Tuesday, September 30, 2014

( Over ) 40 year old blogger strikes again !

You may have noticed that TALES FROM THE KRYPTONIAN looks kind of different for a few days now . Especially the pictures seem to be bigger.


I can assure you that´s not a problem you have with your browser nor has blogger gone all wonky. The fault is entirely mine because I have been working on my old posts again. Yes, now that I´m still fiddling with the GIFs I have added ( once again, I know ) some stuff on them olde posts.

And I would like to say that to make things easier for my readers I have decided to make some changes. But the truth is : I´m old. I´m definitely not getting any younger and while I was spending so many hours going over the old posts I have noticed that I can´t see the pictures right. Now part of that may be that most of the pictures are just there to break up the long text passages. When I started this blog I looked at a lot of other blogs to find out what would be the best layout. Back then my focus was that it should be easy to read and since I noticed that the blogs that were easiest to read were the ones where the text is interrupted by pictures now and then that was the layout I adapted. Which was okay back then.

The thing is that lately there are some posts - like the last one about Bob Layton´s IRON MAN run or the Black and White post about Will Eisner´s THE SPIRIT - where it´s not only about the text but in great part, or even greater part about the art. And it would be a real shame to talk about how great the art is and then to only post tiny pictures. I know, if people want to see them in a bigger size they can open them in a bigger window. But, let´s be realistic here, how many of my faithful readers really do that ?

And sometimes the pictures are really small in their original size and can´t be seen better if you open them in a new window - but I can show the bigger on the blog. Now this seems to be a rather new thing because it doesn´t work with the really old posts. So I´ll not redo ALL the posts.


There are also some cases where the quality of the original picture is not good and doesn´t look better in a bigger size. Or I can´t make the pics bigger because they would go beyond all the stuff on the right hand side like the links and the blog archive and the " most popular post " things.

So all the pictures in that section have a space limit. I know, once a new post comes along the posts go further down so all that is not a problem anymore. But I try to see each post as its own entity because you can never be sure if somebody reads it on the blog or just found this one post. I would like to think that everybody who finds a post of TALES FROM THE KRYPTONIAN on the internet heads immediately over to the blog but I´m not so sure. And even if they all head over to the blog with the length most posts run now there are never more than three or four posts on the first page. So at least every third post lands on the top of the blog, so that I have the problem with the right hand side again. And the order always changes so it eventually affects every post I write. So I treat each post like it would be on the top of the blog and avoid further problems.

That said I will change the size of the pictures where I think it will work better - like on posters, black and white art pages and where I can get a picture in good quality - and sometimes I will use the option to put it on the blog in the original size. I know this can be really big but there are some pictures like Yaya Han in her Chun Li outfit where I especially picked really big pictures so you can see all the detail work on the costume.

Of course there IS the problem that with too many pictures of hot babes, cosplaying or otherwise - and in a bigger size to boot - this blog could become oversexed but as always I rely on my readers to give me a boobie excess warning before things get out of hand or blown out of proportion.


Now I have also noticed that the blog takes longer to load which I think has to do with the bigger pictures and some of the GIFs I have added. But according to some of the comments I have gotten so far my blog was already loading incredibly fast before so that I think with all the added features and the bigger pictures it´s a small price to pay. So don´t panic.


Which brings us to the end of this special announcement. I will now continue with going over the old posts - at least the ones that are in the " most popular posts " section and the ones I chose to include in the " best of the best " links at the end of the post. IF I can make the pics bigger.

I know that the next post would be about death in comics but I thought I needed to address this first. I hope that I don´t loose too many readers because of this and that some people out there might find it easier to read the posts now. Like I said, if you have the feeling that I have gone overboard with certain pictures sent me a comment. It´s always difficult to keep this blog from become another version of my old boob blog. And speaking of my old boob blog, I didn´t mention a celebrity birthday in my last post since that was all about Bob Layton´s IRON MAN but Lysette Anthony celebrated her 51st birthday on the next day. You probably know her from her appearance in Mel Brooks DRACULA - DEAD AND LOVING IT spoof. She´s the only reason why the movie will still be remembered.


Also, if you like the changes I have made you can drop me a comment as well. I´m not sure if I will keep the new look permanently but for the time being I think it´s an improvement. Yep, another post that is not comic oriented but with fifteen posts this month so far I´m already waaaaaaaay above the average monthly posting rate so I think I deserve some leeway.


Now you may have noticed that there are two link for LOS COMICGEEKOS in the link section now ( psche, like the people who visit the blog are really so bored they need to check out the link section meticulously ) that´s because they have a new page just for the episodes now. I have kept the old link to their blog because you can find all kinds of cool stuff there like massitas en cosplay or videos like the japanese Doctor Who.



Since we´re on the subject of Doctor Who I want to post this video of The Hillywood Show ( no idea what that is ) where the tenth Doctor crosses over with The Rocky Horror Picture Show in a timelord / timewarp smash.



And I can´t end this post without some cartoon so here´s EL INCREIBLE HULK - EL RETORNO DE LA BESTIA. As the title suggests it´s in the latino dubbing which is a real bummer for my non spanish speaking readers ( sorry ) but I always get a big kick out of it since it´s a hoot and a half.



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

Monday, September 29, 2014

Happy birthday to cult siren Erika Eleniak !

Today busty Baywatch beach body par excellence Erika Eleniak celebrates her 45th birthday so I thought it´s high time I did a post on her. She has been in a lot of movies but she´s probably most famous for her sexy striptease in UNDER SIEGE which is what this post will be focusing on.


Which is also one of the reasons why I didn´t do a post about her sooner. Now longtime readers will already know that her striptease is on my Top Ten list of movie stripteases. I know, maybe it´s not on the official Top Ten or your personal Top Ten but it sure as hell is on mine. And one of my goals has been to do at least one post about all the entries on my list.

I also already had written a post about this on my old boob blog that´s probably still out there. Now you might ask yourself where the problem lies. Well, the thing is that I try to keep the post safe for work and most the pictures I had of Erika Eleniak were full frontal nudity or at least with a lot of exposed breast. Not that I have a problem with that. But like I said, I tried to keep the post safe for work and how should I do a post about a particular scene when I can´t post any pictures ? I know that it is totally doable since there are also other pictures from the movie but for me this would feel too much of a tease. I always hated it when writers put scenes in comics that involved nudity well knowing that the artist were never allowed to draw them and had to come up with a way to make it work. Which always never works. Because comics are a visual medium and if you fail to bring a visual gag over in a visual medium you have definitely failed. Whenever I read such a scene I was seriously ticked off.


So you might ask why I´m doing this post. Well, to tell the truth I have blogger and myself to thank for this. Since I figured out how to make screenshots I´m not depending on other people´s screenshots and I can do my own which are not that risky. Okay, some of them may be and I´ll probably include one shot of Erika Eleniak in all her stripper glory but only for scientific reasons, I promise. I also have already posted some pictures without having any reader complaints so I´m keeping my fingers crossed.


The other reason for doing such a post and hoping to keep it safe for work is that blogger now allows to post animated GIFs. So far the posting of GIFs was possible but you ran into trouble because blogger didn´t show it right. But now that´s possible so instead of filling this post with dozens of risky screenshots I can just post one GIF of her striptease and if readers have a problem with that they can just quickly scroll over it.
 

With all this in mind you might ask why I still feel the need to do this post. Well, this blog is also about giving tribute to all the neglected or forgotten cult sirens out there who bare it all ( so to speak ) to turn unbearable dreck into fun trash and who never get top billing or awards.


They never get credit or the big bucks but nevertheless they work hard and are prepared to show it all - unlike some actresses who are extremely hot but who will never get naked on screen - just so we can get a little something from awful movies that otherwise would be a waste of time.


And it´s not like I haven´t posted about hot sexbombs before. I did two entire posts about Baywatch colleague Traci Bingham ( a.k.a. Traci Banghim ) one of which included a lot of animated GIFs from Janet Jackson´s hottest wardrobe malfunction on Jay Leno´s Tonight Show ,


more than one post about cult sirens Markie Post and Heather Thomas , at least two about Jamie Lee Curtis sexy striptease on TRUE LIES ( one just for all the screenshots, this was before I could post animated GIFs ), also two on Salma Hayek with one mentioning her striptease on FROM DUSK TILL DAWN, one on Janet Jones and Leslie Easterbrook´s wet t - shirt on POLICE ACADEMY , one on fitness sexbomb Kiana Tom´s exposed bra on UNIVERSAL SOLDIER - THE RETURN, more than three about Wonder Woman Lynda Carter as well as italian soccer MILF extraordinaire Simona Ventura, Mistress of the Dark Elvira, Russ Meyer cult actress Tura Satana and I wrote about dozens of others including Joyce Hyser from the almost forgotten screwball comedy JUST ONE OF THE GUYS where I just had to include some full frontal. Anyway, the list is far too long to post here but you get an idea this kind of post is not unprecedented on this blog.


I just hope I don´t loose too many readers because of this. Although with the numbers of daily hits I have been getting lately I´m not sure if it could really do any harm. Things sure have gotten strange on this blog. I don´t know if it´s a matter of the topics I write about but lately things have gone from around 100 to 150 comments a day to five a week. Okay, most of them were just spam anyway and it´s kind of nice not having to spend hours every day deleting them but now I have almost no feedback. And the daily hits have dropped from almost 3.000 a day - sometimes even going over that - to barely above 750. I don´t know why that is but in the meantime I will soldier on. I promise. And if you have some time drop me a comment even if it´s only to show me that it still works.

Today´s only comic book related thing is that I cast Erika Eleniak for the role Hawkgirl in my Justice League movie, a topic that I hope to further elaborate on one of these days. If readers want to see that happening.
  

Anyway, that enough public announcement stuff so after a rather long winded intro let´s hear it for celebrity birthday babe Erika Eleniak :

Originally posted on Wednesday, March 25th, 2009

Retro babe of the week : Erika Eleniak strips on Under Siege


Time for a dive into the vault for some awsome striptease goodness courtesy of the ever so popular RETRO BABE OF THE WEEK series. Today´s contestant is playmate and Baywatch babe Erika Eleniak whose claim to nude celluloid fame is her incredibly hot striptease on UNDER SIEGE .


Erika started on Baywatch where in one of the first episodes she got into trouble because of some raunchy pictures of her that were published.


Which at that time didn´t make much sense because her breasts were rather average and only grew to the enormous size she has been known for ever since in later episodes of one of the most successful series on the planet. I bet David Hasselhoff wished he had known this before.


So Erika Eleniak became the " queen of the mountain " on Baywatch with the biggest boobs around ...... until Pamela Anderson came around.


Like Pamela Anderson she also appeared in Playboy and was the playmate of July 1989 although I´m not sure if the pictures where she wore part of a uniform much like the one she wears in her famous striptease got her the role on Under Siege. Anyway, Erika was only the first of a decades spanning tradition of Baywatch babes who got photographed by Playboy like Vanessa Angel, Krista Allen, playmate / Penthouse pet / pornstar Teri Weigel, Jenny Mc Carthy, Jasmine Bleeth, Donna D´Erico, Kelly Monaco, Brande Roderick, Nicole Eggert , Mitzi Capture and Gina Lee Nolin among others. Most of them have been in Playboy and other men´s magazines.


Back to Erika Eleniak, she appeared in a few movies like BEVERLY HILL BILLIES, CHASERS and BORDELLO OF BLOOD ( which got censored beyond recognition in Germany ) but she never achieved the level of success Pamela Anderson did. Not even Traci Bingham achieved it and she´s build like a porn star - in fact none of the other cast members of Baywatch did.


Carmen Electra is the only one who was anywhere near the success level of Pam and she also was in Playboy numerous times. A coincidence ? 


Erika Eleniak had some pretty hot scenes in CHASERS but my favorite movie with her is UNDER SIEGE. Which by the way is called ALARMSTUFE ROT ( Condition Red ) in Germany. That´s what you get when you use german words that make no sense in german - they have to come up with a different name. And that was one of the reasons why it was so difficult for me to find stuff about her until I figured out the original title.

Under Siege is one of the better Steven Seagal movies which means that his acting is not as bad as in other movies and it also has big stars like Tommy Lee Jones, Gary Busey and Nick Mancuso. The plot is simple but even though he only beats up smaller guys ( Did you notice that in most movies Steven Seagal only fights people who are smaller than him ? It makes it hard to take him serious. ) it´s a pretty decent action movie.


But the reason why I really like the film is of course Erika Eleniak and her sexy striptease after she comes out of a cake. She really shows some talent there which makes the fact that she never continued in that direction just more tragic. Ahh, the career she could have had stripping.


You can say what you want about Steven Seagal but he sure does have an eye for talent because it has been said that he included Erika Eleniak.


And if that rumor is true he has earned my eternal gratitude for giving the entire world one of the best striptease ever. And her manager who persuaded to take this part and use her stripper skills to the benefit of mankind. I bet he got something out of the deal as well. I know that if it had been me there would have been a few private sessions of rehearsing.


Of course the fabulous strptease is not the only scene where Erika struts her stuff because not only does she have wonderful breasts - she also has a tight derriere. There is also the scene in which she arrives on the ship where she steps out of the helicopter and has something on her shoe.

Erika leans forward to get it off,showing some good cleavage while all the horny sailors stand around drooling, hoping to get an eyeful. I guess they didn´t have to give the male actors much directions on this one.


She than walks past the viewer and the camera zooms in on her incredibly sculpted round and firm butt checks moving and shaking. Holy makarel !!!


Wow ! That has got to be one of the best butts in movies of all times together with sexbomb Kelly Overton working her butt crack in TEKKEN


and - of course - the spectacular Halle Berry in THE LAST BOY SCOUT .


And here´s Erika with her sexy striptease thanks to Steven Seagal who had the balls to include her in the script. I hope he at least got some.


Even if not I bet the strip was one of the scenes they had to do the most takes of. Steven probably had to relieve himself afterwards - if he didn´t get honey Erika to join him. In any case, it is Steven Seagal´s best movie and the one most liked by movie goers so in the end it was for the best.


So many happy returns Erika and thanks for the mammaries !


Today´s post has been all about a tv cult siren and playmate that I wanted to do a post about for a very long time so I thought it´s only fair that the first video is also about a telenovela icon and playmate : Aylin Mujica.

I don´t have time to go into all the details here but the 40 year old starred in MARINA ( a telenovela that helped me a great deal ) and another with possibly the best title ever SIN TETAS NO HAY PARADISO ( without tits there is no paradise ). Now you may think that I´m crazy writing about 40 year old tv stars but 40 is the new 24 and Aylin just did a photoshoot for the mexican Playboy where she showed : she still got it.


But since I know there are a lot of non believers out there here is a video.



Since this post was about stripteases our second clip is from BAILANDO PARA UN SUENO ( Dancing for a Dream ) which is the version of Dancing with the Stars from Argentina. Only the female contestants have bigger breasts, wear less clothing and instead of dancing they are stripping.

I haven´t kept up over most of the last year but I did catch this striptease by Virginia Gallardo and I have to say it´s really something else. Musica ! 



A totally different show is TU CARA ME SUENA from spanish television which could be roughly translated as YOUR FACE LOOKS FAMILIAR although the spanish term " me suena " means something like making sounds or music if you take it literally. So it has kind of a double meaning since people - mostly celebrities - dress up and perform as famous singers.

Because it´s a spanish tv program and not a german one it´s an original idea and most of the performances are quite good. There is one who does an Adele performance almost better than the real thing but Today´s clip is Anna Simon with Kylie Minogue´s I CAN`T GET YOU OUT OF MY HEAD.



Anna Simon is another tv cult icon I wanted to do a post about for a long time but as always I haven´t gotten around to - not yet. As with Aylin Mujica I can´t explain everything about her but she´s a tv institution in Spain. I tried to find a particular clip on YouTube but since I could not find it here´s an animated GIF from one of her best shows. Ay oma, que rico !


But don´t fear here is a clip from the cult show TONTERIAS LAS JUSTAS where Anna appeared in a tight pink top to celebrate the 100th episode.



A stereotype many latin women have to deal with is that most foreigners think all latinas have black hair. Just ask Sofia Vergara. Anna is a natural blonde but in one episode of OTRA MOVIDA - another comedy / news / gossip show - she wore a black wig and she looked so stunning that her male co hosts kept hitting on her for the length of the entire episode.



At the moment Anna is one of the hosts of ZAPEANDO together with Cristina Pedroche and Ana Morgade which is the trifecta of hot tv babes.

Or at least one of the trifectas since there are so many hot sexbombs on spanish tv. I really have to do a post about this one day. Anyway, I only find short clips on the internet but this one is almost 15 minutes long.



If you ask me how best to describe Ana Morgade then I would say she´s like the spanish version of Tina Fey only with a DD breast size - at least.


She has a rapier wit, a great sense of humor and a body like a centerfold which is the reason why I included this last video. The cleavage on the shirt is not very deep but hold out till the end of the video where she moves a lot and you can see that there´s a lot jumping under her shirt .



Since the original video that I posted here was deleted from YouTube and I just spend two hours to find it again in vain I´m adding a few more Ana Morgade videos. So if this one disappears I can put up the next one faster.





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

Thursday, September 25, 2014

It´s " Twin Titans of Technology " Thursday !

You know that you are busy when you plan to do a follow up to a post the next day and the next day turns out to be the next year. But at least that way we can continue with Bob Layton´s IRON MAN on his 61st birthday.


Back when I did my last birthday post to pay tribute to Bob Layton I was heavily pimping the IRON MAN by David Micheline, Bob Layton & John Romita Jr Omnibus Hardcover and I hope all interested readers have gotten their copy in the meantime because - as I predicted - it´s not as cheap anymore and there´s a difference between 57 bucks and 75 bucks.

And that´s all the pimping I´m going to do. Let´s get down to business.

When I ended my last post about Iron Man I was talking about a new era of greatness that was just waiting around the corner and I´m not sure what I meant with that ( it was one year ago after all ) but I guess it had something to do with Tony´s new armor. Daddy got brand new threads.


The new armor and new penciler Mark D. Bright had just debuted in issue 200 but I didn´t get that issue so for me it all started with issue 201.

Back then I bought all my issues of american comics at the newsstand at the International Press newsstand at Stuttgart Grand Central which was one of the perks of doing your vocational education at the Deutsche Bundesbahn. A free ticket all year long. Anyway, like I have mentioned in previous posts you didn´t always get consecutive issues but with IRON MAN I was mostly lucky. And even if I didn´t get the anniversary issue I guess it was only the build up because with 201 you got the big resolution and everything old was new again. Before issue 200 Tony Stark had just recovered from his binge .... yes, there was a storyline besides the much lauded - and rightly so - DEMON IN A BOTTLE story which dealt with Tony becoming an alcoholic and it lasted from issue 169 to 182 which is the issue in which Tony first admitted that he had a problem and needed help.


So in issue 169 James Rhodes started wearing the armor and while Tony began dealing with his problems he still didn´t get back into the suit.

He started working again supplying tech and even donned some makeshift superhero costume to support Rhodey together with Hawkguy as Spare Parts Man ( or Nothing - In - Particular - Man, since Tony didn´t decide which name he liked best ) but Rhodey stayed in the role as Iron Man until issue 200 when Tony´s old enemy Obediah Stane ( yes, the one from the first Iron Man movie ) started his machinations to bring Tony down again and Rhodey was too injured to wear the new armor Tony was working on.


Now for Today´s kind of oversaturated comic readers who always want instant gratification and who have to start at the ground floor or they don´t start at all this would have most certainly be an utter nightmare.

But for comic fans of my generation this was how we read comic books. For a number of issues the title had been doing what it always did, then came a new direction, or a new writer like Walter Simonson on THOR, started creating some buzz and you started picking up the book. Or it just was available. And if it was good you stayed with it like me on IRON MAN.

Issue 201 was probably not the best issue to ease into things and it most certainly was not what you call " reader friendly " or " a great jumping on point " because there were all kind of things happening. Tony had just defeated Obediah Stane and now he had to rescue his hostages, Madame Masque who had been in cahoots with Obediah ( at least until he dumped her ) may or may not have been captured / switched her identity with a woman to escape, Tigra, Mockingbird and Hawkguy came aid Tony who went up against Stane´s army and he got to show off all the new tricks the new armor had ( there were quite some new gadgets and weapons ).


So issue 201 was really a rollercoaster ride with a lot of action, subplots and a bit overwhelming for coming into the title. But it sure was fun.

Which was one of the main requirements for buying comics ( and keep buying them especially ) : anything but boring. You did not always get numbers in the right order or not even more than one issue of a title so the thing you were looking for was the highest possible entertainment. And IRON MAN was just what the doctor ordered. Tony Stark was back again in a brand new suit and while it looked a bit bulkier than previous models for the first time he wore something that looked like a real armor somebody could wear. With the broad neck part and the shoulder pads there might have been a manga reference there but it also had a nifty backpack where he could carry extra parts or plug in special equipment.


And in old Marvel TWO IN ONE manner you even got two Iron Men for the price of one in some issues with Tony Stark in the new armor and James Rhodes wearing Iron Man classic. Until James had an accident and almost was burned alive in the armor. You know, not that Tony Stark´s live had been a real picnic but Rhodey just had all kinds of bad luck when the Iron Man armor came into play. I know that the writers probably had to come up with a way to keep him out of the armor but when you just look at all the things that happened to him it is ridiculous. It is kind of strange that most of the time there was only one Iron Man since it would have gotten better results employing a full squad of iron law enforcers. And don´t tell me a wealthy man like Tony would have any problems to find qualified pilots. He just didn´t want to share the glory. But that´s just one example of wasted story potential. Anyway, even though we only got the double whammy with two Iron Men for a few issues James Rhodes later on adopted the War Machine identity so he kind of redeemed himself.


One thing that kind of bugs me is that typically, it´s the brother who almost gets fried. Not really a good idea. The same with making Johnny Storm a brother in the next movie. Even keeping aside the fact that Susan´s parents have some explaining to do why her brother is a brother when his sister is not a sister. But of all the team members you didn´t make the strong stone monster black, you didn´t make the smart guy black and you also didn´t make the hot babe that becomes invisible black.


The one you pick is the one who turns into a human torch. Don´t the guys in Hollywood know anything about black history and the Ku Klux Klan ?

Coming back to Bob Layton and IRON MAN, I said that I got " mostly " lucky because the next issue I got after IRON MAN 201 were issues 215 and 216 and from issue 219 I got the issues every month. Which might have been around the time when I got my first comic subscription from a real comicshop ( via mail order, using a catalogue because back then almost no comicshop had their own homepage ) or when my older brother started bringing me american comics from Nürtingen. With the erratic schedule the comics arrived in Stuttgart I used every opportunity I had to ride the train to Stuttgart Central Station and nagged the people at the newsstand until they finally gave me the address of the shop where they got their american comics from so I wouldn´t bother them anymore. I started with SHE HULK and AVENGERS WEST COAST which were both written and drawn by John Byrne and I was in comic heaven. Ah, the good old times. Of course my pull list expanded rapidly and when my brother started studying art in Nürtingen he wanted to get me to cancel my subscription with the shop I had used so far and order them all from Nürtingen because they had the issues earlier and they were cheaper.

Naturally I made the switch when I frequented the Free Art Academy myself, so that might have been an influence in me getting the issues more regularly which was right on scedule. Because after going up against The Ghost and Justin Hammer henchmen Force, Blizzard, Blacklash and Beetle one of Iron Man´s most famous stories started : ARMOR WARS.


The gist of the story was that somebody had stolen technology from Tony Stark and sold it all over the world ( without Tony Stark getting a profit out of it ) to every armor wearing two bit villain in the Marvel universe.


And being the egomaniac control freak that he is instead of filing a useless lawsuit Tony just took his intellectual property back no matter who´s head he had to bash in : Titanium Man and The Crimson Dynamo, S.H.I.E.L.D.´s mandroids - even Avengers Stingray and Captain America.


You know, Iron Man and Captain America have tussled so often over the last few decades that I have the theory that Tony just needs to smack the boy scout around a bit from time to time to feel superior. I bet he even does the Church Lady´s superior dance afterwards. Anyway, this story was sadly the final opus of the silver centurion armor as it was sent out to greener pastures. I´m not entirely sure what the reasoning for this was.

Maybe it didn´t go well with the readers ( which I doubt ) or maybe the artist wanted more royalties by creating a new armor. In the story Tony Stark goes breaking more and more rules and laws until the public ( which has no idea why he´s doing all this ) thinks Iron Man has finally gone off the deep end. So to prevent any financial loss for his company because of his own actions Tony has no other option than to officially fire his hired bodyguard Iron Man who is seemingly killed in action soon afterwards. As the silver centurion armor is associated with the killing Iron Man ( yes, read the story to find out how that happens ) Tony decides to retire the armor for good and in later issues they also add the information that the armor had some experimental technology that was bad for his health. But you can´t keep a dedicated man down and Tony is not quite finished with his vendetta, his STARK WARS. Which is how the story was first called in the comics but I guess because of the pressure from a movie company that has since been bought by Disney they changed it to the title under which it´s now known for. So for the final showdown against walking tank Firepower he comes up with a really horrendously ugly armor and that´s the last time we see the best armor there ever was in the comic book.


Or was it ?

Because it seems somebody at Marvel also was very fond of the silver and red armor so we got issue 232 in which Tony has a nightmare confronting him one more time with the demons that have plagued him lately. And to make it a special farewell the art is by the great Barry Windsor Smith.


Now originally I wanted to end the post with a DEJA VUE section of Bob Layton but I think instead I´ll just add more pages from IRON MAN 232.


So that´s it for this post about Bob Layton´s IRON MAN and in our next post - which may well be next year again - there will be a lot of returns. The return of one of my favorite artists, John Romita Jr., the return of ARMOR WARS and even the return of certain characters from the dead.


Which brings us to the topic of our next post. Death. As a follow up to the post about Namorita I wanted to talk a bit about death in comics since I´m not so sure I made my point why she should be resurrected. There are some deaths in comics that just have the purpose to serve a story and are badly written so I thought it would be a good idea to mention a few iconic ones that I found exceptionally well executed ( pun intended ).


Originally I just wanted to write something about death in comics in general but after I had collected all the necessary material for the post the whole day ( and most of the night ) was gone and since Today was Bob Layton´s birthday I couldn´t do it Today. But our next post will be about death in comics - or our next posts since I could bring it down to ten I want to talk about and I don´t think there will be any surprises there.

I noticed that it´s difficult to come up with comics that have nothing to do with death. Some characters like Swamp Thing become super heroes after death, some heroes like Batman are motivated by death and some characters like Barry Allen became much more important after death than they had ever been in their lifetime. So maybe that will be a whole thing.

So, time to come to an end. But wait, don´t go. We are not finished yet !

As usual I have to mention all the websites which helped me to make this post and this time we have a lot of them. First I have to give a big tip of the blog writing hat to the guys from Super Mega Monkey´s MARVEL CHRONOLOGY without whom a lot of this post would have been incorrect or at least not as elaborate as it turned out. Since it has been ages since I last read the issues and I didn´t have them handy it would have been almost impossible to do the post. The many pictures on the post also helped as I could refresh my memories of IRON MAN issues 168 to 170 , 171 to 175 , 176 , 177 , 178 , 179 to 181 , 182 , 183 , 184 , 185 , 186 to 187 , 188 , 189 to 190 , 191 to 192 , 193 to 194 , 195 , 196 , 197 , 198 to 201 , 225 , 226 , 227 to 228 , 229 and 230 to 232 . They also provided the link for the Iron Man - Armor Wars cartoon you can find further below.


Barry Windsor Smith´s own website provided the black and white cover recreation of IRON MAN 232 , TRI - STATE ORIGINAL ART has more black and white pages from that issue, THE MARVEL AGE OF COMICS has one black and white page, you can find more pages from that issue - along with much more art by Barry - on the COLLECTED EDITIONS DISCUSSION FORUM and finally  PENCIL INK also provided one of the color pages.

MARVEL COMICS OF THE 1980s celebrates Iron Man 3 week with a selection of their favorite splash pages from the 1980s and CBR´s WHEN WE FIRST MET series has a post on all of Iron Man´s armors.

My spanish readers might want to check out EL NORTE ESTA LLENO DE FRIO which has a very long post about Iron Man´s entire career and two shorter ones about CRISIS and FF by Matt Fraction and Mike Allred .

Thanks again, all your hard work is appreciated. Now on the video part I want to start with an interview from SLICE TV with artist Bob Layton.



Since you can never watch enough cartoons here´s ARMOR WARS.



Now I thought I had already posted this last video when I was doing the cosplay posts. I have to get back to that very soon as all the innovative costumes inspire me. Check out how the water bending is incorporated.



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