D-Gruppe: Germany's First Super Heroes -A Flawed Project?

 

Ben Dilworth once looked at me and said: "You are never happy. One day you'll create a comic book classic and say 'looks okay' and next day 'pile of ***'!"  

He wasn't that far off. I have never been one to parade an ego. I do a job and then move on. I do not sit in a pub getting drunk or rolling up a spliff with my comic 'mates' and brag "I am a ***** genius. The art work on that cannot be beaten!" And, yes, I have witnessed several such outbursts from comic pros in the UK. 

For me I see every page and panel in my head along with dialogue which is why I do not use scripts for my own work. It allows twists and turns as the story is being told. Sadly, what I see in my head is far from what appears on the page -even when the work is praised I knit-pick at everything. Nothing is as good as it should be -although carrying out reviews of other peoples art they get away with what I consider flaws in my own.

The only D-Gruppe story/art I was happy with was the one inked by Ben Dilworth back in the 1980s -Revenge of the Ice Queen which was D-Gruppe's officially first published story: it was later reprinted in Previews Comic and the German language Watcher publication.

Below: Ben Dilworth inks over my pencils for the first official D-Gruppe story (c)2023T. Hooper/B R Dilworth/BTCG

It was an editor at Bastei Verlag in Germany that saw the Watcher reprint and got in contact with me. I have never managed to work out who at Bastei thought that publishing D-Gruppe was a good idea. The editor I wrote to/spoke with had the art "passed down" to him to take further.  He was quite happy with my solo artwork (Ben had moved to Japan at this point which in pre-internet/scanner days ruled him out of the project).

I outlined the first ten issues which I was told they weren't used to (most of their comics were Franco-Belgian reprints or anthologies drawn by Spanish and Italian artists so there was no regular storyline issues,  They had an artist who would work on covers (no idea who but it was a weight off my mind) and everything seemed set to go.

The question now is "Why did D-Gruppe not appear as a Bastei comic?" Well, at the time I posted in the complete art, etc., to Bastei and after a week I phoned to check it had all arrived safely. I was told that "editors are no longer able to respond to your enquiry" and despite explaining as best I could I eventually gave up and waited to hear from the person who was now my editor.

After a month I tried phoning again because I was hearing nothing. In fact the phone number I had did not work and after a couple more weeks I gave up drawing more pages. 

Below: all art (c)2023 T.Hooper-Scharf/BTCG

The pages above and below were the initial rough drafts which I abandoned after silence from Bastei. all art (c)2023 T. Hooper-Scharf/BTCG

One day I was in the office of Managing editor of Fleetway, Gil Page and showing art samples and other project work. I accidentally had D-Gruppe artwork in one folder and just explained the whole Bastei situation. "Oh" he said "I think that's where Egmont came in" -by this time Fleetway had been purchased by Egmont and I was curious how Egmont came into this? He pointed out that Egmont purchased a company and after that all projects were on "hold" (cancelled) and editors were not allowed to communicate with creators, etc. So Egmont had purchased Bastei and that ended D-Gruppe.  

But was Gil right?  Well, it just so happens that not long after that chat I was contacted by none other than the Bastei editor involved who was now working for another company I had submitted work to. He explained that it was possible the Bastei owners were negotiating a sale with Egmont when the D-Gruppe project was handed to him. As far as he was aware the print run etc had been decided and then one day he was instructed to stop all communications with artists/'writers. All editors were stopped from officially communicating with creators not just me and the mindset was t6hat if your boss (old or new) told you NOT to do something you did what they said even if you felt bad about it.  

So what was I to do with the layout page art? I was certainly not going to redraw it all from scratch and the storyline was 10 years behind at that point.  I decided to publish what I had as a personal project out of love for the characters. After bouts of pneumonia, respiratory infection lasting a year and other joyous things (I am being sarcastic there) I finished everything and that included The Trial story in which D-Gruppe members played a part and after that the Return of the Gods: Twilight of the Super Heroes and The Green Skies and now...

Well, the big D-Gruppe anniversary is 2024 as well as Black Tower's own 40th anniversary. It's almost frightening to think that I created the team that would become D-Gruppe in Dalborn, Germany in the late 1960s. I am currently hoping to live to see the various projects finished (especially as I have already paid for a large D-Gruppe anniversary cake for next July. Bloody expensive).

Anyway a bit of history and not too boring I hope!