late 60's/ early 70's, and you can pretty much see it in all the stories they did for Warren.
Before closing this post for Today I wanted to mention the obligatory celebrity birthday which on this occassion is swimsuit model Tylene Buck who celebrates her 41st anniversary.
She also goes under the name of Brandi Wylde and even was a wrestling diva. Tylene began working for WCW as an NWO party girl always seen with Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner and others.
They later repackaged her as Major Gunns, the valet for the Misfits in Action. She later turned on them and joined Team Canada
and managed Lance Storm. She was one of my candidates for the SEARCH FOR POWER GIRL series waaay back when it was still on this blog. Besides being one of my most used templates for banners I casted her as Ice in my Justice League movie ( the role of Power Girl was already taken by Nicole " Coco " Austin ) as well as Ms Marvel in the Avengers movie casting.
But she would be perfect for any superheroine who´s blonde and sexy. I wanted to give a shoutout to her and wish her many happy returns since she made me very happy every time she was on as Major Gunns when she was giving mouth to mouth or wearing a bikini.
Ah, the good old days when hot wrestling women and the Nitro Girls were shown on german tv - sometimes even in bikinis. Those were the times. And speaking of bikinis make sure to check out Tylene Buck in the IRON MAN swimsuit videos where she wears some supertiny microbikinis.
Todays video is another tie in to topics of earlier posts. After watching the TIME MASTERS animation movie I found the HEAVY METAL DVD at amazon for 5 bucks which really isn´t that much for a classic.
The clip below is the flight scene from the Taarna sequence which used Moebius artwork as a basis. My recommendation is get this movie since you can probably find it really cheap if you want to see how animation looked like before the manga wave hit and everything was still done by hand. For all comic aficionados this is doubly interesting since it not only has the obvious comic connection but the DVD I got includes the rough cut with a lot of pencil work and some deleted scenes.
