Comic Cuts

I'm fighting off the cold bug that's been going around so I'm planning to keep this brief. I gather that copies of Death or Glory, the best of Battle Picture Library I edited, have now started to arrive in shops. It was originally due out in September but a printing snafu meant the whole print run had to be redone. A thread at the Comics UK forum asks about the source material. Well, the books had to be reproduced from the comics themselves as any surviving artwork from the various library titles at IPC Magazines was destroyed in the mid-1980s. Ironically, it was considered a fire risk, so they burnt it all. Overall, I think the scanning and clean-up was pretty good compared to some I've seen over the past couple of years.

Talking of which... I've been working on the introduction to the upcoming Frank Bellamy's Robin Hood: The Complete Adventures -- that's the title we've settled on -- and have spent a couple of days tracing the history of Robin Hood, the origins of the comic strip (which, although uncredited, was actually based on a book) and a look at the bowdlerised reprint that appeared ten years later. Hopefully I'll have it finished over the weekend and we can start getting the finished book together. Because it's mostly strip material, we should be able to turn it around a little quicker than the last book so it might be out as early as February.

Some bits of news from around the web...

* Alan Moore has been on the interview circuit regarding the newly released League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier. First up: Rich Johnston reports on how the book is only being distributed in the USA and questions the veracity of DC Comics' statement that the book must not be distributed in the UK due to copyright problems. Then it's over to Alan Moore himself: at Comic Book Resources (Inside 'The Black Dossier' by Adi Tantimedh, 14 November) and a two-parter -- part 1, part 2 -- at Mania Comics (Opening the Black Dossier by Kurt Amacker, 7 November and 14 November).

* Steve Flanagan of Gad, Sir! Comics! has a lengthy piece on charity appearances of Doctor Who (celebrating tonight's "Time Crash", a 7-minute Doctor Who episode which is to appear as part of Children in Need telethon). Steve offers an interesting roll-call of contributors to the 1993 Comic Relief Comic, almost an A to Z of Britain's brightest talents of the time.

* Mark of the Badlibrarianship blog has received a message from Alan Martin which reveals that he and artist Rufus Dayglo have signed a deal with Rebellion to produce a monthly 8-page Tank Girl strip for the Judge Dredd Megazine, starting next July. Martin also mentions further TG projects in the pipeline, including Carioca, a 6-part mini-series from Titan drawn by Mike McMahon, The Royal Escape, a 4-part mini-series from IDW drawn by Ashley Wood and Armadillo!, a novel from Titan with a new Jamie Hewlett cover. Expect more projects to be announced next year as Tank Girl celebrates her 20th birthday. (link via Forbidden Planet International blog)