Time To Re-invigorate?

 The blog I mean. 

A lot needs updating so expect to see some posts soon.

Black Tower Gold

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!

Some  of what is in volume 1!

Please visit the online storehttp://www.lulu.com/spotlight/hoopercomicsuk?searchTerms=black+tower+gold+

Or if you prefer one great big dose collecting all of the above:

The Ultimate British Comics Gold Collection

 

Ed. Terry Hooper-ScharfA4405 pagesBlack & WhitePrice: £25.00Ships in 3-5 business days. http://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper-scharf/the-ultimate-british-comics-gold-collection/paperback/product-22041282.html

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 HartTNT TomElectrogirl Wonderman The Phantom RaiderCaptain Comet Acro MaidPhantom MaidDene VernonThe Iron BoyThe Boy FishProfessor AtomThe TornadoPowermanWonder BoySlicksureMasterman Dane JerrusAlfieTiny TodMaxwell The Mighty Back From The DeadZeno At The Earth's CoreColonel MastiffAlly SloperSuper InjunSuper Porker  (oo-er, no, Madam, ooh),Tiger ManKing Of The CloudsCaptain 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!

UK The Annual Legal Notice

The Annual Legal Notice

 This Is From HM Intellectual Properties Office THE official last word in such matters. I do hope that a certain trouble making little nark takes note.  IPC and Egmont tell me that they agree with this and stand by the legislation.

So if you were a company just purchased a whole lot of material from, say, IPC, hopefully you also got the written permission of the creators -artists and writers or you just have a lot of out of copyright material.

Dry. Boring but then, it can't all be The Mighty Crusaders!

 ************************************************************************
Subject: UK Comic Book copyright query

Hello.
I was wondering whether you could help me re. the above matter.  I am a comics historian/publisher and have, obviously, studied the UK industry for over thirty years now.
Contracts were never signed between creators and comic publishing house such as Fleetway, IPC, Odhams, etc.  The companies changed hands many times over the years with no new deals with creators.  In fact (c) was not even given on many titles.

I was put in contact with a solicitor last year and he sent me the following;

"UK Copyright

Someone was asking what the legal position is in the UK.

The writer and artist own the copyright in the strip jointly, under the Copyright Act 1956 (or the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 in the case of more recent comics), unless there has been a written transfer of their copyright ownership to a third person (such as the Publisher).

This is called Author's copyright. It lasts for the lifetime of the writer and artist, and thereafter for a period of 70 years from the end ofthe year in which the last survivor of them dies.
Each strip within an issue of a comic is thus the copyright property of different people: i.e. the writer and artist who created that particular strip; and so a lot of individuals will have copyright interests in each weekly edition.

 The Publisher has a separate copyright (called Publisher's copyright),which protects the entire published issue of a comic, including its overall typographical layout, not just individual strips within it. This lasts for 25 years from the end of the year in which that issue of the comic was originally published.

This second type of copyright has now expired for any comic with a cover date on or before 31st December 1984.

I was wondering whether you could tell me whether this is correct? The problem is that many now retired creators are wondering where they stand -most get the same (above) responses from solicitors as I had.

Any help in clarification would be very helpful.

My thanks in advance
Terry Hooper

 GOV.UKIP OFFICE RESPONSE

Dear Mr Hooper,
Thank you for your recent enquiry. Although we are unable to provide legal advice regarding specific cases, I hope the following general information is of use to you.

Under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, in the case of written (including software and databases) theatrical, musical or artistic (including photographic) works, the author or creator of the work is also the first owner of any copyright in it.  The only exception to this is where the work is made by an employee in the course of his or her employment. In some situations two or more people may be joint authors and joint owners of copyright (as may be the case for instance with a comic strip).

Where a written, theatrical, musical or artistic work, or a film, is made by an employee in the course of his employment, his employer is the first owner of any copyright in the work (subject to any agreement to the contrary).  'In the course of employment' is not defined by the Act but in settling disputes the courts have typically had to decide whether the employee was working under 'contract of service'.

Where a person works under a 'contract for services' he may be considered by the courts to be an independent contractor and his works may then be considered to be commissioned works.  When you ask or commission another person or organisation to create a copyright work for you, the first legal owner of copyright is the person or organisation that created the work and not you the commissioner, unless you otherwise agree it in writing.

Even though the legal owner of copyright is the creator, it is possible that the commissioner may be considered by the courts to be the beneficial owner of copyright and therefore entitled to legal ownership.  This could be where you intend to stop others using or copying the work that has been commissioned for instance a logo designed to be used as your trade mark.

I outline these points since you mention the absence of a formal 'signed' contractual agreement between the creators and comic publishing houses.  In the event of a dispute as to ownership it would therefore be for the courts to decide ownership and/or the nature of the ownership (it may be that there are joint creators [writer and artist] and they may or may not have some rights in the work along with the publisher). Each situation must therefore be considered on its merits.

I would suggest the situation is less clear under the Copyright Act 1956 and you may wish to seek further legal clarification of Section 4 and in particular section 4.(2) in order to ascertain whether this situation could apply to comics.  This section seems to limit the ownership of a work by an employer to the publication in his/her newspaper, periodical or magazine and beyond that the creator would be entitled to any copyright subsisting in the literary, dramatic or artistic work.

In relation to a publisher's rights I was confused as to the 1984 date in relation to typographical arrangement (25 years from publication) but then noticed that you sought this advice last year.  The publisher may also have copyright in the 'compendium' of strips which he has produced as a comic.  His copyright [as well as the individual creators in the absence of any assignment to him] could therefore be infringed if the whole or a substantial part of the comic is reproduced without his permission.

It should be remembered that irrespective of whether the creator or another party own the copyright, then provided the creator died less than 70 years ago the work is still likely to be protected.  This will also be the case in relation to publishers etc where the duration of copyright protection is calculated from death of the employee creator.  Again, where a company changed hands or was bought it would be necessary to consider who then owned the intellectual property rights.  Under both the 1956 [s36(3)] and 1988 [s90(3)] Acts an assignment of copyright is not effective 'unless it is in writing signed by or on behalf of the assignor'.  Each situation should then again be taken on its merits.

I hope this helps. I should emphasise that this information does not represent legal advice but rather seeks to assist you on what issues you might seek further legal clarification.
I hope this response has been some help to you.

Regards,
Copyright Enquiries

So Here Is How YOU Can Buy Copies of the UK Golden Age Books

Please note that the Ultimate Golden Age Collection cannot be reduced in price as it is sold at the bare minimum price.

And if there is one thing "Herr Professor" loves it is discovering and presenting long lost UK Golden Age (1939-1951) comic strips and characters from publishers such as Gerald Swan, Foldes, Denis M. Reader, Cartoon Art Productions and others.

Scanned and restored as best as can be considering the poor print quality of the rationing years -especially red, orange, yellow, blue and purple ink printing!

Ace Hart The Atomic Man!  The Tornado!  TNT Tom!  Dene Vernon!  Acromaid!  Cat-Girl! Bring 'Em Back Hank! Robert Lovett:Back From The Dead and so many other action heroes and humour strip characters -William A. Ward, Jock McCaill and a host of known and unknown creators contribute -either in single volume " 

Black Tower Gold" albums or all six collected into the 400+ pager -The Ultimate British Golden Age Collection!

The five separate volumes range from 68pp to 96pp each.  For well over 5 years they have been ridiculously priced at £6.00 ($8.00) which meant there was nothing in the way of profit or compensating for the amount of time and work put into each. And guess what? Absolutely no copies sold.  For that reason I have had to price them (still cheap) adequately so that they are each £8.00 ($10.00).  That still means you are getting better quality reproductions for far less money than an 8 pager or 12 pager comic from this period that may be moldy, torn or almost unreadable.

This is business.



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

Volume 2: http://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper-scharf/black-tower-british-gold-collection-2/paperback/product-12183569.html

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

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

Volume 5: http://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper-scharf/black-tower-gold-5back-from-the-dead/paperback/product-12184231.html

The Ultimate British Comics Gold Collection

Ed. Terry Hooper-Scharf

A4

405 pages

Black & White

Perfect bound paperback

Price: £25.00

Ships in 3-5 business days.
 http://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper-scharf/the-ultimate-british-comics-gold-collection/paperback/product-22041282.html

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!

Crackers

Deletion of Golden Age Collection Books

This was announced on the Black Tower Face Book page but needs reposting here as one of the books due for deletion is the Alan Class one. Only 4 copies have ever sold and I have my copies (not for sale) and Alan has his. A book not selling is a waste of space.

BTCG FB Announcement:

While the prose books will have deletions sorted out in November, the comic albums and graphic novels will be looked at in the much shorter term.

There are eight (8) books I had intended to delete today and these include the British Golden Age comic collections. The amount of work put into each book was...a lot! And the contents are very rare to get a hold of. In fact some of the material is impossible to get a hold of these days. However, rather like the 400+ Ultimate Golden Age Collection (collecting all the single volumes together at a lower price) they do not sell.

As far as I recall not one single copy of volumes 1-6 has sold. Again, trying to remember but I think only three copies of the Ultimate book have sold.

I have my file copies and no interest (amongst all the members of the various UK Golden Ages comic groups, blogs and FB page who were calling out for these collections!) means that the books just clutter things up.

Deletion will probably be without warning.

Other titles I will be looking at over the next few weeks.

The Day Fandom Died

Enough Really is Enough.

People ask me why I post so little?

The first reason is that I can post for a year and there are no responses.  I may as well keep the information in my head.

The second is that readers do not see the trolling, name-calling and other obscenities that I get sent but tend to get to and delete before others see them.  These are not from fans but nasty little people with low IQs.

I just posted this over at Comic Bits Online as an example:

Oh Little Minds

I run a couple of Face Book groups and the rules are  -it is made very clear- that they are designed to discuss certain aspects/publishers.  The rule has always been that it is not a selling site since a couple people before were ripped off and because I owned the groups I got not very happy members.

However, if a member checks with me before posting an item for sale I allow it.  So when Dan Dillon posted that he had some comics for sale straight onto the page I pointed out that he needed to check with me first.  His response was (I've censored bits):

Dan Dillon: Miserable old c**t no wonder this page is dead. I bet you get hard when you ban me

Of course, Dan is a coward and realised that I could report his post so what he did, without reading the response from me before posting this, was to leave the group.  You see, that way he would not see my response and he thought he would get away with it.

However, if you troll or post obscenities to any group I run simply because you tried to pull a fast one and not ask, as others do, "Can I post that I have these comics for sales?" and so I wonder how safe it would have been to allow his "for sale" post.

This is an almost daily if not weekly occurrence on the internet and I am guessing in this case that it was Dan who got "hard" (I'll give him the benefit of a doubt). 

Yes, I do have the option of making a formal complaint against this person and his Face Book account but for now I am merely recording it.

Yes this does seem a rather nasty response from someone who broke very clear group rules.  It is, however, nothing new. As I have stated on CBO so often, there is no real fandom as such any more.  Yes, I am aware that there are comic book fans out there but they do not comment or respond to posts and do not really support blogs -five people saw the Dillon response but not one wrote supporting me on this matter. So I am closing the AC Face Book page. 

This blog is here.  I will no lo0nger be allowing open comments and any made will be subject to Awaiting Approval.

I have tried and tried my best both here, on Face Book and on the Class Yahoo group to encourage fan discussion but it fails.  The negativity outweighs any support -well, no support.

I post when I post.  Or Do not post.