Questions and Answers

 originally published on CBO

I have no idea why so many people who never buy Black Tower books and never support it in any other way are so interested in what goes on within so to speak.

Firstly, no it was not a joke when I said that once I shift off this mortal coil all Black Tower books will cease to exist. I will rephrase that: I operate a print on demand store front so a book has to be ordered to be printed. No back stock of 300 books in a box somewhere. I know my own personal collection will be binned. And no book has received 100 sales (which would still make it a rarity).

Secondly, I was told that it must be nice at least getting the financial backing of Cinebook and Hexagon Comics. Well, in the early days I did ask Olivier Cadic who owns Cinebook if he might be interested in paying adverts on CBO. No. Advertising was never budgeted for. Can I also point out that anyone who says that I am employed by Cinebook is either lying or living in a fantasy world. I review their books -that is it!

There is a third and not even annoying question that pops up now and again and I have noted who those people are and WHO they are connected to. "All your books are drawn by Ben Dilworth".....I have posted before about projects I have  published by other artists 0John Erasmus, Tom Elmes, Paul Ashley Brown blah blah blah. I also do a lot of artwork. You know hundreds of pages for Return of the Gods, The Green Skies and the new volume of Black Tower Adventure -and Special Globe Guard. 

When it comes down to it you use the artists you have. I do not have the financial backing to pay artists -with current sales even I do not get paid.  There is no "Dilworth I want 10 pages by next week!"  What Ben decides to draw and send in is done as and when he feels like it. All contributors get five copies of books their art appears in but that is as far as it goes -and those UK comic publishers who get up on their high horses with "He doesn't pay" -I have no interest in your opinions AND I know exactly how YOUR imprints work. So you read them on forums they have no connection to me and "people in glass houses...."

"You promote European comics so much is your main market there?"  Answer: no. And to answer the other question that usually follows: No, I am never invited to European comic shows not even in Germany (my 54% German DNA and 16% French DNA sobs over that!). 

And, again, no: none of the creators I helped get into pro comics ever offer to help with work because once they got those big comic deals I was no longer needed. That's life and comics. Move on.

Look at where the CBO All Time Top Ten views come from:  

United States

2.13m

China

1.16m

Singapore

622k

Hong Kong

411k

Brazil

339k

United Kingdom

296k

Russia

295k

France

259k

Vietnam

192k

Germany

190k

Do I get big sales from these countries? Nope. I am surprised that the United States produces such very low sales. A few bloggers there have highlighted Black Tower but...

With China I am a bit more disappointed as I have pushed comics there since the 1980s and a good few people email to tell me that they have learnt more about old HK and PRC comics from my posts than they have at home. Black Tower has had Chinese super heroes since the 1980s and the three-part "Evil of the Salamander" (“火蜥蜴之恶”). In fact if you read Return and Green Skies you'll find quite a few.  China is NOT on the list of countries my print of demand cannot ship to and I have no idea whether there are local import problems or not. 

There are other questions I get to hear about but the main thing I always say when I respond (rarely these days) is "Have you or the person involved actually purchased a Black Tower comic and read it? If not your opinion is worthless.

Mentioning print on demand -I just got three books delivered well below the "average 9-13 days to deliver". 

Grumble Grumble it isn't apple crumble

 

When my younger brother was unwell I used to quick draw him comics. Obviously no scripts ore thumbnails or rough pages just pen straight to paper. Bloody awful art though!  In one story 

I had a villain who had been mutated and one hero after another -one team after another- went up against him. He was unstoppable. Eventually nearly all the heroes were in wards in hospitals and the villain walked on. I came up with a solution on how to defeat him but it made me realise that if you have a villain that cannot be stopped what do you do?

I think that if you are at Marvel or DC you are in a mess. So many reboots and so much characterisation lost and what guides your comics lines? Movies. The movies inspired by the old style comics draw in audiences who could not care a jot about the comics but the long time fans either tolerate the latest reboot or gender swap or even outing of traditionally straight characters as gay or bi just to chase a phantom audience or those fans stop buying.

All characters are now sociopathic, killers or megalomaniacs -I never thought that the Black Panther would become what he has. Awful. Notice I do not mention the equally awful and racist Wakanda Forever movie -as we saw with the TV series Black Lightning, possibly THE most racist, "black" people can be racist but you mustn't say so. Let's not get into the whole TV show/movies debate here.

The movies are movies and NOT the comics universes...or that is how it SHOULD be. What threat really challenges the once great Avengers or Fantastic Four? Apparently only mega threats or ones that seem to lead down a very bland path and, in the case of the FF not helped by some really AWFUL artwork. The comics universes are places where nano tech, orbiting satellites, journeying to far off solar systems blah blah blah are so common you might as well say these are now not super hero books but sci fi comics.

I remember a time when the Black Panther tackled street crime and where the Avengers faced off big corporate businessmen involved in crime. You want to snatch that old ladies purse? Captain America is just behind you.... or the REAL Spider-Man is watching from a wall or roof top.

It has all become somewhat messy and unsatisfying.

Look at, as an example, Black Tower characters. On patrol or walking down the street and feeling peckish -pop into the local chip shop. Barbecues  in the garden. Petty crime tackled on the streets BECAUSE the whole purpose of the heroes is to fight crime and protect every day people. Yes, there are major threats such as in Return of the Gods and The Green Skies but the characters still remain grounded in a "real world" -they are still flawed characters showing weaknesses and fear.

In Black Tower comics there is no scripting or planning out. I go from page 10 to page 11 and a character dies (and stays dead) sudden and brutal as real life. On more than one occasion I have argued with myself that a character should not die as he is a long time favourite and I try to think of ways around to stop the death but, in the end, the character died and that is it. Stan Lee once said that if there was not a REAL danger to the life of the hero then where was the characterisation and reason to keep reading? Death was permanent and if the character failed she/he or someone close to them would die. No convenient 37th reboot of the universe to get out of it...or cloning...or double from another Earth.

Roy Thomas knew how to keep things going from issue to issue and how to keep a group of drunks, drug takers or egomaniac creators in check (or try to between stopping some stealing original art!).. Jim Shooter was not liked because he wanted everything out on time and continuity to be a priority (that was before the 1990s when continuity no longer existed for Marvel) -he made a few mistakes but he saved Marvel by being in control and knowing what he was doing. When he was "let go" what happened? The rising sales under Shooter began to fall without him.

Is any of this making sense to anyone? I may well be rambling but it has been a long time since the last Sunday Sermon...and it's a Friday!

Any thoughts plase comment.

Looking Glass -The Project That Might Have Been

 

 

Gil Page the then Managing Editor at Fleetway had been with the company (when it was Amalgamated Press) since leaving school and he always spoke about how “We have all o0f these great characters but never use them!” which to me was a sign reading “Go for it!” I told him that I had an idea and told me to “hang on a m inute” as he went out of the office to return with a middle aged, well suited man (who I was told later was “on the board”).

The five minutes Gil had been gone gave me time to jumble together a story featuring a basic cast (my mind was drawing blanks). “Go ahead. What’;s the idea?” And so I sat there with both men watching me as I had to outline the whole idea pointing out how other characters could be pulled in. As I concluded I was waiting for the “No, I don’t think so” but instead the middle aged man nodded to Gil and said “You know Dennis at IPC see what he says”

It seems that “Dennis” had simply replied “Do what you want we have no interest in juvenile features” (bloody cheek).  I was told this on my next visit to Fleetway’s office by which time I had sketched out some pages and a rough script. I was told that the strip would need to be black and white as full colour was too expensive and that there were “restrictions”.

An artist was the main problem.

At first Gil  suggested Vanyo and showed me some of his art pages and although I was familiar with “his” work Gil pointed out that Vanyo was in fact the professional name of two comics artist  brothers -Vicente Vaño Ibarra (1947–2006) and Eduardo Vaño Ibarra (b. 1944). I had not known that but two artists meant the strip was at least guaranteed to get drawn.

That was what I thought until I next talked to Gil who told me that he could not go into detail but “Vanyo” was out of the running.

Alberto Giolitti was another suggested by Gil from his address packed book (which helped me contact a number of old timers for interviews). I told him that I was unfamiliar with the name but he insisted that I had seen a lot of his work and even talked to him about it. Giolitti was better known by the name "Heinzl" and was a prolific comics illustrator who worked extensively for IPC in the 1980s.

Old familiar story by that time was that Heinzl had taken on another project but for some reason (not divulged) I was told that he was unhappy with Fleetway.

Mike Western retired and had no interest what-so-ever in returning to comics and in a phone chat he told me that he had done his work and was now retired.

John Cooper was interested after hge discovered it was not for an American publisher.  However, he later withdrew after eye sight problems.

At one point Gil Page told me that he had found one of "the old lads" who would be perfect and he was willing to give it a go.

Art Wetherell was interested and that would have been great to work with him again.

Not long after that Gil told me that Egmont had bought the company and any planned new work was to be halted immediately -they did the same thing when they purchased Bastei in Germany whioch stopped D Gruppe being published.

 For the “Old Boy” I had roughly drawn all 111 pages ass he was not familiar with many characters and he said that the layouts etc made it easier to start work. IPC approved the project even though they made it very clear, via their chairperson, that “IPC has not been involved in children’s comics in over 30 years” so after 5 years of pushing the idea and getting it off the ground….it all fell apart.

Remember that these were the "roughs" and are presented here in no particular order.

All art (c)2025 T Hooper

(c)2026 T Hooper