Interior art varied from good to pretty amateurish but this was a fan character and the point is at least they got the character into his own short-lived book. I understand costs and a few other internal problems saw an end to the character which is a pity.
And then we have….
Dorn -Der Morgenstern Without doubt my favourite German super hero has to be Dorn -Der Morgenstern (Thorn -The Morning Star). I wrote a rather lengthy post on his origins a good while back so in case you missed it….
When Helden Turned Into Dorn Der Morgenstern
There are a few German comics -Small Press, Idependent- that I like to get out every-so-often and re-read. Nostalgia and big chunk o’ fun all in one. Randalf Paker may not mean much to English language comic fans but in 2001 Caption Comics published the comic series that he wrote and drew based upon a long running role playing game (RPG) he was games master of.
The title, Helden/Heroes was initially sold in gaming shops but really took off and spawned the comic. So what was it about?
Helden (Heroes) is the retelling of the fantasy role-playing game group that I led as the gaming master. The charakters and story of this group were so exciting, I had to write it down somehow. Since I love drawing, I used the COMIC to tell the story. —Ralf Paul
In this story seven heroes from the farthest corners of the World meet and stumble into their first adventure. In the center of it all is the mercenary Benwick, who, because of the imprisonment of his mother, is forced into a difficult mission…
Things are fickle in gaming and comics. As issue 6 was finished the interest had waned to such a degree that the cost of high quality printing, especially in pre-print on demand days, was too high.
Nr 6 felt bulkier than usual (all the IPP books were printed on top quality thick paper stock) what I found inside was the cover and,uh, issue nr 7! Yes, the heroes finally get together and…well. Nothing nice happens.
What is more there is a nice ending involving a rather bloodied Morning Star. “What’s a ‘morning star’?” Its like a mace with spikes -DON’T you even dare ask “What’s a mace, then?”!!!!
Though I tried order the new title, when I heard that the follow-up was to be titled Dorn Der Morgenstern/Thorn The Morning Star, no comic shop was interested in getting me copies. Why? It was foreign language and was not carried by Diamond. That made it “impossible” to get hold of.
So what did I do? I sent an email to Ideenschmiede Paul & Paul GbR and got a nice email back and…voila! I got Dorn 1-4.
Was I impressed? Of course I was. Other than Helge “Herod” Korda and Mathias “EmdE” Dinter who were producing the semi parody Heroes From The Black Lagoon only one other person I knew was doing German super heroes -me, starting in the early 1980s with D-Gruppe.
This was no American artist drawing a super hero based in what an American artist thought Germany looked like: this was a German creator.
The IPP web site explains Dorn…
“The Morningstar also known as Dorn” describes the life of Paul Paker – a computer genius and game freak. An experiment gone awry and murdering circumstances have pushed him into a corner of society. Only an idea as phantastic as the events which put him there can release him. This improvised idea results in an ingenious but rather complex plan.
A German Super Hero.
Yes, folks, before Der Engel there was Dorn..a German Superhero. Well, he had to sort things out first such as a costume and a name.
For various reasons the title never got beyond nr 4 and I’m sure that I’m not the only one who heaved a depressive sigh. But now….HOPE!
My scanner decided to crap out on me so I thought I’d check online for cover images but apart from my previous items on the series I found only one other source -IPP. A company I thought was no more!
And I found something a few of us have been hoping for a loooong time now -Dorn nr. 5is currently being put together!
The gift in the cracker is that, as you’ll notice on the cover scans not my own, Helden and Dorn can be read as web comics. So check out the IPP web-comics if you speak German but if not there is still a LOT of great art!
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In more recent years we have had The NextArt publishing Tomppa’s Der Engel
The below cover and art are from a German comic titled Der Engel (The Angel) by Tomppa (that’s him in the photo below).
I published the following on the old CBO so….
Regulars will recall that I had posted on the fact that there was no reason why there could not be UK based super heroes, you just needed to adapt them to UK settings, etc.. Subzero on his Tales From The Kryptonian blog (see blog roll) followed this about German super heroes. The same thing applied.
However, we both noted how hostile certain factions in both German and UK comics were to even attempting home grown super heroes.
I need to point out that Tomppa has done just that. He has taken a scenario and based his character in Berlin in the year 2029 -not that far off really. The story works well and there is good characterisation and I think that Der Engel will one day become a classic German comic series -rather like Dorn Der Morgenstern has become legendary.
What struck me was the art style. In the first issue it looks a little sketchy and crude in places, though the architecture looks great. I ought to point out that there is nothingwrong with the art -bear with me I’m getting there! In the second issue the art improves and there is some nice usage of effects. We then get to issue 3 where the art has improved greatly -better use of washes and much, much more.
This had me puzzled. Then I looked at the dates of the comics. Nr. 1 -2009. Nr. 2 -2010 and Nr. 3 -2012. That explains a lot as you would not expect such a change in quality over three issues produced in the same year (there are exceptions).
If you are one of CBOs German regulars and you’ve not bought the series yet -please do! And I know there are people out there who like to collect super hero books in other languages to compare or as novelties -Der Engel is one you ought to try.
With all the events going on at the moment with revolutions, mass rallies and attempted supression I think Der Engel is, and will continue to be, contempory even in ten years time. The world changes that little.
Now, when does Der Engel action figure arrive???
There isn’t one?! Oh. Have a big helping of art then!
Not heard much since I did these reviews but I have fingers and toes crossed in the hope of seeing more of Der Engel!
“A series that wasn´t afraid of being labeled as a superhero comic was NEW ARDEN CHRONICLES from Final Art Comics in 1999 which clearly showed it´s influences like the art of Todd McFarlane and the Image comics of the 1990s.”
So that’s a complete mystery to me...well, it was a mystery but German blogger Subzero sent me the whole series. Certainly the inspiration of McFarlane and Spawn is there. Interesting but you have to ask why it stopped? Low sales? High print costs?
If you know....let ME know!
