Comics Find in Germany

 While on vacation last week, I went into a bookstore in the Franfurt Airport and saw some Germany comics. There was a book of various Flash Gordon reprints and a few comic anthologies from a publisher called Weissblech Comics. I picked up this anthology, Fantasy 3000:

These are big: 80ish pages and large format--maybe like 10'x`12'-ish, though I haven't measured it to get the exact dimensions. It contains 3 strips: "Warriors of Gorakon", "Big Ass Sword", "The Sword of Tuatha", "Gorrn", and "Space Pilot Resi Stenz" with a range of art styles. Here's the splash page of the first story:

The Adventurers

This weekend, I won an ebay auction on the Malibu collections of The Adventurers from 1990. If you don't remember this minor title of the 80s black and white boom, it's a fantasy series started at Aircel in 1986 by artist Peter Hsu (later replaced by Kent Burles on interior art) and scripter Scott Behnke. After 2 issues, it moved to Adventure Publications where it ran for 10 issues. 

In 1987, it was followed by Book II than ran for 7 issues. Adventure was acquired by Malibu as in imprint in 1989 and there was a Book III that ran for 6 issues. 

In an era when Sword & Sorcery comics not based on a work by Robert E. Howard were disappearing from the stands, The Adventurers was practically its own small universe. There were also spinoff series: Warriors, Ninja Elite, and possibly Hsu's Elf Warrior, though I'm unclear if it's in the same world.

While clearly drawing inspiration from the S&S comics of the 70s and earlier 80s, The Adventurers explores new territory by borrowing the adventuring party from Dungeons & Dragons, and other fantasy rpgs and making a recurring character a representative of the important 80s group: the ninja. 

I can say that The Adventurers is anything phenomenal but if you are a fan of S&S comics (which I am) or 80s black & white indies (also me), I think they are at least worth checking out. There's one fansite I've found dedicated to the series.