Review of Return Of The Gods

Just got another review for the book and I’m quite happy with it!

“A masterpiece of iconic superhero storytelling – just the right balance of action, tongue in cheek humour, farce, and humanity. What comics need – a story with a heart and a soul – is what Return of the Gods is. A grand tale spanning millenia and a dozen or more different story lines involving gods, monsters, aliens and heroes… somehow manages to keep
a human perspective and deliver the goods ! Comics as they used to be -stories as they should be. My best praise – it’s a jolly good read.”

Titan Books: Stitched

STITCHED
Titan Books Ltd
(W) Garth Ennis & (W & A) Mike Wolfer
Paperback
Full colour
176 pages
ISBN 13: 9781592911806
ISBN 10: 1592911803
Published: 31 March 2013
£14.99


“American and British soldiers find themselves in Taliban-controlled mountains, hunted by the murderous undead! Think The Walking Dead meets Black Hawk Down!Three American soldiers, the survivors of a helicopter crash in Afghanistan, struggle across the Taliban-controlled mountains. Injured and lacking food, water, and medicine, they discover something far worse than enemy fighters among the sun-bleached rocks: an ancient supernatural power, murderous and unstoppable.

Despite a timely rescue by a handful of British S.A.S. troopers, they’re still hopelessly outnumbered by the shambling, ragged undead and the evil human intelligence that controls them.

Critically acclaimed graphic novelist Garth Ennis and horror master Mike Wolfer rip the horrors of war right from today’s headlines and thrust it beyond the boundaries of sanity.”

To be honest the book states “original story by Garth Ennis. Script & Art Mike Wolfer” so how far off Ennis’ idea this is who knows?

The art…nothing wrong with it really but I have to laugh out loud. All the nasty violence and things going on and…they have to cover a man’s penis with a shadow??? Seriously? This is a hard horror comic??  A little boy has his limbs ripped off of him but let’s not go too far and show a willy!! Pathetic.

Anyway, everyone knows I’m a horror comic/film buff –the old silents, talkies and later Hammer and newer stuff so maybe I’m getting a bit jaded? However, there is nothing really new here –in fact it reminds me of two Syfy channel movies combined. And, like Syfy ‘horror’ movies, this wont get you over excited or over-thinking. It’s pretty standard game.

Terry Hooper-Scharf Talks About The Ultimate Game and The Return Of The Gods

Frank Barrell talks to Terry Hooper-Scharf  about The Ultimate Game, The Cosmic Fulcrum and The Return Of The Gods!

I’ve interviewed Terry a couple times before –the last time about his resurrection of an old UK Golden Age character in The Bat Triumphant.  Not easy to interview someone who doesn’t like interviews and has rarely taken part in one in 30 years but here goes nothing!

Frank: Now I know you are a major fan of the obscure UK Golden Age heroes and you’ve incorporated many into your “Black Tower Universe” since 1984 and you have also published a book -400 plus pages?- of many of these old obscure strips, both humour and action. So, Return, is the biggest all original work book you’ve published to date?

Terry: Yes, biggest comic book or “graphic novel” if you prefer. I’ve published about five (?) bulky prose books –Some Things Strange & Sinister, Some More Things Strange & Sinister, Pursuing The Strange & Weird, The Red Paper and, of course, the best of 25 plus years of interviews in…The Hooper Interviews.

Normally, I’ve published A4 comic albums of between 15-120 pages.  Return, however, is the first graphic novel.

Frank: How many pages?

Terry: It’s 318 pages.

Frank: I may have gotten ahead of myself a bit here –I was reading Paul H. Birch’s Q&A with you on SpeechBalloon and got diverted –

http://blogs.birminghammail.co.uk/speechballoon/2013/02/return-of-the-gods-and-a-chat.html

Now, I know you’ve read comics since you were about six or seven years old and your influences were outlined in a full interview by Phil Latter (yeah, give a Canadian the opportunity to interview you but not your mates!)

http://www.comicbitsonline.com/2011/06/27/the-terry-hooper-interview-by-phil-latter/

and you’ve expanded on this background with postings on Manhwa, Manhua and Manga as well as European (particularly German) comics on CBO….

Terry: This is going to be a very long interview, isn’t it?

Frank: I’ll get there in a minute just hang about.

Terry: Then hurry up!!!!


below:art from the original The Ultimate Game. Pencils T. Hooper/Inks B. R. Dilworth.


Frank: Okay, we’ll get back to Golden Age stuff in a while. As you are so impatient maybe you can tell us just how Return started?

Terry: In a way I think it goes back to when I was a nipper, drawing comic strips in old receipt books my gran, Rose, used to get me from work (she worked at Pople’s Popular Pies in Mina Road, St. Werburgh’s, and old blank receipt books were thrown away but she found it a very “economic” way to stem my need for paper to draw on)—

Frank: And you don’t have any of those books any more, do you?

Terry: Sadly, no. My parents kept moving about and I lost so much stuff but only managed to keep the odd cherished comic.

Any old way, I used to draw UK characters such as Billy The Cat, Billy The Whizz and The Spider –even The Phantom Viking—alongside US comic characters like Thor, Hulk, Captain America, Batman and so on. Actually, as I’m saying this I suddenly realise that Return is a sort of expansion of those old books. That is weird. I never really thought about it until now.

below: More of the original UG -credits as before!
Frank: To save any legal threats we need to make sure that its clear you have not used any of those characters in Return!

Terry: Absolutely not. I’m not insane!

Frank: So you started drawing these strips in old receipt books and so on and you never lost interest in comics as you grew up?

Below: a colour “swatch” page for the colourist.

Terry: No. Not at all. I never had a terrible childhood –my grandparents, Rose and Bill, mainly raised me and though we were poor Bill did try to keep me supplied with a weekly comic or a shilling (5p today!) pocket money so comics and plasticine were always with me.  And when I eventually went to Greenway Secondary Modern Boys School in Southmead, Bristol, I found a few people interested in comics and later on taught a few younger lads to draw comics. School was not a good time for me so drawing and comics were a distraction.

Frank: Your original plan was to get into publishing and publish comics as a business or work as a comic editor, right?

Terry: Yes. All my contact was mainly with editors or publishers and I soon learned that it was a real closed shop. But that’s a very, very long story!!

Frank: Alright, zooming ahead. You were going to various comic companies in the mid 1980s and trying to sell comic title or strip series ideas.  It was at this point that the germ of what was going to become Return started: can you tell us about that?

Terry: Well, in a way it began (excluding those old receipt book cross-overs) with Fleetway in the 1980s. I had met Steve McManus and Dave Hunt and others at the editorial level but my real insight into things came through Managing Editor Gil Page –when he later retired (around 2000) he had been with the company since 1957 and had been there from Amalgamated Press, IPC, Fleetway, Maxwell PP and then Egmont.

I learnt things such as the fact that, as Gil put it in a letter: “everyone was excited about this big American comic writer who had created the Spider for us” –yes, Jerry Siegel created The Spider. And talk of the old characters they still had and never used led to me “kinda” talking Gil into letting me put together a 10 page preview titled “The Ultimate Game”.  I say “kinda” because no one could persuade him to do what he did not want to –he was affectionately known as “the UK Stan Lee” and I still hold him in great respect.

However, though the end result –The Ultimate Game– was liked and copies made and passed around all over Fleetway –I went to see Steve McManus about a 2000 AD related idea and he took the pages out of a drawer and said “You’re the guy behind this, aren’t you?”  Ah, the recognition at last!  Anyway, “someone” put a spoke in the works. Sheer malice but they bi-passed the editors and contacted upper management. From then on the old characters were really “a thing of the past” and later incarnations never treated them properly –though I love Shane Oakley and George Freeman’s work on Albion.
By total accident, I met a fella who was in management at Maxwell Pergamon Publishing and he blurted out -by accident?- that Robert Maxwell was buying out Fleetway and that Maxwell really wanted to publish successful comics in the UK. I have no idea what was going on behind the scenes but apparently Rupert Murdoch had a newspaper empire and had said at some point his company was going to publish comics -red flag to Maxwell!  I met the man once, very enthusiastic. I counted my fingers afterwards.
It took a while but then his people decided The Ultimate Game was going to be a full colour, 32 pager,  old style weekly –a bit like Battleor the new Eagle but full colour. At this point I was very excited but a warning voice always tells me to not get carried away.  Everything was ready…then Maxwell died and I have no idea what was going on.

Eventually, I was writing for Egmont, mainly on Revolver and then someone found the old Ultimate Game project. I think they were trying to impress their bosses with ideas which should have warned me!  I spent a lot of time up-dating it. Then the editor involved left, apparently on not very good terms with Egmont, and the project died again.

Marvel UK had shown an interest but wanted all rights so I said no. It would have been nice money but giving up rights to all the characters? No.

I ought to point out that after Fleetway and Egmont and Maxwell I had incorporated my own characters, some that I had created in the 1970s, into the story as I could not use the old Fleetway characters.
When I re-launched Black Tower Adventure in…2009  I needed a meaty main feature. The Ultimate Game had been adapted and the title changed to The Cosmic Fulcrum for Marvel UK and that title was used when it finally appeared in a Small Press version.  So, what I had in 2009 was a strip that had been reworked and re-titled as The Return Of The Gods: Twilight Of The Super Heroes. I had thought Adventure would only go for six issues so the strip was perfect and I would finally see it in print in some form!



Frank: And Adventure is at issue 10 now!  But you combined the strip into Black Tower’s first graphic novel in 2012 and it did quite well –glowing reviews— so why a new version and how is it different (I know I’ve read my copy and its brilliant but for the readers)?

Terry: Well, the original book was a trade version of the six part series from Black Tower Adventure and came to a total of 196 pages. I talked to reviewers who are also comic artists/writers and we had a round robin discussion of the book. Most said that it was far better and certainly more enjoyable than DC Comics “52″ series and…fun!

But as we talked I realised that I had missed an opportunity because, since 1984, Black Tower has incorporated a lot of very obscure old UK Golden Age characters and some of these just appeared in a strip -no origin or anything.

Frank: But not included in the original six part story?

Terry: No, and as far as I was then concerned,  it was too late to sort that out and include some of them –though the Golden Agers are represented. However,  I had to re-think seriously re-think this later on.








Frank: You notoriously do not use scripts for your own work so how did you go about this series?

Terry: As you say, I never ever work with a script on things I am working on myself. I always start with a blank sheet of paper, pencil, pens and then see what develops. It gives a lot of spontaneity -I really have no idea what is going to happen on a page or even the next panel!

As far as the story is concerned I found that I was incorporating bits of The Ultimate Game and The Cosmic Fulcrum –another multi-character series.

After Return was published I was rummaging through an old box looking for an old reference image and found a thick wad of A3 pages –about 45 pages in total that were the build-up to the original strip -I thought those pages had been lost years ago. I read through it and realised the pages actually explained a few things and was paced for the big event. That put me in a rather odd position.

I had a week or so to decide whether or not I wanted to leave Return as it was or to tidy up the old pages and make it more complete. I also realised that there would have to be new  pages drawn to bridge the various story links. Then I thought that this was a chance to once and for all explain everything that had been going on in Black Tower strips since 1984 and explain the incorporation of the old Golden Age characters and their origins. It also helps to set up The Green Skies book in late 2013.

I figured the final book would total 250-260 pages so when I finished it and found over 300 I was a little taken aback.

A few people who got the advanced rough book just started raving about it so I thought “Okay. Job done. Move on!”

Frank: And it is a real cracker. But for those who know nothing about the book could you summarise it?

Terry: AGH! Well, it begins slowly enough with Earth’s heroes going about their daily tasks –such as fighting a giant robot controlled by a mad scientist’s brain, some villains,  both “regular” and mystical not to mention even vampire alien high priests of some mysterious cult and their zombie followers attacking various heroes to put them temporarily out of the way. Oh, of course there is a ghost and a young genius lost in time.

Pretty mundane super hero stuff really. “Just another day”.

But there is a huge alien Mother-ship near the Moon and psychics around the world have been getting vivid images of this for months –even non-precogs. Earth’s mystical heroes are stumped.

Then strange orange spheres chase some of Earth’s heroes in the UK, France, Czech Republic, Mexico, Russia and other parts of the world. Once touched by the globes that deliberately seek them out the heroes vanish into thin air –are they dead? Is some super villain exacting revenge?

Black, impenetrable domes suddenly appear and cover cities world-wide. Those outside are puzzled while those within face a terrifying reality…

…Alien invasion of Earth!

And then there is a war brewing between the Dark Old (Lovecraftian type) Gods and the pantheons that followed –Greek, Babylonian, etc.. After millennia of waiting the new gods will either triumph and return to Earth or be defeated…and whichever side wins it won’t be good for humanity.

There are warriors from various conflicts in the Earth’s past that are having to battle each day on some mysterious endless plain and whether they die in battle or not they are back the next day!

No one suspects the driving force, the evil twisted schemer,  behind the events that could cause destruction and chaos throughout the multi-verse.  Assaulted on all fronts can Earth’s defenders succeed or will they fail…is this truly the end?

The final words of the character Jack Flash on the last page apparently gave readers goose-bumps!



Frank: Those are chilling final words!!  But, as no shops or distributors wanted to touch what I, in my honest opinion, consider the really be one of the greatest British super hero sagas I’ve ever read –better than my old favourite Zenith- how can people buy a copy?


Terry: I thought you would never ask! It’s only available online at the moment so people will need to check out:

http://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper-scharf/the-return-of-the-godstwilight-of-the-super-heroes/paperback/product-20659931.html

Frank: Terry, good luck with the book and I cannot wait for Green Skies!!










ALL artwork and characters are (c)2013 T. Hooper-Scharf and BTCG

Paul Birch Chats With Terry Hooper on Return Of The Gods

My THANKS to Paul Birch for this!

http://blogs.birminghammail.co.uk/speechballoon/2013/02/return-of-the-gods-and-a-chat.html

Return Of The Gods: Twlight Of The Super Heroes…Spiffing stuff!

According to a few people the book is “as good as claimed” (though I never made the claim a reader did!)
The Return Of The Gods:Twilight of the Super Heroes


Terry Hooper-Scarf
Black Tower Comics
Paperback
Black & white
318 Pages
A4
Price: £10.00
Ships in 3–5 business days

http://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper-scharf/the-return-of-the-godstwilight-of-the-super-heroes/paperback/product-20659931.html


It begins slowly with Earth’s heroes 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 there is a huge alien Mother-ship near the Moon and strange orange spheres chase some of Earth’s heroes who vanish into thin air –are they dead?

Then black, impenetrable domes cover cities world-wide.

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!

And no one suspects the driving force behind the 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?

The Black Tower hit of 2012 expanded to 318 pages from 196!


Advance previews have solicited such comments as:

“The greatest British super hero graphic novel ever!”

“Best read I’ve had in years –better than Zenith!”

He May Be The Only Person Able To Save Mankind….

…..START PRAYING!!

Return Of The Gods: Twlight Of The Super Heroes.  February, 2013

Black Tower -Tick-Tock: It’s The Clock!!

Writer/Artist: Ben R. Dilworth
Black & white
32 pages
A4
£5.00
Order online at:
http://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper-scharf/tick-tock-its-the-clock/paperback/product-20352028.html


Debuting from Centaur Comics in Feature Comics #21, 1936, the Clock, eventually revealed to be society man and former district attorney Brian O’Brien, wore a three-piece suit, a fedora, and a black full-face mask. The first masked hero of comics dealt with crime using guile and gun and usually left a calling card that bore an image of a clock and the words “The Clock Has Struck.”

Ben Dilworth steps in to fill in the gaps about what MADE the Clock -plus a revelation: what happened to O’Brien’s look-alike and crime busting companion Pug?

Prepare for violence, harsh language and to ask the question: can there ever really be justice from the barrel of a gun?

RED CIRCLE COMICS ANNOUNCES NEW CRUSADERS: DARK TOMORROW

I need to point out I have only seen a pdf of the first book so this is NOT a review.  Sadly, I can’t get copies of Red Circle books in Bristol (and, yes, I have looked on the internet!):

 

Acclaimed super hero comic book series prepares for second arc and new #1.

  New York, NY – Red Circle Comics, the super hero imprint of comic publisher Archie Comics, is proud to launch the second arc of the groundbreaking New Crusaders series: Dark Tomorrow. New Crusaders: Rise of the Heroes saw the revival of the Red Circle heroes and a fresh, exciting take on the classic franchise.

Beginning this May, the New Crusaders continue their triumphant return with New Crusaders: Dark Tomorrow following their fiercest battle to date with the shocking conclusion to New Crusaders: Rise of the Heroes. The digital first series successfully made the transition to print this summer and continues to build on its timeless legacy.

“This new series will introduce some new characters to the team, and some familiar faces to the Red Circle universe will be back,” teases Red Circle Executive Director of Editorial Paul Kaminski. “Dark Tomorrow will take our kids back to high school, where they begin to juggle their super hero identities with the normal trials of high school life. The 6-issue limited series format will allow us to pace out the long-form story just as writer Ian Flynn has crafted it over time, and that story is intense.”

“New Crusaders: Dark Tomorrow is a fantastic first issue!” exclaims Red Circle Comics President Mike Pellerito. “Not only is it filled with suspense, mystery and intrigue, but it’s not a dream or an imaginary tale. Dark Tomorrow is a tale only the radical Red Circle would attempt! Plus, it’s still only $2.99! But in all seriousness, we couldn’t be more excited for this story to kick off and take our readers on a new journey with these characters we’ve all grown to love with a passion.”

The innovative flagship title for Red Circle Comics will now offer fans day-and-date releases of the issues either in print from their local comic shop or digitally on the Red Circle App. In addition to the ongoing storyline, The Lost Crusade stories will continue to explore the histories of the original Mighty Crusaders, filling in the gaps between the classic series up to now and featuring some of today’s top creators.

New Crusaders: Dark Tomorrow #1 features the continued talents of writer Ian Flynn (Sonic the Hedgehog, Mega Man) and artist Alitha Martinez (Iron Man, Batgirl) with cover art by superstar artist Phil Jimenez (JLA, Infinite Crisis) and variant cover art by original New Crusaders artist Ben Bates.

PRESS CONTACT:

Steven Scott

Director of Publicity and Marketing

stevens@archiecomics.com

914.381.5155, ext. 227

Dr Who Died At Christmas

Doctor Who, on 7.6 million viewers, also had an average audience 1.3 million fewer than in 2011. Not surprising since it has become a childish fantasy programme which, with an absolutely dire script, not even Matt Smith's acting could save. It was just awful awful awful! "I'm a sword carrying lizard lady from the dawn of time and this is my wife" (WTF??) and "Answer but use only one word"/ say why the doctor must help -but use only one word" -a test? More like the worst kind of sloppy writing I've ever come across on a Dr Who! And a pull down ladder (invisible until pulled down) that led to a spiral staircase that led to the Tardis sitting on solidified moisture particles. W T F??? And, excuse me but TWICE I looked around thinking I'd fallen asleep as the story/scene "jumped" with no explanation. Merlin each weekend brought in 12 million viewers. Dr Who viewing figures are falling but it continues (until the 50th anniversary at least) but Merlin is cancelled as the writing and performances were getting better. Christmas 2012 is the time Dr Who died for me.

Attila Fazekas And The Legal Bootleg Star Wars!

Taken a while but as CBO is very interested in comics from Europe the following email from János Verebics was quite interesting -with plenty of images!
*************************************************************************
“Maybe some news you will be interested in?

“As I informed you in previous mails, Attila Fazekas, one of the great masters of the Hungarian Golden Age of Comics is still alive (thanks God), and is very active. He completed an epic story on the early years of our greatest national hero, Janos Hunyadi (Brightness of the Morning Star) and…
… The Return Of The Jedi!.


Above and Below: Fazekas at work









In 1982 – without the permission of Lucasfilm – he made a very good adaption of Star Wars, which was sold over 600,000 copies (yeah, no mistake: 600, 000) in Hungary. And two years later he produced an adaption of The Empire Strikes Back.

After 1990 the original US comics were published in my country too, but the Hungarian Star Wars fans have never given up dreaming about having a Fazekas-Return Of The Jedi. Now the dream comes true: Lucasfilm has kindly given permission to the Hungarian Star Wars Fan Club to publish Return Of The Jedi but limited to no more then 500 copies and for FREE (i.e. no licence fees were requested).

The first part was published last month and we love it…

This edition was fortunately published with an official permission, and the circulation is really under control (no more, than 500, really). Fazekas is working now on the second book, which will be published next year. I’ll enclose some photographs I took yesterday at Attila’s home. Please do not hesitate to use them as illustrations.
The whole thing was, of course, not a business venture. On the Star Wars conventions the booklets are sold for 4,25 euros. But it’s a huge victory to the Hungarian SW Club and the comics art, which proved it’s good quality, again.

Below: Nice to see another artist’s drawing space!

Above:a spread of Star Wars artwork by Fazekas. And below, as Janos writes:
“Fazekas made a small joke on the first page of the second part: he placed himself into the story (he put his own face one of the characters).”

0257, 0256 and 0259 are pics taken (by hand) of the “original” Hungarian Star Wars from the 80s (below).

















I think this shows that, far from being some comic backwater that had no American comics, Hungarian creators were quite prolific and as good as any of their “Western” counterparts.
There is some lovely work here and my thanks to Janos for letting me know about this -I just hope Fazekas makes some money out of this!

Uncle Tel’s Corner –A Couple Comic Related Questions

First one:
Q: “Why do you say “comickers”?”
A: It’s an old term, I think back to the 1920s (?) referring to those reading/working in comics.
Q: “You’ve written a few times about ‘comic sets’ -what do you mean?”
A: In the old days the artwork for comics was cut into wooden blocks.  These were sets of blocks -”comic sets”.
Q: “Why did/do comics have everything in capital letters?”
A: Do they still do that? It was necessary at one time because of the machines used in cheap printing so everything was capitalised for extra clarity. No reason to still be doing that!

Marvel Comics The Untold Story -A MUST buy!!!

Above:Sean Howe with his book (c)Photo by Stefano Giovannini, Brooklyn Daily

MARVEL COMICS: THE UNTOLD STORY
Sean Howe
Harper Books
Hardback
484 pp

Well, Mr. Brown gave me this book and told me “you’ll enjoy it!”  This from a man who allegedly hates comics.

So what is it about?  According to the blurb/info:

An unvarnished, unauthorized, behind-the-scenes account of one of the most dominant pop cultural forces in contemporary America.
Operating out of a tiny office on Madison Avenue in the early 1960s, a struggling company called Marvel Comics presented a cast of brightly costumed characters distinguished by smart banter and compellingly human flaws. Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Captain America, the Incredible Hulk, the Avengers, Iron Man, Thor, the X-Men, Daredevil—these superheroes quickly won children’s hearts and sparked the imaginations of pop artists, public intellectuals, and campus radicals. Over the course of a half century, Marvel’s epic universe would become the most elaborate fictional narrative in history and serve as a modern American mythology for millions of readers.
Throughout this decades-long journey to becoming a multibillion-dollar enterprise, Marvel’s identity has continually shifted, careening between scrappy underdog and corporate behemoth. As the company has weathered Wall Street machinations, Hollywood failures, and the collapse of the comic book market, its characters have been passed along among generations of editors, artists, and writers—also known as the celebrated Marvel “Bullpen.” Entrusted to carry on tradition, Marvel’s contributors—impoverished child prodigies, hallucinating peaceniks, and mercenary careerists among them—struggled with commercial mandates, a fickle audience, and, over matters of credit and control, one another.
For the first time, Marvel Comics reveals the outsized personalities behind the scenes, including Martin Goodman, the self-made publisher who forayed into comics after a get-rich-quick tip in 1939; Stan Lee, the energetic editor who would shepherd the company through thick and thin for decades; and Jack Kirby, the World War II veteran who’d co-created Captain America in 1940 and, twenty years later, developed with Lee the bulk of the company’s marquee characters in a three-year frenzy of creativity that would be the grounds for future legal battles and endless debates.
Drawing on more than one hundred original interviews with Marvel insiders then and now, Marvel Comics is a story of fertile imaginations, lifelong friendships, action-packed fistfights, reformed criminals, unlikely alliances, and third-act betrayals—a narrative of one of the most extraordinary, beloved, and beleaguered pop cultural entities in America’s history.
And the reviewers say this:

“A WILD-RIDE ACCOUNT” —The Hollywood Reporter

“EPIC” —The New York Times

“INDISPENSABLE” —Los Angeles Times

“DEFINITIVE” —The Wall Street Journal

“SCINTILLATING” —Publishers Weekly

“FASCINATING” —GQ

“AUTHORITATIVE” —Kirkus Reviews

“GRIPPING” —Rolling Stone

“PRICELESS” —Booklist

“A MUST FOR ANY SUPERHERO OR POP-CULTURE FAN” —NY Post

“ESSENTIAL” —The Daily Beast

“A SUPERPOWERED MUST-READ” —USA Today

“REVELATORY” —The Miami Herald

“AS FULL OF COLORFUL CHARACTERS, TRAGIC REVERSALS AND UNLIKELY PLOT TWISTS AS ANY BOOK IN THE MARVEL CANON” —Newsday


Now I never ever bother with what other reviewers write.  Why should I?  The whole point is that I review and make up my own mind.  So, first thing first: I had expected an illustrated book –photographs.  There is one small photo of Kirby & Lee from 1965 and that’s it.  There are more images on Howe’s site but why? If you buy the book you do not expect to have to go to the author’s blog to see what should be in the book.

That is my gripe because how many reading the book would know what Don Heck, John Verpoorten, John Romita, Herb Trimpe et al look like?  A photograph humanises the account more.

The book itself I opened preparing to read the worst of former Marvel favourites.  However, very few people come out well in this history other than the old school creators and staffers –the Romitas, Trimpe, the Buscemas, Heck and Stan Lee.  I was surprised by the Stan Lee aspect because, despite stating he was a loyal company man –Jeez, he built Marvel up from the ground so he would be— Lee really was a fierce and loyal supporter of his staff and freelancers.
There is the story of when Lee was forced to lay-off staff and how he would give them the bad news then visit the toilet to throw up.  A process he had to repeat all day. It was after this that he decided “no more” and began to build things up –the frustrated writer who wanted to convince people that comics were not just for dummies but were an art form.  Lee desperately trying to get Marvel properties into movies.

At one point when Lee was planning on leaving Marvel he wrote a letter to a friend stating how he would like to take Kirby and others with him but pointing out that if he couldn’t no problem –they were so talented they would land on their feet. As more of the behind the scenes story played out (not all new if you are into comics history) my respect for the old time freelancers and staffers grew.  They did their jobs and never messed around.  Comics sold.

When it comes to Ditko my opinion was reinforced.  He is one of the great comic artists but a very “fractured” person.  Yes, if you, as a writer, create a character and describe his/her abilities, etc., to an artist YOU have created the character.  The artist coming up with the design and art you can call “co-creator” and Lee even put this in writing for Ditko regarding Spider-man (despite some of what Ditko said and wrote) but Ditko wanted to be THE creator, not a co-creator.  Ditko made his own problems and to be honest yes, like Lee said and wrote, Ditko was “co-creator” and if Ditko wants to be a pain and bleat about semantics and imagined wrongs well…let him.

Jack Kirby and his various claims are also touched on.  We all know that certain people in comics adopted Kirby as a “down-trodden creator bullied by Marvel” simply so they could snipe at Marvel.  I have always stated, and the facts are there, Stan Lee was not the mastermind behind some sinister plot against Kirby.  The problem was to be lain at the people running Marvel.

There is the mention of Kirby’s signature being on a work-for-hire document from, I believe 1972 and this was “unexplained” so are people claiming this was forged?  If so why were experts not called in to examine the signature?

As I read a lot of what Kirby was alleged to have said/written or had been said as coming from him over the years one thing became clear.  I think to some degree Kirby was being used but I also think Kirby was having memory problems –I have one printed interview in which Kirby’s wife is repeatedly noted as answering for him. And there were outlandish claims made by Kirby –that Lee had never written a script, that he never knew what was in a strip until Kirby turned it over and that he created characters and wrote them himself.

Lee made a call when Kirby was on radio to wish him a happy birthday and the exchange was pleasant.  At a convention Kirby had said to Lee that Lee had done nothing to be ashamed of.  Then came another anti-Lee rant.  Lee, through his statements and recorded interviews, is genuinely dumbfounded by all this –and there is enough recorded Lee history at Marvel and after to show that he never said a bad word about Kirby or Ditko (unless someone tried to trick him as in the infamous Jonathan Ross interview for the documentary In Search Of Steve Ditko).

Yes, I think Kirby should have gotten some reward for all the merchandising based on characters he and Lee created and that were used in toys, etc., but even Lee got no royalty –it was work-for-hire. The problem lay in those money men running Marvel.

The rot set in when, as in the UK comic industry, the fans got in!  Drugs, drink and even worse.  Yes, some good comics were created but we now learn what was going on with stand-in story issues, very bad continuity and other things that bugged us over the years.

It was the editors and writers who were back-biting, demanding complete control of what they were working on, getting to edit their own books and sneaking stories past their editors that they knew they normally would not get away with. Quite honestly it is a wonder Marvel never died an earlier death.  Imagine a bunch of screeching, in-fighting children who try to sabotage each other –and often dumb-ass editors.

It’s no wonder Lee quit.

Everyone wanted more money and to be in complete control: “get rid of him or I’m quitting!”  And these children continue this behaviour to this day –even in court.  I found it very difficult to feel sorry for any of the later creators/staffers.

The complete corruption of an industry can be said to have started with acid taking creators and ….I cannot think of adequately describing the editors.

Doing the dirty of Sal Buscema and Don Heck and other loyal freelancers makes me look at editors with no respect.  Even one of my favourites, Roy Thomas, doesn’t come out of this well.

Reading of the Shooter days I got the impression that at one point Shooter was having a nervous breakdown but no one realised.  That or he became a real bastard because he was having to deal with problem creators and just was not experienced enough to do the job (though he wrote some good comics).

Then I got to the bit where Quesada and Palmiotti jumped in.  Really, you need to read this.  I’ve not had much regard for Quesada but after this book I’ve no regard for him at all.

The cover price hike-ups to “cover printing costs” were nothing of the sort (as a lot of us knew) it simple was to screw the fans who owners and creators seemed to have no respect for. “Put Wolverine in every and any book because it will sell even if it stinks” was and is a genuine company policy.

There is account after account of creators leaving Marvel and swearing never to work for the scum again…until more money was offered.  Hypocrisy as a word does not even get close to covering it.  How much did creators care about fans and what they as creators were working on?  You’ll find quote after quote of creators who moan and complain that they were working on “shit –but I made a barrel load of money out of it!”

Seriously.
I know the people who go out and buy Marvel don’t care about any of this so long as they get their Wolverine or Deadpool –even when they get fewer pages for more money.  Well, Marvel says it so I might as well –screw ‘em.

As a plain straight forward comic historian there is only one thing I can say about this well indexed and referenced book.  It should be must reading.  It is well written and none of the quotes given at the start of this piece are wrong.  I wrote that a lot of this is not news to us oldies but the thing is that Howe has set it all out in one concise and well written book –there ought to be a reward for writing this.

Now we just need one on DC!

Once you start reading this you will not want to put it down.  My copynis already referenced with post-it notes!!!!

Did I enjoy it, Mr. Brown….well, you tell me.

 

NEWSLETTER del 14/12/2012

  

 

 

BILBOLBUL CERCA VOLONTARI

 

 

Cerchiamo volontari per la settima edizione di BilBOlbul! I volontari avranno modo di fare un’esperienza formativa e di contribuire attivamente alla realizzazione del festival. Diversi sono i settori in cui si potrà essere coinvolti: allestimento mostre, organizzazione eventi, documentazione, comunicazione, attività pedagogiche. Se siete interessati, mandate un’e-mail entro il 7 gennaio 2013 con il vostro cv a organizzazione@bilbolbul.net, indicando come oggetto “VOLONTARI”. È importante specificare il settore in cui si desidera essere inseriti.

 

 

BANDO FLASHFUMETTO  “NOI E GLI ALTRI”

 

È aperto il bando di concorso "Noi e gli altri", a cura di Flashfumetto, in collaborazione con l’Anci – Associazione Nazionale Comuni Italiani, Hamelin  e Associazione Yoda. L'iniziativa è rivolta a giovani dai 15 ai 35 anni di tutta Italia. Scadenza: 27 gennaio 2013.

Come nella scorsa edizione il concorso sarà suddiviso in Sezione Flashfumetto.it e Sezione Yoda (con workshop il 9 e 10 gennaio). Gli elaborati migliori di entrambe le sezioni verranno esposti in una mostra collettiva all’interno di BilBOlbul a cui seguirà la pubblicazione di un libro-catalogo.

PER INFORMAZIONI E BANDO COMPLETO: WWW.FLASHFUMETTO.IT
COMUNE DI BOLOGNA - CIRCUITO GIOVANI - REDAZIONE DI FLASHFUMETTO
GIOVANI.COMUNEDIBOLOGNA@FLASHFUMETTO.IT

 

 

SEGNALIBRI DI BILBOLBUL

 

Da dicembre potete trovare in molte librerie di Bologna i segnalibri di BilBOlbul: una serie di tre dedicata ai personaggi di Vittorio Giardino e uno con l’immagine che Henning Wagenbreth ha realizzato per il festival.
Cercateli tutti in libreria!

BILBOLBUL.NET

 

 

BilBOlbul Festival internazionale di fumetto fa parte della
Rete dei Festival del Contemporaneo di Bologna

BilBOlBul: 21 > 24 febbraio 2013 - bilbolbulnet :: Future Film Festival: 12 > 17 aprile 2013 - futurefilmfestival.org :: Live Arts Week: 16 > 21 aprile 2013 - liveartsweek.it :: Angelica- Festival Internazionale di musica aaa-angelica.com :: Biografilm: biografilm.it :: Gender Bender: www.genderbender.it

Things Strange And Sinister

 

 A4

Paperback

358pp

Price: £10.00

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After more than 30 years as an investigator and more than forty as a naturalist,the author has opened some of the many files he has accumulated dealing with such things as.. The Terrifying EventsAt The Lamb Inn,The Ghosts Of All Saints Church,Dead Aquatic Creatures of Canvey Island,captured bigfoot like creatures in India -all exclusively presented for the first time and with new added research previously unseen. 

 

PLUS a vastly expanded section on Spring-heeled Jack! Photographs,maps,line drawings and up-dated to make 358 pages looking at Things truly Strange and Sinister. 

 

Cryptozoologist,Ghost Hunter,Ufologist or Fortean:this book has something for everyone -including the just plain inquisitive!

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A4

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327pp

Price: £10.00

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Follow-up to the hugely successful Some Things Strange & Sinister. For those interested in Ufology,cryptozoology,hominology,unusual natural history,ghosts and mysteries in general. The secret history of gorillas -before they were 'discovered'.

Wild men of Europe, the UK and US. Hominology. Giant snakes. Amazons. The Giant serpent of Carthage. Girt Dog of Ennerdale. The Beast of Gevaudan. Crocodiles in the UK. Silent City of Alaska.

And much more. Updated with extra pages and photographs

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A4

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223pp

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From Dead Aquatic (Humanoid) Creatures, the giant squid and yet undiscovered sea creatures;submarine and ships crews encountering true leviathans. 

 

Extinct animals at sea that have been re-discovered and the subject of Sasquatch and other Hominids around the world as well as two early French UFO entity cases that still baffle, ghosts, strange creatures-and the Star-Child hoax.

 

 All dealt with by the naturalist and pursuer of the strange and weird 

 

http://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper-scharf/pursuing-the-strange-weird/paperback/product-18883379.html

Black Tower -NEW! Black Tower Adventure 9

BLACK TOWER ADVENTURE 9
Paperback
A4
64pp
Price: £5.00
Ships in 3–5 business days


This is it!! Yes, the one that someone has been waiting for!

Runestone gets to try out his new powers as he faces…The Beast of Exmoor!

Kelvin Jones gets to try out his shiny Helmet of Power while our heroes are on a parallel Moon and fighting off Selenites in The Cross Earths Caper!

Kotar has his hands full in a solo adventure while Lady Silana faces a demon of her own.

The quest for the Iron Warrior continues in the Amazon.

A prequel to two British Golden Age comic strips in Return To Lost Man’s Gulch and more…including The Thinker and The Phantom Detective –

ALL IN THE UKs TOP SUPER HERO-ACTION COMIC!!