Sunday, May 22, 2016

Tim und Struppi Tag - it´s Hergé´s birthday

Since it´s Hergé´s day of birth I thought I would do a different post than usual and talk about franco belgian comics, in particular Tintin or how it is called in Germany Tim und Struppi ( the german name for the dog ).


For me Tim und Struppi has always been around and I read most of the albums through first the school library here in Neckarweihingen and later the public library in Ludwigsburg. People always say that comics are too expensive and that they would like to read more of them but most of the libraries have a ton of comics available for free. As a kid I read any comic I could get my hands on through the library : THE SMURFS, LUCKY LUKE, ASTERIX, YOKO TSUNO, RICK MASTERS, and of course TIM UND STRUPPI.

With such a classic title there have been of course many publishers who have brought the comic series to german readers over the years - most prominently CARLSEN - and there have been various versions of the books. You really have to know an expert who can tell you which ones are most faithful to the original comics or be sure to look if it says anywhere that the new version presents the material in the original form. That´s always a good sign. Anyway, here are a few versions of The Black Island.

In some cases only the header and the publisher name at the bottom were different but sometimes they even had a different cover illustration.


Here the two covers have been merged into one because it includes both of the above since it was a two part story. I remember this was one of the first Tintin books my parents bought for me and I read it over and over.


The first one here was not only published with a different cover, the title was also changed. With the other three they changed something in the lettering and I have no idea why. Is this a christian / muslim thing now ?


Here are a few more Tintin books, this time without any changes. If you haven´t read the series and only know the movie give it a try, it´s got adventure, mystery, great humor and it´s meticulously researched. Like when they are in a tiny balkan nation in 1979 and they are on a train the ticket inspector on that train is wearing the exact uniform they used to wear in that balkan nation at that time and also the train tickets look one hundred percent accurate. This Hergé guy was like a mad comic genius. I remember I was in Erlangen one year and sat at a panel discussion about the huge collection of research material his heirs got when he died.


But Hergé is not the only one who has his birthday. Today´s spring chicken is Linda Hesse who turns 29 years old. She became quite successful in a short period of time thanks to her signature tight pants / t - shirt and suspenders look ( okay, and her banging physique ), her smile that can melt steel and her overall cheerful personality. She has stayed a down to earth which you can´t say about most people who made it in Germany.


Usually I´m not a big Schlager fan but I´m making an exception for Linda. Now finding a video was not easy because it seems all are either filmed by amateurs or are too short or in a tiny format. Yes, this is one of the better ones. Anyway, many happy returns Linda und wenn du mal Zeit hast komm doch vorbei, zum Knutschen und desgleichen. Du weißt schon .....



A bit older is Tracy Brookshaw a.k.a. Traci Brooks as the t and a of TnA ( we´re talking 40DDs here ! ) turns 41 years old. Since it has been a long time since I watched wrestling I don´t know if " the private secretary I always wished I had " is still active - or if there still IS a TnA wrestling federation for that matter. The last thing I heard was that Traci was used and abused by Eric Bischoff ( how I envy that lucky S.O.B. ! ) and not only figuratively speaking. Apparently she paid him " sexual favors " on three occasions in the hopes to get promoted to boss of the knockout division but after he had her way with her ( and boy did he ever ! ) he gave the position to Karen Jarrett. Since she always used her pornstar body to get what she wants I couldn´t really feel sorry for her but I always enjoyed seeing her in the ring and she even got naked for PLAYBOY magazine.


Speaking about hot TnA knockouts I have had several requests to do a follow up post on sexbomb Gail Kim and I just want to assure my loyal readers that it is more than in the works. I have already selected a number of animated GIFs from my collection ( because this is what you really want to see, isn´t it ? ) and I will do the post first chance I get. 


Apropos appearing nude in PLAYBOY, celebrating her 46th anniversary is supermodel Naomi Campbell ( does she own a cape, by the way ? ).


With a well known supermodel like Naomi you might think it would be easy to find animated GIFs but I did not find any where you can see her spectacular buttocks - which are one of the reasons why she became so popular. Anyway, I don´t know what that strange headgear is for - maybe she was cosplying as female Loki ? - but it´s not what you are looking at.


Naomi also was in a few music videos during the 80s and 90s like George Michael´s Freedom that also featured Linda Evangelista, Tatjana Patitz, Christy Thurlington and Cindy Crawford. As usual Mtv only showed the full video after midnight and even though I have seen it a hundred times I´m not sure if you can see nipple in the parts with Naomi Campbell or not. 


We also have to thank Michael Jackson for letting Naomi strut her stuff In The Closet. Yes, besides being a music icon and making the best music videos ever he brought the hottest sexbombs into out homes like Ola Ray, Lisa Dean, Tatiana Thumbtzen, Lisa Mary Presley, Iman not to forget his sisters LaToya and Janet. When the video was shot there was a lot of speculation about if there really was something going on between Naomi and Michael ( you can read some of it in this post ) but as always when a music video treads the line between softcore and porno and has such sex goddesses in it only the involved persons know what really went down.


I haven´t heard much about her in the news lately which is a good thing because the last time I did it was that she had thrown her cell phone after one of her domestic. Which doesn´t sound as bad since Today´s phones are really tiny and you probably don´t even feel it when you get hit by one. In my time when somebody threw a telephone at you it was one of those heavy things and you would end up in the hospital. Today you probably won´t even get a scratch. Anyway, just look at those lips !


I really thought I would have to put french chansoniere Charles Aznavour in the dearly departed section but he still alive and doing concerts at 92. Originally I wanted to post another video from a casting show for this but then I decided it would be more fitting to let the master himself sing.



Today is also the anniversary of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle´s birth and he created THE biggest detective in the world. They are still making new versions of his stories with the incredibly successful Sherlock series and the not so great Elementary. What I don´t get if you are completely changing the characters and turn Watson into a hot asian chick ( not that there is anything wrong with shoehorning hot asian chicks on tv shows ) why do you pretend it´s still Sherlock Holmes when it´s clearly not ?  

Elementary has as much in common with Sherlock Holmes as Detective Laura Diamond has in common with the original spanish series Los Mysterios De Laura - which means only the name. They should show some balls and do their own thing which can still be inspired by Sherlock Holmes and stay true to the spirit and idea of the books like Case Closed, one of the best detective animes / mangas and THE best detective comic EVER.


Another Sir who would have celebrated his birthday is Sir Laurence Olivier known from such classic Shakespeare adaptions for the big screen like Henry V, Hamlet, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, and classics like Spartacus. He also appered in Marathon Man, The Boys From Brazil, he was Abraham Van Helsing in Dracula and Zeus in Clash of the Titans. The good one.

I haven´t added many videos in the birthday section because I wanted to add a few Tintin videos. On the other side I don´t want to tire my readers with too much of the same so I have chosen three videos. Most Tintin videos on YouTube were either from computer games, audio dramas or the new cgi movie. There are a lot of interviews with Hergé but most are in french so I picked this one which was split into three parts but it gives you a good overview of the series and a lot of information about Hergé.



Before the computer animated movie and I discovered the real life movies the cartoons movies were a big deal for all comic fans like me and I remember watching it in the movie theater. I don´t think the cartoon series had yet arrived in Germany but the two animated Tintin movies were one of the best things that could happen to a comic loving kid.



Even though I really think Steven Spielberg did a great adaption of the comics my favorite Tintin are the old ones. I remember that my brother stumbled upon them on french tv. This was back when french tv first was available through the tv cable and he was switching through the channels and I don´t recall if it was a holiday but when he switched to the french tv there was a real life Tintin movie. We were flabbergasted and watched the rest of the movie not understanding much - my brother less than me because I had some french in school. Anyway, we got the movies later as soon as they were available here in Germany on DVD and Blue Ray.



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