Comic Clippings - 22 August

I've been taking some holiday time away from Look and Learn... which means I've had my nose to the grindstone working on the 4-book Karl the Viking box set for DLC again. 17,000 words written and the end is in sight at last! For light relief I've also written the introduction to a collection of Franco Caprioli's 'The Legend of Beowulf' which is to be published in Italy. The strip originally appeared in Look and Learn in 1970.

On the work front -- because I'm still "at work" the moment I sit down in front of the computer whether I'm on holiday or not! -- the deal between Look and Learn and ROK Comics has just had its first results launched: the classic Robin Hood strips produced by Frank Bellamy for Swift are now available as downloads for your mobile phone. There's a press release about it here and you can see a preview here.

A few things I've been catching up on this evening...

* An alternate version of The Black Diamond Detective Agency, Eddie Campbell's recent graphic novel. The Forbidden Planet International blog has details of a pitch produced by James Sturm and Nick Bertozzi based on Campbell's 2003 unproduced movie screenplay. Bertozzi has posted a number pages at Act-i-vate.

* 'Andi Watson Goes Clubbing', interview with Andi Watson by Jennifer M. Contino (Comicon.com, 21 August). Link via Journalista.

* 'Ennis Shows His 'Streets' Smarts', interview with Garth Ennis by Brian Warmoth (Wizard Universe, 21 August). Link via Journalista.

* John Adcock has been posting some interesting material from the pages of 1935-vintage issues of the News of the World, including adverts for various other publications and a run of a strip based on humorous takes on news stories by an artist who signed himself Cosmos: here, here and here. He's also recently posted examples of work by cartoonists Tom Cottrell and Arthur Ferrier.