I'm very bored and hungry so time for today's stats
Japan 31
Other 190
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Monday, 18 January 2021
Today's Stats
Do Not Give Up
Without triggering any of the idiots out there and their opinions on cinema, I think that the Russian movie Guardians showed that you can do Russian super heroes -I ought to point out that I was publishing "Soviet" super heroes (Red Star Squadron)back in the early 1980s and that got a lot of nonsensical criticism (including that I was "obviously" a Communist!!).
At the same time I also published Chinese super heroes. (The Phoenix Team) -in fact both teams met up and did not fight each other but cooperated on taking down the Salamander and his attempt to start a PRC -USSR war.
Those characters have continued to appear, despite political changes, etc., since that time.
It was not really anything deliberate, there was no "plan" -I grew up in a multicultural area of Bristol and so characters reflected this. I had stories set in other countrioes and so African, Indian, European and other nationalities popped up and according to the late Gil Page (former Managing Editor of Fleetway, IPC) what I produce were "multicultural comics -the sort ofthing we ought to be doing but the money isn't there!" Hey, that means I was "woke" before any of you lot!! (probably because I was working in comics before most of 'em were born).
But the point is, where ever you are, do not let anyone tell you that you cannot produce a super hero comic based in your country.
Look at what is available for story telling -locations, myths, legends and if you produce good comics "they shall appear and buy them" (I'm still waiting!).
Do not give up.
Sunday, 17 January 2021
Saturday, 16 January 2021
The Union #2....oh dear...
As regards Marvel Comics The Union I am out. There is a slight improvement in the story for the first part of issue #2 but by the time we reached the final page I just tossed the comic onto a shelf.
Grist writes well with his own characters -Jack Staff, Mud Man- but the point of a first issue is to hook the reader. Make them want to find out more. By the end of that first issue we should, as readers, at least understand who the heroes are. When we learn a bit more in issue #2 it was more like the floppy penis you don't want on your wedding night. Disappointing.
At the price of comics these days I will not be getting The Union #3
This was the comic title I was waiting for....since last year. I guess as you get older a floppy is all you can expect.
Friday, 15 January 2021
Mr Dilworth -PLEASE READ!!!!
BEN COULD YOU PLEASE READ THE POST THEN THE COMMENT FROM THE FELLA SAVED 11 ENVELOPES FULL OF YOUR EARLY ARTWORK AND RESPOND ASAP? Thanks
Thursday, 14 January 2021
Beyond UFO Contact -Aliens from Mind, Time and Space
B&W
350 pp
Fully illustrated containing photographs and maps
£20.00
Beyond UFO Contact i the fourth book in the groundbreaking series looking at reports of Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Alien-Entity reports from around the world and reassessing these. In addition there is a look at the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligences (SETI) and its relevance to the UFO phenomenon.
contents list:
Introduction: The Path of Counter-Actuality
1. Dionisio Llanca: Truck Driver, UFO Abductee and Human Guinea Pig
2. Aliens -What Can We Expect?
3. The Moreland Incident
4. It Is All Fake: Ufology Needs To Be Reassessed
5. Warminster UFOs and Entity Reports
6. Have Things Changed Since 1977?
7. The Beausoleil Cas -Even Aliens Like Theatre
8. The Pwca
9. Contact...with the Vegetable Alien
10. The Casitas Dam UFO Photograph and Entity
11. The Crystal Lake Encounter
12. The Humanoids at South Riverand the Luczkowich Encounter
13. Harrison Bailey
14. Sonny DesVerger
15. The UFO "Borderline"-The Imjarvi Skiers
16. Some Interesting Reports to Note
17. Dead Aliens in Photographs
18. Ufology, Government Cover Ups and Disclosure
19. The Reports That You Might Not Want To Look Into
20. Conil de la Frontera -a Credible Report?
21. Eighteenth Century Aliens?
22. Clearview Ranch
23. The Pat McGuire Case
24. Piero Fortunato Franzetta
25. The Silbury Hill Encounter
26. The Bridge Abduction
27. The Bagshot Heath UFO Incident
28. Lurkers and Alien Disinterest
29. What If YOU See Aliens Land?
30. So What Would YOU Do If You Encountered A Landed UFO?
A Response -Pity Very Few Speak Up
Comment left on the WordPress version of CBO:
The truth of the matter is that distributors block you and shops do likewise if you are a self publisher. I know because I have …
Interesting take on Publishers, sad how retailers have been left out to dry by the bigger publishers. I remember when I would would into any stationary or bookstore and voila, there would be a good section of comics. Nowadays I find myself having to go to bigger chainlike stores as most the Mom and Pop operations had to fold as the market was not as stable in Europe. In Sweden there are a handful of stores that sell comics and prices are not so competitive. It has felt for a long time that comics were becoming truly a collector thing instead of a mode of digesting entertaining stories. Also, found it interesting how clicks and views on a site do not guarantee unit sales. I try to tell creatives I meet online that it is not just about have the product it is about knowing how you will do every phase prior to it reaching the readers hands. Thanks for your piece, it was interesting and insightful.
Which echoes a lot of what I have written. Pity very few speak up.
Wednesday, 13 January 2021
if there is a serious, established publisher out there
The truth of the matter is that distributors block you and shops do likewise if you are a self publisher. I know because I have tried since 2009.
Online stores are nothing more than show and I say that after opening one in 2009 and there are currently 169 books covering 17 pages.
These are comics of various genres. Graphic novels of various genres and comic albums (48-100pp) on various genres.
There are the World Mystery Books (4 of them covering UFOs, cryptozoology, ghosts and more).
There is the Red Paper: Canids that lomng time naturalists have called "an incredible wildlife document" and "Explosive!" not to mention the album finally explaining what the Girt Dog of Innerdale (a cryptozoological mystery) was. There was also the look at Spring Heeled Jack and as detailed as you could want.
A quartet of books looking at the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI), UFOs and specifically encounters with "aliens" -good review from the Centre for UFO Studies and others.
All the text books are fully illustrated have rare and 'lost' photographs and everything is fully referenced.
I asked someone to count up how many views of posts relating to these books there had been up to 2019 on this and all the other blogs, Twitter, Pinterest and so on. 3.24 million. But the books do not sell and they are all printed in the region they are ordered from so there isn't even a concern about international postage -postage is local.
Comic shops will not stock the comics unless they are on "free trial" and kept off the books and the monopoly distributor in the UK does not find out. In other words it is what we used to call a "dead shop".
Regarding books the same applies but most bookstortes still left are "Remnant bookstores" selling off old stock. Those that do buy in new stock belong to chains and therefore will only take what head office says they can. And guess what? Head office only buys from distributors. Another "closed shop".
From the 1980s to the 1990s I submitted the same manuscripts to UK publishers. All rejected BECAUSE the persons reviewing the Ms for publishers were established UFO authors and, of course, that meant they were going to block anyone threatening their money-making monopoly (I have two of the "reader reviews" the publishers sent me so I know who put the boot in -they also used a large chunk of my data as their own later).
So when people ask whether I have tried a paying publisher my response is "Yes but as long as they employ reviewers with vested interests no outsider will have work in print" (just check the UKs UFO books output for the last 20 years to see what I mean).
Considering that we appear to be in a new age of illiteracy and where only fake sensationalist books are published and sold serious and factual writers will not get a look in.
Hey, if there is a serious, established publisher out there I'll send you copies of books. Just get in touch.
I have gone past the stage where decades of work is thrown away for a few pennies. I need to live and pay bills the same as everyone else.
In March all of the World Mystery and UFO books will be deleted from the store.
Books To Be Withdrawn
I am going to be withdrawing all of the UFO and world mystery books unless I get some sense out of this. I just sold £70.00 worth of books.
I just checked my sales and I know Lulu and the printer takes a cut but what I am seeing makes keeping my books on sale pointless.
I sold two copies of Beyond UFO Contact @£20 each (£40.00) -I make £4.02??
Encounters with Extraterrestrial Entities? I sold one at £20 but get £0.96
Two copies of the AOP Journal @£5.00 I make £1.90.
So from £70.00 worth of sales I get £6.92??
I'm basically giving away the books!
I've been ripped off enough in the past and 2021 is when it stops but I have to "honour" the sales first.
Oh, trying to contact lulu.com I found that they had blocked me on Twitter after I was very polite in taking them to task for major problems THEY created. What a company.
Tuesday, 12 January 2021
A Big Thank You
Completely off topic.
I see people online and in You Tube videos (mainly because the toys or comics they bought online) complaining about postal delays. Spoil little ***** with "I had to wait 4 days for my Amazon delivery instead of two. The service is awful!"
You are all morons with your brains up your asses. Your toys and comics and Amazon orders turn up late. Boo-hoo. There is a fecking pandemic going on and people are dying but, oh, your little toys and comics are late.
I would like to thank the people who sort and deliver the mail and who are being hit badly by the virus. I would like to thank all the people who sort and load as well as deliver food and other items. They risk getting Covid19 daily just so that we can get our essentials. To all of those people in the mail or supply chain
THANK YOU!
British Golden Age Discoveries and More
The Time Conqueror! Crasher Cave! I could go on but as there is general disinterest I won't. After all, if anyone is genuinely interested in the UK Golden Age of comics they would be buying the Gold Collection. I mention these two strips only because they were new discoveries to me and date back to 1946.
Both strips were drawn by Reginald Beaumont (1919-1976) and usually written by his brother George Harry Beaumont (1924-2004). Some might say crude by today's standards (but some of today's standards aren't that great) but these were four pagers in which everything had to be crammed. Week-in, week-out.
There is an uncredited 9 pager "epic" in The Bubble Terror and at first I thought this was Len Fullerton's work but I have doubts. Great fun all around.
If you read anyone claiming to be a British "ahem" Comics historian write that Glynne Protheroes was mainly a humour artist kick them up the arse. I wrote a piece on the man in Comic Bits (Vol. 2, No. 1); "The Distinctive Style of Glynne Protheroe" (born 1906 but no DOD). His serious style was fun but some recent discoveries have made me a fan: "Scoop Smithy of The Sentinel in The Murdered Mephisto and The Moor House Murders and Britain's leading exponent of the art of science deduction -Miles Martin in The Case of the Tarantula!
There is more of Len Fullerton's Halcon of the Crater Land, with an assist from Karen.
There even more but my decision is that all of this will only appear in print as part of the Black Tower Gold series. In its short life the British Golden Age Comics blog had reached 33,193 views which, you might assume means that many were interested in those comics. No. Material was ripped off -on occasions word-for-word - and with no credit given. There is one small presser in the United States that stole many of the scans to produce a "public domain" UK Golden Age characters comic -he has a series of them covering Europe, Canada etc and has no concept of copyright. In total, views of the British Golden Age blogs and news items totals over 1 million. 1% of those readers buying a book would make me happy.
So, I closed that blog down as well as the UK Golden Age Heroes blog (over 10,000 views) and I archived the Face Book page. No one buys the reprints despite all of the "I'll have to get that when it comes out!" and "That's a must buy!" and when someone asks when the next volume ios due out I always respons "Buy volumes 1-6 and we'll see!" Each book takes weeks of tedious work to produce and I tried adding up all the money I spent over the years (excluding what I paid Gerald Swan) on acquiring Diamond and Golden age comics and at a certain point I got a cold sweat and stopped. As someone pointed out -this is a work of love for me. But I would like to get some of my money back! 😂😂
Scans or pdf -No. Through internet piracy and thieves with their "Oh, if I like it I'll buy a copy" liwe I have been robbed blind over the last 20 years. Just earning 1% from illegal downloads would ,again, make me a happy man today (and mean not another meal of baked beans on toast!).
I know that when I croak (apparently I am not immortal???) one day I know that my collection will end up in bins or a fire. My online store will also be shut down because if I cannot earn a living from my books while alive then NO ONE is making money from me when I'm dead. I'm practical that way.
Any how, on that happy note (are you sure that I'm not just going to regenerate??) I'll leave you as I have a couple UK Golden Age books waiting to be read!
Black Tower Gold vol 1
A4
B&W
94 pages
Price: £8.00 (excl. VAT)Prints in 3-5 business days
For the first time in 60 years some of the lost gems of the British Golden Age of Comics are reprinted!
Scanned and cleaned to the best standard possible -see The Phantom Raider, Ace Hart, Secrets Of The Super Sargasso Sea, Phantom Maid, Electrogirl, Skybolt Kid, Wonder Boy, Dene Vernon, Professor Atom and many, many others!
Its fun and action all the way -The British Golden Age shines through!
Black Tower Gold vol 2
A4
Paperback
B&W
Price: £8.00 (excl. VAT)Prints in 3-5 business days
The second collection of British 1940s comic strips featuring Maxwell The Mighty, Slicksure, Iron Boy,Alfie, Ace Hart and more.
Featuring the work of Golden Age Greats Alf Farningham and Harry Banger.
Specifically designed to feature more humour than the previous volume this should be a treat for all comic collectors. Reprinting the full content of The Meteor and The Rocket Comics from 1948.
Black Tower Gold Vol 3
A4
Paperback
B&W
68 pages
Price: £8.00 (excl. VAT)Prints in 3-5 business days
This is the third volume in Black Tower Comics’ collection of Golden Age British comic strips that have not seen print for 50-60 years!
Included in this volume is a bumper crop of Ace Hart:The Atom Man strips and an article on the character.
A complete 1949 comic in Smugglers Creek; Denis Gifford’s Search For The Secret City and science fiction legend Bryan Berry’s rendition of Kid Carter -Teenage Tec! A must for all comic collectors and historians.
Black Tower Gold Vol 4
A4
Paperback
B&W
86 pages
Price: £8.00 (excl. VAT)Prints in 3-5 business days
The fourth volume of this series features some great finds of the lost era of British comics:
Ace Hart The Atom ManCaptain Comet -Space RangerTNT TomClive Lynn -Space ReporterSuperstooge"The White Gorilla"Atomic TuffyCast Iron ChrisSigord
and many others!
Black Tower Gold Vol 5 -Back From The Dead
A4
Paperback
B&W
68pp
Price: £8.00 (excl. VAT)Prints in 3-5 business days
William McCail’s 1940 classic is reprinted for the first time in 60 years.
If you are into British Golden Age comics or early comics in general this is for you.
Robert Lovett rises from the dead and finds he has some startling powers: deaths follow, as does a Scotland Yard detective determined to track down the mysterious killer!
Black Tower Gold Vol 6
A4
Paperback
B&W
35 pages
Price: £5.00 (excl. VAT)Prints in 3-5 business days
Yes! Now at issue 6 and bringing you more lost strips of the British Golden Age of Comics.There's a collection of strips featuring non other than TNT Tom and one of the weirdest UKGA characters -the Iron Boy.
Ever heard of Ingy Roob? Or his pet "Stretchy"? You will have if you read this issue.How about Dennis M. Readers Cat Girl?
Two other UK comics are reprinted in full, both from 1946 and the only issues ever published:Lucky Dice and The Fudge.
Black Tower -keeping UK comics history alive!
The Ultimate British Comics Gold Collection
A4
Paperback
B&W
405 pages
Price: £25.00 (excl. VAT)Prints in 3-5 business days
Combining volumes 1-6 (still available as individual issues but that works out far more expensive) of the BT Golden Age British Comics Collections (minus adverts) this is the ultimate for any Golden Age collector or historian or just plain comic lover.
Features....Ace HartTNT TomElectrogirl Wonderman The Phantom RaiderCaptain Comet Acro MaidPhantom MaidDene VernonThe Iron BoyThe Boy FishProfessor AtomThe TornadoPowermanWonder BoySlicksureMasterman Dane JerrusAlfieTiny TodMaxwell The Mighty Back From The DeadZeno At The Earth's CoreColonel MastiffAlly SloperSuper InjunSuper Porker (oo-er, no, Madam, ooh),Tiger ManKing Of The CloudsCaptain Comet
and MANY others!
Plus text features defining The Ages OF British Comics (Platignum, Gold, Silver), the artist William A. Ward and more.
If you knew nothing about British comics of the Platinum, Golden and Silver Ages then once you buy and read this book you'll be a goddam omic intellectual dinosaur! Yipes!
All in that beautiful Iron Warrior cover exclusively drawn for Black Tower by that meta-gargantuoso talented Ben R. Dilworth!
I sold my family to be able to get this book out! Help me buy them back by purchasing your very own
whizz-o copy today!
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