Well, The Black Tower Face Book Page has a good few Overseas views

 I was just checking something on the Black Tower Face Book page and saw "insights" so thought why not.......

United Kingdom

United States

India

Mexico

Philippines

Germany

Nigeria

Spain

New Zealand

Serbia

All I can say is "thank you" to the people who do check the page out (oh, and BUY SOME BOOKS PLEASE!)

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063294164623#

A Peek at D-Gruppe -The Fire Starter etc

Some pages posted today to the D-Gruppe page -you can see all 10pp there:

https://dgruppe.blogspot.com/2025/06/d-gruppe-fire-starter-etc.html

Not published before this was meant to be a D-Gruppe mini comic that also utilised art based on a page I did circa 1989 (page 9 here). It shows the start of Waldmeister's decline into darkness that would bring about The Days of Darkness.

This is meant to be a pre-Return of the Gods story and taking place just after The Zeitgeist Saga.

Dene Vernon: Blondin Square

 by Ben Dilworth

Thunderbolt: A Hero's Place

 by Ben Dilworth

My Words For Sunday (I may not be senile yet but I am an old fart)

 

Someone said that, having been set up in 1984 (as a Small Press publisher) and with over 200 titles at the online story, it is easy for me to sit back and enjoy things as it was established and easy.

Wow, I am guessing that person has never had to write, draw, edit and publish a comic let alone a graphic novel or 500 page book! Let's not get bogged down in the editorial process. I miss the days of slapping art onto a photocopier and job done. Oddly, not just on day business trips but also Westminster Comic Mart days, London copier shops did a fair amount of business with me! 

In the 1980s, the Golden Age of the Small Press not just in the UK but world wide, we publishers (oh that sounded so grand) sent each other copies of our latest work and I recall on one occasion asking two publishers if they had 2-3 pages to complete my next project and within a week I had 20 odd pages from people all over the country and all they wanted in return was a copy of the mag with their work in. These days that is impossible and let's not get distracted over the reason why. Let's just say that ego and the fantasy of being the next great creator to see his/her work turned into a TV series or movie has changed things
 

I still do cut and paste as it allows for a lot of creative freedom and  page design. Big Ben Dilworth was someone who tried a lot of design methods and his 1986 Picasso Cafe still stands out decades later. But then so does his Letter To Siberia (1984) and both can be seen on Zine Zone:

Picasso Cafe 

https://hooperszinezone.blogspot.com/2021/08/1985-picasso-cafe-by-ben-dilworth.html

A Letter To Siberia

https://hooperszinezone.blogspot.com/2021/08/a-letter-to-siberia-ben-dilworth-1984.html

I fondly recall a warm, sunny day on the verge of Dame Emily Park in Bristol as one or two dog walkers stopped to watch us spray paint (car paint) acetate covers using stencils for Previews Comic -which incidentally got more than a few British creators work in comics. Even photocopying on to acetate for his One Bright September Evening (I will need to check that title as it was so long ago!!).

At that time (1980s) we had a number of comic marts in Bath, Bristol and Swindon and when I say comic marts I mean comics with comic sellers as well as Small Pressers -the main one being Zine Zone represented by (if he could lift himself from the chez longue) Paul Ashley Brown, Darron Rolf Travers Northall (who was sadly attacked and eaten alive by frogs on Novers Hill in 1990) and occasionally, Ben Dilworth whose selling techniques were very slick ("Buy this Zine, son and you'll become a goddam sexual tyrannosaurus just like me!"...and it worked).

The Bristol International Comic Expo was another venue but tables costing a lot more than you could make from selling zines.  

These days you "have to be on the list" for an event and believe me they are not comic events any more.  People all wanting to be the next big "graphic novelist" and selling  badges, posters and...well, anything other than comics and zines.  Being told that "your books look too professional" and having them rather aggressively pushed about by another table owner is bad enough but when people are visibly scared to touch publications it gets ridiculous. If you watch You Tube (ad crazy money grubbing as it has become) you will see certain people complain that there were a lot of comics but few toy sellers. The clue is in the title of the event "Comic Con" -too subtle?

Also Cosplay seems to take up more time and space than comics.

There are people outside the UK who find it near impossible to believe that, after 40+ years Black Tower is never invited to UK events. I have a couple offers from the United States but that is just far too expensive and I do not fly (except that time I slipped on the top step and I thought I had become Superman).

You can be established and have over 200 titles available, you can have promoted British comics history, comics and the Small Press for decades but here is the reality: it means nothing. Does all of this "rake in" the money?  No.  Not enough to live on or pay for all the work on the books and pay contributors -my books sell and I pay US taxes as my print on demand company is in the US and they wait until the £-$ exchange rate is in their favour (oh they love us publishers😏

So, no, I cannot just sit back and let all the money flow in unless it is a fantasy in my head. Perhaps we need small comic marts to start again and not ones where only your mates and hangers on can get tables?

Weekly Rewind! Ep75: Marvel Legends GIJoe MOTU Monster Force Superman St...

D-Gruppe -Deutschland's Erste Superheldengruppe: Now Its own blog

 As there seems to be a lot of interest in the D-Gruppe posts I've started moving them to a solo blog so here is the link

https://dgruppe.blogspot.com/2025/06/hello-and-welcome-to-d-gruppe-page.html

Lost Heroes | Full Canadian Comic Book Documentary

China or India Could Have Invested In UK Comics -That was the pipe-dream!

 

In October 2015 I posted about the possibility of Chinese investment in UK comics. This is the link but there have been several posts up to 2019{ https://hoopercomicart.blogspot.com/2015/12/chinese-investment-for-uk-comics-needed.html

At one point I was talking to Indian publishers who had everything required to print comics as well as cheap expert rules and that fell through because, after initial enthusiasm, they seemed to be just content with India.  

I had posted a number of times on the two countries most likely to see the rather open UK comic market place for investment and printing quality books in their country and importing them into the UK. One was India which seemed a real possibility but China was the most likely as they are a lot smoother in running business and getting the goods on the shelf.  Sadly, China -or rather Chinese publishers- never showed any interest and were more concerned with producing Japanese Manga style comics.

Well, I tried which is better than going to conventions and bars and getting drunk while back-stabbing all your comic "friends".  I think 😄

2015年10月，我曾发帖探讨中国投资英国漫画的可能性。这是链接，但截至2019年，我已发布多篇帖子{ https://hoopercomicart.blogspot.com/2015/12/chinese-investment-for-uk-comics-needed.html

我曾与一些印度出版商洽谈，他们拥有印刷漫画所需的一切条件，以及价格低廉的专业规则，但最终未能如愿，因为在最初的热情过后，他们似乎只对印度感到满意。

我曾多次发帖，探讨两个最有可能看到英国漫画市场开放的国家，投资这些国家，并在其国家印刷优质漫画，然后进口到英国。其中一个是印度，这似乎是一个切实可行的选择，但中国的可能性更大，因为他们在运营和上架方面更加顺畅。可惜的是，中国——或者更确切地说是中国的出版商——从未表现出任何兴趣，他们更关心的是制作日式漫画。

The History Of Charlton Comics

Make Comics and Enjoy Making Them even if you may never become the next Star!

 Something I have said and written about many times in the past needs to be written about again. 

At past comic events I have seen the hopeful artists show their portfolios to editors or publishers and be quickly dismissed with a "Needs improvement. Buy our books and look at what we publish and the art style."

Those editors are there for free ego boosts and lunches and since 1984 I have seen very few who will take more than 3-4 minutes talking to a want to be artist.  I have seen some great art pages that 'editors' described as needing to be more "professional" -most comic companies including Marvel and DC have published less than professional art in the past and present.  The "Marvel style" is a joke since it was meant as a guideline not "You MUST copy Jack or John" -Marvel was recognised for its use of artists with varying styles  -a comic company that published 10 comics drawn in a Kirby style would become stale and pretty boring after a short time.

A company that has editors or a publisher that does not recognise varying art styles or how a creative artist will  stick to script but stylise the page is not representing a creative company.  Yes, you want a well drawn comic because you are in business and need to make money to pay the bills and artists/writers but I recall one Marvel UK editor in the late 1980s showing me a draw full of art pages sent in by people hoping to get work and he rejected some who had turned in some great art because the pages were not what he liked. One had a signature and address in Spain on the back of the rejected art page  Carlos Pacheco.

For every new artist who comes along  it is likely 200-300 have been rejected and I have seen artists get work at conventions because they either kissed-the-ass of the editor or bought them drinks in the bar and got promised a job and that is even in print somewhere but I was told by told UK editors that is how they 'hired' particular artists: "No skin off my nose I'm not paying him the company is" -anyone guess who those now rebooted and legendary editors were?

Here is the thing; in the old days of the 1970s-1early 1990s artists and writers practiced their craft in Small Press zines -the Who's Who of those people is lengthy indeed from Moore, Davies, Mark Millar and on and on.  These days there are no anthology Small Press zines that accept contributions so people create their own zines and that does not get them to a wider audience even if it does improve their art or story-telling skills. It is, however, the only alternative to getting experience and building up a reputation.

Then there are people who just want to draw but will never be the next Kirby, Byrne or whoever you think is the current greatest artist. That just does not matter if you are doing this to have the fun of creating a comic of your own and building up your own little universe. Go for it. Anyone says "This isn't very good is it?" ask to see their comic or artwork -you'll probably be told they "don't do comics" and you need to take idiotic comments in your stride BUT if someone does offer genuine advice LISTEN. The problem is that too many artists have egos bigger than their talent and will not listen. Others will even if only grudgingly.

Example one: a creator sent me their  A5 sized comic. Excellent printing and production but every -EVERY- art page was blank (white) on the reverse side. I pointed out that this might be why his book was not selling as it was priced to cover 40+ printed pages (yes, blank pages ARE counted) when it was only 20 pages.  He took my suggestion of correcting the problem as well as a couple other tips and I heard nothing until 6 months later when he contacted me and explained that he had made all of the changes and his books were selling.

Another self published creator I talked to at a convention  for a good while (he was attracting no customers) showed me his comic. Black and white art that looked very good and yet, as he explained, the comic did not sell.  My advice was that he change the black and white cover to a colour one and the cover text which looked a little amateurish. He was not happy but listened and we parted with his attitude of "Yeah. Sure. I'll do that now sod off". After his next convention he sent me a copy of the same book but with improved cover text and colour cover and he actually thanked me and said he had not been intending to follow my advice but then thought it was worth trying rather than have a stack of unsold books. The new version sold out after two events. 

Others I have advised because despite what anyone thinks I want to see a good creative -albeit small- comic community and I have promoted the Small Press in the UK, US and Europe and well beyond since the 1980s.  Have a loose knit community of creators who have fun and, maybe, earn a little extra cash is the way to keep comics alive particularly in the UK.

So make comics and enjoy making them even if you may never become the next mega comic star! 

Stats 01 06 2025

 Brazil                                                                                                                              1.8K

Vietnam

1.63K

Singapore

1.31K

Indonesia

107

United States

75

Netherlands

58

Canada

27

Mexico

21

Hong Kong

16

Austria

14

Germany

12

United Kingdom

11

India

7

Italy

7

Iran

6

Israel

4

France

3

Ireland

3

South Korea

3

Other

119

I finally Got My Iron Warrior

 

Took a bit of work but finally made my British Golden Age character The Iron Warrior!

It stands 12 inches tall and the soldiers in the pics are 60mm tall so fits perfectly there but can be used with 3.75 inch action figures -if made for that scale it would be standing at least 24 inches tall!

I started out with two large polystyrene balls (no, I personally do not have polystyrene balls so behave!).  I then used Milliput to cover both halves making for a metal hard exterior. The arms are also Milliput. I was going to add more Milliput and give it a smoother finish but then I realised a rather beaten look was better (I may do some weathering later).

Rodney Dearth created the IW in the late 1930s so he would have used metal plates and the tools of the time to harden the shell.  Likely he did this himself and even if he had the IW built by an engineering yard by 1943 it had gone through a lot.  Charged by a huge bull elephant, fired upon with guns and small artillery and then adding in his new adventures when he got to South America -the battle with Big Bong (When Giants Fought), giant alligator and several run ins with a one eyed T-Rex...the Iron Warrior would look pretty beat up from repairs in the field including panel beating.

The Warrior's huge chopper (not aa bike but an axe) is currently drying after painting so old Iron Sides is "tooled up".  I put him on those two base plates to photo as my table is slightly tilting. 

 With everything I have learnt from this IW I would go about it all differently now -it took almost three packs of Milliput which is an epoxy putty where you mix the two colours together and it goes rock hard after a few hours.  

 But weathering the old Action Man/GI Joe helmet will help with a more roughed up looking figure. Considering there is now only one Iron Warrior action figure in the world...the Universe...I am quite chuffed.