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Terry Hooper-Scharf

Friday 31 December 2021

A New Year....really, it IS a new year?

 Judging by all the bloody fireworks outside it is now 1st January, 2022. meh. I've been working as usual over Christmas and in the last...I really have no idea whether it was three or four days...I have scanned almost 300 pp of art for 5 books. 

Hang on...4 x 80 pp...uh, 320. And the other bok I may leave with 60pp or expand into another 80pp so well over 300pp and do not think that my crappy old scanner was being  anything but a "little awkward" at times.

Covers also done which means there will be a selection of Golden, Silver and Contemporary comic strips out next year.

Not sure whether I will release one each month which would take us into May or to publish one after the other. I may go for the easy option of "when edited -publish".

I also need to start re-pricing on the 2nd -orders before then are honoured at the current price so you have ....24 hours!

Now...need to go ovr some more pages and it is...0026 hrs (GMT)



Thursday 30 December 2021

One More Book Scanned

 Well, the scanner gave a few hiccups but another 80 pager has been completed. Six hours to scan and pre-edit them all.

Tomorrow I have the last book to scan and after that comes the editing and uploading to the online store.

Tried a few things but the A3 scanner will not stop producing the line down each page. Worked on one page today to see what editing ould be needed and to erase the line and repair one speech balloon took under one hour. That is wholly impractical so the books will be cancelled for now.



So stay tuned for updates in 2022!

 


After a lot of work I managed to get the A4 scanner working. That gave me enough of an headache to wait until yesterday morning and decide to "go for it!"

Whilst the scanner was working I wanted to get as much done as possible and the Canon MG2550S is fast at scanning a page. After 9 hours I had managed to scan and preliminary edit just under 200 pages. I had to double check but two 80pp books are scanned and just need the editing done -I even worked on later to design the covers whioch I wanted to have some colour in but just be fun. D. H. Wilberton's Streamline illo will be for the third book which I am currently scanning but needed a break from for a few minutes.

You might ask what the books are. Are you going to ask?  Go on! Alright, I'll tell you then.

On is going to be volume 5 of Tales of Terror and if you rememberthem -I wanted a look of the old Thorpe & Porter horror books, or the old Weekly comics from the UK. Some more text to be added.


The other book is Slick Fun 2022 with Professot Atomutt on the front cover (he got a tad "narky" that Professor Atom got to star in The Green Skies so we gave him a cover)


You might ask why the larger format? 

The fact is that unless smaller books sell a lot -I do mean a lot- then I make nothing. A copy of a £20.00 netted me 78p which is financial and business suicide (hence book price increases after 1st January 2022).  It makes more sense to just publish the larger format books.  Smaller page count ones will be "for the love of it" (cause they aint paying!).

There is a fourth book but that is secret for now. Once everything is scanned I can breathe easier.

My biggest problem is that stack of almost 200 pages of artwork in A3 that need scanning. A dreaded business scanning that lot but it is part of the work.

So stay tuned for updates in 2022!

Tuesday 28 December 2021

I NEED A New Mustek A3 Pro Scanner -Look at these pages!

 Finally got the A3 Mustek Pro scanner working again but all of the work was pointless. You will see on the cover scan below how the long dark line cuts down the entire page...



The plain back  cover shows it better and these are A4 pages



How does it affect scanning A3 art? This spread from the same issue of CB shows. (horizonal here as scanned at A4 side on)



On 48-100+ pages I would need to go through and clean up this line which would also cut through word balloons. Scanning a large number of pages to have to then do long and often difficult removal of a line throughout a page. I can scan A4 but most original art is A4 -you see the problem.

So in the meantime I am set to re-adjust cover prices on books for 2nd January 2022 and try to forge the heap of pages in front of me waiting for scanning.

Monday 27 December 2021

WTF Is Going On?

 


Every-so-often I like to see what posts are popular on  a given day. Usually when I am bored!

Anyway, at the time I was checking things out there had been over 1000 views. So I start noting which post is popular and I see...there are over 800 views.

W..T...F?

So I'm wondering what is going on and...773 views???

Then 743 views?

So there I am thinking "Terry this number problem has gotten out of control" and...730 views.

I do know that Blogger changes its url regularly (a tax thing?) but that should not be affecting view stats as I am watching. This has always been a major problem with Blogger but usually you hit another million and...thousands  of views vanish. The current home page stats read over 4 million but CBO passed 9 million last August.

I do wonder when these happen WHY?  I'll check again...up to 799. 

What a system.

Spider-Man: No Way Home Smashes $1 Billion Milestone

 https://uk.yahoo.com/news/spider-man-no-way-home-164219646.html




Spider-Man: No Way Home” unwrapped the best Christmas gift of all, becoming the first pandemic-era movie to cross $1 billion at the global box office.

Sony’s comic-book epic has eclipsed that milestone in a near-record 12 days, tying with 2015’s “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” as the third-fastest film to reach the billion-dollar benchmark. Only 2018’s “Avengers: Infinity War” and 2019’s “Avengers: Endgame” were quicker, smashing the coveted tally in 11 and five days, respectively.

It’s impressive that “Spider-Man: No Way Home” managed to blow past $1 billion in ticket sales worldwide given the rapidly spreading omicron variant of COVID-19. But, so far, coronavirus concerns have done little to slow Peter Parker’s prowess; the film is still playing to many sold-out screenings nationwide. The achievement makes Tom Holland’s Marvel superhero adventure the only movie since 2019’s “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” to surpass $1 billion globally. No other Hollywood film has come close to nearing those box office revenues in the last two years. Prior to Spidey’s reign, MGM’s James Bond sequel “No Time to Die,” which grossed $774 million globally, came the closest and stood as the highest-grossing Hollywood film of 2021 (and the pandemic).

With $1 billion banked, “Spider-Man: No Way Home” also took the earthly throne from another box-office behemoth, China’s local-language war film “The Battle at Lake Changjin” ($902 million globally), officially cementing its place as the year’s highest-grossing film worldwide. It’s also notable that “No Way Home” surpassed that high-watermark without playing in China, which is currently the world’s biggest moviegoing market.

At the domestic box office, “Spider-Man: No Way Home” had another dominant weekend, soaring high above the competition during a crowded Christmas corridor. The newest “Spider-Man” adventure collected $81 million from 4,336 North American theaters over the weekend, down 69% from its jaw-dropping debut. To put its second-weekend figure in perspective, only select COVID-era releases have managed to generate that kind of coinage in their entire theatrical runs, much less in their sophomore outings. “Spider-Man: No Way Home” also managed to do so at a time when several new movies — “The Matrix Resurrections,” “Sing 2” and “The King’s Man,” among others — opened nationwide to decent (and not-so-decent) ticket sales.

It brings the film’s ten-day total to a mammoth $467 million at the domestic box office. That tally is more than double the year’s next highest-grossing movie, Disney and Marvel’s “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” which earned a mighty $224 million domestically. At the international box office, “Spider-Man: No Way Home” added $121.4 million over the weekend and has made $587 million to date, boosting its global revenues to $1.05 billion.

Universal and Illumination’s animated musical “Sing 2” had the biggest start among new releases, debuting in second place with $23.7 million from 3,892 domestic theaters over the traditional weekend and $41 million since Wednesday. (That number is slightly inflated because it includes $1.6 million banked from advanced screenings over Thanksgiving weekend.) It’s a softer start than its predecessor, 2016’s “Sing,” which had secured a three-day total of $35 million and five-day tally of $54.9 million. However, it’s not a bad result for a film targeted at parents with young kids at a time when family audiences have been especially wary about going to the movies.

“The industry has been saying family audiences haven’t been coming out, but we proved that wrong,” said Universal’s president of domestic distribution Jim Orr.

The jukebox sequel, directed by Garth Jennings and voiced by Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Scarlett Johansson, Nick Kroll and Bono, has been well-received by audiences, who awarded it a coveted “A+” CinemaScore. Unless the pandemic has something to say, “Sing 2” should benefit from a long run on the big screen, especially since it doesn’t have much competition among family films. The original “Sing,” centering on a bevy of animals with killer pipes, also bowed around Christmas and played in theaters well into the new year, ultimately grossing $270 million stateside and $634 million worldwide. At this rate, the sequel will have trouble replicating those results but it should remain the de facto choice for youngsters through the holiday season.

Other new nationwide releases struggled to pull ticket buyers away from “Spider-Man: No Way Home.” “The Matrix Resurrections,” Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow’s sci-fi sequel, landed with a thud in third place. The cerebral film arrived significantly behind expectations, scraping together $12 million from 3,552 cinemas over the weekend and $22.5 million since Wednesday. The fourth installment in the seminal series, like Warner Bros. entire 2021 slate, is available simultaneously on HBO Max, though the company didn’t provide digital viewership metrics.

Internationally, the latest “Matrix” entry has generated $47 million so far, which brings its global haul to $69.8 million.

Lana Wachowski returned to direct “The Matrix Resurrections,” which stars Keanu Reeves as the sleek cybercriminal Neo and Carrie-Anne Moss as Trinity. The $190 million-budgeted tentpole has gotten mixed responses (it has a 67% on Rotten Tomatoes, as well as a “B-” CinemaScore), which may not move the needle for ticket sales while it’s playing simultaneously on a streaming service at no extra charge.

“Right now, if you’re under 35 and going to the movies, your first choice is ‘Spider-Man,’ and your second choice is seeing ‘Spider-Man’ again,” says David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research. “You can watch ‘The Matrix’ later with someone who has HBO. That’s how it is when a single movie is dominating the market the way ‘Spider-Man’ is.”

Another newcomer, Disney and 20th Century’s “The King’s Man” finished in fourth place, amassing a paltry $6.3 million from 3,180 screens over the weekend and $10 million since debuting on Wednesday. Overseas, the prequel in “The Kingsman” action franchise didn’t make up much ground. The oft-delayed spy comedy, starring Ralph Fiennes, nabbed only $6.9 million from seven international markets for a global tally of $16.9 million.

At the domestic box office, “The King’s Man” beat Lionsgate’s real-life sports drama “American Underdog” by a hair. In fifth place, “American Underdog” captured $6.2 million from 2,813 locations since opening on Christmas Day. The crowd-pleasing film about rags-to-riches quarterback Kurt Warner (played by Zachary Levi) has been embraced by moviegoers, who gave it an “A+” CinemaScore and 98% on Rotten Tomatoes. Unfortunately, the movie hasn’t been high on audience’s radars and could get sacked by competitors over the busy holiday stretch.

Strong reviews didn’t do much to boost Disney’s big-budget “West Side Story” remake, which landed at No. 6 in its third weekend of release with $2.8 million from 2,810 venues. The Steven Spielberg-directed musical has generated $23.9 million domestically since launching earlier in December. The song-and-dance property has also had a slow go at it overseas, grossing only $12.7 million from 46 international territories so far. Globally, the $100 million-budgeted “West Side Story” has earned just $36.6 million to date.

Even with the rousing success of Sony’s “Spider-Man” threequel, it wasn’t all good news on the movie studio’s lot. Sony’s latest new nationwide release, the tear-jerker “A Journal for Jordan,” barely managed to crack the top 10. Despite a high-wattage director and star in Denzel Washington and Michael B. Jordan, the film notched eighth place with a scant $2.2 million in receipts from 2,500 venues on Saturday and Sunday.

“A Journal for Jordan” sold less tickets than director Paul Thomas Anderson’s coming-of-age comedic drama “Licorice Pizza,” which expanded to 786 North American theaters on Christmas Day after four weeks in limited release. The movie, starring Cooper Hoffman and Alana Haim, collected $2.32 million on Saturday and Sunday, enough for seventh place. To date, the MGM film and awards season hopeful has generated $3.6 million domestically.

Sunday 26 December 2021

The Octobriana 50th Anniversary Special

 


A4

 44 pages

Square bound, 

colour and black & white 

£6.50 UK

https://octobrianakult.blogspot.com/?fbclid=IwAR1Lu96O0r0TLhaVR45cD0s3qJqi12kEekFRlzAxFTGdlGHkbYaZ9cN9ZLo


The Octobriana 50th Anniversary Special is now available to buy from the Kult Creations blog spot Just select where you live (the UK or Europe or Outside Europe) and click on the button. 

It's a 44 page, square bound, American comic sized colour and black and white comic featuring five new Octobriana strips. It features art and stories by Chris Askham, Simon Breeze, Susan Fenn, David Hitchcock, Gabrielle Noble, Andrew Richmond and John A. Short. With a cover by Gabby Noble. JOIN THE REVOLUTION! 

Art by Chris Askham

Art by Andrew Richmond

Art by Gabby Noble

Art by Simon Breeze

Art by Susan Fenn

Art by David Hitchcock

Opening up the book you start with the Octobriana profile just in case you have no idea who she is (had she taken up Simon Cowell's management offer she'd be a daily Yahoo! new feature). Then you get into the stripwork which is lucky as this is a comic album.

Octobriana's Nemesis (Agent Omega) is a good play on the time paradox and the artwork looked good and the twist in the ending was also well done (no spoilers).  Andrew's art on Caught in the Web was very reminiscent of 1980s small press comics and it's good to see some b&w work included.

The highlight, of course, was Ultimate Octobriana drawn in full colour by the amazine Gabrielle Noble. It guest stars Rasputin so....

Octobriana The Lost Strip I was a tad less excited over. There is a one page intro to the strip which when I saw it I immediately thought "this is not Soviet era comic art!"  I've written about Russian comics on CBO before so go look that up. Also I contributed to a couple East German Samizdat publications back in the day so I saw a lot of "Soviet era" art. It is not as crude as is drawn here -the big mistake everyone makes is that all Golden Age comics or former Soviet era comics were crudely drawn. They were not. Also the big clue is in the art which screams "Andrew Richmond".

Here is where I think things went wrong. There was the one page illo. The fake 'lost' comic strip and then, the next page -the "joke" that it is believed Short and Richmond created the strip. That fell flat. Octobriana has so much myth and legend around her -the strip identified by someone in the U.S. last year as being drawn by me...wasn't. Wrong title/story and art. A bit more effect into the fake and this could have gone down as another mystery.

The three illustrations in Susan Fenn's The Three Poisons is interesting but I'd like to see more of her work in strip form.

So, miserable Terry aside, is it worth buying this book?  The short answer to that is "Yes" -it is an enjoyable read with nice art so what more do you want -and John Short delivers his usual quality scripting and Gabrielle Noble has work in the book. Come on -are you cannot need a better reason than that....can you??




Friday 24 December 2021

Hmm. Well, okay.

 


To those out there who find this time of the year leading to loneliness and depression remember there are people out there that you can talk to. Or just explain to a friend or family member how you feel.  Blessed Be.

Oh, Dear, Timmy.......


 

Deck The Halls...


 

Thursday 23 December 2021

"An Eye For An Eye. A Life For A Life"?


 

The Traveller

 

 W -Terry Hooper-Scharf

A -Martin Bagshawe
c. 1991/2020








Old Projects -Voyagers

 Another Blogger lost post


 I am quite sure I have a few other pages somewhere but, again, in the early 1990s, Beccy Pearce used her unique style to bring to life the adventures of John and Joan along with Professor Randall as they travel in a ridiculous looking home made rocket craft.


I was told, falsely it seems by someone I trusted, that Beccy had moved abroad suddenly. Apparently she had only moved locally.  Never trust your 'friends' in comics.

This series depended a lot on rather quirky humour as well as action -the colour banner is a watercolour produced by John "Sepp" Schiltz

W -T Hooper-Scharf
A -Becky Pearce
c 1990/2020




Captain Eco -all the pages I have

 Apparently this and other posts have vanished so...

 1993 and the megalomaniac "chaos" scientist named Dr Chaos is using using specially created crystals to hold the world to ransom. 


In his orbiting space station Captain Eco (pronounced "echo") receives the call and investigates.

Roughly lettered pp 5-11 and 13 and I am sure the artist was named Antonio de Sarno

UPDATE:I'm posting all the pages I have. I just found one page with the artist's name and the date...26th August...1990!!!!  If -IF- I ever find pages 12 and 19 I will post!