Comic Cuts - 20 April 2012

A shorter column than usual this week as I'm off to London for the day to see if I can drum up some work to keep me in Polo mints — of which I've been getting through a couple of packets a day since giving up smoking. Something else I'm going to have to ween myself off at some point. I'm still not smoking — two whole weeks now and it's only just starting to get a little easier. I'm still taking the occasional puff on the electronic cigarette, but I'm trying to keep that to a minimum as I don't want to swap one addiction for another.

I thought I would see some improvements but all I've noticed so far is that I'm feeling more tired and more easily distracted. Part of the problem was that, over the first two days, I deliberately screwed up my routine in order to avoid the habitual cigarettes I've been smoking for 20+ years; now that I'm trying to get back onto my normal work schedule again I'm finding it difficult. Mel described it as jet lag and I can't think of a better description.

In between lapses of concentration, I've managed to get the new book out and all the advance orders should be filled by the time you read this, depending on the post... although copies will obviously take a little longer if you're not in the UK. I'm about to begin work on the next Bear Alley Books publication, which will be the Sexton Blake Annual. I'm a big fan of Blake, so I'm looking foward to getting started. I'll probably release these every six weeks or so and, with a good tail wind, I'll have more books on offer over the summer and autumn. That's the plan anyway. Our column header is the 1938 edition.

As regular readers know, the money I'm saving by giving up smoking is going into what I'm calling my Kindle Fund, raising money to buy a Kindle. And the fund currently stands at...

Kindle Fund: £69.22

Our random scans for today begin with three covers I was missing from the John Wyndham cover gallery. These have been sent in by Richard Sheaf and I'll be adding them to the Wyndham gallery shortly. The last two are by two artists favoured by most collectors of British paperbacks, namely Ron Turner and Reginald Heade. The Turner is a Badger classic, Supernatural Stories issue 6 from 1955; the Gardner is a hardcover dustjacket, Cassell, 1944. This is what the internet was made for: Heade and cats!

 

 

Our comic strip continues over the weekend as I'm away up in London today and have to do some shopping and scanning tomorrow. With luck I'll have a new cover gallery for you next weekend.