Comic Cuts: Post #801

Completely missed the fact that yesterday's post was #800. I can't quite believe that I've managed 800 posts. Or that on August 15th Bear Alley will be two years old. I'm not sure what I pictured when I started this: I knew I didn't want to turn it into a diary, so no running commentary on how we went down the pub last night and met up with friends for lunch today, although there's always going to be an element of 'writer's journal' about a blog. I knew it was going to be a mish-mash of my interests in books, magazines and comics. Since comics have dominated my work over the past few years one way or another—I was working for Look and Learn when I started this and most of the projects I've worked on this year have been comics related—I think it's true to say that two-thirds of Bear Alley is filled with comics research. The rest is a mix of books, authors, magazines, artists and whatever else takes my fancy on any given day. Lots of science fiction galleries recently because of the Sci-Fi Art book (and more to come hopefully, once I can get my collection sorted out).

Diary notes #1: regular readers will know we've been having some building work done in the house recently. Back at the beginning of July half the house was cleared out and put into storage. Well, the boxes are back. About 150 of them, plus about 18 shelves, furniture, television and everything else that goes to making up a home. We've been unpacking them steadily since mid-week and I think I've discovered a number of new laws of physics which I'm dubbing Holland's Laws of Bookshelves:

1: No matter how hard you try, you can never get the same number of books back on a shelf as you took off it.

2a: The number of books you have on any given subject is always one more than can fit of a shelf.
2b: ... and you will always have one book on that subject that is too big and has to go on another shelf.

3: You have 25% more books than you thought you had. They take up 45% more space than you thought they would.

(...that's enough laws.)

Interesting bits of research can pop up anywhere relating to comics. I picked up the latest issue of Book & Magazine Collector to see how the Ron Smith article by David Ashford & Norman Wright had turned out (and my stripography, although I'm not credited). But I was reading the Minette Walters article by David Howard and it mentions that Walters wrote a 7,000 word story for True Life Romance magazine published by IPC. I can't find a magazine of that title amongst IPC's output. Walters worked as a sub-editor for Women's Weekly after graduating from Durham University so she wrote for True Life Romance around 1970 maybe? Could this be True Life Picture Library perhaps? It ran until January 1971 so it would be a bit of a squeeze for her to have published a story and, towards the end, True Life was nearly all reprints but it could be a fact that Minette Walters first published work wasn't a story at all but a comic strip. She went on to write short, pseudonymous novels for Women's Weekly Library before getting married in 1978. Titles and bylines have been kept a closely guarded secret.

And here's a weird one... according to the B&MC news pages, SF-author Hal Clement (Harry Stubbs) wrote the novelisation of Slaughter (Curtis Books, 1975), described as a "sub-Shaft thriller starring ex-football her Jim Brown, as Harry Clement. "He also wrote another tie-in volume based upon the Columbo TV series, By Dawn's Early Light (Popular Library, 1975)."

Oops! Henry Clement—the name under which these books appeared, not Harry Clement—was the pen-name of Edward Fenton (1917-1994) as revealed in Kurt Peer's monumental bibliography, TV Tie-Ins (1997). I should add that I'm sure the bulk of the book, Antique Trader Collectible Paperback Price Guide, just out from Krause Publications, is worthy and full of very useful (and correct) information as it was compiled by Gary Lovisi who is well known amongst American paperback collectors. It's just a bit unfortunate that the mini-review should hone in on such an obvious error and, to cap it all, then spell the title of the book wrong.

Diary notes #2: Bizarrely, yesterday I was seriously worried that I was coming down with a cold: sore throat, running a slight temperature, general aching, wooziness and unable to concentrate. Today... still a slight sore throat but not feeling nearly as bad.

Unpacking hasn't left much time for anything else. The translations of the next two Storm collections were finished last week and I've almost finished the second volume's introduction. Chances are the books will be out in September, which I'm going to have to dub Shameless Self-Promotion Month at Bear Alley. Indeed, Shameless Self-Promotion Month is going to last three months, starting tomorrow morning when the first of thirteen books will be appearing. Some were finished before last Christmas but the way the publishing industry works they've all scrunched up into a three months bonanza. I've already spent the money I earned from them and none offer any royalties, so the only way I can benefit now is to urge you to buy them via that little Amazon search box over on the right of the page. Buy any of the Carlton books via that box and I get about 30p credit with Amazon. Then go and support your local bookshop by buying a second copy... oh, and borrow them from your local library, too. Authors and editors earn something called PLR (Public Lending Rights) money, although—and please don't snigger at the back—I've never actually managed to earn any. On my last statement, for 2006-07, I earned 60p but you have to earn over £1 to qualify for a payment. Still, it was up from the previous year's 36p, so it's heading in the right direction and I've added quite a few books since that last statement, although, as an editor, I only get a fraction of the pennies earned from loans. I'd just love to reach that magical £1... just once! Even if it means ghosting Jordan's next novel.

Next week: unpacking and self-promotion. That's it folks... that's all I've got to look forward to.