EVERY Character Deserves Having Their History and Creation Known

 Many things influence comic creators as kids and I was no different. I used to watch the Saturday morning TV shows and cartoons on British TV and Hanna Barbera's Arabian Knights I have said many times had two magicians who influence my creation of the Third Level sorcerers Kotar and Sabuta in the 1960s -I made the characters out of Plastacine modelling clay and converted an old bedside cabinet into their sanctum.

above: Kotar and Sabuta along with Lady Silvana and Tarot

I even had my own team of characters living on "borrowed time". It was a phrase I heard a lot as a kid and the concept of a group of people getting together to solve weird mysteries seemed good enough to me. At that time I only saw the occasional DC comic so had never heard of the Challengers of the Unknown until I saw an in-house ad in a Justice League of America comic. The Questor's are still going and there is still a werewolf amongst them!

Above: Solar and Bell of an alternative Earth Crime Busters (The Ultimate Game)

Below Will Clane and Solar of BTs Earth in The Trial from Black Tower Super heroes

By 1968, t6hanks to Marvel Super Heroes Golden Age reprints I got to see the All Winners Squad and how can you ignore a team of characters that had to wait until the 1970s revival as The Invaders? 

Everyone who created their own comics were influenced by what they read as well as say -TV in the 1960s was the true TV Golden Age with so many series. One thing I try not to do is copy story styles or formats which isn't too difficult.  D-Gruppe was unique in that I created them while living on a farm in Germany in the 1960s and my main influences were the old Tales from Europe and German myths.

But did I have an equivalent to the Fantastic Four? I think so, in a way. Maddie Bell (aka "Bell") Willy Claine (aka "Ball Man") and John Clane (aka "Solar") were three former circus performers who eventually rescued a sideshow exhibit -a Missing Link caught in Africa. No costumes just every day gear and I updated them slightly when I put them into the small press Black Tower Adventure in 1983. In their original incarnation they were almost like a Scooby Gang.

All the characters or groups have developed in their own way and, of course, newer characters have joined them as well as British Golden Age characters. 

It would be interesting to hear from people who as small pressers created their own super hero characters and find out what their influences are. Unfortunately most are no longer in comics or if they are it is only as readers not creators.

Even their characters deserve having their history known, right?