The Greatest Hero From Every State Mx5

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Working For The Small Press -What's It Worth?

 

 I was thinking how things have changed over the years. Back in the 1980s/1990s, if I had a zine that was short of 3-4 pages I'd knock out a letter and send it off to other zine publishers/creators. 

Within a week I could guarantee having enough material to fill 2-3 zines.  And, if contacted by other zine publishers looking for material, well, yes, I'd send something to them.

At no point did anyone ask "How much are you paying?"  It was simple fun -contributors got a copy of the zine their work was in. Again, no one asked: "If you make anything out of this what's my cut?"

We were selling our "end product" for 25 pence.  50 pence.  75 pence or, and, I tried and succeeded in never crossing this particular price barrier myself, £1.00.  Yes, £1.00 which back then was 50 cents? So, buy my zines and you got a lot of pages for little money.  I try to keep doing that still.

Although, via Zine Zone mail order or marts you could sell quite a few zines -in fact, it's odd but you would guarantee at least doing fairly well sales-wise back then where as now the attitude and expectation is that selling one or two books is a good day! In fact, zine publishers reported that they did far better sales-wise with Zine Zone than they did with Fast Fiction (which saw ZZ as a competitor though we never considered there to be any rivalry).

"Hey -I made £2.00!" Not bad -snicker-  now to divide that up between 10 contributors! Seriously, no one expected to make big money because it was all for fun. Also, a lot of the creators of the 1980s who made it into comics as writers or artists all started in the Small Press -it was seen as a place where you could hone your skills. It is interesting to note that a few of these creators when asked how they got started in comics tend to gloss over any mention of the Small Press!  It all seems to be "I started writing/drawing and used every opportunity to hone that skill and then DC/Marvel saw my work" I think that is actually shameful.

People ask me how I got started I'll tell them.  Putting together a school magazine (Greenway Boys School, Bristol, 1972) titled Starkers -The Magazine That Tells The Naked Truth which was a title suggested by our Deputy Head, Mr Wright. Getting everything together, drawing, typing on the stencils for the Gestetner copier and then....getting banned by the Head because one of the secretaries complained about the title (yes, there was more to it because I was seen as an "H-dropping" pain-in-the-ass by the snobbish head and his school kid cronies).

Then I got work with a printer.  I then started working with the early photocopiers.  I wrote articles on everything from nature to astronomy and history and then I decided I wanted to get into publishing so I got friendly with those folk as well as editors and distributors and even stupidly spent money buying rights to certain characters/publications (see one of my previous big posts -they are there somewhere).

Putting all of this together helped in making dummy copies of proposed titles to submit to publishers.  Some of those titles, such as Preview Comic got a few people into permanent comics work both in the UK and US.  Then there were scripts for London Editions, Fleetway/Egmont, Marvel UK and so on.  And even while doing my comic work (and the officially unofficial other job) I was writing comic articles for publications such as Comics FX and other publications promoting comics and particularly the Small Press which has never gotten even 2% of the publicity 'real comics' do.

Today, obviously and I never ever do this any other way, all art is (c) the artist. If the contributor wrote and drew something then it is all (c) the creator. Even if I lost out I made sure contributors got something.  But then you hit the big problems.

You learn, quite by accident, that an artist you have written a script  for and who then with no explanation break all contact, are actually trying to sell the strip with a couple of character name changes.  When found out and contacted over this there is either silence or "Oh, I thought you'd left comics" -right.  Then you have the artist who wants to have full control over the end product which includes changes made "to make it better" and believe me I have had artists change characters names, sex and even whole chunks of story because they feel they know better.  That just is not on.  The writer writes and the artist draws -perhaps making an odd change to make action flow.

I have had one artist ask me to draw character sketches because he just could not understand what I meant by stating the right hand side of a characters body was all robot while the left was wholly human.  Another had to have a sketch when I described a central tower in a city had, at the very top,  a clock face on each of the four sides...?

Then you get an email out of the blue "I don't want this published unless I get a 60% royalty deal, a page fee and creative rights"  hmmm.  Or, you publish after putting a lot of work into a book and the artist then says he doesn't want to be associated with it because it might affect his work prospects with Marvel or DC???

You will also get artists who email every single week asking about sales.  "You can't be doing enough to promote the book!" And then there are the artists who complete books and simply vanish.  They no longer answer emails and so the book HAS to be withdrawn.  Or the families of people you have worked with....don't even get me started on that.

There are no huge profits in Small Press publishing and Independent comics will not make you rich!  So, as a publisher you have to make decisions that affect your output.  Books are withdrawn. Decisions are made so that you no longer have to rely on other creators and all the problems associated with them.

Black Tower no longer accepts proposals from creators.  Everything is in-house and there are only two creators...and a very large selection of books to buy.  No distractions or problems other than those you get normally as the UK largest Independent comics publisher.

The small Press rely far less on collaborations these days.  There are some but more and more it's an individual thing with the creator writing, drawing and publishing the book.  No profit no problem. A profit -nice.

I think the anthology titles of old with any number of contributors will eventually vanish because unlike the doing -it -for- fun days where publishing was smooth and creators did not scream out "I'm a star! Pay me!"

If you ask what money you are going to get out of the Small Press as an artist or writer then the true answer is that you'll be lucky to make any.  And the proof is there if you don't believe me: publish yourself and see all the 'joys' first hand!

Ultra-Updated: Berol Pens, Sharpies and the Drawing Essentials

 Since originally posting this Berol has pulled its socks up so that you can find their Fine line pens rather that6 use the awful Sharpies. A box of 12 (if you cannot find them in a shop) will set you back £9.99 BUT there is a lot of use in these pens.

____________________________________________________________________

When I first wrote this post it was the early 2000s. I've up-dated it a few times since and I have had to drop and change implements as things change.  If  Berol, Sharpie, Spirograph or any other art related company would care to sponsor CBO just get in touch!

My hands are now such that using Chinese brushes is difficult ( I LOVE these brushes and first started with in the mid-1980s after picking some up in China Town (London) while visiting Fleetway and Marvel UK.  Well, no more business trips since the comic industry died and when my old Chinese brushes eventually reached the end of their work lives I purchased a set of Crimson and Blake Chinese brushes from an old Chinese supermarket in Bristol...ten years or more ago.

I just realised it was much longer ago than ten years!!

Here is my article as published in 2016 and I'll update as I go.

Comic Artists and What To Draw With -Berol, Uni Ball and Rotring Tikky Graphic

Considering I had a conversation today with someone who had no idea what to draw comic strips with -he was starting out and was telling me how he was about to order the most horrifically expensive "graphic pens" you can get, which are not much good- I remembered the old post.

I keep getting asked by people trying to get started in the industry what I would recommend to draw with.

Okay, you see an artist uses pure sable brushes or this tech-pen or that one -all very highly priced.  The thing is that unless you are rich or have stepped right into a very well paid long term art job you are wasting money.  For an artist every single penny counts and job security is …well, not something artists get very often! (I have no idea whether I was being sarcastic there -comics and job security??).

I have used Rotring pens (over priced and not great -this was in the 1980s), Guillotte nibs, caligraphy pens and even the very cheapest fibre tip you can get. I HAVE used brushes and still do but mainly for inking in large areas or effects. I used to go to the old Westminster Comic Mart in London and visit China Town to buy cheap brushes and b-i-g bottles of black ink.  I am not joking about big bottles of ink. A bottle would cost under £2.00 which is what you could pay for a 14 ml Windsor & Newton bottle of black ink. Take a look at this -the label went years ago but think of the amount of ink and that saved an artist a LOT of money (I think the bottle last 4 years).

However, if you try Berol you can find Broad and Fine tips but also Handwriting pens that allow you to draw using an even finer line.  You can do almost everything the very expensive pens can and quickly.  The only thing I would say is, once you’ve inked art using a Berol pen give it time to dry and do not try to erase pencil lines straight away as it can smudge.

Since the 1980s I have (despite the fact Berol seem to be harder to find in Bristol) used various pens but the main ones have been Berol Fine and Broad -the line is so good (until the tip wears down and even then are still good) that other professionals have sworn blind that I am using brushes!  And when I say “use” them I mean a lot -the last little stationer I used sold me the pens in the boxes at a discount after the owner saw me looking at the pens and said “You’re an artist, aren't you? You can get a trade discount”! (Was it so obvious -must have been the tatty clothes and hungry look!)

You can also take Berol pens around with you for sketching.

The colour Berol pens I have had little experience with as they are harder to find. However, I knew one artist back in the 1980s (Paul Slydel) who only used Berol colour pens to colour and when I first saw his work I thought he had been using brushes and colour inks.  Hard to find these days and if you do the price can be high.

You have to find the bloody pens first but I’ll come back to that in a while.

 At the moment there are a selection of pencils/pens on my table because I do like experimenting a bit -the joy of being your own publisher is that you can do this. However, the main items I use are these:


 There is the Uni Ball “Eye” which is about 0.5 despite saying “Fine” and most “fine” pens you’ll find in stationary shops and W. H. Smith are 0.5 which is not what I call fine at all.

In fact, the Berol Fine is about 0.3 when new but after usage will get to a 0.5 line but the good thing is, if like me, you live in a cluttered working area with LOTS of brushes, pens and pencils, if you lose your Berol Broad -good for filling in large areas of solid black though BIG areas of solid black I still use brush-ink, then the Fine can handle the Broad’s job!

The effect? Well, I tried drawing with a migraine the other day (the current weather is **** up my head) and my eyes…yeuch.  But I did a rough for a cover I wanted.  Yes, I can see the faults in the illo but no one is perfect and I’d not use this one any way!

I posted it on Face Book and another site and then came the comments -was I using a “dip-pen” (Guillotte nib)? What type of brush was I using?   I explained but some still think I’m joking. Seriously, this was all Berol Fine.

 I did, at one point, use Papermate Rotring Tikky Graphic -these are designed by Rotring but came in a pack of three -0.3, 0.5 and 0.7 -a nice range of nib sizes though I would have loved a 0.1 and 0.2 combination as well.  The three pens cost about £4.95 in Summer 2011 but have currently hit £7.90-£8.00 in Tesco and other outlets so, for me, that is getting too pricey.


There were problems with these pens. I bought about three packs in 2011 and I found pens from different packs began seeping ink from them -just by the red seals you can see in the photo above.  Now, unless they are clogging like the old Rotring pens (and you wonder why so many artists stopped using them?) then there has been a problem in filling them during manufacture. Each 0.7 from two packs got two uses out of them and then…no ink.  This also happened with all three 0.3s which really **** me off. What also annoyed me was that in all the packs I purchased the nibs fell out of the 0.1 as soon as it touched paper.

For, now (2016), £8 a pack of three I just simply would not recommend them. Put it this way, okay, they look sleek and well designed, but a Berol Fine, used properly can do the job of all three -skillfully used the Broad could replace the 0.7 if you had to.

“Spatter” effect.  No, I do not use a computer created effect (NEVER!!!) it is the traditional old way -ink on toothbrush and careful use of the thumb to get the spray right -experiment if you want to try this BUT make sure everything is covered up first and that includes other panels of art on a page you are trying it on!!!  Bit of advice: some of us used to blow onto the brushes  to make the ink splatter out -it'll make you dizzy so stick to thumb on brush!


At the moment I have a big tub of about 50 pens -if you work like me then use a pen. Put it down. Lost,. Next!

 A better view from the side!

These the basics I use:left to right -Uni Pin Fine Line with nibs 0.05/ 0.1/0.2/0.3/0.5/0.8.

Pen #7 is a Pilot Marqueur A Dessin 0.2.

The next a Uni-ball Eye Fine.

Then the Luxol Micropoint 0.5.

The legendary Berol Fine (blue) is next followed by the Berol Broad.  

Now I do have a big tin full of all sized brushes mainly for large solid black areas but you then have to wait for the ink to dry.  So, for speed, that big chunky grey pen is a bog standard Permanent Marker -Berol did them but they are far too pricy.  You can pick these up for 35p each or even packs of four for £1.00.

Nice effects can be achieved with biro pens but that is something you’ll find out eventually through experimentation.

Also, I have used Spirograph effects.  Enlarge them or same size.  Nice results.  In fact, last time someone asked me how I achieved certain effects in an interview people started going out buying sets!  Mad but...


Now, such is Room Oblivion that I have lost all my Spirograph wheels.  They are here but where I have no idea. I was about to order a new set when my sister returned from shopping and carrying a 1965/1966 Spirograph set -complete for £2 from a charity shop. The box is not in perfect condition but these can fetch up to £29 on Ebay.

Lovely photos of the set:

 All seems to be present and correct

 Interior box lid showing the various wheels and what effect they achieve

 There are extra wheels and I forget to put two of the smaller wheels into this display but they are there with the other parts.

 More instructions

 These instructions make what you get today seem almost for dim-wits. This is good stuff and no wonder it won a prize!

 I had to check this several times before I could believe it.  The original Spirograph paper (divided into squares) in wrapper!

 More guides.

 The original base board (thick piece of cardboard) is still there!

 Oh yeah, this may get a lot of useage!

Never ever be afraid to try odd things to see whether they work for you. The computer for a real hands on artist should always be the very last resort for special effects.  Maybe if they had used Spirograph those people who claimed "This is done on the computer!" would know better.  After 40 years Spirograph is still a good tool for me to use.

But as freelance artists tend not to make a lot of money they need to keep costs down so Berol pens are perfect -as are various nib sized gel pens.

Back in the 1980s-late 1990s you could not walk into a supermarket, newsagents or other store without seeing the tubs of Fine and Broad (black as well as the other colours) but today..  Saturday morning I went into W. H. Smith in Broadmead, Bristol and was astounded at what little selection in pens they have -all sorts of brands and prices but generally all 0.5! There was a big  (b-i-g) box of Berol colour pens but at the price Smith’s were asking (I think £20 plus) I didn’t even consider them.  But Broad and Fine black? No. Not one.

In fact, I spent around an hour looking around City Centre shops -not one Berol pen in sight.

This is a great pity because I think that for a working cartoonist/ comics artist/ illustrator there are no better pens. I’m told Berol may no longer be making Fine or Broad pens but as this only came from two store owners who did not seem interested or, at first, know what I meant, I’m hoping they are wrong.

In fact I can add an up-date to this item.  Everyone seems to be stocking Sharpie pens and they are relatively cheap but I hate them.  Firstly, they smell!  Secondly, with fat nibs they are nowhere near as versatile as Berol pens.  A Sharpie cost 65p. A Fine Berol pen set me back £1.00!!!

Berol produce excellent products but they do not seem to be pushing them at all.  Who ever is in charge of promotion and sales -bad job.  Over thirty years I've championed and recommended Berol pens and I still do and it's great to hear budding artists have tried them because of recommendation

Berol needs to get on the ball because I would hate to see those Sharpies be the only pen out there!!

And, yes, I asked Berol twice whether they might sponsor some features on CBO about their pens -supplying a selection so their use could be demonstrated.  Nothing. Not a word.

I have known any number of artists who have no idea how to use a pencil or pen on paper. 90% act very superior to you when you say you are what they call "old school"...but then you have to put up with their nervous breakdowns when their computer or tablet or whatever they use crashes (and they have not saved their work on external storage devices). If you cannot use a pencil, pen or brush and use your hands to draw on paper then you are NOT an artist. You may use a computer to 'draw' but storing up images to copy and paste onto new work because it saves time is without real soul -it's letting the device do the work.

Where's the challenge?
                                                         

(c)2018 Terry Hooper-Scharf

Comics YOU Want To Create Do Not Fit In?

 

Let's get this out of the way: you -YOU- do not want to do super hero, action, horror, sci fi or detective/cop comics and so you feel frustrated.

Why?

With Small Press you can do what you like. Poetry. Haiku. Prose stories -even illustrated prose. There is humour.  There is slice-of-life. You can even have a fantasy feel to the slice-of-life.

The thing is taking into consideration a couple of things.  Are you doing the book for fun? If so, why not.  Is the subject matter something that might interest people enough for them to buy the book? Really, no one is interested in a 24 pager in which you moan that you have to work for a living or ran out of money getting stoned or pished and you've no money for food while at Uni and have to wait until mum and dad send more money.  Seen so many of those.

"My Depression" has its pros and cons especially if its aimed at other people who suffer from depression and want to try to help them or offer advice.

Take a look at publications such as Browner Knowle  
https://hoopercomicart.blogspot.com/2018/12/browner-knowle-10-fnal-issue.html



Or even Dave The Cosmic Oddity and its subject matter.
https://hoopercomicart.blogspot.com/2018/08/dave-cosmic-oddity-return-of-cosmic.html


The thing is that you are not bound to a specific genre -Myra Hancock used to produce zines from Lino cut-outs back in the 1980s. There are so many tools -excluding the computer- out there that you can use and all it takes to produce a unique "You" book is your imagination.

Do not ever think that everything has to be super hero or horror -if you check out the Black Tower Face Book page you will see that we are not limited to one or two genres.  Ignore the people who tell you how big a name they are in comics and that "Your work doesn't really fit into comics" because those people tend to have personal agendas and a narrow view of comics.

Be happy to call yourself a Small Presser -hundreds are doing the home made comic thing and there is no reason why YOU should not.

Try to talk to Small Pressers at events.

Go to Small Press events.

Go to those events and remember what you set out to ask but also remember to have fun and not be too serious!

The Tokyo Comic Con Experience - 2025 EDITION

Zombina and the Skeletones - Mister Jinglehorse

"We're NEVER Given A Break!!"

 

Something that annoys me even though it's what I expect.

Another comment on one of my blogs was going on about how new artists do not get a chance to see their strip work in print and how most small press publishing is all ego promoting.

Since the 1980s if someone sent me sample art and asked if I had a script they could draw to contribute to one of my publications to see their work in print and if they are enthusiastic and at a reasonable level I usually do work with them. They get a couple copies of the book their work is on and I get to fill a book.

I have made that same offer since 1995 on so many sites and not one taker. However, over and over again there are the complaints "No one will give me a chance".

On a number of occasions I have responded with "Send a few sample pages over" and...."How much do I get per page?" I even had one artist who was not that good say he would never work for free as in a year he'd be working for Marvel or DC. Never heard from again.

Dave Gibbons, Ian Gibson, Brian Bolland and many other creators started drawing strips in the small press to get experience and practice.

The internet created a generation of whiners.

"Yeah, but you don't have Western comic strips do you?"

 Well, always foolish to make such a bold statement and turn it also into a question! 

Yes, Black Tower DOES have Western heroes in reprint and original stories.  

Also, the big clue is -if you look at the online store or Black Tower Comic Shop News- is the title and cover with a cowboy on -Hurricane Hurry for one. 

Not to mention Ben Dilworth's excellent Masked Marshal.

You'll find all the details on this blog: https://comicsshopsnews.blogspot.com/

Next!

A Quick Response

 Thank you Davy77.  Yes, I do recall your friend who came up to me at the Bath Comic Mart in the late 1980s and after looking through my work saying I must be an Alex Toth fan.

I was and am but to compare my work with Toth's -no no no no. It might have been comparing how I use solid black and white like Toth.  Forgot to put him on the list for my last post!

Ahh. The 1980s when I still had hair, a full bushy beard and a bladder that could hold 30 gallons for 10 hours!😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Is There Independent Life On Mars?

Weekly Rewind! Ep101: Marvel Legends Star Wars G.I. Joe DC Cryptoids Plu...

Blue Frog Den Comics -There are Houses in the Woods

 

Not read this completely but the point here is that Caitlin at Blue Frog Den comics actually got in touch about There are Houses in the Woods

Strange houses begin to appear in the forest of Hollow Pines, and Wren and Ziggy seem to be the only ones in town to notice. 

Joined by a spunky alien named Whim, the unlikely trio face otherworldly threats, navigate the mysteries of the houses, and uncover secrets that surround the town. 

Friendship and courage are their only keys to survive the dark secrets of Hollow Pines.

Want to learn and see more?  Well here is the link you'll need

https://www.webtoons.com/en/canvas/there-are-houses-in-the-woods/list?title_no=1048185

If I Could Have Chosen ONE Artist To Work With?

 It's that type of post where if anyone comments it is usually to say what a bad choice(s) I have made. Well, you want to know about bad choices in life -I got into comics!! 😈

I was going to go through all my British comics (that is a lie because if I did that I would take a couple months to which you would need to add all the "oh, I haven't read that in a while!") and sort out which would have been my dream artists to work with. Back in the day Massimo Belardinelli was apparently interested (according to then Managing Editor at Fleetway, Gil Page) in Biog (if you knows you know) which was a science fiction-horror-action strip. As usual I handed in a script and a fully rough drawn out strip but then Egmont bought Fleetway so bye-bye.

Mike Western pencilled a Leopard From Lime Street illo which I inked but the artist apparently disappeared so Gil Page was talking to a Spanish artist to draw. Why it never appeared? Egmont.

John ("Coop") Cooper was interested in one strip but then he had an eye operation and.... if there was one British artist I would have given my left testicle to work with it was Coop.

There were a number of Spanish and Italian artists working for Bastei Verlag (Germany) I loved the work of but that never came to be as one I and an editor decided on to work on D-Gruppe (I say "I" but come on -the editor decides!) but...ahem....Egmont.  Hans Rudi Wascher I would have been happy to lose another testicle over to work with (why this obsession with losing testicles???).

Well, I decided that I would just take the hits by selecting American artists and it is not a complete list just the ones that I grew up with and really inspired me. 

First up -Paul Reinman. Yep, I know there are people hate him but I have no idea why it just seems that he never got the hype that other artists did even though he was in at the start of the "Marvel Age of Comics". I first noticed his work after buying Radio *Archie) comics from the eccentric lady at Bristol Book Centre on Gloucester Road in the 1970s. Reinman seemed to be involved as the main force in all the Archie action hero titles including my all time favourite The Mighty Crusaders.

I just like his style and it seemed to have a lot of fun exuding from it and if you can draw a comic that makes some still smile after 5 decades you are okay by me.

Next up is another much maligned artist with a very long and illustrious career (including the original run of the Justice League of America) Mike Sekowsky.  

Initially, as a youngster, I thought to art style looked different to other artists in comics -I was limited by being very young and without realising that there were many comic artists out there!  I think I saw him first on T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents and then Justice League and he did what I think was some beautiful art on the de-powered Wonder Woman -detective and spy stuff he seemed to be made for!  In the 1970s he drew The Brute for Atlas-Seaboard.

Give Sekowsky the right inker and you had pure delight -as proven by samples of his black and white art pages.

And, no, I am not forgetting the work of the inker with any of these artists.

Gil Kane.(Eli Katz)... If I had a third testicle then I'd give that up in this case. Kane's work is well known amongst those who have been in comics for longer than the thirty seconds it seems to make people "comic aficionados" these days. His work for DC and Marvel as well as other companies had the look that you could not misidentify.

Beautiful is the only word that describes his art style which in the early 1960s at DC on the Green Lantern title drew some criticism. WHY were there no backgrounds in the panels?  "Because people only want to see the fight!" Well, thank goodness he changed his mind on that because his backgrounds could be stunning.

And then we have Sal Buscema.

I mean, he was the artist that first drew the Squadron Sinister -later to be Squadron Supreme- and introduced Dane Whitman's Black Knight as an Avengers member! Like many great old artists Marvel dumped him and he ended up tidying the artwork of younger "hot shot" creators to make them publishable.

Hey, he also drew the Silver Surfer, Sub-Mariner and Hulk as a pre-Defenders team who came up against the Avengers.  The man is a legend.

I have always freely admitted that as a youngster I tried to copy his style relentlessly!

You mention Sal then you have to get down on one knee and bow before the great "Big" John Buscema -and if the legend that is Tom Palmer is inking his work -don't faint! 

Yes, I know he was not keen on super hero comics  well that is fine and dandy but he gifted us so much incredible art  and introduced so many characters that filled young (and old) readers minds with fantastic  memories.

This sort of post could go on for days

 A quick mention of some of the other guys and gals. Ramona Fradon whether on Metamorpho, Aquaman or another character had me drooling over her art. 

Marie Severin, sister of another comic great, John Severin, also produced some great action an humour work and outside mainstream comics Donna Barr is top notch. 

Steranko the name says it all. I had no idea who he was as a kid but I knew his artwork and covers used to make my eyes bulge because it was unlike anything I had seen in comics up to that point.

You will notice I have not mentioned Kirby or Ditko and that is mainly because it is a given! 

The great Carlos Pacheco (we nearly did work together). Jim Aparo, Don Heck -another artist I relentlessly tried to draw like!  Gene Colan who brought us so many characters such as Howard The Duck, Blade (there will only be one in movies and that is Wesley Snipes!!!) and Colan's work on Dracula whether the ongoing colour series or later 4 issue black and white series will never be topped.

Yeah, there are a lot of creators out there I would have loved to work  but I have to make do with what they left behind.  And, yes, I realise that from a simple  post I opened up a can of worms because this could well go into a part 2...3...4 and so on BUT there is never any interest or comments on these posts (two people I know who likely will comment -don't let me down!).

So that's a couple hours out of the way and time to rest the eyes and hands and...ooh: eat something!

Until Archie Comics accept my project proposal for The Mighty Crusaders......

Keep smiling!

All artwork and photographs are (c)2025 respective copyright holders