Our new comic series invites you to a Germany of the 1800s where strange creatures
roam the forests, and only the fist and the rifle of the Förster stand between
these denizens of an elemental world and the human inhabitants of the Argstein valley.
This website will keep you up to date with all the latest developments in Argstein, offer you rare insights into the world of German legends and exclusive looks into the wicked minds of Josef Rother and Eckart Breitschuh, the creators of our fearsome Förster.
The first Argstein short story saw the light of print in the March 2007 issue of HEAVY METAL, and the Spring 2008 Special of America’s Number One Illustrated Fantasy Magazine presented the first 60page Argstein graphic novel -- The Law of the Forest!
To whet your appetite, we have prepared a 12page dish for you -- Argstein: Forbidden Parts -- which you can read online or download in pdf format. There's a German version as well.
The HEAVY METAL 2008 SPRING SPECIAL features ARGSTEIN: THE LAW OF THE FOREST, the graphic novel that German critics have described as "Hellboy in Lederhosen!"
Check your favorite magazine retailer or order your issue from HEAVY METAL's website.
60 pages, color, and backcover
in HEAVY METAL Magazine, Spring 2008
Check out the GERMAN LEGENDS for the tale of Countess Mechtildis and the terrible punishment she receives for her haughtiness. With an illustration by Daniel Gramsch.
In the GERMAN LEGENDS, Daniel Gramsch gives us a rather a big child.
A dragon haunts the GERMAN LEGENDS, but Daniel Gramsch has drawn the beast and quartered it.
Daniel Gramsch illustrates a GERMAN LEGEND that will not just please our living readers, but also our dead ones.
In our latest GERMAN LEGEND, Eckart Breitschuh illustrates the terrible tale of a heartless mother.
In the GERMAN LEGENDS, Oliver Ferreira illustrates a tale of cruelty and horrifying retribution.
The GERMAN LEGENDS present the eerie ending of the Loreley legend.
The GERMAN LEGENDS give you the first part of the big one, the story of the queen of all lovely and deadly sirens...
Check out our GERMAN LEGENDS Section for a new tale of old...
Check out our GERMAN LEGENDS Section for the first of many weird tales from German folklore.
For those of you whose German is up to it -- You can order ARGSTEIN: DAS GESETZ DES WALDES at Amazon Germany.
Today ARGSTEIN: DAS GESETZ DES WALDES -- the German edition of the Argstein graphic novel -- came out in Germany. Check out our publisher's web entry.
When they don't publish ARGSTEIN, the guys at the Ehapa Comic Collection do the German editions of all the DISNEY and ASTERIX material, but also things as diverse as REX MUNDI, DETECTIVE CONAN, LUCKY LUKE, LIEUTENANT BLUEBERRY, INU YASHA, BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL, GARFIELD and OH! MY GODESS -- among lots of other stuff!
Today, January 2nd 2007, sees the first print appearance of Argstein in the United States. The March 2007 issue of HEAVY METAL MAGAZINE, coming out today, features the Argstein: Forbidden Parts story.
Nearly two months before its release in Germany, I've received the first official ARGSTEIN fan mail- from Slawkow, Poland!
Boguslaw B. writes to say that he is a great admirer of both the Argstein storytelling and artwork. He ranks it with the best in Europe.
He says that friends from Germany supply him with German comics now and again. Still, I wonder whether his letter has anything to do with the fact that our German ARGSTEIN teaser Der Verbotene Wald was printed in Poland. As are most German comics these days.
Well, be that as it may, thank you very much, Boguslaw, for your letter and for your Christmas card.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all and sundrie!
Update: They give both names now plus they've even spelled my first name correctly, a task not easily achieved by many. Well done, amazon.de!
Update: amazon.de now gives the author's name as Josef Rother, which isn't wrong but still not quite there. O well...
The Argstein: Forbidden Parts story, already on download as a PDF on this site, will see print in the March 2007 issue of HEAVY METAL MAGAZINE (on sale January 2nd).
Our 60page Argstein graphic novel The Law of the Forest is scheduled to be published in next year's HEAVY METAL SUMMER SPECIAL.
If you don't want to wait this long and your German is up to it, have a go at the German edition of the graphic novel which comes out December 16th this year. You can already pre-order Argstein: Das Gesetz des Waldes at Amazon.de.
Mind you, the guys at the German branch of Amazon don't seem to have gotten our names. According to them, the book is by a guy named Argstein. Go figure...
The other day I spoke to Arvid Nelson, the writer of the Rex Mundi series, and when I told him about Argstein and its förster – forester – protagonist, it turned out that Arvid’s father (whose name also happens to be Arvid Nelson) is actually a forester! He lectures at Yale University and wrote a book about forestry in communist Eastern Germany. Check out Cold War Ecology: Forests, Farms, and People in the East German Landscape, 1945-1989.
And for those who don’t yet know Arvid Jr.’s own excellent series – Take a look at Rex Mundi. This book rocks!
At the Comic-Salon Erlangen Argstein artist Eckart Breitschuh and this writer were signing at the Ehapa booth next to people like Igor Kordey, whose Smoke has just been published here, and the Davis Brothers, the guys responsible for Blokhedz.
While I’ve been working with Eckart for some time, I’d never been publicly signing with the man before. If you keep his beer stream flowing (a steady drip of Becks, to be precise), some amazing stuff begins to emerge from his pencil, and especially the more kinky requests seem to fire Eckart’s imagination. One guy asked for something featuring Hasel, the shape-changing witch starring in Forbidden Parts – “But no more than one man with her, please!” Well, Eckart put in several... er... male beings. Even Simon Bisley would have blushed, but despite his request being ignored, the customer left satisfied.
And all the convention-while Eckart was also busy signing his new soccer satire Klinsi in Not and hosting daily table football tournaments. The man was busy, and despite his Southern German roots he packed the beers like a True Brit.
Last month’s Comic-Salon Erlangen, the biggest of the German comic conventions, saw the first print appearance of Argstein.
Our German publisher Ehapa -- the guys that hold some of the most successful comic and manga licenses in these parts, including Detective Conan, all the Disney stuff, Blade of the Immortal, Ghost in the Shell, Ranma 1/2, Rex Mundi, Inu Yasha, Metal Gear Solid, Asterix and now Argstein! -- published a 16page Forbidden Parts book that was handed out for free at the convention, and the readers of comic news magazine Comixene were able to redeem vouchers for a signed and numbered Argstein print.
Well, people always come to the booth for the freebies, but some of these guys also came back after they’d read our piece, and we got some amazing feedback including the repeated question when the album is going to come out. It looks like we could have sold a lot of copies of the Argstein: The Law of the Forest graphic novel, but that story is still being drawn as I write this little piece here and won’t be out in Germany until December.
