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Terry Hooper-Scharf

Thursday 5 September 2013

Finding What's Missing And Finding So Much...Weird!!



 When I was a young lad. eeh, 'eck, way back when good Queen Victoria twere on throne...

No, that's just going to confuse all the foreign CBO visitors.

When I was younger I had two dreams (that I can tell you about!) -to publish/write/draw comics and to work for Marvel Comics.  Well, Marvel Comics died for me and my other choice of company was Archie -but one characters such as The Mighty Crusaders.  The heroes.

There's a long interview somewhere on this blog conducted by Phil Latter that goes into all this stuff.


But as a kid I picked up all sorts of comics -my prized "Quarto format" (Digest) Tex Willer 100 pager is long gone.  But I picked up what I could afford and up until the 1970s seeing a Marvel or DC comic was still hit-or-miss...it didn't really improve that much in the 1970s. And my grand dad, Bill, used to buy me comics -not sticking to a regular title but picking up what he thought I might like -my first comic was The Robin.

Then there was The Topper, Dandy and so on. I grew up on an eclectic mix.  Even finding one of my fathers porno mags saw critical perusal. I have no idea if it was Parade or something like that but it had a photo comic Casanova story. 

 I looked at the costumes, the interiors -the photographs were excellent quality, very eye-catching colour. I had no interest in what I now recall was very lame sexual antics!  Maybe that stood me in good stead when I wrote best selling porno erotic adult fiction best sellers for Fantagraphic Books Eros Comix.

But I was soaking this all in.

I always spoke to people writing, drawing, though mainly running/owning comic companies.  I knew the ins and outs of printers tricks to bump up prices as well as those of the "industry" to make money back through double or even very poor book keeping.  Ahh, the time before computers!

But I learnt how much each printed comic cost, how much you would need to sell it for and how many sales were needed to break even and even how to use the old books after their week or month of being on sale.

So, when I first hopped boyishly into comics I knew a lot...but not enough about the ..."dubious" people working in comics. I bought rights from Thorpe & Porter, Mylon Fass (very annoying being continuously referred to as "kid") and others.

As I moved into comics as a writer, artist, editor and artists agent, I spoke more to old pros and to people just getting established in the industry. I learnt the dirty tricks used by publishers to not pay them and, eventually, I began pushing for Creators Rights --apparently a good deal of my work dried up because I was "blacked" by certain companies.  I do wonder whether it was worth it as creators in the UK start to bleat on about never asking for Creators Rights!!!


 Eventually, through my work as well as correspondence, I made contact with comickers in other countries. I learnt the ins and outs of their native industries, the problems, the movers and shakers and the crooks.

From Japan, China, Korea, India, Russia, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands as well as Australia, New Zealand and, of course, the USA, I had publishers contact me to try and help them get into the UK market or find out the pros and cons of which genre might sell better than another.

I produced annual British comic industry reports which, by the final one (2005) had an accuracy of 96%.  Universities and libraries, researchers -lots of people wanted full lectures on comics and what to do, avoid and so on.

I gave up the Agents work in the mid 1990s -the same time I quit acting as a UK rep for US Independents (a long story for another day).

But I got to speak, correspond and meet up with these publishers and my collection has so many first issues of titles!

It was only while looking at the list of publishers in my collection (not complete yet) that I realized just how much I had read and how varied the art and publishers were.  Yes, I love comics as an art form but after 40+ years (scarily, I just realized its more like 50 years)  of collecting comics my Independent comics number almost as many as my Marvel and DC comics.

That is why people come to me for advice or information. Because, sadly, I have no real life but a brain full of comics!

So I thought I would just present the preliminary list of publishers in my collection. I've outlasted many of the publishers and comics which is sad because so many had potential.  But I learnt what mistakes they made.

Anyway, here is the list.  See how many you know!




AVATAR COMICS

BURLYMAN ENTERTAINMENT


CONTINUITY COMICS

CROSSGEN COMICS


OLD TOWN COMICS

TOP SHELF COMICS

AC COMICS

PACIFIC COMICS

DDP

ONI COMICS

COMICO

COMICS INTERVIEW

IDW PUBLISHING

DORK STORM COMICS

VORTEX COMICS

RIP OFF PRESS

ECLIPSE

HUMANOIDS PUBLISHING

ANUBIS PRESS

LAMP POST PRODUCTIONS

COMIC LEGENDS LEGAL DEFENSE FUND

DARK HORSE

FIRST COMICS

GOLD KEY

DELL

KING FEATURES

BCSI PUBLICATIONS

SLAVE LABOR GRAPHICS

FUNK O TRON

STRAWBERRY JAM COMICS

DAVAN COMICS

CEREBUS AARDVARK VANAHEIM

TOWER COMICS

JC COMICS

KITCHEN SINK COMICS

ANACOM

ABSOLUTE COMICS

VENUSIAN PRESS

P.O.C.A.A.N.

POLITE STRANGERS

GOD COMICS

FANTAGOR PRESS

SPIDER BABY GRAPHICS

STEEL DRAGON PRESS

MARTYR PRESS

DAJJ PUBLICATIONS

STAR HEAD COMIX

JOHN SPENCER COMICS

WORLD DISTRIBUTORS

TOP SELLERS

BYBLOS

BLACK LIBRARY

PULP THEATRE

WOLF PUBLISHING

QUALITY COMMUNICATIONS

IPC

FLEETWAY

EGMONT

D.C. THOMSON

CHARLTON COMICS

ODHAMS PRESS

TRIGON COMICS

ACME COMICS

HERO COMICS

BLAZER STUDIOS

HARRIER COMICS

ARCHIE COMICS

ATLAS (SEABOARD PERIODICALS) 1970S

ATLAS COMICS (2000S)

DOG SOUP

TOPPS

BLUE COMET PRESS

TAMI COMICS

SEMIC

NIGHT WYND ENTERPRISES

MAGAZINE ENTERPRISES

HARVEY COMICS

HARRIS COMICS

METEOR COMICS

REBEL STUDIOS

AIRCELL COMICS

ADVENTURE PUBLICATIONS

ADVENTURE COMICS

EVOLUTION COMICS

NORTHERN LIGHTS PUBLICATIONS

SPECTRUM COMICS

AMRYL ENTERPRISES

INNOVATION COMICS

A. O. POTTER

MATRIX GRAPHICS

ARTFUL SALAMANDER

POWER COMICS

FANDOM HOUSE

AMERICAN COMICS GROUP

LAST GASP

FAT MAN PRESS

NOBLE COMICS

TRIDENT COMICS

MIND BENDERS

DW

TOP COW

AMAZE INK

TEKNO COMICS

ADHESIVE COMICS

CONGRESS PRESS

CHROME TIGER

AJA BLUE

CAPITAL COMICS

MIRAGE STUDIOS

LODESTONE PRESS

M V CREATIONS

VALIANT COMICS

IFDP

GREATER MERCURY COMICS

PALLIARD PRESS

DELUXE

MALIBU COMICS

ROGUES GALLERY

ARROW COMICS

FUNNIES PUBLISHING CO.

BONA FIDE PRODUCTIONS

PAN GRAPHICS

ACME PRESS

MACKIE & ROWDON

ROUGH CUT COMICS

CHARAYDIS COMICS

VIZ MANGA

BECKETT COMICS

ALAN CLASS COMICS

ABSTRACT STUDIOS

ETERNITY COMICS

WILD STORM STUDIOS

TITAN BOOKS

MU PRESS

THOUGHTS & IMAGES

CALIBER

FANTAGRAPHIC BOOKS

IMAGE COMICS

AMERICAS BEST COMICS (ABC)

ATLANTIS STUDIO

INSIGHT STUDIO GROUP

FUTURE COMICS

MOONSTONE PUBLISHING

WILLY PRODS/SMALL TIME INK

ALTERNATIVE COMICS

AP COMICS

PHOSPHORESCENT COMICS

DANCING ELEPHANT PRESS

PHANTASY PRESS

BS PRODUCTIONS

MAD LOVE

THE GREENWOOD ORGANISATION/WARREN

ANTARCTIC PRESS

ESCAPE PUBLISHING

VERTIGO COMICS

GENEON ENTERTAINMENT (USA)

BLACK BIRD COMICS

BLINK TWICE

AUTOCRATIK

WARPTON

MATRIX

TRUE NORTH COMICS

COMELY COMICS

RENEGADE PRESS

MARLOWE & Co.

GEMSTONE

SPEAKEASY COMICS

WILD CARD PRODUCTIONS

PORTENT COMICS

EDICIONS DOLARES

JADEMAN COMICS

VICTORY COMICS

DR LEUNG’S COMICS

EASTERN PUBLISHING

ROMAN ROMANTIKA A NAPETI

FOKER

KOMETA

KAW

MAGYARORSZAG

FREE COMICS

SLOVO ASSOCIATION

MAHLER

CAPTION COMICS/IPP

ZWERCHFELL VERLAG

CRAGO VERLAG

KEROSIN COMICS

TOTENKOPF VERLAG

LIPPE VERLAG

EDITIONS QUASIMODO

BASTEI VERLAG

JO 84

DOHR

ZACK COMICS

ZEBRA VERLAG

CONDOR VERLAG

BECKER-DEROUET

EHAPA VERLAG

KORDA

PLOP

HIERONIMI

PANEL VERLAG

KLOTZBUCHER

KAUKA VERLAG

COMIC ARCHIV

CHAOS COMICS

SHRINK VERLAG

NATTER COMICS

BASEL BRENNT

STANDAARD UITGEVERIJ

EDICIONES CULPEA

BIG BALLOON BV

BULLES DINGUES

EURA EDITORIALE

BAMBOO COMICS

WEIRDO PUBLISHING

SEVERLEY LTD

RIDDLE COMICS

FUNTIME COMICS

TEA CAKES

RIVER COMICS

DUNDUM QUADRINHOS

DARGAUD

CASTERMAN

JUNGLE BD

FLUIDE GLACIAL

KERUBI COMICS

VEINTEI

GINIPIK PRESS

HELSINKI SF SCURA

SUOMALAINEN SARJAKUVALEHTI

ALPHA

CLUMP LEMPI

ORGANIZATIO Z







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