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Terry Hooper-Scharf

Wednesday 24 August 2022

DC Movies, Marvel Movies and let's not forget the comics!

   While Marvel pushes on with its TV and movies you have to wonder just wtf Warner are doing? Affleck made a good Batman  and if you have the biggest comic characters such as Wonder Woman, Batman, Superman and Aquaman not to mention "Shazam" just how is it the movie franchises are so bloody messed up?



Cyborg is a much more interesting character in the Doom Patrol TV series and the other TV heroes established a fan base so why are the actors who created that buzz and fan following actually playing the characters in the movies?  The Flash -Ezra Miller is so scandal covered by now but he keeps studio support while Grant Gustin who plays Flash on the TV series is not just in an established TV series that had its own small scale Crisis on Infinite Earths but he has not tried to assault anyone, break into any properties or...well not done anything Miller has.

I seriously gave up on DC as a comic company when every year it did a reboot and each reboot has gotten worse. Oh, the "strong rumour" that Jim Lee is out and may be back at Marvel next year...CBO reported on this very same "inside strong source" report of Lee going three years ago and I mentioned then that I ran a similar story two years before. 


These days the comics are not action and adventure stories made to draw in fans but more "We HAVE to tick the right virtue signalling boxes!" -Marvel has just given up and produces some dire comics by people who have no idea how to write BUT they tick those right virtue signalling boxes.

Until they introduced Harry ***** Styles as Eros to make an already tedious movie (The Eternals) even worse things were going fine. Normally I will watch a Marvel movie 2-3 times but I have placed The Eternals at the back of the shelf because I have no intention of watching it for a VERY long time.

One other problem with Marvel and DC themed movies is that they kill off good villains as though that's it "We have no idea how to use them again!" Andy Serkis is a perfect example of having a very good actor play a villain (Klaw) and then kill him off (in Black Panther) but do it off screen so he just turns up as a corpse -WTF???

Really, some arses need to be slapped but do you know what? Unimaginative people put in charge and who interfere in the movie side of things...they'll keep screwing up and collecting their pay cheques and won't give a toss what fans want. "Fans will see and buy what we tell them to!" 

And the fans bend over and take it.

https://www.indiewire.com/2022/08/aquaman-2-shazam-2-release-dates-pushed-warner-bros-1234755287/

Warner Bros. is mixing up the DC release calendar once again.

After the “Aquaman” sequel was pushed back from December 16, 2022 to March 17, 2023, the DC installment is getting shifted once more to December 25, 2023. That’s the same release window as its initial December 2022 premiere date, following the 2018 holiday debut of the first film.

Now in the DC shuffle, “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” will take over the vacant “Aquaman 2” premiere date, this time delayed until March 17, 2023, after being first announced to open on December 16 of this year (the original “Aquaman” sequel date).

In addition to the DC game of musical chairs, two HBO Max titles are now getting theatrical premieres: “House Party” is set for December 9, 2022, while “Evil Dead Rise” will open on April 21, 2023. Upcoming Warner Bros. titles also now include “The Nun 2,” as part of “The Conjuring” franchise, set for September 8, 2023, along with Stephen King’s “Salem’s Lot” being pushed to a TBD date in 2023 (its original release was set for April 21, 2023).

An untitled “Warner Bros.” event film is also slated for February 10, 2023, on Super Bowl weekend.

With “Batgirl” confirmed to be shelved indefinitely after originally being set for an HBO Max release and the future of the DCU hinging on “The Flash” despite lead star Ezra Miller’s multiple arrests and abuse allegations, it seems that the release calendar reflects the imbalance and push for a Kevin Feige-like leader to oversee all of DC.

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav earlier clarified during the company’s second-quarter 2022 earnings call that axing “Batgirl” was part of a plan to “bring Warner back and produce great high-quality films” with a mission to “protect the DC brand.”

“We have some great DC films coming up: ‘Black Adam,’ ‘Shazam!,’ and ‘Flash.’ We’re working on all of those. We’ve seen them, and we think they’re terrific, and that we can make them even better,” Zaslav said.

NEW COMIC BOOKS RELEASING AUGUST 31ST 2022 MARVEL COMICS & DC COMICS PRE...

Sunday 21 August 2022

Black Tower Adventure -the series you CANNOT Miss! Seriously)

 



A4
Pages 67
Paperback
Interior Ink Black & white
Price: £7.00 (excl. VAT)
Prints in 3-5 business days


In 1984 the A5 (digest sized) Black Tower Adventure first appeared featuring some later-to-be top UK comic book and was a must-read in Small Press circles and sold so well that even the publisher does not have a full run!

The title was put on hiatus in 2007 but in 2010 was relaunched, bigger and better than ever!

This first issue of volume 2 contains: Part 1 of the mega series Return Of The Gods:Twilight Of The Super Heroes which comes in at 43 pages!

Thaddeus Twatt In The Twatt-Verse -first part of a truly microscopic titanic tales (which
makes sense if you read it!). 

And those Third Level sorcerers Kotar & Sabuta race to face The Deadly Dilemma Of 
Sigismund Benfriggisund

The cold war between China and Russia couldn’t get any hotter in the 1980s but one strip
that appeared in the new talent comic Preview was The Phoenix Team and that story has been much requested over 
the years as the team, and the Soviet Red Star Squadron, stumble into The Evil of the Salamander and his master plan.


And more?  Well, of course there is!


A4
B&W
Pages 69
Price: £7.00 (excl. VAT)
Prints in 3-5 business days


Things begin to pick up apace as Thaddeus Twatt and Tomas go on foot to explore The Fearful Fate Of Friggia. Both, naturally,

oblivious to the mystery and action that continues in Return Of The Gods:Twilight Of The Super Heroes. In a more, uh, “fun” vein, we learn why using reptilean DNA to replace human limbs might not be a good idea in Out On A Limb!  Of course, when dealing with criminal gangs the Crimson Cowl packs a punchline.

And how could we forget Kotar & Sabuta as they confront...The Ghost! So, you may ask, if you are old enough, “Whatever happened to the 1980s craze for Yucca plants?” Well, we learn the deadly secret in The Day Of The Yucca!


A4
B&W
Pages 72
Price: £7.00 (excl. VAT)
Prints in 3-5 business days


Things get grim as heroes begin to fall and the truth is realised in Return Of The Gods:Twilight Of The Super Heroes part 3. 

Lady Sivana and Tarot help Kotar & Sabuta tackle a nasty lycanthrope problem. 

With things looking VERY grim will Thaddeus Twatt and Tomas escape The Fearful Fate Of Friggia

Ben Dilworth provides not one -not two -THREE Purple Hood strips.




A4
B&W
Pages 56
Price: £7.00 (excl. VAT)
Prints in 3-5 business days



Krakos takes care of some burglars who have to “take the heat” in a very literal sense!  

The Purple Hood deals with a suicide banker so you have to ask how that will turn out?   

Kotar & Sabuta rescue a young woman in Antarctica, but what mysterious force took here there and how is it connected to Kotar? 

The action gathers pace in Return Of The GodsTwilight of the Super Heroes as more mystery enfolds those taken from Earth…and those on Earth.

Thaddeus Twatt and nephew Tomas land on The Jungle Planet -and it looks as though this could be their deaths as Thaddeus realises too late what has colonised the planet!

The Thinker decides that thinking alone can get a little boring while one of China's Phoenix Team has to deal with..well, you'll see and it’s probably not what you expected!


A4
B&W
Pages 60
Price: £7.00 (excl. VAT)
Prints in 3-5 business days


It's the penultimate part of RETURN OF THE GODS:TWILIGHT OF THE SUPER HEROES and on Earth and in space heroes confront the invading Boarmen! Who will pay the ultimate price for defending the planet and how many will fall on Neo Olympus?

Kotar and Sabuta try to have a quiet night in but..well...you remember they are Third Level Sorcerers with enemies, right?

Xendragon (see Tales of Terror 1)investigates The Legacy of Frankenstein which might not be as straight forward as it sounds....it isn't.

Thaddeus Twatt and Tomas are held by the Crystallids and we hear of their origins and get a glimpse at how the eccentric scientist may not be all he seems.

Lord of the Flies teaches a very naughty boy a lesson. No school children were harmed in the making of this comic strip.

The Iron Warrior rushes to the rescue down the Amazon way while The Bat (but probably not the one you think) and Reverend Merriwether, God's Demon Thumper put in appearances.

Its 60 pages of Black Tower Action!


A4
B&W
Pages 81
Price: £7.00 (excl. VAT)
Prints in 3-5 business days


Yes!  It's 80 page Giant time! (Well, 81 pages) And because YOU demanded it: giant stone space heads! What do you mean you NEVER asked? Don't make this rough on yourself.

The final chapter in Return Of The Gods:Twilight Of The Super Heroes. Everything is finally revealed as the heroes on Neo Olympus mourn their dead and learn that one of their number must also die!  Meanwhile, on Earth, things seem to be turning more favourably….we think.

Thaddeus Twatt has brace himself for certain death as his past catches up with him and he faces the Ultimate Crystallid!

The Purple Hood versus The flame! And we don’t mean he has to sort out a chip-pan fire, either.

Whatever Happened To Mark Tyme? A good question because he appears to be lost in time and one German hero, Zeit Meister, survivor from a destroyed parallel Earth, is determined to find him.

Atomic Tommy has a slight alien problem to deal with and the Missing Link  is caught up in it all. 

Dr Sorrow has problems while Ben R. Dilworth takes us back to a re-telling of the origin of Runestone!

It's 80 pulse-pounding pages of graphic delineation! (plus an extra blank page because we’re keeping it real!).



A4
B&W
Pages 60
Price: £7.00 (excl. VAT)
Prints in 3-5 business days

The First part of a new series! How do you follow up Return Of The Gods after many heroes have died while others have gone into seclusion or retirement and yet heroes are needed? "The Cross Earths Caper" is how! And when we say “Cross Earths” we mean the multi-verse, time and space and….buy it and see!

In the final part of the Xendragon story our hero confronts the Legacy of Frankenstein and things could get from very bad to fatally bad. 

And following his confrontation with the Ultimate Crystallid there are tragic if not fatal consequences for Thaddeus Twatt in the final part of The Jungle Planet.


Silvermaigne tracks down a vampyre.  The Thinker over thinks and Dilworth’s re-telling of the origin of Runestone continues apace.


A4
B&W
Pages 58
Price: £7.00 (excl. VAT)
Prints in 3-5 business days


At last! After cameo appearances in Tales of Terror and one strip over the last twenty years, Herbert Kirby’s THE PHANTOM DETECTIVE returns in two tales to horrify!

Plus, The Thinker...thinks DOOM!  He over stresses at times but we see that as him just being a kind of cosmic pressure release valve (he does tend to fart).  Meanwhile, having discovered the Iron Warrior in the African jungle, three adventurers are about to get a shock that ends in a loud “Bang!”

In the UK a wizened old man offers to give a rather over inebriated Kelvin Nolan his helmet -which creates a few misunderstandings in Kelvin Nolan and His Helmet of Power!  Runestone, with the help of his science pal, George,begins to test the rune stone that has embedded itself in his hand and is in for a few surprises.

In The Cross-Earths Caper (pt.2) Bristol is, quite virtually, The Wild, Wild West Country..and Selenites threaten to destroy Earth with a huge interplanetary cannon. Why?  Well, maybe a misunderstanding but have no fear –Earth’s finest from the 1920s have been unfrozen and are ready to fight. Thought that ought to be mentioned.



A4
B&W
Pages 65
Price: £7.00 (excl. VAT)
Prints in 3-5 business days

This is it!! 

Yes, the one that someone has been waiting for!  It may well have been you but you just never realised it.

Runestone gets to try out his new powers as he faces...The Beast of Exmoor! And believe us this ain’t no puma or leopard.  That might be weird enough but this Beast is a tool of the Celtic dark god himself!

Kelvin Jones gets to try out his shiny Helmet of Power and by this point some may ask if he’s capable of even using a TV remote control.

Our heroes are on a parallel Moon and fighting off Selenites in The Cross Earths Caper! And their new mysterious companion, “Bob” deisplays some super human abilities leading to the question: who the hell is “Bob”??

Kotar has his hands full in a solo adventure while Lady Silana faces a demon of her own. The quest for the Iron Warrior continues in the Amazon and this one has a few surprises for our lady adventurers.

There is a prequel to two British Golden Age comic strips in Return To Lost Man's Gulch and more...including The Thinker and The Phantom Detective -all in the UKs TOP SUPER HERO-ACTION COMIC!




A4
B&W
Pages 54
Price: £7.00 (excl. VAT)
Prints in 3-5 business days


The 10th and final issue of volume 2!

Our three lady adventurers are in the Amazon and have encountered the ape-men but are they ready for Rodney Dearth and his Iron Warrior to return?

The Cross Earths Caper concludes and for one hero it is the parting of the ways and two others face life altering situations and many months away…only to find on their Earth they were hardly gone a few seconds.  

Ben Dilworth concludes the re-telling of Runestone's origin.

There are lots of other goodies and this issue guest stars a gun-toting crime-buster that Elliott Ness would love -The Clock! Sit back and read Ben Dilworth’s crime-busting tale –it’s far better for you than the internet! Its just too much fun!


Saturday 20 August 2022

New Face Book Page To Promo Your Comics, Graphic Novels and Comic Albums

 It's free and if you want you can send books for CBO review.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/513782512148796



individual issues would be a good idea in a thriving comics market

 Someone suggested that to sell more copies of The Green Skies it might be an idea to split up the books into 32pp issues -make it a series.

I have dealt with this question before -last time it was suggested about Return of the Gods but I will explain again.



Firstly, at the moment Return, Cross Earths and the three volume Green Skies will cost you a bare minimum for each (something I intend to change soon as they make me no money and obviously a higher cost will). There are 360pp in Return which is 11+ issues at 32pp.  Cross Earths is around 140pp so almost 5 issues with a little padding. The Green Skies would come to 12.5 x 32pp comics. So 29-30 issues.

At the minimum print cost available that means such a lengthy series would cost around £232 (U.S. just make that $232). At the moment buying each volume would cost you £62/$62. It means you would be paying £170/$170 more. That defeats my whole purpose of a fair read at a fair price.

We also know that readers very rarely stick with long term comics. So a fair price, good quality printing and 5 books (Return and Cross Earths could be read as self contained stories without reading the following three volumes. 





Also, I would have to edit and get covers for all of the books and then go through the trauma of having to upload the interiors and covers separately at my print on demand company and THEN give the books the lowest cover price o try to get people to buy (which I am no longer doing).  I had thought the fact that the books (all of the ones on the store front) are low print runs might have added a bit of collectability but....



So individual issues would be a good idea in a thriving comics market -but there is no thriving market.



Friday 19 August 2022

Frida Gold - Ich habe keine Angst davor, dass die Welt sich weiterdreht

Three Recent Acquisitions: UK Golden and Silver ages

 Three very (very) cheap acquisitions; two UK Golden Age and one Silver Age. The first is Knockout volume 1 from the Amalgamated Press (aka IPC, aka Fleetway, aka Maxwell Pergamon Publishing aka...you get the point?).

These are on poor quality paper and have the 8pp standard at that time due to paper shortages thanks to World War II. Nice to see some old style strips and do not be conned -these are not "super rare" and fetching high prices.

Knockout no. 455 15th November 1947




Knockout No. 459 13th December 1947






Outer Space Album 1959 printed in the Netherlands (as at that point there was still paper rationing in the UK) and published by G.T. Ltd, London. Been a few years since I published a Captain Future story reprint. These albums are out there and the only ones that might command a high price are the ones in near pristine condition. I'd try looking for the Holy Grail if I were you as you are far more likely to find that!






The Final (?) Word on Acetategate"


 

I don't want to give too much time to "Acetategate" -or which ever spelling you prefer. Comics is a crooked business from top to bottom.

However, Abovetopsecret.com has managed to put everything in order and tells the whole story and if it does not show you that your comics do not need grading and sticking in a plastic slab then nothing ever will. It also explains why the cover was considered insulting.

https://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread1316732/pg1

Wednesday 17 August 2022

Avengers #59 (2022)



 THE LEGEND OF RENO PHOENIX AND THE STARBRAND KID!

The Avengers' journey through time brings them to the Old West, where they cross paths with a couple of History's Mightiest Heroes, whose six-guns are loaded with the greatest powers of the heavens. But is that enough to force a showdown with the forces of Mephisto? Or will the Avengers be lost in time forever?

Well...what I said in my last post counts here. This issue was another mess and if I read one more time "Or will the Avengers be lost in time forever?" I am going to start blowing snot out of my ears.

Oh. Avengers....right. Iron Man and Thor make a 9 panel cameo. 

Will someone PLEASE sack that useless comedy hat wearing useless piece of crap Brevoort! This is NOT an Avengers comic. This is a mess. A mess behind an imaginary scene cover NOT in the book.

Marvel...Disney: enough is enough!

NEW COMIC BOOKS RELEASING AUGUST 24TH 2022 MARVEL COMICS & DC COMICS PRE...

Marvel, Brevoort AND DC and the fans

 In yesterday's post Marvel Don't Care About Comic Shops or Customers there are points that need to be made.

"Tom Brevoort does not visit comic shops" now here we could to a plus and minus argument. Firstly, Brevoort is the lousiest editor that has existed at any comic company. I have known a few who really could not tie up their own shoe laces and some who out of their total stupidity have angered me to the point that I wanted to leave the meeting quickly.

I once sat in a Marvel UK editor's office and he looked at some artwork I had and told me: "Yes. This shows everything is there"  so I asked what he meant and was told: "Artists don't draw the anatomy" which I thought meant they were bad at drawing the human figure but he continued. "The human body has a skeleton and there are muscles on top of that so when they draw someone that should all be there. Yeah, I will admit that confused me a bit and made no sense but I casually remarked (to be polite) "Yes. A few might do well studying Leonard's anatomy drawings" I was being a bit sarcastic (I'm told that I can be a tad sarcastic at times) but the casual response of "He's vastly over rated I wouldn't even say he was a good artist". We are talking about Leonardo de Vinci - who painted the Mona Lisa amongst others. amateur obviously.

I was showed a wooden cabinet full of drawers and told he gets lots of poor art submissions from "all over the place" and he even showed me some of the art work when he opened one of the drawers to prove his point. There was some absolutely gorgeous artwork. Well laid out and looking at some of it made me want to retire there and then (1990s). One artist I noted the name of Carlos Pacheco. Amateur apparently.

This...man..this...moron then looked at some of my work and muttered "I prefer the six panel layout or the panels arrangement suggested by Marvel (he showed me a photocopy on his wall from How to Draw Comics The Marvel Way) at the same time bad-mouthing two regular artists I knew were (supposedly) his pals. Johnny Asshead needed putting in his place so I told him that I saw what he meant and then looked at the pages in front of us (the How To page he had taken off the wall) and I said I was unsure of the margin space and spaces between panels. For 10 minutes by his office clock he used a ruler to measure the spaces from the edge of the paper to the panel line then the space4s between all the panels and gave me his opinion. 

Now, he was looking at an A4 photocopy and NOT an actual pre-print size sheet. He had no idea. 

He then told me all of the comics he had been in charge of and how each had failed due to "the idiots buying comics". The man was not willing to admit that he was incapable of editing a comic and (so I was told) the poor scripts and artwork was to blame for the failures. I am no longer commenting and the (alleged) incident of me holding a Marvel UK editor out of an open window or whether it was this moron. Unfortunately, he was pals with the editor-in-chief at Marvel UK so his job was safe.



I could recount several such incidents from the UK and it is one reason why these people even screwed up during the black and white comics explosion. I also used to have phone conversations with editors in the United States and during one I pointed out that a proposed title needed something to pull in readers and I was told: "We are not talking people with much brain -they are reading comics!" Yes, and I was writing and putting together comics that he was supposed to be editing.  

Another editor, during a 0300hrs phone call (it was later in the U.S.) was referring to fans buying a book and I suggested adding a certain twist to the story that ought to get the readers thinking a story was going one direction until the twist was presented. "Look" he said and sounded bored to boot, "the readers are a bunch of live at home in momma's basement masturbating to porn -they don't have that kind of brain power" and that ended that conversation.

I once wrote an "adult" comic series which was reprinted as a trade paperback several times and has had millions of readers. Anyone who is a regular will know the series and I am not promoting it for illegal downloaders. However, Larry Pike, who had edited Wally Woods Cannon comic told me that my book was well thought out and written and had a solid story which made it extremely rare in that genre. Here is the thing; if you write a comic then someone is going to be spending money to buy the comic and as a writer you owe it to that person to produce something that is not what the editor called "Just a wank rag for meatheads".  That is at the basic level. The artist should also be thinking this and the editor should be thinking the same. Is the book delivering escapism, fun and adventure and making it worth the $/£ that the fan is spending. 

People say that I over-stress the importance of whether a book I publish is worth the money the buyer is shelling out. That is my job. I used to sell a lot of small press comics/mags that way because if I just wanted to publish for myself I would have and none would have been for sale. But if I was going to sell then I was not going to just say "sod it" and put out any rubbish I could.

If you publish a book then you want people to buy it and that means having to talk to people who do buy and if they do not want to talk you play around until you coax them into talking. This is why Marvel Comics beat DC hands down for decades. Stan Lee realised the importance of the person buying the comic and entertaining them so that they would come back for more. He spoke to fans and attended cons and went out of his way to listen to what was being said. That is why Marvel and Disney clung on to him because one personal appearance or meet and greet with Stan was better than any video promo. 

Roy Thomas understood all of this. Jim Shooter understood all of this. Tom Brevoort has difficulty understanding the toilet paper wrapper. A book has a bad writer or poor quality artist (does not matter as long as they are gay, trans or black trans or fit into one of the other boxes that these morons tick) or no real continuity let alone editing and "the fans are a buncha morons!"  Pick any Avengers comic from the 1960s, 1970s or 1980s and you have a good solid story with characterisation and action. A great read. 1990s things go wrong (and I've been reading The Avengers since the mid 1960s so I am not simply flapping my sitting cushions). It was a team book and that is what drew in readers but these days if the Avengers actually appear in the title it is as cameos while the main purpose seems to be to promote TV series and movies of the MCU and NOT the characters of the Marvel Comic Universe.



Brevoort and others do not like fans. Do not like the comics just the prestige of the job title and more importantly the pay cheque. Why do any work when the people in the Disney corporation do not check? Take the money until you crash that 747 into the ground. DC I just totally gave up on as their idea of creativity is constant rebooting (because it made money in the 1980s with Crisis on Infinite Earths). Why pay creators who know their jobs, such as Chris Claremont to not write for anyone else? Biggest "WTF are you utter morons??!!" in the comic business. People ask why creators such as John Byrne will not go back to Marvel and I think it is obvious.

So Brevoort is not the only editor to take this attitude. It has moved away from the professionals who know their jobs a show respect to the fan base (it actually took DC a while to realise why so many were Marvel fans).

The bottom line is that if you cannot get people to buy your books then you have no business and no business means no money to pay you.  If Brevoort was a real working editor then he would have no time to visit comic shops (or choose the next silly hat to wear).  That an editor does not visit a comic shop regularly is not a good argument. 

Brevoort does not edit comics so he has no excuse...but his own cowardice means that person-to-person he could not face criticism to his face. Easier on social media because he can type away without consequence and block anyone who asks an awkward question. 

The comics business has always had shady dealers and second, third and even fifth account books. Editors started becoming far more shady once the fans got into those jobs; artwork going missing, under paying creators and a lot more. However, even those ex-editors who have rebooted their history to become "comic legends" knew that they had to produce comics that sold and had buyers coming back each week.

Back in the 1980s I met people at the Westminster Comic Marts who were over from Canada, the United States and even someone from Australia and they had heard that Martin Lock, publisher of then Harrier Comics was at these marts. I pointed him out on occasion and one thing I later heard was that these people talked with Lock and Lock with them and even though they had not intended to -they bought more comics off him.  

It is a case of respect the reader. Produce a good comic.

Sunday 14 August 2022

MØ - Spaceman (Official Video)

MORE Acetategate Shenanigans from Black Flag Comics and CGC


Basically if you have any graded or slabbed books they are not worth the money you spent on them. You might as well have a framed print on your wall. Its a fad that makes big money for people but you may as well bag and board and put in a safe box.

HOW does any potential buyer know that you have not just put a cover on another book?

You are speculating and if you ever get your money back....miracle!

Saturday 13 August 2022

Why Are Genuine Comic Fans SCARED To Even Comment?

 Let me make one thing very clear. Before the current CBO blog there was a Freeservers, Yahoo 360 and other platforms CBO. The absolute one rule that I had was that there would be absolutely no arguing or any other form of negativity aimed at anyone commenting. CBO is a safe blog and it caters for a universal audience as we get not just youngsters but people from other parts of the world (this is a world wide blog after all) where the legal systems are far less liberal than the UK or United States.

Comics are meant to be fun and entertainment. To take people away from the concerns of the real world. Comics are an escapist medium.

CBO avoids politics as much as it can and it does not take sides in any conflict. There are comic and toy collectors around the world and collecting (not hustling to sell at inflated prices) brings them joy. And why not?

There are several times when persons have attempted to start an internet flame war -insulting and misquoting me to try to get me to respond and thus boost their readership.  My response is always the same:


Life is too short and we want to enjoy ourselves and our hobbies, right? So if you see something like a mega post -JLA, Avengers, Frankenstein or what ever then making a comment even if only "Enjoyed that" is welcome. It shows people do enjoy the posts and that encourages me to think about doing more.

If you commented "I am not that keen on the new style Daredevil and prefer the Bronze Age version" then there is no problem. You will certainly not get this reaction


I rather enjoyed the JLA and some of its stories during the "JLA Detroit" phase. It reminded me of the Avengers when it was just Captain America, Hawkeye, the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver.I say or write that and you can guarantee this guy is grinding his teeth....


Oh and he will pop a blood vessel screeching about how Justice League Detroit was puerile dog poo-poo and I need to be strung up.  I was once talking to some Star Trek fans who were also exhibitors at a comic expo and they were waxing lyrical about Star Trek The Next Generation. I then said "I quite enjoy Star Trek Voyager". Oh boy. A stare turned into almost a "I am going to puke on you!" and the comments from these people who were normally quite pleasant and I knew for some time was both rude and offensive. "Different folk, different strokes" I said but it was clear you HAD to hate Voyager!

I have had people mocking me for my taste in comics because the comic series were not ones they followed.

I saw several times at comic events people who, in the late 1980s and early 1990s were willing to chat about comics and characters withdraw from any attempt at conversation. They saw and were affected by the negativity. Then we have the comic forums were fans found that declaring they loved a certain character or comic got them abuse. The same people run or are entrenched in these forums and most can be considered dead.

And, yes, CBO gets its lurkers.They watch posts and where they can steal material and they gossip back to their co-slime about what has been published. I don't care and I have dealt firmly with trolls in the past and that includes reporting their ISPs and issuing formal complaints. But this does  not get onto CBO because that type of negativity sucks the life out of the hobby.

So never be afraid of commenting -and if your English is not that good I can always use an online translator -I do go to that effort a lot. But never ever worry about commenting because on this blog at least you are safe.