Firstly, no it was not a joke when I said that once I shift off this mortal coil all Black Tower books will cease to exist. I will rephrase that: I operate a print on demand store front so a book has to be ordered to be printed. No back stock of 300 books in a box somewhere. I know my own personal collection will be binned. And no book has received 100 sales (which would still make it a rarity).
Secondly, I was told that it must be nice at least getting the financial backing of Cinebook and Hexagon Comics. Well, in the early days I did ask Olivier Cadic who owns Cinebook if he might be interested in paying adverts on CBO. No. Advertising was never budgeted for. Can I also point out that anyone who says that I am employed by Cinebook is either lying or living in a fantasy world. I review their books -that is it!
There is a third and not even annoying question that pops up now and again and I have noted who those people are and WHO they are connected to. "All your books are drawn by Ben Dilworth".....I have posted before about projects I have published by other artists 0John Erasmus, Tom Elmes, Paul Ashley Brown blah blah blah. I also do a lot of artwork. You know hundreds of pages for Return of the Gods, The Green Skies and the new volume of Black Tower Adventure -and Special Globe Guard.
When it comes down to it you use the artists you have. I do not have the financial backing to pay artists -with current sales even I do not get paid. There is no "Dilworth I want 10 pages by next week!" What Ben decides to draw and send in is done as and when he feels like it. All contributors get five copies of books their art appears in but that is as far as it goes -and those UK comic publishers who get up on their high horses with "He doesn't pay" -I have no interest in your opinions AND I know exactly how YOUR imprints work. So you read them on forums they have no connection to me and "people in glass houses...."
"You promote European comics so much is your main market there?" Answer: no. And to answer the other question that usually follows: No, I am never invited to European comic shows not even in Germany (my 54% German DNA and 16% French DNA sobs over that!).
And, again, no: none of the creators I helped get into pro comics ever offer to help with work because once they got those big comic deals I was no longer needed. That's life and comics. Move on.
Look at where the CBO All Time Top Ten views come from:
Do I get big sales from these countries? Nope. I am surprised that the United States produces such very low sales. A few bloggers there have highlighted Black Tower but...
With China I am a bit more disappointed as I have pushed comics there since the 1980s and a good few people email to tell me that they have learnt more about old HK and PRC comics from my posts than they have at home. Black Tower has had Chinese super heroes since the 1980s and the three-part "Evil of the Salamander" (“火蜥蜴之恶”). In fact if you read Return and Green Skies you'll find quite a few. China is NOT on the list of countries my print of demand cannot ship to and I have no idea whether there are local import problems or not.
There are other questions I get to hear about but the main thing I always say when I respond (rarely these days) is "Have you or the person involved actually purchased a Black Tower comic and read it? If not your opinion is worthless.
Mentioning print on demand -I just got three books delivered well below the "average 9-13 days to deliver".
