Comic Cuts

I've spent half the evening updating the Rebellion section of the Comics Bibliography. You cannot imagine how much I regret putting the books in chronological order and having to drag every single new image down to the bottom of the page. Expect that section to be split into smaller parts by the time I next update!

The update includes a couple of recent releases and a bunch of upcoming titles, including images for some plus links to Amazon where all Rebellion titles can be ordered in advance. I'll add more pictures once I can find better quality scans than the tiny thumbnails on the Rebellion website. But I've included a couple of them here to give you a teaser of what's to come.

Back in November, David Roach, David Kendall and I were on a panel at the ICA about war comics. The hour-long chat was supposed to be broadcast on Resonance FM a couple of weeks later, and so it was. Unfortunately, it was advertised to appear at 8pm and, instead, was broadcast at 5pm so most people (including me) missed it. The good news is that it is to be rebroadcast in two parts, the first part appearing this Thursday, the 17th, as part of Alex Fitch's Panel Borders show. The second part will be broadcast a week later on the 24th. You'll have to tune in to the actual broadcast as the talk will not be podcast. No idea why there's a restriction on it but that's what I'm told.

Book news: looks like the Frank Bellamy's Robin Hood book is going to be winging its way to the printers in the not-too-distant future. And the last bits of the Thriller Comics Index are almost in place. I imagine that, once I'm free of my commitments to Look and Learn, that will be one of the first projects I'll work on since it is already close to being finished. Hopefully that means we could see the book out in the summer.

Talking of which, the selections for the next two War Picture Library and Battle Picture Library volumes are now in the hands of Carlton Books, along with the introductions. And this weekend I finished a third volume for them which is -- and I kid you not -- the best of Hospital Nurse Picture Library. Not my usual cup of tea, I'll admit, but a nice change of pace from the Second World War. I don't know what the titles will be on these three volumes yet, although I suggested 'Broken Hearts' for the latter. Whether that's the final title we'll just have to wait and see.

You can still get the first two volumes of the war libraries from Amazon.co.uk at a knockdown price of £20.98 for the pair, post free. I may as well plug The War Libraries while I'm at it; although it's not going to knock Harry Potter off the best-sellers charts I'm very pleased to say that copies are selling steadily as more and more people hear about it. Being a niche market writer I tend to write books that interest me rather than books that will rocket my income skywards... but it's still nice to know that what I'm doing is selling and being appreciated.

Anyway, that's enough ego-stroking for the moment. Here are a few bits of news...

* Steven Russell visits the British Cartoon Archive at the University of Kent which houses a collection of 7,000 original drawings by Carl Giles amongst other temptations. (link via Journalista)

* David Lloyd is interviewed by Wellington Srbek at his blog Mais Quadrinhos... don't worry, it's in English. (link via Forbidden Planet International blog)

* Paul Gravett presents an extended Alan Moore: The 'Lost' Interview. As of January 1st, Lost Girls became officially available in the UK. An old TV documentary about Moore from the 1987 show England Their England has appeared on YouTube: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4. (links via Journalista)

* John Freeman scotches the rumour that The Reign of the Robots is to be the final Titan Dan Dare volume: "I spoke with the head of Titan Books this morning and they are all set to continue the range, and are trying to find out who is saying otherwise." John notes that late last year, Orion laid claim on Amazon.co.uk to being the new Dan Dare publisher in its promotion for Eagle Annual: The Best of the 1950s Comic, a claim they subsequently refuted when challenged but which has not been removed from the description of the book.

* Jeremy Briggs has sent in details for the 2008 One Book One Edinburgh event which details dates and events surrounding the February release of the new Alan Grant/Cam Kennedy graphic novel adaptation of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (ISBN 978-1902407449). Jeremy has posted details in full at the Down the Tubes blog, thus saving me a lot of typing as well as details of the National Library of Scotland exhibition, Comics Grow Up, which will run between April and May 2008.

* Lew Stringer reveals a bit of hidden history with a look at a text story version of 'The Bash Street Kids' that appeared in D. C. Thomson's story paper The Wizard in 1955.