Cinebook Ltd: Newsletter 164 - August 2021

Dear Reader, Let’s all welcome back an old … uh … young friend this month: Cedric! The young boy returns with more school and domestic life shenanigans than you can shake a stick at, with the usual supporting cast of cantankerous grandfather, I-won’t-put-up-with-your-nonsense almost-girlfriend, hapless parents and put-upon schoolmistress – among others. It’s funny, it’s light-hearted, it’s heart-warming, and it even touches on some deeper, more serious issues … but always with class. Then we have a special treat: both volumes of new two-part story Miss Endicott. In 19th century London, there is one person who cares for the poor and the downtrodden, who arbitrates their conflicts and solves their problems when the authorities couldn’t be bothered: the Conciliator. And young Prudence Endicott just inherited the job after her mother passed away. Does she have what it takes? Can she reconcile that life with her day job as a nanny? And what exactly IS going on in London these days – or more precisely, underneath it? July with Cinebook: reading for children … of all ages! Cedric 7 Laudec & Cauvin Isn’t It Past Your Bedtime? Childhood is a time to learn about life. We discover love, but also such things as disease and death. We learn to share and be generous, but we also learn about the dangers of excesses, greed and gluttony. In other words, every day is a new adventure ... Read more Miss Endicott Part 1 Fourquemin & Derrien   After many years abroad, Prudence Endicott is back in England to bury her mother. Hired as a nanny by a wealthy London family, the young woman immediately begins to spend her nights in the more working-class neighbourhoods … For Miss Endicott is now the new Conciliator ... Read more Miss Endicott Part 2 Fourquemin & Derrien   Miss Endicott’s life as a Conciliator is off to a bad start: a strange plot is being hatched in the tunnels beneath London, her headquarters have been torched, the child whose nanny she is by day has disappeared while following her at night ... Read more Lucky Luke 80 The Alibi Swan Song Part 1   North-American readers, to locate a comic book shop near you that stocks or can order these titles and many more, us this handy Read more   Or, if you're a retailer yourself, please go to: Read more Alone 12 The Rebels of Neosalem Gomer Goof 8 A Giant Among Goofs Thorgal 28 Aniel XIII Mystery 9 Felicity Brown

Yokai Books, Hell Hounds, Review Pages and an Hackneyed Old Man at a Zine Fair

 Well, once my eyes get back to some form of normal I have my reading sorted....

One senses that "The Prof" or Xendragon are about to go travelling. Kotar and Sabuta would be the ones normally chosen but they are being far from cooperative since Mr Dilworth referred to them as "Second Level sorcerors". They are THIRD Level which us a much higher level though things are about to change.

Meanwhile the Prof has to deal with a couple Hell-hounds...and Devilina. 

Now, someone asked about photographing more art pages from review books. No. I have a crap old camera that does not take good photos and no scanner to scan -hey, if everyone wanted more art then perhaps supporting CBO over the last 10 years would have been a good option? But readers say "no" so I opt for that option also.

You get the cover and any pages that are supplied.

I note some zine events are going ahead -my circumstances stop me going to any. However, the leg end that is Paul Ashley Brown (yeah I know how I spelt "legend") will be attending the Hackney Comic & Zine Fair 2021 which is the only reson a UK based event is being mentioned.  They write:

"Next up we have the incredibly versatile Paul Ashley Brown, who produces a plethora of comics and zines. Often satirical and comedic, Paul’s work also offers moments of reflection and melancholy, all through poetic, fractured narratives."

Hang on...yep. It is definitely Old Slow Hand they are writing about. But this is your chance to (remembering social distancing etc) meet one of the UKs top comedic, I mean top COMIC creators and see how versatile he is -singing, falling down, cooking, moaning and 2000 Award Winner of the Olivier Melancholia Award (a rusty razor apparently).

But go see the giant amongst....uh...no. That would be rude. But its a real event so go and check it out https://twitter.com/hackneycomics/status/1418978181097340942

Hexagon Comics: Guardian of the Republic & Doctor Omega

 

7x10 square-bound comic, 

48 pages 

b&w

ISBN-13: 978-1-64932-057-5.  

US$9.95 

https://www.hexagoncomics.com/shop-guardian-of-the-republic-doctor-omega.html

Berlin, April 1945... Amidst the ashes of the Nazi defeat, a quartet of mad scientists decides to continue the experiment of the Third Reich by creating a futuristic version of Nazi Germany, which they christen—Metropolis!

The Guardian of the Republic and Marianne, on leave from the Partisans, managed to infiltrate Metropolis at the time of its creation, but become its prisoners while it now threatens to invade and conquer other dimensions...

The mysterious space-time traveler known only as Doctor Omega joins forces with the modern-day Guardian to destroy Metropolis, but what will happen when these two Guardians from different eras clash... What if one of them was to commit the ultimate sacrifice?

An essential chapter in the prodigious history of the Guardian of the Republic is revealed at last, brilliantly illustrated by Manuel Martin Peniche.

The Guardian is, if you have not gathered so yet, Hexagon's Captain America counter-part. To date we've seen him in all types of adventures including one based in the future -if you are wondering about that one then you have not been rreading the reviews, have you? Also no good looking up Doctor Omega in the Hexagon Comics Top 100 Characters book -he ain't in it!

Fritz Lang really started something with that movie! (Metropolis 1927...you have seen it?) Nice little twist at the end and one more piece of Guardian history which seems to get quite complicated at times.

UK Border Force Can Open Your PRIVATE Mail It Seems Without Hinderance

 Thank you Mr Dilworth. Post received.

I think that the sign of a Big Brother government is whenit allows private citizens mail to be opened.

According to the UK Border Force:

"Who we are. Border Force is a law enforcement command within the Home Office. Border Force secures the border and promotes national prosperity by facilitating the legitimate movement of individuals and goods, whilst preventing those that would cause harm from entering the UK."

Where exactly does that mentioning opening the private mail of a UK citizens who has no criminal record and is not active in any area under UK Border Force guidelines?

This is the thiord private piece of mail from my friend opened and resealed by Border Force making it privvy to PRIVATE information and details of someone's life or current problems.

It looks like Big Briother sneaked in and guess what? There is absolutely nothing you can do about it and my useless Labour MP...its for our protection.

SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME - Official Teaser Trailer

Hexagon Comics: Guardian of the Republic & Zembla -THE RESURRECTION OF LORD RAVEN!

 

Story: J.-M. Lofficier;

Art: Eduardo Garcia, Alfredo Macall, Gabriel Mayorha, Manuel Martin Peniche, José Luis Ruiz Pérez.
cover: Roberto Castro

7x10 squarebound trade paperback, 

56 p. b&w
ISBN-13: 978-1-64932-068-1 

US$12.95 

https://www.hexagoncomics.com/shop-guardian-of-the-republic-zembla-morgane-ozark.html

After the mighty shaman Ozark triumphed over the evil wizard Maleficus, the seven powerful mystic gems known as the "Fingers of Shivar" were scattered through time and space. But the witch Alecto plots to reunite them in order to take revenge on Morgane, whom she holds responsible for the death of her lover, the sinister Lord Raven, and resuscitate the latter in the body of Maxime Saint-Clair, the Guardian of the Republic! Only the combined efforts of Zembla and Ozark can save the French hero from such a dreadful fate.
 
Guest-starring: Ivan Karine the Cossack and the Napoleonic Guardian!
 
This prodigious saga takes us from Tsarist Russia to the City of Lights via the African Republic of Karunda and Rapid City, South Dakota. It is brilliantly illustrated by the Hexagon Comics team: Eduardo Garcia, Alfredo Macall, Manuel Martin Peniche, Gabriel Mayorga, José Luis Ruiz Pérez, and Roberto Castro!

How to compare the cover to something that used to excite us when comics were hand drawn and a good cover illo got us spending our pocket money.  Captain America versus Ka-Zar would cover it.  Super hero versus a jungle lord which would have had us parting with those pennies at warp 6.

And the guest stars -well the Hexagon Top 100 characters book certainly comes in handy! The story is good old heroic action and a good read with each of the artists producing the good art I've learnt to expect from Hexagon Comics. It's difficult to review a book like this without giving too much away and spoiling it for a reader -the blurb above says it all really and I cannot find any negatives here at all.

Looking at this and the other Hexagon Comics it reminds me of the great promise that Martin Lock's  Harrier Comics showed in the 1980s.  These comics never talk down to readers or pretend to be something  they aren't. They are good comic fun from cover to cover with the promise of "just one more adventure" at the final page.

Unboxing my aged camera this is the best I can do so remember the books themselves are 100 times better! Oh, that's my thumb on one page and it does not come with the comic :-)

Hexagon Comics: THE TOP 100 HEROES FROM THE HEXAGON UNIVERSE

 

THE TOP 100 HEROES FROM THE HEXAGON UNIVERSE

by Romain d'Huissier

Afterword by Jean-Marc Lofficier.

cover by Alfredo Macall.

7x10 squarebound trade paperback, 

256 pp. 

b&w.
ISBN-13: 978-1-64932-085-8 - 

US$22.95

https://www.hexagoncomics.com/shop-the-top-100-heroes-from-the-hexagon-universe.html

From the first appearance of Zembla in 1963, to the recent successes of Strangers and Guardian of the Republic, the 70 year-old Hexagon Comics Universe demonstrates a true French passion for comics. But with so many characters, many of whom were created decades ago, where should a new reader start? How are they to disentangle the best from the anecdotal, the masterpiece from the ordinary?

To give someone just coming to the Hexagon Universe a leg up, popular French author and game designer Romain d’Huissier has selected his 100 favorite characters, then takes us on a journey of discovery (or rediscovery) through a very special universe; one not limited to superheroes, but which also offers thrillers, fantasy, science fiction, westerns and swashbuckling sagas.

Newcomers will learn the origins and history of the major heroes. Connoisseurs will find new details about obscure and never translated characters in these treasures of French popular comics.

This is a nice thick book and when I picked it up I wondered just what the point was? Don't you have to be a Hexagon Comics reader to be interested in this? Well, yes and no. Yes you do get info on a lot of the Hexagon characters but there is a lot more that you get.

This is also an art book.

full splash page art pieces fully drawn or sketched and that is something a lot of people interested in comics liketo see -how an artist pencils.  There are also a few full page comic strips (not full just sample pages). Whether the old characters Hexagon are revitalising or its more modern era characters this book gives you a pretty comprehensive guide to who is who and my guess is that one day this book is going to see its price increase.

Science fiction, fantasy, wild west, super heroes, action characters -they are all here.  This is a nice book to look through and you may get inspired to try the odd Hexagon Comic.

My camera, sadly, is not up to much but here you go:

Collecting News Episode 31: Sideshow Releases a NEW Black Widow!

I thought I would get £27.00 and I Got.....

 I think I wrote somewhere that I had sold almost £100 worth of books at the online store and that my cut after the POD and printers was £27. I also pointed out the POD paid out when it was advantageous to them and the US taxes thing.

I just got my cut of £100....£18.75

Prices going up Friday because this is ludicrous.

Tales From The Grave...a TV series that could have been

It was a rather dull day in 2004. A few weeks before I had been at HTV studios in Bristol and later that afternoon at the BBC across the city. I was, of course, trying to sell ideas. I did not expect the phone call from HTV but they asked me to present a proposal on "That horror thing". I had to think and then realised "that horror thing" was Tales from the Grave.

You see, while in the rather clean producers meeting room at HTV I had a couple of proposales that I had planned on taking to a London publisher. A comic book idea. The UK comic scene was more or less dead or in a permanent state of stagnation but I was going to give it another go. As I looked in my brief case for additional information on the TV project the Tales from the Grave pages fell out and "Ooh!" said one of the two producers so I explained and that I thought was that.

But it seems that my (rejected) TV project was not as much discussed as the Tales from the Grave comic project.  HTV produced a lot of programming for the ITV network and they were looking for something different. All I could do was put everything together, including a rough sampler script where the series host, Dr 'Bones' Jones had his origin recounted. They loved it.

Yes, they loved it. Then panic set in as they saw in their minds a huge budget which they did not have. Make up. Special effects. That was going to cost "thousands". I told them to leave it with me and in the next week I'd allay their fears.

The first big problem came with make up but at that time there were high quality horror props for sale such as masks, feet and more.  They liked the idea that even if they purchased three of each item (in case of accidents etc) it would still be far less than starting from scratch and a crew could adapt and add to these to make them more "ours".

Also lighting and how it was all filmed would add to the effects needed.  I was told the make up would be expensive to show the decaying face of one character (I'm surprised they spent the money on theuir lunch). I was prepared for that and explained how the effect could be achieved and be quite gory. We were, after all, looking at a series with the old Hammer Horror and British 1950s sci fi movies as inspiration.

Then one producer noted that it would (guess what?) cost a lot to have windows in a certain scene blown out and the pyrotechnics to create the light display... I explained HOW the window effect could be achieved (the same way John Carpenter did for the movie Assault on Precinct 13 -go look it up). Also the "pyrotechnics" could be achieved with two studio lights and colour filters and some dry ice for mist.

Remember I was not a special effects man but I knew my horror films as well as how to get things done and achieve a specific effect. Producers apparently are just there to tell you how much something might cost and can it be made cheaper?

The one thing to remember is that if you are proposing a project to anyone you should have a back up. And with me my back-ups always had back-ups (usually 4 and that included pick and mixing from all the others

By the time I had finished presenting the project there were pages and print outs everywhere. There was even a discussion as to who could play Dr Jones and some of the HTV presenters fancied themselves as "am dram" (amateur dramatics) so one episode in particular would have no problem getting unpaid extras!

Two hours later as I sorted all of the pages out I had a sore throat as the two producers talked to each other (I was apparently in that "He's not in the room now" zone). They seemed enthusiastic. They wanted to do the first six episodes and I had shown them where each could be filmed for free at night. Then they uttered the words that drained me of all energy and yet I still had the pretend smile on.

"This is great. We can run with this!" and there was lots of gushing enthusiasm.

What's wrong with that? With both comic editiors/publishers and TV and radio producers I have heard that phrase so many times. Even the smile and slap on the back because this was "Going to be white hot!" This seems to be a point where they get very enthusiastic and "green light" a project before getting approval from the Big Boss(es)  or even having been allocated a budget. It's a time when my Hooper senses send a cold sweat and tingle going.

 I left with all the chat still going on about how they ought to contact so-and-so to star as this or that character and "We'll get bas=ck to you asap!"

A month later....nothing. I phoned but the producers were not available.  I contacted a friendly director I knew and he told me that he would check around and get back to me. An hour later he did and I was proven right again. The producers put the project forward but when costs, special effects and so on were raised they did not either remember all I had gone over with them or just could not be bothered -I was told one had said it was a pity I had not been there to run through the project idea.

Another TV company got interested in the idea and we met, had coffee and talked and I went over everything again and it was quite obvious that despite all the possible cost cutting they still had a budget fear. BUt I was given the handshake and smile and Hooper-senses kicked in. Channel 4 then got in touch and same thing (there is a long story about a certain TV proposal I put together with a producer at Yorkshire TV that took a lot of work and C4 rejected it....only to use it a few months later uncredited)....on this occasion my fourth call to the company received the response "Oh, didn't anyone tell you we aren't interested? Sorry about that"...and then the phone was put down.

I still have the notes and script somewhere (on disc...yes on a disc!) but this series was just one of an almost countless number of failed projects.

Welcome to my Trauma (incidentally, that was an episode title)