Thank God it's Slyday | VERN'S REVIEWS on the FILMS of CINEMA

Thank God it’s Slyday

Today is Sylvester Stallone’s birthday, as good a time as any to make sure everybody knows that there was a Hungarian comic book adaptation of COBRA:

It seems the entire gem of a comics strip was once posted online by the excellent Cannon Films fan sight that has since disappeared like it was the Cannon SPIDER-MAN movie. I have also found evidence that this same series included an issue with back-to-back James Cameron adaptations…

…so I wouldn’t be surprised if there were other cool ones.

Any Hungarians got a line on these? Are they rare, or do you just have them lying around everywhere, waiting to bring joy to the heart of somebody like me?

Sylvester Stallone

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23 Responses to “Thank God it’s Slyday”

Telf
July 6th, 2014 at 11:49 pm

These look spectacular.
David Cloverfield
July 7th, 2014 at 12:43 am

Attila here, long time reader, very occasional commenter. I live in Budapest and I remember owning a few of these. I’m pretty sure every third basement has a few of these. I’ll ask around, maybe I can get a few scans to you.
(Fun Fact: That Aliens cover says “A planet called DEATH.” as every movie in the Alien franchise has to feature the world DEATH, since the first one was titled “The eight passenger is DEATH.” over here. That became increasing sillier with time, with Final solution: Death and Resurrection of Death. On the Terminator cover it also says: “The dealer of Death. We are pretty obsessed with the word Death.)
Uncle_Imshi
July 7th, 2014 at 2:17 am

@David Cloverfield as words to be obsessed with go, it’s a pretty functional one.
Vern
July 7th, 2014 at 2:48 am

Thanks for the translations, David. I love hearing about alternate movie titles like that.
David Cloverfield
July 7th, 2014 at 5:11 am

Uncle_Imshi it’s not only about obsession with a word, but also about sticking with things longer than we should, which a popular Hungarian pastime. That’s why poor Predator had to go up against Death two times in our cinemas. Predator Vs. DEATH is a much less fair fight than Alien Vs. Predator. :
David Cloverfield
July 7th, 2014 at 5:14 am

Ha! Found them all scanned Vern. They are in Hungarian, but I think the site is pretty self explanatory.

http://regikepregeny.freewb.hu
CJ Holden
July 7th, 2014 at 5:31 am

I’m surprised how seriously well drawn they actually are! I don’t know if they are officially licensed or are some bootleg comics, that benefit from the lack of the right international copyright note, but the artist(s?) had a lot of talent.
CJ Holden
July 7th, 2014 at 5:34 am

(And I love that Hungarian comic book machine guns apparently go “Durr durr”.)
Jareth Cutestory
July 7th, 2014 at 7:36 am

And the shotgun in the TERMINATOR funnybook makes this noise: BUMM!
Uncle_Imshi
July 7th, 2014 at 7:52 am

Death is no match for Major Alan “Dutch” Schaefer!
David Cloverfield
July 7th, 2014 at 8:16 am

Yeah, Bumm is our Bang. It’s the sound cannon makes, instead of the gun based Bang I think.
CJ Holden
July 7th, 2014 at 9:26 am

Interesting enough, “Bumm” is also used in German!
Boomhauer
July 7th, 2014 at 1:58 pm

I seem to remember that Terminator one – I think my friend’s brother brought it from Hungary in the 80s. Hungarian comics were plentiful at the time. There was a whole line of Karl May adaptations drawn in color, for example (no doubt inspired by the success of the GDR/Yugoslavia May films). *And* there were pirate Star Wars adaptations of Hope and Empire. (Drawn in B&W, based on promotional photos and remembering the movie screen, greatly shortened… but still far better than the horrible official Marvel SW comics released in USA.)

Insanely, due to the extreme popularity of those pirated adaptations, a few years ago Lucasfilm actually allowed the guy who did those to complete the trilogy. He was given permission to finish Jedi and release it in Hungary, with the caveats that it could only come out in a few hundred copies… and it would be given away to SW fans free of charge.

That’s right: George Lucas gave someone rights to a Star Wars publication for free, and then gave fans that publication for free.
Zeke
July 7th, 2014 at 5:38 pm

Boomhauer – But did the Hungarian version of Star Wars have a green humanoid space bunny like the Marvel version did? I remember seeing it when I was seven, before I had even heard the word “fuck”, but still thinking “What the fuck?”
CJ Holden
July 7th, 2014 at 5:45 pm

BUCKY O’HARE WAS IN A STAR WARS COMIC?!
Zeke
July 7th, 2014 at 6:06 pm

His name was Jaxon, as I just found from an insanely long bio on Wookiepedia. Man, Star Wars nerds take their space bunnies seriously.
Zeke
July 7th, 2014 at 6:08 pm

Sorry, Jaxxon. One x is not enough for a seven foot tall space bunny.
CallMeKermit
July 8th, 2014 at 5:06 am

Thank you for the link , David ! I usually don’t buy comic book adaptations of movies , because here in Italy they’re not very good ( I remember one comic book of Darkman that was especially bad , with an unrecognizable Liam Neeson) , but these are pretty good , I like the art. In the last one , for example , you can clearly see that is a Bud Spencer and Terence Hill movie ! I think that is the adaptation of “Chi Trova un Amico Trova un Tesoro” ( translated as “A Friend is a Treasure” , but the movie international title is “Hands Off The Island”). A Bud and Terence comic book adaptation ! I can’t believe it , I’ve never seen that one .
David Cloverfield
July 8th, 2014 at 6:38 am

CallMeKermit, “A Friend is a Treasure” (called Kincs Ami Nincs here, meaning “The non existent treasure”) is one of the most popular, most quoted movies of all time over here. I loved it as a kid, but watching it today, it’s also the most hilariously racist thing I’ve ever seen. The Anulu character is a walking-talking hate crime. And it’s been such a huge part of our pop-culture here (it’s on one of the channels every week), that nobody sees how racist it actually is, which is it’s own kind of sad/weird/funny.
CallMeKermit
July 8th, 2014 at 8:33 am

Man , I remember Anulu ! “Anulu de Mama” is still incredibly popular and quoted here , with plenty of Youtube compilations of his best “moments”. When I was young , I thought he was hilarious , and his name kinda sounds like “anus” , but now I can see everything that is wrong with a character like that . Ahh , good old “racism and toilet” humor from Italian comedies ! Especially from Bud and Terence : in “Trinity” , for example , there’s a flatulent little boy simply called Littlefart , and they try to cure him with wiskey !

Anyway , Salvatore Borghese , the guy playing Anulu , is actually a very hard working and reliable actor in TV , these days . And he’s Italian , of course .
Mr. Majestyk
July 8th, 2014 at 5:20 pm

Just a few days after SlyDay, I made the greatest Stalloneogical discovery of my lifetime:

IT’S THE FIRST EDITION PRINTING OF THE PARADISE ALLEY NOVELIZATION, MOTHERFUCKERS! BEHOLD MY ALMIGHTY FUCKING MAJESTY AND WEEP!

If that’s not enough, check out the author photo:

If that doesn’t inspire you to get off your ass and start making some art, I don’t know what to tell you. You. must have a completely empty basement or something.

Best $12 I ever spent.
Mr. Majestyk
July 20th, 2014 at 1:08 pm

Hey Vern, you got a shoutout on the AV Club.

http://www.avclub.com/article/bask-awesomeness-hungarian-comic-adaptations-80s-m-207046

My worlds are colliding.
Vern
July 21st, 2014 at 11:53 am

Oh cool. I didn’t find that sight they linked to, or know about the BEVERLY HILLS COP one. I’m glad they looked into it.

And thank you to Frank S. for sending me scans of some of these. They’re really cool to look at.

Hey bud, thanks for reading.
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