Geister Geschichten!
Thanks to this recent anonymous comment on my Manos post from way back when, I simply had to learn more about the Conan-like Manos comic book character:
"Manos" was published in Germany from 1980-1983 in all 80 issues of "Geister Geschichten", sharing the series with various other, unrelated short stories. After cancelation the series was rebooted as "Manos" in 1983 lasting only 1 year and 26 issues (both series were published bi-weekly). And the artist also swiped from Hal Foster as well.
Much appreciated, thanks anonymous!
I discovered that Geister Geschichten (which translates to something along the lines of "Spirit Stories" or "Ghost Stories") was indeed published in Germany by Bastei-Verlag between 1980-1983, and in fact 89 issues of this comic book included a story featuring Manos, der Dämonenjäger ("Manos, the Demonhunter" perhaps), alongside one or more other unrelated ghostly stories.
A number of different artists were credited with the sequential artwork in this Manos series, and with names like Bellalta, Bernardinello, DeMetrio, Correa, Roca, and Maroto, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that a Spanish studio was responsible for all of it. And yes, that is the one and only Esteban Maroto! (although his work on this series is fairly consistent with that of the other artists, and not really up to par when comparing it to much of his other superb artwork).
It appears that Correa was the guy responsible for several ripped off panels from the likes of Marvel's Savage Sword of Conan, panels which often stand out like a sore thumb because they are so far from the norm...here are still more examples of what I'm talking about...
...sometimes he's even recycling the same "borrowed" artwork...
Geister Geschichten #79 vs. Savage Sword #50 vs. Manos #01
Geister #77 vs. Geister #88 vs. Savage Sword #49 vs. Manos #01
Apparently all of the Geister Geschichten covers (as well as all of the Spanish published Manos covers) are the work of Turkish artist Ertugrul Edirne (see HERE for more info, and scroll about half way down the page). In that write-up, Edirne indicates that he was influenced by the legend himself, Frank Frazetta...I'm seeing a pretty strong indication of this on some of Edirne's covers...for example:
Geister Geschichten #59 vs Frazetta
Also according to the article I linked to above, Edirne drew about a thousand book and comic covers during the mid '80's alone!
For your viewing pleasure, I'm wrapping things up with a slideshow of all 89 covers in which Manos made an appearance, which often depicted Manos in a heated exchange with some ghostly looking menace(s). I don't believe that the Manos stories themselves featured many creatures from beyond the grave - only the covers (in keeping with the title of the comic book, I suppose) and the non-Manos stories.
