John Byrne’s X Men Elsewhen: Marvel Comics Announcement at San Diego Com... UPDATE 01 08 25

My mistake.in that I said IDW was  publishing the Byrne work. Its being done in partnership with Abrams because Marvel Comics just does not have the cash anymore.

The problem is that Marvel don't publish a work but Abrams will because they have the cash which is why Alex Ross's  Fantastic Four Full Circle got published -and I thank Mr Paul Brown for that Christmas present!

Reboot. Reboot and reboot with so many first issues that people can hardly keep track and -and- the writing is below par and would never have gotten past either Lee or Thomas back in the day. Brian Michael Bendis SAVED the Avengers comic. In fact he did not and sales were going down. The Busiek and Perez Avengers comics were winning awards each year AND selling. How does that need saving? The movie money stays with the movie studio. Marvel, like DC, is not really making any money and yet the solution is so simple.

At this time Marvel is sinking and back to the mess it was in when Disney bought them out. I know no one at Marvel is interested in opinions and for that reason they are going down fast.

ComicIn! Shopping-Tour #124 - XXL - Die längste Shopping Tour aller Zeiten!

On the Road & In the Aisles – Walmart Toy Hunt Adventure!

SDCC 2025 Comic Book Related Videos

 

Well, as a lot of comic folk are stating; SDCC has very little to do with comic books these days.  

I thought I would try to find a video that rounded up comic news from SDCC but what I found were some youngsters professing to be "geeks" who had no real idea about comics and seemed to think even minor information was a scoop.

Then we had the 30s types who, again, claimed to be "comic book geeks" (no real comic fan calls themselves that) and were all hyped up about great news that was to say the least...nothing.

The videos I found all praised everything from the comic staples to everyone involved in comics.

Basically it was all bull-shit.

I won't ask whether any reader knows a decent video on the subject as I gave up on that in 2016 after a history of zero responses  over 10 years.

Just look around and if you see a comic that looks nice buy and read it.

G.I. Joe Classified Cold Slither SDCC Exclusive Dreadnoks Hasbro Action ...

Mystery Figure - What Is It?

The 'Ultimate' Book of British Comics...That's what it says

 Just a little warning.

I ordered this book from Amazon as I did not recognise the cover.  

What I got was THIS book the cover of which I DID recognise. 

 

I would not recommend it since there is nothing in it that you would not find in an old Denis Gifford or Alan Clark book. Forget the  bullshit claim that the catalogue every comic produced would require a book three times the size of this 296 pager. Denis Gifford accomplished it and even updated later volumes.  

The fact that the Boy's Papers were skipped is acceptable as although they had comic strips in them if you want to on weekly comics  -although the fact that they contained strips needed to be mentioned. Then we come to the biggest exclusion of all. Comics of the 1930s-1950s because this book concentrates on the 1960s-1980s. No mention of Gerald Swan, no mention of Marvelman or any of the significant comics of the three decades he ignores.

Basically, as a comic historian and fan I found the book not that good -but luckily I only paid £3.00 for it. The author does enjoy hyperbole though as in the claim "which is, literally, read by millions" re his work 

If you just want a list of some 60s but mainly 1970s-1980s titles then this is for you...if you can buy it cheap.

A Real Eye Opener

 I have been delving into my old 1930-1940s comics and story papers and far from just being a

few main characters that stick out...there are a lot. And many written and drawn by people you might not expect (if you know your UK Golden Age comics).

A couple of finds had me really excited.

They will appear in reprints because as I get older I realise that there is only so much time to promote and try to stop the creators and characters fading into obscurity.  I'd like to include them in newer stories but I am one man so who knows!

But this last weekend really opened my eyes.

Savage Crucible Frazetta Warrior with Ball and Chain Barbarian Action Fi...

Cinebook Newsletter 211 - July 2025

 

Dear Reader, This month, we bring you a new series that will let you discover the history of an industry we all use: The Bank. Two authors who have done a lot of research on their topic and a gifted artist will describe for us the beginnings of modern banking and finance through the lives of several generations of bankers … and it all starts in London in 1815, with a legendary manoeuvre by one Nathan Rothschild and two French aristocrats in exile. It’s human drama, it’s gripping, and it’s history in the making – make no mistake, our modern world was built by this industry! For something completely different, we also bring you the fourth (and penultimate) volume of Emilie’s Inheritance. Oh, there’s plenty of ambition and greed at play there, too, but with Florence Magnin’s gorgeous art style and her feisty yet profoundly humane main character, the accent is more on the marvellous and the magic of the unknown. Still, with time returning to Hatcliff’s Estate, there’s very real danger for everyone, and salvation must be sought very, verrrry far away indeed … July with Cinebook – a wealth of wonders! Emilie’s Inheritance 4 Florence Magnin The Dreamer The man who manipulated Emilie into coming to the Hatcliff Estate, and then kidnapped her so she would open its gates to him, has revealed himself as an extraterrestrial exile. Meanwhile, the strange phenomenon that had stopped the passing of time within the bounds of the estate has ended, and winter comes … Read more The Bank 1 Julien Maffre, Pierre Boisserie and Philippe Guillaume The Waterloo Insider 1815. In London, everyone awaits with baited breath news from the continent, where Napoleon has returned and is about to engage Britain’s army. Among the anxious populace are Nathan Rothschild, a banker of growing reputation among the mighty, and his brother Jacob, who is in love with Charlotte … Read more No new titles available in Previews in August. North-American readers, to locate a comic book shop near you that stocks or can order these titles and many more, use this handy Read more   Or, if you're a retailer yourself, please go to: Read more The Bank 1 The Waterloo Insider

DC All IN: Whats Next? SDCC 2025 Panel!

NECA Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Sesame Street Walk Thru with Trevo...

Jada Toys Invincible Street Fighter Mega Man Scooby-Doo Cyberpunk SDCC B...

People Ask Me Odd Questions

 To answer the question: no, I was not "the drunken Fleetway editor who knocked over a pile of artwork and dozed off for the rest of the day"

I was NEVER an editor at Fleetway. I know the editor and the second editor who was involved after a 2 hour pub lunchbreak as this happened on the day I was meeting Gil Page.

For everyone's information I do not touch alcohol and would certainly never drink on a business trip. But have no fears as the two legends have totally rebooted their past now so none of that happened.😊

Sunday Chuckle

 

These New Art Exhibitions in Tokyo We're Amazing (King Terry, Yokoyama Y...

Small and Compact or MORE Pages??

 

I have a problem. I just have to take something short and sweet and make it enormous!  

The original Return of the Gods: Twilight of the Super Heroes series ran in 6 issues of Adventure vol. 2. I then looked at it and expanded and then re-lettered 97 pages to over 300. It's what I do.

Yesterday I found a folder with the original Looking Glass series that featured all of the ole IPC/Fleetway characters that was to appear in Valiant They Were. 57 pages.  Now, after talking to Gil Page at Fleetway and two of the board members (before they lost interest) it was planned to serialise the series in a Fleetway comic (Buster was the title put forward) and so I re-lettered and re-drew and added pages until the final count was 111 pages.

I just had to stop myself doing something similar again. I don't think I have the amount of time needed for what I am doing/planning already but another huge book? Oh no!

Fantastic Four | Ein paar Comictipps

FRIDA GOLD - DIESES GEFÜHL (OFFICIAL VIDEO)

A Little Bit Of This And A Smattering of That

 By 0315 hrs I had finished tidying up books for August -I am going to wait and see what difference re-scheduling different titles will make. Cover designs are always the big problem since I do not consider myself a cover artist. You know, the ones who do nothing but draw covers? It means there are very few "Slam! Bash!" fight scenes on covers -it means I have to get imaginative.

I also had to clean up some original art from the 1980s to use as paper over time gets off colour and the washes used might not reproduce well today -years ago a printer would check and make adjustments but these days no human eyes set sight on a book while it is being printed -or finished.

I was then reminded of a piece I wrote about British comics -the, uh, "industry"- a few years back and how accurate it was. Thank you.   After that I went through a box and found artwork -nothing major but stuff I thought was lost. I can at least confirm that all of those first issues of art for various comics were burnt a few years back.  

I also found a couple of stapled mock ups. These are proposed comics that are photocopied pages along with a cover to show an editor or publisher what the contents would look like. It reminded me of how much time and money I had spent promoting certain artists and writers who then turned out to be playing comic creators. 

That's life.  

Today...I'm hoping my eyes last!

August 2025.....

Goldie Boutilier - Goldie Montana (Official Lyric Video)

Black Tower: Streamline 2 The Dr Rose Agenda

 

Ben R Dilworth writer/artist

24 pages

A4

Black and white

£8.00 UK

https://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper/streamline-2/paperback/product-yvyd549.html?page=1&pageSize=4

Keenan King aka Streamline of Earth Parallel 669 meets agent Grimes of MI5 in Westminster Abbey for a briefing. A briefing that seems to indicate that the man who helped King and gave him his powers, Dr. Rose, has mass produced the formula used on him.

If the man who helped give him the powers of Streamline has turned rogue for money or other reasons he has to be stopped.

An army of Streamlines would be unstoppable and a threat to not just the UK but the world.

Cinebook Ltd: Yoko Tsuno 20 - The Gate of Souls

 

Author: Roger Leloup
Age: 8 years and up
Size: 21.7 x 28.7 cm
Number of pages: 48 colour pages
£8.99 incl VAT

ISBN: 9781800441606

https://www.cinebook.co.uk/yoko-tsuno-gate-souls-p-4578.html

Yoko and her friends – both Earthlings and Vineans – are back among the stars, cruising near the mysterious Ultima and its atemporal mists. Long ago, refugees fleeing their home world Vinea were lost in them. Their souls are said to still haunt this now sacred place, and an ancient law prohibits Vineans from entering. But when a probe coming from Ultima zooms past her ship, Yoko doesn’t hesitate to disregard the interdiction – after all, she’s not Vinean, is she?! 

When I first got Yoko Tsuno sent to me I didn't think it was going to be that impressive -and it was a kiddy book. That shows how wrong you can be. Tsuno does follow a trend that you see in creators' work. For instance John Creasy (who created The Baron, Gideon of the Yard, etc) started out in the  1930s with his Department Z and later Dr Palfrey books all firmly based in the world of spies or crime but then evolved into ecological themes and even science fiction style stories (The Unbegotten). Tsuno started as an adventurer and slowly jumped into science fiction and we now have her travelling through space.

I love the art style from the characters to the craft and scenes and the use of colour is superb and adds so much more to the story.  And these are good stories with great pacing and I can see why so many adult readers get this series.

If you are thinking about getting the series for younger readers then there is nothing to stop them enjoying things -no over the top violence or unsuitable panels/pages just pure fun and adventure.  With 20 albums in this series so far kids are not going to get quickly bored (and I do know that there are kids out there reading).

Power Women -The Sensation That Never Was

 

 The first issue of Power Women was eventually drawn by David Gray and I believe those pages are now gone. A publisher (I think Aircell) was very interested but after receiving first issue art I heard no more which created problems for myself and annoyed the publisher -this is why I insist any series drawn for submission has to be completed first because once committed to a project and soliciting it to a publisher you HAVE to guarantee you are not wasting time.

 An American artist then set to work -character sketches and, I was told some actual comic pages. and the story was a "shocker" back in 1990/1991 but today would seem a bit tame. Again, the artist used an undecipherable signature and never put name or details on the reverse of artwork. At the time a company was very interested and it had links to an animation studio though my main concern was to get the comic completed.

I never heard from the artist again and he never responded to emails or letters.  Here, though, are the surviving sketches.

all characters and artwork (c)2025 Black Tower Comics

The Failed Silvermaigne Strip the only two pages!

 Going back to the 1980s.... Silvermaigne's first failed attempt as a comic strip. One person drew the first part but for the "victims scene" used newspaper  photos of road accidents and inked over the figures. As soon as I saw that I said "no" as if you cannot draw four people standing around a blanket covered body you cannot draw a comic. As it  was the artist was a never-hear-from-again.

above art by K Earl

Then another artist and I think his name was Kieron or Karl(?) Earl -I keep telling people to write names and contact details on the back of art!  The first part was drawn and...the artist was never heard from again despite my having sent the script for part 2.   Then we have a page by Terry Ford (who drew Torch of Vengeance  reprinted in Tales of Terror 1).  Ford left comics and after what happened with Space Junk comic I'm not surprised.

Oh...then I found the first page at the bottom of a box. Not a coffin but a box. Honest.

art by Terry Ford

I believe that these are all of the art pages that survived.

What Is The Externsteine -What is the D-Gruppe Connection?

  The first ever D-Gruppe (published) strip took place at Externsteine -The Revenge of the Ice Queen- and has been seen in other strips.  Never heard of it?  This is what Wikipedia says:

"The Externsteine is a distinctive sandstone rock formation located in the Teutoburg Forest, near the town of Horn-Bad Meinberg in the Lippe district of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The formation is a tor consisting of several tall, narrow columns of rock which rise abruptly from the surrounding wooded hills. The Hermannsweg, a long-distance hiking trail, passes through the formation.

Page  1 Return of the Ice Queen (c)2025 Ben R Dilworth/T. Hooper

"In a popular tradition going back to an idea proposed to Hermann Hamelmann in 1564, the Externsteine are identified as a sacred site of the pagan Saxons, and the location of the Irminsul idol reportedly destroyed by Charlemagne; there is however no archaeological evidence that would confirm the site's use during the relevant period.

Page from The Trial (c)2025 T. Hooper

"The stones were used as the site of a hermitage in the Middle Ages, and by at least the high medieval period were the site of a Christian chapel. The Externsteine relief is a medieval depiction of the Descent from the Cross. It remains controversial whether the site was already used for Christian worship in the 8th to early 10th centuries."

You've seen D-Gruppe and other German heroes at Externsteine in the above pages so now....a photo drop!

(c)2025 respective copyright owner

(c)2025 respective copyright owner

(c)2025 respective copyright owner

(c)2025 respective copyright owner

(c)2025 respective copyright owner