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Monday, 26 October 2020

Dark Night Detectives, Covers and Volume 1

 Thankfully, The Dark Night Detectives was the last book on my desk and I can now concentrate on other comics work.  When you have to fight your own computer to get work done it isn't great.

The cover you see in the post was the third choice.

The first I dumped straight away.

This was the second choice:


and final choice

Normally I go with what the artist designs, however, the type of printing used would make the hand drawn logo look washed out and that isn't very appealing to the eyes.  I would criticise the size of the BTC&B logo used but it had to be that size to cover something up.

Whatever, the book is done now and if you haven't read the previous volume well...


 
A4
Black & White
50 Pages
Price: £8.00 (excl. VAT)
Ships in 3–5 business days
 http://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper-scharf/the-dark-night-detectives/paperback/product-21975325.html

Its a world where if you stand up for what is right you'll be lucky if its just a beating you get.

A world where people are starving (if poor) and the rich live in luxury.

A world where you have to have birthing Rights.

Where sacrificing someone to the Devil is acceptable -as long as they pay the wages.

A world where if you DO NOT take that bribe you WILL be made an example of.

This shows off Dilworth's skill at writing dark and brooding stories with a hint of satire but just too true to modern life!  It also shows his skill as an artistic story teller and designer.  Some of Ben Dilworth's most provoking and dark work in ages.


The Dark Night Detectives 2: The Ministry of Safety


 

A4

28pp

B&W

£5.00

https://www.lulu.com/en/en/shop/terry-hooper/the-dark-night-detectives-no-2-november-2020/paperback/product-7jr8g8.html

Its a world where if you stand up for what is right you'll be lucky if its just a beating you get. A world where people are starving (if poor) and the rich live in luxury. A world where you have to have birthing Rights. Where sacrificing someone to the Devil is acceptable -as long as they pay the wages. A world where if you DO NOT take that bribe you WILL be made an example of. 

This was the dystopian world set up by Ben Dilworth in Small Press publications in the 1980 and some strips in Black Tower books and led on to The Dark Night Detectives: Everything Is Under Control. 

Now Detective Inspector Black and Special Constable (Community Policing) Jones are back and it is still dar, bleak and depressingly familiar in a way.

 The ending will make you ask more than a few questions.

Sunday, 25 October 2020

Four Lovely Old British Comic Covers

 I just found out that it is Sunday. Wow.

To brighten things up I thought I would show the covers of four British comics from the 1960s. For me there are special attachments -Gadget Man and Gimmick Kid appeared in Part 1 of The Ultimate Game (which became Return of the Gods).  The Phantom Viking also featured in Ultimate Game a did Texas Jack. Only Phantom Viking made it to the post Ultimate Game project Looking Glass.

These comicxs are a mix of humour, action, war and, of course, super heroics in 40 pages a week. How could kids not like that?

The covers were also quite simple and colourful but grabbed your attention. I think that these days we tend to get bound up in over-complicated covers that can often look crowded and make you go "meh" and move on.

A pity that the 111 pages of looking glass will never get published as I think I would have loved to add a few more pages just so Texas Jack could get in on the action.

This PC is playing up so I'll not go into the contents like I alway wanted to in bigger feature posts but...






Mystic Tel Says That You Are About To Ask.....

  "Just how did you publish a book with no scanners and a failing computer?"

I started trying to scan last Thursday. My Mustek A3 Pro failed me. My Canon scanner failed me. My computer was shutting down and not saving edits. I finallyfinished editing at 16:45 hours and published about 20 minutes ago.

Every page the scanner and computer tried to fight me on and right up to the very last page it was a fight but over 2 decades of using a PC and all types of scanners teaches you skills. There is a reason I am known as "Master of the Mystic Farts"   "Master of the Mystic Scans".  Even now my PC is trying to screw up my typing this brief post.

Buy my books and help me my new equipment (I'm trying that one a "to pay bills and eat" has not worked over the last 10 years...)

I am now going to take a rest and heal my eyes and head!

The Masked Marshal -Life by the Gun



A4

B&W 

24pp

£7.00

https://www.lulu.com/en/en/shop/terry-hooper/the-masked-marshal-no-1-november-2020/paperback/product-nj2geg.html

 It's the Wild West and one man, his identity hidden by a mask, has been made a United States Marshal with a remit to travel where ever he needs to and an even more secret remit: rid the West of the outlaws and killers and make it safe for American citizens -use any and all methods.

 The toll A Life By The Gun will take is unknown to the Masked Marshal but is inevitable. 

Ben Dilworth guides Stransky & Labbat to bring us stories of gun law: 

Bad Law 

Bushwackers 

The Old Man of the River 

Snowball 

Clayton Gang 

Some times even hitching up your horse while you take a drink can lead to death.

My up-date on the Up-date (I'm just saying WHICH update)

 Up until gone Midnight trying to fix the A4 scanner problem. It will print (combined scanner/printer) and according to all the computer messages it is working correctly.  Unfortunately the computer is also schizophrenic as it then tells me that no scanner is connected...even while telling me that it works perfectly.

So, another two hour try earlier. Nothing.

Guess I now spend a pointless day trying to fix the A3 scanner.

I'm telling you: unless you have access to spare cash ignore the computer age a much as possible.

Saturday, 24 October 2020

The Fall of Phoenix Jones

I've Walked Away To Look At The Rain

 I should have done just that. I finally got the Mustek scanner to work and on preview the pages looked okay. Scanned 24 pages -all looked okay. Saved them.

Now, as I'd starting to edit the page I note that somehow and AFTER scanning the images all had a page length marking that would require me to re-scan all of them (like ****) or take days to clean then them with a computer that constantly shuts down documents on "Save" meaning you have to start editing from step 1 again.

And so I am closing documents and walking away from this. There were just two book to be scanmned and edited and as far as I am concerned they can wait and gather dust. No new scanner + No new PC = No new books. I'm sure you are all quite 'devastated'.

Off to stare at the rain.

Friday, 23 October 2020

The Cross Earths Caper

 https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnvq4Vv-CqvFy1E0PUFTEUAsznmIVhuLUP88Ch_jIkAdeifpHbigj6ZUExvEoNIhTHVcGLXbywf4pv4ESRLy3VFUpMrUGQ4rSHUq80CNF8wsPzrufO3EtkJvyIhCwgjxL0FVA-pAmQR6U/s1600/CROSS+EARTHS+CAPER+COVER.jpg

The Cross-Earths Caper: Part II of the Invasion Earth Trilogy

Paperback, 
A4
Black & White
107 Pages
List Price: £15.00
Price: £12.00

Following the events on Neo Olympus and the Boarman invasion of Earth, many heroes and crime-fighters have withdrawn from activity. Some are trying to recover from injuries while others are fighting the mental scars left by the events.

But things have to go on.  As heroes from other parallels who helped during the recent events return home, members of the Special Globe Guard are shocked at the sudden appearance of Zom of the Zodiac. Never a sign of good things a-coming!

Very soon, a group of heroes mount a rescue mission and find that a quick rescue mission can turn sour equally quickly. As they overcome one challenge the the heroes become lost between parallel Earths and face new threats.

 Sometimes one Earth just is not enough. The complete story published in issues 7-10 of Black Tower Adventure now in...one handy dandy book!














Return of the Gods: Twilight of the Super Heroes

 https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEv-kM7AC7yJMLPwHp89n42-UyCRG6T9gA6vkZWrnUjUp7ey9ysCHUf-iOXrn4XLe3jouLGUWQnpx9nxnQalTlPWEVc8WbiUTUg9kTpIHYLYwL96St3K00SmvbM2UEE76C-QZnY2wDPLY/s1600/NEW+RETURN+Front.jpg



Paperback, 
A4
Black & White
331 Pages
£20.00

It begins slowly.  It always does. It's a deception that everything in the world is as it should be and that never changes.

Earth’s heroes and crime-fighters are going about their daily tasks –fighting a giant robot controlled by a mad scientist’s brain, attackers both human and mystical -even alien high priests of some mysterious cult and their zombie followers and, of course, a ghost and a young genius lost in time. 

Pretty mundane. 

But psychics around the world have been sensing something.  A "something" that sends feelings of sheer terror through their psyches.

There is a huge alien Mother-ship near the Moon. Undetected by deep-space radar and other instruments, only a few on Earth have sensed it and they cannot penetrate the hull but only feel psychic screams and....worse.

And then it begins: strange orange spheres isolate and chase some of Earth’s heroes who then vanish into thin air –are they dead?  An attack by an old foe or foes -?

Black, impenetrable domes cover cities world-wide. 

Then it becomes clear to those within the domes what is going on: Alien invasion of Earth! 

A war between the Dark Old Gods and the pantheons that followed! 

Warriors from Earth’s past having to battle each day and whether they die or not they are back the next day! 

No one suspects the driving force behind the events.  One single evil guiding events.  Events that could cause destruction and chaos throughout the multiverse.

Assaulted on all fronts can Earth’s defenders succeed or will they fail...is this truly the end? 
















Thaddeus Twatt -Two Complete Adventures


Thaddeus Twatt Book I -The Fearful Fate of Friggia

A4
B&W
27pp
£4.00
https://www.lulu.com/en/en/shop/terry-hooper-scharf/thaddeus-twatt-book-i/paperback/product-15g6rgjr.html

Eccentric scientific genius Professor Thaddeus Twatt has decided to look in on one of his late father’s experiments… ...but then his nephew, Tomas, arrives for the Summer. 

Tomas has been warned that his uncle is a little “odd” but expects to have a carefree holiday in the Somerset countryside. That was his plan. 

In the late 1940s, Twatt’s father, along with other scientists, had created a miniature galaxy in chambers deep beneath the Cheddar countryside. A miniature galaxy into which groups of settlers flew. After decades it seems time to visit the “Twatt-verse” and see how things have gone. 

Tomas thinks it’s all a joke...

until he is miniaturised! 

The duo find the entrance to the mini-verse mined and then their craft crash-lands on the first planet they approach.

 They find what seems to be a barren, frozen world —until captured by a group of survivors and a story is told of betrayal, sabotage and a great “Worm” that devastates cities. 

Are the duo trapped of frozen Friggia forever…?










Thaddeus Twatt Book II -The Jungle Planet

Gil Kane update

 


A a follow-up to the previous Kane post I think it only fair to point out that, despite what you may read on the internet, Kane was not booted out and shunned and not able to get work.  Just read the Wikipedia entry and he was far from struggling to get work. His problems lay in lymphoma.

It should also be pointed out that comic pros did not all shun him and he had many friends in the business. When you die the people who never liked you in real life can say all the nastry things they want to.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Kane did character designs for various Hanna-Barbera[23] and Ruby-Spears[35] animated TV series including The Centurions which he co-created with Jack Kirby. In 1974 he contributed to redesigning the obscure Marvel Comics character the Cat into Tigra,[36] and three years later created the newspaper daily comic strip Star Hawks with writer Ron Goulart. The strip, which ran through 1981,[37] was known for its experimental use of a two-tier format during the first years. During this decade he also illustrated paperback and record-album covers, drew model box art, and co-wrote, with John Jakes, the 1980 novel Excalibur![38] He drew the John Carter, Warlord of Mars series for Marvel beginning in June 1977.[39]

In 1971, Kane met Michel “Greg” Regnier, then the editor of French-Belgian comics anthology Tintin Weekly. He ended up creating a science fiction/fantasy tale called Jason Drum, about an astronaut stranded on a sword and sorcery world. The series debuted in Tintin weekly, making the cover of #202 (July 1979). Due to a medical emergency Kane reached out to Joe Staton to help with layouts and, starting with Tintin #205, uninked penciled pages were sent to France. Belgian artist Franz inked five pages of Kane’s pencils and pencilled and inked the last pages of the story himself (in #206 and 207 [Aug. ’78]). After his recovery, Kane lost contact with Tintin. In 2006 Kane´s friend Gary Groth and publisher at Fantagraphics discovered that Kane did evidently finish the Jason Drum project with 44 fully linked pages with dialogue. The project had never been published in English, but the original 27 page version assisted by Staton and Franz was published in some other languages including Swedish (as back-up in Lee Falk's The Phantom in 1980. [40] [41]

Kane was one of the artists on the double-sized Justice League of America #200 (March 1982).[42] and had a brief run on The Micronauts series in 1982 [43] In the early 1980s, he shared regular art duties on the Superman feature in Action Comics with Curt Swan and contributed to the 1988 Superman animated TV series.[23] The Brainiac character, a nemesis of Superman, was revised by Kane and Marv Wolfman in Action Comics #544 (June 1983).[44] He was one of the contributors to the DC Challenge limited series in 1986.[45] Kane was the artist on the early Green Lantern serial in the short-lived anthology Action Comics Weekly from issues #601–605 with writer James Owsley,[46] and illustrated the Nightwing cover for issue #627 in 1988. He returned to drawing the Atom in the Sword of the Atom limited series, a collaboration with writer Jan Strnad.[47] In 1989–1990 Kane illustrated a comic-book adaptation of Richard Wagner's mythological opera epic The Ring of the Nibelung.[37]

During the following decade, Kane drew for publishers including Topps Comics, for which he illustrated a miniseries adaptation of the film Jurassic Park; Malibu Comics, for which he and writer Steven Grant created the superhero Edge for a 1994–95 miniseries; Awesome Entertainment, in which he illustrated Alan Moore's four-page Kid Thunder story "Judgment Day: 1868" in Judgment Day Alpha #1 (June 1997); and DC, for which he drew several Superman stories. He was one of the many creators who contributed to the Superman: The Wedding Album one-shot wherein the title character married Lois Lane.[48] He and his former apprentice Howard Chaykin worked together again on a three-part story for Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #24–26 (Nov. 1991 – Jan. 1992)[49] and the Superman: Distant Fires one-shot (1998).[50]

Kane collaborated with writer Mark Waid on The Life Story of the Flash graphic novel.[51] As well during that decade, he designed the set of the 1997 Santa Monica Playhouse production of the play Lovely!.[52]

Though his last full comic during his lifetime was Awesome's 40-page Judgment Day: Aftermath #1 (March 1998) — written by Moore and featuring the characters and teams Glory, Spacehunter, Youngblood and others in individual tales — his final narrative works, all for DC, were penciling the two-page "Antibiotics: The Killers That Save Lives" in Celebrate the Century: Super Heroes Stamp Album #5 (1999); portions of seven pages and the cover, all shared with humor artist Sergio Aragonés, of DC's Fanboy #2 (April 1999); and a two-page pastiche of 1970s Hostess Fruit Pie superhero ads, "The Star Sheriffs", in Green Lantern Secret Files and Origins #2 (Sept. 1999). His last published comics art during his lifetime was a one-page illustration in Dark Horse Comics' Sin City: Hell and Back #4 (Oct. 1999).[5] Posthumously published was his final completed work, the two-issue Green Lantern / Atom story in Legends of the DC Universe #28–29 (May–June 2000); and four years later, the final issue, drawn in the mid-1990s, of Malibu's planned four-issue miniseries Edge, as part of the iBooks hardcover collection The Last Heroes.[5]


Was Gil Kane barred from working at Marvel after being caught stealing art?

 I have been asked about this a few times over the last year and I cannot add anything to the story. I have no personal knowledge and though a former Marvel Editor referred to the story at an old Bristol Comic Expo he pointed out that "There's nothing on paper".

Incidentally, a theft by editors at certain UK companies was not unknown which is why one company kept its warehouse location a close secret). One is reminded of the Brian Bolland "missing art pages" story. https://downthetubes.net/?p=103394

With DC Comics they used to routinely throw out/scrap art and even cut up pages. Roy Thomas has dealt with this in Alter Ego magazine -many art pages were saved by people grabbing the 'trash'. I cannot remember who it was but at a Bristol Expo someone at a rare DC comics panel (Bob Wayne?) nodded when someone mentioned that in the early 1970s it was reported, by various artists, that there was a table piled with art pages and they were told to take as much as they liked as they were "tossing it".

Anyhow, this is an Archie Goodwin story (aka "Roman a Clef") from Ted McKeever's Pencilhead memoir published in 2018 (?).  





It's Friday. I'm walking away

 Well, I even tried downloading a new driver for the Mustek A3 Pro scanner and though it worked it appears that it and the ancient PC just want to throw up more problems.  So, rather than two new books releasing on a Friday as seems to be the norm, there will be no new book this week.

I'm just walking away from the problem. It's Friday and there's plenty I have to do and there are over 160 books on the storefront anyway. 

Get ready for heavy book promotions...or not if the PC packs in!