Friday, 17 April 2026
"What are your average daily views?"
I am absolutely positive I covered this already but...
"What are your average daily views?" The following obviously excludes China which rarely gets a look in when it coms to Blogger stats:
Today15, 239
Yesterday14, 692
24 pages lettered...who says I deserve a salary?
I started at 12 noon and it is 2130 hrs and I have just finished lettering 24pp of the Special Globe Guard 1. Tomorrow I will tidy up the pages and resize and put into a core file. Then I need to complete the art for the rest of the book.
Then, when finished, I can start on Black Tower Super Heroes 3: Chronal War
The "Hooper Defenestration Incident"
Oh come on!
After yesterday's post two former editors ("I don't read CBO!") have claimed that they were the editors "held out a window" by me.
Which would make a total of five former UK comic people who have claimed that it was them!!!
I am sat here laughing because I KNOW the truth.
Thank you to those individuals who made me snort coffee through my nose in laughter.
Thursday, 16 April 2026
Maybe I Did. Maybe I didn't. But I Probably Did
For the last 30 years there has been a rumour, then a statement from someone who walked into the office that I held a certain editor at Marvel UK out of a window.
So let me tell you now, as a statement of fact: yes I did. The person who walked into the room took one look and left. I had travelled 200 miles to get to Marvel UK offices to find that the editor in question had decided to waste my time. Not phone me to save me the expense of the trip and to not waste my time.
Still, I decided to be diplomatic as the man showed that he was not fit to clean outa toilet bowl. Minute after minute dragged on as he proved himself an incompetent ass and he even tried to impress me by telling me all of the titles he had edited...but had not lasted very long. He criticised everyone from "hack" Leonardo da Vimci and what a crap artist he was to showing me drawers of samples sent to him that were incredible but he had rejected every one of the artists because "They aren't getting past me" -yeah I spaced out at that point.
I know it was a hot day so the windows were open and after 25 minutes I suggested he "take in some fresh air" and explained to him why he was not fit to run anything and that he needed to start respecting creators not deliberately block them from getting work -which he told me he was doing.
I was a "tad" angry. There was a heavy fire door that was stuck for some reason and I... well, I pulled it off its hinges and gave it to a staffer.
The fella vanished from comics, no surprise, and he even told someone the story about "the mad bearded bastard" who hung him out a window.
Now, regarding the real pain in the ass small press publisher who annoyed everyone: I did NOT throw him in the River Thames 0that started out as a joke in Zine Zone which people took to be a factual account.
In every story there are two sides but you know you are right when certain people only give the negative side of things and point the finger at you!
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 
Wednesday, 15 April 2026
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!
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..
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 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.
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