Comic Cuts - 1 October

After last week's rather gloomy thoughts on the state of British comics' reprints, I'm pleased to say that there is movement on a few interesting books. The two I've been involved in—Wells Fargo and The Thriller Index—should be off to the printers on Tuesday, which means that Wulf the Briton will be off at the same time. And I've just received a preview copy of Tomorrow Revisited, Alastair Crompton's celebration of the life of Frank Hampson, which I'll be reviewing the moment I get a chance to read it.

Clint issue 2 is on the newsstands and the first issue of Strip Magazine is due in early 2011. The latter is from Print Media Productions and has John Freeman at the helm. John recently announced that the magazine would be reprinting 'Hook Jaw', the classic shark-on-the-rampage strip from Action. Amazing to think that Hook Jaw is thirty-five years old. The strip has been newly coloured (by Gary Caldwell) and re-lettered (by Jim Campbell) for its latest outing, joining a lineup that already includes work by P J Holden, Michael Pennick, James Hudnall, John Ridgway, John McCrea, Philip Hester and others.

Print Media Productions are also producing a line of original graphic novels which will include projects by Ferg Handley, Kev Hopgod, Gordon Rennie and SMS. The first release will be The Iron Moon by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page, which is being launched at the British International Comic Show in Birmingham at the Thinktank, Millennium Point, on October 16-17.

And there could be a new comics' news magazine in the works if the image below is anything to go by. I'm waiting on a phonecall to learn more.

And copies of the latest issues of Eagle Times and Jeff Hawke's Cosmos are winging their way to me as I write.

So it isn't all doom and gloom. Far from it.

As for me, I'm keeping myself busy with odd bits of work and occasionally cashing a cheque from those nice folks at The Guardian to pay for DVDs, books and the coffee and cigarettes which keep me awake long enough to blog. I'm not sure what I have lined up for next week. The Clint Eastwood posts were a bit of an experiment, using the Eastwood thread to do a bit of digging around into a couple of authors associated with his movie novelisations. I've had some good feedback—most people write direct rather than leaving comments (a side-effect of advertising my e-mail address, I guess)—and it's something I may try again if a suitable subject comes up. I may do a couple of shorter pieces next week while I work on a couple of fairly hefty cover galleries. Cleaning up these images takes time and when you tackle an author with 40+ titles to their credit, that's a couple of days solid work—sometimes more if the covers are in particularly poor condition.

On Sunday, trains willing, I should be at the London ABC Show. I might be buying books or comics—stranger things have happened—but I'm usually more than happy to chat. It's cheaper than buying stuff.

Todays random scan... or scans. In memory of the late Tony Curtis a trio of movie tie-ins from some of his movies, although The Vikings focuses on his co-stars Kirk Douglas and Janet Leigh (Mrs. Tony Curtis).

Obituaries are appearing in today's papers (e.g. The Guardian, Daily Telegraph, Independent, etc.).

See you next week.