Thursday, 30 September 2021
Wednesday, 29 September 2021
Monday, 27 September 2021
Cinebook Ltd Newsletter 165 - September 2021
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Dear Reader, |      |
This month, we mark an amazing milestone in our history as publishers of fine European comics. This month, we bring you our 80th Lucky Luke title! We are very, very proud of this accomplishment, as you can imagine, and we hope that we can continue offering many more adventures of the Lonesome Cowboy – as soon as they come out in French, that is, because we’re pretty much caught up on 75 years of back catalogue! Also coming this month is the latest Buck Danny adventure and explosive conclusion to the ‘Antarctica virus’ story arc. With the usual parade of exquisitely well-drawn aircraft engaged in deadly combat, and some ground-based heroics too, for good measure. Finally comes Volume 1 of a two-part story taking place during the First World War. Swan Song is a stirring, heart-wrenching, gorgeously illustrated tale of simple men caught in a deadly conflict. It’s beautiful, it’s painful, it’s funny … and the second part comes out next month, so you won’t have to wait long! September with Cinebook: all your reading needs right here! |        |
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 | Buck Danny 13 Formosa & Zumbiehl The Pact Despite every effort on Lady X’s part, Buck and Sonny have survived, and with them the antigens needed to create a defence against the Antarctic virus – a failure that puts the mercenary woman in an extremely precarious position with her employers ... Read more |
 | Lucky Luke 80 Morris & Guylouis The Alibi Lucky Luke is contacted by a rich individual with an unusual request: he wants to hire the Lonesome Cowboy to escort his stepdaughter Gisella on a trip across the Wild West. He wants her to see for himself the hard life of settlers and frontiersmen at least once before she settles into a comfortable married life ... Read more |
 | Swan Song Babouche & Dorison and Herzet Part 1 1917. Nivelle – ‘the butcher’ – commands the French Army, and the attacks he keeps ordering are pointless slaughters. The soldiers can’t take it any more. Discontent is turning into rebellion, and a petition is being circulated in secret. When it makes its way to the men of Sergeant Sabiane, something snaps in them ... Read more |
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Sunday, 26 September 2021
Quick Update, news and reviews
I am waiting for the print on demand company to actually tells its creators how badly they are going to hit them with price increases before I do the re-pricing. If I had known back in 2009 that print on demand was going to be this big a pain in the ass I would have never bothered.
In the meantime there are more reviews coming up this week so there will be more content -see, there could be more if the blog got reader support. In fact I'd probably turn CBO into a full time job. But fantasy is fantasy.
Why had I not covered the recent London Small Press event? Well, if you people who asked had READ my posting you would know that. unlike the United States where they are holding open events, the UK is not and the London event was a "virtual one". Yes, I did try to see who was doing what but there appeared to be no guide to the damn thing and I know Paul Ashley Brown took part but how...no idea.
I have had links sent to me of small U.S. publishers stating that they cannot get blogs or sites to review their books or mention their projects. That is why CBO was set up. NO PDF books for review because that is a whole nest of nastyness I am never going near again. I'm on Face Book or leave a comment and I'll get back to you (post a link to your page so I can contact you).
That's it. Just waiting to hear how the Prof escaped the Hell hounds. ....and get dinner ready.
Friday, 24 September 2021
The Story of the Phantom Detective
http://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper-scharf/the-complete-phantom-detective/paperback/product-22082132.html
Prints in 3-5 business days
There are times you REALLY want to see the sight of a cab coming along the road. Then there are times that you REALLY do not want to see a cab...especially the Hellfire Cab and its passenger.
For the Phantom Detective it could all just be another supernatural scuffle before tea and scones.
Or it could be DEATH ?
The Green Skies....I Had This Cover
And before anyone says "You mean you had this covered!" Nope.
With each book I publish (and there are 180 of them) I go through at least 4-6 cover designs. The covers are, after all, the first thing potential buyers see. The original Return of the Gods: Twilight of the Super Heroes cover collecting the original six part series from Black Tower Adventure was pretty basic with Jack Flash on the cover...
Oddly enough this design was praised by reviewers so it just goes to show my modest genius at work (did you just laugh??!)
There was the same problem when it came to The Green Skies. Spo much goes on in the story that picking a scene and putting it on the cover would not work. I tried various designs and rejected many (I believe I had twenty different cover designs -some I later used as promo images).
This one of the Many-Eyed One manifesting itself I thought "Cool" then looked again. I then asked myself; "Is this amateur hour?" and it was thrown out.
I didn't even (consciously) realise that there were 'eyes' in the pattern so...SCORE!
For what Jack Flash was going through the background colour seemed to fit but then it came to the next cover featuring the Druid in silhouette. I tried to use the same colour background but it did not work. It worked for Jack Flash but the Druid was a very hippy-trippy guy and...eccentric.
I had various tie-tied patterns and none worked so I got outthe Spirograph...no matter what I tried it was not clicking but I then found an image on an old disc quite by accident. I have no idea where it came from but it looked okay but the colours did not work. So I played around with colour saturation and filters to the point that it became a different colour to the original altogether.
It worked. Breakdown cancelled. And believe me, I was about to throw the whole new cover design out.
Background fot the third volume was being a pain and as it happens I had to read up on something pertaining to foxes and as I put a note in the back of the book I realised that the colour end paper looked...lovely. I scanned it then toyed about with colour and contrast then saturation and....Varik Dann (or is he? Best not to ask him) had his background.
Now, having gone through all of this (don't panic about wasted paper as the back of rejected art gets used for print outs or note taking) I was still going from foot to foot with "Does it look right? Will it work? Can I trust my own covers?" At one point I thought "No!" and looked at other possible designs. Nothing worked because the battling super heroes covers just did not fit.
In the end I finished the book editing and took another long look at the covers and...decided to go with them. Why I put myself through this I have no idea 😅😅😅 but I do.
From Return of the Gods to The Cross Earths Caper and finally The Green Skies the covers seem to have a natural progression.
What started as "Invasion Earth 1987" has finally been completed in...2021. Around a thousand pages over five books and a nervous breakdown all the way! "The UKs First super hero epic!" someone wrote and I think that over simplifies the story which has so many twists and turns and not one written script anywhere -and all of the notes for "What will happen" were ignored and that flexibility allows the twists and turns and being Independent means I edit and decide what goes into each book and there are no constraints put on me by a publisher.
So, that's how I chose the covers.
The Invasion Earth Trilogy Store links.
A4
B&W
126pp
£10.00
The Green Skies vol. III
A4
B&W
208pp
£10.00