Comic Cuts

I didn't have a chance to post anything last night as I was answering questions for an interview that has just appeared on Michael Eriksson's Where Eagle's Dare website, dedicated to the war pocket libraries he read when he was growing up. The interview covers quite a lot: the War Libraries book I did with David Roach, the Carlton reprints, how the comics indexes came about, Frank Bellamy's Robin Hood, the Don Lawrence Collection books, The Trials of Hank Janson and where the name 'Bear Alley' comes from. If you need to read the ramblings of a man with too much coffee in his system, just follow that interview link.

I've mentioned two projects that I haven't gotten around to mentioning here. The final two "to be announced" Carlton books that will be appearing this autumn will be Rick Random—Space Detective and High Noon. The latter is a collection of Western strips from Cowboy Picture Library and I think it's one you'll like even if Westerns are not your cup of tea.

When it came to choosing the contents, I made a conscious decision to concentrate on three artists that I thought were amongst the best contributors to the series. One was Jesus Blasco, who... you know I'm a fan of Blasco? He drew 'The Steel Claw' which was my favourite strip growing up but he also drew these fantastic Western strips, usually featuring Kit Carson. The second artist is Gerry Embleton, younger brother of Ron and a fantastic artist in his own right and if all you've seen of his work is his brief stint on Dan Dare back in 1982 when the (New) Eagle launched, I think you're going to be blown away by his black & white artwork. I wanted to pick a third artist with a contrasting style and plumped for Alberto Breccia who only worked for the UK briefly but brilliantly. With a bit of juggling, I was able to include stories featuring the four main characters who appeared in Cowboy—Kit Carson, Davy Crockett, Kansas Kid and Buck Jones—and have 15 of the 17 stories in the collection by these three artists.

If I get the chance to do a second volume, I'm planning to do the same and my first choice of artist will be Arturo Del Castillo. The only reason he didn't make the cut this time round was because his main character was not one of the 'big four' that I wanted to feature in this first volume. Keep your fingers crossed that it sells well enough for a second volume.

And then there's Rick Random—Space Detective. I'm so pleased that Carlton chose to do this one and the one thing I brought to it as editor was to make sure that all twelve stories are by Ron Turner. So that'll be over 750 pages of Ron Turner at his best. Oh, yes, and four of the stories are written by Harry Harrison—and that does not include 'Rick Random and the S.O.S. From Space' which appeared in the 2000AD Sci-Fi Special back in 1978 which was erroneously credited to Harrison (it was actually written by Bob Kesten). I've not included the latter as it's perhaps the most readily available of all the Rick Random yarns thanks to bit torrent and various scanning groups but if you've seen it and like Ron Turner's artwork, this will be the collection for you. The good news is that there's another material left for a second volume.

You'll have to wait until October to see these volumes in the shops. That gives me six months to clear some space on my shelves for this year's crop of books. I think I'm going to need a bigger house.

News from elsewhere...

* A long and fascinating interview with editor Bill Graham conducted by Bear Alley regular Jeremy Briggs has appeared on Down The Tubes. Bill's career began at D. C. Thomson in 1963 as a sub-editor on The Hornet and he went on to edit The Wizard, Warlord, Crunch, Buddy, Spike, Champ, Football Picture Story Monthly, Star Romance and Starblazer amongst others. Bill was my editor when I took a punt at writing comics and successfully shepherded two Starblazer's into print for which I'll be eternally grateful. (If you want to read that little saga, click here).

(* Our column header is a Ron Turner image coloured by John Ridgway. Although I'm a huge fan of Turner's black & white work, some enterprising publisher really needs to get a license to do a colour version. Second pic: a panel from an issue of Lone Rider Picture Library in 1962, drawn by Alberto Breccia. Artwork © IPC Media.)