Firstly a THANK YOU to Mark who got in touch. He has purchased Black Tower books and is only the second person to actually contact me about them!
It's nice to hear from readers.
Steve and Dan were also asking questions about Green Skies and other Black Tower projects.
Firstly, yes, there is still going to be a Green Skies book! It's going to be an epic like Return Of The Gods so I decided that the publication date will be around January, 2015 which will celebrate 2014s BTC&Bs 30th anniversary. I want to set a bit more groundwork in motion first. It will be worth it.
Secondly, "What is the Invasion Earth trilogy?"
Well, back in 1987 I had plotted "Invasion Earth 1987 AD" which was a little title hommage to the 1966 Dr Who movie starring Peter Cushing -Daleks – Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D.
1966 -what a year!
Anyway, the series was put together as a proposal to Fleetway where a couple editors liked the idea but then panicked when they realised there was no existing title they could fit the story into. Gil Page was Managing Editor and had the final "No" -Fleetway was a bit of a mess and merging with Maxwell Pergamon Publishing did not help. On the occasion I met Maxwell he was very enthusiastic because he wanted to publish a line of successful comics -I understand that he had heard Rupert Murdoch might be thinking of publishing comics.
Multi-millionaires and their pissing up the wall competitions. Quite messy.
Some of the plot has been used in other books -the parasitic menace of the alien Krale, Freelancer and so on.
When I met Archie Goodwin at a UK Comic Art Convention (UKCAC) I outlined the idea to him (I still wanted to work for Marvel in those days). He was thoughtful and very kind but, ultimately, he said neither Marvel nor DC would probably touch the idea because they both had to own character copyrights. He suggested Eclipse.
Please, never ever ask me about the response from Eclipse where I got a rant about the Germans and World War 2 --I still have no idea where that came from!!!
So nothing happened.
Then Print-on-Demand happened. Black tower adventure was relaunched in a new, bigger format. And as I had artwork for Return of the Gods I used it. When published as a "trade" it had 196 pages. I wasn't happy because so much had been left out so I got to work -331 pages was the end result.
Some background info here:
http://hoopercomicart.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/the-ultimate-game-and-return-of-gods.html
But lots of threads came together including the alien menace to Earth, which got invaded by-the-way. All that rounded up part 1.
Part 2 looked at the aftermath and what the heroes were up to -or not. It's a stand alone book -The Cross Earths Caper. It sets up a lot of things BUT you do not have to buy Return to understand it. Nor buy the Cross Earths Caper to understand Return.
Then there is the third and ultimate part of this trilogy -Green Skies. Again, it is linked to events in Return, Cross Earths and Black Tower Adventure strips but you do not have to buy those books to understand what is going on.
Green Skies will see so much cleared up, mysteries revealed and open the door for future stories but it will be the epic story out of the way. I'm not giving anything away. Nothing. But some aspects of the story seriously depressed me.
Because of the work involved, Green Skies should be out in January 2015 and will be the big 30th anniversary book from Black Tower. I can then breath a sigh of relief and relax.
I hope that answers some questions?
It's nice to hear from readers.
Steve and Dan were also asking questions about Green Skies and other Black Tower projects.
Firstly, yes, there is still going to be a Green Skies book! It's going to be an epic like Return Of The Gods so I decided that the publication date will be around January, 2015 which will celebrate 2014s BTC&Bs 30th anniversary. I want to set a bit more groundwork in motion first. It will be worth it.
Secondly, "What is the Invasion Earth trilogy?"
Well, back in 1987 I had plotted "Invasion Earth 1987 AD" which was a little title hommage to the 1966 Dr Who movie starring Peter Cushing -Daleks – Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D.
1966 -what a year!
Anyway, the series was put together as a proposal to Fleetway where a couple editors liked the idea but then panicked when they realised there was no existing title they could fit the story into. Gil Page was Managing Editor and had the final "No" -Fleetway was a bit of a mess and merging with Maxwell Pergamon Publishing did not help. On the occasion I met Maxwell he was very enthusiastic because he wanted to publish a line of successful comics -I understand that he had heard Rupert Murdoch might be thinking of publishing comics.
Multi-millionaires and their pissing up the wall competitions. Quite messy.
Some of the plot has been used in other books -the parasitic menace of the alien Krale, Freelancer and so on.
When I met Archie Goodwin at a UK Comic Art Convention (UKCAC) I outlined the idea to him (I still wanted to work for Marvel in those days). He was thoughtful and very kind but, ultimately, he said neither Marvel nor DC would probably touch the idea because they both had to own character copyrights. He suggested Eclipse.
Please, never ever ask me about the response from Eclipse where I got a rant about the Germans and World War 2 --I still have no idea where that came from!!!
So nothing happened.
Then Print-on-Demand happened. Black tower adventure was relaunched in a new, bigger format. And as I had artwork for Return of the Gods I used it. When published as a "trade" it had 196 pages. I wasn't happy because so much had been left out so I got to work -331 pages was the end result.
Some background info here:
http://hoopercomicart.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/the-ultimate-game-and-return-of-gods.html
But lots of threads came together including the alien menace to Earth, which got invaded by-the-way. All that rounded up part 1.
Part 2 looked at the aftermath and what the heroes were up to -or not. It's a stand alone book -The Cross Earths Caper. It sets up a lot of things BUT you do not have to buy Return to understand it. Nor buy the Cross Earths Caper to understand Return.
Then there is the third and ultimate part of this trilogy -Green Skies. Again, it is linked to events in Return, Cross Earths and Black Tower Adventure strips but you do not have to buy those books to understand what is going on.
Green Skies will see so much cleared up, mysteries revealed and open the door for future stories but it will be the epic story out of the way. I'm not giving anything away. Nothing. But some aspects of the story seriously depressed me.
Because of the work involved, Green Skies should be out in January 2015 and will be the big 30th anniversary book from Black Tower. I can then breath a sigh of relief and relax.
I hope that answers some questions?
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