The Masked Marshal and Friends (not a Saturday morning cartoon series)

 

The Many-Eyed One Is Coming......

 

Friday. Who Knew?

  I had to scan an early UK Silver Age comic for a volume of the upcoming Black Tower Silver Age. Bad enough that, because of  rationed paper and ink at the time, like many of its contemporaries it as what we call in the business “a real bastard”. The original comic, obviously, sustained some light damage but it was that or make the comic a rarity that few people would get a chance to see or read oreven hear of.

The clapped out PC (and I cannot afford to buy a nrew one so do not suggest that) hindered me every page of the way. Edit a page to an acceptable quality until proper editing then click “save” and the page shuts down as well as documents. Sometimes 3 times on certain pages.  So I had to struggle to get Documents open then re-open the file to work on the page again. 45 pages should be just over one hour’s work. 

THREE HOURS.

I had to open and edit pages so many times that that the 45 pages became approximately 80 pages.All of this for no reward. I am a moron.

This is why I asked for support to keep not just the old British comics projects going but CBO itself. Even now this small post has taken 45 minutes because of computer problems.

But who cares? I carry on until the PC needs to be buried.

To Prove It Is Not Just Me

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.lulu.com 

https://www.consumeraffairs.com/online/lulu_com.html

https://blog.reedsy.com/lulu-publishing/

I Need To Make This VERY Clear

 If the whole Lulu thing bores you -tough.

Have no doubt about it: this is a fight for the very existence of Black Tower Comics & Books. I am glad that people have posted "if they go out of business the books will be rare so get copies now!" it is nice to see a 'community' at work.

Things will be going very quiet (I've been working on this for 18 hours now)  and if the store front vanishes you all know why -Lulu is far more interested in sitting on their asses and counting the money coming in. All those internet ads full of smiling faces -fraud.

A Contract With Lulu.com Is MEANINGLESS

 Apparently my POD company does not respond to Tweets, FB messages or emails and it "Does not offer customer support at this time". Their 'support' is simply automated and sends you links that lead you on a wild goose-chase -likely in the hope you will give up.

If you can share the posts regarding this please do -help others avoid the nightmare.

The POD has made a contract with me to facilitate the printing of my books. They take a percentage. Via that contract their printers are also stating this and are a party in the contract.

Books published since 2009 are now not printable because the printer (allegedly) has dictated how many pages certain bindings can have. The POD should find a printer who will do the job. THAT is what they offer in their contract. -breach of contract

For my part I uploaded all of my books to their specifications and even altered things when their new system screwed everything up for months. Clients constantly take the blame until the POD is in a corner. I have abided by my side of the contract to the letter and beyond.

I've lost orders -breach of contract.

I have books in bindings that I was told I had NO CHOICE but to use that are now useless -breach of contract.

My Files have been removed and the new binding 'rules' have all been introduced with no notification -breach of contract.

The POD notes that it cannot guarantee print quality ("within acceptable levels") -breach of contract.

All the POD needs to do to solve all the problems is unlock the design page so that binding can be changed. There is no reason why they cannot undo this since it is their system so my initial contract of files being kept securely by them is breached again.

A Warning: If You Want To Go Print On Demand NEVER EVER use Lulu.com

 I was working until 03:00 hrs and started again early. To be honest Lulu.com have created such stress over the last few months that it has made me ill. The only option left is to make sure everyone knows what the company is like. Looking at the stats from other blogs on this it seems the USA, Canada and a big chunk of Europe are reading and sharing this. Good.

 THIS DOES NOT AFFECT ANY CUSTOMER ORDERING A BOOK. IF A BOOK IS UNAVAILABLE IT WILL SHOW AS SUCH. THIS POST IS TO SHARE A PROBLEM FACING MANY PUBLISHERS USING LULU.COM WHO DO NOT OFFER CUSTOMER SUPPORT>

There have been constant problems since the new system was brought in, It took over a month for most of my books to reappear on my store front Then, one by one I am told that books cannot be printed -even though they have been since 2009- “because” a printer says that it is restricting the number of pages for certain bindings -even books from this year.

The support is non-existent and simply gives links that take you in circles. My Files has vanished and Lulu Support will not tell me where they are. This means that 21 books Lulu has JUST decided are not meeting their printers criteria are unprintable. Yet they were before -perfect copies and I have them beside me. I cannot access My Files and some 15 of the files for books I have to republish were lost in a computer crash. 

I lose 15 books.

I spent months building a web site linking my lulu store front and detailing books. I’ve had complaints that books were either unorderable and links took pweople nowhere because Lulu’s new system changed everything. Months of work gone and the easiest thing to do was close the web site.

I have been with Lulu since 2009 and since the new system there are problems, problems and more problems and the attitude seems to be “So what?” 

I cannot “revise” a project (ie change the binding) because Lulu KNOWS that page is locked. 

With the 6 books I can upload I have to go through the awful cover process that constantly rejects Lulu’s own cover template as well as Pricing which rejects again and again -covers and pricing can take up to 1-2 hours now and it used to take 5-6 minutes.

This means my store loses 21 books BECAUSE I cannot simply change Binding (a binding that Lulu’s system told me I had no choice but to choose).

Does Lulu have my files where I can access them?

Can Lulu not unlock the Binding page?

Changing binding is no problem but going through the whole process from scratch is too much.

The books currently ‘unprintable’ are:

Dr Morg

Back From The Dead

Merriwether God’s Demon Thumper

The Collected Merriwether

Tales of Terror 2, 3 & 4

The Clock

The Phantom Detective

D-Gruppe 4

D-Gruppe Annual

Purple Hood Land of Hope & Glory

Black Tower Adventure 4, 7, 8, 9 & 10

When and if those books -the ones for which files exist- can be republished  has yet to be decided.

Whatever you do never ever choose Lulu.com as a POD. This is how they treat creators who have been with them for morethan a decade through all of their problems.

Please pass the word along

Thank you

Terry Hooper-Scharf

Publishing editor Black Tower Comics & Books

Preparing Comic Bits No. 3

  I can usually go through a number of illoes that I want to use as a Comic Bits cover. With Number 1 I went through (just re-counted) 8 images.  With issue 2 there were 7.

The cover has to be from someone featured within -what we call in the biz "the interviewee". So Terry Bave in this case.

A nice illo is a nice illo when tidied up, however, then comes m,atching thetext and font to the image!

Not sure that I will use this art piece but there are features and interviews so I'll decide at the last minute as usual.

Really, I should have a dedicated cover editor who handles this. In fact, I just hired myself back into the job after I sacked myself. Only three peanuts rather than 4 but eating is eating!

Black Tower Super Heroes No. 7 -OUT NOW!!

 

A4

B&W

60 pages

£6.00

 https://www.lulu.com/en/en/shop/terry-hooper/black-tower-super-heroes-no-7-september-2020/paperback/product-7jdewj.html

The penultimate issue of Black Tower Super Heroes! Next issue is the one leading into The Green Skies!

Featuring Herne the Hunter, Kangy and the Iron warrior!

 The conclusion to The Trial appears to be a verdict of "Death", however, who is the new arrival at the Cosmic Fulcrum and just what is going on?

Also, can any of the magic men help the Druid or is his future looking bleaker by the page?

That's A LOT Of Paper...should I buy a fire extinguisher?

I took this photo of about 7 years worth of art -not all of it as there are still pages in boxes, etc., that I put away before taking this photo!

About 3000 pages (Return of the Gods was 360pp, Green Skies around 500 plus all the other stripwork and books. Pencilled, inked, lettered and then came the pain in the arse of publishing with all the editing.

The box with "Foreign" written on it I think is work I did for India and other countries. I just did not want to double check it all again!

All in A3 plastic document wallets.

How does everyone else store their art?

Are You In The Stats?

Re-posted from CBO

Page views for this month (ie the last 4 days!) are quite interesting. What would be even more interesting is if 1% of those doing the viewing bought a book from the Black Tower store or even helped support the blog,.

Anyway, since the Peoples Republic of China stopped access to many sites, the new big viewing crowd tends to be the United States and Russia.

Page views by Countries

1251255,0175,017

Entry	Pageviews
United States	5017
Russia	3008
United Kingdom	1357
Germany	547
France	359
Romania	242
United Arab Emirates	158
Canada	131
Japan	127
Portugal	125

Bit weird that Ukraine isn't showing up in these stats since normally it rivals or saome times exceeds views from Russia.  Yes, the UK has had a sudden spurt of interest in the blog.  Germany and France are always in the top ten daily visiting countries. Japan there was been a surge of views from -sorry, I've been listening and reading German again: there have been a surge of views from Japan lately, too.

You'll also notice Portugal and Romania providing views. One country I have noticed more and more in stats is the United Arab Emirates.  Canada I feel always adds a fair balance!  😃

It's always interesting to see how views by countries varies over the blogs. After shutting all but this one and Black Tower Comics & Books there is only one blog I can compare views with...have you guessed which one yet?

Black Tower Comics & Books (1-4 Sept)

Pageviews by Countries

22180180

Entry	Pageviews
United States	180
Germany	35
United Kingdom	24
Portugal	18
France	7
United Arab Emirates	5
Argentina	3
Peru	3
Singapore	3
Poland	2

Interesting. Russia has appeared in the views list before but as this covers just 4 days it's possible there have not been enough views to count. Blogger has a very odd system because I know that there are views from Australia and New Zealand but we see Australia rarely and New Zealand, I think, once. 

I ought to point out that Blogger's owners, Google, do not like any operating system or platforms that it does not own. Google can create problems for other systems and their name interest is money-making not making the world a freer place.  So politics also kick in. But I went into all of this several years ago and it is all quite open a 'secret' so why bore again?

There were regular views from Hong Kong and I believe there were some last week. Singapore seems to be remaining a constant source of views.

But what does this all mean? Let's have a look at CBOs all-time views which will be constantly changing -the UK was never ever in the top 5 before (buy some books!):

Page views by Countries

15,69815,6981,384,7301,384,730

Entry	Pageviews
United States	2384730
China	2128635
United Kingdom	224705
Russia	1180245
France	173512
Ukraine	1127615
Germany	92818
Poland	21844
Bulgaria	18309
Canada	15698

See? Ukraine. Which means I was right: just not many views from there in the past few days. Now compare them to BTC&Bs all time blog views.

Page views by Countries

62962921,89221,892

Entry	Pageviews
United States	21892
Russia	4740
United Kingdom	3175
Germany	2431
France	2062
Unknown Region	1204
Ukraine	1174
Romania	723
United Arab Emirates	684
Canada	629

First thing I notice, and since I normally don't check stats  this surprises me, the new BTC&B blog was re-launched this year there have been a total of 50, 246 views. Again, 1% of them buying books and I'd be reasonably happy! 

"Unknown Region" is a place Google does not recognise....People's Republic of China. 

Since CBO does not get involved in politics and there is no "sexual content" -CBO caters for a universal audience- it is seen as a "safe" blog. Hence CBO gets a truly global audience which, obviously, does get certain cliques very angry (jealous). There is a zero tolerance toward buillying or general nastyness when it comes to comments. You can comment freely and not worry about it.

One thing I note is that the CBO All Time total figures are odd. The Highest number of views should be first but only some are.  Also, there appear to be two sets of Blogger viewing stats -I only discovered that 5-6 years ago. What you see above are the views by countries breakdown but the secondary stats are displayed without a country-by-country break up. This may be why Australia and New Zealand do not appear yet they have provided more views than some of the lower placed countries. The other figure shows CBO view just under 8 million.

As I noted before, I dropped "The UK's" from the Black Tower banner for the simple reason that it did not reflect the audience out there.  And the good thing is, that because of Print On Demand, anyone in any place in the world can order books and have them printed in their own region so all prices/postal charges are local.

I'll make a deal with you: 2% of the current CBO readership buys a Black Tower book -even the lowest priced ones,- CBO will continue into 2021.

To the global CBO readership -and those who visit the BTC&B blog -thank you for dropping by but please consider visiting the Black Tower online store! Thank you.

D-GRUPPE THE ZEIT GEIST SAGA

A4

B&W

163 pp

£10.00

https://www.lulu.com/en/en/shop/terry-hooper-scharf/d-gruppe-the-zeit-geist-saga/paperback/product-19zjz8gv.html

Germanys first super heroes have fumbled along since the “Externsteine Event” One day something crashes into forestry followed by a “white out” event and the appearance of the Pied Piper of Hameln and then the appearance Frederick Barbarossa seemingly out of history at D-Gruppe headquarters and his calling them into action. 

At the Place of the Gods, D-Gruppe meets heroes from other German parallels –all targeted and some destroyed by a seemingly all powerful being known as “Zeitgeist” and the race is on to find and stop “It” But there is a traitor amongst the heroes. 

They were Germanys first. Germanys best heroes. But will they live long enough to succeed in their task? 

This book collects together the first adventure of D-Gruppe –Revenge Of The Ice Queen– along with the three part Zeitgeist saga and the 2012 annual that concluded the German super hero epic— plus other features! Art by Ben R. Dilworth and Art/Stories by Terry Hooper-Scharf

Yes, 2021 Will Be The Year of D-Gruppe (If I survive)

Yesterday, I came across one of the rough pages for the D-Gruppe: Lost In Space comic. The date stamp reads 2011. Wow. Nine years ago. That is how far back I am on the work. I was going for a 1970s Space 1999 feel (the first series not 2nd!)

I know what the story is now and how the team will get back to Earth. There are lots of ramifications when Klaus Von Happe (aka Kopfmann) the person who set up D-Gruppe sees what has been going on. 

There was the short Narri Narro strip in which the team encounters a witch in Lemgo.  That will need to be changed and adapted.

The Days of Terror storyline has been waiting since 1987. The fella at Bastei Verlag loved D-Gruppe and what might have been -Days of Terror would have been a comic album or, at best, a trade.

I have two projects that I need to finish, as noted before, I think that, barring any paying publisher wanting to employ me (so we're safe), 2021 will be the year I concentrate solely on D-Gruppe. The team has been with me a very long time so I want to go out having left something more substantial to make them remembered

Sad to think that the D-Gruppe animated series fell at the last hurdle. Back in 1998 I was talking to a

German animator and it was all fun and buddy-buddy and lots of roughs for the project.  Then came: "Oh, you'll need to sign over character copyright in caseany merchandise comes out of this". My response involved a word beginning with "f" and the word"off".  I knew the studio had talked to merchandising companies and also a toy maker and I saw -it came to me by, ahem, accident- the material they were sending out which bigged up D-Gruppe as the big commercial project for 2000 (animation etc takes alot of time).  

So I lost The Paranormals animated series (as previously noted) and D-Gruppe in thesame time frame all because I would not give up full copyright to my characters. Did a lot of 54mm toy figure designs for both.

All of that plus working 'for' Fantagraphics and being ripped off for £5000 (payments) by a Fleetway/Egmont editor who suddenly left the company...should have put me off but I really am stupid.  :-/

The question arises: in the German language or English? Well, my German is not good enough to do a quality translation (there have been more than a few bad translations thrown at German comic fans in the past!) and as there is no paying publisher I think we will find these are going to be English language projects

Black and white. I would love it to all be in colour but the time and expense involved is too prohibitive and a colour book wouldtake until 2022 to complete and I don't have a lot of  years to waste anymore! :-)

So, current projects to finish and then 2021: The Year ofD-Gruppe!

All of this is "comic book reality" so before you leap in....THINK!

This is a situation that a publisher should not be put in. My Print On Demand company tells me all sorts of things and I have to make all sorts of legal threats because all the problems are on their side of things.

I much prefer "Terry nice guy" to "Mr Bastard" the publisher but when you are told it is all your fault and you upload a new file to be less awkward and then that file gets rejected you have to get awkward.

Let me tell you a story: over 10 years ago I opened a store with an Indian POD company, Pothi. One day I made a mistake and I put two pages into the PDF (which is why I triple and quadruple EVERY page). Othi told me about this mistake and I apologised and said I woulds upload a new file. "No need" I was told. You see, a little Indian company over 10 years ago did what an allegedly slick BIG US company cannot do in 2020.  It took Pothi less than a minute to adjust the file.

After trying to blame ME again -apparently page 95 was not the right size, which is a downright lie or else it could never have been printed at all since 2013- my POD then "adjusted" the file and it was "correct". What they did was what Pothi did over 10 years ago.

It has taken an hour to do (because the POD system was VERY slow. Iam still, one hour later, waiting for the book to appear on the store front.  When it does The Complete D-Gruppe will be back on sale.

Before anyone complaints about the new £10.00 cover price: its 163 pp and you get all of the D-Gruppe material in it which saves you a lot of money -more-or-less all the books for the price of two. Here is how the POD decides on pricing -they want their share and the printers definitely want theirs so you cannot price below the bare minimum. Top tier below is the sale price while the second tier shows minimum print cost. Basically, out of the £10.00 I make £2.79.

List Price
USD          EUR        AUD       GBP      CAD
12.98        12.82        19.65      10.00     17.41

Print Cost

7.40          7.14         14.73        7.21       11.15

Profit

5.58         5.68          4.92         2.79        6.26

The POD Share varies, obviously.  Also, anything sold in the US means even that small amount gets taxed -though I get no benefits from the US Tax system!

People see none of this messing about because they should not see it. I only highlight this because it warns any budding publishers out there that just having your book complete does not mean things will run smoothly. I've already lost sales because of the POD and my book. Will those original buyers order again? Statistics are against it.

People also see the cover prices and think I am "raking in money" -not how it works. A book can take months to draw and letter and then a week or so to go through the cleaning up, source file making and PDF upload. I'm not being paid while I do all that work -mummy and daddy are not supporting me (both are dead and would be in their 80s if alive!) and there is no "independent financial support". What I get back from a sale will not even buy me a drawing pad. Bear that in mind.

And I have nothing to do with postal charges! The online store offers different tiers of postage/service so unlike Ebay sellers I am not making profit from 'postage chargers'.

If I sold (I wish!) 20 copies of the D-Gruppe book that would makeme £55.80.  Yes, just £55.80 which is not a lot for all of the work. As a scripter with Fleetway/Egmont I could earn £35.00 for each printed (in comic strip) script.  At the time an artist could earn £130-£200+ per page. If a lot of books on the storefront sold then,yeah, it all starts adding up. But they don't.

All of this is "comic book reality" so before you leap in....THINK!

Wir feiern 50 Jahre Deutschlands Premier Super Helden Team -D-Group

Last year, 2019 (as though we could forget it is currently 2020!!), saw 50 years since I created the German super hero team D-Gruppe while living in Dalborn (between Lemgo and Detmold), Westphalia.  I was reminded that I created Deutsche Michael after seeing an antique recruitment poster in Detmold.  In England we have John Bull as representing the typical Englishman and Der Deutsche Michel ("Michael the German") is a figure representing the national character of the German people.

Friedrich Reusch's "Der Deutsche Michel" erected in 1924 but destroyed during the 1939-1945 "Misunderstandings".

I had intended to do a 50th anniversary special or event. Things got in the way. Although the team feature in The Trial in Black Tower Super Heroes some of the members plus others apprear in The Green Skies. The head of D-Gruppe, Kalus Von Happe aka Kopfmann, along with other members vanished while chasing a UFO in the pages of Return of the Gods. And D-Gruppe: Lost In Space should have been finished about five years ago! There are some rough pages so its something I want to complete in 2020.

The predicted "Days of Darkness"/"Days of Terror" has also to be dealt with and there are hints in Part 3 of Green Skies to it beginning.

If I can finish off the projects I currently have I may well devote all of 2021 to D-Gruppe only. Having a German (paying) publisher would be nice but what the heck! Earning some money might be nice before I die 😂😂😂😂

I will keep you all updated on anything happening.

I need a new POD

Having to retire a book because of the Print on Demand (POD) company and its pown incompetence is not good. I have been with Lulu.com since 2009 and the problems come in waves. Books with source files that are the correct format/size rejected, covers with the newer system being rejected and to be honest the 5 minute process of cover creation with the old system now takes 2-3 hours because the company rejects its own standard size cover templates.

Readers do not and should not be affected by this -I'm the one gets all the stress!

With the current POD you upload and publish your files onto a free online store. That's it. Once ordered a copy is printed and shipped out. The POD takes its cut (which it does not deserve in this case) and the printer theirs. Simple. Or it should be.

I started with the current POD in 2009 and to be honest if anyone out there knows a POD offering the same deal I wou;ld be seriously looking at it so if you do know of one let me know, please!