Comic Clippings - 6 September 2006

The "coming soon" banners are off the Look and Learn website. We're live and in your living room as of now, so if you haven't found the time to visit, now's your chance. Cruise around the history pages, download the book, and take a peak at some of the 11,300 images we have in our picture gallery. Get yourself a cup of tea, settle down and go take a look.

Some random links to stuff I've spotted in the last few days:

• Alan Moore Speaks. A video of Alan Moore talking about the Northamptonshire Defend Council Housing Campaign has appeared on YouTube and on the blog of Leah Moore and John Reppion (authors of Albion). A limited edition 'Maxwell the Fat Cat' poster and t-shirt designed by Moore will be available from Phoenix Comix (scroll down the page, there's a note about Moore's signing at Phoenix on 28 July followed by information about the Maxwell material and the campaign).

• Alan Moore Speaks Again. Another video, this time an interview with Stewart Lee, has just appeared on YouTube and also at Heidi MacDonald's The Beat. The interview concerns Moore's worship of the puppet snake Glycon.

• Dan Dare. The statue of comics icon Dan Dare that has stood in the Town Centre Gardens in Southport is likely to be moved due to constant vandalism. Dan has been covered in graffiti and attacked with an iron bar and is currently being repaired at Preston's Museum of Lancashire, although the original stand is beyond repair. A full report appeared in the Southport Visitor (1 September 2006).

• The invasion's called off. According to John Freeman's Down the Tubes, Rebellion have had to recall the recently released collection Slaine: Books of Invasions 2 because of a printing error. The book will be going back to press as soon as possible.

• Comics Interruptus. Rich Johnson's Lying in the Gutters carries news of why the latest issue (#199) of Comics International is running a month late. Computers. 'Nuff said. Also comments from Mark Millar about a forthcoming comics explosion and Terry Gilliam's involvement with Virgin Comics.

• True Scot. The next collection of Commando stories will be called True Brit and is due out 2 October, same day as the previously mentioned Best of Girl. You can pre-order True Brit (ISBN 1-84442-121-X) via amazon. The Best of Jackie Annual (ISBN 1-85375-608-3) is now available (and ranked by amazon.co.uk at #7,078) and Jackie: Dear Cathy & Claire (ISBN 1-85375-603-2), which gathers some of the best items from Jackie's popular problem's page, is another 2 October release.
  

• Third World War. The third volume of Charley's War: 17 October, 1916-21 February, 1917 is due from Titan Books (ISBN 1-84576-270-3) on 20 October according to amazon.co.uk. If you've not seen it, there's a superb Charley's War web site run by Neil Emery.

• Wither Albion?. Now that the Albion series has come to an end, we can expect a collected edition to appear in December 2006 from Wildstorm. Titan will be doing the British edition in late 2006 or early 2007. Will Leah Moore's book ever reach the dizzy collectable heights of some of her dad's work? I've just spotted the cheapest price for Miracleman Book Three: Olympus on amazon.com is $1,585 for a second hand copy. Makes the £125 being asked for on amazon.co.uk look positively cheap in comparison.

(* I'm incredibly pleased to see that there's a growing interest in reprinting material from old British comics and magazines. There are a lot of things worth saving. I'd love to have the complete run of 'The Steel Claw' on my shelves in a nice set of albums similar to those you can get for strips across Europe! Maybe... one day... )