Comic Cuts

Not much to report. On the home front the work on the porch seems to have ground to a halt with no activity for the last couple of days. Mind you, I can't tell you how great it feels to have a break from the distraction and noise. Blissful silence broken only by me groaning under the weight of boxes that still need to be emptied. The headache has been replaced by backache.

There's little news on the work front. I've typed up most of the text for the stories in the next two Trigan Empire Collection volumes. I've now typed up the dialogue for over 470 episodes of the strip—940 pages. Only a handful to go now. I've also been proofing some of the pages for the Karl the Viking box-set. "Some of" because one set of proofs has gone missing in the post.

Tomorrow I start work on the Trigan introductions which should be interesting as we're dealing with the very first few stories so I've got to get my head around how the Elekton solar system works, the history of the Vorgs and the origins of Trigan City.

Monday (September 1st) sees the release of my next bunch of books: Love on Ward B: Hospital Nurse Romance Library and The Best of Boyfriend. These are both credited to Mel on Amazon, her first byline on a book, although she has worked on a number of books in the past and edited a crafts book for David & Charles a couple of years ago. We've worked together on quite a few things in the past, although, in this instance, I'll put my hand up and say that I'm responsible for these particular books... and any mistakes.

Monday also sees the release of The Best of 2000AD, which I had no hand in. I've not seen any information on the book other than that it's a 384-page collection of classic strips. I have managed to get my hands on a scan of the cover (see the top of the column) which reveals some of the characters who will be appearing: Judge Dredd, Strontium Dog, Rogue Trooper, ABC Warriors, Flesh, Slaine, Invasion, The Mean Arena, Tharg's Future Shocks, Time Twisters, Harlem Heroes, MACH1, Mean Team, Nemesis (Terror Tube, Killer Watt), Shako, Robo-Hunter and The Ballad of Halo Jones. The book would appear to be a selection of strips, covers and excerpts.

Also released, and one I'm particularly looking forward to, is the latest Commando volume, Bandits at 12 O'clock edited by George Low. Again, I don't know the full contents but it's a collection of flying stories that includes 'Black Zero' (Commando 456 art by Jose Jorge), 'Mosquito Ace' (Commando 943, art by Gordon Livingstone) and 'Jet Blitz' (Commando 243, art by Gordon Livingstone). Any book that has artwork by Jose Jorge is instantly recommended.

I should have mentioned this first before you spent all your money—Amazon seems to have sorted itself out as far as Against All Odds: War Picture Library Vol. 2 is concerned: they've got copies in stock again after an annoying week of "temporarily out of stock" notices. It's now soared up to #5 in Amazon's Second World War chart and #17 in the Graphic Novels chart. I ought to do a top-sellers chart quick... could be my one chance to get into the Top 20!