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Wednesday, 1 April 2026

Still Making Progress


 


Went on an all day lettering/page clean up spree yesterday so added more finished pages to The Ultimate Game source file.

One thing about pulling together pages from the 1990s-2025 is how I can totally ignore the original text and make the pages even better and add better dialogue. This is the one thing I find a computer good for since my hands are not capable of lettering.

As with all new projects the pages will be destroyed after the source file is uploaded.


Tuesday, 31 March 2026

The Ultimate Game Progress

 


The Ultimate Game is 180pp in total and as of yesterday 121 of those pages were lettered and cleaned up ready to go into the source file.

All plain sailing until I realised I would soon need to design a cover. But lettering out of the way first!

Monday, 16 March 2026

Alex Ross Finally Addresses Alan Moore's Influence on Kingdom Come

 Oddly, about two years after Return of the Gods: Twilight of the Super Heroes was first published in Black Tower Adventure vol. 2, no. 1 I was asked "is it based on Alan Moore's Twilight of the Gods?" and "That was Alan Moore's comic title".


Well, I do not go onto comic news sites or forums -not since 2000 and no one ever mentioned any of this on those groups.

Anyone who knows me knows that history and mythology is something I have been interested since a kid when I read the 12 Tasks of Hercules and Gilgamesh. The Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology is a bulky and very interesting book -it's where I found an Australian aborigine cave painting of something that looked remarkably like The Iron Warrior!

I had a story about the various ancient pantheons being faced with a threat from ancient old gods. No one seemed to think that would be interesting other than me!  I then thought that I had heroic/super hero characters going back decades and that might help if they were put in the mix.

That original 96 pager became a 360+ pager later!

In this video Ross does not give out much of Moore's plot and to be honest what is related seems to be "typical Moore" -almost a school boy idea of how to be outrageous and shock. I am told the script is online or was. Really I have no interest in it but I would have bought a series or graphic novel out of curiosity. As noted before I have a good few Moore books/series in my collection.

Originally the series title was War of the Gods which was then used by DC Comics. Return of the Gods needed something added to it to give it "oomph!"  I then caught part of a Japanese anime series (I think) in which "Twilight of the Super Heroes" was a subtitle so I thought add that and "Return of the Gods -Twilight of the Super Heroes" summed it all up nicely,



Friday, 13 March 2026

Black Tower Super Heroes The Ultimate Game Update

 


 Black Tower Super Heroes The Ultimate Game
 is 180 pages and I have so far lettered 40 before the eyes said it was too much.  

The good thing is that. like Werewolves, the text pages are gone. Why is that good?  Well, it means that although I can remember a lot of the dialogue I am coming up with new dialogue that helps the story flow much better.  

I am hoping that the book should be finished by the end of March -so long as I don't go blind

Saturday, 7 March 2026

WAKE UP!

 


Well I found out what "slept on" means:

"When a product is described as being "slept on," it means it is undervalued, overlooked, or not getting the attention, popularity, or sales it deserves."

So...WAKE UP!

Oddly someone said to me that two books purchased for £24/$24 was at least £48 in my pocket.  No. Print on demand does not work that way.  As the publisher you do all the work but the POD company "stores" your file so they take a big cut and the printer obviously needs their cut. That £24 sale earned me £250 -you work out who makes the money. Also, even though a UK publisher with items printed outside the USA because the POD company is US based I have to pay US Taxes (but get no benefits from that).

I never understood why no UK based POD company ever set up. Those are the drawbacks so although a customer can order a book in their own currency and it is printed and delivered in their region I still get the short end of the stick and still pay US tax!!

Stick to your own Small Press publishing unless you can get a guaranteed audience and selling in hundreds -the current interest isn't adding to my bank account!

oh...or get a job to pay your bills and eat in the meantime😂

Friday, 6 March 2026

"Specced" and "Slept on" -What??

 



 
Just been Face Book chatting (via the Black Tower Comics and Books page) with someone who put in a largish book order who told me had had been on some comic forums and that discussion centred on "Black Tower being a much slept on company".

I have no idea what "slept on" means!!   Mind you it did take me a while to realised that "Specced on"  meant speculated on re investment.

No one uses clear English any more!