When the above edition of Black Tower Adventure volume 2 appeared I had high hopes. Of course, thanks to printers who do not carry out quality control checks any longer (printing as a trade has really gone down hill in the last twenty years) this cover and contents had to be re-jigged.
Still, I was an enthusiastic bunny.
Must have been the medication.
You see, I thought that now there was a higher standard of print quality I could get on with a project I had been nurturing since 1985. Getting my books to Germany. I had contributed some strips to Small Press titles back then, though I've no idea what appeared where or even "if" -it was all letters and people moving addresses a LOT back then (and that includes me -I was 48 years old before I had my first "permanent home" and could un-box things).
Bastei was the main company I dealt with and I have, in past posts, outlined what happened. Negative things included Germany's First Super Hero Group -D-Gruppe falling into limbo when Egmont bought Bastei and all "kids books" got dropped.
Growing up on a farm in Germany, visiting the forestry and reading as well as hearing old stories, I found that I had none of those incredible crime fighters/anti-heroes from British weekly comics so what does a kid do? If you just said "make up his own" then you get.....well, nothing really. But you were spot on!
Have no fear: I am not going to bore you with how D-Gruppe came about -again, there are previous posts!
I knew full well that a crime-fighter, whether in costume or just a mask, did not need to have skyscrapers to work. People who said -and still say- that are unimaginative buffoons. What the hell, I'm not losing any friends here (not making any either, I'd bet!). Did King Arthur, Robin Hood, Dick Turpin, Hercules, Baron von Munchhausen or heroes of European and British folk tales need skyscrapers to amaze and thrill people?
No.
So I set up all the dummy art pages and cover mock-ups and set about tracking down and trying to re-establish communications with my old German publishing contacts.
Yoikes!
Most had retired or been made redundant and all said the same thing "there is no imagination or incentive amongst German publishers to actually publish comics!" Hey, I like up-beat chats with old professionals....well, usually.
I then thought that, perhaps putting D-Gruppe into Adventure and showing German publishers might be a good idea. I re-thought and, eventually, after a lot of work, scrapped pages and covers the four issue Zeitgeist mini series appeared followed by the 2012 Annual. This was all eventually pulled together for the D-Gruppe graphic novel.
So what reaction did it get? Well, it seems there are some very snooty arty-farty types in German comics who see anything other than serious social-political or "serious satire" as a waste of time. Bloody rude people, too.
Of course, the-idea of translating the whole book into German seemed good. However, how the hell do you translate "sub-atomic molecular de-stabiliser" and other such things into German? Some words commonly used in comics I could not even find in my Langenscheid's Taschen Worterbuch (say that fast ten times!)
Even translated -how could I get the book into the market? German distributors are as, uh, "money interested" as those in any country. And, bearing in mind the expense of the books (shipping them to distributors comes out of my pocket) would they even sell? And distributors wanted anywhere up to 70% off the cover price for themselves. When I worked it all out I realised it was not a possibility.
To be honest you really need a publisher who will handle everything once you have turned all the art in. And pay you. Being paid is very important. Seriously.
And you might think that with the massive upsurge in popularity of comics and super heroes (apparently there have been a couple successful movies -?) that some intrepid German businessman/publisher might jump up and shout "I'll have some of that!"
In fact, as I've explained previously, I created heroes to cover most countries and particularly Europe -Belgian, Romanian, Russian, Dutch -heck -even a super heroine (Blue Flame) from Luxembourg. I'll not touch on the sore subject of the comics and characters I created for Indian publishers (there are posts on CBO). There were/are of course heroes from Africa, Australia and so on but that's another matter. It was nice to see them all in one book (Return Of The Gods: Twilight Of The Super Heroes).
I have no doubt that German comic fans would like to see German super heroes. Just as Bulgarian or Romanians would. But you need the publisher willing to take the risk rather than just reprint DC and Marvel comics.
D-Gruppe is not dead as a concept. The stories are all there and if you read Return Of The Gods you'll know some of the team, including its leader, vanished while pursuing a UFO. HenceD-Gruppe: Lost In Space which I have the notes and sketches for. And the major storyline of....no, I must stop blabbing.
I do despair at times with comics. D-Gruppe's creative birthplace is the Detmold-Dalborn-Lemgo-Blomberg and of course the Lippe state. I would love to see a D-Gruppe book read by comic fans there but I think that is a "never happen" dream -a bit like the ones where Ella Endlich, Pe Werner, Utte Lemper and Helen Fischer are desperately chasing after me but, uh, yeah. I'll leave it there!
Einsatzgruppe Deutschland And D-Gruppe -Germany's Premiere Super Team...
....This might get a little confusing!
It is rather interesting seeing the pages of Task Force Germany (Einsatzgruppe Deutschland) posted by Subzero over at Tales From The Kryptonian. This is art by Subzero's brother, Enrique Ruiz who, as far as I know, does not have a blog or web page?
Thor -painted by Arthur Rackham c. 1910
There is the question, that I'm sure people will ask, of why another team of super heroes was needed for Germany?
My mind. That's the answer. You see, I get idea after idea after idea flash through my head day and night. At times I make quick notes. At other times perhaps a sketch and a name. If I actually wrote and drew every idea I had I would have no time to sleep but if I continued in comics I have enough ideas to last the next twenty years (like I'm going to live that long!).
D-Gruppe was created when I was a youngster in Germany in the 1960s. By now the characters would be in their 80s or 90s so I only count their aging based on first printed appearance which would be in the 1980s (Prentiss, "The Mummy" dates back to 1985). So they will get older.
No re-boots! We can count D-Gruppe as being the German Avengers. Task Force Germanywould be, sort of, like Alpha Flight or the Defenders with a mixed roster but low profile compared to D-Gruppe whose members have been featured in documentaries, comics (ridiculous!) and even made into action figures.
No re-boots! We can count D-Gruppe as being the German Avengers. Task Force Germanywould be, sort of, like Alpha Flight or the Defenders with a mixed roster but low profile compared to D-Gruppe whose members have been featured in documentaries, comics (ridiculous!) and even made into action figures.
D-GRUPPE THE ZEIT GEIST SAGA brings the team up to 1995 while The Trial takes place in 1996. And it has not been the history I had planned since by now the Days Of Terror would have been at least ten years ago.
This is the blurb for the collected book:
"Germanys first super heroes have fumbled along since the “Externsteine Event”
"One day something crashes into forestry followed by a “white out” event and the appearance of the Pied Piper of Hameln and then the appearance Frederick Barbarossa seemingly out of history at D-Gruppe headquarters and his calling them into action. At the Place of the Gods, D-Gruppe meets heroes from other German parallels –all targeted and some destroyed by a seemingly all powerful being known as “Zeitgeist” and the race is on to find and stop “It” But there is a traitor amongst the heroes.
They were Germanys first. Germanys best heroes. But will they live long enough to succeed in their task? This book collects together the first adventure of D-Gruppe –Revenge Of The Ice Queen– along with the three part Zeitgeist saga and the 2012 annual that concluded the German super hero epic!"
The Trial saw a few of D-Gruppe's members put on trial in the Cosmic Fulcrum while those left behind team up with other (non-German) BTC heroes to investigate and...fight a number of threats. I am currently re-lettering this.
The Narri Narro was a D-Gruppe adventure "after" a major event in the team's history. Narri Narro is an annual German festival -folklore, myth, festivities, costumes ....so why not? These pages were uploaded to the Yahoo D-Gruppe page as well as Comic Art Fans and Art Wanted back in...2007!!
Someone I knew wanted to draw the story but there were a few problems so I drew some rough layouts. These are they!
But here is where Task Force Germany come in: they have Thor (yeah, let Marvel/Disney sue over that because they do not worry be at all) -the traditional long red hair/beard Thor of the Norse legends. It's been established that Evangeline from D-Gruppe "may" be some type of goddess ("I'm not supposed to talk about that"). We know that Waldmeister has some sort of deity connection and as his brother is Meer Peter (Sea Peter) who was due to make a comeback a while ago, the idea was that Thor would see Waldmeister and literally go ballistic -the reason I'm not telling!- which leads in to the tradional super hero groups....FIGHT!
As it is we have seen the more contemporary D-Gruppe in Return Of The Gods and in that team leader Kopfmann and some team members vanish while chasing a UFO. a few years have passed and D-Gruppe and Task Force Germany are active during the Green Skies event. In fact, some characters who have been "waiting in the wings" make their debuts in The Green Skies.
Also, we have to learn what happened to Kopfmann and co...."D-Gruppe -Lost In Space!"
There is no shortage of Germannic myths and legends to draw from for future adventures. Not all super villain versus super hero. We have the Germannic pantheon and have already seen the power they have and the trouble they can cause.
There are creatures such as the Basilisk
You can also pull in characters from fairy tales such as Rumpelstiltskin
Also, before the current glut of movies because Americans "discovered" him, we have my all time favourite: Krampus
There are also a couple scripts that artists specifically asked for so they could draw D-Gruppe. One said 7 pages was hard work....and gave up. The second actually raved about the story but said he had decided to write comics instead -"Do you mind if I change character names and use the story?" I said "No problem. I could use the money I'll get from suing your ****** ass!"
But here is where Task Force Germany come in: they have Thor (yeah, let Marvel/Disney sue over that because they do not worry be at all) -the traditional long red hair/beard Thor of the Norse legends. It's been established that Evangeline from D-Gruppe "may" be some type of goddess ("I'm not supposed to talk about that"). We know that Waldmeister has some sort of deity connection and as his brother is Meer Peter (Sea Peter) who was due to make a comeback a while ago, the idea was that Thor would see Waldmeister and literally go ballistic -the reason I'm not telling!- which leads in to the tradional super hero groups....FIGHT!
As it is we have seen the more contemporary D-Gruppe in Return Of The Gods and in that team leader Kopfmann and some team members vanish while chasing a UFO. a few years have passed and D-Gruppe and Task Force Germany are active during the Green Skies event.
So we can guess that there has been no team clash yet....but it is coming! And we have to learn what happened to Kopfmann and co.
Task Force Germany may well replace "Germany's Premiere Super Team"....now that could be interesting.
And below, a couple of pages from the Bros Ruiz Task Force D -hey, Subzero posted more pages on his blog a while back -you did check the blog out, right?
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