Bristol Comic And Zine Fair 2013

12-6pm at The Station, Bristol.

View our full list of exhibitors here!

Well, almost forgot this one as I never got any info as promised but, for you interest...

EXHIBITORS

We have over 40 incredible artists, writers and makers exhibiting and selling their work at BCZF 2013. You can read about them all on this page.

	AVERY HILL PUBLISHING Avery Hill Publishing is a small yet perfectly formed publishing company based in South London, set up in 2012. We publish comics, zines, fine art and anything else that grabs our fancy. We have two ongoing serial publications, ‘Tiny Dancing’ – a miscellany of nonsense and genius, and ‘Reads’ – a comics anthology featuring some of the best talent from the UK small press comics scene including Tim Bird (‘It’s A Bird’s Life’), Owen D. Pomery (‘Between the Billboards’) and Jazz Greenhill (‘The Festival’). Come and meet us – we’re bringing biscuits.
	SEAN AZZOPARDI Sean is a London-based cartoonist and has been making and self publishing comics for eleven years. He’s produced numerous mini comics and books for his Phatcomics imprint, including acclaimed titles such as Ed, Twelve Hour Shift and Dark Matters. Away from self published titles he is working on Necessary Monsters (First comics) and has drawn a back up strip for indy smash Phonogram (Image). He has work in numerous anthologies and magazines, most recently the current Off Life and Ink + Paper.
	KRISTYNA BACZYNSKI Kristyna is a freelance illustrator, designer and comic book artist of Ukrainian blood and Yorkshire tongue. She works from her studio in Leeds, UK. She holds a Northern Design Award, was Thought Bubble’s 2011 Artist In Residence and was nominated for a British Comic Award in 2012.
	DAVID BISKUP David Biskup is an Illustrator currently based in Bristol. His self published 2012 graphic novel ‘Yuri’ was shortlisted for the Macmillan Children’s Book Prize and the Ligatura Pitching Prize in Poland. He also recently exhibited and talked at the ‘NextComic’ festival in Linz, Austria.
	BONESHAKER Boneshaker is a perfect-bound, advertisement-free quarterly publication celebrating bicycles and the people who ride them. From all around the world, we gather stories, photographs and illustrations exploring the wonderful things that happen when people and bikes come together. From wild alleycats to weird wanderlust, from bad politics to bicycle bee-keeping, we’re about freedom, friendship and adventure – the human side of cycling. Two brave wheels and the open road.
	ALEX BRADY Alex is an illustrator and comic maker who works mainly in linocut. She will be selling her first comic Ordinary Street, as well as a new collection of memento mori bookplates and a selection of original prints.
	BRIGHTON UNIVERSITY ILLUSTRATION STUDENTS BCZF will host a table of recent graduates or current students from the Illustration course at the University of Brighton, who share a passion for making. Aside from comics, zines and books they make prints, badges, cards, stickers, toys and anything they find joy from creating! Contributors will be: http://www.edwardcheverton.co.uk/, http://www.waiwaipang.co.uk, http://www.harleyross.co.uk, http://chrisharnan.tumblr.com/, http://www.disawallander.tumblr.com and http://www.rachelmcg.tumblr.com
	BROLLY LOLLY Brolly Lolly are a recently formed collective of illustrators from Cambridge School of Art. In 2013 they graduated from the MA in Children’s Book Illustration. Their work has been described as imaginative, sensitive, humorous and ‘slightly off the wall’. They work in a range of media, pursing a variety of deeply personal interests, for diverse audiences but have a common goal in making illustration that is brilliantly evocative
	GARETH BROOKES Gareth has been small press publishing since 2005, beginning with collaborations with Banal Pig and later becoming involved with groups such as The Alternative Press and The Comix Reader. The Black Project, a Graphic Novel created entirely in the mediums of embroidery and linocut relief print, will be making it’s convention debut at BCZF! Plus they’ll be the usual favorites including new work from J Homersham.
	PAUL ASHLEY BROWN Since 2008 has been self-publishing Browner-Knowle, his collection of short, poetic melancholy narratives and comic-strips, as well as other one-off zines, and has also been published in The Illustrated Ape, The Comix Reader, and Stripburger. He can usually be found loitering in Park Street cafes, drinking copious amounts of tea and drawing the denizens of Bristol very very quickly, as they pass.
	ROBERT BROWN Robert is a cartoonist based in Manchester. He studied at the University of Gloucestershire, where he helped inaugurate the BA Illustration annual Olio. He has been publishing comics since 2004, and has contributed work to anthologies such as Solipsistic Pop and Paper Tiger Comix. He released the first issue of his independent series Killjoy in 2011, which continues an ongoing autobiographical project that began in the anthology Sea Mouse; he will be publishing the second issue in autumn 2013.
	COFFEE CLUB COLLECTIVE Coffee Club is a collective of five illustrators who all met studying at Birmingham City University. Since forming in 2011 they have gone on to exhibit & sell across the UK, most notably at Pick Me Up at Somerset House. Expect to see a fresh collection of zines, some making their first appearance at the fair! They’ll also be selling greeting cards & other printed effects
	DECADENCE COMICS DECADENCE is a comic anthology and collective that publishes science fiction stories. Their comics feature psychedelic altered states and dystopian visions. Futures and alternative realities are projected while an awareness of the past and present are retained. Decadence comics attempt to break down reality and confront the idea of duality within the Cosmos.
	CATHERINE ELMS Catherine is a feminist zinester, musician and activist. She writes a feminist perzine called ‘Here. In My Head’, edits a compzine called ‘Pandora Press’, and writes a zine review blog called ‘Spill the Zines’.
	EYEBALL COMIX EyeBall Comix began in Bristol, the first issue was printed in 2010. EyeBall produces toxic garbage in the underground/horror tradition and has printed works by among others; James Quigley, Motohiro Hayakawa, Kyle Platts, Aidan Cook and Brigid Deacon, alongside your main EyeBall honkies; Paul Arscott, Barry Cook and Robscenity.
	FALMOUTHED ILLUSTRATORS The Falmouthed Illustrators are a collective of recent graduates from the Authorial Illustration MA in Falmouth who are bound and united by the fact that they are all recent graduates from the Authorial Illustration MA in Falmouth. Some of them are nice people. They will be showcasing work from illustrators including Jack Brougham (http://www.jackbroughamdrawing.com/), Rebecca Freeman (http://rebeccafreeman.co.uk/), Ryan Gajda (http://sundaydogparade.blogspot.com), Rebecca K Jones (http://rebeccakjones.wordpress.com/), Teresa Mclaughlin (http://teresamclaughlin.blogspot.co.uk/), Peter Morey (http://petermorey.wordpress.com/), Pete Murgatroyd (http://petemurgatroyd.tumblr.com/) and  Ben Peers (http://benpeersillustration.tumblr.com/).
	SARAH GRALEY Sarah is a comics artist residing in Birmingham, drawing autobiographical comics about herself and her partner and their cats. At BCZF, she’ll have her first and second diary comic collection for sale, a mini diary comic about New York, a sketchbook zine, ‘As You Were #2′, curated by Mitch Clem and free hourly comics, along with some other bits and pieces like prints, pocket mirrors and badges.
	KATIE GREEN Katie is an artist and illustrator who’s been self-publishing since 2008. Her regular zine, The Green Bean, has been published since May 2010. BCZF will be the first UK show where you can buy Katie’s graphic memoir, Lighter Than My Shadow. Published by Jonathan Cape, LTMS is a 500+ page chronicle of eating disorders, abuse and recovery. You can read a preview of the book at http://www.lighterthanmyshadow.com
	ISABEL GREENBERG Isabel is a London based illustrator and writer. She is currently working on her first graphic novel ‘The Encyclopedia of Early Earth’ which is due to be publushed in 2013 by Jonathan Cape in the UK, Random House in Canada and Little Brown in the US. She studied illustration at the University of Brighton and since graduating has worked for a variety of clients including Nobrow Press, The National Trust, Seven Stories Press, Solipsistic Pop and Wrap Magazine. In 2011 she won the Observer Jonathan Cape Graphic short story prize.
	DAVID ZIGGY GREENE David is a primate of the family Hominidae. He may be best know for his regular illustrated journalism work that has been found in Private Eye magazine since 2011. He has occasionally been published in Viz magazine, French Newspaper Charlie Hebdo, music magazine Stool Pigeon among others. He has self-published two collections of his work and recently contributed to the anthology ‘Wu Wei’. The Bristol Comic and Zine fair will be David’s first ever UK event outside London.
	HAT COLLECTIVE HAT Collective are a small group of recent graduates from UWE Bristol. They specialise in small run, hand printed narrative zines, books, and prints, many of which we will debut at BCZF. HAT features David McMillan, Brittany Molineux, James Minchall and Jayde Perkin
	INSPIRED COMICS Inspired Comics Collective formed in 2008 since then it has published eight anthologies and collected new members along the way. The group are a mixture of hobbyists and professionals, with a diverse range of styles and stories, from the gritty and dark to the downright adorable. What’s The Time Mrs. Woolf? is a quarterly zine created by Inspired members, Sarah Fogg and Lily-rose Beardshaw
	ROB JACKSON Rob Jackson is a cartoonist from Bolton. His most recent comics include ‘The Storytellers’ (a book about his family history), the four part ‘California’ series (a horror story) and ‘A Handful of Groats’ (a medieval comic). He is also co-editor of ‘RhiZome Anthology’ which has just come out and is a science-fiction / fantasy anthology with comics from the UK, Ireland and the USA. His website can be found here
	GRAHAM JOHNSON Mr G Johnson, sometimes known as Graham, is a Bristol based artist currently mostly finishing his illustration degree and slowly drawing http://portinastormcomic.com, but sometimes does other stuff like raising a pet lizard (and drawing him).
	MAX K Max is a renaissance man, he’s designed gig posters and record covers, creates and publishes his own comics and zines, and also sells merchandise & clothing under the name of ‘Club Guillotine’. He also organises ‘Baby Teeth’ art fairs, which he is planning on moving from Cornwall to Bristol before the end of the year.Max K will be selling his comic ‘Pizza for breakfast’ aswell as a new JAMHACC release.
	PAULA KNIGHT Paula is an illustrator, writer and comics creator working from her home studio in Bristol. She is currently writing a graphic memoir for Myriad Editions after reaching the shortlist of their First Fictions First Graphic Novel Competition in 2012. She has presented her comic work at Laydeez do Comics, First Fictions Festival, two Comics and Medicine conferences and will soon be taking part in The Lakes International Comic Arts Festival.Her interest in autobiographical comics grew in the mid-noughties, and her first self-published comic was Spooky Womb, in 2012. She also coordinates the bi-annual meeting of Bristol Laydeez do Comics.Paula has illustrated numerous children’s books and is the author of two picture books.

	ISAAC LENKIEWICZ
	LIZZ LUNNEY Lizz is a comic illustrator from Birmingham, UK. She is interested in the important questions like “What does it all mean?” “Is anything else out there?” as well as the insignificant questions like “How many pancakes can I eat?” “How did that monkey escape?”. Lizz has a book coming out from Blank Slate soon and you can buy her comics digitally from Top Shelf.
	MIKE MEDAGLIA Mike Medaglia is a cartoonist and editor whose work focuses on spirituality. He has recently edited ‘Wu Wei’, a comics anthology, which will be on sale at the Bristol Comic and Zine Fair.
	LIZE MEDDINGS
	MELON SHRUB Melon Shrub is a zine collective consisting of illustrator Murray Somerville & writer Jack Burston. They produce anarchic zines that celebrate both literature and art in the self-published format. They’ve recently finished their zine series “Macro Shrub” and are now working on a communal fanzine dedicated to the Smashing Pumpkins. Their zines are personal, insane and especially, carefully created.
	SIMON MORETON Simon is a cartoonist and academic based in Bristol, UK. He writes and draws comics and zines. His regular series, SMOO, is all about everyday life. He is part of the organising committee for BCZF, co-edits Bear Pit Zine and also runs Better, Drawn, a blog where people can share stories about their experience of long-term mental or physical illnesses in the form of comics.
	NO GUTS NO GLORY No Guts No Glory is a shop in Exeter that’s purpose is to support and offer a marketplace for emerging artists from the South West as well as stocking the work of Independent artists that from the rest of the UK. The project is built on a strong DIY and environmental ethos, with good design at heart – and that’s exactly the kind of work they champion. NGNG sell zines, small press, art prints, badges and cards, as well as their own line of organic t-shirts, all designed by the Artists of the NGNG Collective!
	OWEN POMERY Owen D. Pomery works in architecture, comics and illustration. He produces the self-published miniseries ‘Between the Billboards’ about urban isolation and as a thematic counterpoint, has recently released a madcap historical adventure comic for Avery Hill Publishing called ‘The Meagtherium Club’. He has also been featured in several anthologies including ‘Wu Wei’ and the ‘Newcastle Science Comic’.
	PHILIPPA RICE Philippa has been making zines and comics since 2008. She makes collage comics featuring her characters Cardboard Colin and Paper Pauline. She also draws real life romantic stories for her other mini-comic, ‘Soppy’.
	ROSE ROBBINS Rose makes comics that are all kind of dreamlike and invented, though mostly based on experiences and stuff in reality. She also made a video game called Hardware Island and runs Often and Mistakes with Grace Denton. They showcase new, original work by writers and artists through print publications and videos
	SICKER THAN THOU Sicker Than Thou is a comic collective consisting of Andrew Godfrey (artist, writer) and Emma Mould (writer) who make autobiographical comics about chronic and mental illness with a twist of humour. Andrew was born with the chronic illness Cystic Fibrosis, a degenerative disease that affects the lungs and digestion, amongst other things, and Emma Mould was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder aged 18.They are currently working on a strip for the forthcoming anthology of mental health recovery comics edited by mental health nurse and educator Theo Stickley and cartoonist Brick (Depresso, Knockabout Comics).
	NICK SOUCEK Nick is a part-time comix artist, urban-contemplative, cyclist, & vegetable-zealot. He has drawn a few stand-alone mini-comix; he is a regular contributor to Boneshaker; and with his co-conspirator Simon Moreton has put together a newspaper anthology The Sorry Entertainer. He co-founded Bear Pit Zine and the Bristol Comic and Zine Fair.
	BEN STEERS
	LIZZY STEWART AND ELENI KALORKOTI Lizzy and Eleni are both freelance illustrators living in London working on a variety of print based commissions whilst self-publishing zines and comics in our spare time. Eleni has been working on a zine-a-month project throughout 2013 whilst Lizzy has recently finished an MA and has released a number of small publications that were completed during her time at Central St Martins. Both artist studied at Edinburgh College of Art.
	JACK TEAGLE Jack has had three comic books out with Nobrow press; ‘Jeff Jobhunter’, ‘Fight 1 & 2′. He has also self-published many more zines.
	MAIR THOMAS
	REBECCA TOBIN Rebecca is a cartoonist and illustrator based in Glasgow. She writes comics about birds, weird rituals and cities. She enjoys both drawing and eating.
	DONYA TODD Donya has had a graphic novel, ‘Death & the Girls’ published by Blank Slate Books and also self-publishes zines. She created the ‘Bimba‘ anthology which features loads of really cool female comic artists from the UK.
	WATER CLOSET PRESS Richard Worth is a bearded comics writer; he’s Northern. Jordan Collver is a bearded comics artist; he’s Canadian. Together they form the collaborative duo known as The Water Closet Press, whose chief export is a small press serial comic entitled Ladies & Gentlemen. Formerly Leeds-based, The Water Closet is now proudly located in Bristol.
	OWEN WATTS The Psychedelic Journal of Time Travel is a bizarre anthology filled with the best of the small press – short self-contained tales of the strange and the inexplicable
	HAYLEY WELLS Hayley is a freelance illustrator who loves animals, folk tales and science. Spends her free time knitting whilst listening to The Clash. You can contact her at hayleywellsillustration [at] gmail [dot] com or on Twitter @HWIllustrator
	WHATNOT TREE That Whatnot Tree is an illustration collective based in Gloucestershire. Their members met in university, and enjoy teaming up to travel over the country to share our work. They will be debuting a vast array of comics, books and zines at BCZF.

Godzilla, King of the Monsters

Jeffrey Brown signing at Forbidden Planet

JEFFREY BROWN will be signing VADER’S LITTLE PRINCESS and DARTH VADER AND SON at the Forbidden Planet London Megastore on Friday 29^th November from 6 – 7pm.

 In this irresistibly funny follow-up to the breakout bestseller Darth Vader and Son, Vader, Sith Lord and leader of the Galactic Empire, now faces the trials, joys and mood swings of raising his rebellious teenage daughter: Princess Leia. Smart and sweetly funny illustrations by artist Jeffrey Brown give classic Star Wars moments a twist by bringing these two galactic adversaries together under one roof. 

From teaching Leia how to fly a TIE fighter, to regulating the time she spends talking with friends via R2-D2's hologram, to making sure Leia doesn't leave the house wearing only the metal bra and a slinky skirt from Return of the Jedi, Vader's parenting skills are put hilariously to the test.

After growing up in Michigan, Jeffrey Brown moved to Chicago to pursue an MFA at the School of the Art Institute. His first book, Clumsy, grabbed the attention from both cartoonists and comics fans alike. He has a host of titles to his name, ranging from humour to autobiography, and his work has appeared in a host of anthologies, as well as mainstream books like The Simpson's Treehouse of Horror and Marvel's Strange Tales. His original artwork has been exhibited in New York, Paris, and Chicago. He lives in Chicago with his wife and son.

Home Away From Home - San Diego Comic Con Documentary

When I first saw this on You Tube I thought: "Here we go -more obnoxious fan boys!"

Was I right?

No.

I came away from watching this wishing I could recapture my old enthusiasm from before I became a jaded old hack. The fellas in this documentary are quite genuine -there is no pretence here. And what is more this video is high quality.

My question has to be: WHY has no TV company picked this up to broadcast??

This is well worth watching so, please, check it out.

Dexter has upset Danny Trejo

Dexter has upset Danny Trejo, Sarah Connor however is wondering why she has Walter White's head on her lap.....come see them tomorrow https://www.facebook.com/events/380949995343094/

Groove Tube Memories

Anyone coming over to the chang31ings table tomorrow can grab themselves a free signed print from the Groove Tube Memories book (out next week) https://www.facebook.com/events/380949995343094/

CONAN The Making of a COMIC BOOK Legend

Traffic And Hits So Far Today (1600 hrs BST)

Top Postings: 1.   Comics aus Deutschland -Comics From Germany. 2.   Goodies From David ("The British Manara") Gordon 3.   Reality Check Controller circa 1998  -WHY??!!! 4.   Chang3lings At Edinburgh... 5.   Hamelin NEWSLETTER del 23/09/2013 Oh yes, I pushed David Gordon out of his frequent number 1 spot! Hits from.... United States          585
United Kingdom     161
Germany                80
China                     45
France                   38
Russia                   30
Vietnam                29
Italy                      18
Singapore              17
Sweden                 14

Announcements And A Palm-Slap To Head!

Oh dear gods will I never learn?

I'm in comics so I guess the answer is "No. Never. Dumb-ass!"

Stransky & Labatt have produced some short, illustrated text stories and were due to produce some comic strips.  However, there appear to have been some "difficulties" (nothing to do with me) so I have no idea what will appear.

The text stories will still be appearing in Tales Of Terror or/and Black Tower Super Heroes so they should last a while.

The other major set back is that, due to circumstances well beyond his control, Black Towers main contributing talent (no, not me), Ben R. Dilworth is taking a break from comic work.  Again, there is a good inventory of his work but it leaves the new D-Gruppe project in limbo.

Two big kicks to the head but this isn't the first and probably will not be the last time this happens -we're talking about comics after all.

So, I'll plod on with D-Gruppe and wish Ben a very speedy recovery back to normal, every day life and comics.  Take it easy, mate.

And me? I'm off to have an editorial breakdown!

D-Gruppe: Past, Present & Future

I was asked by Ekki what plans I had for D-Gruppe following the mini series and 2012 Annual -all events taking place before The Return of the Gods graphic novel?

Well, the important thing for me was to get the old stories that have been lying around for a couple decades, and which establish D-Gruppe, out in print first. The whole Revenge Of The Ice Queen followed by the Zeitgeist saga established a great deal and led into two main books: The Trial and, of course, The Return of the Gods: Twilight of the Super Heroes.

The Trial was originally published in the mid-1990s in four parts though it had been intended to serialise it before in the comic project JAG 2000 (long story). In this story, which I am NOT going to go into details of because it is currently being re-lettered (originally hand lettered but that is too poor a quality to offer readers today), the D-Gruppe members are seen inter-acting with the UK heroes and, in fact, the UK heroes travel to Germany to help D-Gruppe and heroes first glimpsed in the Zeit Geist story.

But important changes to BT characters took place in this story -how did Wavell get that huge facial scar we see in Return?  How did Tech-Man get replaced by Rachel Flynn?  Even the ending links all the D-Gruppe storylines to Return.

The Trial should be out as a graphic novel in December of this year (2013).

Hopefully, the very -very- long delayed appearance of Task Force Germany will have taken place before then.  The first story should have appeared in 1994 but there were delays -initially Art Wetherell was to draw the book but had to opt out and a couple other artists stepped in but there were problems.

Back in 1982 I was sending project proposals, character sketches and so on to Marvel Comics. At that point i saw working for my all time favourite comic as the star to aim for. What a dim-wit! Anyway, I wanted to develop the silent character, The Attacker, and I thought Marvel might go for a comic in which everything was visual -no caption boxes, speech balloons, etc.. The character was shortish and wore a skin-tight black costume with large white eye-holes.

I was a little shocked when I saw the black costumed Spider-man emerge a couple years later.  But that's comics.  The other character I tried to convince Epic Comics (part of Marvel) was really "great" -the creator owned line had started up in 1982 so I got straight to it. Marvel had rejected The Attacker -"no comic fan is going to buy a comic where you never find out the characters real identity and there is no text!" but -BUT- surely a Lutheran priest (later changed to Catholic) that has some kind of strange, all-black creature linked to him would be a winner?

No.

Considering what they were publishing I thought to feedback of "too dark" was just ridiculous.  A year or so later came...Venom.

So the character who started out as German, had to be changed to an American reverted back to German. But there is a problem. If someone is the artist of a book and they have asked to work on your script -your characters- all and good. But, oh no, artists can be an odd lot.

"Yeah, I see him as a Nazi who was in charge of a concentration camp and was sent to Hell and he now hunts and kills Nazies(sic)" was how one artist saw it.  He even re-wrote everything to conform to his idea.

My response? "NO! You have the character details and you can choreograph action scenes freely BUT the story and the character ARE the story and the character"

And the response?  "I can't see it going anywhere the way you've written it. If we go with my idea I think this would be a sure hit!"

We parted company. Never heard of the man again.

Then another approached me having seen my sketch and idea on a German comic forum -for the life of me I cannot recall what forum but I did get about a lot!  "Love the script!" he wrote.

A month later I got pages through and a letter. "I think this works better than your idea. I see him as a Catholic priest, a paedophile who was also a drunk and embezzler.  To cleanse his soul he makes a deal with lucifer...."

Oh dear.

Then the pages of a character that looked exactly like Venom. This was not the look I had wanted or explained. Neither was there a scene anywhere in my script showing a terrified little girl on a bed as the priest disrobed!!  I explained what the whole idea of the character was and that the whole story of the priest-amorph came out over the planned four issues in a big climax in Koln Cathedral.

"But that's lame", I was told, "the way I see it you have got to show people this guy is a ****** ****! Then you build on that. I can't see it work your way."

We parted company. I ought to point out that not only did the artist want to re-write everything and change character appearances and names but he also wanted that "Nazi element. Everyone knows Germans were Nazis!"

This is something I have come across over and over again in the last couple decades. I allways allow artists freedom to draw action scenes so long as the result fits in with the actual story/script -unless they really do need that action written for them. But I can think off-hand of fifteen artists I've worked with who have decided to re-write (badly) and make changes.  Where are they now?

So, I decided that amorph and priest would become a part of the Task Force Germany team.  Sadly, after a couple more stops and starts nothing came of it until now.

Leere (emptyness/blankness/void) was another problem. I tried explaining that the character is not an invisible man and neither is he wearing a mask like the old Charlton Question character.  You can see a vague "something" where the head is. But you could also see slightly through him. Clothes are the only solid texture on him/it/her.

There are several characters like this in Black Tower -a link I wanted to explore by now. Characters such as Nemesis (a Belgian character) and No Face from The Paranormals (published in Tales Of Terror 3.

The other character was Donar (Thor) but a more traditional version exiled on Earth and living in ancient forestry.  The exile would have been due to his objecting to the plans on Pax olympus that led to Return Of The Gods.

 

 And, living in the forestry, Donar would have a problem with the theft of food by a real-life European wildman called...uh, Wildemann!

 

This little group would have been brought together by Simon LeCorbeau, a multi-billionaire with a long history in Black Tower -he appeared in the second Pete Forrest & Geni story back in 1986.  And his choice to lead the team was...

Zauberinnen (Sorceress). Her origins were to be vague -was she a goddess or half-god or simply a supreme sorceress?

Her origins would be revealed towards the end of the first story arc but I do love to spin a mystery! A solo story -Tod Durch Bei Blind Verabredung or Death By Blind Date, would have revealed a few bits and pieces about the character in a back-up strip to have been drawn by Andrew Hope.

The Zeitgeist story had also established that heroes from other Earths had been stranded Black Towers Earth and there should have been stories establishing some of these -The Trial did so for some but Regenbogen Zauberer (Rainbow Wizard) never got to face the Storm giant in Germanys Höllental (Hell

valley -a real place).

 

 There was also the question, considering that D-Gruppe was getting over-crowded and the members needed to be accommodated at more convenient locations around the country ot "where?"

Well, for Klaus von Happe no problem buying out of the way property to redevelop. One had its own storyline -"Spukhaus" or Ghost House. What the heck was a house like this doing out in the middle of forestry?

And -haunted?  Well there is the Red Ghost...this old rough shows him. Though he may well become the Green Ghost and it is a character that last appeared in a 2002 (?) copy of Adventure and the Ten Dancing Monkeys story.

And the mystery surrounding Waldmeister should have grown when his brother (referred to in The Revenge Of The Ice Queen) Meer Peter (Sea Peter)...and another big jewelled staff!

But the characters seen in Zeit Geist were to change slightly.  David Holmes was a solicitor/lawyer when he was introduced in the story "The Owl" back in 1987 -he adopted the Owl guise in a rather violent pursuit of a murderer.  When he turned up in Zeit Geist he is merely a lawyer for von Happe Industries who helps out on some cases.

But after The Trial, Holmes was due to return to costume (reasons not being disclosed here!) and adapted/rebuilt one of the old D-Gruppe flyers (as seen in Revenge of the Ice Queen) into a personal transport which he named "Ollie" after his favourite TV character Ollie Beak http://www.turnipnet.com/whirligig/tv/children/smalltime/smalltime.htm

Above -the new and more violent Owl and below -Ollie the Owlcraft!

But there were newer characters independent of previous stories such as Adam Ewigkeit who had a very brief cameo in issue 2 of D-Gruppe, Herrc Spinne, Der Racher, Tom Katze und Kätzchen...well, the D-Gruppe world would be well populated.

All the rough sketches I've now found so I'm hoping that the new characters will appear fairly soon and we have to remember that some of D-Gruppe, including Kopfmann its leader, vanished into space during the Return Of The Gods story. Where are they? Will they return?

Guess.

"The Days Of Darkness" story should have been told by now but I'm planning and D-Gruppe will quite literally be shaken to the core by what happens.

And there is planned a couple of brief glimpses at the D-Gruppe of a darker Earth Parallel (EP667) -from which readers have already seen a far more different Link character.

 

All with Ben Dilworth on board so that the original team is back together!  Had Bastei actually published D-Gruppe and had that title continued we'd now be over twenty years into continuity!  Curse you Bastei!!!  :-/

Below, a glimpse of D-Gruppe EP667 courtesy of Ben Dilworth.

There was also the question of getting a permanent design for a D-Gruppe flier-transport  so a quirky design was this one....

 

Though a sleeker model could be based on the below which I think are quite cool and "futuristic" without becoming too science fiction.

As a final note on characters to have been introduced I have only two rough pages left featuring a character rejected by Eros Comix  because "its more humour not porn" -Devilina.  Independent of any D-Gruppe or Task Force Germany, Devilina would be a character popping up all over the place as well as in solo adventures.

Now, this posting is getting rather long but I hope it has shown that D-Gruppe was by no means a
small idea that never developed!

In fact, in 2014 it is planned to go all-out on the German side of Black Tower in a final "Do or Die" push so keep watching these pages.



All images, characters, designs (except the stealth aircraft!) are (c) 2013 Terry Hooper-Scharf and Black Tower Comics & Books