Bear Alley: Comic Clippings

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"The narrative is packed with action and I think readers will have a lot of fun with [Hercules, Esq.] and there are some genuine moments of laugh out loud humour. I can understand why the film rights for this book were snapped up and even today I could envisage it being a very enjoyable one-off TV series." — Cross Examining Crime.
"Although there’s some criminous stuff going on and Bill often finds himself vying against or working with various lawbreakers, the stakes are never really life and death in this book ... There is some slam-bang action, though, as well as a smart, really likable protagonist and a lot of really clever plot twists, but what really makes HERCULES ESQ. work is Evans’s style, which is consistently breezy, fast-paced, and funny." — James Reasoner, Rough Edges.

Friday, October 27, 2006

Comic Clippings - 27 October

Random bits of news...

I mentioned Sean Phillips a couple of days ago and, lo, an interview appears (24 October) at the Forbidden Planet blog about his new series, Criminal.

The FP blog, which is becoming one of my favourites, also has an interview with Ed Hillyer (Ilya) about his book from Robson, The Mammoth Book of Best New Manga.

Paul Gravett's Great British Comics is due in shops on November 15th but the Great British Comics website is now open for business. Lots of samples from the book, which I'm greatly looking forward to.

Italian artist Dino Leonetti died on 24 October. Born in 1937, Leonetti attended artschool and later the Accademia di Scenografia which led to his involvement in the world of films. He turned to drawing comics in 1962, producing episodes of the Italian version of 'Mandrake'. Other early strips included 'L'Uomo Masherato', 'Fantasm' and, with Francesco Verola, 'Demoniak'. He also contributed to British comics -- drawing 'Dick Turpin' and 'Trelawney of the Guards' via Studio Giolitti -- before returning to movie work in 1965-73. In 1974 he introduced the erotic strip 'Maghella', published in Menelik and Epiperiodeci. As his workload expanded, Leonetti set up his own studio where Roberto De Angelis, Giuseppe Barbati, Stefano Andreucci and others got their start. Leonetti also drew epsidoes of the 'Storia di Roma' series and created the series 'Flower' and 'Marshall Jim' for Corrier Boy. Later produced girls' stories and illustrations for the paperback market.

The Best of My Guy from Robson inspired the BBC News website (25 October) to run a series of pictures from the book featuring actors who, before they were famous, regularly appeared in photo strips. Actors and actresses include George Michael, Hugh Grant and Tracey Ullman. No Lorraine Kelly or Leslie Ash then?

Chris Staros has reached an agreement with Great Ormond Street Hospital over the UK publication of Lost Girls. The London children's hospital was bequeathed the copyright of Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie which caused some problems as Alan Moore & Melinda Gebbie's book features Wendy from the famous play. According to a note sent by Staros to The Beat, "I flew to England and met with the hospital on Oct 11th and on that day we signed an agreement together putting to end the controversy surrounding the issue. It was a nice meeting and we're very glad that we could come to a peaceful settlement. We'll gear back up for a big UK and EU release of Lost Girls towards the end of next year." The book will have a special UK First Edition release on 1 January 2008.

(* I was in London yesterday for a meeting with a publisher about doing some comic-related books. As soon as I get any news I'll post it here but I'm hopeful that there will be a handful of interesting titles coming out around this time next year.

Something I can mention: the text for the Fleetway War Libraries index is in the hands of the publisher and some of the illustrations we'll be using have been photographed from the original cover artwork. Geoff West was down at the IPC warehouse recently and busy with his camera ahead of the artwork disappearing for pastures new a couple of hundred miles north. I've just been looking at a few of the pictures and they look amazing.)