Monday, July 09, 2007

COVERSTORY Part 1

Finally I finished my post about covers. And it´s about time.


One of the reasons it took so long was that I wanted to include much more covers than I did. Because as I was doing the research for the post I found tons of covers I remembered reading as a kid. And I wanted to post them all.

I decided not to cram all the covers into one post since the post is already much too long. But since I still wanted to post the rest of the covers I decided to just make a second post where I post all the covers from the comics of my youth.


I know, I´m a self - indulgent egoist but maybe some readers want to acompany me on this trip down memory lane. Who knows maybe you know some of these comics.

Now I know that a few people may think that I post too much pictures in my posts. But that is because I´m a very visual person. And I don´t think that you can write as effectively about comic art as just showing it. When I started this blog I did not post many pictures. One of the reasons was that I did not know where to find them. And over the years I not only found out where to find them but reading other blogs I soon noticed that I liked the blogs better that had more pictures. They were easier to read.


Because it can be a little hard reading such long blocks of text of some old geezer who read comics in the stone age of comics ( which includes me ) going on a rant without end. I know I can be rambling for hours, shooting off in totally unrelated directions ( like right now ) with no idea where I will finally end. But that´s part of my charm. So to break up the tension I have started to interrupt the text up with nice pictures. Sometimes they are related but sometimes not. Yes, sometimes they are just some nifty pics I like.

Suffer, dude.

As I mentioned in my last post I began reading the exploits of the heroes of the DC universe in the german version called SUPERMAN BATMAN. And as you can see by the covers above many of the comics I read had Neal Adams art. Now I don´t know if I especially picked up the comics for the Neal Adams covers or if that was just a coincidence. Maybe I just remembered the Neal Adams comics more vividly. Who knows ? But may it be as it may somehow those comics started my lifelong fascination with comics. And who better to start with than with Neal Adams ?


Some of the covers I´m posting are the german covers which is in part to keep it authentic ( or " real " how it is called today ) and the other part because my readers in the United States might find it interesting to see how their comics looked like overseas.


I found some german covers and I´m posting them here......well, the ones I have read. The other covers are the original covers who than appeared as covers of the german comics such as SUPERMAN SUPERBAND, SUPERMAN TASCHENBUCH or SUPERMAN EXTRA.


Like this wonderful cover by Jose Luis Garcia Lopez. It was the cover of SUPERMAN SUPERBAND 8. A SUPERBAND was a albumsized comic with 84 pages that reprinted various stories. Sometimes the stories were consecutive, sometimes they were theme - related but sometimes they were just totally random. Of course there was also BATMAN SUPERBAND but for today I´m writing about Superman. I mean this is " TALES FROM THE KRYPTONIAN " not " TALES FROM THE BATCAVE " and it´s about time we get a bit more Superman content.


Solomon Grundy appeared a few times in the german comics altough under a different name. Here he was called Solo Morasso and they also left out the whole " Solomon Grundy born on a Monday " thing. So when I read my first JSA comic that featured Solomon Grundy I was very surprised.

By the way, Superman ? How cheap can you be ? Don´t you have more than one cape ? If Solomon Grundy wants your cape just give it to him. You don´t argue with Grundy. I would even throw in a pair of socks, you know ? Seriously Grundy, you need some socks. It can get really cold in the swamp.


SUPERMAN SUPERBAND 5 did not only include this story


in which Lois was transformed into Monsterlois by the combination of a necklace and having the flu. Don´t ask.

Anyway, in the german comic it was never explained where Clark got the necklace he gave Lois but I guess at that time readers just assumed it was kryptonian jewelery.

Now besides this gem of silver age storytelling the comic also included a story in which Superman assumed the mantle of " NOVA " in the german translation. I guess this was the secret identity that later became SUPERNOVA although they changed the costume a bit.

Well, that´s all I have time for today. But I will post more on this subject in the next post.

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With great power comes great fish.

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