Independent Comic Albums, Graphic Novels And Weird Stuff

Black Tower is a UK based publisher of Independent books

To contact me please check out "About" thanks!

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

Black Tower Comics began in 1984 as a Small Press publisher of A5 (US -Digest size) titles such as Adventure,Presents,Windows and Hanley's Garage.  Then came the news, reviews, previews and interviews publication backed up by the mart and mail order service -Zine Zone (later Zine Zone International).

In 2009, with the innovation in publishing of Print On Demand (POD), Black Tower jumped in head first!

One of the first titles to see print in the new comic album format (A4) was The Bat Triumphant! This saw the complete story, begun in Black Tower Adventure vol. 1.  William A. Ward's long lost 1940s character once again saw print as he fought a host of  enemies in an attempt to reclaim his homeland.




And while The Bat may have fought fist and nail to reclaim his homeland, another 1940s Ward creation, Krakos the Egyptian, seemed far from willing to claim a new Egyptian Empire as promised to him by the Gods.  Tackling a number of foes and even encountering the Many-Eyed One, Krakos turned his back on the gods and the final panel of Krakos -Sands Of Terror, delivered a true twist!




Of course, the flag-ship title had to return!  And so Black Tower Adventure -eventually reaching new heights when the legendary Ben Dilworth jumped on board!  Volume 2 consisted of  ten issues. Just look at these covers....



 

The Independents!

 

Jemma Webster, Ben R. Dilworth, Paul Ashley Brown and Terry Hooper-Scharf

A4

Black & White

98 Pages

Price: £8.00

Ships in 3–5 business days

 http://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper/the-independents/paperback/product-22522001.html

 

Collected together a selection of the best Independent comics from Black Tower -

 

Jemma Webster's AUTOPSIA 

Small Press Guru Uhuru Paul Ashley Brown's now out of print big seller THE TALL TREES 

A selection from the legend that is Ben R. Dilworth 

Oh, and Terry Hooper-Scharfs "Go Bo Explains Einstein." 

 

 

And, with something like 40 years worth of files and investigation reports could all that much delving into UFOs, lake and sea creatures and many other mysteries not result in a book or two...or three? Some Things Strange & Sinister, Some More Things Strange & Sinister as well as Pursuing The Strange and Weird: A Naturalist's Viewpoint set a precedence.

Whereas for decades those involved in "UFOlogy", "Cryptozoology" and "Forteana" declared many mysteries, that photographs were lost "to history" and so on, these three books swiped away the false claims.  Alleged lost photographs -found.  'Mysteries' solved by doing actual research work and reading the sources -something others had never done.


And, of course, mention natural history and Black Tower Books broke new ground with that in The Red Paper: Canids.




But not all the prose books covered mysteries and wildlife.


And if there is one thing "Herr Professor" loves it is discovering and presenting long lost UK Golden Age (1939-1951) comic strips and characters from publishers such as Gerald Swan, Foldes, Denis M. Reader, Cartoon Art Productions and others.

Scanned and restored as best as can be considering the poor print quality of the rationing years -especially red, orange, yellow, blue and purple ink printing!

Ace Hart The Atomic Man!  The Tornado!  TNT Tom!  Dene Vernon!  Acromaid!  Cat-Girl! Bring 'Em Back Hank! Robert Lovett:Back From The Dead and so many other action heroes and humour strip characters -William A. Ward, Jock McCaill and a host of known and unknown creators contribute -either in single volume " Black Tower Gold" albums or all six collected into the 400+ pager -The Ultimate British Golden Age Collection!





Another great love is Centaur Comics from the United States.  Right at the very start of the American Golden Age of Comics Centaur had creators who were ahead of the others!  Before Plastic Man there was Plymo!  Before The Human Bomb there was TNT Todd!  Before Green Arrow and waaaaaaay before Hawkeye there was the mysterious red hooded archer called The Arrow!  And, to just break your comic mind world there was even a Black Panther -decades before Kirby came up with his character of the same name.

The Eye Sees All.  The Owl. The Iron Skull.  Amazing Man. The King of Darkness.  The Invisible Terror. The Blue Lady. The Shark. Mini Midget & Kitty.  Mighty Man. Super Anne.  The company may have been short-lived but it's characters -oh boy!

The two volume Centaur Heroes Collection has been compiled into one sweet 140 page comic collection!


Horror. Ghost stories.  The twist-in-the tale.  Did you think that a publisher who is a big horror comic/film fan would ignore these?

Nope.  Each year since 2010, BTCG has published a Tales Of Terror anthology album and 2014s included some fun and spooky lost Swan Comic strips.  I mean how can you go wrong -even Ben Dilworth is in these!

 

The Church Of England has it's own basher of dark forces in the Reverend Merriwether -"God's Demon0-Thumper" as the press billed him.  From an ancient Egyptian demon to a village of the damned and Varney the Vampyre, werwolves and a final confrontation with Satan himself -Merriwether pulls no punches and offers no compromise.  And in those last few seconds between life and death, Merriwether's mind recalls past cases -thanks to Ben Dilworththe Tall Man of Osaka.

Merriwether: God's Demon Thumper and Merriwether: The Test Of Satan are available as individual comic albums or in one swanky book The Collected Merriwether: God's Demon Thumper.

 

Oh, did I forget to mention Dene Vernon -British comics' first investigator of the supernatural and strange mysteries?  I did? Unbelievable since Gavin Stuart Ross drew the 1948 based Dene Vernon: The Thing Below!

 


 And did you know Ross also drew the two adventures of Victorian mystery man Chung Ling Soo? Chung Ling Soo: The Curse Of The Jade Dragon and Chung Ling Soo: The Case Of The Thames Serpent were two cracking tales of magic, adventure, murder and deception -still available as single comic albums or collected together to form The Adventures Of Chung Ling Soo!









Ben Dilworth is no slouch either!  Chung Ling Soo's police "counter-foil" isnone other than old London "Jack" (police man) Inspector Wilberforce and when Dilworth says "Here's a Wilberforce one-off: PUBLISH IT!" you do not argue!





And did you know you can be a Gold Master of Japanese Haiku?  Well, neither did I -but guess what?  Ben Dilworth is such a master and his Osaka Brutal features his Haiku in English!

 

Old saleman that he is, Dilworth just keeps on going.  He produced Aesop's Fables -a darker version of the childrens tales and then went on to write two well illustrated prose albums looking at spirits and demons -Dilworth's Japanese Yokai and Dilworth's Western Yokai.  Osaka and the Yokai books were combined with Aesop's Fables into the one volume The Collected Ben R. Dilworth -though the single volumes are also still available.

Horror comics yes but also some nice illustrated prose from Dilworth in...Dilworth's Horror & Ghost Stories but for the connoisseur those stories were collected together with the Phantom Detective comic strips into The Complete Phantom Detective!

And could anyone forget the sensational Iron Warrior Versus Big Bong:When Giants Fought? But add to that the various Iron Warrior strips from Adventure and you get The Iron Warrior Collection -When Giants Fought!  In the 1940s, William A. Ward's creation was to be the most graphically violent comic strip seen until the 1970s.  That is some legacy. It continues....with a touch of fun!



In case you are wondering, yes, obviously there are super heroes.  Mix in ancient pantheons of gods, giant robot, alien invasion, Lovecraftian dark ones and so much more that the book runs to over 320 pages then you have part 1 of Terry Hooper-Scharf's Invasion Earth Trilogy" or as it is titled Return Of The Gods: Twilight Of The Super Heroes!  And epic ending with the words: "Dr Morg has killed us all" -and if you have never read the mind altering counter actuality that is The Dr Morg Trilogy you may be saying "What? Who-?"

And part 2 of the trilogy The Cross Earths Caper ought to get you in the mood for 2015s big 31st Anniversary third part of the trilogy The Green Skies.


 

If you pass the ESTC (Epileptic Seizure Test Cover) on Dr Morg well, you are fit and healthy enough to read it and to check out all the Black Tower Comics and Books at the online store -see why we are the UKs largest publisher of  Independent Comics!

What Happened To All The Comic Vloggers and Bloggers?

Firstly, my thanks to whoever purchased the British Golden Age collection from Italy -all customers appreciated -Thank you!

Now, I mentioned last year that the number of Comic Book Chiq Geeks who jumped onto comics when it became hip and trendy (the hipsters then jumped to the grow -a-beard hipster chiq movement -which is dying out pretty fast -beards are for life now just to be hip) seemed to be declining in number?

See, I was right and we have seen a glut of comics being dumped along with graphic novels and I've heard from one comic fan who got 2014/2015s DC and Marvel books out of a skip.  In boxes, bagged and boarded and according to the apartment manager (where the find was made) the person who dumped the comics "Wouldn't stop talking aboutr comics -the year before it was some other craze -this month its music!"

It's no isolated incident either when you consider swhops in the UK and US can't get rid of a lot of stock and they tell people there's no money in the books they've sold them as "investments" and no, they do NOT want to buy them back -bins/skips.

A year ago I used to sit down on a Wednesday or Thursday and spend 3 hours or more watching the comic collectors on You Tube.  One channel after another has vanished so that now only three long time comic collectors put up videos though only once or maybe twice a month. I now get to watch 15-30 minutes....whenever.

A couple of "nerds" (I try to hold down the vomit) persist but their voices and completely over the top "Geek Dens" raise my blood pressure.

The number of channels and comic You Tubers to vanish is far more than I thought and "Comics isn't for fakers -I'm in this for life!" has, uh, found a new interest in old long playing records....well,he did but moved on to a motorcycle and now...who knows!

And comic blogs have been left with no updates in a year.

Perhaps time for a not high production regular vlog (that's Video Blog but you knew that) on comics other than Marvel, DC, Image or that other company?

Who knows.

Stay tooned, CBOers!

System Crash Magazine 2

System Crash No. 2 

A4

Black & White

56 pages

Free shipping within the UK -email for International shipping: details at 

£4.50
http://www.chang31ings.co.uk/storepage2231718.aspx

System Crash is a new comic anthology title from many of the undergrounds top creators : featuring...

Bobby Beetroot
Noel Scotch Anderson
John Orlando
Rick Buckler
Garry Hardman
Dave Gordon
Lee James Turnock
Richard Pester
Chiichanny

The second in a 12 month experiment to bring new and exciting material to your brain.
Grab it now while it's still available.

It has to be hoped that this little experiment works!  If it doesn't then it is a sad day for comics. The mag reminds me a lot of the old late 1970s and early 1980s - I was there-  UK Undergrounds and the mix is really nice.

Of course, David Gordon turns in the quality work you expect and look at that cover. The cover is worth the  £4.50 alone.

Zok and Cosmic Confrontation reminded  me very much of the old Underground comics before they started to become zines -after which the UK Golden Age of Underground Comix was over. But these two strips have that look and feel but are still fresh so should appeal to the newer (or younger) or older reader.

Orlando also has that more American style (I wonder why?) that you could find in some of the 1980s US comix "back in the day" -though, like everything else in this joy of a publication, it is still fresh and a solid read.  But definitely not for the kiddies!

And then....Lee James Turnock.  That's all I should need to write. Much maligned by less talented people, Turnock consistently produces well crafted art and stories...stories that are quite funny -sometimes subtle funny and at other times a sledge-hammer "OMG!" funny.

There is also a very nice four page article, illustrated of course, looking at Classic 70s Toys -Cyborg, Muton and Android.  Obscure comics and obscure action figures/toys are my thing but their back stories are usually really cool and this article taught me quite a bit!

I've said and written a few times (!) in the past that we need less "mainstream" comics and comic magazines that feature pop culture items in the UK.  I think this publication does that well.

I'd like to think that a publication such as this will get good sales and, perhaps, continue after the 12 issue project is supposed to conclude.  If you miss out on these then you'll be paying a fortune for a copy on Ebay in future.

And my review of issue 1 for those who missed it follows art pages!

Above: David Gordon
Below: Bobby Beatroot


Below: John Orlando

Below: Rick Buckler

Below: Garry Hardman and Ed Devore

Below:Richard Pester

And do you REALLY need to be told?  The legend that is Lee James Turnock!!!

Preview

Price: £3.50 (excl. VAT)

Ships in 3–5 business days

 Paperback, 

A4

52 Pages

 http://www.lulu.com/shop/richard-pester/system-crash-magazine-issue-1/paperback/product-22443549.html

 

 

"An assembling of the best in underground comics today, bringing back the era of great sci-fi and fantasy based comics."

 

Now that " assembling of the best in underground comics today" is a tad of an understatement. I mean, firstly, there is David (The British Manara) Gordon -hang on -that alone is worth a £5.00 note, surely? Bobby Beatroot kicks things off with "E-Ternal" but then you have Noel Sanderson and "Sorority Girls In The Doll Asylum of Doom!"...man,if I had the money I'd pay to work with him.  Great art style.  Then we have John ("The Duke of Comics") Orlando turning in an equally great strip -"Cybergen" and Rick Buckler's "Night Devil" -another artist with a great style and kinda talented!Garry Hardman is another artistic talent worth taking note of -"Harry Harry Quite Contrary" is a real eye-catcher.

Dave provides Cliche Girl and Changelings not to forget Buster Cherry -the man is a talent and vastly under-rated and ignored and here he is contributing THREE pieces.  You got brains? BUY!

Oh, and when we speak of under-rated and talented I need to add that none other than that reclusive reprobate of the A0 Board, Lee James Turnock contributes "The Problems of the Young Cartoonist" and, again, that contributes £5.00 worth so just Gordon and Turnock give the book a £10.00 value -and it's being sold for $4.50 -order details as above.

Titan Books: Modesty Blaise - Ripper Jax

Modesty Blaise - Ripper Jax

Peter O’Donnell , Enric Badia Romero
Paperback: 144pp
Black and white
Dimensions: 296 x 220mm

Publication date: 4 March 2016

Illustration detail: b/w newspaper strip 

 ISBN: 9781783298587

RRP £11.99

Continuing the only complete collection of Modesty Blaise adventures! The return of the "ass-kicking femme fatale." Full of classic action and adventure and dripping with '60's chic.

This edition collects four rare stories in one volume for the very first time - Ripper Jax, The Maori Contact, Honeygun, and Durango - the latest volume in the best-selling series by the popular and sadly-missed British crime writer,Peter O'Donnell, continuing Titan's commitment to reprint each and every Modesty Blaise story in order!

I think there are three more volumes after this one which will then make the series complete. The production and packaging of these books -I've only seen four volumes including this one but they are all similar- is excellent.  I've noted before that the newspaper versions were not that great when it came to quality -having done some  newspaper searching recently I came across the daily strips...good but they were cheap newsprint.  The Titan Books are crisp and clean and show Romero's work off beautifully.

The stories are typical Blaise - the build-up then the story proper with action and twists and, considering these were daily strips so designed to be read and thrown away (or bundled up as the next morning's fire-lighters) they are full of character.

Romero.  The name says it all.  With Axa and even weekly UK comics, he proved that he could draw the sexiest women possible.  With his work on Modesty Blaise I think he hit his peak. I love how in one panel Modesty is taking off her bra and next panel she has a top on -pure tease but there were many a teenage boy (possibly girls, too) who got to the public library to check out the Bristol Evening Post...or Modesty Blaise to be exact.  Pure tease but you had no doubt that the character was no push-over. I have many fond memories of, other than Garth, two main strips in the newspapers -Scarth in The Sun and Modesty Blaise in the Bristol Evening Post.

A true comic strip pop icon of the 1960s and 1970s and as the series from start to finish has never been collected before these will be ones to save....you just need to buy the previous 26 volumes!

But it is a book and series I would recommend -especially because of Romero's art.

My Excess Of David Gordon For Tuesday!

I posted the piece about David Gordon's Chang3lings dolls the other day and here are some others I like!

But the man (and his team because if I keep forgetting to mention Lesley things might get...."messy") is not just skilled at producing these one off dolls or ones made-to-order, he is, as I've written before, a fantastic artist so how about a couple of reminders?

 My Excess: David Gordon's Groove Tube Memories 2

By Dave Gordon

Preview

A4

Paperback, 

114 Pages 

B&W

Price: £9.99 (excl. VAT)

Ships in 3-5 business days.

http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/myexcess 

 

 CHECK OUT PREVIEW ART PAGES ON THE WEBSITE!

 

Volume 2 of Dave Gordon's movie and tv related sketchbook. Bringing to life characters from everything from The Wizard of Oz to Guardians of the Galaxy

I'll say this, David Gordon can certainly draw hair!  No joke.  Getting hair to actually look like hair is something even  some of the best comic artists fell short on.  Farrah Fawcett, Cheryl Ladd, Traci Lords (if you have no idea who Traci Lords is...you are very innocent!), Toni Basil -now THERE is a memory! Summer Glau, Carrie Fisher -there are some hair styles and wonderfully rendered.

Everyone knows I'm crap at remembering names, right?  That made it slightly worse for me because I recognised every image on the pages barring one (I have no idea who Traci Lords is) and those whose names are embedded no problem.  But others my head flashed up images from TV and movies and I sat like a dope thinking "Awww, what is her name? She was in--?" ahem.  I didn't notice all the images are identified at the bottom of the page.

I'm old -right!

I think you have images in here for horror, comedy, Sci fi and other genre fans (I really have no idea where to put Traci Lords...): Conan, Alien, Farscape (a great gallery!!) , Blade Runner, Blake 7, Space 1999, Rocky Horror Picture Show, Videodrome, Chucky, Star Wars -quite a gallery- Giger, DeVito (Penguin) and Pfeiffer (Catwoman), Mad Max (the original of course), Big Trouble In Little China, Charlie's Angels, Superman (christopher Reeves of course) and Zod (Stamp), Super Girl (Helen -sigh-Slater), Terminator, Ghost-Busters, a nice Dr Who gallery, Yul Brynner (West World), Jeff Bridges, Divine (Harris Glenn Milstead), David Bowie, John Lennon, Toyah Wilcox, Kate Bush, Betty Grable, Heddy Lamarr, Judy Garland, Greta Garbo (oooh), Cary Grant, Kenny Everett, Joan Rivers, Benny Hill and more.

This really is an incredible "Memory" book.  And, if you don't want to commission an illo, then scan and print the one you want from here and put it on a black border...instant art that people WILL comment on. But they'll comment more if it's a commission piece....

I've gone through this book FIVE times and I only got it yesterday!  It has put a few smiles on my face which is a rarity these days.

David Gordon is just so ****** talented.  There are other books on his store front and the powerful Cosmic Oddity I will NEVER stop pushing at people -a review....

 I've Highly Recommended This On Amazon And I Do The Same Here: Dave -A Cosmic Oddity

David Gordon

MyExcess

A4
Black & White
Paperback, 

106 Pages

Preview

Price: £12.99

Ships in 3–5 business days
http://www.lulu.com/shop/dave-gordon/dave-cosmic-oddity/paperback/product-21852269.html

and Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dave-Cosmic-Oddity-Gordon/dp/1326048422/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1428595842&sr=1-1&keywords=Dave+-A+cosmic+oddity

The biography of Dave Gordon, often called "the UK's Manara". Detailing Dave's origins and relationships, this is an insight into one of UK comicdoms best and most under-rated creators.

I got this book handed to me by the postman (mailman if you are American) at 1300 hrs and by 1500 hrs I had read it through.

This is David Gordon -the UKs very own Milo Manara- telling his story.  From his birth and adoption, three days later , through family life, school, university, work and later trying to contact his birth mother.

Dave takes us through his life and troubled relationships with himself (2014) narrating and flashback images and sequences of events.  The style he uses in this book, being honest here, I saw at a glance and thought "not sure about this".  However, I realised the clever way the art had been designed and drawn -photos, etc.- actually worked. Even the cartoony flashback-to-situation pages (see below).

What can I write about this?  Gritty -yes.  Factual and being brutally honest and to be equally honest here I do not think I'd have the guts to quite literally open up my chest and let some of these experiences out.  Being pushed away by his adopted family is bad enough but then having to go through his (adoption) father dying of cancer -bad enough.  But we then learn about the abusive relationships (physical and emotional).

There is still the matter of his birth mother and how that might end.  However, Dave is now happily in a relationship with Lesley (I've met her and she seems quite nice for a prison officer -not even a moustache!) and that gives us a sort of happy ending.  But, oh boy, what happened before.

Let me tell you something.  For years I was also an agent for comic creators.  You see good art, you know the writers or artists are reliable so, as an agent you put a spin on things to sell the work.  I've read and reviewed comics and graphic novels for publications and online now for over 30 years.  I see a couple hundred books of one sort or another a year -the crammed bookshelves and floors attest to that.

I cannot think of one book where a creator has taken us through his personal life and things have been so dark and gut-wrenching -even preparing for suicide- that I have said out loud "F***!" so many times. My sister even said "What are you swearing at?"

If this were an independent film it would be getting some award.  A publisher should be paying Gordon to allow them to publish this!  This is superbly written -and it must have taken a lot of thought to put this together without going over the top or exaggerating.  To make it a sequential story interspersed with illustrated text pieces....this is truly what Will Eisner described what graphic novels should be: telling a true and honest story that grabs the reader and pulls them in.

You people out there deciding who gets nominated for an Eagle Award should read this book.

This book should NOT be ignored. If you think "I'll buy just one Independent book...." then PLEASE make it this.

The book has surprised and shocked me - I have heard some snippets over the years but never the whole story.  In fact, you really need to read it yourself because nothing I write here can even adequately do it justice.

 
And just in case I did not make it clear: I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK AND YOU REALLY OUGHT TO BUY A COPY!!!

And check out Book 1 of Groove Tube Memories. Plain lovely!

Oh, and if you miss out on these books you may well need to see a psychiatrist.

Jerk-offs Do NOT Count

Wondering WHY your comments have been removed?  Well, I have not the slightest interest in your anger because I've met one of you and you do have a low IQ and a brown nose.

I want to hear from the real comic people out there who are self publishing.  Those are the important people.

UK comics are dead.  Suck it up.

Come On Steve!

I have a couple of the Steve books but this old article needs airing while I still live!

Steve The Horse Comic Strip,DVD and Mystery Statuette

Here's a re-post from the old WordPress CBO that never made it here!

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

There is,for some of us,a fascination for early British comics and the characters/creators.  Ally Sloper and Steve The Horse I have tried to deal with on my Yahoo British Comic Books Archives group.

And,about five years ago I used pages of art sent to me by the late comic historian Denis Gifford to produce an A5 tribute publication to Roland Davies creation,Steve The Horse –“Come On Steve”.

above:Roland Davies Studio.  Davies is in the cardigan and Steve statue to right

I knew Davies had been involved in animation and had produced features.  However,I guessed that I’d never see these as buying 9.5mm 1930s film seemed like a fantasy.

Until,quite by accident,I was looking for more Davies info when I came across a site run by Grahame L. Newnham and well worth checking out if you have an interest in Pathe or other old films:

www.pathefilm.freeserve.co.uk

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I was an advertisement of Newnham’s for “Come On Steve!”—a complete collection of the character’s animated features on a DVD.  And the price was perfect!

Sadly,ill health put all idea of buying a DVD out of my mind. However,when I recovered and realised that I hadn’t ordered it -I did!

The disc includes:

Steve’s Treasure Hunt  [1936]

Steve Steps Out       [1936]

Steve Of The River  [1937]

Cinderella Steve   [1937]

Steve In

Bohemia  [1937]

Steve’s Cannon Crackers  [1937]

Bal Costume [French Silent version] 1937.

With a wonderfully vintage sound track it might be that some would find, in these somewhat ridiculously over the top politically correct times,Steve Of The River a little “racist” in its depiction of African natives.  But I am totally opposed to retro censorship of historical images [such as using computers to remove the cigar from the mouth of engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel!]. This was the 1930s and the truth is that not everyone was racist!  This was the easiest way for a cartoonist to depict natives in a comical film.

So be warned!

The quality for 70+ year old films is great.  I loved some of the wacky scenes featuring things such as a police gyrocopter!

If you don’t like black and white animation then it’s not for you.  But if you have any interesting the history of British comics,the creators and animation you’ll LOVE this! And Grahame included some nice info fact sheets with background and all for £9.95 + 75p p&p!

Check out the website and contact Grahame for current price in case it’s altered. You won’t be sorry in adding this to your DVD animation collection!

But there is an up-date to this.  After reading the above article,Patti Brown contacted me to see whether I could help her identify a Steve The Horse statuette?  I thought that it must be the studio piece [see photo above].

That idea was quickly shot down.  This was much smaller -you can see it below next to a 50 pence piece.  There is no makers stamp or any other information.  Only one thing is certain,though,the quality and glaze means it was a professional piece rather than a one-off a fan made.  And,there is absolutely no doubt that this is Steve The Horse!

I have tried every toy or comic merchandise auction house/collector I can -nothing.  I even tried BBC TVs Antiques Roadshow -nothing.

Anyone out there have any ideas -I’d like to know details.  Grahame Newnham would like to know details -Patti would definitely like to know more!

There,thrown open for you comickers.

 

above:Roland Davies a few months before his death.

Denis Gifford wrote a wonderful obituary for Davieswhich I include below for those interested in the greats of the British Golden Age of comics:

DENIS GIFFORD

The Independent,Thursday, 16 December 1993

Roland Oxford Davies, cartoonist and animator: born Stourport, Worcestershire 23 July 1904; died 10 December 1993.

ROLAND DAVIES was the epitome of the commercial artist, never happy unless he was drawing or painting. His long career covered sports cartoons, topical cartoons, strip cartoons, animated cartoons, children’s books and boys’ weeklies, and towards the end superb paintings which were sold in art galleries to collectors who never knew of his once famous comic horse, ‘Steve’.

Davies was born at Stourport, Worcestershire, in 1904. His father, a Welsh musician, was a conductor of theatre orchestras with an eye for art. ‘He always encouraged me as a boy,’ recalled Roland, ‘by ruling in the horizon line, which taught me perspective.’ Settling in Ipswich, the boy studied at the Art School there during the evenings, then at 16 spent two years as a full-time student before becoming apprenticed to a lithographer. Here he designed cinema posters and one for the Metropolitan Railway of which he was particularly proud. His obsession with speed, whether by aeroplane, train, racing car or motor-cycle, led him to freelance cartoons to Autocar and Motor Cycle magazines, and when a new weekly, Modern Boy, was launched in 1928 he found a regular home illustrating action stories and supplying wonderful two- colour covers depicting roaring motors and zooming planes.

Curiously, his greatest success came with the very antithesis of all this speed: a lumbering, genial old cart-horse in a weekly strip cartoon called ‘Come On, Steve]’ – the inspired title was the cry that sprang from a thousand racegoers’ throats as the jockey Steve Donoghue galloped to yet another win. Davies took his sample strips – devised over a weekend – down Fleet Street, trying first the Evening News, then the Evening Standard, then the Daily Express. Arthur Christiansen, showing the editorial acumen for which he became famous, took the strip to his editor on the Sunday Express, and the following week, on 6 March 1932, Steve made his top-of-the-page debut. Davies was pounds 4 a week richer, a fee that was shortly doubled.

‘Come On, Steve’ was soon so popular that Davies conceived the idea of animating the old carthorse. Buying a stop-frame cine camera for 18 shillings, he set up a studio in his kitchen and spent seven months making a short animated cartoon. Although full of faults, the film when projected gave him the thrill of his lifetime. ‘The biggest thrill in the world was to see my drawings move, even if I had got the speed all wrong, and Steve looked as though he was floating,’ Davies remembered. In his ignorance he had placed his cel-pegs at the top of his camera rostrum instead of the bottom, causing all kinds of odd distortions. ‘Well, I learnt animation from a three-page chapter in an old book,’ he said.

However, he had the nerve to show his film to John Woolf of General Film Distributors. Woolf would not give a decision until a soundtrack was added. Davies hired a studio, improvised a track – and was turned down yet again. He lowered his sights and showed his film to Butcher’s, a minor distributor of B-pictures. They promptly gave him a contract for six eight-minute cartoons at pounds 800 each. With finance from his father-in-law, Davies set up an animation studio in Ipswich, staffed by students from the Art School and headed by one professional animator, the young Carl Giles. One by one the six cartoons were made, this time complete with a signature tune composed by John Reynders, whose orchestra supplied the music track and sound effects. Steve Steps Out was the first, released in December 1936, and a children’s book-of-the-film was published by Collins. Best was Steve of The River (1937), a burlesque of Edgar Wallace’s recent film, Sanders of the River.

When the Sunday Express dropped Steve in 1939 Davies, who had wisely retained the copyright, took the strip over to the Sunday Dispatch. They snapped up Steve with glee, and soon gave Davies the added post of cartoonist. He supplied topical comment in a large weekly drawing, using the pen-name of ‘Rod’. After 10 years in the Dispatch, Steve moved into children’s books, and Davies wrote and drew a full-colour series for Perry’s Colourprints, plus a run of the Come On Steve Annual.

Davies’s work for children’s comics began in 1933 when he drew the cover for the Daily Express Children’s Own, a Saturday supplement starring ‘Larry Leopard’. When DC Thomson’s new comic Beano began in July 1938, Davies drew a tough-guy sheriff, ‘Whoopee Hank’, and ‘Contrary Mary the Moke’, a long-eared donkey who was clearly a close relation to Steve. But his mainline comic work started in 1949 with the weekly serial of ‘Sexton Blake’, the famous boys’ paper detective, in Knockout. For TV Comic he depicted the children’s hour detectives ‘Norman and Henry Bones’, and created the sci-fi superhero ‘Red Ray the Space Ray-nger’ complete with club and badge.

He drew ‘Dixon of Dock Green’ in Swift, ‘Wyatt Earp’, the western television series, and a string of Walt Disney characters (Jungle Book, Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh) in Disneyland. He even drew the adventures of ‘Woppit’, Donald Campbell’s mascot, in Robin. This linked back to his old speed-mania, and he wrote and illustrated several books such as The Daily Mail Speedway Book (1949) and The Ace Book of Speed (1952).

The continuing pressure of strip art finally grew too much for him, and in his seventies Davies turned to painting. Under the guidance of a publisher turned art dealer, Alan Class, he began producing dramatic seascapes and colourful Parisian street scenes, which found their way into several good galleries.

below:Roland Davies painting

If I Wrote "Fuck Comic Publishers and Comic Intellectuals" Would It Offend You? Good.

Written in 2016 but still relevant

____________________________________________________

Cinebook posted this re. Angouleme: "The 2016 festival is officially over. This year was marred by a number of controversies and disputes: accusations of sexism, boycott of the prize, the worsening social situation of authors and artists... Like the rest of society, the world of Bandes Dessinees struggles with a changing environment, and must adapt."

Which is not really telling it like it is. 

"the worsening social situation of authors and artists" what that does not say is that European BD publishers seem to have moved away from being the creator friendly companies they used to be who welcomed innovation and style -look at Giraud and co. -would they have been able to break into comics today? Make a living from it?

I doubt it.

One thing I have noticed over the last few years is that out of the thousands of Franco-Belgian books published each year, a large per centage are not of good quality when it comes to art. Stories and themes can seem very repetitive.

As I write this, to my rear are my shelves which include about 50 BD from Casterman.  These have good art, good story and some have nice twists to their endings.  To my right are two huge stacks (about 4 feet/1.20m each) with a couple hundred Casterman books that aren't really that great.  There might be some slightly interesting art but about 98% of the art is amateurish and when I looked at it I was slightly stumped.

If you check out BD Gest (link on the blog roll) you'll see the same thing. It's almost as though that old Franco-Belgian eye for spotting real talent and innovative art has been lost. I noticed about ten years ago (in fact I'm sure it was more like the early 2000s) that these publishers seemed to be trying to find trends rather than real talent.  They went the whole hog when it came to Manga, then they tried Chinese artists and now it seems to be an attempt to be hip or trendy...."young" or youth orientated.

But here is the thing, the snooty attitude of the "proper" BD mainstream which laughed and looked down at the "lower level" cousins producing super hero books (Wanga, Hexagon, etc) suddenly saw that super hero movies and books were selling and -as we say in the UK- "their knickers dropped".  DC and Marvel reprints get the BD treatment but how long this will stay "hip" for who knows (it certainly seems to not be as big as it was a year or so ago).

Franco-Belgian publishers are business people.  Always have been.  However, "fair deals" for creators seem to be a thing of the past (?).  Publishers can call the shots on deals and do they give one talented creator a great deal or two lesser ones a poorer deal so they pay less and make more profit?  Creators wanting to break into the business will jump at a deal with a big publisher and will take the deal given. 

So creators struggle more.  Have harder times.  Hey, folks, let me tell you a little secret: artists, writers and creative types have always struggled.  A publisher will happily publish a comic looking at the plight of the poor, hungry and starving people in another country.  They'll take all the press and accolades they can leech from it. The creator of the book?  What about him/her?  They got paid.

Put this into perspective.  In the 1980s if I wrote a script for Fleetway...say a four page strip, I got £35.00 for each of those pages.  That's £140 -from which I took my postage, phone chats with the editor, typewriter ribbons, paper, etc.  The artist on one strip got £160 per page that is £640. Another got £240 because it was colour work -£960....who came out best here: the person who had to have the idea and put all the work into typing it up and editing and then selling the story to the editor or the artist who got sent a script to draw?  No script -no artwork.

Let's not get into US publishers because that opens up a whole can of worms.

Europe used to treat its creators with respect yet from what I'm hearing that has changed and today it is "strictly business" -creators take the deal offered or take a hike and someone else gets the work.  No one seems to want to disturb "the balance" yet they will boycott and stop to protest at the drop of a word any other thing -even things that will probably never affect them.

This is the place of the creator.  "The days of artists and writers living in dives and going hungry is a thing of the past in comics" -so the publishers and their lackeys keep saying.  I'm not seeing that. The publishers do not care so long as "the product" gets out there and brings the money in.

I am guessing that Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and a lot of other European countries have their own self publishing industries going -but we do not hear about them.  The whole point with CBO was to be a place where Independent publishers and Small Pressers could get their books seen (even ones in languages I do not understand) -people could see the books and, hopefully, follow links and buy. 

Well, the UK Small Press, Indie Comics just became a part time hobby where friends buy books. Comics? No such thing in the UK despite the arse-lickers trying to pretend there is.

Publish your own books and try to get them in book stores or even comic shops -unless the owner is a friend....good luck.

For those who pursue comics or art as a way of making a living it's tough. From 1983-1995 while I was a comics agent I had around 500 artists send me their work.  Some never realised that drawing comics WAS work. They disappear fast.  Others just were not even at a semi-pro standard and they vanished, too. That left about 100 who were passable to good artists. How many of those are still around today? I can tell you -four.

Some who gave up now work in supermarkets, drivers delivery vans and one even reads gas meters for a gas company. Why? Because they needed to eat and pay bills and as the UK comics scene died that was it.  Marvel and DC who snapped up British creators to save their companies in the 1980s couldn't give a damn any more.  Why should they?

The UK should have a thriving artistic community from Scotland to Wales to Ireland and England. Instead, potters and ceramacists, painters and writers all struggle away in some crappy conditions without funding and trying to make a living from great skills.  But unlike votes at comic events for female creators they do not count.  No one kicks a stink up about the shitty way they are treated or ignored. Even so called "primitive civilisations" appreciated their creatives.

So, boo-hoo-hoo. The "intellectuals" of comics bemoan "the worsening social situation of authors and artists... Like the rest of society" yeah, adding "like the rest of society" means they can shrug and just say "nothing we can do about it" but some of those "names" at Angouleme -how many invited struggling authors and writers to their yearly lunches where they discuss their industry?

Fuck publishers, distributors and fuck the "intellectuals" because if they just pulled their fat fingers out of their collective arse and did something positive they could start making a change, however small.  Comic shop owners -fuck you, too because you are as guilty as the publishers.

I would be proud to be a friend to one down on their luck, struggling creator than a dozen of you glieds.