The Miracleman Copyright Saga (Updated And Complete)

 Last of the confusing Maracleman posts so dig this.

Oooh, There Are Some Shennanigans In The Comic Business

 

You know, Marvel thinks it owns Miracleman because they bought the character from Mick Anglo. As noted already, Miracleman looked like Marvelman but was not. Old time British publishers were a rather shady bunch at times. 

 Samuel Assael (John Spencer) you can find a little more about here:

https://britishgoldenagecomics.blogspot.com/2019/10/samuel-assael-aka-john-spencer.html?fbclid=IwY2xjawVEu3xleHRuA2FlbQIxMABwZG9mAWJyaWQRMERqQllVaXc3RWlNcUU5S2JzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEewDin3n0IqY9q-ArjUc8uZ0e5VKO3ByzNs5bU-V_Ezwl3ipHUrK1Wp7w7dsk_aem_1XFCG7gzUVSL4E1FJIDHHA

Now I parted with cash for rights and that was it. However, it seems there was some "odd" double dealing going on and that got sorted out -it is a very long and boring story.

Gerald Swan I did a deal with to rights for characters and at the time I also assumed that included rights to the actual book titles. I only found out by accident from comic historian Alan Clark that he had purchased rights to the actual titles from Swan -something Swan neglected to tell me. There was some argument between two others who had purchased rights (the same rights) to the pulp side of Swan's business. 

When I enquired about Anglo and Marvelman I was told in no uncertain terms that the character was sold off when Anglo quit comics. I was told rights had gone to Alan Class of Class Comics the black and white reprint publisher. Alan didn't think so but then I recall that Ally Sloper fanzine in the 1970s was co-published by Class. He says it was not.  

   

See a pattern here?

I've noted before how I got a phone call early one morning from Myron Fass in the USA who kept calling me "kid" (annoyingly).  I purchased rights to the then Captain Marvel (the "Split!" one) and a month later I paid out more.   Fass was, apparently, "a character" and in three weeks he almost drove me nuts and always phoned between 0130-0200hrs. He was definitely a shifty fella!

Thorpse and Porter I visited in the 1970s and did a deal with but by that time every penny I had was gone and, to add to problems, the person who was going to pay for printing decided that Indie music was what he wanted to get in on. I tried John Brown (who was publishing Viz at the time) and even Titan who really messed about and were definitely wasting my time deliberately -luckily I have two witnesses to what happened at Titan's rather dingy basement office.

I often laugh when I read or hear what people who never knew me at the time, never knew anything about what I was working on and never asked me later say. They are very authorative in knowing nothing. "Produce the contracts and details" often gets a very subtle but rude response.  I am the most open publisher you will find and I hide nothing but I have no time to spend scanning and posting up documents that are no one's concern. Of course, these people are all peripheries these days (and for the last 20+ years).

I was told, by publishers, how to rig sales figures and literally cook the books. If you ever wondewred what happened to the excellently printed Wasted magazine: if you go to Companies house you will find this: The company confirms that its intended future activities are lawful.

Go to HM Revenue and Customs and you find that there was a, uh, tax problem. 

Today it is probably harder to get away with shady dealings especially if things are posted and publicised online  so dirty deals, tax evasion and a lot more are no longer possible. It is the same in the US and no doubt other parts of the world but if you go back even to the time of Penny Dreadfuls and the Platinum age there were crooked deals and the ones who got the short end were the writers and artists.

Marvel Comics have the right to Miracleman but my question, not that important unless you are a comic historian, is who did Anglo sell Marvelman to originally and I can dismiss the Amalgamated Press because I had them check and they would have made a big show of acquiring the character. Alan Class? Samuel Assael?  No idea.

My guess is that reading comics is far more fun than sorting out the shennanigans!

And the Vampyre Laughed....

 

Marvelman. Miracleman. New (NOT) Miracleman

I have some Marvelman and Young Marvelman comics and annuals. Really fun and the case of the stolen giant marrows had me chuckling. Up until the 1990s the British loved their allotments and gardens. Growing fruit and veg boomed especially during/after the Second World War.  A lot of 1960s kids like me were presented with steamed/boiled marrow as part of Sunday dinner.

Confession: I could not stand marrow. 

The genius of Mick Anglo, and he was a bit of a comic genius (far more than Alan Moore or anyone else ever gave him credit for), was that he got artists working on strips that to any British kid was full of things they would be familiar with -weird aliens from TV puppet shows and of course the sacred marrow.

Read in 2026 they are still fun books. But, no, we just cannot allow fun comics can we?

And so, in the 1980s, I walked into a newsagents with my brother, Mike, and there was this magazine called Warrior. I looked -that was Marvelman! I bought. We got home and I opened it up to find that...it was not Marvelman. It was ...Miracleman?

Okay, Dez Skinn "purloined" the character assuming that it was public domain. He had worked at Fleetway so was aware of the "Thirty Year Rule". It is a rule that existed for...well, from the Platinume Age to 2000s but when you do something or use a character and  the slime involved in the periphery of comics in tyhe UK do not want you to they start protesting there is no such rule. There is and a chat with HM Copyright Office told me that they knew it existed.

The 30 Year Rule that Skinn employed stated that if a character had not seen publication in 30 years it was open to use. There was a 35 Year Rule which was a safety guard meaning the character was out of use but you allowed a further 5 years "in case". 

I mentioned this to the late Gil Page who was Managing Editor at Fleetway and had been there starting as an office boy when it was still Amalgamated Press -45+ years man and boy. Gil told me it was a known rule and Fleetway had used it themselves but giggled and told me "Best keep that quiet!" (I think I know the characters he was referring to now).

People are still criticing Skinn over "stealing" Marvelman but he was acting on well known and used rules so yah-boo-sucks!

Alan Moore "rebooted" the character to Miracleman and I must admit liking the series at the start as I switched off any Marvelman memories. However, as the series progressed you could see Moore's usual school boy minded excesses taking over. The graphic "Child birth" issue was one such because you had to ask why we needed to see a graphic child birth? It made no difference to the story it was just Moore being Moore.

I have posted before about the whole Alan Moore nad Eclipse farce where someone sold the character when they had no right to and "poor Alan" was (not) ripped off again. Eclipse was the company that published the "controversial" child birth issue but then the series just stopped....as did Eclipse.

Marvel then stepped in as it did not want any loose character running around that could use the name Marvel (when Marvelman appeared it was many years before Timely/Atlas become Marvel so use of the name yah-boo-sucks. They republished some of the black and white strips and I loved that.

Marvel Comics then finished the storyline which started with Moore and then Neil Gaiman before the latter "got cancelled". As someone at Marvel stated "We dodged a ------ bullet with that! If the story had broken earlier we would have junked the series!" I guess the loss of money would have been hurtful to the accountants!

After all of that Miracleman was never name changed back to Marvelman and why not doesn't make much sense since they purchased the Marvelman character from Anglo (was there anything odd in that deal (ahem) such as Anglo insisting that Marvel could use the character likeness but not the Marvelman name -it had t remain Miracleman to distinguish it from his fun creation (just saying. People talk).

Anyhow, as I stated when Marvel purchased the character, there was talk that they intended to make him American. As Lee said in the 1970s: "Make comics American" (yeah, I watched that edition of Pebble Mill at One on the BBC at the time.

And so, in 2026, a failed Captain America causes all sorts of chaos in a rather messy and almost unreadable Avengers Armageddon and suddenly....becomes Miracleman. Well he ain't Mike Moran so the dignity of the original Marvelman is intact.

Miracleman in Marvel's new Avengers title

Miracleman joins the Marvel Universe as the final member of the new Avengers lineup in the upcoming issue of Avengers #1, debuting on November 4, 2026. David Colton, the 21st-century Captain America, inherits Miracleman's legacy and extraordinary powers, which include flight, superstrength, durability, and the ability to switch between human and superhuman forms. Miracleman's arrival is a significant development in the Marvel Universe, as he is expected to play a pivotal role in the new era of heroes.

We know how Marvel's previous "New Eras" have gone.

We'll see. But as a side note that "costume" looks bloody awful!

Broken Peach - Thriller (Halloween Special)

 

lùisa - Call Me The Witch (Official Music Video)

 

The Cranberries - Promises

 

For Mr Schiltz

 

Terry Hooper-Scharf (often known professionally as Terry Hooper) is a highly prolific British comic book creator, editor, and historian who founded Black Tower Comics & Books in February 1984. Dubbed Europe's largest independent publisher of black and white comics, Black Tower operates as a prominent small-press outfit that keeps the legacy of classic British comic styles alive while publishing original fiction, historical studies, and anthologies. [1, 2, 3, 4]

Profile of Terry Hooper-Scharf

Hooper-Scharf has over 40 years of experience in the international comic industry. Aside from his extensive self-publishing through Black Tower, his background spans decades of diverse freelance and agency work. [1, 2, 3, 4]

Attribute	Details
Industry Roles	Scriptwriter, illustrator, freelance editor, comics packager, publisher, and creators' agent.
Freelance Contributions	Worked between 1984 and 1994 for major UK and US publishers including Fleetway, IPC, MU Press, Blue Comet Press, and Fantagraphics Books.
International Work	Packaged comic content for companies in India, Hong Kong, and China. Produced single-panel gag cartoons for European agencies like Germany's Boiselle-Lohmann.
Other Specialties	British historian specializing in Pre-Roman, Celtic, and Roman Britain, alongside wildlife research and industry trend analysis.
Digital Platforms	Runs the long-standing blog ComicBitsOnline and manages active storefronts.

Black Tower Comics & Books Overview

Originally started to kickstart a late-1980s UK small-press boom through the industry zine Zine Zone International, Black Tower has grown into a vast portfolio of niche independent publications. The group primarily focuses on keeping classic, black-and-white indie British comics alive while archiving forgotten golden-age history. [1, 2, 3]

Core Publishing Category	Description & Major Titles
Original Comic Series	Character-driven action and indie horror sagas including The Bat Triumphant, Krakos: Sands of Terror, Return of the Gods, and Black Tower Comic Fun.
British Comic History	Dedicated archival volumes like the Black Tower British Gold Collection, preserving 1940s and 50s comic strips that have been out of print for over half a century.
The Strange & Esoteric	Books and prose collections chronicling real-world mysteries, paranormal interviews, and cryptozoology, notably Some Things Strange & Sinister.
Character Creations	Original figures like Sergeant Wilderforce, D-Gruppe, Xengragon, and Merriwether: God’s Demon-Thumper.

Books and graphic novel collections from Black Tower are currently made available to the public via their direct Lulu Spotlight Storefront and updates are shared directly through the official Black Tower Facebook Page.

Avengers #1 | Official Trailer | Marvel Comics

 

AVENGERS DOOMSDAY Super Extended Trailer (4K ULTRA HD) 2026

 

Avengers: Doomsday | Official Trailer | In Theaters December 18

 

Released Yersterday so VERY Scare and Rare

 This is why I have no rspect for UK comic shops or dealers. Captain Britain 50th Anniversary Special was released yesterday. It was also listed as "Rare" and "Scare" yesterday with a price of £25 and up. Why?

According to Marvel com: 32pp and cover price is $4.99

£25 plus £1.50 postage for a comic. I'd suggest the dealer and store owners offering the book at that price roll the issue up very tight then insert it up their money grubbing con men asses.,

A Meandering Post Full Of Things No One Cares About

 Yes is the answer to the question if anyone asks it: I will be reintroducing British Platinum, Golden and Dark ages characters.

I have just finished another book but have delayed publishing it for any number of excuses. I also have the Special Globe Guard art that I have been putting off inking. Other projects I intend to combine IF I get the will power to complete any of them.

Health and financial situation are so-so (financially pretty bad). I had considered two options to make money. 

One was to get the online advertising back but I cannot control what Adsense decides to show and with a world wide audience and all the various laws I am not going to put someone reading CBO in any type of legal risk. Also, like others, Adsense stiffed me on past payments so, no, not a real option.

The second option was making this a closed paying subscribers blog. That thought lasted two seconds as the very idea made my skin crawl. CBO is supposed to be about fun.

With the number of views CBO gets daily you might think there would be someone wanting to take advantage as a sponsor..... no.

You know a few words of encouragement might be welcome but after...I started blogging 1997... whoa. I've been running CBO on one platform after another since then so coming up to thirty years!!  Not bad for a "no name blog" (as a person whose blog vanished after 6 months once put it).

I was going to ask the question of readers: NOT DC or Marvel but which super hero is your favourite?  But I have asked for readers comments so many times in the past and gotten no responses so....

Someone wrote "You got it right!" referring to my post when Marvel purchased Marvel Man (aka Miracle Man). At the time I said that I predicted that after leaving the character al;one for a while following the flurry of publishing projects, Marvel would make him American. Was I surprised to see in Avengers Armageddon the reject Captain America (Colton?) suddenly turn into Miracle Man out of the blue? Nope.

Micky Moran was the only Marvel Man with a rich history and cast of villains Marvel in its now no longer  the "house of Idea" could utilise. But no: Colton taps into the "force" and...ugh

Comics can still be fun but there are only two Marvel comics I now buy -and one is going to be dumped- and one DC title which as now ended. Too expensive and too much crap. Rebooted so often they are literally copying the movies that THEY inspired and becoming even more bland.

00:30 hrs

 Stats today stand at 651,550 views

I hope people are finding enough things to read and enjoy!

Well....Even I was Not Expecting This

 I always wonder just what people want when it comes to promoting their comics, comic and comic related merchandice?

Perhaps an active blog with world wide readership?

Views? Well, the Golden Age blogs average a few thousand and maybe not good enough for some people? Want more?

I had to check a feature on CBO and at first glance ignored stat numbers. With dyscalculus (a type of word blindness just involving numbers) it was just a jumble of numbers. I was about to leave the page and thought it was all strange as I rarely check.

I sat back and just said "WTF?" out loud. I think the screenshot of t6he stats tell you everything.

THANK YOU for visiting CBO.