I want to finish off Comic Bits 3 (almost completed) so that it will be a double February release.
As noted previously I will be reprinting the full strip which I believe was a one off, of a long forgotten early Silver Age British super hero. No hints or clues -all will be reviewed in CB 3!
The lettering then needs to start on the Parallel Motions story for BTSH 2 and I am hoping that will appear in March.
After that a lot of strip work to finish for summer release,
So fingers crossed kiddoes
A4
B&W
52pp
£8.00
1951 at the start of the UK Silver Age of comics appeared Electroman!
Then he vanished to become a legend.
After 70 years he is back -Dan Watkins a criminal wrongly accused of murder and given the electric chair by the State.
But then...Dan did not die. He was a reformed person and what is more he had a double existence as newspaper boy Dan Watkins and righter of wrongs - Electroman!
This collection contains:
The Birth of Electroman
The Treasure of El Chimborazo
The Million Dollar Robbery
3 Ring Circus
Electroman and Tim meet Benjamin Franklyn
The Great Train Robbery
plus - Electro Girl Battles the Gremlins' Pot-War Plot
After a few days of set back I can report that I am now up to page 71 of lettering on the next book which means it will be out in February along with Comic Bits 3
It can take a while but I get there.
Below the unfinished CB3 cover
A4
B&W
208pp
£16.45
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?
A4
B&W
126pp
£15.33
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
124pp
£15.34
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
18pp
£7.00
He rode the Wild West dispensing two gun justice and wore a mask. Driven by the need to exact justice and bring law to the West, the Masked Marshal had no idea the cost he would eventually pay.
In this comic the Marshal is joined by other popular Black Tower characters such as The Iron Warrior, The Clock, The Owl and the Purple Hood.
Dilworth, Stransky and Labatt producing more action and fun
With these pages I wrote notes on separate sheets attached to the art pages. Those notes I put aside while I scanned and tidied up art. I have no idea what happened to them.
Which means I had to make up all the dialogue while sticking to the story and luckily this meant I could add dialogue which was better than in the original.
Gradually getting there and fingers crossed nothing else happens.
For those interested.....
So exhausted Terry is now off for a painkiller gargle!
See if I can do more pages tomorrow.
Five more pages lettered and edited today...well, six pages as one plus its source file vanished! Some might scream...I just got on with it!
If things hold up like this the book (you know that werewolf one) should be out by February.
"The lawsuit, which also named Stability AI and Midjourney as defendants, alleged that the companies misused copyrighted works to train generative AI models without consent or compensation"
Still open apparently but when I looked around I found that I had a lot of pushes from DeviantArt to create better or "dream art" by using AI. My stance has always been that if you do AI art for fun -no problem. But if you produce it to put real artists out of work -no.
I could produce cover after cover using AI and it would save me the time and effort but 😡that!
The problem is that the majority of DC and Marvel as well as Image etc artists all work on computers so produce digital art. There is no pencil, pen/brush or paper involved and even lettering put humans out of business a long time ago -people who were skilled. Yes, I DO use a very basic program to do my lettering because my hands are not in a state to do the work. Moebius once4 told me that the artist must letter their own work as it is part of the process. I showed him my own lettering and he nodded and smiled. An ant stepping in ink and lettering for me would make it more legible. If I used scripts and had the money I'd pay a letterer. Big companies can afford to pay skilled letterers.
Colouring art is also carried out using a digital process -no brush, ink or paint and we can all issue a big "sigh" if we want.
"NO AI!" declares Marvel, DC, etc. Uh, that is very double standard. If you cannot produce art by AI on your computer then you should NOT be having creators use a computer to draw, colour or letter. It's all being a little virtue signalling and hypocritical but then this is comics and companies are as crooked now as they ever were and if they could get away with using AI art to make comics and therefore not pay real artists they would. It just needs the right pushing point and it will happen.
So do I do what many -many- creators have done and walk away from DeviantArt? I have invested a lot of years, time and energy and endured all of the changes and technical problems to just close down the account which, I ought to add, in 20 years has brought me only one offer of work (my "chance" to draw a 150pp graphic novel for nothing).
Oh, babies: I have a dream team of US Golden Age characters and story ideas (I got rid of scripts years ago) that I submitted to Marvel, DC, Image, ONI, etc etc).
As for a British team...oh come on. I have a Platinum, Golden and Silver ages British teams -as in Cross Earths Caper and The Society for the Suppression of Criminal Activity with characters from the early 1900s and, yes, I have had loose alliances between characters from the Penny Bloods/Penny Dreadfuls.
How many will appear in future? Who knows because I already have too many projects that will never be drawn.
But oh those obscure and forgotten characters...all bouncing about in my head.
Once again the library of the Black Tower is opened and its files delved into. Robert Lovett -back from the dead for vengeance?
A mysterious case of two men falling into a strange dimension -the Black Abyss! The Living dead!.jpg)
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From robotic alien invaders dealing with ancient barbarians (or barbarians dealing with them),
Dene Vernon Ghost Investigator,
The Iron Boy (seriously),
Cast Iron Chris,
Ingy Roob,
Bring 'em Back Hank,
Devil Fish Treasure,
The Iron Warrior and much more. It's special -there you go!
Cover by Richard Anthony Pester
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