Comic Cuts - 13 September

Rather sad to say that a number of deaths have been reported recently. Following the broadcast of Comics Britannia, the announcer revealed that Ian Gray, a writer with D. C. Thomson who was interviewed on the show, had died last week [Update: Obituary in The Guardian, 20 September]. Tuesday's The Scotsman carries an obituary of John T. Robertson, who was another Thomson writer, his work appearing in Hotspur, Wizard and other text story papers for many years. And I've just learned that Angus P. Allan, whom I'd known as an irregular correspondent for the past eight years, has also died. More information when I get it.

We had a problem with e-mail starting yesterday afternoon around 3 o'clock. Things seem to be back to normal now but I'm still receiving random mails dated yesterday. Still, the spam seems to be getting through as usual, which I guess is a good sign.

Books update: I hear that advance copies of Unleash Hell have been spotted in London, as have copies of Aarrgghh! It's War. Go buy them... if they're a success Carlton will want to do more next year and that hopefully means an Air Ace volume.

I'm currently working on the introduction for the Cowboy/Thriller/Super Detective index so I've lined up a number of other videos from the same source as the one below. I'll try to come up with something interesting in between but it might be short and sweet. Personally, I got a kick out of seeing what some of these famous cartoonists looked like -- including 'Come on, Steve' artist Roland Davies. A couple of the others I have lined up include model drawing, but I'll try to spread them out. Don't want you to get too excited.

News! News! News!

* David Lloyd is interviewed by Thomas and Björn at Comicgate (7 September). (Link via Journalista)

* John Freeman tries to find 'The Mysterious Mr. Low' at Down The Tubes (13 September). The mystery man in question is George Low, editor of Commando Library, who retires this month after working on the title for 44 years, the last 18 as editor.

* Steve Flanagan reviews The Best of Look-In -- The Seventies at Gad, Sir! Comics! (9 September).