Black Tower: Come On Steve!

 

A4
B&W
32pp
£6.00
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Steve The Horse the creation of Roland Davies was a hugely popular newspaper comic stripin the UK and the Steve movies of the 1930s had an international audience. 

Learn how Davies got started in animation and comic strips as well as more about his career as a fine artist. 

And, of course, see some of the Steve strips reprinted and Ben R. Dilworth's modern take on the innocent character!

Black Tower: Dene Vernon -Ghost and Mystery Detective

 

A4
B&W
24pp
£7.00
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After more than 70 years John McCail's ghost and mystery detective, Dene Vernon is back. 

In this Classic Comic Fun reprint four of Vernon's terrifying cases -The Burning Heart! -The Terror of Steinlitz Castle! -The Evil From The East! and The Silent Pool Mystery.

Black Tower: Hurricane Hurry -The Stranger On A Horse

 

A4

B&W

20pp

Price: £7.00 (excl. VAT)

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Hurricane Hurry is seemingly always at the right place and right time to come across bush-whacking skunks, low down varmints and plain old killers.

Under cover U.S. Marshall or Pinkerton Man? Or just a stranger on a horse "moving along"?
William A. Wards Western hero slaps-irons and uses his fists to deals out some Wild West justice.

Reprinting strips not seen in 60-70 years.

Black Tower -The Ultimate British Comics Gold Collection

 

A4
Paperback
B&W
405 pages

Price: £25.00 (excl. VAT)Prints in 3-5 business days

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Combining volumes 1-6 (still available as individual issues but that works out far more expensive) of the BT Golden Age British Comics Collections (minus adverts) this is the ultimate for any Golden Age collector or historian or just plain comic lover.

Features....

Ace Hart

TNT Tom

Electrogirl 

Wonderman 

The Phantom Raider

Captain Comet 

Acro Maid

Phantom Maid

Dene Vernon

The Iron Boy

The Boy Fish

Professor Atom

The Tornado

Powerman

Wonder Boy

Slicksure

Masterman 

Dane Jerrus

Alfie

Tiny Tod

Maxwell The Mighty 

Back From The Dead

Zeno At The Earth's Core

Colonel Mastiff

Ally Sloper

Super Injun

Super Porker  (oo-er, no, Madam, ooh),

Tiger Man

King Of The Clouds

Captain Comet 

and MANY others!

Plus text features defining The Ages OF British Comics (Platignum, Gold, Silver), the artist William A. Ward and more.

If you knew nothing about British comics of the Platinum, Golden and Silver Ages then once you buy and read this book you'll be a goddam omic intellectual dinosaur! Yipes!

All in that beautiful Iron Warrior cover exclusively drawn for Black Tower by that meta-gargantuoso talented Ben R. Dilworth!

I sold my family to be able to get this book out! Help me buy them back by purchasing your very own 

whizz-o copy today!

Black Tower Gold Volume 6

 

A4
Paperback
B&W
35 pages

Price: £8.00 (excl. VAT)Prints in 3-5 business days

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Yes! Now at issue 6 and bringing you more lost strips of the British Golden Age of Comics.There's a collection of strips featuring non other than TNT Tom and one of the weirdest UKGA characters -the Iron Boy.

Ever heard of Ingy Roob? Or his pet "Stretchy"? You will have if you read this issue.How about Dennis M. Readers Cat Girl?

Two other UK comics are reprinted in full, both from 1946 and the only issues ever published:Lucky Dice and The Fudge.

Black Tower -keeping UK comics history alive!

Black Tower Gold Volume 5 -Back From The Dead

 

A4

Paperback

B&W

68pp

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William McCail’s 1940 classic is reprinted for the first time in 60 years.

If you are into British Golden Age comics or early comics in general this is for you.

Robert Lovett rises from the dead and finds he has some startling powers: deaths follow, as does a Scotland Yard detective determined to track down the mysterious killer!

Black Tower Gold Volume 4

 

A4
Paperback
B&W
86 pages

Price: £8.00 (excl. VAT)Prints in 3-5 business days

http://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper-scharf/uk-gold-collection-4/paperback/product-12184087.html

The fourth volume of this series features some great finds of the lost era of British comics:

Ace Hart The Atom Man, Captain Comet -Space Ranger TNT Tom, Clive Lynn -Space Reporter, Superstooge", The White Gorilla", Atomic Tuffy, Cast Iron Chris, Sigord and many others!

Black Tower Gold volume 3

 

A4
Paperback
B&W
68 pages

Price: £8.00 (excl. VAT)Prints in 3-5 business days

http://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper-scharf/black-tower-british-gold-collection-3/paperback/product-12183586.html

This is the third volume in Black Tower Comics’ collection of Golden Age British comic strips that have not seen print for 50-60 years!

Included in this volume is a bumper crop of Ace Hart:The Atom Man strips and an article on the character.

A complete 1949 comic in Smugglers Creek; Denis Gifford’s Search For The Secret City and science fiction legend Bryan Berry’s rendition of Kid Carter -Teenage Tec! A must for all comic collectors and historians.

Black Tower Gold Volume 2

 

A4
Paperback
B&W

Price: £8.00 (excl. VAT)Prints in 3-5 business days

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The second collection of British 1940s comic strips featuring Maxwell The Mighty, Slicksure, Iron Boy,Alfie, Ace Hart and more.

Featuring the work of Golden Age Greats Alf Farningham and Harry Banger.

Specifically designed to feature more humour than the previous volume this should be a treat for all comic collectors. Reprinting the full content of The Meteor and The Rocket Comics from 1948.

Black Tower Gold volume 1

 

A4

B&W

94 pages

Price: £8.00 (excl. VAT)Prints in 3-5 business days

http://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper-scharf/black-tower-british-gold-collection-1/paperback/product-12183527.html

For the first time in 60 years some of the lost gems of the British Golden Age of Comics are reprinted!

Scanned and cleaned to the best standard possible -see The Phantom Raider, Ace Hart, Secrets Of The Super Sargasso Sea, Phantom Maid, Electrogirl, Skybolt Kid, Wonder Boy, Dene Vernon, Professor Atom and many, many others!

Its fun and action all the way -The British Golden Age shines through!

Golden Age Reprints -No, It Is NOT Making Me Rich!

 

There seems to be a belief in certain very small circles that I make money out of the British Golden Age reprints.  Let me set the record straight (again). 

There is only a small amount of interest in British Platinum, Golden and Silver ages comics. As two You Tubers in the US pointed out in videos I watched last night: "Old don't mean they are worth a lot of money.; There is limited interest."  There is this online inspire money grab craze going on where a comic dated 1989 is "vintage"/"rare" but I was involved in comics and looked into comic production and the books would only be rare if many thousands of other copies were all suddenly destroyed. The same applies to toys -Ebayers and dealers are literally making a very (VERY) profitable living buying things cheap at car boot sales or charity shops then adding £20-40 on top to sell (Americans £20-40 would $26-53). 

I bought a lot of vintage annuals/albums and comics and have never spent over £10 ($13). That written I can still state that the books I have are worth a few thousand BUT no one wants to buy at a reasonable price but then, I am not intending getting rid of them.  I now see these annuals with price tags of £20-100 (which is ludicrous).

I have the books and then I decide what needs to be scanned and put into the next album or book. Cleaning and resizing scans takes a long time and even the print on Demand uploading and publishing can be a pain and one 48 pages album can take a couple weeks of daily work and then I price as low as I can (the POD company and printers take a big cut and as the POD company is in the US I get hit with US taxes and when the exchange rate is favourable to the POD!).

Basically, the books are "giveaways" as I am lucky to get £4-5 ($5-6 dollars back, usually less.) -you need to sell 50+ books to get some money back and even then it is not compensation for all the time and effort. The Golden age books are a "vanity project"/work of love to save characters, publishers and even creators from obscurity and I have been doing that since 1984.   It sounds weird but I open up an old comic or annual and turn a page and -there is a character I have never heard of or even a chance purchase and I find the origin of TNT Tom which I will tell you now I NEVER ever expected to see! Apparently I was flapping around like a real weirdo all day!

No money making (I am not against that!) but it's a bit of a passion so as long as I keep finding the old strips I will keep making sure they do not fade into obscurity!

I Never Give Up Asking -Looking for Scans of Grail Comics

 

Now take a look at those stats -over 73,000 views. Now take a look at the countries visiting this blog dedicated to the British Golden Age:

United States

20.1K

Singapore

10.2K

Hong Kong

5.56K

Russia

5.43K

United Kingdom

5.39K

Germany

2.62K

France

2.41K

Ukraine

1.53K

China

1.35K

Brazil

1.23K

Vietnam

1.1K

Israel

1.07K

Canada

774

Netherlands

655

Austria

503

Ireland

495

South Korea

476

India

445

Italy

393

Other

10.7K

Now you might assume (I always do and I think that is a mistake) that someone reading this blog must have copies or at least scans of the books I have been looking for since...the 1980s!!

PLEASE if you can help with scans of any of the items mentioned below let me know at hoopercomicsuk@yahoo.com -subject "Vintage Comics" or you might go into spam. And here is the usual appeal.

________________________________________________

 I have found two collectors who have these comics as well as the Krakos the Egyptian collection. They have stated that although they have scanned the books that is for private use and they do not intend to share.  I ought to point out that scans being published DO NOT undermine the value of the actual printed original because those will always be wanted.  The truth is UK Golden Age comics do not command a high price and where they are offered at high prices they do not sell.

So.....

I was asked by someone what my "grails" were. I gathered he meant what books I'd like to get hold of.

Obviously William A. Ward's The Bat the strip or the alleged collected edition.

The list used to be on the Yahoo groups but I have filled in a lot of "want to see/haves" since then -full Iron Warrior and Krakos strips (I would love to see Krakos' first appearance). Mars Man, Moon Man in Zip Bang.

Sad though I might be I would dearly love to put faces to the creators -the McCails, Len Fullerton, Alf Farningham, William A Ward and so on. That I have found images of some original Penny Dreadful authors is perplexing since we have portraits or even sketch portraits but no photos of people who are more modern era -John Spencer (Samuel Assael), Gerald Swan and so on.

For me just finding a new character or even the odd photo tends to be a boost.

Of course if anyone out there has any of these things -get in touch!

Denis Gifford And The Birth Of The British Super Hero

 

I have written a number of times about one of the Founding Fathers of British comic book history, Denis Gifford (the other Founding Father is, of course, Alan Clark).

Denis worked on many comics as a scripter or artist -or both.  He also created many comic book characters. He should also be credited as being creator of the first British super heroes.

The first of these, of course, was Mr. Muscle (no, not that advertising character from TV). Mike O'Leary stumbles across a body in a dark alley -the man speaks:"Quick! Car BOL 1570 ohhhh!"  The man is dead. Mike sheds his every day clothes to reveal "the famous uniform of Mr. Muscle!"   it doesn't take the costumed hero long to track down the Japanese saboteurs in "The Invasion Plans"

"Britain's Superman" was the work of a seventeen years old Gifford in 1945 and appeared in a tuppeny (2d or two pennies) eight-pager titled Dynamic Comics.

"Mike O'leary drinks the essence of strength" is something I have read.  This is odd since when I asked Denis his response was "No origin. He just appeared and went into action!"   That was the norm in those days  It was produce an action story.  No time for long convoluted explanations.  Unless Denis forgot (!) I think this is a mistake on someone's part.  I know Denis had a copy of the comic but he never ever let anyone borrow or take anything away to copy.

The intention had been that this was "Britain's Superman"!

In 1947 appeared Streamline Comics.  The hero was...guess? Streamline who was billed as "The Fastest Man Alive!".  The first of the four issues was drawn by AC1 (Air craftsman 1) Denis over a weekend as a Duty Clerk in the Royal Air Force.

Denis designed the costume and gave scientist Keenan King an origin: he injected himself with Elixir-X and became a speedster.  "The first thing to do is to get a skin-tight uniform" says Keenan.  What else?

The character was a collaboration between Denis and Bob Monkhouse (creator of The Tornado and Pat Peril).  Issues 2-4 were drawn, badly compared to Gifford's work, by Bryan Berry who was to go on to become a top Sci Fi auther.

 Below: some sources (who have NOT done their work) claim Berry "drew the cover to #4"  whereas he was the artist of interior art as well.

 Cardal Publishing is said to have gone out of business due to court cases over the "erotic" books they published -UK obscenity laws were very draconian at the time and even saw "saucy seaside" postcard artists such as Donald McGill prosecuted.  In fact, Denis very strongly hinted at the publisher being "very shady" and taking the money and running.  That does seem far more likely!

In 1949 appeared issue number 1 of Ray Regan. Regan was a hard nosed 'tec and you'll notice from the cover the banner reads: Ray Regan -Also Tiger Man!  I used to have a full colour image of this but everything saved to 3 inch floppy disk was lost back in the 1990s!  Still better than nothing.  Find a scan anywhere else if you can (if you do please let me know!).

 Denis Ray, an American comic fan sent me scans of the Tiger Man strip and I thank him!  I should have asked for a cover scan!

Basically, the origin of "The mightiest man of action"  goes as follows.  Phil Britton and Professor Beauclerc are in deepest, darkest Africa when Britton is attacked by a sabre-toothed tiger.  Yes, a tiger.  Go with the flow.  The tiger dies and Britton develops great strength.  The Prof. not really qualified in my opinion, believes to tiger died after its power flowed through its sabre teeth into Britton.   Hey -Timely (Marvel) Comics character The Whizzer got his powers after a "transfusion of mongoose blood"  Go figure.

There seem to have been a few tigers in deepest and darkest Africa according to UK comics.  And, yes, I came up with an explanation linking them all.  But that's another matter.

Britton is shown in tiger-skin pants (yewch!) so the assumption is that he was to be one more jungle lord (there was one every 5 square miles back in the day).  But when I asked Denis about this I was told that had there been a second issue, Britton would have been back in the UK in a Tiger Man costume that Monkhouse had sketched out.

That was it.

Denis was quite happy to see his characters get a new lease of life and thought Mr. Muscle and Streamline running around after Robert Lovett (Back From The Dead) was "a hoot!"

Now there were heroic characters before these three -but they all conformed to the British norm for powered action heroes: civviy- clothes.  TNT Tom is a prime example.

Dennis M. Reader was to later bring forth more costumed characters but Gifford was first in 1945.

Today all of this seems to have been forgotten.  After all, if it isn't in full colour or after 1998 and Marvel or DC it doesn't seem to matter.  But let's give credit where it is due!