Comic Cuts

I usually start these columns with the stuff I've been working on and then get onto something more interesting but I just can't resist this... the Commando Ammo Box! from Carlton. I've only just found out about it myself. It's a box (metal? plastic? I don't know) containing the first three Commando reprints that Carlton produced along with a special reprinting of the very first issue, 'Walk—or Die!'. According to Carlton, "The superb 'Ammo Box' presentation case is equipped with a robust carrying handle and, just like a real ammo box, is tough enough to protect its volatile contents. Each of these highly collectible, limited edition packs comes complete with a numbered certificate of authentication."

The only other thing I know is that the box is a strictly limited edition of 1,000.

OK, a quick round-up of personal news. We're expecting the builders back in tomorrow so correspondence and contact might be a bit patchy over the next few days. I've material queued up for Bear Alley so you shouldn't notice much difference... but behind the scenes there will be bits of the house being ripped apart, including the roof. Not quite over my head but certainly a bit of roof over the porch about five yards from where I usually sit. Chances are I shall be banished to somewhere else in the house with a laptop and it's possible we may lose our phone and internet access for a bit. I hope not. I hate being cut off from the world and, being one of the tiny minority who doesn't own a mobile phone, I rely on the land line and e-mail for communication.

Geoff West tells me that the bulk of the print run for Frank Bellamy's King Arthur should be arriving the first week of October. Some copies will be flown in so we will have copies for the ABC Show on September 21. Same applies to The Art of the Trigan Empire which is being printed at the same time. The latter is a 76-page catalogue of artwork from the famous strip that is being sold by Geoff from the Look and Learn archives. Up for grabs are 110 pages of art from all eras of the strip, including artwork by Don Lawrence, Ron Embleton, Oliver Frey and Gerry Wood, plus the recently discovered contributions by Manuel Quesada.

I've just finished typing up some captions that completes the text for Storm—The Collection vol. 9, to be published shortly by Don Lawrence Collection over in Holland. This is for the English language edition, I should add. The original collection came out in Dutch in 2003. The Storm books are still relatively unknown over here as until DLC began publishing Storm—The Collection series in 2004, only six albums (1, 2, 10, 11, 13 and 15) had seen English language editions: BAPC published one volume in 1982, Titan published two (1987, 1989), and Strip (in the UK) and Heavy Metal (in the USA) also published a pair each.

The series deserves to be better known, especially the sequence of stories that begins with Storm The Collection Vol. 5 and runs through the remainder of the series, which features some of the best artwork Don Lawrence ever produced.

Talking of Don, my next task is to type up the text for the stories for the very first Trigan Empire Collection volume. It's great to revisit those early stories. I read a lot of the Trigan Empire stories in Look and Learn but I think it must have been the 1978 Hamlyn book, The Trigan Empire, where I read the original story for the first time. Or maybe the earlier Look and Learn Book of the Trigan Empire. I didn't realise until much later that both those volumes were abridged from the original appearance of the strip in Ranger. As far as I'm aware, this will be the first time those early stories will be printed as they originally appeared.

The latest issue of Crikey! (#6) landed on the doormat on Friday and I've only just gotten around to looking at it. The new issue—a D. C. Thomson special—continues to see the magazine improve after a shaky start. The articles are light and frothy and I still think there is room for a second magazine dedicated to British comics where longer articles could appear but until that happens, Crikey! fills a much needed gap. This issue pays flying visits to Beano, Dandy, Sparky, Spellbound, Victor, Hotspur and Warlord and focuses briefly on a couple of long-time Thomson artists, Dudley D. Watkins and George Martin and the Dandy wonder dog, Black Bob. It's great to see these old British comics celebrated.

If any of these papers rings a bell, give Crikey! a try. You can find subscription details and more information at the Crikey! website.

Compiling the little bestsellers chart yesterday, I was intrigued to see how my own volumes are doing. Oddly, Let 'em Have It (not due out until 6 October) is outselling Against All Odds (out now). It's even outselling the High Noon and Rick Random, Space Detective volumes due out on the same day which is a definite surprise as I have high hopes for both those volumes. My last Battle Picture Library volume, Death or Glory, is currently #7 in Amazon's Second World War chart, with the War Picture Library volume Unleash Hell at #12. Let 'em Have It is at #28 and Against All Odds is nestling further down the list at #39—I can only guess that the "temporarily out of stock" notice is putting people off ordering it.

I shall be mercilessly plugging all these books over the coming weeks but I'll try not to let it take over Bear Alley completely. There is other stuff happening...

For instance, the Daily Mirror have revived Garth... which came as a surprise to everyone as there was no publicity for the relaunch at all. Seems the strip starting appearing last week on their website, written and drawn by Huw-J Davies, who, in 2001, helped design and was (is?) licensing manager for The Turds (hence the note on his MySpace page "it's not just about Turds anymore" but presumably not the "20 years hands on experience with high profile projects" mentioned at his Hayena Studio's (sic) website).

While it's not the Garth of old, I'm not a complete Luddite so I'll give it a few more pages for the story to get going. Apparently the initial storyline, 'The Gold of Ragnarock' (hopefully not a misspelling of Ragnarok), is intended to run to 64 pages.

(* Garth © MGN Ltd.; Storm © Martin Lodewijk/Lisbeth Lawrence/Don Lawrence Collection; Commando © D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd.)