Quick up-date

All the pages of The Green Skies are now scanned and I'm taking a weekend break. Monday I'll start cleaning up the pages for Part III then get straight into lettering.

Part IV I'm hoping to do some single page illoes for since this is Black Tower's 36th birthday.

Oh fun

That Time A Show Got A Toyline Years After It Was Cancelled: The Story o...

A Big Thank You

Thank you to the people buying Black Tower books. One ortwo in the UK the rest from the US!

Keep Smiling!

Scanned all 130pp of Green Skies V. 3 Part III today. Today being 30th July, 2020 I thought it was interesting to note the date on page 80 (pp 336 as it was then): "30th July 2019"

Tomorrow I intend sitting down and scanning the pages for Part IV and once that is done it's a little (HAH!) page cleaning and lettering.

When that final volume is published it will end a story that began in 1987 (as told elsewhere).

That is going to be one heck of a wait taken off my shoulders and I can honestly say that I will never have a project as big as this again (I don't think I'd live that long!).

Keep Smiling!

It's a mess but I'm in it until I croak.

I was contacted by a journalist as he was given my address. He wanted a little background on comic book history.

GERMAN comic book history. I get this a lot yet there is someone in Germany who could help him.

Also, he mentioned artists who had mentioned a "legendary" creator they were in touch with or worked with in the 1980s. ME. Seriously. Now, most of these artists have not produced a quarterof the work I have, let alone published, yet they are seen as "comic legends".

It is fair to say that I am far better known outside the UK than in it. 

People have outlined my history as a Small Press publisher and promoter and even how I helped to spearhead the "UK Small Press Invasion" of the US back in the day: as well as all of my comics work ....on Wikipedia. Taken down within a few hours as I have "not contributed a great deal to the subject" (we KNOW who is behind this).

 I told someone not to bother but they wrote an entry on Black Tower Comics. Quite accurate and good. 24 hours later -gone for the same reason.

Lambiek, Comicsvine as well as french and American data bases list me (a couple told me of attempts to get entries withdrawn but they base things on facts and work I've done).

Meanwhile former UK editors who were open liars and cheats are having their pasts rebooted to be "really great and fab guys". Also, newer artists are being pimped BECAUSE if -IF- they make it big they are "in the pocket" of the comic "nice guys" and they get the "Do what we say or we'll kill that career" uh 'hint'.

How do you promote someone whpo is taking weeks to do a basic illo as a "new comic star of the future"?

Interestingly, and they'll be grinding their teeth right now, there are some "comic nice guys" who got plenty of work -some for DC comics- because I pushed them relentlessly to publishers and editors. Even interviewed some of them and published those interviews -despite all the evidence these people later denied even having met me 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

I was asked earlier how I felt about all of this. Honestly...I don't feel anything. It means nothing to my life, work or anything else. I used to feel sad for these people because this is their life.  Even last week one of them was contacting people "in the bizz" to see whether they had any dirt on me. When the email was forwarded to me I simply replied: "Tell him I wrote porn comics for Fantagraphic Books (Eros)...but add that I got an award for that!"

It's a mess but I'm in it until I croak.

A Flash-back To The Paranormals

Note: The art looks a little crude now but this was well over 20 years ago. Why am I re-posting this from 2015?  Well, I was chatting to a new animation studio who were interested in reviving the Paranormals as an animated series.

It turned out to be another waste of time. Someone just out of college who wanted me to pay for the series. That last part I was only told much later in the discussion.

Serious animators and studios I WILL talk to.
___________________________________________________________________
 Someone asked whether, if an offer was made, I'd work on continuing the old Fleetway series. YES!!!  But it is not going to happen sadly.  Now if Tonka gave permission to use those characters...

Up-dating this I really ought to include the Fleetway covers.  They are still gorgeous.

As I mentioned The Paranormals, that should have replaced Fleetway's The Supernaturals, because they had lost the rights from Tonka Toys. So Gil Page asked me to put something together. Here for the first time is the synopsis:


THE PARANORMALS: AGE OF CHAOS


“The Great Battle between the forces of
Light and Darkness is over.
The great champions of both sides have
fought and many died.
Now the Great Power calls upon
others as a new age begins…
an Age of Chaos where the only
certain thing is uncertainty!”


Synopsis.

From the Dawn of Man on,humans and others have been summoned by The Great Power –just what this “Great Power” is no one knows.  Champions are given special powers to fight and maintain the balance between the forces of Darkness and Light.

Once summoned,no one can ever return to Mortal World;many have tried but failed.  They are doomed to live and fight….and some to die and be replaced by others.

The Great Power is seemingly impartial,favouring neither Darkness or Light,nor any particular champion.  When the two sides battle it is in the mystical Spectral Realm where they are given assistance by The Spirit-walkers;those who have had a peculiar talent or ability and then died –their spectral essences pulled into the Spectral Realm to carry out their tasks for either sides champions.  These Spirit-walkers include:~

[Darkness]

Hallowe’en Hal & Pumpy

Ripper the Scarecrow

Claws

Wilberforce [“Wolfie”] Edwards

[Light]

Andrew “Handy” Hands

Quesquedada

Gobble

Spooky

There are also those who appear to sometimes walk in Mortal World and help out the forces of Light.

The Behemoth -2.5 metres tall, blue-skinned, the Behemoth wanders the swamps and dead forests of  the Spectral Realm.  Seems unable to speak beyond grunts but is a powerhouse often appearing as the forces of Light seem about to be defeated.

The Wraith –a traditional looking,shrouded,unfeatured ghost carrying a ball and chain.  Wraith seems to appear without warning to guide the Paranormals to Mortal World when the forces of Darkness cross over there.

Mr Noman—a featureless suited individual who seems able to cross back and forth between Spectral Realm and Mortal World;often intervening.  His/its exact function has never been defined.

Grave-digger Jones –seems to ‘maintain’ what vegetation there is but is often a messenger for the Great Power.  A ghost?  No one knows.

Two new champions have been called to Spectral Realm…

Kapitan Willie Scharf; leading a German infantry unit advancing into France.  He encounters a group of refugees who mention finding dead German soldiers near an old farm house.  Scharf takes some men to investigate and observes Waynward-Knight shooting two of his own men.  Becomes The Teutonic Knight.

Captain Henry Waynward-Knight; a complete psychopath hated by his own men and responsible for murdering unarmed civilians and enemy troops who surrendered.
Becomes The Terror.

WHERE IS THE SPECTRAL REALM?

The Spectral Realm is a limbo.  However,there are rifts that create entrances to Mortal World.  The main entrance/exit can be found in the disused London Underground system;there are many disused tunnels,platforms and so on.  The deepest tunnels are around 300 feet below ground.  The main rift between Spectral Realm and Mortal World is situated in a lost system some 500 feet below the surface,abandoned in 1901 while being built due to terrifying events there.

When one considers the number of graveyards, tombs, plague pits and other sites and the variety of individuals buried there then there is ample room for expanding the number of characters  ---the Jubilee Line when it was built went through several monastic graveyards---and the London Underground has a rich history of ghostly goings on.

The entrance is via a huge area of rock resembling a skull on platform 13 of the Prince Albert Line,close to which is an area of undug earth and a tree which looks as though it has been blasted by lightning –the area  is usually shrouded in a thick mist.

Going through this entrance a person would find themselves in a darkened,crumbling ruin with 13 floors:this is the headquarters of the Champions of Light.  Normally,those chosen to take part in the eternal struggle appear close to the Spectral Realms swamps."

In the last post I checked the Spectralrealm yahoo group on which there are a lot of old and cranky character sketches.  Awful in fact.

I was pitching the ideas to Gil Page and an editor whose name I cannot recall. The editor kept saying it all needed to be less serious "we need a bit more tongue-in-cheek for the kids"  So I got out the note book and started scribbling as the editor looked on saying "That's it.  Yeah more like that!"

"Pencils"

However, The Paranormals first story was finally published in Tales Of Terror III in 2013.  My pencils are hardly "existing" as I tend to rough sketch a panel, ink and move on.  However, I was asked whether I could show what my rough pencils looked like so I scanned pages 1-5 and compared to my usual pencils these are detailed!

Corrections are made as I ink.

Anyway, it is odd but these pages -the story- fit right in with the whole Return Of The Gods but I never realised!

http://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper-scharf/tales-of-terror-iii/paperback/product-18687932.html

The Paranormals. Character designs from the animated series that never happened!

I have discussed this comic that was to take over from IPCs  The Supernaturals but dont think I showed these the animator

 of the proposed TV series sent?

36 Years

Angel Olsen - Whole New Mess (Official Video)

Cinebook The 9th Art: ORBITAL 8 - CONTACTS

Authors: Sylvain Runberg & Serge Pellé

Age: 12 years and up
Size: 21.7 x 28.7 cm
Number of pages: 56 colour pages
Publication: February 2020
£8.99
ISBN: 9781849184977

Who is the merciless enemy that threatens to wipe out the living ships – Angus’s people?

It’s clear now: the Neuronomes are not attacking the Confederation, but rather are the victims of a mysterious aggressor, and they explode when they die. They did, however, take up positions near large population centres, threatening to take thousands of lives with them when they go in order to pressure Confederate authorities – who had once massacred them – into helping them. 

Unsurprisingly, Caleb, Mezoke and Angus are chosen to go to the Neuronomes’ home planet and neutralise the unknown threat.

I am NOT going to write much. Runberg is a superb writer and this new volume proves that.

Pelle is an incredible artist and I have seen his work as he pencilled/inked -I even have an original sketch in one of my Orbital books. The art in this book is incredible and you have to keep going back to look at it a few times (I did). There aren't any words I can use to adequately describe Pelle's art here.

For me, Orbital has always been a series I will go back to.  And guess what...the end to this story...wow. No spoilers but....wow.

100% recommended every bloody time!

Green Skies Vol 3 Part III as a sneak peek!

Right...three UNEDITED  pages from Green Skies Vol 3 Part III as a sneak peek!

CE3K/AE Blog Closing today.

Just to let anyone interested know.

Tom King Attempted to Cancel Jae Lee

Jabba the Hutt Figure Unboxing by Sideshow Star Wars

I Went Ahead And Did It Anyway

Yup. I started at 12:00 hrs and rather than stop I decided to pull a full day and finish editingthe Green Skies pages. Stopped at 23:22 Hrs.

Tomorrow everything goes into a source file, then a pdf is made and it's ready to go....but not yet. Never publish anything until a project is complete.

Then it's scanning 130 pp for Part III.

Who do I see about getting paid?

Oh

And Now....the Anomalous Observational Phenomena Blog

400, 000 views and since 2011 not one contribution of new material or offer to help support the blog and keep it going.

Yet MANY take material from it.

As of Saturday the AOP blog is gone,

Not bad.

To make a point about CBO reviews.  Not only do they go all over the world by RSS (Red Star Squadron?) feed but titles from Titan Books as well as Cinebook The 9th Art are always in the top ten post views.

I ought to add that some of those reviews are from 2012 so people still check CBO reviews years after posting.

Not bad.

Cinebook The 9th Art: THE BLUECOATS 13 - SOMETHING BORROWED, SOMETHING BLUE

Authors: Lambil & Cauvin

Age: 8 years and up
Size: 21.7 x 28.7 cm
Number of pages: 48 colour pages
Publication: January 2020

£7.99

ISBN: 9781849185318

War rages on, and the wounded pile up – including Blutch, courtesy of Confederate artillery. The Union Army doctors are swamped. In order to address his shortage of healers, General Alexander brings in a quartet of female nurses. But while he did also recruit a foul-tempered ‘matron’ of sorts to discourage anyone more interested in flirting than doing their duty, he may not have planned for the possibility of one of the nurses falling for a certain small, unruly, bald corporal …

That cover says it all!

The blend of seriousness and humour in the story as well as the artwork never ceases to amaze me.  As a wargamer I am sick and tired of hearing about the American Civil War yet I can sit down and enjoy these books for the first time in English and have a fun read (I read some for the first time in German -"The Blue Bellies").

So much crammed into each page, too.

I can't see a problem with readership age here -I think it's a good family read but different people have different ideas. All told this is a great series.

Cinebook The 9th Art: IAN 4 - METANOIA

Authors: Fabien Vehlmann & Ralph Meyer
Age: 15 years and up
Size: 18.4 x 25.7 cm
Number of pages: 48 colour pages

Publication: January 2020

ISBN: 9781849183819

£7.00

Ian will have to choose a side now – AIs or Humans...

A year has passed since the Los Angeles riots, but Ian is still being hunted by the Pentagon. Extremely hostile treatment by the media has also made him a favoured target of a majority of American citizens. 

Tracked down by an ambitious reporter, the android gets in touch with an eccentric billionaire who promises to tell him what the Nome is – that super-powerful artificial entity with whom he seems to have a mysterious bond... 

A merciless cascade of new revelations follows...

 I've been a fan since this series started and I did want to provide links to reviews of 1-3 BUT Blogger tells me that the posts do not exist. They do but Blogger is blogger.

This reminded me from the outset of something that might have appeared in the old 2000 AD back in the original run.  It's a great story. The art is fabulous and it all moves along seamlessly -I would HIGHLY recommend it.  

I sat down to read this at around 0100 hrs and when I got to THAT final page all I could say out loud was....well, it was rude. It was a shocker I never saw coming. Even now looking at that final page...****

Only four parts to this and, luckily, you buy 4 or more titles there is FREE UK delivery. 

Cinebook titlesnever cease to amuse and entertain -ordeliver big surprises!

Green Skies Vol. 3 Part II Completed!

It's taken a while longer than I expected considering the laptop dying and having to use a steam-powered PC but Part II is now fully lettered. Doing some quick tidying up tomorrow and then moving on to Part III.

I need to get Parts III and IV out of the way quickly before the PC dies and then I can breath with only the covers to consider.

Ending the project is going to be one big relief and I'm slightly ahead of schedule so far and there are other projects I want to do

Sa Dingding - Ha Ha Li Li

Elle King - The Let Go (Official Video)

Closure of Blog

As of this coming Friday (1st August) the British Golden Age comics blog closes.

Since 2012 it has (despite a year of inactivity) accrued over 34,000.  I have made 25appeals -zero resaponses. No comments. No support.  And last Friday I once again saw the two faced 'comic fan' in action.

I've work to do and a life to live.  From now on if you want someone with a big archiove of British Golden Age comics and willingness to share it....you can go find another blog (who were mostly stealing my info and posts anyway).

Comic Bits magazine and the Golden Age publications are now going to be your (have to pay for) sources of material.

Touching on 9 million

Although it involved a lot more text (again) yesterday I sat down and lettered 23pp of The Green Skies which leaves about 29pp left.

Then I haveto get on and scan all the other parts before this PC breaks down (it did the other day) for good.

If you'd like to support CBO and see it continue then PayPal donations are accepted (to the right for the link) and if you want to genuinely support and Indie publisher please check out the online store (over to the right again).

Considering the number of visitors coming to CBO having increased (nearly at 9 million) let's hope there are some who are willing to donate for the big read available here!

Maakika Art and its Origins and the Book...and comments!

Yes, the book is STILL available.  Also, I was surprised to find that the Art Wanted page had 5, 331 views and 14 comments -mostly from female artists who appreciated Maakika.

Here are some comments:

"i said in another post that these make me think of some hinted at mythology. you should do a book of these with just title s to hint at things so we can read them and let our mind run wild!"

"Seriously, these are the best things you do and you should concentrate making more or using them as a design project (T-shirts, posters whatever). Clean 'em up just a little and they'd be incredible."

"interesting.. kind of tribal... - the shapes down the left hand side, do they symbolise the moon phases, by any chance? :)"

"These Maakika pieces are wonderful Terry!! I find them really fasinating."

"So charming! A real treasure!"

"very cool"

Pity that none of the art was ever purchased -and neither has a single copy of the book.  Artists really do need support you know.

Whenever I try to explain to someone the origins of The Maakika I get odd looks. I have no idea why, unless the people I'm explaining this to have no artistic minds and have never known a fevered mind!

However, the story I told on the original Maakika Art site in 2008 is factual. These pieces have been called some of the best work I've done -my comic work getting swiftly dismissed! I'm also told, though I never saw it that way myself until I went through all the pieces again, that the pieces seem to form a type of mythology or at least hint at one.  I'll let YOU decide.

The Origins

"What is Maakika Art?"  I get asked that a great deal and to be honest it is a very brief story!

In 2006 I had a serious respiratory infection.  It came and went but,in 2007,it came back with a vengeance over several months and with complications I thought it would see me shift this mortal coil -and I am NOT joking!

Around May, 2007, it got really bad.  Then, suddenly,pouring with sweat, while seated on a bus, my mind started getting a rush of images -maybe 50-60.  I got home exhausted but I sat down and began to draw.  Honestly, at 50 years of age I had drawn many things but these new images were so out of my usual frame of image reference that I was stumped.

I drew a few, sat back and thought "What the bloody hell have I drawn?!" Almost instantly the word "Maakika" [pronounced "Mah-kee-kah"] came into my head.  At the same time I got the definition "solid black and white art under guidance from the Maakika".  Ahh, a fevered mind -and no drugs involved!

I've searched the word on the internet, in books and anywhere else I can but it seems not to exist. I cannot find anything similar.

And with each came a title or description.

So,a divine gift from the Maakika pantheon seems credible!

And lucky.

The original images are all 21x29cms and though I've not parted with the first "inspired" drawings which look crude to my eye, several were sold for between £150-£300 each.

I still have the original images in my mind [they won't shift!] but I've been inspired to work on larger images [60x42cms]. 

So,if you have any questions or comments get in touch! 

And remember:only one person does Maakika art -me (and I have absolutely no idea what's coming next!)

The Maakika Art ~ you can buy the book!

Paperback, 

A4

32 Pages 

Price: £6.00 (excl. VAT)

Prints in 3-5 business days

http://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper-scharf/maakika-art/paperback/product-21849434.html