Ben Dilworth's Ace Hart -"NEOCON"

(c) 2019 Benjamin R. Dilworth & Black Tower Comics and Books -creator before publisher

Is It 16 Years or 19 years?

About two weeks ago there were around 6 Albums in the Britcomics Group photo section with about 1,000 images.  There are, as of today, 174 albums containing 4,300 plus images.

It was as I was posting a message that I looked at the date the group was started.  It was 27th August, 2004 which makes it 16 years old. Or 19 years old.

How can it be both 16 and 19 years old? Simple.  Yahoo started its Groups in 2001 and I set up a couple straight away. Britcomics was once of those but then came the Troll-Spammer-Flamer Wars that devastated so many groups and although a number of those involved were identified and banned it was too late.  Many groups just closed down and out of the 40 I was on in 2004 only 3 survive. What I did was delete all members after a warning and those who were serious simply had to get in touch -no more hiding behind fake names: use a pseudonym on the group but you don't tell me who you are....you don't get  on the group.

So, 2001 makes the group 19 years old but 2004 when it was set up again makes it 16 years old.

See, so simple.

It is currently the biggest Yahoo group dedicated the British comics and creators of the Platinum, Golden and Silver Ages.

Just saying.

comic Art

Hmm. Need to get these from behind the glass and make proper scans.

First is John ("Coop") Cooper's pencilled art for the cover of Comic Bits no. 2 featuring major characters he drew in his career.

A dealer once offered me £250 for this and I refused. After John's death he offered £300. Offensive.

Next is a panel from JEO -J. E Oliver one of the greatest humour strip creators to ever grace British comics.  Somewhere I have a page of transparency art he sent me.

Mike Western cover art for Comic Bits No. 1.  Again, I had two dealers offer £250 and £275 for this and -AGAIN- after Mike's death the offers went up to £300 and just over.

Terry Bave's Baby Herc and I showed this piece before and there were a couple offers but on Terry's death the offers rose like crazy. 

 The pencils for this Mike Western The Leopard from Lime Street I think I have shown. I told Mike that I was tempted to ink this but dare not. I did eventually ink over a copy he sent me of the pencils and another page of art.  He was impressed and his comments were the best for a fan to hear!

Another piece that two dealers wanted to getb their hands on -even after I pointed out that I was the inker!

I have some Donna Barr art, some other bits and pieces by less famous creators and art from the sensational Kate Glasheen; some art/posters signed by Jon Haward but despite being very strapped for cash I can't sell because these were gifts to me and I'm not an Ebay pimp.

Someone asked who I would like to have art from?  Brendan McCarthy for one -if you saw his work on Spider Fever you'll know why. Of course, I must not forget I have an original 'sketch' in a copy of Orbital (Cinebook the 9th Art) by Serge Pellé.  Steve Yeowell.  I DO have a couple pieces of Pekka A. Manninen art from Kapteeni Kuolio.

Really, to me the value goes beyond monetary.  I may have finished with UK comics and the lack of fans but I still love comics and art!

Oh Boy

Got bored out of my mind now that the rescue pigeon has gone off to the sanctuary and the Britcomics group has had 4000+ images uploaded and 171 albums created.

"I know" I thought "I'll do a post on CBO!"

I sat down and looked at the keyboard and....I couldn't. Who am I posting to after 23 years? Also WHY should I post -for zero comments? No sup[port to keep the blog going? The real comic fans who have died off?

Forget it.

Books, Glorious Books -fried jelly and cu-stard!

Folks, there are plenty of prose, comic albums nd graphic novels on the store front.  Why not check it out as there might be some thing you like!

http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/hoopercomicsuk

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BREAK THE CAKE

80 pages. 
A5
Black & white / colour
£5.00

https://fredeggcomics.bigcartel.com/product/break-the-cake

Published by and with stories written and drawn by David Robertson and with guest artwork by Marc Casilli, Zu Dominiak, Olivia Hicks, Rebecca Horner, Védís Huldudóttir, Paddy Johnston, Tim Kelly, Francesca Mancuso, Norrie Millar, Neil Paterson, Ludi Price, Katie Quinn, Mike Sedakat, and Pam Wye).

I wrote a long review before Christmas but I certainly cannot find it on CBO -Blogger even refuses to accept that some of my own posts exist and I have to go online to search for them! So this is a briefer review as I can only remember some of what I wrote previously.

Contents for this 80 pager are:

01. GOODBYE, STAR WARS 
02. JONATHAN SWIFT: “I AM A FRAUD” 
03. HOURLY COMIC DAY 2018 
04. INTO THE COMICS ARCHIVE 
05. THAT'S BILLY MACKENZIE! 
06. THE AMAZING HANG-OUT (with Jack) 
07. NUMBER THREE'S THE CHARM 

08. TEA BREAK at the RAZOR FACTORY -which I'll mention here as I can remember most of what I wrote about it.

Being a pain in the ass I'll write straight away that the toning used here does not work. It would have been far better left as simple black and white art.  The lettering, as Moebius pointed out, is all part of the creative process and if the artist draws the strip he/she should letter it (unless you have useless fingers like mine then it is perfectly acceptable to computer letter!).

Here is a big problem -is the character in panel 2 and 3 a man or woman? In story telling you need to set these things out clearly to the reader and I have the memory of ex-Fleetway football comic editor Dave Hunt pointing at my artwork and telling another artist "See? This is clear: this is the blond guy and that's the dark haired one so we know the way these are featured they'll be the main focus". It was an odd statement at the time but I get his point.  Here the reader should see straight away that A is female or male -in the panels the neck looks massive.  You have to really think about this because as someone pointed out to me the "gets me out of the house" might also be dialogue from a stay-at-home dad.


09. BIG BUBBLES 
10. MINTY McALLISTER, LADY JOURNALIST 
11. SPACE STATION EXPLOSION 
12. WHICH WAY NOW? (art: Marc Casilli) 



Look at the above colour work on WHICH WAY NOW? Basic and simple colouring by computer and it looks awful. Believe me it could look a lot letter using simple water colours or even fibre tips or pencil crayons -I once tried using the computer colouring (IGrafix) and wanted to take a hammer to my fingers. Luckily, I decided to get the Windsor & Newton colour inks and brush out instead.  The solid black background in the third panel -it was a rear window in panel one) is a b-i-g mistake. It throws everything off.

"Roads are busy today" as dialogue  when we can see there are only three (?) vehicles does not work.  You have to be careful when it comes to dialogue and how you use.  One of my strips included a character pointing out that the sky was "full of spaceships" and, yes, I had to draw a sky full of spaceships since drawing only three would be more "Look, three spaceships".

If you use a script then before drawing thumbnails are usually a good idea because they will point out problems with the script and what you have to draw.

13. BAGUETTE DECISIONS (art: Zu Dominiak) 
14. THE HOURLY CHANGEOVER (art: Olivia Hicks) 
15. SPOILER WARNING (art: Rebecca Horner) 
16. DESCARTES' CANDLE (art: Védís Huldudóttir) 
17. SEEDLESS (art: Paddy Johnston) 
18. URINAL GUM (art: Tim Kelly) 




The art in Urinal Gum (above) was very reminiscent of Rob millar's art in the old Khaki Shorts or, going back further, to the old Knock Yaself Out zine.  This is a bit more basic but it shows promise since there are very few artists in the UK coming up with a humour style.  Be interesting to see how far the style progresses in a years time (though most getting into the Small Press tend to leave it after a year or so).

19. EVERYTHING IN MODERATION (art: Francesca Mancuso) 
20. STAR-CROSSED LOVERS (art: Norrie Millar) 

Star-Crossed Lovers...Absolutely nothing wrong here.  Lettering works, colour and art spot on. Any flaw is so minor it isn't worth mentioning. The strip was the highlight of the book.

21. WEIRD MOMENTS IN DAD ROCK Part One (art: Neil Paterson) 
22. CO-PILOT (art: Ludi Price) 
23. HUMBLE BEGINNINGS (art: Katie Quinn) 
24. JURASSIC MENU (art: Mike Sedakat) 
25. PUFFER LOVE (art: Pam Wye) 
26. DOG WALKER 
27. FRED EGG in “OUT TO LUNCH”

There is a problem I notice and it's like being poked in the eye constantly. The line of the art tends to vary. Most might use an unbroken thicker outline on figures and finer line for face details, etc. If you look at sample 1 above the fella to the left in panel 2 has two different line thickness -his left side has a thinner and broken line and with sample 2 the head looks awful with a thick line on top the head but broken thin line below that.

I would always tell any artist to use just two thicknesses of pen for inking -a 0.3 or 0.5 for outline (just see which you think fits your work best) and a 0.2 or 0.3 for facial details, etc.. the advice is just that and for a long time I used just Berol Fineline pens and you could vary the line to the degree that people think you are lying by saying you are only using one pen not 2 or 3.

https://hoopercomicart.blogspot.com/2018/06/berol-pens-sharpies-and-drawing.html

I suppose that it all depends on what you are aiming for.  The Small Press was always the grass-roots of comics where artists and writers learnt their trade -Mark Millar and Warren Ellis both wrote pieces for Ben Dilworth zines in the 1980s for example and PhantomX's Andrew Hope produced strips for the small press including my own titles. If the publisher and creators involved are just doing this for fun then okay.  I know people criticise me for saying and writing that but the whole point is that the Small Press is NOT Marvel or DC and it is not a big money-making industry and is not bound by any set of rules.

Is the aim to one day produce a much more professional and sellable comic?  Then the lessons need to be learnt. I'm not here to tell people what to do but review and give an opinion.

At £5 for 80 pages it is certainly worth buying to read and with pages such as those by Norrie Millar you'll have a treat.

The book can be ordered online and it can't be much easier than that.

Worth looking at

oh boy

Not sure yet as I'm recovering from migraine BUT the word going around is that because all Blogger images are stored on Google when the Google plus and albums are deleted images on the blog will go.

How do I get compensation?!

Comic Bits no. 1

anyone out there have a scanned copy of the CB Mike Western cover?

Let me know!
Thanks

Small Book or Comic Events

I'm in the position that quitting comics is not an option so I am looking at what I can do in 2019. If anyone knows of amy Small book or comic/small press days in Wiltshire, Somerset, Gloucestershire and Bristol (we ARE a county you know) let me know via hoopercomicsuk@yahoo.com

Thanks

http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/hoopercomicsuk

"The caller from Hyde Park" (CBP Ep. 34 - teaser)

It's Saturday. There Is Rugby on TV...and I do not have a TV!

Claude is, he tells me, a regular CBO viewer and he can't understand why I don't make as many posts as I used to.

First point: No, Claude is NOT a regular CBO visitor. If he was he would have left his comment ON the blog instead of messaging me.  Second point: No, Claude is NOT a regular CBO visitor because if he was he would have seen the number of posts about WHY I no longer spend my time doing mega posts or chasing up stories and news.

CBO in one form or another or server has been providing free news, reviews, previews for well over 20 years now. There are other people -leeches- who take what I publish and use it as their own with no credit given to my work. You expect that with the internet. There are others who see me publish on something and will steal that and declare themselves the 'expert; on the matter.

I have tried repeatedly to get financial funding to keep CBO going.  Selling books is one way. No, no one buys. PayPal Me? Gofundme?  Nope...no one wants to support the work I do and this IS work.

I chatted with a couple of female cosplayers I've known for some time and both told me I was "the wrong sex" and that a lot of female cosplayers finance their work via Patreon with "Not Safe For Work" photo-shoots. I knew a large number did this and asked how their male counterparts managed: "NSFW photos!" was the response because, it seems that women like to see scantily clad buff buys -What??

I ould always go back to the old "Play Ed of the Month" I suppose.....no. There's enough horror in the world.

But here is how Isee things -and this post on my Face Book page was prompted by hearing that a couple more small publishers have been forced into retirement. A few "bad" words but I don't really care.

Someone asked me about my comment that comic fandom is dead.

Statement of fact.

3-4 years ago as the comic book chic craze struck and everyone was a 'comic geek' -the Big Bang Theory TV show popularised that but most true comic fans would see it as an insult. Hey, that comic came out YESTERDAY??? Must be worth a fortune -ask a dealer! Comic store owners and the dealers made as much as fast as they could and now their greed is giving them a kick in the teeth. Good.

But 3 years ago there were 20 comic channels on You Tube that I watched. It was my weekly TV viewing. I ignored the ones where idiots waxed lyrical about spending big bucks to get an "upgraded copy" of a comic. Those were not true fans -it was the money that mattered and I heard -repeatedly- "not sure what the story is about" or "Is this a key issue for any reason -let me know".

You have the fucking comic in your hand -take it out of its cosmically pure Mylar bag and acid free backing board and actually read the fucker. You know something? Its bleak but you'll be dead one day and you cannot, whatever the Phantom Stranger tells you, take the comics with you. Here is another cold fact: despite what you may have been told that expensive Mylar and backing board -it is NOT saving your book for eternity and it is still decaying by the day. Bag and board your collection to avoid tears or damage but ENJOY the comic. Take it out and read it.

I've hit rock bottom and have tried selling any of the thousands of comics I have because I need to eat. No one wants to buy. "Its a buyers market" I get told and unless the dealer can cherry pick they are not interested. Great investment for hard times, right?

But going back to those YT comic channels. 20 of them three years ago. How many now? One. There are two other "occasional maybe" channels. You hear the complaints that the viewing figures have dropped but it is NOT about viewing figures it is about getting your love of the comic book medium out there and, hopefully, connecting with other true fans.

If you look at the views for the destruction and VERY (despite their denials) political SJW-anti SJW channels well those are dropping because after a while the gurning morons who like to hear people slating each other and comics off get bored. You like people who keep calling creators "Soy boys" -look it up. You cannot go around calling someone a "Gay boy" anymore so the term "soy boy" came into use to indicate an effeminate person. These people KNOW that full well and make it very clear.You do NOT want to get viewers that like that kind of thing. It has NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING to do with comics fandom.

Some You Tubers have left to cover other subjects or interests and that is up to them but when you go from 20 down to 1 channel it is bad.

With Comic Bits Online I posted daily to the You Tube Comic Community for three years. Hundreds of posts over that time to alleged real comic book fans. Reactions? Comments? ANYTHING?? Zero. Nothing. THAT is a community of comic lovers?

Comic Bits has, since I moved over to Blogger in 2011, had something like 8 million views and the same thing there. Thousands may have visited each day but apart from a couple people I've known a long time, no comments or feedback. Nothing.

The Yahoo Britcomics group has 147 members (occasionally three specific members will briefly comment but that is it. There are 149 Albums with 4,055 comic book images and that does not include those in various files.

I announced the return of the print run Comic Bits and the reaction -zero. The Hooper Interviews is a 300 plus pages book covering interviews from 35 years of comic journalism and included is Marv Wolfman, Donna Barr, Michael Cho, Franco Francavilla and others. In the old days we fans would grab a book like that. Since 2011 when it was published not one single copy has sold.

Others tell me similar stories but I stick to personal experience. If I had £1/$1 for EVERYONE who said that a book looked great and "I'll be buying that" and never do then I'd be well off.

I began in the publishing trade and publishing in the late 1970s and it seems that the internet has made everyone want things for nothing. A book covers 40 years of experience, takes months to write and edit and you price it very competitively because you are not finding it anywhere else and "bit expensive". No, I keep my cover prices low and have discounted so often that I have made no money (sales in the US I have to pay US tax on!), the printer and POD company get the biggest share.

The internet, of course, is not to blame but the people who use it and their mentality. Take illegal downloads and you ARE a THIEF. The biggest lie is "Well if I read it and like it I will buy a copy" -no. You are still a thief and robbing creators. You do that then fuck off because I'm not keen on criminals.

I see the industry from every angle and talk to people involved in the various aspects and to be honest most think the same as me.

Social media? Joke. How many of my Twitter or FB 'friends' read what I post. Judging by the reactions the same two. I talk comics with anyone and my record speaks for itself.

Comic fans are NOW falling into the precipice of extinction.

Just As I Predicted

Shutting down Google+ for consumer (personal) accounts on 2 April 2019

30 January 2019

In December 2018, we announced our decision to shut down Google+ for consumers in April 2019 due to low usage and the challenges involved in maintaining a successful product that meets consumers’ expectations. We want to thank you for being part of Google+ and would like to provide the next steps, including how to download your photos and other content.

On 2 April, your Google+ account and any Google+ pages that you've created will be shut down and we will begin deleting content from consumer Google+ accounts. Photos and videos from Google+ in your album archive and on your Google+ pages will also be deleted. You can download and save your content. Just make sure that you do this before April. Please note that photos and videos backed up in Google Photos will not be deleted.

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Comic Book Palace (Review Ep. 8)

It's about discovering and learning.

 This has not been said to me directly because I think most people would know what my response would be.  However, there are snide little creeps out there who like making stuff up.

It seems, I hear, that I hate American comic books which is why I am 'trying to prove'  the British got there first.

I never knew.

Remember the photos of Room Oblivion and its cupboards full of boxes of American comic books? In fact, as everyone who is a regular CBO visitor ought to know: I have comics from all around the world so the idea that I dislike American comics is like the wind that comes from a botty(really, check out my Sub-Mariner, JLA and Avengers mega posts!).

Re-discovering comic history or characters that have been forgotten in the dry mold of a dusty old attic somewhere is what I like to do. Should we all stick to fake comic history like "Germany never had comics during World War 2"?  Or that the Boy's papers never carried comic strips? Or that the Franco-Belgian comic scene never had super heroes because it was beneath them?

It's about discovering and learning.

There.