It was 1997..or 1998...uh, maybe 1999

 

No names because...well, because.

I was asked today what exactly happened in 1998 (it was 1997, 1998 or 1999!)  when a certain Marvel Comics executive was visiting the UK and very unexpectedly met him ay a mutual acquaintances in London. Well, I had been to Marvel UK and Egmont and the acquaintance introduced me to the Marvel person.

We were talking and I mentioned the fact that Marvel titles (I was buying 97% of them at the time) had nose dived in quality after Jim Shooter left (I mention this as people have said that it was Jim I met; it was not) and the exec started quoting dropping sales figures like a human calculator; what sales were during Shooter's time and what they were now. So I asked the simple question as a Marvel fan: why not bring back Shooter?  It was a rather uncomfortable question apparently. I was told that, honestly, people working for Marvel and who did not actually like a person doing their job to get comics out on time and maintain continuity had conspired to get rid of him.  "It was week management. They let work for hire people pressure them and when they folded they realised it was a bad decision. It went from great selling titles to crap.  The way Shooter was treated was disgusting but it was too late. The rats who went after Shooter also jumped ship."

Sadly, the demise of comics in the US as well as the UK can be seen from the point where fan boys started getting jobs in comics and those who knew their work and had helped sell comics for decades were pushed aside. If you know your comics history you know the people and despite producing some great comics they should never have become the people who were put in charge.

I think the Marvel man demonstrated how things went quite well. He raised his hand and moved it in a straight line "This is under Shooter" he said. He then suddenly dropped his hand. "That was the week after Shooter left!"

Small Press Day 2026

  Join us on Saturday 25th July for Small Press Day 2026; a hybrid SPD with events in-store and online – championing self-publishing, DIY culture, and grassroots comics across the U.K and Ireland and the internet.

HOW TO TAKE PART IN-PERSON

Want to host an event in a shop or venue? All the details of how to here

Have your Small Press Day event all figured out? Use our submissions form here!

HOW TO TAKE PART ONLINE

Join us on Bluesky with #SmallPressDay

Calling all artists, writers, and shops – showcase your small press publications! Continuing a tradition that started in 2020, our all-day social media SPD celebration is back on Bluesky.

Join us posting throughout the day and share your creations, recommendations, and small press stock with photos, videos, and all-important webstores and purchase links. We’ll be using the hashtag #SmallPressDay to connect, platform, and amplify all your small press amazingness. *

Join us to take part, to champion small press, and to reach a wider audience – and lets spread SPD love across the world wide web.

* We reserve the right not to promote content/publications that may be considered inappropriate or harmful to our community. More info here.

Follow us on Bluesky and on Instagram for all the latest updates 

The "Combined Universe" Approach

 There is a way that I can get through a lot of long term projects that I am obviously never going to complete in full length as I intended.

The Combined Universe. Yes, everything published by Black Tower IS in the same "comic universe" and in the past D-Gruppe has visited UK heroes for a barbeque (The Trial) and heroes have popped up in stories featuring Western heroes.

Basically, in future books will feature long term failed projects stories such as the "lost in space" D-Gruppe members returning to Earth just as The Prof or Xendragon face the latest supernatural threat or the Avenger  faces a new problem. It's "pick n mix"!

It also means I should keep future books to Comic Album format and concentrate on those rather than do a Prof book or a separate D-Gruppe book.

The planned Special Globe Guard albums are all scanned and just need lettering for 3 out of the four and art finished up for issue 1.

Time For A Rest?

 One more graphic novel out of the way and time for as rest....

Until tomorrow when I need to finish up some art and that will form the next book but not a graphic novel more comic album. 

For those still confused Comic Album is a European term but should be well enough known by now. It is usually a book of 48-90 pages. Think Cinebook titles.  A graphic novel is a book of over 100 pages and should not be confused with trade paperbacks which collect together comic series issues.

Having written "not a graphic novel" I have said that before but if you don't use a script a story can take off...fast!

Can You Name Them?

 

Fast Forward! Marvel Legends Fanstream APRIL 2026 X-Men Spider-Man Rivals Alpha Flight More!

 

Government Calls For Enquiry: CBO Not In The Top 10

 I've just been messaging with Dean who is doing a thesis on comics. He told me that the first comic blog he visits every day is CBO. Well, all the important people do.  

Anyway, he checked "Top UK based comic blogs" and told me that CBO did not appear on any list. Well, hooperart.com is what CBO is also known as as is British Golden Age Heroes, UK Golden Age Heroes, Alan Class blog, Comic Bits 2, Comics Good Read, Zine Zone etc etc etc.  He asked if I did not find that upsetting? My response was "Why?"

It is 1800 hrs in the UK so just under half day here and there are hundreds of views on the other blogs and over 6000 on CBO By the time I stop working on CBO, about 2200hrs the views can be between 12-20k.  Views for last month (excluding China which Google does not include) 333,037 and it is  75, 625 so far this month (only the 15th).  That is also a truly world wide audience and the UK plays little part in things. That is the decision of those in UK comics and the moral corruption within what was an industry is why I stepped back.

Check those top blogs and you will see everyone is a friend and who compiles these lists -one day of CBO views can cover total views for three of the named blogs. "Ranking" is a silly ego thing. I don't care.   I don't care because of those view figures from people around the world who just want to read about comics and other fun stuff.

If you go search hooperart.com online you get this:

hoopercomicart.blogspot.com (often referred to as Comic Bits Online) is a blog run by Terry Hooper-Scharf that provides news, reviews, and insights into the world of comics, frequently covering UK comics, Black Tower Comics, and European titles (such as Cinebook and Hexagon releases). 

Key details regarding the site include:

• Content: The blog features regular updates, including "Comic Bits" posts, reviews of graphic novels (e.g., Asterios the Minotaur, Authorised Happiness), and discussions on comic history and printing quality.
• Focus: It heavily highlights independent and European comics, specifically those from Hexagon Comics and Black Tower.
• Author: Terry Hooper-Scharf is a commentator and author within the comic industry.
• Recent Activity: As of April 2026, the blog is still active, publishing regular "Comic Bits" segments and reviews. 

The site also links to purchasing options for titles, such as through Lulu.com.

I started CBO in 1997/1998 and have stood by the principles of making the blog a safe place, non political (with the odd joke) and fun. Rather like the old Comic Bits magazine started in the early 1990s. "It heavily highlights independent and European comics" is something I started doing in the mid 1980s with Zine Zone and....I just love comics.

CBO is more a UK based international comic and pop culture site than a British comic site -Zine Zone and the Golden ages sites cover Platinum, Gold, Silver and Modern ages as well as the small press (ZZ).

I could be ranked number 1 and make no difference. Comics and the subjects CBO covers is the important thing (hey, I get no money or sponsorship!). FUN is what is important.

 Enjoy comics.

Enjoy CBO!

😁

Proof Copy Now Ordered

 

 The file for BTSH The Ultimate Game has now been uploaded so once I have a proof copy to check I will post up all the details.

The Ultimate game Cover Done

 I started this at 1100hrs this morning and had various cover designs worked out but one thing after another led to them being thrown away.

Here are the three cover designs I went with..

This one (above)  I did not like "The Ultimate Game" font. Really not happy with it.

The above has a bold and brassy font BUT it just did not seem  right -I tried 40 different fonts with cover 1 and this one. Almost gave up.

The cover below will be the final one. Not what I wanted but "The Ultimate Game" font seems to work. I am NOT a cover artist but with a small company now having everything done by one man (me) it simply has to do.

The storyline:

The mystical traveller of the realms, The Thinker, meets a stranger while

travelling along the Path of Counter Actuality. But this stranger is a different type of traveller: he is Illuyanka and he has been charged with on sworn duty –to destroy specific Earths in the multiverse.

 

Finding that Illuyanka is partial to gambling the Thinker risks all by challenging him to a cosmic game pitting heroes against various challenges: they lose then their Earth dies.

 

The Thinker has no doubt that with all of his knowledge he can win.

 

But Illuyanka is not what he seems.

 

Bits and Pieces (and The Dave Clark 5 were not involved Google that one!)

 

 ALL ARTWORK (c)2026 T. Hooper

No Reason

 The Prof. He died at the end of The Green Skies. He's in two minds about it ...

The Leopard boy

 

The Pied Piper

 

D-Gruppe and The Ultimate Game (2012)

  Ben Dilworth was the original inker on The Ultimate Game back in the 1980s when it was submitted to Fleetway. Roll around to 2012 and he decided to retry the idea but include D-Gruppe.

I've added the original pages plus some of the 2012 pages as back-up content in The Ultimate Game -this is the 2012 rough pages.

Above: Prentiss aka The Mummy

Hexagon Comics STRANGERS #14: WORLDS WITHOUT END.

 

STRANGERS #14: WORLDS WITHOUT END. 

stories by Jean-Marc Lofficier; art & cover by Roberto Castro. 

7x10 squarebound. 

96 pages b&w. 

$14.95

https://www.hexagoncomics.com/

HOMICRON, a NASA scientist whose body is possessed by a mysterious alien from planet Alpha. STARLOCK, a servant of the Towers, supremely powerful cosmic entities. GOLDEN BOY, champion of Urth, “brother” of Futura, empowered by the Great Mind... ARIANROD, a princess from the ancient Fomore race, who is also the Mistress of the Sword of Fire and Ice...

 These characters, all “strangers” to Earth, are brought together by TANKA, a former jungle lord who has been recruited by entities from our planet’s farthest future to be their agent and is now empowered to protect our world from extra-terrestrial menaces. 

This fourteenth volume of Strangers opens our fifth “season”, in which our heroes  face a terrifying new menace, one that threatens many parallel Earths: the mysterious Pentacle. This issue introduces a new superhero group: The Lightning Lords. 

This parallel Earths thing is really catching on, isn't it?  Castro gets to handle a full book of art here -in four different stories. The stories work well and it is interesting to see Tanka again and not running about the jungle. It can be quite difficult to find new stories that are original  for a jungle lord so him being used by a "higher power" here is interesting.

Lightning Lords was interesting and Londinium as the centre of resistance was an interesting touch (presumably a far better governmental n body than we've had in the last 30 years in the UK -oooh. Bit of politics there!).  

Throughout there are some very nice panels and with Strangers you never know what you are going to get from volume to volume. My guess is that if you have one person plotting, scripting then it makes it easier to draw in so many diverse characters and create a cohesive universe to mix with. With characters stretching back over 50 years there is a good enough history to build on -it is making it all seem seamlessly "one" where you might trip over but Lofficier knows his stuff!

There is far more to Strangers than that Image Comics series from...a long time ago now.  There are 14 volumes now and I would always say, if unsure, go buy the first two volumes and see if you like what you see because you would then know the next 12 volumes should be fun!

Now...my PC is making noises so off to set up the new one!