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What Future Black

In the 1980s I published BlackTower Comics Previews which went to DC,Marvel and many other comics and a lot of new talent from the title were recruited by companies. There was Black Tower Comics Adventures [1984-],

In 2000-2002 I published about six titles. To date,shops and at least two Small Press/Independent Comics services have not paid a penny back from their sales. One in particular I have been asking for payment from and return of unsold titles [that I have customners waiting to buy] for three years.  I keep getting promises but nothing. 

Just like in the 1980s,it is the smaller publisher getting ripped off –employing a lawyer would cost more than the books or money owed! I have also been working on comics for the Indian market but something seems to be happening with these publishers and I still haven’t been paid or had a definite publication date.  This all takes up a lot of time [and need I remind everyone I have been quite ill a couple of times in the last year!].  However,THE BAT TRIUMPHANT and other projects including The BlackTower –Tales Of Horror are fully drawn and scheduled for May/June 2008 release.  It was nice to receive a legal threat that carried no weight what-so-ever late last year from IPC legal.  The matter has been dealt with elsewhere at length so I’ll just skim over it here. 

There were deals done and contracts signed for characters under control of Maxwell Pergamon when it controlled Fleetway.  Money and contracts were also exchanged in the 1980s with IPC for what management called “dead,no longer commercially viable characters”–in fact,the Japanese businessman who insisted on handling the negotiations actually purchased two characters he had been in love with as a kid [his parents having been based in the UK] that I’d not even heard of!  Samuel Assael,better known to many as John Spencer,who published a number of black and white comics as an aside to his pulp publications,was another nice man who seemed to have lost any interest in his comics line. With three others the rights to two main characters was purchased –Purple Hood and Mark Tyme [both quickly rushed into BT comics in the mid 1980s to insure interest was kept alive in them and to declare their new ‘home’.  In the late 1970s I was a frequent visitor to what remained of the old Odhams Press and deals were made there.  Thorpe & Porter were publishing black and white horror comics as was Moore Harness;both distributors and by 1980 seriously wanting to off-load its titles such as Ghoul Tales –and were they sold for a bargain price. The 1970s/1980s was a time when banks lent money to small businesses or individuals and a group of three of us found that if each asked their bank for a small loan,combined we had a lot of capitol. But then there was the inevitable snag.  We had purchased characters and much more but the black and white comics market literally exploded then collapsed.  People lost interest but,luckily,washed their hands of purchases without want money because the loans had been paid back. Despite “excellent business plans” banks suddenly were not lending to small businesses –“you seem to know the market,printers and have the knowledge needed;but we don’t know anything about childrens comics” was the response I got again and again.  Only one person was willing to try his hand,Mr Okijodan,the businessman referred to earlier.  Info packs were sent to Comics International,Comics World and many other comic fanzines.  What appeared in print was chopped up nonsense and there seemed to be downright hostility toward new comics that “have no big names attached to them –so investment potential is nil” –the idea of publishing for investment was not our plan! Okijodan purchased a small printing business in the UK that was struggling and titles were to be printed there…until electrical fault burnt it out!  With a business contact in Georgia,and there being no