Bear Alley: Comic Cuts

BEAR ALLEY BOOKS

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The Bill Kellaway Quartet by Gwyn Evans
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"The narrative is packed with action and I think readers will have a lot of fun with [Hercules, Esq.] and there are some genuine moments of laugh out loud humour. I can understand why the film rights for this book were snapped up and even today I could envisage it being a very enjoyable one-off TV series." — Cross Examining Crime.
"Although there’s some criminous stuff going on and Bill often finds himself vying against or working with various lawbreakers, the stakes are never really life and death in this book ... There is some slam-bang action, though, as well as a smart, really likable protagonist and a lot of really clever plot twists, but what really makes HERCULES ESQ. work is Evans’s style, which is consistently breezy, fast-paced, and funny." — James Reasoner, Rough Edges.

Friday, May 07, 2010

Comic Cuts - 7 May

A bit of a sad week with the news that Peter O'Donnell died on Monday. I knew Peter through correspondence and via e-mail for some years, although I never actually met him. I was pleased that the newspapers have been carrying some very nice obituaries for him, although most of the red tops failed to mention his passing, even the Daily Mirror, for whom he wrote strips for 13 years, including Belinda, Garth and Romeo Brown.

The Guardian obituary published on Thursday (although it appeared online late on Wednesday) was actually written some years ago and held on file and the speed with which The Times and Daily Telegraph published their obituaries makes me think that they, too, had pieces on file. Some might find that a little morbid, but it actually reflects the high regard Peter was held in.

One way or another the whole week has been disrupted with phone-calls and scanning, although I'm pleased to say that I've actually managed to get started again on the Storm—The Collection books. I've had a ten-or-so-week break from the books so it's nice to get back to them. I'm currently working on the introductions to volumes 11 and 12 before getting down to the rewrite on 'Commander Grek', which was the Storm prequel story that will be appearing in vol. 12.

I've not had a chance to mention that I spent last week writing a piece for Alan Moore's underground mag. Dodgem Logic about old gangster paperbacks. Spent most of the Bank Holiday weekend scanning old books and magazines, some of which are for the article (which should be turning up in issue 4) and some of which I've been using this week—the Yankee Shorts covers. More of these pics. will be appearing over the next few days and weeks: I've been trying to discover more about some of the cover artists. One or two I've managed to dig up a little information about... some remain as mysterious as ever but I'll post what I know. All I can promise is that you'll get to see some fantastic artwork!

I'm away to watch the election results (the real one, not the one I put up the joke poster for)... hopefully I'll have a new comic strip ready for you for Monday if I can get my act together over the weekend.