Month: December 2016
The FIRST German Super Hero Team up-date
Well, I know we lived on the farm in Dalborn, which is a tiny village stuck between Detmold, Blomberg and Lemgo, in the mid 1960s. Germans are/were bigger on traditional folk tales than, say the English, and if you’ve ever seen the Narri Narro festival you’ll know what I mean! But our monochrome TV (which I can only remember as being more brownish and white) was filled with faery tales and so I learnt of Rumpelstiltskin and the Singing Ringing Tree, Beauty and the Beast and so on.
So I can place Kopfmann and the initial spark of creating D-Gruppe as the late 1960s and early 1970s.
I soon found that in the UK no one was interested in German characters (I should have thought that through). So when did the published D-Gruppe appear?
But what the heck -here, unedited, is the story from Watcher. Helge “Herod” Korda -if you see this PLEASE tell me you still have a copy of “D-Suppe”!!!
Kelvin Jones, Kotar and Sabuta, Tarot, Iron Warrior -they all need YOUR support!
BTCG has specialised in presenting original material covering super heroes, crime, adventure, sci fi, horror as well as illustrated prose -not to mention ground breaking books on “world mysteries” and wildlife. Oh, and even a huge book of interviews with comic creators and publishers.
All the books are, naturally, available for overseas licence -but we cannot translate work: that will be up to any licensed publisher.
What follows is a brief glimpse at some books but you can visit the online store to see more details and books at:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/hoopercomicsuk
You can also find some on Amazon and other sources but they do not make me much money so, come on, buy from the online store and remember that at least these books will be collectibles!
To contact me please check out “About” at the top of the page -thanks!
To celebrate, at the time of publication, over 25 years of interviewing comic creators -writers, artists and publishers- this 365 pages book was produced.
Interviewees included Yishan Li, Marv Wolfman, Dave Ryan, John Cooper, Mike Western, Donna Barr, Roberta Gregory, Sonia Leong, Emma Vieceli, Pekka A. Manninen, Alan Class, Karen Rubins, Kate Glasheen, Ron Fortier, Jon Haward, Franco Francavilla, Rick Geary, Tania Del Rio, The Etherington Brothers, Olivier Cadic (Cinebook the 9th Art), Holly Golightly and MANY others.
Profusely illustrated with art and photographs!
http://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper-scharf/the-hooper-interviews/paperback/product-22078000.html
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Black Tower Comics began in 1984 as a Small Press publisher of A5 (US -Digest size) titles such as Adventure,Presents,Windows and Hanley’s Garage. Then came the news, reviews, previews and interviews publication backed up by the mart and mail order service –Zine Zone (later Zine Zone International).
In 2009, with the innovation in publishing of Print On Demand (POD), Black Tower jumped in head first!
One of the first titles to see print in the new comic album format (A4) was The Bat Triumphant! This saw the complete story, begun in Black Tower Adventure vol. 1. William A. Ward’s long lost 1940s character once again saw print as he fought a host of enemies in an attempt to reclaim his homeland.
Whereas for decades those involved in “UFOlogy”, “Cryptozoology” and “Forteana” declared many mysteries, that photographs were lost “to history” and so on, these three books swiped away the false claims. Alleged lost photographs -found. ‘Mysteries’ solved by doing actual research work and reading the sources -something others had never done.
The Eye Sees All. The Owl. The Iron Skull. Amazing Man. The King of Darkness. The Invisible Terror. The Blue Lady. The Shark. Mini Midget & Kitty. Mighty Man. Super Anne. The company may have been short-lived but it’s characters -oh boy!
The two volume Centaur Heroes Collection has been compiled into one sweet 140 page comic collection!
Horror. Ghost stories. The twist-in-the tale. Did you think that a publisher who is a big horror comic/film fan would ignore these?
Nope. Each year since 2010, BTCG has published a Tales Of Terror anthology album and 2014s included some fun and spooky lost Swan Comic strips. I mean how can you go wrong -even Ben Dilworth is in these!
The Church Of England has it’s own basher of dark forces in the Reverend Merriwether -“God’s Demon-Thumper” as the press billed him. From an ancient Egyptian demon to a village of the damned and Varney the Vampyre, werwolves and a final confrontation with Satan himself -Merriwether pulls no punches and offers no compromise. And in those last few seconds between life and death, Merriwether’s mind recalls past cases -thanks to Ben Dilworththe Tall Man of Osaka.
Merriwether: God’s Demon Thumper and Merriwether: The Test Of Satan are available as individual comic albums or in one swanky book The Collected Merriwether: God’s Demon Thumper.
Dene Vernon From The Burning Heart To The Thing From Below
If any of you out there has purchased Black Tower Golden Age Collection vol.1 you would have found the strip Dene Vernon -The Burning Heart”. But who is Dene Vernon and why is he important to British comics history?
Firstly,his proper credit was “Dene Vernon. Ghost Investigator”. In the 1930s and 1940s the work of ghost investigators such as Harry Price [despite what people write about his work at Borley Rectory] and the great Elliott O’Donnell could be found reported on in national newspapers as well as on radio.
If they could inspire me as a teen to get involved in this type of work imagine the effect on everyday folk in the pre-TV era and before all the faking of Most Haunted and Ghost Hunters, Ghost Adventures as well as others.
Gerald Swan changed all that. His comics introduced a whole group of paranormal/occult types fromKrakos The Egyptian to Robert Lovett:Back From The Dead [all subjects of Black Tower collections]. Vernon’s appearance in Thrill Comics No.1, April,1940,marked the very first truly supernatural strip series in British Comics.
Elliott O’Donnell (February 27, 1872 – May 8, 1965) was an Irish author known primarily for his books about ghosts. He claimed to have seen a ghost, described as an elemental figured covered with spots, when he was five years old. He also claimed to have been strangled by a mysterious phantom in Dublin.
He claimed descent from Irish chieftains of ancient times, including Niall of the Nine Hostages (the King Arthur of Irish folklore) and Red Hugh, who fought the English in the sixteenth century. O’Donnell was educated at Clifton College, Bristol, England, and Queen’s Service Academy, Dublin, Ireland.
In later life he became a ghost hunter, but first he traveled in America, working on a range in Oregon and becoming a policeman during the Chicago Railway Strike of 1894. Returning to England, he worked as a schoolmaster and trained for the theater. He served in the British army in World War I, and later acted on stage and in movies.
His first book, written in his spare time, was a psychic thriller titled For Satan’s Sake (1904). From this point onward, he became a writer. He wrote several popular novels but specialized in what were claimed as true stories of ghosts and hauntings. These were immensely popular, but his flamboyant style and amazing stories suggest that he embroidered fact with a romantic flair for fiction.
As he became known as an authority on the supernatural, he was called upon as a ghost hunter. He also lectured and broadcast (radio and television) on the paranormal in Britain and the United States. In addition to his more than 50 books, he wrote scores of articles and stories for national newspapers and magazines. He claimed “I have investigated, sometimes alone, and sometimes with other people and the press, many cases of reputed hauntings. I believe in ghosts but am not a spiritualist.”
Remember that bit about being strangled by a ghost [not unique in the lore itself]. This is what Denis Gifford wrote about Vernon’s first adventure:
“..Vernon spends the night in a haunted bedroom where a weary wanderer was found on the floor. ‘A gasp of horror came as they gazed on the terror-distorted features of the dead traveller!’ Vernon saves Dick from being throttled by a grinning black monster,chained by its neck since 1785. But he had to burn the house down to do it.”
The creator of the strip was Jock McCail who also drew oriental detective Ah Wong for Swan’s New Funnies [1940-1949], Darrell King Of The Secret Service in Thrill Comics [1940-48],New Funnies [1949] and Slick Fun [1950]. McCail also drew Get-Your-Man-Gilligan, a Western strip for the Amalgamated Press title Jolly between 1938-39.
Dene Vernon ran as a strip between 1940-1946 so must have been popular -as many of the Swan horror strips were.
But, in 2011, Vernon featured in his first adventure since 1946. Yes, post-war Britain was the setting for…
DENE VERNON -THE THING FROM BELOW!
But maybe an appearance in Black Tower Super Heroes before that? I can’t really say -I don’t want to spoil the fun!!
Remember the name, though: Dene Vernon!
And did you know Ross also drew the two adventures of Victorian mystery man Chung Ling Soo? Chung Ling Soo: The Curse Of The Jade Dragon and Chung Ling Soo: The Case Of The Thames Serpent were two cracking tales of magic, adventure, murder and deception -still available as single comic albums or collected together to form The Adventures Of Chung Ling Soo!
Chung Ling Soo: The Curse Of The Jade Dragon
Gavin Stuart Ross (A)
A4
B&W
30 pages
http://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper-scharf/chung-ling-soo-1/paperback/product-12991021.html
Prints in 3-5 business days
Chung Ling Soo. World’s greatest conjurer and said to be an American stage magician in disguise. Or was he?
In this story,Chung Ling Soo is called in by Scotland Yard to investigate a gruesome series of deaths -all amongst a party who discovered a Jade Dragon statuette in China.
Is the statuette cursed -and can Chung stop any other deaths?
The Case Of The Thames Serpent
54 pages
B&W
Prints in 3-5 business days
http://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper/chung-ling-soo-man-of-mystery/paperback/product-20001818.html
Victorian conjurer and man of mystery and deception, Chung Ling Soo has been marked for death by a Chinese Tong that never fails to get its man. Will Chung be able to escape death long enough to solve bizarre murders in London’d dockland as well as sightings of a sea serpent in the Thames?
And who is the Dragon Lord and how do his murderous plans fit into things?
The second in the Chung Ling Soo Man Of Mystery series
The Case Book Of Chung Ling Soo
Writer: Terry Hooper-Scharf
Artist: Gavin Stuart Ross
Paperback
A4
84 Pages
Black & white:
Ships in 3–5 business days
http://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper-scharf/the-case-book-of-chung-ling-soo/paperback/product-21156759.html
To many he was simply a stage magician. Others knew the truth –such as Scotland Yard and the very secret Q Bureau.
From a seemingly cursed jade statue bringing gruesome and violent death to those who found it years before to a plot by a Chinese supremacist group hoping to strike and bring terror and destruction to the heart of the British Empire and seemingly unstoppable Tong assassins and an evil warlord willing to betray and murder even his own allies–this is Chung Ling Soo’s world.
Sergeant Wilberforce of Scotland Yard was the closest thing to a friend the Magician had yet even he was perpetually stumped by him…and his deaths!
Collecting together Chung Ling Soo And The Curse Of The Jade Dragon And Chung Ling Soo The Case Of The Thames Serpent By Terry Hooper-Scarf and Gavin Stuart Ross in which the deception begins but just what is deception and what truth?
Horror comics yes but also some nice illustrated prose from Dilworth in…Dilworth’s Horror & Ghost Stories but for the connoisseur those stories were collected together with the Phantom Detective comic strips into The Complete Phantom Detective!
black & White
A4
Paperback,
36 PagesPreview
Ships in 3–5 business days http://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper-scharf/the-complete-phantom-detective/paperback/product-22082132.html
Murdering Ghouls. Satanic Masses. Demonic Possession. Werewolves. Poltergeists. Vampires. To many of the uninitiated these are just “things that go bump in the night” -TV or film fantasy. In the Victorian era, The Phantom Detective used his decades of occult study to help those in danger from these “things” and he paid the ultimate price…. …. Yet he continues to help and to observe as best he can for now he is a true… PHANTOM DETECTIVE!
From one of the UK’s most under -rated comic creators, Ben R. Dilworth, comes new life breathed into and a new slant given to the adventures of the former mortal who has become one of the Watchers -forbidden to act even to save a life from supernatural forces. Except “rules are there to be broken or at the very least stretched until you can see through them!”
The much anticipated collection from the co-creator of Peter Wisdom and artist of Mark Millar’s The Shadowmen!
Yes, now the Black Tower T-shirt online store is open!