Comic Review: Welten Des Schreckens #4

  These days I tend to buy comics based on whether I like the cover or not. Since I thought this one looked interesting I tracked down a copy.

Of course there is on very obvious problem.  Can you work out what that might be?

Hint: look at the cover again.  No. Not that bit. Look at the words.

You got it. This comic is in German.  

 I can't read German. 

Hello. I'm Big D. I bought a comic in a language I can't read because there was a half-naked cavegirl on the cover. I am quite obviously an idiot. 

Oh well. It's not like I'm reading Goethe or something. I figured I could probably look at the pictures and work out the story from that. I used to do that with manga all the time. 

Besides, while I've read comics from France, Belgium, the USA, Japan, Korea, the UK and Italy, this was the first time I've ever read a comic from Germany.  Consider it an interesting new experience. 

Rather like "Heavy Metal" "Welten Des Schreckens" (Worlds of Secrets) is an anthology. Slightly smaller than American comic standard, it's about the size of the UK Marvel reprint collections, with decent quality paper and cardbound covers. So far so good. 

I quite like the cover art (obviously) and the back cover is equally eye-catching. Or blatant punter-bait, if you prefer.

  So not for the kiddies then. I know Germany is a lot more open about certain things but they aren't that open.  Sadly this well-endowed barbarienne isn't in the actual comic itself.  

 Like the old US horror comics  "Welten.." has a couple of hosts welcoming you inside. They're an odd couple. 

   Once inside you have 4 stories. While three are standalone one-shots, the first is clearly part of an ongoing series.

"Die Schucht der Menschenfresser"  (The Canyon of Ogres) 

 Cover star Kala, her pet dinosaur and sidekick Tik-Tik are going from...somewhere to somewhere else.

  After witnessing a punchip between two beasties, Kala ends up having to rescue Tik-Tik from some unfriendly locals. 

 The story was interesting enough and a cavegirl on a dinosaur is always going to be fun, but I might have liked it more if they'd got the guy who drew the cover to do the story as well.. The art is OK, I suppose, but I rather thought it looked like something from an old underground comic - something slice-of-life and hippyish.  

Grune Holle   (Green Jungle?)

 An astronaut crashes onto an unknown planet and as he's trapped inside his capsule, things get bleak. 

Again, I sort of worked out what was going on from the pictures and the twist isn't that difficult to work out. 

Story is Ok but nothing special, as is the artwork. 

Loki Hesser Ritt (Loki's Hot Ride)

You can tell I'm using Google Translate for the title, can't you?

 Another short tale with a twist but this one is more comic. Loki attempts a spot of seduction and it goes a bit wrong. 

  Crude artwork but it works for this story and the payoff is pretty good. 

Wer Akzeptiert (Who accepted) 

 Boy meets girl with ---you guessed it...a bit of a twist. 

 This is the one with - in my opinion - the best artwork and it's also the story where I most wished I knew what was being said.  More than the others, "Wer Akzeptiert" is dialogue-driven rather than visuals-driven, so I was intrigued enough to wonder what was going on but without the tools to do so. 

 What's the significance of the necklace? Who accepted what and how?  I suspect this story ended badly for somebody, I just don't know how. 

To sum up.  

 After reading "Welten..." I found myself thinking "Heavy Metal - but not quite as good." which isn't a great endorsement. I can't see myself ever picking up this particular title again, not unless I find a copy cheaply somewhere and how likely is that?  

But you never know. I might find myself checking out more German comics.  At least they are in the same alphabet as English!

PS.If anybody can tell me how the hell "Wer Akzeptiert" ended, I'd really like to know about it. 

That's all folks.