The Secret (Actually Forgotten) Origins Of The Special Globe Guard

Published by Martin Kelter Verlag, based in Duneburg, Germany (surprise!) the Checkpart series was a sub-series of futuristic thrillers. The subtitle was: World Super Crime 2000 or Checkpart Mit Dem Special Globe Guard Team.  The series itself was conceived by Kurt Brand. Published between 1970 and 1972  there were 54 of these 66 paged (double columned) prose stories.  

The series consisted of 54 booklets with the cover price of  90 Pfg, but at  issue 44 it rose 10 pfg to 1.00 DM. 

So, you might ask:"How do you have issues 151 and 153 then?"  Good question163 stories in the series -the ones I have are right toward the end of the run. A trifle brusque, but good question. You see, there were 54 issues featuring the SGG but as I mentioned, they were a sub-series that started in Kelter Krimi Nr. 57 with "Top Und Das Killer-Girl"  ("Top And The Killer Girl") by Torsten Reschke.

Got it? Good.

At the top of the posting you'll see the original title banner with World Super Crime 2000 and, below, the later banner with Mit Dem Special Globe Guard Team.

 

Nr. 151 "The Gentlemen Gangster" which was written by Torsten Reschke. And, yes, that IS British actor Richard Todd snooping through the window!

Nr. 153 "Ein Fuchs wie Aso Tokyo" ("A Fox Like Aso Tokyo")  by Konrad Schaef-another British actor but I cannot remember his name. Neither of the films these stills are taken from  have been on TV for a long time. 

I love the stills from movies used to sell the books -no doubt to attract the eye from all the other publishers' titles that used to fill news vendors shelves.  There was Richard Widmark, Adam West, Kirk Douglas, Lee Marvin, Jeff Bridges, David McCallum -you can list the movies the stills were taken from all day!

And, out of pure boredom I thought I'd check the interwebby-thing and see what I could find. Nothing. But then I thought why not use an old German publisher guide. Just a brief mention and then -SF Hefte Deutschland: BINGO!

Covers and numbers of all the books. And now you, too, can check out the covers (I know I'm going to):

http://www.sf-hefte.de/Checkpart.php

Now, I can see you sat there and thinking "What has THIS got to do with the post title??"

Okay, a trifle brusque -again- and wanting things explained too quickly but, probably, a legitimate question (I need to change these tablets I'm taking).

Well, in the mid-1980s I thought that I needed a central body that a rotating team of characters could feature in. I had smaller groups of heroes -The Crime Club, Anti-Crime Squad, Crime Busters UK (a team that very nearly made it into a Fleetway comic!) and so on.  Global Guardians had featured elsewhere and I almost plumped for my old 1970s Legion of Law Enforcers -which kinda still gets used- but then I thought "Special Globe Guard" -excellent! 

As I had bought and read those two Kelter Krimis more than a decade before I had forgotten them. In fact, I have no memory of whether I thought "That's a good name I can use" or thought it was my original idea. Look, I am very, very old. But it stuck.

So when in (I think) 1987 I wrote and pencilled "Earth Scream" I used the SGG -an excellent UK artist, John P. Britton inked over my pencils (that makes him a saint!) and Ben Dilworth lettered.  It looks pretty rough now but I still love the team and story (parts 2-4 are lost thanks to a Fleetway editor).

The SGG were, of course, the vanguard in defence of Earth in Return Of The Gods: Twilight Of The Super Heroes -some giving their lives.

But this ramble would not be complete (unless I forget) withought a few of those original 1980s pages -IF blogger allows them to be shown.

Enjoy.
 

ALL artwork/characters (c)2014 Terry Hooper-Scharf & Black Tower Comics & Books