Some of the last things my scanner did before blowing!
FANTASY TRADER 1979
BLITZINE 1975
Thursday 18 April 2024
British (early) Fan Press Publications
FANTASY TRADER 1979
Requiem 1986 -Paul Ashley Brown and Ben R Dilworth
Today was supposed to be my weekend to relax but IO ended up clearing out and looking over old files. I did try relaxing in 1977 but ended being driven in an army land rover at speed over an East German minefield. That won't be in my autobiography. As for the files well you can see over at the AOP blog.
Anyway, splice me a vegetarisan kipper sandwich for lunch iof I did not make a related find! Yesterday I was looking at the back of a Zine Zone and there was the back page ad for Requiem Two and amongst contributors was one Paul Brown. "What did he contribute?" my aged brain asked me...I often have conversations and arguments with myself but I am NOT medicated (unlike my shampoo).
Well out of the cupboard and from behind the skeletal remains fell a copy of the book itself. The zine was edited by Dan Rickwood and Adam Thomas who, last I heard, were doing time at Her Majesty's pleasure over an act of gross indecency with a tadpole.
The whole point of the British Comic Book Archive was not to just focuss on the professional artists, writers and publications but also the Small Pressers who often produced work based on more contemporary life and events. Their contributions to art, etc are just as important as that of H E Pease, Marie Duval, E Banger, John Cooper or Mike Western.
So I opened up the zine and there was Paul Ashley "Smash the state" Brown's contribution. Bang on for the time.
jjjjjjLuckily I guided Paul away from the Crayola crayons and since this piece in 1986 he has made good progress and in another 35 years he should be fine. oooh I can be such a beyotch!
But that issue also contained a strip by Ben Dilworth -published in portrait format so that is the way I present it here. Again, Ben was lucky that I found and guided him into obscurity fame if not fortune.
I may be wrong: prove it.
1980s German Zines
ine Zone International or its Small Press and Independent mail order business, nor of its successor Comic Bits. Even my own existence in British comics is non-existent on the internet. What are termed the "British Comics Mafia" (I used to think that was a joke for a long time) seem to try to delete any mention -I know two people who tried several times to place Wikipedia entries on myself and comics/Small Press but each was deleted after "complaints".
However, what cannot be deleted are items on my work in Amazing Heroes and Comics F/X, I exclude the mention of The Comics Journal as I have never seen the issue so cannot comment. I even wrote a regular page for Comics F/X -"Tel's From The Crypt". But I was not just part of the spear head of the "British Small Press Explosion" into the United States.
I was also very active in writing and communicating with Small Pressers in what was then West Germany and even East Germany where there was an illegal underground exchange of Small Press comics -German and English. See how old I am? My badge of honour is that I was on a list of "persons to be detained and questioned" by the East German VoPos (Volks Polizei)!
Not sure how they might have greeted the lovely cover by American creator Donna Barr who was interviewed in this issue along with Roberta Gregory, Canadian Colin Upton and some Bristol rogue Paul Brown (aka: Paul Ashley Brown)...and some German creators.
In my collection of Small Press publications I have, obviously, a large number from Germany. Heiki Anacher's Plop! Although Heiki later left the zine it was taken over by Andreas Alt. From 3 DM to 3 Euro...hmm.
Now I may be wrong but I'm quite sure that Jo 84 was publishing Spruhende Phantasie while doing his national service in the German Army. He was still around a few years back but not in good health. Hopefully he is better now. Spruhende Phantasie was one of those German zines that it was always a pleasure to receive and look through.
Below is the back page advert from Zine Zone International 13
Another publication that was a joy to receive was Georg K. Berres' Zebra. Below is the Ad sheet that was included with ZZI 13. Interestingly, rather like the bulky Previews Comic (a new talent showcase) I got Forbidden Planet in London to put copies on sale. They sold. And as with Previews Comic the store refused to pay out the sales money. Crooks from top to bottom.
I had thought that Zebra was the first publication I had seen the work of Rudolph Perez and Martin Frei in (both were interviewed in ZZI 13). However, I have a copy of Lippe published by Andreas Anger (1985/86) in which both contribute strips Frei with "Diamanten" and Perez with (still my favourite) "Die Ruckkehr von Jack The Ripper"
Perez is still working in comics but online -I think!- and every link I follow seems to get me nowhere. Now there is modern tech and communication for you!
Below is a Perez cover for Gringo Comics Kurzer Prozess and I think this one is from the early 2000s. I lost contact with a lot of the old Zinesters such as EmdE, Helge "Herod" Korda and so on after one of my numerous address changes-I was keeping one step ahead of the Vopos! :-)
Martin Frei did some work on a comic adaption of the very popular cop/detective show Schimanski that starred the late Götz George who died in 2016 -http://hoopercomicart.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/gotz-george-dead-at-77.html
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Another artist, with a much different style, was Hannes Neubauer. Loved this cover to Zebra nr. 9!
Somewhere....I use the term "somewhere" because this is Room Oblivion and things are in boxes or tucked away in other places for safety...are one or two colour postcards that Hannes sent me with a letter back in the day -we old folk say "back in the day" because we really do not want to think how many years ago it really was!
I will need to try to find them.
Below -I have no idea where I got this from or where it is but that's Hannes signing or drawing and I doubt that it was that long ago.
Trawling the internet to see what I can find I came across this piece. Again I have no idea what from or when but it is lovely to look at!
As for this....I love it!
Of course, Hannes has a book out...I assume that it is still available and I have seen some pages online and it is stylish.
Zebra was always printed on a lovely thick paper and this added to the overall feel of the issues and the printing worked well whether it was Frei's precise line-work or Perez's free style...or even Neubauer's particular style.
Let's look at some of the covers. I know I have others but this post has already taken a few hours with scanning and so forth!
From 1988 I also happen to have the red covered A5 Dummy.That was the brain-child of Joachim Ullmer and while corresponding with him I urged him to copyright the whole crash test dummy idea but he wasn't interested. I hope he never kicked himself a few years later when the crash test dummy toy craze hit!
Creators in Germany were doing the same as creators in the UK -experimenting with formats and genres as well as art styles. A great day for German comics came in 1989 when a certain suave and angry bearded English-German comicker saw his super hero team published in Watcher....oh. That was me! :-P
Tobias Schwarz published a German language music theme comic titled Crash and things were a little complicated as Roland Altermatt was also involved in publishing -he was based in the town of Muttenz (Switzerland) and Tobias was in Krozingen (Germany). I think there was only one issue but based on the international pricing on the cover they hoped for a much larger readership.
Nice back cover advert, too.
This post started out as a look at some issues of Zebra but not all my posts go as planned! I have many German zines and the idea of looking at all of them and the amount of scanning that would be involved (I can find no internet presence for any of these publications) makes me faint.
Now, apart from the zines there are the Independent publishers such as Editions Quasimodo, Zwerchfell Verlag and so on. All catalogues but absolutely not scanned yet and when I last spoke to some German comic folk I was told some of the books I have are very rare and "worth a good few Euro"...I do not have comics to sell, however.
Maybe one day. And if you are one of the artists or zine publishers mentioned then please get in touch as it would be interesting to see what happened since the 1980s!
And if you publish a German comic, fanzine or whatever -send a copy and I'll review it.
hoopercomicsuk@yahoo.com
Tschuss!
Action Figure Reviews?
Why don't you do reviews of action figures instead of posting You Tube videos about them?"
The answer is quite simple; I do not buy things to review and action figures are expensive. I have tried in the past to get companies to send figures for review or to promote but no interest. CBO currently has a world-wide audience and around 3000 views per day -since I moved CBO to Blogger in 2011 there have been over 10 million views.
That apparently, is not what companies are looking for!😂 Like the comics, comic albums and graphic novels I review they are not purchased but sent in by companies/publishers. There is your answer Miguel.
Cinebook Ltd: THE BLUECOATS 17 - THE DRAFT RIOTS
Authors: Lambil & Cauvin
Age: 8 years and up
Size: 21.7 x 28.7 cm
Number of pages: 48 colour pages
ISBN: 9781800441248
£8.99 incl VAT
Publication: January 2024
https://www.cinebook.co.uk/the-bluecoats-17-the-draft-riots-p-4538.html
The Civil War rages on. Despite some much-needed victories, losses have been harrowing on the Union side, and volunteers are getting scarce. That leaves conscription, but it’s an extremely unpopular measure – especially because of the possibility to avoid it by paying a sum of money only the rich can afford. Yet the North has little choice but to maintain it … and this is how, in July 1863 in New York City, simmering resentment turns into bloody rioting – with Blutch and Chesterfield caught in the tragic events.
The one thing I like about The Blue Coats is that it could just have been another American Civil War series but they have chosen to delve into some little known aspects of the conflict -with Blutch and Chesterfield added of course. The Draft Riots may come as a surprise to many because people think a military draft is more modern era when in fact it is quite ancient. I have not seen any films based in this period where there is talk of military draft. In fact most films portray it as a volunteers only fighting for one supposed cause or another. Normal human beings do not really want to kill other human beings -sadly they are not in the majority.
To call the art "cartoony" is a little insulting because although the people are not really cartoony they do have that style used by European artists even in very serious stories. Look at the details in the cover -the buildings and cobblestones are quite detailed. Inside the backgrounds and scenes are equally detailed and it all works well together. The colour work (by Leonardo who I will probably find is a digital service) really adds more to this book. I have seen printings in French as well as the original German (😂) and I have to say Cinebook's is probably the best quality I have seen -no surprise since printing technology has moved on over the last couple decades.
I think that this series is okay for younger and older readers and the books have so far not disappointed.
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