Book is too expensive for me or else I would review it just for this quote
Thursday, 22 October 2020
In A Room Where German Schlager Hits Fill The Void A Mustek A3 Pro Scanner Dies
The alternative title was "Make Mine Mustek!"
Not been well the last few days but I cannot abide just sitting down or lying back and doing nothing. So I decided to scan some pages.
Unfortunately, my rapidly dying PC appears to have been jopined by my A3 Mustek Pro scanner (which I've used since 2006) and my Canon A4 scanner/printer. After three hours I'm too exhausted so I'll try working on both scanners tomorrow.
If any company wants to offer an A3 scanner in return for a review and nice mention get in touch
Everyone is now rushing to offer an A3 scanner or PC/laptop. How will I tell them all "no thank you" after the first few arrive?
😜😜😜😜😜😜😝😝😝😝😝
The Mustek A3 Pro I purchased in 2006 along with a PC. The problem was that all the pagres I wanted to copy were A3 and I work "old school" with paste-ups. I took the pages to a printer for photocopying and was tol;d 30 pages would be copied "in four weeks". There then followed a conversation during which I pointed out that if their business was that good they did not need mine so I'd go elsewhere. Suddenly, my pages would bve copied that afternoon. There was also a discussion about the paste-ups since those pages would need to be copied off individually a you cannot autofeed pages with paste-ups in case any come off in the copier itself.
So, that afternoon I went back to the printers and in one bag were my A3 originals and in a taped up bag my A4 copies (these I could then scan and edit at home). Which is what I tried to do...guess what? Yup, the complete arschlochs at the printers had not individually copied the pages but autofed them into the machine. Suddenly, a paste up from page 20 appeared at an angle on several other pages and then I found items pasted onto pages were gone.
The printer apologised and offered no explanation. I took other pages there on a second occasion and the ame thing happened despite emphasising repeatedly that these were all paste-up pages. I was told (I stayed in the shop checking all the pages before I left) that the pages had not been autofed. At this point one of the other printers came from the back with pages to copy and at the machine turned to the liar I was talking to and asked "What are these in the autofeed?" Oh, how amazing: paste-up items from my pages -and there were other bits in the machine itself as hee found out while trying to copy stuff. My responbse was "I would not come back here to photocopy my ass".
I had found that one copy shop (rare things in Bristol now but there were about 10 just i9n the central area at one point) after another screwed up and blamed anyone but themselves. "Excuse me but there are thick white lines running through these pages" response: "Oh, that will be your pages" (my solid black art pages). Horrible faded copies were, I was told, "probably something to do with your pages" at which point I explained to them that their toner was running out. Questions about my awkwardness as a customer then someone checked "Toner is out". Odd marks on my pages and they were clearly from the platten as I pointed out and the copier man looked at me and asked "The what?" I replied: "Thje platten" but he looked blankly at me. "The glass you put the pages down on to copy?" Him: "Oh. I doubt it as we clean the machine daily" (what a load of ****). So I took a paper hanky and wiped it over the platten -dirt and hair showed up nicely.
I had given up on copier shops and printers but had only an A4 scanner -even my old Canon FC220 desk tyop copier was only A4. I bit the bullet and spent the £130 on the Mustek A3 Pro. Beautiful scans from it.
Black Tower Adventure (volume 2) -all scanned using the Mustek. Well, any book you see from Black Tower -all 163 of them used the Mustek. Yes, the 8 prose books are word docs however all of the images within are scanned so...
Photographs, text documents, artwork in black and white, greyscale or colour I found no other canner as good a the Mustek A3 Pro and I would recommend it.
I'm now waffling.
Time to rest and see whether I can get either scanner to work tomorrow!
Wednesday, 21 October 2020
Tuesday, 20 October 2020
In Pursuit....for the open mind
62pp
A4
B&W
£5.00
https://www.lulu.com/en/en/shop/terry-hooper/in-pursuit-vol-1-no-1-november-2020/paperback/product-pjpjkk.html
Fact NOT fiction journal looking at trange creatures and stories from around the world
Contents:-
A "Cold Case" Too Old? The Beast Of Faudiere –Mystery Killer
The Strange Creature in Repton Woods
Cry Werewolf ! and The Curious And Frightening Case Of The Hull Werewolf
On The Scientific 'Need' To Kill A Sasquatch
The Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy group has blood on their hands?.
On Gathering Hard Evidence
The Strange Case Of The Gotherington Gargoyle
Photographic Evidence That Dinosaurs Exist
The Monster of the Forest of Mouliere
Monday, 19 October 2020
...one good thing to come out of 2020
I am not sure when it happened but fandom died long time ago. When the internet became a thing for millions the rush to create groups talking about comics, comic comnpanies of the past and characters was like a tsunami. I set up my first Yahoo group in 2002 and blog in 1998. It was almost a full time job answering questions and chatting to members.
Then came The Troll Wars. If you ran a group or forum between 2004-2005 then you were probably involved in it. For the period of a year trolls sent fake messages under other peoples names, sent nasty messages 'from' people involved in comics and then we had the spammers -porn, watches....mainly porn- but in the end Group and forum owners won out with a lot of perseverance.
Comic forums and groups had a major problem that could bot be beaten: people within the comic creators community who, lacking work and attention (and having low IQs) decided to attack and back-stab other creators. Some of the nicest people I knew in comics just came off social media because of attacks on them. All the while these nasty little pieces of human jetsom put on the facade of being "nice guys". I witnessed them smiling and laughing with other creators but as soon as those creators were gone out came the poison coated daggers.
Anyone seriously interested in comics -particularly in the UK- will avoid UK comic forum. Say even "hello" and the forum owner will allow his "nice guy" friend (or person he is terrified of confronting) to not just be rude and nasty but even use obscene language at you. I found this and so did many others. Why? Well, these people worked in comics anonymously for years and now they could release all their built up resentment and bile on others -including people who were far better at the comic work. Suggest everyone get toget5her and start pushing British comics and Small Press and wait for the4 slap-down. I suggested it and one little freak decided to say I had "a Jesus complex"...as far as I know Jesus never worked in the comics industry or wanted to help save it.
If you were a comic fan and saw all this going on and read the vicious little spats going on (still going on in 2020) between comic creators whose work you admired would you really want to keep reading or just go back to reading your comics? People who worked in comics now working to actively stop new comics.
At the ame time comic blogs appeared and disappeared. Yahoo360 was closed without much warninbg and that saw thye end of many...some moved on and I moved to Freeservers, MySpace and on and on -each company either closing or restricting how you could use the "media".
Google+ we had all the Google denials that it was going to be shut down. I had 3 million views then one day (after more denials) "We're closing down.
My Yahoo group had the same fate. As with Yahoo360 there were denials that groups were to go. Then denials that any changes would be made. The week before the Yahoo announcement that it was removing all content other than "email exchanges" they isued a statement that this was all rumour NOT fact. I warned everyone and everyone ignored me. The British Comic Book Archive Yahoo group had 6,000+ images and hundreds of files covering the Penny Dreadfuls, Platinum, Golden and Silver ages -some very rare material. All gone. I warned people that the next step would be closing down groups comp-letely. Oh no -Yahoo gave all the assurances that it would never do this. Last week it announced that it was closing the groups website.
The excuse was that the groups were not used as much these days. In fact, that was true. Despite the huge membership of British CB Archives I was lucky if I got two responses a month and only then after I wrote "Is anyone still interested in this?". It was, as far as I am concerned, my last attempt at forming a British comic book archive. I puhed the hell out of it and in two years of doing that 2-3 times a week not one single new member. So who exactly was saying "We need somewhere to discuss and look at old UK comics?"
I closed down the UK Go0lden Age Comics blog because, lots of views, but I was literally posting to myself. Low IQs, it seems, meant people could grab material I posted for their own use but not even write "interesting" or "Good post".
In fact, most of the blogs I have get high to very high views but on most there have been only 2-3 comments in 11-15 years. Again, material (particularly original material) has been lifted and used by others -including some of those "nice guys"- on their blogs as THEIR work.
Comic Bits Online. At the moment the total number of views stands at 3.9 million. Blogger has a tendency to delete huge numbers of views from stats (never found out why). However, after the last big deletion I started keeping a record. Total views of CBO are over 8 million coming up to 9 million since 2011. Most comments are between myself and people I know to keep in touch. However, there is a world-wide audience for CBO covering every continent and island state (as noted in previopus posts) yet no comments? In one week back at WordPress I got more comments and likes than on CBO in 2 years.
Why?
At the moment it may be CBO vanishes as my old PC is about to nose-dive into concrete. I have, over the last 5 years, pointed out that there were videos, lengthier features and more mega posts that I had p-lanned but it all takes time and that, putting it bluntly, I needed financial support of some kind to keep thing going. I HATE money for nothing so I suggested buying one of my books. Even the cheapest. I don't get huge profits from it but it keeps money coming in and YOU get something out of it. Nothing./ Tried everything I could think of but apparently not one person ut of the 9 million could give a rats ass. Read or take away and screw you. I could have kept all of this stuff in my head.
Of course, if I was young and female and willing to flash a little cleavage I'd be likely getting money and free gifts. Do not even argue on this as a quick glance at you tube channels from comics, toys, arts and crafts, metal detecting and evenh farming have exactly this. Not criticising those people either because at least they can afford to do what they want to based on this. Maybe I ought to show a little bit of flesh? 😱😱😱😱
Anyway, it appears that Blogger (owned by Google) ARE going to start messing things up and even WordPress are in for changes.
Who can afford to buy a web site and guarantee its continuation (as long as the company is going or until some new company buys it out)? It's a lot of cash and to then be told one day "We are closing things down". Nope. Hey, if you get hundreds or thousands of visits per day and no one is interested in supporting you what is the point.
CBO and the other blogs were set up to not just post things but alo get comic fan interaction and conversations going. They failed.
I checked something earlier and found that I wrote, several times, that the "internet age" was coming to an end. It was sinking into a nasty, vile little place where no one really wanted to talk. It was all about site owners making money qand if money could not be made out of bloggers, etc then they'd close it all down. Basically, we saw this with Yahoo and Googl;e and also You Tube. All started out as free -a forum for spreading knowledge as well as having fun....then the greed crept in along with censorship (see how many You Tu8be videos you can find where thge You tuber panics about whether can "say that now?" or whether music someone is playing a quarter mile away and is barely audible will get THEM a copyright strike.
Ten years ago I wrote that the internet killed off the fanzine. It did because everyone came onto the internet to get it all for free. What you are getting now are half-truths, outright lies and worse from 'news sites' that are company mouthpieces. CBO is not a company mouthpiece and anything I write here is what I think or quote sources for and it seems an Independent voice is not wanted. I tell you a certain person is NOT going to become the She Hulk while other sites highlight her career and create mock-ups of her as She Hulk feeding the fake news and then said person states they are NOT going to be She Hulk. Who wa right?
My thought, ten years ago, was that printed fanzines were needed to make a return. With online stores there is no international shipping or tax costs. You order online anywhere in the world and regional printers get to work and you get the publication delivered to your door.
Comic Bits (volume 2) made its return this year after some 14 years and it will continue doing what it does: looking at creators, titles, publishers and characters from the Penny Dreadful Era, UK Golden and Silver Ages. I can't see that situation changing since no one can be bothered.
Until my PC crashes into oblivion you might get the odd post as before but I am not going to work full time on lengthy projects for nothing. Black Tower Comics & Books blog will continue for as long as blogger does as it promotes my books. The rest? I just take silence as meaning that there is no interest.
It is sad that comic fans -I don't mean jump on the band wagon trendies- appear to have been driven away by the nastier side of the medium and now by the very online companies that offered so much at the start until greed moved in.
Let' hope the fanzine makes a comeback and at least that will be one good thing to come out of 2020.
Sunday, 18 October 2020
She-Hulk: Tatiana Maslany vehemently denies reports she's joining Marvel world
Tatiana Maslany says she won’t be playing She-Hulk in a brand new Marvel series after all.
Last month, it was claimed that the Orphan Black star had signed on to play Jennifer Walters in a brand new Disney + series.
The news seemed so certain that even Hulk actor Mark Ruffalo congratulated her casting in a post welcoming her to the Marvel family.
“That actually isn’t a real thing and it’s like a press release that’s gotten out of hand,” she told Sudbury Star.
“It's totally not – I've been connected to these things in the past and press has gotten onto it, but it's not actually a thing, unfortunately.”
When pressed on the matter, Maslany said: “Yeah, I don’t know how these things get – I don't know, I don't know. You know better; I have no idea.”
The news was originally reported by Deadline.
In the Marvel comics, Walters is a lawyer and cousin of original Hulk, Bruce Banner, who gains powers of her own after an emergency blood transfusion.
Other MCU shows scheduled to arrive on Disney+ at some point in the future include The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, WandaVision and Loki.
Maslany was most recently seen in HBO series Perry Mason.
Read more
Saturday, 17 October 2020
It Isn't Just About "pinching info off the net"
I read. I don't get a lot of time for it but uually it is technical books for me. However, the one thing I do is get books relating to what I publih or write about.
Over the years Varney the Vampyre has appeared in a Reverend Merriwether story and also plays a part in The Green Skies storyline. Varney volumes 1 and 2 are hefty books but even a cursory read through shows just how wrong certain 'authorities' have gotten things. To be fair most of the bookls below use differing forms of Victorianese English and unles you are familiar with the tyles you'll probably put them down as unreadable.
Below, the Monk has also appeared in Black Tower comics. This is a classic Penny Dreadful and, again, cut and paste from one site to another gives an incorrect slant to the story -reading this is when I threw out what I 'knew' before.
Another classic of the Dreadfuls era is The Skeleton Crew or Wildfire Ned -a big chunky read and, yes, The Skeleton Horseman has appeared in Black Tower Comics.
Yet another classic is Melmoth (yes, he has been in a Black Tower comic) the Wanderer which is another chunky read.
.Of course I have over 50 years of history reading to fall back on as well as numerous other subjects so I like to think if I write a story set in a certain period I get it as accurate a it needs to be.
Oh...I also have a lot of comics and graphic novels.
Black Tower Silver Age Volume 1 -Electroman featuring Electro Girl
A4
B&W
52pp
£6.00
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
Friday, 16 October 2020
I Got The Snap, The Crackle and the Pop -and I ain't talking breakfast cereals!
The rapidly falling about PC that I had to go to after the laptop passed away (no, the pick-axe was an accident after it had passed) is cranky as hell and will close documents while I am editing pages -or it waits until I've spent five minutes on a page and then -close no save.
Today I counted the number of times this happened. For a 16pp book I edited the equivalent of 33 pages. For a 20pp book it was 45.
When my sister entered the room and I turned she tells me that she could hear the snp, crackle and pop of my neck and shoulders. I took pain killers.
I do this so that there are 161 books spread over 17 pages on the store front. All anyone has to do is spend their cash and buy the books. I think that' fair. I might even be able to afford a new PC or laptop (reconditioned) if enough people buy....or I could upload the sound of my snack, crackle and pop neck and shoulders?
If you get the time please conider checking the store front out -thank you!
Corporal Religion No.1 -OUT NOW!
A4
B&W
20pp
£5.00
https://www.lulu.com/en/en/shop/terry-hooper/corporal-religion-no-1/paperback/product-nj4yw7.html
Over thirty years since Corporal Religion Against the Pinko Commie Menace and the world thought that it was safe.
It was wrong!
His religion is Hard Capitalism
His dream is total anarchy
And his motto is:"American Might Is Always Right"
No, this is not the Trumpster.
This is....well, it's...complicated.
The Masked Marshal & Friends -out NOW!
A4
B&W
18pp
£5.00
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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