Batman Presenta: Linterna Verde

Codo a Codo Con Las Mas Sensacionales y Nuevas Superestrellas! Los Hombres Omega!

Translation:

Batman Presents: Green Lantern

Side by Side with the Most Sensational and New Superstars! The Omega Men!When you travel domestically, do you buy comics? I do. And when you travel abroad, to foreign lands where they speak another language... Do you buy comics as well? I do too. My love of comics and natural curiosity compels me to see what comic books look like outside of their natural habitat... It's like watching Star Trek in Spanish, or Seinfeld in French. For eight years I was married to a Swede, and she and I would travel ever year for either the holidays or Mid-Summer, to visit her family, where they live in a suburb called Vallentuna, just outside the nation's capital: Stockholm. We also took side trips throughout Sweden, visiting Sigtuna (the oldest city in Sweden, founded in 980, which saw Sweden's first coinage minted, and is speckled with plenty of Rune Stones), Vaxholm (Castle Vaxholm ominously overlooks the Stockholm archipelago), Uppsala (site of Uppsala University, the oldest university in Sweden, established in 1477), Gothenburg (Sweden's second largest city on the west coast), Salen (a popular ski town where U2 shot their video New Year's Day back in 1982), Gotland (Sweden's largest island and the largest island in the Baltic Sea), as well as parts of Norway including its capital: Oslo. What struck me as odd, maybe because I didn't expect to see this particular American franchise in Sweden, is the proliferation of 7-11's, both there and in Norway. Another thing which caught my fancy is where they sell comic books... in supermarkets... stacked in racks along side gossip magazines, newspapers, books, and even DVD's, parked just before the cashier check-out. Two of Sweden's national supermarket chains are called ICA and Coop. My wife favored the former... I'm not sure why, but I did find a lot of good foods there that I surely miss. Every so often, we would go food shopping at ICA, in Vallentuna Centrum (Vallentuna Centre). There I would buy a Spiderman (Spindelmannen), X-Men, or Fantastic Four (Fantastik Fyra), and even Bamse, "The World's Strongest Bear", created by Sweden's own Rune Andreasson (based on the cartoon show and comic strip of the same name), in hopes that by reading them, I would pick up some of the language. It helped a little, but Swedish is like German, and requires dedication and practice... lamentably, because I procrastinated to a great degree (still do... I'm a lazy f**k), it never happened. Not even Rosetta Stone helped.I also bought comics and vintage car magazines (mostly for my Father-in-Law, he loved vintage cars or bils as they are known in the Swedish language), from a national chain of newsstand outlets called Pressbryan's, found in malls, gas stations, and airports (flygplats), where you can also purchase DVD's, candies (Swedish chocolates are delicious and a lot less sweeter than their American counterparts), ice cream, newspapers, paperback books, lottery tickets, and you can even gamble on the horses (like a miniature OTB). I can't remember the year, maybe 2006 or 2007, but I discovered one genuine comic specialty shop, as well as a fantasy-themed bookstore. The former was located in Gamla stan (The Old Town... my favorite part of Stockholm simply because it transports you back into ancient times), and the other I forget exactly where, but somewhere in the Stockholm centre, which was more of a genre book store that sold fantasy, sci-fi, horror novels, along with graphic novels. Both places sold American and English comics. And without fail, just before the end of each trip, I would give away these comics to my ex-wife's nephew. I also traveled to other parts of Europe and South America, but for whatever reason, the comics I bought on those visits never ended up making the return trip to the States. Maybe I left them behind because I never took them seriously; never felt they had any true value, since they were all reprints of American comics... in foreign languages no less... so why bother? But looking back, I wish I had kept them all... especially a Batman I bought in Barcelona... but... that's life... oh, well. C'est la vie.However, I did keep one foreign language comic, a mini, pictured below, which I purchased back in the Summer of 1985, on a trip with my Father touring Mexico City (a month and a half or so before their catastrophic earthquake, which registered 8.0 on the Richter Scale and not only devastated the city, but claimed an estimated 10,000 lives), and the small resort community of Zihuatanejo (you may heard and seen it as the meeting place for Ellis "Red" Redding and Andy Dufresne after their stint at Shawshank). I am quite certain I bought this mini-comic in Mexico City (an overpopulated metropolis bristling with zipping Volkswagens), but I can't recall exactly where... probably at an outdoor newsstand. However, I do remember dragging my poor Father to see Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (a holdover from 1984, and thankfully in English but subtitled in Spanish), and later, coerced him to buy for me, two vinyl albums from a Mexican record store, at dirt cheap prices: Van Halen's 1984 and Men at Work's Cargo. Anyway, about the comic itself: it's published by EN (Editorial Novaro), and cover priced for less then a peso... probably equivalent to 50 cents in Mexican currency back in the day. The mini's Indicia list a publication date of 27th of January, 1985. The cover is from Green Lantern Volume 2, No. 142 (published back in July, 1981), and inside is a reprint of a story written by Marv Wolfman and illustrated by Joe Stanton, aptly titled "The Omega Men", which contains the second appearance of the Omega Men. There is also a Golden Age Batman reprint from 1955: a story called "The Seven Wonders of the Underworld", which I researched to have been originally published as one of three Batman stories (including the debut of Agatha Wayne... Bruce's aunt) appearing in Batman, Volume 1, No. 89. Overall, I can comfortably say it's in excellent condition for a twenty-seven year old comic, potentially garnering a 9.0 grade (or higher if I'm lucky), if I have it CGC'd. As a goof, if Marv or Joe should make an appearance at NY ComicCon, I might bring it along and have it signed... presumably they would get a kick seeing their works translated into Spanish. So is anyone else out there like me... buying comic books in strange foreign lands? If so, share your stories and maybe a pic or two. I'd love to hear them. Happy Collecting!To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.