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Sci Fi/action: True Stories

 

Paperback

A4

60pp

B&W

Price: £10.18

Prints in 3-5 business days
http://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper/tom-elmes-true-stories/paperback/product-22638739.html

Tom Elmes,legendary “King of the Zine Nasties” is back!

One of the most under-rated British comic creators returns with True Stories –a continuation of his 1980s comic. If you wondered what happened -waiting is over!

Over 50+ pages of new art and a 1990 interview with the man himself-the only one ever.

Sci Fi/Horror: Descent

 

A4
B&W
104 Pages
Price: £10.00 (excl. VAT)
Prints in 3-5 business days
 http://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper/tom-elmes-descent/paperback/product-22638760.html

With DESCENT Elmes returns to his comic roots having spent some years involved in animation. In this 104 page classic only one prisoner aboard a space craft awakes from stasis alive. All the others are dead..well, the living dead! 

Can the lone surviving prisoner and the guards survive the zombie onslaught? Who knows -but we can tell you this is the most zombie fun you’ll get outside of the Resident Evil movies!!

With DESCENT Elmes returned to his comic roots having spent some years involved in animation. In this 104 page classic only one prisoner aboard a space craft awakes from stasis alive.  All the others are dead..well, the living dead! Can the lone surviving prisoner and the guards survive the zombie onslaught?  Who knows -but we can tell you this is the most zombie fun you’ll get outside of the Resident Evil movies!!

Dervish Ropey: The Totem Pole

 

	Price: £10.00 (excl. VAT)

Paperback,
A4
B&W
95 pages
Prints in 3-5 business days
 http://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper/dervish-ropey-the-totem/paperback/product-22638687.html

Dervish Ropey? One of the great action/adventure characters to emerge from the UK in the last 25 years -apart from Denizen Ark John's other great 1980s character.  

The adventurer and explorer Dervish Ropey. Along with his pet companion Freeto, is drawn into an adventure with consequences that could very well be fatal. 

Will Dervish survive?

Denizen Ark: Unemployed Crime Fighter

 

                

158pp

A4

Black and white

£15.00

Prints in 3-5 business days

http://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper/denizen-ark-unemployed-crime-fighter/paperback/product-22638556.html

He was the epitomy of 1980s Thatcherite Britain: Denizen Ark -Unemployed Crime-fighter. But a couple decades on it looks like someone is stalking the crime-stalker!

One of the UKs finest comic illustrators, John Erasmus brings his classic character back into the glaring limelight of 2016! 

Note preview pages are on the online store page!

Dene Vernon -Ghost and Mystery Detective

 

A4
B&W
24pp
£7.00
https://www.lulu.com/en/en/shop/terry-hooper/dene-vernon-mystery-detective/paperback/product-124edpvm.html

After more than 70 years John McCail's ghost and mystery detective, Dene Vernon is back. In this ClassicComic Fun reprint four of Vernon's terrifying cases -The Burning Heart! -The Terror of Steinlitz Castle! -The Evil From The East! and The Silent Pool Mystery.

Phantom Detective -The Hellfire Cab

 

Ben R Dilworth
A4
B&W
14pp
£6.00
https://www.lulu.com/en/en/shop/terry-hooper/phantom-detective-the-hellfire-cab/paperback/product-166jne8e.html

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

Putting The "Bong" Into Comics: The Iron Warrior Vs Big Bong: When Giants Fought!

 

A4
16pp
£6.00
https://www.lulu.com/en/en/shop/terry-hooper-scharf/the-iron-warrior-vs-big-bong/paperback/product-12vr5r7n.html

In the 1940s, deep in the South American jungles, Rodney Dearth,inventor and adventurer, is searching for the lost explorer Percy H. Fawcett and City Z. 

Then he hears the stories that terrify his native bearers. There is a city -guarded by Big Bong! But Dearth is not afraid -he has his own creation to protect him -THE IRON WARRIOR! 

Ben Dilworth continues the adventures of the Iron Warrior, created by William A. Ward,presenting an action romp featuring one of the UKs most violent characters -tongue firmly in cheek. We think!

Old Comic Creators Just....Vanish (quietly)

 It is not bragging. I've had one quote after another -not even directly sent to me but in books and magazines as well as on decent comics forums- stating that I have an "encyclopedic knowledge" of comics, comic characters not just from the UK but from around the world. Fair enough but that is because I READ and talk to creators and have been around a long time doing UK and even American comics (no, not Marvel or DC so to many it does not count).

I love art. So far never met anyone wanting to discuss Salvador Dali -just a lot of eye-rolling. I recall talking to a Marvel UK editor in the late 1980s and he was showing me art samples sent in and I pointed out a couple that showed the artist had seriously studied human anatomy: "This one has definitely studied Leonardo Da Vinci's anatomy work" I said only to receive the response "Oh. Him. Vastly over rated he'd never get work past me". Yes, this was the editor I (allegedly) held out of the window and he would have deserved that (if, of course it were true 😇) because I had no idea whether he knew who Leonardo was or was just so dumb that he thought I was referring to a modern comic artist!

I love how, back in the day (pick any from the 1980s to early 1990s) people produced their own comics not imagining that they would be the next comic super star or their character the next movie super star, but for fun and enjoyment. The fun and creativity of using lino print to create zines -Myra Hancock being the star there. How we all tried different techniques to add to art or create the books -use auto spray on images printed onto acetate for covers. Photocopied onto card stock or even brown wrapping paper. How you could send out three letters to three different zine makers saying you were short of a few pages for the next issue and within a week have a pile of work to choose from. 

There are no more Merv Grist's producing Bus Pass Army or Melons.  No more Steve Lines Creepy Crawlies or Fantastic stories; No more Blast Bomb Testing Co or Third Kind producing Super Adventure Stories. No more Hardware. No more Cally Stapletons. Penguin Flight -gone. No more Rich Holden or Caged or Un-Caged.

Now it's all "slice of my life", just self importance/pitying while demanding that people buy badly drawn and badly written "O woe is me!" -I remind myself that the best published review of a zine (in Comics World) was for as very badly drawn comic. Why did I give it a glowing review? As I said in print; it wreaked of FUN. I cannot remember the title or the person's name but from page 1 on it was clear they wrote and drew it for fun. That is something I rarely see these days. Self importance and ego are the seeming norm.

till pe

e where the food is!!

I may well have what more than a couple of people have described as "an Alexandrian Library (look it up) of comics, zines and graphic novels  and, yes, I remember what is in  each and it may well be a big enough collection to keep someone reading for a decade but most people I knew in comics are gone. My grand always told me that "as you get older you'll lose more friends" but there are comics and comic albums, creators and companies I could talk and bore for the UK on but who to?

No more huddle creators in a corner at Westminster Comic Marts checking out the paper types we were using or what effect a certain pen or supposedly non art gadget gave. No more Bath, Bristol or Swindon comic marts for creator meet ups and chats. Now it is all semi anonymous and "slagging off" someone anonymously on a comic forum.

The Originals are gone or will soon be gone and all that will be left are the "We are the first generation to make our own comics".

It's 0930 and I've been up since 0450hrs so time for coffee and toast.

Comics SHOULD be FUN!

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Esteban Maroto drawing Vampirella

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My "Ears are Burning" Again!

 Is something going on I don't know about??

A fourth time there has been a discussion ( I only found out later) about why I -me- am not recognised more for my work.  

As for "Why not?"

I am in the UK.

Now, stop talking about me.

BUY MY BOOKS!!! I'll be happy with that.

In case you are not British and don't get the post title here is a full AI explanation (so not sure whether AI was talking about me?)

"Ears burning" means someone is talking about you (often behind your back, causing embarrassment), but it's also an old superstition (right ear for good, left for bad) or even a real physical sensation from increased blood flow due to emotions (anger, blushing), temperature, infection, or rare conditions like Red Ear Syndrome

This Superman "Romance" Went Way Too Far!

Off The Top Of My Head -The Looking Glass That Might Have Been!

 

 

Gil Page the then Managing Editor at Fleetway had been with the company (when it was Amalgamated Press) since leaving school and he always spoke about how “We have all o0f these great characters but never use them!” which to me was a sign reading “Go for it!” I told him that I had an idea and told me to “hang on a m inute” as he went out of the office to return with a middle aged, well suited man (who I was told later was “on the board”).

 

The five minutes Gil had been gone gave me time to jumble together a story featuring a basic cast (my mind was drawing blanks). “Go ahead. What’;s the idea?” And so I sat there with both men watching me as I had to outline the whole idea pointing out how other characters could be pulled in. As I concluded I was waiting for the “No, I don’t think so” but instead the middle aged man nodded to Gil and said “You know Dennis at IPC see what he says”

 

It seems that “Dennis” had simply replied “Do what you want we have no interest in juvenile features” (bloody cheek).  I was told this on my next visit to Fleetway’s office by which time I had sketched out some pages and a rough script. I was told that the strip would need to be black and white as full colour was too expensive and that there were “restrictions”.

 

An artist was the main problem.

 

At first Gil  suggested Vanyo and showed me some of his art pages and although I was familiar with “his” work Gil pointed out that Vanyo was in fact the professional name of two comics artist  brothers -Vicente Vaño Ibarra (1947–2006) and Eduardo Vaño Ibarra (b. 1944). I had not known that but two artists meant the strip was at least guaranteed to get drawn.

 

That was what I thought until I next talked to Gil who told me that he could not go into detail but “Vanyo” was out of the running.

 

Alberto Giolitti was another suggested by Gil from his address packed book (which helped me contact a number of old timers for interviews). I told him that I was unfamiliar with the name but he insisted that I had seen a lot of his work and even talked to him about it. Giolitti was better known by the name "Heinzl" and was a prolific comics illustrator who worked extensively for IPC in the 1980s.

 

Old familiar story by that time was that Heinzl had taken on another project but for some reason (not divulged) I was told that he was unhappy with Fleetway.

 

Mike Western retired and had no interest what-so-ever in returning to comics and in a phone chat he told me that he had done his work and was now retired.

 

John Cooper was interested after hge discovered it was not for an American publisher.  However, he later withdrew after eye sight problems.

 

At one point Gil Page told me that he had found one of "the old lads" who would be pewrfect and he was willing to give it a go.

 

Art Wetherell was interested and that would have been great to work with him again.

 

Not long after that Gil told me that Egmont had bought the company and any planned new work was to be halted immediately -they did the same thing when they purchased Bastei in Germany whioch stopped D Gruppe being published.

 

 For the “Old Boy” I had roughly drawn all 111 pages ass he was not familiar with many characters and he said that the layouts etc made it easier to start work. IPC approved the project even though they made it very clear, via their chairperson, that “IPC has not been involved in children’s comics in over 30 years” so after 5 years of pushing the idea and getting it off the ground….it all fell apart.

Remember that these were the "roughs" and are presented here in no particular order.

All art (c)2025 T Hooper

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Dark Alliance Vampires and Werewolves

 Metal or pewter vampires in 1/72nd scale (20-25mm) are expensive. I wanted some to have some bouts of solo wargaming and as my collection going back decades covers many periods from Biblical Era to futuristic. Converting figures that are basically 1 inch tall is well beyond my eye sight and rather "cranky" hands.

IO was looking at the cost of some metal vampires from the usual supplier (Elheim a UK company https://elhiem.co.uk/) and realised that I had all the vampires they produce. I have my Rabbi and Golem a good few mummies but decided that buying from other companies was out as their scale was more 28-35mm. and then, on Face Book someone posted that Dark Alliance had released two new sets and one was of Vampires!

Strange what gets you excited at a certain age. 

 The other set also saves me money as I was trying to gather a group of werewolves and I could only find them in metal.   Oh the World War Two wargames are going to get a bit odd!

Once my order arrives I'll do a quick review for the people I know visit here and are into fantasy gaming. (behave!) ...if my eyes can take it!

“Toy Hunt Roulette 🎰 Walgreens vs GameStop!”

The Truth About Starting In Comics and Black Tower (STOP asking me for a high page rate!)

 

Sadly, Independent comics do not sell and so the writing, drawing, editing and lettering as well as making print ready files and then the publishing I do unpaid. It is not great and certainly more sold in the 1980s-2000 than they do today.  

For people starting out, however, it is a great way to get experience in putting a comic strip together to show what you can do. It also means that if you ever approach a mainstream paying publisher you can accurately state how many pages per week/month you can produce to a good standard. Publishers want to know that if they give you a 20 pager to draw that you CAN do it and to a publishable standard.

It is rare in comics to draw your own characters so working on scripts that do not involve them shows you can do the work. One piece of advice: NEVER make changes to the script or change characters names. I've had some really good newcomer artists do that with me and it creates a lot of tension and very few recommendations. 

I wrote a four issue series in the 1990s and the publisher liked them so the artist was new but had all four scripts. After a month I received a package and the art looked great. I phoned the artist and said I hoped he had found time to at least work on our project? I was told that the pages I got WAS our project. Character names had changed and rather than contemporary scenes it was very Judge Dredd -the artist thought he had improved on the script! It made no sense turning it into a sci fi story as that would mean re-writing parts 2-4 AND the fact that the name of one of the characters was to turn out to be a significant clue... was gone. Apparently he tried similar when given a script by 2000 AD -his career ended. And before anyone asks: the publisher who was interested told me "No. This is not the story or series we approved" so that went out the window.

If you thought "I'll give it a go" what benefits are there in drawing for Black Tower other than gaining experience?  Firstly, the art (not the characters) is yours. You can sell it to make some money or just to add to your portfolio. 

Do not think that changing a couple names and a strip title that you can sell the story/characters to a publisher. I had three artists try that and since the internet came in you can be found out quickly. I got a call from an editor one day who asked who a certain artist was so I told him and "So you thought making some changes and having him submit the work instead of you might work?"  I had no idea what he was talking about but within 30 minutes an email arrived with the altered pages -my credit removed.  The editor thought he was being taken for a fool and told me "His name is not blocked in future -how do I know he won't take one of our projects and do this?"  

The artist? "Oh, I thought you were out of comics" which was a bloody outright lie and did he think that meant he could steal any potential earnings from me? Another one who vanished.  But that situation has arisen a couple times. You need to be honest and play it straight.

If you draw something that gets published by me you get 5 copies of the title the strip is in. Pass around your family. Sell to make some money or, again, keep it as part of your portfolio.

One thing, however; if you are not having fun drawing a comic or comic strip then stop. You have to enjoy the challenge of what a script gives you whether it is sci fi, horror, detective or super hero (I once watched a very talented new artist destroy his potential career. At one of the old UK Comic Art Conventions in the 1980s he approached a DC editor who happened to be talking to a Marvel editor. They were both impressed but one said "DC and Marvel want more artists to draw super heroes -do you have any samples?" the artist replied and my thought immediately was "oh ****".  "No, I'm not interested in drawing super heroes. I would never do things and go Marvel. I'm looking for sci fi or horror" The Marvel man just turned away while the DC editor closed the portfolio and said "You may need to change your mind if you want to work in comics".  The artwork was fantastic but never saw the fella again.

Oh, and "Yeah I'd a couple days behind cus I went on a pisser with my mates over the weekend and then Monday was hung over" is not something any editor or publisher needs to hear because going on drunken binges when you have a deadline t6hat you are already late for...

If interested send me scans of 5 pages of your comic work and we can take it from there. Or if absolutely not interested because "My work is shit hot and I'm heading for Marvel!" (genuiine quote) then ...well... don't email me!

hoopert1957@gmail.com

Welcome to real life in comics! 

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Origins: Ultra Man, Ultra Woman, Polaris and A White Out

 

 Back in the late 1960s when Kotar and Sabuta were still young, a strange event took place in a Bristol department store.   These days a "White Out" in comics is nothing rare but back then a "white out" usually meant a fog t6hat was lit up by street lights and in which you could see nothing. Sounded like a fun term to me back then.

The dream I had involved a department store and people going about their business. Cathy, Steven and  Paul Lloyd were three such people -brothers and sister. Without warning everything went white -probably only for a split second but everyone in the department store seemed unaffected. The trio were stumped. All three also noticed that their hair had turned white and looking around saw the odd shopper and staff member had similar.

Within days Paul noticed that he had developed strange powers and began testing them out. When he sat down to tell his siblings he was shocked to find they also had special powers and eventually (being a tad slow) realised that everything had started after the white out and their hair changing to white.

Paul (later to become Ultra Man) heard about thefts that seemed to have been committed by a person with special powers AND white hair. Initially he suspected Steven even though he could not believe it. As is usual in such stories each of the Lloyds had thought the same thing but realising they were on a wild goose chase realised that if the thief had special powers and white hair then he must have been in the department store during the white out

Initially wearing masks, Paul became Ultra Man, Cathy Ultra Woman and Steve Polaris. Their adventures would follow them tracking down anyone from the department store who had white hair and finding the various customers affected. None of them suspecting that a crook had been tracking them down when he realised the same thing.

Eventually the trio became more public and Polaris joined the Special Globe Guard; during the Return of the Gods storyline he seemingly gave his life stopping an alien invasion craft.Ultra Man and Ultra Woman were both active during that story as well as The Green Skies.

Browner-Knowle Volume 2 Number 3

Black and white

A5 (Digest) format 

56pp

£7.00 GBP

Shipping costs will be calculated at checkout.

https://www.paulashleybrownart.com/browner-knowle-volume-2-number-3

A further narrative salvo of  poetic , melancholy stories and observed moments fired over the head of  the UK comic book landscape. 

Tales of memory, grief, loss, hope, discovery, fear, love and late night Columbo re-runs. 

Get issue 3 and continue the fun you never had in this double-sized bumper issue.   And he is not joking about this being a bumper sized issue -although I admittedly misunderstood when he said "Tel, I got a lovely big one to give you!" 

First thing top write on a Christmas Day is that people need to make images available as well as page counts rather than have you warm up the scanner and then thumb  through to count the pages. Who that particular person is I shall not mention as I am a professional. Just need to calm down and think of....something. I dunno. 

 Anyway, considering this is a pro printed book away from the Hell that is print On Demand it looks really good. The solid blacks and cross hatching, etc all come out nice and crisp. Even better it looks as though it was printed on a nice thick premium stock paper.  Also, my scfanner does not do the front cover justice.

The contents page tells you everything you need to know about what you are buying -and the sales mean you better hurry before these are out of print. Anyhoo the contents:

 Untitled

Hauntology

Anne In The Garden At Night

Peter Falk Is....

As If!

Broken English

That Friday Feeling

Remembering A Yesterday

Poptones

Fork In The Road

Through A Small Window A Big Sky

Bread

See, that's what you can come up with if you have a degree in something-or-other. After reading Untitled I was ready for a double bill of The Two Ronnies Christmas Specials. Hauntology got very surrealistic and stepped up the cheer (that's me being very slightly sarcastic). Details in the background could teach a few of the "new generation" of zinesters how to draw a comic strip.

Peter Falk Is can be described as a sad middle aged (I am being generous) man sat watching TV in the dark while eating a Fab ice lolly at 2 a.m.   Come on -we have all been there!

oh gods....Broken English reminds me of a Polish fella who stopped me to ask where a place was as he had an interview there. I spent 40 minutes going him around a trading estate while trying to find out where the place was as the Polish fella had only gotten blank looks as he tried to explain.  Which has nothing to do with Mr Brown's rather bitter sweet story or, for that matter his That Friday Feeling -here is a man in need of some "Uppers" (whatever they are).

Poptones ended with Mr Brown's passport description "a know nothing, ham-fisted sham splashing and slapping acrylic on paper" -he had to write a lot of that in the margin. Methinks Mr Brown needs to be reminded of the great Tony a rather disaffected office clerk who donned his artist's smock, and set to work on work on "Aphrodite at the Waterhole" every evening!

Fork in The Road was thoughtful. My own mind thought of a mince pie and some canned whipped cream.

Joking ( I think) aside the big story in this bumper issue was  Through A Small Window A Big Sky Brown's tour de force.  Don't misunderstand; there is some excellent black and white artwork using some techniques that appear to have been forgotten in the age of "slap it out on the slap top"  (eurgh) but in this 25 pager we see that while "Old Slow Hand" takes his time carrying out his work it is worth the wait.

We have the solid blacks, the line work and the underwater swimming page must have taken ages to complete -and some well drawn and effective backgrounds when Gillian (the feature character) gets to travel abroad.  The ending was quite shocking to me...an happy ending? In a Browner Knowle?!?!?!    Also, after Broken English it is the only strip to use speech balloons.

Overall it was an interesting read for Christmas Day and is, as usual, highly recommended but be quick if you want to get a copy.

Me? I am now off to find something featuring big muscle men  in colourful costumes fighting.