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One Book Completed. One being finished and more on the way!

Well, despite all the setbacks recently I have now finished lettering and editing the Werewolves story for Black Tower Super Heroes Vol. 2 number 1.  

I want to finish off Comic Bits 3 (almost completed) so that it will be a double February release.   

As noted previously I will be reprinting the full strip which I believe was a one off, of a long forgotten  early Silver Age British super hero.  No hints or clues -all will be reviewed in CB 3!

The lettering then needs to start on the Parallel Motions story for BTSH 2 and I am hoping that will appear in March. 

After that a lot of strip work to finish for summer release,

So fingers crossed kiddoes
 

Cinebook Newsletter 217 - January 2026

 

Dear Reader, 2026 is out of the starting blocks, and Cinebook will be there throughout the year with wild and exciting adventures of all kinds, for all ages – we promise! And we start right away with the concluding chapter of Amazonia, in which British spy Kathy Austin must decide what to do with the Nazi submarine full of gold she’s found in Brazil – though there are a few other people who might have their own ideas … She’ll also have to deal with the superpowered albino she was after in the first place. Busy girl, Kathy! In the latest Bluecoats, Blutch and Chesterfield find themselves looking after an extremely young new recruit, Pucky, who enjoys banging on his drum a little too much for everyone’s comfort. But, well, surely you can’t blame a kid for being enthusiastic about his new job, right? What harm could there be in it …? As for Buck Danny, his latest Classics adventure takes us back to the 50s and the Cold War, for a brand-new two-parter full of vanished nuclear scientists, cutting edge supersonic jets, dastardly KGB plans, and a whole lot of edge-of-your-seat dogfights and action sequences. No spoilers, obviously, but it’s another wild ride – and the conclusion comes out next month! Finally, we’d like to let you all know that volumes 1 and 10 of Lucky Luke have been reprinted and are once again available for purchase. Time to complete your collection – or start a new one if you haven’t given the Lonesome Cowboy a try yet! January with Cinebook – new year, new fun! Good news from the UK! Another Cinebook title has made it into the shortlist for the Excelsior Awards: The Bank 1 – The Waterloo Insider is one of the contestants for the Black category award! The Excelsior Awards are an endeavour aimed at encouraging children to read, and the winners are chosen by young readers from hundreds of participating UK schools every year. There are different categories for different age brackets. This year, the Black category is aimed at 'grown-ups': teachers, librarians, and other school staff. Two years ago, Redbeard 1 - A Short Drop and a Sudden Stop! won in the same category. We’ll be crossing fingers for The Bank– and congratulations to the authors Pierre Boisserie, Philippe Guillaume, and Julien Maffre!! Amazonia 5 Leo, Rodolphe and Bertrand Marchal Episode 5 Kathy Austin and her Brazilian Navy partner have finally stumbled upon the lost German submarine but quickly discover that they aren’t the first to set foot in it since it was abandoned. Then Reinhart and the doctor, the two Nazis looking for the gold hidden in the U-boot, arrive … Read more The Bluecoats 19 Lambil & Cauvin Drummer Boy After yet another bloody battle, the Union Army organises a recruiting drive during which Blutch attempts to dissuade an obviously too young boy from signing up. To no avail, though, and before long the kid, Pucky, joins them as … a drummer boy! … Read more Buck Danny Classics 9 Frédéric Zumbiehl, Frédéric Marniquet and André Le Bras Flight of the Rapier 1951. A plane carrying an American general and 40 nuclear technicians makes an emergency landing off the coast of Ireland. When rescuers reach the spot, though, they find nothing – no life rafts, no bodies … The West cannot afford to leave anyone with knowledge of atomic weapons in enemy hands … Read more Amazonia 5 Episode 5 The Bluecoats 19 Drummer Boy

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Black Tower Silver Age Volume 1 -Electroman featuring Electro Girl

 

A4

B&W

52pp 

£8.00

https://www.lulu.com/en/en/shop/terry-hooper/black-tower-silver-age-volume-1-electroman/paperback/product-wqmp6m.html

1951 at the start of the UK Silver Age of comics appeared Electroman! 

Then he vanished to become a legend. 

After 70 years he is back -Dan Watkins a criminal wrongly accused of murder and given the electric chair by the State. 

But then...Dan did not die. He was a reformed person and what is more he had a double existence as newspaper boy Dan Watkins and righter of wrongs - Electroman! 

This collection contains: 

The Birth of Electroman 

The Treasure of El Chimborazo 

The Million Dollar Robbery 

3 Ring Circus 

Electroman and Tim meet Benjamin Franklyn 

The Great Train Robbery 

plus - Electro Girl Battles the Gremlins' Pot-War Plot

Halcon Lord of the Craterland No. 1

 

A4
24pp
B&W
£6.00
https://www.lulu.com/en/en/shop/terry-hooper/halcon-lord-of-the-craterland-no-1-july-2020/paperback/product-7jy675.html

Halcon Lord of the lost craterland. Created by Nat Brand (Len Fullerton) in 1940 for Swan Comics and seen occasionally in various Black tower titles now gets his own one off books thanks to Ben Dilworth. 

Action and fun all the way with stories such as - 

"Alligator", "Lake Monster", "Monkey", "Pteranodon", "Into the Moon" and "Alien". 

The twist ending to "Werewolf" even had the old bearded one surprised!

The Tower of Power!

https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/hoopercomicsuk?srsltid=AfmBOorSyC3ZviomzQOpspxrJDYgAlXrPo_cVaVvklJDGZstS6-f4cqy

 

Sal Buscema 1036 -2026

 

McFarlane Toys DC Multiverse Wally West Flash and Dark Flash

A Quick Update and CB 3

 

 After a few days of set back I can report that I am now up to page 71 of lettering on the next book which means it will be out in February along with Comic Bits 3  

It can take a while but I get there.

Below the unfinished CB3 cover

OOOH

 Anyone notice we went past 6 million views (again)?

The Green Skies Vol. 3 Part III

 

 A4

B&W

208pp

£16.45

https://www.lulu.com/en/en/shop/terry-hooper/the-green-skies-vol-3-part-iii/paperback/product-kj6r7r.html?page=1&pageSize=4

The gathered Sol Defence fleet is prepared to make its final stand led by Johnny Apollo the Z Man. If it fails to halt the invaders then the doomsday weapon will be detonated and destroy the entire Sol System. 

Meanwhile, unaware of the threat in space, Jack Flash, the Avenger and others prepare for a final show down with the Many Eyed One; a final confrontation they know they do not have the power to win. 

Is this Humanity...the Earths...final day?

The Green Skies Vol. 3 Part II

 

A4

B&W

126pp

£15.33

https://www.lulu.com/en/en/shop/terry-hooper/the-green-skies-vol-3-part-ii/paperback/product-nj7wqr.html?page=1&pageSize=4

Following on from events in Green Skies V. 3 Part I the Clone Zone Boyz are increasing in number while those who created them, the Vampirons, continue to plot and await the arrival of their 'God' -The Many Eyed One. 

The Druid finds that his physical and mental state are deteriorating and even the Rev. Merriwether cannot help him. 

Shockingly, the Clone Zone Boyz claims someone close to Merriwether and this leads him to team up with two 'unsavoury' characters. 

In space Krii and Tyn hrrn face a seemingly unstoppable enemy. 

On The Moon the Selenites and representatives of other worlds meet and decide that Johnny Apollo, the Z-Man, is the only one who can lead the counter invasion fleet. 

With the enemy striking Mars and then the Moon things look grim

The Green Skies Vol. 3 Part I

 

A4

B&W

124pp

£15.34

https://www.lulu.com/en/en/shop/terry-hooper/the-green-skies-vol-3-part-1/paperback/product-5j4y7e.html?page=1&pageSize=4

It all began in 1987 and the Black Tower Universe has seen alien attacks, heroes kidnapped to be put into the middle of a war of the gods. 

Despite the deaths and losses the heroes -crime fighters, super powered and members of the magical union have come back but now unaware that alien races are escaping through the Sol system and that a mysterious space fleet is heading towards the inner planets, they find themselves trapped or distracted. 

The Many Eyed One is finally coming. 

The Multiversal Council has quarantined Earth and forbidden any to help. 

The evil has spread and there is treachery striking at the very core of Earth's defenders

Phantom Detective -The Hellfire Cab

 

Ben R Dilworth
A4
B&W
14pp
£6.18
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

The Collected Ben R. Dilworth

 

Ben R. Dilworth
A4
Illustrated text/Haiku
84 pages
paperback
Price: £12.38
 Ships in 3–5 business days
 http://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper-scharf/the-collected-ben-r-dilworth/paperback/product-21848146.html

Collecting together the best selling illustrated prose of Ben R. Dilworth.

In Osaka Brutal, the Haiku Gold Belt holder presents his own personal Haiku beating the ear drums like a Taiko ensemble!

In Aesop's Fables the childhood favourites become rather darker and threatening. 
Originally intended for his own daughter, Dilworth had second thoughts because of the darker stories. You never heard these fables at Sunday School!

Osaka Brutal

 

Paperback

A4

12 Pages

Price: £5.17 (excl. VAT)

Prints in 3-5 business days

http://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper/osaka-brutal/paperback/product-16356832.html

When Ben Dilworth revealed he had a Golden Belt award for Haiku and offered up a book titled “Osaka Brutal” my first thought was that I was going to get a nob-stop martial arts classic based in Osaka, Japan.

I was slightly disappointed.

Osaka Brutal  is a collection of llustrated Japanese Haiku by a very tall Englishman living in Japan.  If you have never come across Haiku before this may surprise you but there are a great many people in the UK and Europewith an intense interest in the art.

Black Tower got the Golden Belt wearer though!

The Masked Marshal & Friends

 

A4

B&W

18pp

£7.00

https://www.lulu.com/en/en/shop/terry-hooper/the-masked-marshal-and-friends-no-1/paperback/product-7jpnzd.html

 He rode the Wild West dispensing two gun justice and wore a mask. Driven by the need to exact justice and bring law to the West, the Masked Marshal had no idea the cost he would eventually pay. 

In this comic the Marshal is joined by other popular Black Tower characters such as The Iron Warrior, The Clock, The Owl and the Purple Hood. 

Dilworth, Stransky and Labatt producing more action and fun

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THANK YOU

 Things are a bit slow at the moment but THANK YOU to those who regularly visit CBO. You may not comment but it is appreciated.  Today (1245 GMT)

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The Greatest Hero From Every State S-V

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Hey, "Greg" -these are the facts

 Someone from the United States said that with international shipping and tariffs it would be too expensive to buy Black Tower comics.  

Let me explain this AGAIN: the company I used is American and despite being in the UK I still have to pay US taxes. Now, the online store means that if you order a book you see it in your regional currency and you will also see the shipping costs which are local. 

The books themselves are printed in the region they are ordered from so USA -printed in USA. Australia -printed in Australia -you get the point?  No overseas shipping or tax and you put work into local companies and money into the local economy.

In fact, the printers and print on demand company do far better out of sales than I ever do. Fact of life.

If you select a book it will take you to shipping at which point you can see the LOCAL charges and IT DOES NOT MEAN YOU ARE BUYING THE BOOK it just let's you see what it will cost.  

It is really that simple and as a struggling Independent publisher every sale counts. And there is a world wide audience out there via this blog or just checking the online store. As US comic prices are set to rise more at least you can guarantee Black Tower Books are not going to raise prices and make them unaffordable.

Hopefully, "Greg" appreciates that?

HUGE Vintage Manga and Art Book Event in Tokyo, Japan

Dialogue pages -what are those?

 

Well today I managed to letter and edit 11 pages and it might have been more but for one problem. I do not use scripts but dialogue, etc I will write on the back of pages.

With these pages I wrote notes on separate sheets attached to the art pages. Those notes I put aside while I scanned and tidied up art. I have no idea what happened to them.

Which means I had to make up all the dialogue while sticking to the story and luckily this meant I could add dialogue which was better than in the original.

Gradually getting there and fingers crossed nothing else happens.

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The Lettering Keeps Rolling

 

Okay, so now my fingers are stiff and my neck aches but I have just lettered and edited 12 pages today so that means I am up to page 40 and half way to completing the book.

So exhausted Terry is now off for a painkiller gargle!

See if I can do more pages tomorrow.

Black Tower Comics on Face Book

https://www.facebook.com/groups/219476711895340/members 

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Five More Pages

 Five more pages lettered and edited today.

Well SIX pages as one page plus its source file vanished somewhere so it meant lettering it all again.

Comics are...odd

4000 AI Images a month -is DeviantArt ****** insane?

 I am very seriously considering leaving DeviantArt after decades. What was the final push? This that they sent me where they are pushing AI art over all regular art and even bragging that you can post up to 4000 AI images per month.

 These are people no longer interested in traditional art and so, once everything I am doing is finished I'll be closing the page.

AI is hobby art and NOT real human created art.

McFarlane DC Multiverse Page Punchers Zatanna, Detective Chimp, The Elon...

DEN in Neverwhere by Richard Corben

No Idea How Long It Will Last But....

 

The eye problem (likely cluster migraines) has gone for now so managed to letter, edit and re-size nine pages today.

If things hold up like this the book (you know that werewolf one) should be out by February.

The Greatest Hero From Every State O-S

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Bit video heavy over the last day or so but until my eyes get better....enjoy the vids (they seem popular enough)

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The Amazing Art & Sad Deaths Of OGDEN WHITNEY & JOHN FORTE

 This was first posted circa 2000 and last time 2017. Sadly most links were removed as the various sites did not last as long as CBO!

A LOOK AT TWO GREAT GOLDEN & SILVER AGES ARTISTS

I need to start this posting off with a little bit of back-story. I have written and posted numerous times before about how the old Alan Class Comics  were a mainstay in my childhood reading.  Most of the artists I loved the work of but, for some reason, I got "tickled" by that of John Forte and Ogden Whitney.

I began trying to find out more about these two artists and, eventually, in 2004, published this very article on the old Freeservers CBO which ran alongside the main one. 

I then re-posted to the main Word Press CBO.  Here I got a tirade of a comment from someone (I cannot even remember his name now) accusing me of stealing the entire thing from a magazine published in the US -I think a fanzine but I'd not heard of it.  I suggested that he  "wind your neck in" and explained that I had spoken and written to many people between 1979-2004 trying to gather more info on Ogden Whitney.  I heard no more. 

Someone trying to start a little "internet flame war" to increase his blog stats?  No idea.  Don't care. Or he might well have been someone who considered the artist his property to research and I've come across that before.

So, if that person reads this again -feck off.  Don't even bother trying to comment or whine on.  All my posts are backed by research notes and correspondence.

Now, on to what really matters -John Forte and Ogden Whitney!

*************************************************************

As a comic historian, specialising mainly in British comics, I have a meagre collection of  Class Comics.  These were black and white reprint comics of between 62-100 pages and published by Alan Class between 1962 to the early 1980s.  Class had gotten agreements to reprint strips from the big boys at Timely/Marvel, ACG, Charlton and others.

At a time when getting US comics was a little hit-and-miss,to me,as a kid of the 1960s,these Class Comics were a treasure trove! I first saw FING FANG FOOM! [wonderfully returned to us recently in EXILES] and many Kirby and Ditko classics “anyone recall the strip “I RELEASED SHAGG UPON THE WORLD!”?

There were plenty of MLJ/Archie reprints such as the adventures of The Fly, Jaguar and so on. But there were various science fiction and spooky tales added to these issues.

Two artists work struck me as a youngster,though it wasn’t until the 1980s that I tried to find out more about them -an interest re-kindled whilst cataloguing the issues I had.  Ogden Whitney and John Forte seemed to have no written history and I asked any pro artist or writer I met at UK conventions if they knew anything about them....many returning blank expressions.

 

No photographs can be found of Whitney, but there is his self-penned illo for and ACG book. Which I reproduce here!

I learnt that Ogden had become a comic book artist during the late 1930s and drew for A-1 Comics and Big Shot Comics. It became quite obvious that fans loved the way Whitney drew women!  So,working on Romantic Adventures and Wedding Bells was quite natural and I have to admit some of the work leaves me in awe!

But,Whitney was not just a “good girl” artist;he was reknowned for his drawings of automobiles as well as work on war strips and for horror comics such as Adventures Into The Unknown.

Tower Comics also gave Whitney the opportunity to work on T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents NoMan as with the story “The Good Subterranean” [NOMAN #1, November,1966]. A very distinctive style!

For those interested in Golden Age heroes,Whitney is probably better known for the character Skyman “the character even made a cameo in HERBIE #8,1965. For DC in the 1940s he had drawn Sandman and a strip called “Cotton Carver” but World War II meant “call up”.

All I have managed to find out about Whitney’s war-time is that he saw service in the Phillipines.  Interestingly enough, in the same outfit was another comics artist and a person who had worked with Whitney both at DC and the Columbia Comic Group -Fred Gaurdineer.

Happily,after the war Whitney continued his comic work,though it has been said that he had often tried -“unsuccessfully- to break into the more lucrative advertising market. Whether this was purely for the money or through disenchantment with comics I wouldn’t like to guess.

Luckily, the Editor at the American Comics Group, Richard E.Hughes, was a former “old-timer” and gave Whitney work.  I’ll put my hands up and declare here-and-now that I know next to nothing about Hughes except that he often gave work to those considered as “fading comic book artists” -I should draw so well as those old boys!

 

Richard E. Hughes introduced a number of characters to comics such as John Force,Super Katt,The Black Terror and the Fighting Yank.  Hughes created characters under an amazing number of pseudonyms ;there is even a silly rumour on the internet that Hughes was Julius Schwartz!  And in Michael Vance’s “Forbidden Adventures: The History Of The American Comics Group” [page 43] it is stated that Frederick Iger voiced the opinion that Richard E. Hughes was actually a Leo Rosenbam! 

In fact, if I may, I’d disagree as people were still referring to his widow as Mrs Hughes years later....ahh, what a tangled web they leave us!

Now, Hughes or Rosenbam, it was as “Shane O’Shea” that he created a legend. Nay, more than a legend!  This boy..this Herbie!

 

Herbie Popnecker  was a rotund, basin-haircut, spectacle wearing and lollipop sucking kid! The first appearance of this youth was in Forbidden Worlds #73 [1958],a science fiction, fantasy and horror title that,as far as I can tell, had never before featured continuing characters.  Obviously Hughes must have realised there was something special about Herbie. 

 The story “Herbie’s Quiet Saturday Afternoon” was typical ACG fair; Herbie was hated by his peers because he was over-weight,slow and had an addiction to lollipops. However,unknown to his school mates and even his family,Herbie had vast and certainly undefined super powers. During the course of the strip,Herbie used his powers several times and even foiled an alien invasion -before anyone even knew there was an alien invasion!  By the end of the story Herbie was back to enduring the taunts of other kids. 

 

Another Herbie story appeared in Forbidden Worlds #94 after popular feed-back. Then came a third strip in #110.  Pretty soon Herbie was appearing in each issue.  It’s rather interesting that Whitney,said to be a rather “big man”,is said to have based Herbie on his own appearance as a boy.

In May,1964,Herbie got his own book which ran until #23 [February,1967]. Settings for Herbie adventures and genres included the Wild West, pirates, science fiction and so on. Then Herbie took the super hero route and became “The Fat Fury” [very politically incorrect,of course!].  In #14 [January,1966] ACG’s two other mystical heroes,Nemesis and Magicman guest-starred.

 

With Herbie gone fans felt disappointed but not long afterwards ACG ceased publishing. Hughes went to DC to write.  Whitney got work at Marvel where he drew several issues of The Two Gun Kid and some covers for Millie The Model and one odd collaboration with Jack Kirby in Strange Tales #149,a Nick Fury Agent Of  S.H.I.E.L.D. story. In this Fury looks exactly like Herbie’s father, Pincus Popnecker -plus eye-patch!

 

 .

But what happened to Whitney who seems to have vanished from comics in,it seems,the late 1960s?  Hughes widow has told comic enthusiasts that the couple used to socialise with the Whitneys up until Mrs Anne Whitney died in the late 1960s [1968?]. 

 

 There has also been confirmation of Mrs Hughes’ claim that Whitney had been a functioning alcoholic, a not completely unknown condition amongst old time comic pros who spent days in isolation, working late into the night week-after-week trying to keep up with deadlines. But there is nothing in Whitney’s printed work to show this.  

Whitney apparently ended up in a nursing home after a nervous breakdown following his wife’s death and the effects of drink and died of a possible stroke in the early 1970s -possibly 1972?

 

Alcohol, sadly, as we have read before in cases cited in Alter Ego magazine, has led to many an untimely death amongst old comic pros.

 https://dominobooksnews.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/fw_52_301.jpg

Perhaps, one day, a comic historian based in New York can do some in-depth research on Whitney.  For instance, after all these years I have been unable to find out whether the Whitney's had any children. One source said there was a son and daughter but another said there were none. If there are any offspring could they add more to our knowledge?

 

The other artist, John Forte Jnr I know a lot more about.  Born in 1918, Rockaway, Illinois. In Forte's case at least we have a photograph that, originally, took me a few years to get hold of.  I've not seen it used elsewhere so here you go!

Forte started work at Timely in 1941 but also worked for other companies in the 1940s and 1950s,including ACG horror comics and romance comics for both Timely and Quality Comics. When DC purchased Quality Comics in 1958,Forte moved along with the company.

 

Above -I believe the very first Tales Of The Legion Of Super Heroes story from Adventure Comics 300, 1962.  Artist Al Plastino for many years had to "re-touch" faces in strips and I believe this is one of those instances!

 

above: Forbidden Worlds 61 Dec 1957

Forte had pencilled some early Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane stories and had even inked some Curt Swan pencils -as in “Superboy Meets Supergirl” in Superboy#80,April,1960.  Of course, to fans of the original -“the genuine"-  Legion Of Super Heroes will be aware that it was with this series that Forte made his mark. 

And as for Adventure Comics 300, well, I have just found a blog dealing with that issue in detail (better page scans, too!) called Days Of Adventure -http://adventurecomicsblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/adventure-comics-300-september-1962.html

Forte had made his name drawing those fantastic fun tales featuring the Bizarro World and moved over to draw the LSH with,as far as I can tell,Adventure Comics #304,January,1963, And the story “The Stolen Super Powers”.

 

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNgi7mUaMyPoeegh87WLAAXYtFjuGY6-kJ4akaaWXoWw1QD-hNaKHlpHfnvDiOehPK_u9T4xUxztIFpdD8Nqpty_gjbTFDWFadm-ehxH6EBKjvxfvu8IWegLQkN4xlnvLbZlHRgBMhFvS5/s1600/arrowhead_004_20.jpg

Above: Some of Forte's work for Atlas Comics in the 1950s. And, good lords! There's even a post about Forte and this strip over at Four Color Shadows!

http://fourcolorshadows.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/tecumseh-john-forte-1954.html

 

But suddenly, in 1965, Forte left comics.  To many of us this seemed odd but the usual assumption was that he had moved on to other comics we weren’t getting in the UK or he had, quite simply, left the industry.

The sad truth was that Forte had left to fight colon cancer. From what I can uncover, he lost that fight and died in hospital in New York  in mid-1966.

I would,if permitted, like to make an appeal here to any of the old time pros who worked or had contact with Whitney or Forte -even fans who may have had commissioned sketches drawn by these men. 

 

We would all like to think that those creators who brought us many hours -many years- of fun and entertainment simply slip into their sunset years and live on through their work.  For me it was a sad day when I finally learned the truth about Ogden Whitney and John Forte but at least we still have their fantastic archive of work to look back on that will go on forever!

 

 And I have JUST found another blog with an entry on Forte!  Destination Nightmare:

 http://creatfeatforever.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/cartoonists-make-better-lovers-john.html  see -good taste does show through eventually on all things!

But for me, in 2015, it's back to trying to find out more about British Golden and Silver Age creators we know next to nothing about!

Fin.