AP NEWSLETTER

MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
First of all, thank you, to everyone involved in AP events this year, without you, they wouldn’t happen…
We have had an awesome year this year at AP, we had the first International Alternative Press Festival (IAPF). Artists from Sweden, Japan, Finland, Holland, France and Slovenia came over and saw what we have to offer here in the UK!
The self publishing and comix scene is flourishing too, with more and more events this year, the Sheffield Zine Fair, Manchester Print Fair, Bristol Comic and Zine Fair, Comics changed my life (Brighton),Camden Zine Fest and the South East London Zine Fest!
Moving into 2012 we are planning for the IAPF2, we’re also going to be involved in the annual Camden Crawl! As well as that there are new events on the calendar, the Bristol radical zine fest, the Book Arts Fayre in Cardiff as well as the above events mentioned, and their 2012 editions! I’ve got a feeling the new year is going to be a good one for self publishers!
Finally, we need some help in organising AP stuff next year, particularly in web building and admin, so if you have the time, we’d love to hear from you enquiries@alternativepress.org.uk
So, take care, enjoy the rest of the holidays and see you in 2012!
Alternative Press /// London /// alternativepress.org.uk

Egyptian Comic “Installation”

Thanks To Van Reid for this via the scanarama group:

“BARCELONA.- Fundació Suñol’s Nivell Zero presents ACTE 21: Francesc Ruiz, The Paper Trail, an installation originally presented at the Contemporary Image Collective in Cairo on 15 October 2010. The various pieces took shape in spring 2010, a time when the artist was researching the unique network of authors, characters, magazines, bookshops, publishers, leaders and censors that make up the social history of comic books in Egypt, as well as the world of print media, which let him explore the country’s complex political and religious sides in depth. 
 
Within this fairly clearly defined research setting he was able to record the changes that were already taking place in the subjective perspectives of the reporters and other people he talked to and worked with, as well as events such as the extension of the emergency law, the police brutality against Khaled Saeed and the widespread corruption, amongst many others, followed by the domino effect sparked by the protests in Tunisia, which led to the popular uprising on 25 January 2011. The pieces presented here can be read as a portrait of prerevolutionary Cairo and, to a certain extent, offer thoughts on both the past and future of the country.
 
The Green Detour is a multiple-issue comic book that acts as a crossover between the Cairo adventures of four of the main characters in the history of Egyptian comics: Tintin, Donald Duck, Samir and the Crushed Citizen. These characters also symbolise key moments in the history of the country and the city of Cairo: Tintin represents its colonial past; Donald Duck, the United States’ presence and control of the region; Samir, Nassar’s 1952 revolution; and the Crushed Citizen, who appeared in the late 1980s in Flash! comic, a starving civil servant in a country where the revolution appears to have failed. 
 
Each issue was distributed at a different point and readers were guided from one place to the next by the story in the comic itself, following in the characters’ footsteps through some of the key locations for potentially telling a story of Egyptian comics. 
 
Cairo Newsstand reproduces one of the typical kiosks found on pavements across the city. A community of paperweights seems to have taken over this space and is using speech bubbles to voice their opinions on the city, life in the newsstand and the news around them, with comments ranging from folklore to political allegory: “Both money and newspapers are made of paper”, “The earth trembles every time someone buys a newspaper”, “Oh, my love, I’d like to marry you and go and live in a faraway newsstand”, neatly subverting the general journalistic tone of ever-present propaganda and censorship. 
 
The First Comic Shop in Egypt, is ultimately a reflection on what was to be the first specialist comic shop ever in Egypt, a project that came up against many hurdles and wasn’t actually able to be carried out. 
 
Francesc Ruiz (Barcelona, 1971) is a plastic artist. Since the 1990s his work has centred on drawing and he now uses comics as an expanded medium. By applying a series of strategies from conceptual art and situationism traditions, he creates installations and interventions linked to specific contexts. His latest solo exhibitions include The Yaois (Galeria Estrany – de la Mota, Barcelona, 2011), 100 i més (etHall, Barcelona, 2011), Gasworks Yaoi (Gasworks, London, 2010), The Paper Trail (Contemporary Image Collective, Cairo, 2010) and Big Boom (Centre d’Art La Panera, Lleida, 2008).

Current And 2012 Black Tower Comics & Books Releases

Hello and here is wishing all of you out there a Merry Christmas and great 2012 (unless the Mayas got it right in which case we’re all stuffed)!
 
 
There are currently three new releases from BT Comics and they are:
 
 
DERVISH ROPEY AND THE TOTEM POLE

John Erasmus

Paperback,
A4
B&W
95 pages
Price: £6.00
Ships in 3–5 business days
 
 
 
What can you possibly say about John Erasmus? He is a very under-rated artistic genius. And Dervish Ropey?
 
 
One of the great action/adventure characters to emerge from the UK in the last 25 years apart from Denizen Ark (which also happens to be an Erasmus creation). Join Dervish on his latest adventure and kick yourself if you never got a copy of The Maximin Sword!
 
 
TALES OF TERROR 3
 B.R. Dilworth, P.A. Brown, Darron Northall etc.
Paperback,
A4
62 pages
B&W
Price: £5.00
Ships in 3–5 business days
 
 
 
Each year Black Tower likes to bring you a little bit of extra horror/ghostly goodness in Tales of Terror.
In the third volume there are contributions by Ben R. Dilworth -Krakos and Merriwether. While Paul Ashley Brown brings us the tales of The Worlds Best Mom and revisits his fear of trees!
 
 
Darron Northall and Danny Jenkins bring us the horrific tale of Bud and Lou Go To Hell while George McQueens The Bat deals out justice and Art Wetherell’s one pager is designed to make men wince!
And, preparing for a big 2012 event, Terry Hooper-Scharf finally includes issue 1 of The Paranormals to make this a true horror/ghost fest book!
 
 

Yes, Tales of Terror 3 is out now and you can order via the blog roll link.

D-Gruppe 4
b&w
Comic Album (A3)
£3.50
Ships in 3–5 business days
 
 
This is it! The final showdown with Zeitgeist -but with heroes already dead can D-Gruppe and the other heroes stop the world destroyer??
 
 
Plus -Kopfmann’s first appearance before D-Gruppe and the origin of The Mummy -and a new feature The D-Gruppe Fact File. You want more???? You ain’t getting it!
 
 
Now, these are all at the usual “just published” discount.
 
 
For 2012 three new prose books are planned: Strange & Weird -A Naturalists Viewpoint as well as The Naturalist At Home  and one big project we are not telling anyone about yet!
 
 
Comic-wise, Black Tower Adventure will continue and, to celebrate the past couple decades or so we’ll be up-dating and republishing the origin tale of no less a personnage than Chronos: Watchman. Illustrated by Ben Dilworth and based on Terry Hooper’s 1983 origin strip. another one-off from BTCG.
 
 
There is more in the way of Dilworth work for 2012 including the Dark Night Detectives (so plenty of violence and harsh words from the Big Man).
 
 
Fingers crossed that the long-awaited Krakos versus The Bat one off will appear around May.  Ahh, but which Bat you ask??
 
 
There is more news but I’m worried you’ve eaten too much trifle and might get over excited and vomit.  So, relax…you’ll read about it all soon enough!
 
 
And I’m off for a two day stay with Donald Hamilton and an interview to follow…I hope!
Ebenezer Hooper

Michael Golden “Spawn 200″ Originals on Ebay– Just in time for Christmas!





Artist Michael Golden is known as one of the best storytellers in the Comic Book industry, with his cover work and interiors in high demand. As such, Michael Golden was tapped by Todd McFarlane to pencil and breakdown the interiors of the top selling “Spawn #200,” featuring some of Golden’s first interior storytelling in many years. Because Michael did not ink the interiors, this collection of original art serves as the only record of Michael’s interior pencils and storytelling for the Issue of “Spawn #200,” which also marked a spike in the series sells by 278 percent.
Michael’s interiors for this issue will be sold as a set, and because of the rarity of these pages, we will not be able to send out jpegs of the complete issue because of the collectibility of this work. A few sample pages are above.
As far as the Issue 200 Breakdowns are concerned, there are a total of seventeen (17), 8.5 X 11 pages. Ten (10) are four story pages per sheet of paper; most are complete/tight breakdowns, some are roughs or double-page spreads. The other seven (7) are a single story page per sheet of paper, with some of the panels being full pencil renderings.
Today, they comprise all of Michael’s work on Issue #200 of Spawn.
Again, these breakdowns are extremely rare, since of course this is the only original art that exists for this milestone issue.
View the Ebay Auction Here:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150723974418
For more information, contact Renee at: evaink@aol.com

AND A MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL YOU COMICKERS!


I would like to say an even more special THANK YOU to all of the regular CBO visitors who have made Comic Bits Online the top site for Independent comics, the Small Press and comics in general! You’ve all broken the counter at times but I love you all!

And another THANK YOU for those of you who have been visiting t6he Blogger site that will eventually take over from this one. Thank you (yesterday 5378 visits!).

Now, though I don’t do Christmas -off with you and enjoy your Christmas and New Year fun!!
Terry

Classical Comics -BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA!

If you haven’t got a copy yet -do!  It’s a great book. A Great Christmas Present!


Normally, when a new book comes out from Clive Bryant’s Classical Comics I’m quite enthusiastic.  Not this time.
This time I’m overjoyed!
It’s been about forty years since I read Dracula as a novel.  A very thick book with more pages than I care to remember.  But I did read it in a week. And at my age I have seen many comic book adaptions of the novel -some quite fun some pretty poor.  Don’t get me started on the 1970s BBC TV adaption (19…77? with Louis Jordan).
Now, there is a certain Classical omics writer who repeatedly took me to task over not bigging up his writing.   But I think I always mention the writers fairly -or I hope I do.  Now a onfession.  When I heard Jason Cobley was to write the adaption I thought “Oh!”  I know of his work in the Small Press but I questioned whether he could adapt such a huge work into 150 pages.
In fact, he’s done an excellent job.
Staz Johnson’s art is probably the best I have seen from him in his long career.  The colour work by Offredi is spot on.  The combination of both men’s work and Cobley’s script make this probably the most commercial book so far.  The story pacing as well as the art should appeal to the general comic fan and certainly to American fans who might like to see more action and well paced stories but who are not into the classic works of English literature.
I do seriously doubt that either Marvel or DC comics could have produced a better adaption.
There is also the Bram Stoker biography at the rear of the book and for schools I think this is excellent because the art alone will catch the eye of pupils and, craftily, lure them into reading a classic.  As usual the number of projects a school could make as a spin-off from this book are only limited by the teachers imagination!
If the term “graphic novel” has to be applied to a comic strip adaption then Dracula is that book.
And all in time for Christmas!  If you are a horror film/comic/book fan then this is the graphic novel you need to grab.  In fact I’d just say “buy the book!!” and if you see it pop up in any comic award lists -VOTE!
Proof that UK creators CAN produce great comics.
check out the links to see sample art.

Dracula Original Text Preview
Original Text Preview
Dracula Quick Text Preview
Quick Text Preview
Dracula - Original Text - click to see PDF preview Dracula - Quick Text - click to see PDF preview
British English Language Versions British Editions (Cover price £9.99)
Click here for an explanation of the text versions
Original Text Version
ISBN: 978-1-906332-25-9Click here to buy from:amazon.co.uk
Quick Text Version
ISBN: 978-1-906332-26-6Click here to buy from:amazon.co.uk
American English Language Versions US Editions (Cover price $16.95)
Click here for an explanation of the text versions
Original Text Version
ISBN: 978-1-906332-67-9
(pub date: February 2012)
Quick Text Version
ISBN: 978-1-906332-68-6
(pub date: February 2012)

Dracula
Bram Stoker
“I went down into the vaults. There lay the Count!
He was either dead or asleep, I could not say which –
for the eyes were open and stony but without the glassiness of death.”

Bram Stoker’s gothic masterpiece was first published in 1897, and has spawned so many classic films, all based on the character he invented when Queen Victoria was on the throne. Like Frankenstein, the films have pushed the characters into the very fabric of our society, so it is with great pride that we bring you a visual treatment that is true to the original – made even more exciting by the wonderous talent that is Staz Johnson!

Script Adaptation: Jason Cobley
Linework: Staz Johnson
Colouring: James Offredi
Lettering: Jim Campbell
UK Publication Date: 21st November 2011
Format: 152 pages
full colour
paperback
246x168mm
Versions:
(click here for info)
Original Text (abridged)
Quick Text

Bandage: A Diary of Sorts -Work Of A Real Talent!


Bandage: A Diary of Sorts
written and illustrated by Kate Glasheen

Hardcover: 104 pages
Black and White
Publisher: Katiecrimespree Pictures and Words; 1st edition (July 14, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0578085887
ISBN-13: 978-0578085883
Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.7 x 0.6 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
 Website:http://www.bandagegn.com
$14.99

Footsteps etch a map from one summer to the next. A nameless young man stands at the threshold of adulthood, and he stands with all the love and support of the years that nurtured him. But as he steps through, the faces and places he grew with begin to exit one by one. The everyday tragedy of loss leads a forced march towards the uncertainty and loneliness of the future. Hopelessness starts to override the urge to heal, and he must ask himself, if what can be gained is worth what has been lost.

This coming-of-age graphic novel acts as his diary, documenting a stream of conscious narrative and surreal visual interpretations of the year’s events.

Come on now -how many times do I have to say it?  Kate Glasheen is one of those artists who will inevitably become a big name in the future.  Yeah, becoming a big name means starving first (I’m still trying to get out of that stage!).  But there is no exaggeration in saying that Glasheen could have the same impact and effect on comics that Bill Sienkiewicz had in the 1980s and that was enormous.
I’ve seen artwork in comics from China, Russia, Malaysia, Finland -well, you name the place so long as its not Papua New Guinea-  and there is some great stuff out there.  But -but- when it comes to a unique artstyle that makes me sit down and look long and hard there are only two artists I list in that category -both female.  One is Donna Barr and the other Kate Glasheen.
I mean look at that art!!
This is a privately published book, too which takes a lot of guts. Marvel and DC want to prove they have “alternative” art credentials as well as the regular super hero stuff -get Glasheen to do some work for you!  Along with Hybrid Bastards (written by Tom Pinchuk), Bandage will become one of those books future comic collectors are going to be desperate to get their hands on.  At $14.99 this book is a steal and I wish I could make people buy it!
So, want to show people you have taste?  Show you recognise a talent before it explodes onto the scene?
BUY THIS BOOK!!!!
PLEASE.



Much Anticipated Joe Jusko Sketchbook Announced: Second in a series!


New York, NY- The much anticipated second Joe Jusko Sketchbook from Eva Ink Publishing is in the current/upcoming Diamond Catalogue, and is available for ordering either via Diamond or via Eva Ink Publishing (www.evainkartistgroup.com)

“Joe Jusko: Maelstrom” is a lush 48 page, full color book, and showcases works by Jusko not featured in any other sketchbook or artbook! A great follow up to last year’s book “Joe Jusko: Savage Beauty.”
Jusko is undoubtedly one of the best known Fantasy, Pin-Up and Comic Artists in the world today. His career has spanned over 30 years, starting with the sale of his very first cover for Heavy Metal Magazine in 1977 at the age of 17. Since graduating that year from NYC’s High School of Art & Design, Joe has worked for almost every major comic book publisher, producing hundreds of images for both covers and interiors.

His work has appeared on paperback book covers, calendars, posters, t-shirts, toy packaging and innumerable trading cards, most memorably the multi award winning 1992 Marvel Masterpieces Trading Cards. The popularity of that set has been credited with initiating the painted trading card boom of the 1990′s, and led to his groundbreaking 1995 Art of Edgar Rice Burroughs trading cards. Those 125 paintings have made him the most prolific Burroughs artist ever, producing art based on almost every major book by the famed author. He is currently the cover artist for the “John Carter of Mars” series.

In addition to his work at Marvel over the years, Joe has produced art for many other companies and characters, including DC Comics, Crusade Comics, Innovation Comics, Harris Comics, Wildstorm Comics, Top Cow Productions and Byron Preiss Visuals, to name just a few. He has produced storyboards for ad agencies and advertising campaigns for such notable clients as the World Wrestling Federation, where he designed the art for the 1991-1992 Royal Rumbles and Wrestlemania VII.

His recent work includes monthly painted covers for Dynamite Comics’ adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ WARLORD OF MARS, covers for VAMPIRELLA and a 4 issue WOLVERINE/HERCULES minis series as well as numerous independent publishers. His 2005 fully painted graphic novel based on Lara Croft, the heroine from the Tomb Raider video game series, won a Certificate of Merit from the prestigious Society of Illustrators, into which he was inducted in 2007. His hardcover “Art of Joe Jusko” book was released by Desperado Publishing in May, 2009 to rave reviews, and “Savage Beauty” his first in a series of hardcover sketchbooks from EvaInk Productions was released as of November 2010. He’s currently developing a graphic storytelling property with Steve Niles’ (author of “30 Days of Night”).

His work has earned him myriad awards and honors, including two “Favorite Painter” Wizard Fan Awards, multiple trading card awards, a Golden Lion Award from the Burroughs Bibliophiles (previous recipients include Frank Frazetta and Boris Vallejo) and a Chesley Award nomination for best cover in 2001.

Joe’s original paintings are held in collections worldwide, a fact that never ceases to amaze and humble him.
This new sketchbook on this prolific painter, “Joe Jusko: Maelstrom” is available in two editions:
Signed Edition: $39.99
ISBN:978-1-4675-0474-4
Sketch Edition: $124.99
ISBN:
978-1-4675-0475-1
The print run is limited to 1,000 copies.
Contact us at: evaink@aol.com for more details. Payments are accepted via paypal or via credit card when ordering directly from Eva Ink.
For more information, feel free to drop us a line. And if you don’t own “Joe Jusko: Savage Beauty” yet, ask about acquiring both books, and receive a 10% discount via the Eva Ink store.
www.evainkartistgroup.com
and
www.witterstaetterwrites/blogspot.com

Sunday Sermon: On Books And Stuff And Why I Am Really Quite Normal

If I so much as mention Bigfoot/Sasquatch or even unknown sea creatures to people I meet I get that look.  You know the one -a slight wry smile with that look of “he seemed quite normal earlier!”

But then, if I go into a sudden lecture on history I can get the same look -or worse.  An acquaintance once telephoned me and asked what I was “up to?”  I replied: “I’m currently re-reading Julius Caesar:Man, Soldier & Tyrant by J. F. C. Fuller-” before I’d even finished there was the laugh, though it was quickly followed by a “Well, I shouldn’t be surprised really!”

I am not just interested in the “established” history. I am fascinated by the “Lost” history.  For instance, that Irish sailors reached the Americas long before the Vikings and many others.  Bristol was one of the most important ports in Medieval times and our founding father traders had secret sea route maps but where did Bristol merchants get their maps?  Why are pineapples depicted in Ancient Egypt and also in a mural at Pompei –they are New World fruits in the Old World?

Then we have all the lost technology from the past (do not even as a joke mention “Ancient Astronauts” to me.  Man is creative and inventive and we do not need to pull aliens into everything from the building of the pyramids to the Easter Island heads (we knowthrough archaeology how these were built).  Al Andalus (or Andalusia) was ruled by “The Moors” for 800 years after moving into the Iberian Peninsula around the 8thcentury.  They quite literally re-introduced civilisation to Europe. Mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, architecture and even medicine was far more advanced than that in the rest of Europe –people travelled to Al Andalus (where religions were not in conflict) to learn these skills.  What the Spanish later did in their Reconquista was set Europe back hundreds of years.

There is so much to learn out there and when people say “Who cares –that’s in the past!” I just have to look at them and ask why they are alive!

But then we have those old questions regarding ghosts, demons and the like.  According to the church it has not yet decided upon the ghost and ghostly.  Now, if after over 2000 years of Christian religion, full of ghostly events and practically based upon some ghostly events, hasn’t yet decided it is only because it simply just has not bothered or, even more likely, coming upon events it cannot explain it decided that it “never happened” or to talk about it is “blasphemy” or might incur the attentions and mischief of the Devil so “be quiet”.  The Devil –another Church creation that doesn’t appear in the Bible.

Growing up you hear things. I once lived in a house in St. Werburghs, Bristol, where the back room overlooking the Mina Road Park had a very weird feeling.  As kids my brother, Peter and I had this as our bedroom.  I have never ever slept well and so I got used to the huge glowing eyes looking in through the window at night (an owl) and how things mysteriously moved about the room during the day (windows left open during the day and a jackdaw popped in –I caught it one day moving things and I don’t know which of us looked more surprised!).

But the room had a very strange feel and it was where I had my first hypnagogic event (a waking dream): the dark silhouette of a traditionally dressed witch with full high pointed hat –I even through a book at ‘her’ as she moved past the bed.  My gran did wonder why the book was on the floor when she came in to wake us up in the morning.  My mother and father had this bedroom at one point but my mother flatly refused to stay in it –even during the day she would not go into it unless someone was with her and she never said why.
One morning we heard a “thump” and my gran and parents rushed upstairs to the room in question.  My brother had been knocked out having hit his head on the ceiling. “He must have been bouncing on the bed” was my fathers explanation: yet we had not heard a sound before which we should have done had he been bouncing on the bed.  Also, which I realised even then, he must have been performing Olympic style leaps to hit the high ceiling!

Eventually, a lodger, Fred, moved into that room. Within three years or so he was taken to a mental hospital but we had all realised this was inevitable –sadly, people deteriorating mentally is no rarity.  Then the new lodger moved in.  Derek was young, bright and breezy and had no trouble with “the room”.

I could go on and on but throughout my formative years I encountered one thing after another that some might call “ghostly” –witnessed just by myself or with others. Our home in Knowle, Bristol, had thrown up a few oddities and one evening we were sat around and I looked at the Christmas decorations as the latest “event” was mentioned. On TV someone was talking about “the devil” so I said: “If the devil exists let him pop a red balloon!”

“Bang!”

A red balloon popped.  I thought it was hysterically funny.

Even in Germany the ghosts and ghostly kept popping up.  So, that I was reading books by Elliott O’Donnell, Harry Price and others by the time I was thirteen should not surprise anyone.

One day, after school, I went into the Greystoke Avenue Library, in Southmead, Bristol, and looked through their “Older readers” section.  In those days, if under 16 you weren’t really allowed to venture over to the adult section but the librarians let me.  I had read most of the paranormal/ghost books but saw two I had not read before.  I was in a hurry and on leaving the library discovered I had accidentally picked up a copy of Brisley Le Poer Trench’ The Flying Saucer Story.  I was annoyed. I could not take the book back until next day (lending policy).

On that day I read The Flying Saucer Story and much more than forty years later I’m still suffering the results of that read! It was only later that I heard from my parents that before I was born they had been on the farm in Germany and seen a large ball of light (UFO).  So it was fate!

 

And wildlife. I have never had a problem in this area.  While in Sevier Street, St. Werburghs, I looked out after a Summer rain shower to see an approximately six inches (15 cms) long caterpillar of some type –it was literally covered in long, fawn colour hair so it looked like a long mop.  It moved up the wall between the outhouse and coal shed and to this day I have never been able to identify what it was.

In Germany, while collecting wood for the fire in woods just outside Dalborn, my father about six feet ahead of me with the wood-cart, there was a sudden silence. I turned to my left to see a young fallow deer, a true “bambi”, looking at me curiously. Some ten feet (3m) beyond it, in amongst the trees, stood the mother also looking at me. This lasted some time before we all mutually moved off.

My grand mother had lived in Dalborn since the Second World War but had never seen any hares.  She was a bit miffed when I returned from a walk to describe watching groups of hares and even hare ‘boxing matches’!

When I was a bit older I did walk through the forestry and hear an odd noise. I looked down and saw wild boar piglets and at that point I broke into a cold sweat because I became aware and then saw the sow.  She stared at me as I slowly moved away, walking backwards and not taking my eyes off her.  She never charged me.

On one holiday, as a family, we went with our grand-father to pick dandelions for his giant rabbits.  The route was a familiar one to us –out through the farm orchard, down the tractor path and then along a basic road between cornfields and the forest. As we passed a tree stump a good few feet from the forestry my grand-father casually mentioned that the stump was where he had seen “the sturm-geist” (storm ghost/spirit). Now, Opa had suffered a stroke so his vocabulary was good but not great –he was still “re-learning” full speech.  The storm ghost had an ugly face and was covered in hair and when he saw it the beasty leaped from the trunk and into the forestry.  “It sounds like a chimp or monkey of some kind” I said.  Opa smiled that smile: “No. We don’t have monkeys here.” I thought “We don’t have monkeys but we do have storm spirits!”  Of course, Opa was probably thinking “He thinks we have monkeys in the forest?”

Opa had been alone that time but when we were all together on the rough track one day, right next to where the sturm-geist had been seen, he said “Look there!” All we saw was a glossy black, hair-covered back leap into the coniferous forestry. If you’ve seen black furred/feathered creatures you’ll know that in bright sunlight the fur/feather has that sort of brownish, even purplish glint.  So did this beasty.  I rushed forward determined to see what it was but the forestry was so wild at that point I could only get five feet ort so –but we all heard it crash through the branches of the trees.

My cousin later threw almost an hissy-fit as we explained the event.  I have no idea why he was so vehement in his dismissal of the sighting.  His explanation?  It was a “fishing bird.” I was puzzled having never heard of a “Fishing bird” –I found out it was a cormorant. I’ve seen so many cormorants over the years (we have them in Bristol) that I know it was not that we saw.  And besides, our critter was leaping not flying.

On another occasion I observed what I thought was a badger emerging from forestry across some fields.

 
Everyone, including the local ranger, assured me that there were no badgers in the area. A few nights later I got up to go to the bedroom window because it was hot and sticky and the midges were being noisy pests. I heard a noise in the flower bed, about three feet (90 cms) below the window.  I looked down and there, looking up at me, was what for all the world looked like a fluffy black fox with white facial markings –almost raccoon like.  I tried to reach for the camera at my bedside that had a flash on it and trying to do so without taking my eyes off the critter.  My hand knocked the camera and I tried to grab it –when I turned back the animal was gone.

Next day..there was that look again in amongst chuckles as I explained what I had seen. I was dreaming it seems. No such animal existed. Alright, now I knew what people reporting a UFO or Sasquatch felt like!

Back in England I went through all my books and –there it was.  Fluffy black fox with white markings!  But it was not a fox, rather it was a raccoon-like dog which is a rather primitive wild canid that can hibernate and they were kept by fur farmers before escapes in the 1930s and, of course, during the war.  I had seen one the furthest west they had moved (though that was not known at the time.
Next year I took the book and showed everyone I could in Dalborn.  Not a single odd look just the very, very annoying response of “Yes. You saw one –so what?”  I was sure this was a conspiracy.
So you can imagine I thought everyone considered me a nut-case.  However, one day my aunt said to my mother: “Ask Herr Professor if he wants coffee.”  I looked around and she was looking at me.  I had no idea up to this point that the family called me “Herr Professor” or that some of the locals were also referring to me in that way.  Apparently, my constant nose-in-books, asking questions and checking everything from insects, unusual plants and animals out had earned me a reputation!

The books, of course, varied.  I had been introduced to Brinsley Le Poer Trench (later Lord Clancarty) and his outlook on “flying saucers” and I had read of Price and O’Donnell and their ghost hunting experiences.  My big heroes were later added to: Major Donald E. Keyhoe and his take on the flying saucers and Ivan T. Sanderson who covered many topics but then, he had travelled and lived in much of the world and seen and investigated much.  Sanderson had introduced me to underwater UFOs (USOs), the Patterson-Gimlin film and, with Abominable Snowmen:Legend Come To Life, set me on another avenue of study.

I corresponded with George Haas of the Bigfoot Bay Area Group, Dimitri Bayanov in Russia on the Almas and many others covering subjects from hairy hominids, sea creatures, UFOs, ghosts, astronomy, aeronautics and beyond. I investigated my first UFO when I was around 15 years of age and joined many different UFO groups –I even famously fought with two Men In Black characters on my doorstep (quite a few witnesses).  I have chased (on foot) UFOs at Warminster, on roof tops, along roads -and nearly crashed twice.  I never ever understood why people wanting to find “the truth” just stood on the spot not daring to face the phenomena face-on.

The same applies with ghosts or even unusual creatures: you do not endanger yourself but you don’t just stand there saying “Well, that was a mystery wasn’t it?”

And those over-sized “coffee table” books full of photographs and full colour illustrations did not help.  “Is this true?” I’d ask myself.  How could I trust some stranger who just wrote this account or offered a photograph without checking it all out myself?  Sadly, those huge books are a thing of the past to a degree.
But when I kept being asked about my “officially unofficial” UFO work, or my work as a wildlife consultant to UK police forces and so on I got fed up.  I decided to put it all (well, some of it) in writing.  Some Things Strange & Sinister was my look at ghosts, poltergeists, UFOs, local and world-wide mysteries and, where-ever I could I gave an explanation.  Explaining something away is not being a sceptical debunker.  Only after you’ve looked at all the possible explanations can you say this was a hoax, that was misinterpretation or, sorry Charles Fort, that never happened.

Dead aquatic creatures washed up on UK shores as well as on Tanzanian shores. Alleged ‘mermaid/man’ carcasses and so much more.

I could, like others, just sit back and say this was all real.  No need to disbelieve. An easier life by far but then that would mean believing that real flying saucers had crashed at Aurora and Roswell. I’m not that dumb. No, I have to look into these things.

In some cases it has taken 20, 30 and even 35 years to get to the bottom of an event/case but to me that is worth it. Now I know what the facts are. And I need to point out that I am not a “Cryptozoologist”, a “Ufologist”, a “Fortean” or any other pseudo-ologist!  I am a naturalist/researcher-investigator.  That’s it.
When I wrote my second book, Some More Things Strange & Sinister I put together a lot of what I had learnt as a naturalist, historian and researcher-investigator.  From gorillas in the UK before they were actually scientifically discovered, primate historical mysteries and oddities, tales of all sorts of wildmen from the United States, England and Europe.

I looked at the mystery of a strange city said to appear in Alaskan skies each year.  Unlike other writers and ‘researchers’ over the years I went out and found the quoted source and the oft-mentioned photograph of the city-in-the-sky.

The so called “Girt Dog Of Ennerdale” which, in 1810, killed sheep and was eventually killed.  Everyone has written on it in the “mystery big cat field” or in cryptozoology and Forteana.  It’s been a werewolf, a vampire beast, a hyena a UFO creature of some kind and even a tiger, lion or a Tasmania thylacine (the current cryptozoological favourite explanation).  I went out and got the, again, oft-quoted sources and found that there is no great mystery and definitely no big cat or thylacine. The facts are in the original sources.

The Beast of Gevaudan –again, so many silly explanations but going back to original sources and corresponding with the French natural history museums, the explanation is clear –and there are later incidents correlating with “the beast” events.
Sea creatures and so-called “flying light wheels” emerging from the sea, the Great Serpent of Carthage, mystery snakes and so much more and all pulling together everything I have learnt since I was a child.

The Red Paper: Canids covered Ennerdale but also the natural history of foxes in the UK from the point where they were going extinct through to mass importation of foxes for hunting.  Wolves roaming the British countryside long after they became extinct here, jackals, coyotes, arctic foxes and much more –the hunts, where they came from and cases never before reported on.  One naturalist called it “an explosive book!” 
I try to make each book, no matter what the subject matter, interesting for the reader whether they are UFO or cryptozoology buffs or simply curious.  Photographs, maps, charts and much more, though sadly, the idea of full colour plates is way to expensive. To think. To learn and enquire into the strange, the unusual or even history is what makes us humans.


Before I shift off this mortal coil I want to pass on this information and keep delving into things that grab my attention…and try to carry on earning some kind of living!

Long winded, I know, but it tells you something about me. 

I really am quite normal.