Steve Dillon, The Comic Book Artist Who Helped Create ‘Preacher,’ Dies at 54

From the NY Times:


Steve Dillon, a comic-book artist best known for Preacher, a long-running series, recently adapted for television, about three companions who literally search for God, died over the weekend in Manhattan. He was 54.

Another untimely death in 2016. He will be incredibly missed. His art made Preacher so great! Hellblazer, Punisher, Atom, Deadpool, and Scarlet Witch were also brought to life by him in a uncomparable way.

Rest in Peace!

Review: Die Pforte von Patrick Lee - 1. Teil der Travis Chase Trilogie

Der ausgezeichneten Review auf dem Blog "Traumfeder" - Link siehe unten im Text - habe ich eigentlich nichts hinzuzufügen.

Ich kam auf den Roman aufgrund eines Tipps eines alten Freundes, und er hatte recht! Megaspannend, für mich eine Mischung aus "24" und "Fringe". Twenty-Four deshalb, weil Travis genauso erbarmungslos und brutal vorgeht wie Jack Bauer und die Action ähnlich schnell getaktet ist wie in der Fernsehserie. Und "Fringe" kam mir bei den ersten Kapiteln in den Sinn, vor allem wegen dem Thema Paralleluniversen, den Artefakten und natürlich dem Portal in eine andere Welt.

Erschienen ist der Roman bereits 2010, aber wie gesagt, aufmerksam wurde ich auf diesen Autoren erst heute, in dem Jahr, das im 3. Roman eine nicht unwichtige Rolle spielt.

Ich habe diesen und die 2 Folgeromane "Dystopia" und "Das Labyrinth der Zeit" innerhalb von 2 Wochen regelrecht verschlungen, und ich wurde von Anfang bis zur letzten Seite nicht enttäuscht.

Die ganze Trilogie ist absolut empfehlenswert!

Review auf Traumfeder : Die Pforte von Patrick Lee:

Reihe: Travis Chase 1

Taschenbuch: 384 Seiten

Verlag: rororo (1. Dezember 2010)

Sprache: Deutsch 

Captain America: Civil War

Saw the movie last week. Great! A perfect follow-up to Winter Soldier and Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Go see it!


Read also the interesting review on the Forbidden Planet Blog.


http://www.forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/2016/reviews-captain-america-civil-war/

Batman vs. Superman : Dawn of Justice

Saw Batman vs. Superman last week. Awesome! Ben Affleck was better than I thought, Superman was great like the last time, and Gal Gadot is the perfect embodiment of Wonder Woman. She is incredible! On the minus-side of the movie, the Joker - oh sorry - Lex Luthor I mean, was too nervous and campy in my opinion. Well, at least he got bald in the end...
So - a great movie, lot of fun and action. Take a look at it, don't listen to the critics in the newspapers. (as usual, many of them don't like superhero-movies) As a comic reader since childhood, for me, it was a good movie.

Star Wars - The Force Awakens

In Memoriam Rainer Castor - seine wichtigsten Werke - Teil 2

Ein weiterer Teil seines Vermächtnisses ist die Arkon-Trilogie. 

Dank der Technik der Arkoniden haben die Menschen unter Führung Perry Rhodans alle nationalen und religiösen Grenzen überwunden und sind gemeinsam in das Universum vorgestoßen. Im Jahr 2047 ist die Erde das Zentrum des Solaren Imperiums, eines kleinen, aufstrebenden Sternenreiches. Als stärkster Verbündeter der Erde erweist sich das Große Imperium von Arkon - und dessen Imperator ist Atlan.

Zehntausend Jahre lang war Atlan, der dank eines »Zellaktivators« unsterbliche Arkonide, gezwungen, auf der Erde zu leben. In dieser Zeit versuchte er die Menschheit zu leiten und zu fördern. Als Ende des 20. Jahrhunderts der Atomkrieg drohte, ging der Arkonide in seine Tiefseeschlafkuppel, um ein letztes Mal die Jahrzehnte zu überbrücken.

Nun aber, in der Mitte des 21. Jahrhunderts, steht Atlan vor ganz neuen Herausforderungen. Als Imperator eines riesigen Reiches mit Zehntausenden von Planeten sowie Billionen von Bewohnern muss er sich mit Intrigen auf dem Regierungsplaneten ebenso auseinandersetzen wie mit Feinden, die das Imperium von außerhalb bedrohen. Die schlimmste Gefahr scheint jedoch aus der Vergangenheit zu kommen - uralte Legenden erwachen nach über einer Million Jahren in der Galaxis zum Leben...

Hier verbindet Castro uralte Rätsel, die zum Teil erst in viel späteren Zyklen von Perry Rhodan bekannt wurden, mit den Romanen der Frühzeit der Serie. Spannend, facettenreich und actionreich. Etwas anspruchsvoll für Neuleser, da doch recht viel Hintergrundwissen verlangt wird. Für langjährige Fans jedoch ein grosser Lesespass. 

In Memoriam Rainer Castor - seine wichtigsten Werke - Teil 1

Temur-Trilogie 

Mit diesen Romanen wurde ich auf Rainer Castor aufmerksam. 

Er schrieb diese Perry Rhodan-Taschenbücher mit fundiertem Wissen, 

Detailreichtum und Spannung. Er löste alte Rätsel, und schuf neue dazu. 

Einige seiner späteren Romane nahmen immer wieder Bezug auf diese

spannenden Geschichten.

Zitat aus der Perrypedia

Die Temur-Trilogie ist ein drei Planetenromane umfassender Zyklus von Rainer Castor.

Er befasst sich in zahlreichen Rückblenden mit den Ereignissen rund um Atlan da Gonozal, seinen 

Gegenspieler Talossa und die Hinterlassenschaften der Lemurer in den Jahren 2420 bis 2425. 

Handlungsschauplätze sind das Tarlora/Hydra-System und Temur-Station, die Justierungsstation 

des Teeur-Sonnenfünfecks. 

Des Weiteren werden zahlreiche Erkenntnisse um die Geschichte der Ersten Menschheit gewonnen.

Die Trilogie verknüpft hierbei Ereignisse aus Atlans fernster Vergangenheit als Kristallprinz mit den 

Geschehnissen in dem Zyklus um die Meister der Insel und der Geschichte der Lemurer sowie 

dem Teil-Zyklus um die CONDOS VASAC und den entsprechenden Planetenromanen. 

Insgesamt stellt er eine Vermischung von Teilen der Perry Rhodan-Serie und der Atlan-Serie 

basierend auf einem Handlungsschwerpunkt dar.

Böhmerts Hasenbrot: Rainer Castor verstorben

Böhmerts Hasenbrot: Rainer Castor verstorben [aktualisiert am 26.09. u...: Ich möchte hier nur kurz vermelden, dass der Perry-Rhodan-Autor Rainer Castor , der gleichzeitig so etwas wie die wandelnde Datenbank der Se...

Dennis Wheatley - The Island where time stands still

It took some time until a new post. Sorry readers!

Bought this one in a used book store, without knowing the author. A little research showed that this one is quite interesting.

During WWII, the author Dennis Wheatley was hired by Winston Churchill to be a part of a highly confidential group of strategists. He was one of the only civilians to be recruited, on the strength that he had shown a flair for deception and cover stories in his novels, particularly through his incarnation of Gregory Sallust - widely regarded as the inspiration for Ian Fleming's James Bond.

And this story is the ninth one in a series of 11 novels. Its a Arrow Book from 1964. Originally, it was first published in the year 1954.

On a pleasure cruise on the South Seas, Sir Pellinore Gwaine-Cust's yacht hits a coral reef and sinks in minutes. Only one survivor is washed to the safety of the shore: Gregory Sallust.

But this is no ordinary Pacific island. When Gregory regains consciousness he finds himself among a Chinese community, ruled by descendents of the ancient Imperial House. Within days the throne becomes vacant, and Gregory joins an expedition to find the true heir - a hazardous search that takes him to San Francisco, and deep into the forbidden heart of China itself.


Check it out, and if you like it, you will find the whole series over at Amazon.

Tomorrowland Movie

Startling Stories - Nov. 1952

To start the new year, here's my latest addition to my collection. Startling Stories from 1952!

It has everything - nice cover, rockets, girls, interior illustrations that are really great, interesting stories.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

After a rather crappy 2013 (for me), everything went well in 2014.  Of course there were ups and downs, but overall it was a good one. In 2014 I had the luck to travel to some beautiful places (well - at least in Europe...). I was visiting Vienna, had one week in Carcassonne,  and spent 10 days in my most favorite town, in London. And not to forget the Comic-Convention in Erlangen, Germany.

This year, my mind was blown away with "The Guardians of the Galaxy", "Winter Soldier" "Interstellar" or "Days of Future Past".  A good time for sci-fi and comic fans.

We lost some great actors and artists in 2014 - for an example, HR Giger, Lauren Bacall, Robin Williams, Maximilian Schell and Bob Hoskins. May they rest in peace. Their art and their movies will never be forgotten.

In terms of comics, its an interesting time, but also a little bit disturbing. The "Big Two" are jumping from event to event, and as a longtime reader, I get tired of it, especially of Marvel`s way to do it. I reduced my list of Marvel titles to just a few comics (Guardians of the Galaxy and Deathlok) because these constant relaunches of series get on my nerves. It is difficult to follow a hero, when he has several no. 1's during the year. What are they thinking at Marvel? An now they dug out "Secret Wars" for 2015 - is that necessary? Are they running out of ideas?

DC is a little bit better in these things."Futures End" is promising, even though I had to buy many of these 3d-covers. The Godhead Story at the Green Lantern Books is also interesting, combining the New Gods and the Green Lanterns. Next year we will see the "Crisis"-anniversary, lets see what happens.  I look very forward to the Darkseid War!

Well - that it from my side. Good luck and seize the day!

 Happy holidays and all the best for 2015!

By the way: Today its Dr. Who Christmas Special-Day! Don't miss it!

The Guardians of the Galaxy

As a reader of the Marvel Comic by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, I was very exited to hear that a movie of my favourite band of heroes was in the pipeline. I hoped that there won't be a disappointment, that they didn't get the "cosmic part" of the Marvel Universe right. My fears were not necessary. 

Yesterday, I was in the movie, and boy, they delivered. The movie had everything: action, fun, mystery, great music.

An assassin, a brute with a big knife, a tree, a raccoon with a love for guns and explosions, and a human who was abducted by aliens - this works really well. How the band of outlaws gets together – in prison – and how they learn to accept each other, is really good moviemaking. I love this film.

The chemistry between the actors is great – they must have had real fun doing this movie. And no other movie from Marvel hat more easter-eggs than this one, I swear!

Just the Collectors museum is a feast for the eyes. In every corner you discover something interesting. Even Beta Ray Bill? – I didn't see him, I have to check the blue-ray. But I saw a dark elf (from Thor 2), and of course Cosmo, the russian telepathic dog in the spacesuit, a fan-favourite from the comic. Or Adam Warlocks cocoon.

Remember the bad guy at the end of Avengers? This time, we saw Thanos in full, sitting on his chair, like I always imagined him. (ok, with a more metallic armor than in the comics, but its all right.) 



Like in the comics, one day (maybe in Avengers 3) Thanos will posess all the gems and sets the gems into the gold glove we saw in the first Thor Movie,  which he refers to as the Infinity Gauntlet. With it, he tries to destroy (half) of the universe, no less, to impress his Mistress Death. We'll see....

The other bad guys – Ronan, the fanatic Accuser, and Nebula (played by Doctor Who Companion Karen Gillan) are also great. 

What else is to say? Well, on my way to work this morning, I listened the "Awesome Mix, Vol. 1". Thanks youtube!

Go see the movie! 

.