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

Briefly

 

 If -IF- I survive long enough I have the Special Globe Guard book to finish off then I have the next Black Tower Super Heroes that I will start incorporating a few more D-Gruppe pages into before the book length D-Gruppe book. 

Kopfmann and the members who vanished while chasing a UFO (Return of the Gods) need to return and then things can kick off properly.

 It's one old bloke doing all the story/  artwork so don't hold your breath!

Black Tower Super Heroes Werewolves

 

86pp

A4

Black and white

£10.00 UK 

https://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper/black-tower-super-heroes-werewolves/paperback/product-84wwge7.html?page=1&pageSize=4

The Prof, investigator of the paranormal, encounters two werewolves in Castle Park...and Devilina who has a "sort of" message for him. Kotar, Sabuta, Lady Silana, Tarot and others deal with new werewolf activity and Dr Lycaon is granted access to the labs at the HQ of the explorer/adventurer group The Questors. Lycaon believes he is close to a serum that will cure the curse of lycanthropy but someone or something is trying to stop him. Meanwhile in space Freelancer delivers justice to the Central Galactic Council after its betrayal (see The Green Skies) and on Earth the equally treacherous Council of Light meets its fate. Will Lycaon succeed with his cure or does the increased werewolf activity even in the halls of one of the UKs most secret buildings indicate that the cure is too late?

Black Tower Super Heroes The Ultimate Game

 

Story Terry Hooper-Scharf

Art Terry Hooper-Scharf, Thorroe Prey, P. Beard, Tomas Scharf

Pages

188

Binding Type

Paperback Perfect Bound

Interior Color

Black & White

Dimensions

A4 (8.27 x 11.69 in / 210 x 297 mm)

£15.00 UK  see online store for outside UK price

https://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper/black-tower-super-heroes-the-ultimate-game/paperback/product-95d9z68.html?page=1&pageSize=4

 The mystical traveller of the realms, The Thinker, meets a stranger while travelling along the Path of Counter Actuality. But this stranger is a different type of traveller: he is Illuyanka and he has been charged with on sworn duty –to destroy specific Earths in the multiverse.

Finding that Illuyanka is partial to gambling the Thinker risks all by challenging him to a cosmic game pitting heroes against various challenges: they lose then their Earth dies. The Thinker has no doubt that with all of his knowledge he can win. But Illuyanka is not what he seems.

A story that throws in as many super heroes and villains as you could ever want plus an Earths parallel crossing storyline that will have you wondering who the real bad guy is!

Premium Printing

 

 I was asked what I meant in a previous post when I  wrote that I choose Premium Printing for my books.

You can have a book printed on a standard paper and with standard printing. It's a basic look and the quality can vary. I choose white paper stock and premium ink which means the black and white art is crisp and clean -the quality is far better than the original artwork.

The reason why I made this choice is simple. Old fashioned as it may be, I think that if someone is going to spend their money on one of your books then they deserve the best printing you can give them. That simple.

Black Tower Super Heroes The Ultimate Game

 

A rather  heavy book envelope arrived today and I thought "this is going to take a while to read and review!" but on opening I found it was MY book.  The fact that I always opt for premier paper and printing really pays off  But the book is done so I will only ever check it for back issue referencing.  Cover came out far better than I expected!

Story Terry Hooper-Scharf

Art Terry Hooper-Scharf, Thorroe Prey, P. Beard, Tomas Scharf

Pages

188

Binding Type

Paperback Perfect Bound

Interior Color

Black & White

Dimensions

A4 (8.27 x 11.69 in / 210 x 297 mm)

£15.00 UK  see online store for outside UK price

https://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper/black-tower-super-heroes-the-ultimate-game/paperback/product-95d9z68.html?page=1&pageSize=4

 The mystical traveller of the realms, The Thinker, meets a stranger while travelling along the Path of Counter Actuality. But this stranger is a different type of traveller: he is Illuyanka and he has been charged with on sworn duty –to destroy specific Earths in the multiverse.

Finding that Illuyanka is partial to gambling the Thinker risks all by challenging him to a cosmic game pitting heroes against various challenges: they lose then their Earth dies. The Thinker has no doubt that with all of his knowledge he can win. But Illuyanka is not what he seems.

A story that throws in as many super heroes and villains as you could ever want plus an Earths parallel crossing storyline that will have you wondering who the real bad guy is!

Presents 1-and it was just 50p!

 

 Black Tower Presents (or, simply, Presents) appeared in September, 1985 alongside Adventure the big problem is that these were photocopied by Darron Northall so producing two titles meant extra time and work. In the end I decided that apart from one off issues I would filter everything into one title. Hence why stories mentioned in the post for Adventure 1 started here.

The 32 pager featured the alien and last survivor of the Freelancer Corps aptly named Freelancer and his arrival on Earth. The issue kicked off with the origin of Elizabeth Flare aka Mayfly and features a cameo by Dr Faustus and Dr. Wulf as well as first mention of the COTA team. The final panel features the first appearance of the Cougar.

The issue also features the origin of David Brown aka Runestone and his Celtic gods given powers as Hero-champion.

There are a number of first appearances/cameos in Crime Busters and Link. Starting at a circus and moving on to John Clane's (Solar) somewhat conditions stipulated inheritance. Making Solar, Willy Soames/Cane aka The Human Ball;  Madelein Bell aka Bell and the Missing Link Black Tower's first published super team.

Scratchy art but part of the early history of Black Tower and Runestone's origin was re-told by Ben Dilworth in Black Tower Adventure vol. 2 no, 7 and you can see the few pages here:

 https://hoopercomicart.blogspot.com/2020/01/the-origin-of-runestone-part-1.html

1986 Wasn't All Hair Gel

 

Cut, paste, Tippex and photocopy days. The artwork may not have been that great back then but it was fun and for some reason zines kept selling out.

Adventure 4, September 1986. Crime Busters UK and Link go up against Beta Man and the Metal Man makes his first appearance.  Kotar and Sabuta are there to witness the coming of The Ghost (also on front cover). Meanwhile two hard working  cops look into the mysterious deaths and try to find out just who Wild Mane is.

Meanwhile Jon Future in his civilian guise gets into a car with agents of Special Intelligence which is then blown up by the international hit man known as the Marksman.  In the second part of his origin story the Owl (David Holmes) looks into the murder of his old friend and that leads to some nastiness close to home.

The Avenger and Purple Hood breach the headquarters of Intercrime and the Mad Cutter makes his first appearance.  In Guppy Terror (seriously) an injured Duncan McCrae (aka Barracuda) washes up on an island where he meets the mysterious Laguna before finding himself captured by the Black Shark's crew.

40 pages of black and white fun from a time when making comics was fun and there was a comic creators community.

The Iron Warrior Collection

 

49pp

A4

Black and white

£10.09

https://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper-scharf/the-iron-warrior-collection/paperback/product-162j299y.html?page=1&pageSize=4

In the 1940s, Rodney Dearth and his exploratory fighting machine known as the Iron Warrior left Africa to travel to South America in search of lost explorer Percy Fawcett. Crocodiles, giant snakes, hostile natives and..Big Bong -the terror of the Amazon! This collection presents a 1940s William A. Ward strip, Ben R. Dilworth's Big Bong, Amazon Adventure and a couple special pages, and Terry Hooper-Scharf's Black Tower Adventure strip The Iron Warrior: Jungle Terror plus text features!

The Return of the Gods and Green Skies Invasion Earth Series

 

 "I read the original quote from that German blogger and thought it was a lot of hot air. When Return of the Gods: Twilight of the Super Heroes arrived I thought "thick book" and knew you'd taken it from 96 pages to 360+...it looked impressive. I read through it in two days and -robots, aliens, "gods", super heroes, sorcerers, alien invasions and more and world-wide. And you tell me this was done without a script?! It's the only one I can think of so, yeah, the greatest British super hero graphic novel fits as a description." Pete Clark

"You say this is your final big story? The Green Skies was fantastic and everything laid out into chapters was a great touch!"

David Stephens, Comic Reviews

" 'Holy ******* ****!' was all I could say. I even tried counting the number of characters and how the **** you produced all of this without a script beats me. Return of the Gods: Twilight of the Super Heroes and The Green Skies could only have been better if George Perez had drawn it!"

Dan's Comics

"I have no idea why you are not pushing this even harder. The books Return of the Gods: Twilight of the Super Heroes and The Green Skies I would love to see in German or at least get German fans to read since it has a good number of German heroes in it. Next big comic event over here send me copies and I'll sell them on my table!"

Gerd Hammer, German comics historian and trader

Selected comic readers were also chosen to review copies and, obviously, two of these were people from Hong Kong who I corresponded with on Manhua over the years.

"I just wish someone like Tong Li would publish this in Chinese -I mean there are Chinese heroes in this so why not?"

Wang Xiuying

"There HAS to have been a script and more than one person working on this! Brilliant!"

Mike Wayne, Australian comic dealer

Generally, these comments were all similar and I only quote these as any more would be very egotistical. The books should speak for themselves.

Paperback

A4

Black & White

331 Pages

Price: Reduced to £21.89 

Prints in 3-5 business days

http://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper-scharf/the-return-of-the-godstwilight-of-the-super-heroes/paperback/product-22076337.html

It begins slowly.  It always does. It's a deception that everything in the world is as it should be and that never changes.

Earth’s heroes and crime-fighters are 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 psychics around the world have been sensing something.  A "something" that sends feelings of sheer terror through their psyches.

There is a huge alien Mother-ship near the Moon. Undetected by deep-space radar and other instruments, only a few on Earth have sensed it and they cannot penetrate the hull but only feel psychic screams and....worse.

And then it begins: strange orange spheres isolate and chase some of Earth’s heroes who then vanish into thin air –are they dead?  An attack by an old foe or foes -?

Black, impenetrable domes cover cities world-wide. 

Then it becomes clear to those within the domes what is going on: 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! 

No one suspects the driving force behind the events.  One single evil guiding events.  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 Cross-Earths Caper: Part II of the Invasion Earth Trilogy

Paperback, 

A4

Black & White

107 Pages

Price: £12.00

Prints in 3-5 business days

 http://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper-scharf/the-cross-earths-caper/paperback/product-22076318.html

Following the events on Neo Olympus and the Boarman invasion of Earth, many heroes and crime-fighters have withdrawn from activity. Some are trying to recover from injuries while others are fighting the mental scars left by the events.

But things have to go on.  As heroes from other parallels who helped during the recent events return home, members of the Special Globe Guard are shocked at the sudden appearance of Zom of the Zodiac. Never a sign of good things a-coming!

Very soon, a group of heroes mount a rescue mission and find that a quick rescue mission can turn sour equally quickly. As they overcome one challenge the the heroes become lost between parallel Earths and face new threats.

 Sometimes one Earth just is not enough. The complete story published in issues 7-10 of Black Tower Adventure now in...one handy dandy book!

A4

B&W

124pp

£15.00

https://www.lulu.com/en/en/shop/terry-hooper/the-green-skies-vol-3-part-1/paperback/product-5j4y7e.html?page=1&pageSize=4

It all began in 1987 and the Black Tower Universe has seen alien attacks, heroes kidnapped to be put into the middle of a war of the gods. 

Despite the deaths and losses the heroes -crime fighters, super powered and members of the magical union have come back but now unaware that alien races are escaping through the Sol system and that a mysterious space fleet is heading towards the inner planets, they find themselves trapped or distracted. 

The Many Eyed One is finally coming. 

The Multiversal Council has quarantined Earth and forbidden any to help. 

The evil has spread and there is treachery striking at the very core of Earth's defenders

A4

B&W

126pp

£15.00

https://www.lulu.com/en/en/shop/terry-hooper/the-green-skies-vol-3-part-ii/paperback/product-nj7wqr.html?page=1&pageSize=4

Following on from events in Green Skies V. 3 Part I the Clone Zone Boyz are increasing in number while those who created them, the Vampirons, continue to plot and await the arrival of their 'God' -The Many Eyed One. 

The Druid finds that his physical and mental state are deteriorating and even the Rev. Merriwether cannot help him. 

Shockingly, the Clone Zone Boyz claims someone close to Merriwether and this leads him to team up with two 'unsavoury' characters. 

In space Krii and Tyn hrrn face a seemingly unstoppable enemy. 

On The Moon the Selenites and representatives of other worlds meet and decide that Johnny Apollo, the Z-Man, is the only one who can lead the counter invasion fleet. 

With the enemy striking Mars and then the Moon things look grim

 A4

B&W

208pp

£16.00

https://www.lulu.com/en/en/shop/terry-hooper/the-green-skies-vol-3-part-iii/paperback/product-kj6r7r.html?page=1&pageSize=4

The gathered Sol Defence fleet is prepared to make its final stand led by Johnny Apollo the Z Man. If it fails to halt the invaders then the doomsday weapon will be detonated and destroy the entire Sol System. 

Meanwhile, unaware of the threat in space, Jack Flash, the Avenger and others prepare for a final show down with the Many Eyed One; a final confrontation they know they do not have the power to win. 

Is this Humanity...the Earths...final day?

woven into The Green Skies is the story of the harbinger of destruction: the story of Varik Dann -The Man Who Walked Through a Door and Into Another World

Varik Dann is but one character as we follow the attempts of heroes and adventurers as well as the military as they try to confront the Clone Zone Boys with no idea of who or what is behind them. And in space the very existence of not just the Earth but the solar system rests on efforts to stop an alien invasion fleet and if it cannot be stopped them there will be no conquest: the entire solar system will be destroyed by a doomsday device.