Question answered I hope!

After the post about German views of the Black Tower blog I was asked how many views come from the UK since, after all, BTCG is UK based.

Here are the stats for this morning

United States	118
Germany	57
Canada	46
Argentina	25
Mexico	17
Ukraine	15
Portugal	12
Russia	12
Unknown Region	11
Brazil	9

I just checked the stats for last week, today (so far) and Now...the United Kingdom does not appear at all and has been absent from stats for some time. I don't think this is down to not knowing about Black Tower -just check Goofle or Internet Explorer with those words. BTCG has been around since 1984 and CBO since the 1990s.  CBO does get views from the UK even if not as many as from Ukraine, Russia or the United States.

Comics just are not appreciated in the UK as they are elsewhere. I remember Germany in the 1980s when I picked up comic albums at the kaufhaus and got weird looks. Now comics seem far more accepted with more items on TV than the UK ever gets.

I am sitting on four boxes of books from the online store as well as comics not available on the store front and no one is interested.

This is why I am looking at 2020 and what I can do, though I am very far from even mild optimism.

Question answered I hope!

Look at the colour of that sky

The Origin of Runestone part 1

The origin of Runestone redrawn from the 1985 story by Ben R Dilworth

Yes! It's 80 page Giant time! The final chapter in Return Of The Gods:Twilight Of The Super Heroes! Thaddeus Twatt faces the Ultimate Crystallid! The Purple Hood versus The flame! Whatever Happened To Mark Tyme? Atomic Tommy! Dr Sorrow! And the origin of Runestone! It's 80 pulse-pounding pages of graphic delineation!
http://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper-scharf/black-tower-adventure-6/paperback/product-16069877.html

Who knows

I've updated things here but from today on things are very gloomy. Posted to CBO but relevant. 

I have put some posts on "auto post" (IF Blogger lets it work this time) and so you will not miss me....as if anyone visiting this blog is going to miss me 😐

Anyway, if I vanish from the internet it will be down to two reasons:

1) the laptop has finally died so...no internet for me (the laptop was a gift a few years back so I AM grateful otherwise there would have been no CBO after 2017)

2) even though (1) is the likeliest explanation I need to sit back and re-assess things. There are no sponsors (despite the number of views this blog receives) and my money is rather non-existent to say the least. At the moment I have tried but no one wants to put up anything to keep CBO going and contributions stand at zero.

I need to plan and see whether it is even possible to save Black Tower Comics and Books (there will NEVER be a "closing down sale" and once it goes so does the online store:There are 90 books on the online store if you ever felt interested (I have many more NOT available online in stock boxes in my room!)). The UK does not support Independent creators or publishers. It is dead.  Europe? 


Who knows but in case this is my last post -have a good Christmas.

Sprechen Sie "Comic"? (don't worry everything is in English!)

An interesting point was made -sadly not on the blog- that I think needs answering.

Noting that I had created Germany's first super heroes while living as a youngster in Germany in the 1960s -Germany's first German super hero team, D-Gruppe was first published in the UK in the mid 1980s and around the same time in a German publication looking at TV, movies, pulps and comics (Watcher Magazine) and had publish/posted on lost German comics history, why I had not attempted to get deeper into the German comics scene?

Right, I have posted on this over at CBO but I knew and exchanged publications with a lot of Germany Smaller Pressers in the 1980s into the early 1990s.  My collection of German Small Press publications is, I am told, "impressive".  Most wanted to promote and publish German creators work -and that is how it should be.  Some of these creators I also promoted in the UK and US.

http://hoopercomicart.blogspot.com/2016/01/and-myth-continues-germany-had-no.html

My involvement with Bastei Verlag has also been covered -they were to originally publish D-Gruppe before they were taken over by Egmont and cancelled everything. Interestingly, the Watcher translation misspelt the name of one of Germany's great historical monuments Externsteine with which the publisher was unfamiliar!

Oh, Lemgo the "Hexenburgerstadt" (Witch town) as well as Hermann's Denkmal have all featured in my stories.

In those days of letter writing and sending bulky packages to each other I found German Small Pressers pleasant and quite funny -these were the less "up-tight"  faction because the arty crowd definitely looked down their noses as us lesser creators.  When it came to the internet things went..."bad".  Do not get me wrong because there were some great people on forums and comic sites but there were also the downright arschlochs.

After my mother died (she was German) my use of the language became almost non-existent so what I used to do was write dual language comments/posts.  First in my rusty German followed by the same but in English.  The nastiness over my German made me less willing to use it but I did get some people who not only defended my posts ("Hey, he is trying at least!") but also supported me by pointing out that I was well known in German Small Press/comics and had contributed to German Samizdat comics taken into East Germany. The nicer people also helped me get scans of rare and expensive German comics so I am always grateful to those genuine comic fans.

Being an old fart I find it difficult to understand why a lot of German comickers know their American comics but few know a lot about German comics history. Maybe it is not so glamorous but when you mention a German creator or publication from the 1930's/1940's people think you are making it up!

If  I look at Comic Bits Online all time stats I see:

United States	1340765
China	1128594
United Kingdom	215802
France	171132
Russia	171027
Ukraine	120382
Germany	87898
Poland	21517
Bulgaria	18125
Romania	13521

Germany and France, more recently the Ukraine, have always provided high views -87, 898 is quite a sizable number.  So what do the stats show for this blog? Well, considering I have not been up-dating this blog as I ought to so views are lower  we find:

United States	17397
Russia	4690
United Kingdom	2314
Germany	1895
France	1833
Ukraine	1053
Unknown Region	972
United Arab Emirates	620
Netherlands	613
Poland	483

Germany is still in fourth place when it comes to views.  So German comic fans visit CBO and this blog -I have no idea about the Face Book page since they do not give that kind of insight.  I even got re-acquainted with some old time zinesters of the 1980s a while back. In other words I do not need to go out of my way to attract German readers.

The idea of translating D-Gruppe into German died a quick death because my German is not up to English-German translating and the language has changed slightly over the decades to which you can add new technical or sci fi/fantasy terms I am not familiar with. "Go full colour!" someone said but I don't think he realised that pushes up the cover price.

I have plenty of German characters featured in D-Gruppe, Return of the Gods and other publications -older and newer German characters are featured in The Green Skies.

I have tried finding paying German publishers but I think my books are seen as being a little "low-brow" and, yes, I have encountered the snooty arty types ever since the 1980s and don't think they only exist in Germany!

As for attending a German comic con -the expense is too high and if I was a trader...higher!

With Yahoo closing the Yahoo Groups down the D-Gruppe/German Comics group is no more after 15 years of work.  But my interest in German comics has not lessened.

EP 667 -The Missing Link by Ben R. Dilworth

The Trial -featuring Germany's First and only super hero group:D-Gruppe

This strip, intended initially for the Fleetway JAG 97 title features a host of heroes and will be serialised in Black Tower Super Heroes 2-7.  Artwork and completed books are on file "pending".