Superman Through the Ages! Forum

Hi,

for my website http://www.superman-comics.nl (http://www.superman-comics.nl) I'm trying to trace 3 stories (probably published in 6 US-comics)
Been looking in comics.org and the Darkmark Index, but to no avail.....

So I'm looking for the comics in which the following stories were published (the titles have been translated, artistnames are from the magazines and I wrote a very short description of the story):

1. The deadly Sting (?)(de dodelijke steek) of H.I.V.E
 Story: Paul Kupperberg, art: Irv Novick and Tony DeZuniga

Metallo and some members of H.I.V.E are breaking into a laboratory to get R2-negative (?) for the use of blackmailing goverments. HIVE wants to destroy some cities. Meanwhile, there's a strike planned at the printing department of the Daily Planet

2.  Balance of Power (?) (Machtsevenwicht)
Story:  E. Nelson Bridwell,  Art: Alex Saviuk

All nuclear-bombs aren't functioning anymore. Neutron however is still bursting with nuclear energy and will hire himself to the most-paying person/country.
After a battle in Space, Superman and Neutron discover an armada of alien vessels, (led by commander Mewz(?)) who want to conquer earth.
Now only Neutron can defeat them (which he does...)

3. Playing with the Earth (met de aarde spelen)
 Story: Paul Kupperberg, art: Irv Novick

A man called Solaris is causing earthquakes etc. It seems he's an alien and wants to take the sun with him, for some buyers.

Any help in locating the original stories is appreciated!

Wim

e: wimted@wanadoo.nl
w: http://www.superman-comics.nl

Hi, again

following my previous post, I read on a German site http://www.ralf-h.de/ (http://www.ralf-h.de/) that there were Superman-comics created specially for foreign markets !


I quote:
Die Geschichten wurden von DC speziell für die ausländischen Märkte angefertigt. In Amerika sind die meisten der Geschichten erst kurz vor dem Ende des "alten" Supermans veröffentlicht worden, als Julius Schwartz egal war, was er auf den Markt wirft.

Translated:
These stories were specially made by DC for foreign markets. In America, most of these stories were published short befort the end of the "old" Superman, since it was irrelevant to Julius Schwartz, what was brought on the market anyway

Can anyone confirm this? Is this story true?
If yes, who knows a site where I can find more information about this subject and these stories/comics?

Thanks!

Wim

There indeed were several stories created by the 1980s Super team for the German market that weren't published in the US.  I have one of them myself, Superman - Sonderunsgabe #10, which I got in Germany in 1985 I believe.

A few years ago (around Feb. 2003) there was some discussion on the DC Comics Message Boards about this in a couple of forums.  Here is the information I snagged at the time, and squirreled away.  I would love to see John Well's list:

-----Snipped:

----------- Topic: Questions for Bob Greenberger 2, page 8, posted February 12, 2003 09:44 AM by Bob Greenberger

Back aorund 1980, Germany actually needed more Superman material than we were currently producing. Julie Schwartz was asked to produce 48-page stories on a quarterly basis to meet that demand. I have no recollection how many were produced but yes, they appeared in other countries. I even believe the Alex Toth Superman Annual originally was done for Germany.

----------- Topic: Questions for Bob Greenberger 2, page 7, posted February 11, 2003 04:01 PM by jape

 'The Startling Saga of Superman Red and Superman Blue', script by Paul Kupperberg, art by Adrian Gonzalez and Vince Colletta was published here in the UK in 1982 as Superman Spectacular no.1. The follow-up, somewhat predictably called Superman Spectacular no. 2, was published the same year, the story's called 'Superman Meets the Zod Squad' - script by Cary Bates, art by Saviuk and Colletta. Both are squarebound paperbacks the same size as the early Marvel Graphic Novels. Both stories are 48 pages long, and are in continuity with the regular Superman books of the time, ie Earth 1, pre-Crisis. So at that point, at least, DC was producing bespoke material for overseas publishers.

--------Topic:   Keith Giffen Superman Story in an 80's German Comic - from Other Superman Topics posted February 08, 2003 06:45 PM by exredleg

Back in the 1986-1989 timeframe, I was stationed in Germany while serving in the Army. One day while shopping in downtown Nurnberg, I stumbled upon some German reprints of DC Comics. I was still collecting comics "long distance" thanks to monthly shipments from my "home shop" back in Chicago, so I was still fairly current on what was going on in the Super-books.

One of the stories in the German editions caught my eye. It was drawn by Keith Giffen! If my memory serves me correctly, it may have been inked by Larry Mahlstedt. The art looked as if it were from the "pre-Toth tribute era" of Giffen's run on the Legion.

I didn't read German ... but a few things I remember from the story:

An appearance by the skeletal Braniac

Superman seemed to be trapped in a device that allowed Brainiac to review Supeman's memories (my memory could be faulty here!)

One of Superman's memories dealt with "Superbaby" ... looked to be a humorous moment!

All-in-all it looked like a neat story ... a story I never saw in print in a U.S. Superman comic!

--------Topic:   Keith Giffen Superman Story in an 80's German Comic - from Other Superman Topics posted February 25, 2003 05:37 AM by Mikishawm

DC prepared more than two dozen Superman stories specifically for the German market between 1981 and 1985 but only a handful were reprinted in the U.S. And, unfortunately, the story you recall is one that never appeared here.

My friend Norbert Elbers, who lives in Germany, has been helping me compile a list of those stories and drew my attention to this request. I believe he's identified the story that you're looking for.

It's "The Wall of Infinity," a 46-pager plotted and written by Robert Loren Fleming & Keith Giffen, pencilled by Giffen and inked by Romeo Tanghal. And, yep, the skeletal Brainiac is the villain of the piece. It appeared in SUPERMAN TASCHENBUCH # 72.

It'd be really great if DC would reprint this and some of the other stories in English but, in the meantime, you might want to check eBay and see if anyone's selling that edition.

Hope this answered your question.

John Wells

So a while back I got the Superman Spectacular #1 (Supe Red/Blue issue), which is in english.  The Spectacular #2 that was mentioned stated it was a Cary Bates story of "Superman Meets the Zod Squad" - any idea if that is the same story in Action #549?

I go for the foreign stuff, but only if they are in English.  There are a few issues out there that didn't make it to the states but were still in English...

This is interesting: Superman-comics NOT created for the US-market.
So I've been sniiffing around and found another website:
http://www.comicguide.de (http://www.comicguide.de)  German comicguide and this link: http://www.comicguide.de/php/detail.php?id=3889&file=r&display=short (http://www.comicguide.de/php/detail.php?id=3889&file=r&display=short) takes you to what I believe are 12 of those comics.

In the right you see "mittleres bild", which means medium-size image, and "grosses bild" means bgi image.

11 Of those 12 comics also have appeared in the Netherlands. I am indexing all my comics at the moment and of 3 I have the covers scanned (see http://www.superman-comics.nl/b/bef.htm (http://www.superman-comics.nl/b/bef.htm) (The other 8 will follow in a couple of weeks)

When you have more info on those issues, please let me know, 'cause I'm trying to make my own superman-website (http://www.superman-comics.nl (http://www.superman-comics.nl) as accurate as possible.

Please, info and (positive) critisism are always welcome.


Meanwhile, some of those issues I have double, and others are (in Dutch and German) pretty easy available if anyone's interested in them, I will try to find them for you.

Hmmm, I have some of those comics in a pretty bad shape. What if I cut the back away and scan them?....

Wim

There's also "Stålmannen i Stockholm" (Superman in Stockholm), created in 1990 for the Swedish market.
http://www.seriesam.com/cgi-bin/guide?s=ST%C5LMANNEN+I+STOCKHOLM (http://www.seriesam.com/cgi-bin/guide?s=ST%C5LMANNEN+I+STOCKHOLM)

Could that be the same as the Dutch book "Superman in Europe", by Niels Sondergaard and Teddy Kristiansen?

I have scanned some pages on http://www.superman-comics.nl/europe.htm (http://www.superman-comics.nl/europe.htm), so you can see what they look like in the Dutch version. 

Thanks, if you want to check this one out for me...
 

It certainly looks like it! In fact, the red building in the final panel of page 38 is the Stockholm City Hall, where the Nobel Prize dinners take place every year.

Thanks to a friend of mine, Bernard Koops, I've found this link http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2007/01/04/comic-book-urban-legends-revealed-84/ (http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2007/01/04/comic-book-urban-legends-revealed-84/) which states:

Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed #84
Posted by Brian Cronin, Thursday, January 4th, 2007 9:56 PM

COMIC URBAN LEGEND: DC produced in-continuity Superman comics specifically for Germany.

STATUS: True

As everyone knows, the Germans loves David Hasselhoff. What you might NOT know is that Germans also love Superman, or at least they did in the 1980s.

In fact, the demand for Superman material was so great that, in the early 80s, DC struck a deal with Ehapa (the company that they licensed Superman reprints to in Germany) to produce NEW Superman material just for Germany.

However, unlike other companies who did such deals, rather than just letting Ehapa get their own artists and writers to do the comics, DC produced the comics themselves.

If you are at all familiar with how Julie Schwartz worked as the Superman editor, he was a big fan of having multiple writers work on Superman, so therefore, it was fairly simple to find writers who would do the extra works, which were directly tied to stories going on in the Superman stories of the time.

Here are examples of the Superman Albums that these works appeared in.

Some of the comics were later reprinted in Action Comics and Superman (Action Comics #547, for example:)

However, when Superman was revamped after Crisis, suddenly these stories did not fit into continuity, so most of them were never reprinted in America.

So see, die-hard Superman fans? There are some stories for you to seek out!! You just need to learn some German…hehe.

Wimted

For those who are interested: this I figured out:

German Ehapa Album # 1 (1982) ==> US:  Superman Spectacular #1 (1982)
German Ehapa Album # 2 (1982) ==> US: Superman # 387 (1983)  & Action Comics # 547 (1983)
German Ehapa Album # 3 (1982) ==> US: unknown
German Ehapa Album # 4 (1982) ==> US: Superman Special # 1 (1983)
German Ehapa Album # 5 (1983) ==> US: Superman Special # 2 (1984)
German Ehapa Album # 6 (1983) ==> US: unknown
German Ehapa Album # 7 (1983) ==> US: unknown
German Ehapa Album # 8 (1983) ==> US: unknown
German Ehapa Album # 9 (1984) ==> US: unknown
German Ehapa Album # 10 (1984) ==> US: unknown
German Ehapa Album # 11 (1985) ==> US: unknown
German Ehapa Album # 12 (1985) ==> US: Superman Special # 3 (1985)

For a cover-overview see my page: http://www.superman-comics.nl/e/eaf.htm (http://www.superman-comics.nl/e/eaf.htm)

Wim

I seem to remember that they were quite fond of the concept during an earlier period of their history, too!

easy there, every country has tons of evil things in the past.

Yeah, I'm sorry about that. Cheap shot.

binarysunrise wrote:

Yes, I can confirm this. It's a two-parter: "Escape From the Phantom Zone" reprinted in  Action Comics 548 (oct 1983) and "Superman Meets the Zod Squad" from Action Comics 549 (nov. 1983).

So the list is:
German Ehapa Album # 1 (1982) ==> US:  Superman Spectacular #1 (1982)
German Ehapa Album # 2 (1982) ==> US: Superman # 387 (1983)  & Action Comics # 547 (1983)
German Ehapa Album # 3 (1982) ==> US: Action Comics # 548 (1983) & Action Comics # 549 (1983)
German Ehapa Album # 4 (1982) ==> US: Superman Special # 1 (1983)
German Ehapa Album # 5 (1983) ==> US: Superman Special # 2 (1984)
German Ehapa Album # 6 (1983) ==> US: unknown
German Ehapa Album # 7 (1983) ==> US: unknown
German Ehapa Album # 8 (1983) ==> US: unknown
German Ehapa Album # 9 (1984) ==> US: unknown
German Ehapa Album # 10 (1984) ==> US: unknown
German Ehapa Album # 11 (1985) ==> US: unknown
German Ehapa Album # 12 (1985) ==> US: Superman Special # 3 (1985)

For a cover-overview see my page: http://www.superman-comics.nl/e/eaf.htm

Wim