I Had A Very Odd Chat....

...and it was odd. Someone (Blackhans66) contacted me via my now largely disused Eurocomics group and asked who originally published the D-Gruppe characters?  I assumed that he meant their appearance in Watcher magazine in the 1980s so told him.

No. He wanted to know where the characters first appeared and who had created them before I started using them.  I thought it might be a language thing so I gave him links to the CBO posts on D-Gruppe but, no, he wanted to know who had created the characters.  So, being less than willing to carry on this stupid conversation I responded: ME

http://hoopercomicart.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/the-first-german-super-hero-team.html

Oh no, he wasn't having that.  How would I know so much about Germany and be able to create German characters?  So I wrote back: "Go ask Stan Lee and Steve Ditko who created Spider-Man and when you get the 100% incontrovertible answer get back to me"

I then listed him as spam. He was being very annoying.

But that was topped by finding out that a now no longer with us artist I worked with and trusted had lied through his teeth to me. At an old UK Comics Art Convention in the 1980s he introduced an attractive brunette as his "lady"...apparently she was...but NOT his wife.  It also seems that he strung a pack of lies that meant I let him accept all the royalties from a joint project as he was struggling with a "wife who has gotten us into debt" and he had two kids to look after.

Then I learnt another person I worked with had received the payments from a publisher that he claimed he had not. This artist profited from that and it seems other people in comics that I worked with at the time had known this but thought it was a "good earner" trick.

Yes, kids, you want to work with others in comics here is my number 1 tip: never ever trust another person and get everything in writing.   From the very top to the bottom, the creators, "everyone is out to screw you" is a good thought to keep in your head.

Like I needed all this when my big legal dispute is coming to a head on Monday!

So, enjoy your weekend and here's hoping you just get good news.