Stumbled across these three striking retro-style covers a while back. The top one I actually saw on the stands I think, but I'm not sure. These are of course from a German publisher, but clearly the intent here is to invoke Golden Age American comics by way of the Bronze Age stylistics. I'm very much reminded of vintage issues of Marvel's The Invaders. The artist is a fellow named Rainer F. Engel. The character of Captain Berlin is the creation of Jorge Buttereitts who Wikipedia tells me is a fairly oddball filmmaker with tendencies toward the truly grotesque and transgressive (Necrophelia anyone? Ick!).
I searched a bit and found this ten minute homemade movie starring Captain Berlin. It's astounding in its ineptitude but whether it's trying to intentionally create that effect or just falls to it naturally is difficult to decode. I'm inclined to the latter. Brace yourself for some weirdness; I get a Toxic Avenger vibe off it. Here is a site which talks about Captain Berlin a bit more and explains the ten-minute film too perhaps, and a new sequel. It's slicker but has the same weirdo sensibility, with maybe some Mexican wrestling attitude tossed in.
On a somewhat different note, above is a delightful cover published by the same German house which does an remarkable job evoking and satirizing the famous Avengers debut cover by Jack Kirby. Love this cover, and this I for sure saw on the stands but did not collect, and I regret it to this day.
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That "Atomic War" comic cover you featured yesterday was neat looking. I looked it up and found the whole issue online.
ReplyDeleteI think I know the one. It's a fave of mine too. Glad you found the comic.
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The last cover (by Rough Cut Comics) is obviously a German version, but the original was British (or Scottish, to be precise, as it was produced in Scotland) and called The Freedom Collective.
ReplyDeleteThat must've been the one I actually saw then. Thanks for the information.
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