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):
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.
Nice pages , Terry . Love the Eric and Ernie cameo . Pity about the lost pages though . Did you script it or write as you drew ?
ReplyDeleteEarth Beat I have all the pages to and I wrote and pencilled (psst! check out the first page for credits!) .....uh, John -I mention I wrote/pencilled in the item? Have you had funny mushrooms??? I lost then found my copies of CheckPart. I'm confused.......
ReplyDeleteAh....I think there WAS a script but when I had to pencil it became redundant!
ReplyDeleteCan't get mushrooms around here . Ground too highly utilized for agri . Book spores , now , that's a different matter . Just think of all those old books and paper around you . Could be that's your confusion right there . Stop sniffing those naughty books Terry ! ( You're doing it again , I said stop it , it will give you hallucinations of godhood - oh , that comes naturally ! ) Yes , I did see ' wrote/pencilled ' , however , ad-libbing a strip as you go along b'ain't unknown lad . It may end up a comic strip version of Exquisite Corpse , possibly the most brilliant thing you ever did or the people that you dare show your effort to will say to you that it really doesn't make any sense . So , you departed/altered the strip as you drew it because you found it irresistible to tinker with it . Sorry , maybe I wasn't clear when I asked " Did you script it ? " - as in a preparatory sense , before you drew it . Mea maxima culpa , but I do always check the writing/drawing credits on a strip before reading it. I look for them.
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