The old Yahoo group focussed on D-Gruppe still exists! I thought that it might have vanished since I set it up in 2005 it was a place where I posted a lot of preliminary artwork and notes and it was set up as people on the Eurocomics group felt the title needed its own group.
Typically, three people joined and that was it!
but I plodded on and, in 2008, I was ready to publish D-Gruppe in its own book. So I thought it worthwhile telling my vast group membership how it all came about:
Chris Dohr had seen D-Gruppe in an East German underground zine and the editor of Plop! at the time, Heike Anacker sent me one of the little zines (now long lost thanks to some thief -along with Herod's "D-Suppe"). When Dohr published the first official story in Watcher I was somewhat shocked: the lettering was quite crude and had spelling mistakes (how could a German miss-spell "Externsteine" as "Extern Steine"...maybe I was being pedantic?).
Of course, my brain-box was literally bursting with ideas, the future twists (such as some members vanishing while pursuing a UFO in Return of the Gods). Had the series continued on from 1987 as it was supposed to then by now the Days of Darkness saga would have been out of the way 5 years ago! Remember that The Trial that would have been in the proposed Egmont Jag 97 is only now finally re-lettered and will appear in (possibly) Black Tower Super Heroes (numbers 1-8 are already completed).
I have never been an egotistical artist -my house has art by others but none of mine on display. Only two artists have been able to make my pencils look good when inked -John P. Britton (no longer working in comics) and Ben Dilworth. My original intention in comics was to be a publisher and infrequent writer not writer, penciller, inker, letterer, editor and publisher! But I rolled my sleeves up and got to work.
There are stories I would like to see finally appear -some do in rough pages- such as the German Narri-Narro festival based story, or D-Gruppe: Lost in Space. Other stories might now be a bit too sensitive for publication. The Seppel & Co. puppets inspired "Puppets of Doom" featured bomb-carrying puppets attacking shopping areas, theatres and other locations. I did put together a less "explosive" story featuring the puppets so who knows.
Some of the rough pages for Narri Narro
Rough pages for D-Gruppe: Lost in Space
Whatever the future holds for D-Gruppe, or even D-Gruppe and Task Force D, I think I need to do something in 2019 because 50 years on from creation seems like an anniversary and 1984-2019 will be the 35th year from the original D-Gruppe story being published anyway!
Stay tuned.
Typically, three people joined and that was it!
but I plodded on and, in 2008, I was ready to publish D-Gruppe in its own book. So I thought it worthwhile telling my vast group membership how it all came about:
"Back in the 1960s,on a farm in Dalborn,near Detmold, Germany, a youngster sat reading comics and wondered why, back in England, there were super heroes in comics but not in Germany.
"When he discovered Wastl he thought "This is it!"
"Only years later did he learn that Wastl was Belgian!
"But the die was cast. The boy drew in exercise books and his German super hero group was created. Only in the 1970s did the now teenager realise he had done nothing with the heroes.
"And only circa 1986/1987 did "D-Gruppe" see print. First in preview form in Zine Zone International and then in Previews Comic. The strip was reprinted in Chris Dohr's WATCHER magazine and even satirised by Helge "Herod" Korda in a mini comic as "D-Suppe" [D-Soup]. From around 1983 D-Gruppe had appeared in underground (illegal) zines in East Germany.
"In 2009 the D-Gruppe series will relaunch starting with the first outing -"Revenge Of The Ice Queen".
Welcome to the Group!"
Terry Hooper Scharf
2nd October,2008
Chris Dohr had seen D-Gruppe in an East German underground zine and the editor of Plop! at the time, Heike Anacker sent me one of the little zines (now long lost thanks to some thief -along with Herod's "D-Suppe"). When Dohr published the first official story in Watcher I was somewhat shocked: the lettering was quite crude and had spelling mistakes (how could a German miss-spell "Externsteine" as "Extern Steine"...maybe I was being pedantic?).
I do not have my notes to hand but, luckily, the cover has the name of the American artist who showed interest in continuing to draw D-Gruppe -Dave Fontaine. Sadly, after a couple of letters...Dave never got back to me.
Dave's style was much different from Ben Dilworth's -Dilworth had inked over my pencils cand done an incredible job- but I could go with that. Dilworth vanished over to Japan, Fontaine...just vanished.
Then another artist "hot to do this project" stepped in, however, rather like Andrew Hope (Fantomax), this new artist wanted to re-write vast swathes of the story and alter characters -Klaus von Happe and his tragic story would be changed to von Happe being the result of a Nazi eugenics experiment. Joachim (Goldener Soldat/Bundes Adler) was like-wise to change to a womanising narcissistic brute. Oh, and that two of the female characters were in a gay relationship -oh no!
The two gay women would no longer be gay. Both would have been "screwed" (yeah, he wasn't subtle) by Joachim and it would all be part of a eugenics project continued by von Happe who was also a racist who saw any race -especially dark-skinned- as inferior in all ways. I said "no". He was so enthralled by the project as an artist then he drew what the script gave him. He decided that he would give me "some time to think it over" because, without his changes, he was unwilling to draw the comic. My response was "No need to think it over. You are out".
Artists suddenly deciding that they were the writers is nothing new. A script I wrote for Egmont/Fleetway in Revolver! I read along with the rest before realising that the artist (in part of his exceptionally brief career) had totally re-written everything and, as I pointed out to the 'editor', the story made no sense now. Comics -you do the work and take the money.
The oddest "artist re-writing" I had was in the 1980s. Two artists from the north of England each had a full four issue series script that was tailored to their styles. Both knew each other. First issue art arrived from #1 and I read it and suddenly realised the artist had sent me the wrong pages so I sent them back. A day later #2s pages arrived -same thing. I thought it was very amateur and unprofessional and who ever wrote their scripts probably had my scripted pages. No. It seems that both decided the stories were great but all the characters needed their names changed and vital scenes that set up future twists were taken out and replaced with their own stories. No, they would not go back to the original scripts so I waved "bye-bye" to them.
So why should D-Gruppe be any different?
the problem was/is that you cannot get an artist to jump into a project as an equal partner and draw who-knows-how-many pages for nothing. I wouldn't be paid either but that doesn't matter. And after dilworth's inks I am sorry to say I could never see any artist who took on the essence of the book.
No one ask why that crowd of German kids appears to contain some very British looking school boys!
Of course, my brain-box was literally bursting with ideas, the future twists (such as some members vanishing while pursuing a UFO in Return of the Gods). Had the series continued on from 1987 as it was supposed to then by now the Days of Darkness saga would have been out of the way 5 years ago! Remember that The Trial that would have been in the proposed Egmont Jag 97 is only now finally re-lettered and will appear in (possibly) Black Tower Super Heroes (numbers 1-8 are already completed).
I have never been an egotistical artist -my house has art by others but none of mine on display. Only two artists have been able to make my pencils look good when inked -John P. Britton (no longer working in comics) and Ben Dilworth. My original intention in comics was to be a publisher and infrequent writer not writer, penciller, inker, letterer, editor and publisher! But I rolled my sleeves up and got to work.
There are stories I would like to see finally appear -some do in rough pages- such as the German Narri-Narro festival based story, or D-Gruppe: Lost in Space. Other stories might now be a bit too sensitive for publication. The Seppel & Co. puppets inspired "Puppets of Doom" featured bomb-carrying puppets attacking shopping areas, theatres and other locations. I did put together a less "explosive" story featuring the puppets so who knows.
Some of the rough pages for Narri Narro
Rough pages for D-Gruppe: Lost in Space
Whatever the future holds for D-Gruppe, or even D-Gruppe and Task Force D, I think I need to do something in 2019 because 50 years on from creation seems like an anniversary and 1984-2019 will be the 35th year from the original D-Gruppe story being published anyway!
Stay tuned.
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