Wednesday 15 May 2024
Monday 13 May 2024
Black Tower Comics: Dark Night Detectives: Everything Is Under Control and The Ministry of Safety
A4
Black & White
50 Pages
Price: £6.00 (excl. VAT)
50 Pages
Price: £6.00 (excl. VAT)
Ships in 3–5 business days
http://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper-scharf/the-dark-night-detectives/paperback/product-21975325.html
Its a world where if you stand up for what is right you'll be lucky if its just a beating you get.
A world where people are starving (if poor) and the rich live in luxury.
A world where you have to have birthing Rights.
Where sacrificing someone to the Devil is acceptable -as long as they pay the wages.
A world where if you DO NOT take that bribe you WILL be made an example of.
This shows off Dilworth's skill at writing dark and brooding stories with a hint of satire but just too true to modern life! It also shows his skill as an artistic story teller and designer. Some of Ben Dilworth's most provoking and dark work in ages.
http://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper-scharf/the-dark-night-detectives/paperback/product-21975325.html
Its a world where if you stand up for what is right you'll be lucky if its just a beating you get.
A world where people are starving (if poor) and the rich live in luxury.
A world where you have to have birthing Rights.
Where sacrificing someone to the Devil is acceptable -as long as they pay the wages.
A world where if you DO NOT take that bribe you WILL be made an example of.
This shows off Dilworth's skill at writing dark and brooding stories with a hint of satire but just too true to modern life! It also shows his skill as an artistic story teller and designer. Some of Ben Dilworth's most provoking and dark work in ages.
A4
28pp
B&W
£7.00
Its a world where if you stand up for what is right you'll be lucky if its just a beating you get. A world where people are starving (if poor) and the rich live in luxury. A world where you have to have birthing Rights. Where sacrificing someone to the Devil is acceptable -as long as they pay the wages. A world where if you DO NOT take that bribe you WILL be made an example of.
This was the dystopian world set up by Ben Dilworth in Small Press publications in the 1980 and some strips in Black Tower books and led on to The Dark Night Detectives: Everything Is Under Control.
Now Detective Inspector Black and Special Constable (Community Policing) Jones are back and it is still dar, bleak and depressingly familiar in a way.
The ending will make you ask more than a few questions.
Sunday 12 May 2024
Black Tower Comics: Ace Hart 1-4
A4
B&W
20pp
Text and comic strip
£5.95
https://www.lulu.com/en/en/shop/terry-hooper/ace-hart-no-1-june-2020/paperback/product-mmqe22.html
Ace Hart The Atomic Man -one of Britain's first and greatest super heroes is back in his own limited series created and produced by Ben R. Dilworth. With an Atomipower cover designed to irradiate your eye-balls
1970, After The Bomb, Arride, 42 and Princess.
All stories complete so if you just want to try one issue you can!
A4
B&W
20pp
Text and comic strips
£5.95
https://www.lulu.com/en/en/shop/terry-hooper/ace-hart-no-2-june-2020/paperback/product-5667wp.html
Ace Hart -the Atomic Man! One of the UK's first post war super heroes is back with his second issue and guided by the creative wizardry of Ben R. Dilworth -all behind the new Atomipower covers!
With titles such as Space Pirates, The Trap, After the Bomb, Unseen and Colonize how can you go wrong? I'm excited and I just edited the book (to be fair I have had a lot of coffee so I could be hyper).
The British Golden Age of Comics is in safe hands!
20pp
A4
B&W
Text and comic strip
£6.00
https://www.lulu.com/en/en/shop/terry-hooper/ace-hart-no-3-july-2020/paperback/product-669g9z.html
Ace Hart -The Atom Powered Man. One of the UKs first post war super heroes is guided through more action and stories by Ben R Dilworth in this third issue.
And behind that powerful Atomipower cover you'll find stories including: What Is It Good For? Stone Cold Killer Box and the story behind the cover -UP Stream!
20pp
A4
B&W
£6.95
https://www.lulu.com/en/en/shop/terry-hooper/ace-hart-no-4-july-2020/paperback/product-wk79wn.html
Ace Hart The Atomic Man is back in the final issue of this four issue run.
See our hero deal with Pluto Attacking and other threats while back up strips include the Rev Merriwether -God's Demon thumper, the Purple Hood, GoBo and...well, why spoil it!
Return of the Gods! Cross Earths Caper and The Green Skies!
"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."
"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
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
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
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
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
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?
Thursday 9 May 2024
Kult Creations: Shokwave #4
SHOKWAVE BOOK 4
48 pages
colour and black and white art!
UK £9.00
12 Euro
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jas1/shokwave-book-4
A anthology comic, featuring a quartet of ten page stories each issue written by British National Comic Awards' winning writer John A. Short, drawn by some of the most talented artists in British comics! All four feature new adventures!
NOSFERATU II continues our sequel to 1922's cult silent horror classic. Trapped on a ship crossing the Atlantic with the immortal remains of the dead vampire... The cult of Orlok works to resurrect the count. This time featuring a two hundred year old talking zombie rat and spontaneous human combustion! Art by Dark Horse artist David Hitchcock!
-Now this art style works well as I have noted before and the story begins to pick. Awww, poor zombie rat...but can we say "aww" when it comes to zombie rats? Well I just did. Of course the count is bound to make an appearance so will he in this part of the story. Buy the comic and find out! 😝
THE CLOCK STRIKES! Another adventure for the golden-age mystery man. A gun for hire aims to kill another assassin. A hit gone wrong in the ice and snow of a New York winter in 1937. Featuring the return of femme fatal assassin Scarlet Hunter! Art by Longpig artist Adam Jakes in cool black and white!
-I like the story and it's well paced and has a nice ending. I am still not too sure about the art style though. Not too sure why because it looks okay but something is not clicking with me. I do intend to read 1-4 again and see whether a re-read will change my mind. I would publish this style of art but I am getting old and it may be the fact that the characters look as though they are taken from photos of actors that is doing something to my moldy comic brain.
ANNA KEY back for more alien chaos! Sheriff Key has a new deputy to break in, but will there be time for proper training when there's a scheme of mass kidnapping unfolding in Rox City? Anna and Norm find themselves vacuum-packed in the latest self-contained adventure. Full colour art by Switchblade Stories artist Chris Askham!
-Now, this one is more like the old 2000 AD strips of old story-wise and initially I was not keen on the art style but in this part I was. Go figure. I'm a contradictory comic reviewer. Nice story and nice colourful art that was very enjoyable.
RESISTORS an everyday tale of sex robots fifty years in the future. We delve back into the pasts of human droid mechanic, Kew, and lead warrior for the rebellion, Jez. How did he get involved in the bots struggle? And what was her life like before she rebelled? Full color art by Fantagraphics artist Richard Pester
Here we almost have a Bladerunner scenario gone wrong. Hooker "artificials" or robots -looking the way they do (humanoid) we used to call androids. Everything in this world is bloody changing. The Church is being naughty but as the naughtiness is with robots it doesn't count ...this could have gone so wrong! The question is whether Kew can save the hooker robot that does not want to have sex (she obviously never met Captain Kirk). Are we seeing a Richard Anthony Pester resurgence?
All in all it is a good comic and if you check the Kult Creations site you can purchase all four issues and that way you can get in on the action. Reviews of previous issues are linked below and I recommend the title because comics should be fun and these are fun!
Shokwave #1
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https://hoopercomicart.blogspot.com/2023/01/kult-creations-shokwave-book-1.html
Shokwave #2
https://hoopercomicart.blogspot.com/2023/05/kult-creations-shokwave-book-2.html
Shokwave #3
https://hoopercomicart.blogspot.com/2023/10/kult-creations-shokwave-3.html
Chang3lings Comics: My 3rd Big Book of Utter (C)RAP
- Project Option: US Letter, 8.5×11 in, 22×28 cm
Pages: 20 - Colour
- £4.00
- Publish Date: Apr 14, 2024
Richard has been canny in completing each issue so that it is ready for a regular event he goes to. Which means these are coming out monthly. If you read my other reviews -links below- you will know what I think of this series. Here we see the Cosmic Oddity looking back at past events with...himself (bear with me). Some brutal events from the past are looked at and if none of this impresses you...maybe you need to go buy a Micky Mouse comic?
I am hoping that once these shorter issues are completed that Pester compiles them into a "trade" especially since he is now using colour and tone to good effect. The original black and white versions are an arm's length away and those were, as I have probably boringly pointed out before (I never read my own reviews), and still are some of the best work I've seen.
If you think this is all a "Oh, my life. I've had it so hard" effort like you find at so many small press events then you are wrong. I like the brutality that black and white art brings to the story (everyone knows I am a black and white comics man) but the colour version is just as good. PLEASE try a copy and see what you think.
Hey -the covers are worth the price!
(C)RAP #1
(C)RAP #2
Wednesday 8 May 2024
Hexagon Comics: Ben Leonard, Lord of Light #1: The Immortals
story & art by Guido Zamperoni,
cover by Alfredo Macall.
7x10 squarebound comic,
88 pages b&w
ISBN-13: 978-1-64932-287-6.
US$12.95.
https://www.hexagoncomics.com/shop-ben-leonard-lord-of-light-1-the-immortals.html
Twenty-five year-old Ben Leonard, a journalist working for the newspaper The Globe, suddenly discovers that he is the reincarnation of the mythical Egyptian sun-god Râ, the Lord of Light and King of Heliopolis, a legendary “lost city” of mysterious Immortals, which once gave rise to the Ancient Egyptians’ pantheon.
Murdered by his evil and jealous brother Set, Râ’s soul was hidden inside a mortal body for millennia by the powers of the wise Thô, to await the time for him to rise again.
Having now recovered his true identity and powers, Ben’s awesome task is to defeat Set and free the Immortals of Heliopolis whom the villainous Set has turned to stone.
His only allies in this tremendous battle are his two colleagues, journalists Pip and Lucy.
Ben Leonard made his first appearance in 1971 in Kiwi magazine. It was the creation of Milanese artist Guido Zamperoni who I believe worked almost exclusively in French comics.
Guido (Gy Zam) Zamperoni (1912-2003)
Love the cover. The cover is the thing that should make the person who sees it want to buy the book. Macall produces some great covert art. Many comic greats (yes, America, Europe had comic greats, too!) drew their inspiration from movies or pulp literature. Kirby was a great movie fan and you can see that in his costume designs. Was Zamperoni influenced by H. Rider Haggard's 1886 novel She: A History of Adventure? Or even the Hammer films based on that character? We will never know and it is why I think interviewing creators is so important.
The story here is well paced with good characters. The art is lovely black and white goodness and is on a par with his work on Lys Noir and Frisco Bill -though I have not seen near enough of either of those! This is a book you can sit back with and relax and enjoy some high adventure and action. I hope the second book (The Giants) is to follow. Really, I think these black and white comics show just how much the United States missed out (the UK had a burgeoning b&w comics market until the 1980s).
Please remember that if you want to buy this or any Hexagon comic to do so via the company's website as that way they get all the sales money and that means they can keep on publishing more titles!
Monday 6 May 2024
Black Tower Comics: Journey of the ID: The Dr Morg Trilogy
I just found the intended original title for this book:
The Meta Catatonic Neo Orwellian Linguistic Experimentation of Dr Morg
Wonder why I never went with that?
A4
B&W
52pp
£6.00
https://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper-scharf/journey-of-the-idthe-dr-morg-trilogy/paperback/product-22705545.html
Metapsychophysics meets comics. Its the next natural evolutionary step in comic books! For the first time all three parts of the highly acclaimed Dr. Morg Trilogy are combined into one volume:
WORDS WITHIN WORLDS,
AFTER ORWELL and the final explosive
THE DEATH OF DR. MORG!
Saturday 4 May 2024
Black Tower Comics: The Purple Hood: Land of Hope and Glory
A4
B&W
74pp
£6.00
https://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper-scharf/the-purple-hood-land-of-hope-and-glory/paperback/product-21159964.html
There has always been a Purple Hood. “The Kings Man” and then the international agent used by HM Government to deal with external and internal threats.
Mad men with nuclear bombs.
Organised drug cartels.
Power hungry dictators.
The Britton family have always been Purple Hoods. The Purple Hood is precise and clinical in his work. But above all else those wearing the Hood have had guidance from their consciences. So when the military stand idly by, unable to act when civilians are massacred –when politicians only draw up policy and blow warm air….. ...does the Purple Hood –does John Britton– sit back on his hands idly awaiting a change in policy?
Or does John Britton pull on the Hood and say: “Enough! The line is drawn and crossed!”
Time for the bad men to run.
Time to hide. Or time to die!
Ben Dilworth writes and draws this mini epic.
Black Tower Comics: The Complete Phantom Detective
A4
B&W
36 Pages
Price: £6.00 (excl. VAT)Ships in 3–5 business days
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!
Cinebook Ltd: BUCK DANNY CLASSICS 6 - RED ALERT
Authors: Frédéric Zumbiehl and Frédéric Marniquet; illustrated by Jean-Michel Arroyo
Age: 10 years and up
Size: 21.7 x 28.7 cm
Number of pages: 48 colour pages
Publication: February 2024
ISBN: 9781800441255
£8.99 incl VAT
https://www.cinebook.co.uk/buck-danny-classics-alert-p-4541.html
Buck and his friends have managed to recover the blueprints of the Soviet supersonic bomber, but they’re stuck on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain, with the entire Stasi hunting them. To maximise the chances of someone making it out, they decide to take different routes. But while Tumb and Sonny return to East Berlin with the blueprints, Buck chooses to go and destroy the existing prototypes on their base in Russia – what amounts to a suicide mission …
If there is one thing I have learnt over the years it is that if you go on a suicide mission the chances are you might not come back. Word. Look at The Dirty Dozen (I and II), look at The Magnificent Seven.... yeah. I really need to alter my meds.
Anyway, here we have it; part 2 of the story and things do look very bleak and grim -East Germany under the Communists was certainly not "Spaß heute Abend in der Altstadt! ("Fun time in the old town tonight"). One day I'll need to tell the story of how I was in a Landrover chased by the Vopos (Volks Polizei).... anyway, back to Buck Danny. Grim scenery, Stasi agents and a lot of gunplay and twists almost made me forget that this was, essentially, about air force pilots and that seems to have been a theme in these type of series including the legendary Dan Cooper.
The story maintains its pace and the art carries the whole thing along and I finally realised why the art seemed a tad familiar; there are touches that almost look like Ramona Fradon was involved. I have to mention, apologies I forgot last review, the superb colour work of Ketty Formaggio which makes it all pop. And Da Vinci style hang gliders! I admit that I was not expecting but based on history I should have!
Yep. I will call this a winner and you can buy both parts in one fell swoop. Please if you want to order this or any other Cinebook title go to their site because then they get the money and not a large percentage ripped off from them by other sellers. It helps keep a company going.
Friday 3 May 2024
My Second Big Book Of Utter (C)RAP
- Richard Anthony Pester
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- Project Option: US Letter, 8.5×11 in, 22×28 cm
Pages: 20 - Publish Date: Mar 08, 2024
- £5.00
- https://www.blurb.co.uk/b/11932933-2nd-big-book-of-rap?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR1oD0oBzUtHs3zwR-Qm3mPZzwOak8JWXftqXFKGQgadrK2SBZvvZB2z5s8_aem_AXLlPzm_sz7rEQBIY8YrfXMJBjWI3H-Ot7dGRLTUkaX5y7eE-qm8mz112Fa1je0Koe8NMnbhD5jcFJsyGLp1OGU8#
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Continues the adaptation of Trials of the Cosmic Oddity and Derna Assumed starts in this issue.
As I have written before The Cosmic Oddity should really be picked up by one of those book publishers who like to show off that "we also do graphic novels". The U.S. had Harvey Pekar and American Splendor and for me The Cosmic Oddity stands out in a class of its own and should be considered a British classic -I am willing to die on that hill (in 40 years or so and I will by then be avoiding hill!). In fact I took out book one last night -they are on a shelf nearby- and read through it and I still get the same emotions out of it.
Believe me, even if I know someone if I think they have produced something under par or a stinker then I say so. Politely but I still say so.
Derna, now Derna is one of those characters that once seen you want to see more of. Hey, she even got her bottom pinched by The Thinker once (but he was probably tripping because no one in their right mind would try that). This is in fact an illustrated text story and it's nice to see others doing this -comic strips and text pieces.
Not mentioned on the actual online store is the other strip -Baumgarten and Weiss: Temporal Detectives and this time they deal with a certain "Doc" who killed his youthful companion to try to stop screwing up the timeline but...probably screwed up the timeline and then another "Doc". It's all lovely fun.
Would I recommend this title? Hmmm....let me see....OF COURSE!
Now support talent and buy the first and second issue of (C)RAP -number 3 is on its way!
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Captain Marvel (2019) #7 Published: June 19, 2019 Writer: Kelly Thompson Penciler: Annapaola Martello Cover Artist: Amanda Conner ...
