Bear Alley: Comic Cuts - 18 November 2011

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, November 18, 2011

Comic Cuts - 18 November 2011

Work continues on the C. L. Doughty book, albeit slowly as I spent some time over last weekend writing up Mick Anglo and then had to dig around for information on Terry Willers on Tuesday, which cut into what little spare time I have at the moment. But the good news is that the first pass on two of the four strips is now complete and most (85%) of the third strip is also clean. I need to go over all three to do some re-lettering and general finishing off, but as they account for half the book, I'm quite pleased with the way things are heading.

I now have the artwork to hand for the fourth strip and the bonus strip (thanks, Geoff!) and might even start scanning this weekend. I'm toying with the idea of taking a week off and just blitzing the book to see if I can get it finished before Christmas. It will be the new year before it's out because everything will come to a grinding halt while I wait for a proof, do the corrections, put in a print order, etc., etc. But it'll be nice to get the book out for January... get 2012 off to a good start. I'm not promising anything, but that's the current plan.

Random scans: I stumbled across a pile of SF novels in one of the local charity shops last Saturday and I'm including a pair of Jerry Pournelle titles from that cache. I had both these books years ago but had to sell off the bulk of my SF paperback collection at one point due to lack of space and cash. It's like finding an old friend when I spot them in charity shops.

The second batch of titles for today are inspired by David Ainsworth, who sends over the occasional treat from his own collection. This week it was a 1955 Hodder paperback of Death of a Fellow Traveller by Delano Ames. I have a handful of Ames' novels featuring Jane and Dagobart Brown and have enjoyed them all. There were a dozen in total and I really ought to see if I can find some of the others as I haven't spotted one second hand for years.

Next week, I'm hoping to run some illustrations from World of Wonder, as promised a couple of weeks ago, so that's what you'll be seeing if I get a chance to fire up the scanner over the weekend.

(* Our column header is a fabulous C. L. Doughty painting for Look and Learn... not one I can use in a black & white book, sadly, but too gorgeous not to use here. Artwork © Look and Learn Ltd., used by permission.)