Comic Cuts

October has been a busy month: the highlight was probably the ABC Show signing; having your ego massaged is always a good thing! Since then I've been working full out on various things -- some for work (where we've had quite a few enquiries about some of the comics Look and Learn owns) and (my evening job) putting together the various bits of the next comics index.

Went to a Halloween party on Saturday with witches, devils, monsters, cybermen, the occasional manga-inspired costume and a very small bat...

We're wrapping up the new (eighth) Trigan Empire--The Collection volume and my next job will probably be volume nine, although that won't be out until next year. Somewhere in between metadata for the Picture Library (which now has over 20,000 images) and putting together samples I've got to knuckle down and get the introduction written for the Robin Hood book that Look and Learn and The Book Palace are doing. So at some point I'm going to be researching and writing one book in the day, forced (against my will, naturally) to look through pages of Frank Bellamy artwork, and writing another in the evening filled with art by Don Lawrence. Oh, the horror, the horror...

I am kidding, of course. Mind you, it can be pretty tiring and mistakes start to creep in. For instance, I put up the little piece on Mike Western last night and completely forgot to say where and when those Captain Phantom pages had appeared. Hopefully I'll have some early Joe Colquhoun scanned for the next episode.

A quick round-up of news stories I've been looking at and listening to this evening...

* Ian Gibson has a weekly column at Den of Geek. (link via Rich Johnston's Lying in the Gutters)

* Talking of Rich Johnston, he's interviewed at Alex Fitch's I'm Ready For My Podcast (part 1 posted 29 October and part 2 posted 30 October), one of Alex's Panel Borders shows. Scroll down the page and you'll find Alex's interview with Neil Gaiman (21 October)

* Paul Gravett interviews Posy Simmonds in the latest issue (#286) of The Comics Journal. There are some extensive excerpts on the Comics Journal website. (link via Journalista where I also found a link to an archive of Simmonds' 'Literary Life' strips)

* Bryan Talbot is the subject of a 3-part interview at Inkstuds. Something seems a bit awry with the direct link to the site but this link via Google cache seems to work. Worked for me.

* "Desperate Dan's No Veggie," says Lew Stringer. Lew also recently reviewed fanzines From the Tomb #22 and Crikey #2, and discussed the new Guardian comic section, The Comic, and the newly tweaked Beano. Lew seems especially keen on Laura Howell's Johnny Bean and you can find out more about young Johnny at Laura's website.

* Steve Flanagan notes two new titles upcoming from Constable: The Mammoth Book of Best Crime Comics and The Mammoth Book of Horror Comics. The latter is listed at Amazon as due on 28 January 2008 and available for pre-order now.

* John Adcock has produced a couple of interesting posts: there's this one with scans of some Uncle Oojah sets reprinted in the Toronto Telegram in 1923; and further reprints of British cartoons, this time in Toronto Star Weekly, can be found here.

* Maw Broon, matriarch of the famous Broons family, has earned herself some criticism: apparently the Maw Broon's Cookbook is encouraging obesity. The BBC News carries the story under the headline "Comic diet carries health warning".

* The curiously-named Fústar takes a look at Bunty and then returns to the well for a look at "The Flights of Flopear", drawn by Robert Macgillivray just one of many bizarre comics that have appeared in the UK. The first page of the first episode appears here. (Flopear © D C Thomson)