Comic Cuts - 17 August 2018

On Monday, I'd planned doing a quick conversion of my "Iron Mask" book so I could put it out on Kindle, but what I thought would be a couple of day's work at most sprawled over into the rest of the week and is still ongoing if you're reading this on Friday.

For newcomers, this isn't the historical character made famous by Dumas, but a later adventurer who planned to walk around the world while hiding his identity behind an old knight's helmet. I first stumbled across the story at a local historical exhibition, the man behind the Mask having once lived in Wivenhoe in the 1930s.

I wrote up the story a couple of years ago and put together a 42-page A4 booklet. Since then I've had some correspondence with various people who have been able to offer a few clues. A few more resources have also appeared online since the book was written in 2015, so I thought it a good opportunity to dig around and see what else I could find.

I'm the first to admit that the original is densely written. There's a lot of family information regarding births, marriages and deaths, where people lived, and how they interconnected or were involved with the "Iron Mask" saga; there's a confusion of names because families often name children after parents or grandparents; and there is also some speculation over people's identities which required a lot of explanation. It's a book that not only throws in the kitchen sink but also a full-length instruction manual of how the sink fits together, how you can attach it to the wall, what plumbing requirements you need and how to keep it working in all circumstances so you get the best results from it.

Because I knew it was confusing in places, I created a couple of family trees and a map to help people find their way around. These needed to be resized, but rather than just shrink them down I thought I'd redraw them. Big mistake. Switching from landscape to portrait – a wide image to a tall image – meant breaking the trees in two. I also needed to expand them to fill the extra space at the top and bottom of the new pages.

After a couple of failed attempts on Tuesday, I finally managed a quite simple tree on Wednesday that I was happy with. Now all I have to do is draw another three and I'll be finished. I still haven't figured out what to do with the map... it might turn into a list, which will be a hell of a lot easier to cope with!

There are positives from all this: I've ironed out a couple of problems with the original, correcting a couple of minor errors that had crept into the earlier draft, and added a riot and another court case to the text that I was previously unaware of.

I'll hopefully have it all wrapped up by next week.

I've been following the various reviews that people have written for The Vigilant, Rebellion's re-launch of a whole bunch of characters from their newly acquired British comics' archive.. When I wrote my review (scroll down if you haven't read it) I was wondering if I was being too harsh, but it seems that other reviewers agree with me. John Freeman sums it up best when he says, "having been handed a massive toy chest of characters, strips and concepts, the creative team involved on The Vigilant were a bit overwhelmed by the choice offered to play with, and, at times, used too many of them within this opening story."

What is also clear is that even those of us who have reservations over this particular story want The Vigilant to continue and for more stories to be told about these characters. I'm very happy to see Rebellion putting so much effort into not only bringing some of the old characters back, but reprinting the original strips. The choice has been eclectic – everything from Marney the Fox to Von Hoffman's Invasion – and the line is probably the better for it.

The latest announcement is the revival of Roy of the Rovers... or, rather, the ongoing revival of the character as he began a 12-week run in the pages of Match of the Day magazine back in early June. The redesigned (by Ben Willsher) Roy, drawn in MotD by Lisa Henke, is now set to star in a couple of books due out in October/November. One (Scouted) is a children's novel, written by Tom Palmer and written by Henke, the second a graphic novel (Kick-Off) written by Rob Williams with art by Willsher.

Rebellion have yet to announce them officially, but there are collections from the comics Wildcat and Jinty in the works for early next year, as well as a second collection for M.A.C.H.1 and a debut collection for Billy's Boots, Fred Baker's masterpiece of schoolboy soccer. For more details, scroll down, as I'm updated my Treasury of British Comics listing of upcoming titles.

The one thing I've not covered – because it's not a book – is the Scream! and Misty Special. To be published on 31 October, the second annual Hallowe'en special will again feature more adventures of "The Thirteenth Floor" by Guy Adams, John Stokes & Frazer Irving and "Black Max" by Kek-W and Simon Coleby. "Black Beth" by Alec Worley and DaNi reunites the team who brought you "Fate of the Fairy Hunter" in the last special, and two complete stories, “Best Friends Forever” by Lizzie Boyle and Yishan Li, and “Decomposition Jones“, by Richard McAuliffe and Steve Mannion, complete the issue.

The cover (left) is by Ohio-based American artist Kyle Hotz, formerly the artist of Nightman (Malibu), Ghost Rider 2099, The Hood, The Agency, and others for Marvel. There is also an alternate cover (right) by Lenka Šimečková, best known for the Czech comic "The Sorrowful Putto of Prague". The latter cover will be an exclusive available through the 2000AD web shop.

No book scans this week as I spent too long compiling the listing immediately below. So much to do, so little time... So instead, here's the cover of the upcoming special limited edition of Stephen James Walker's expanded The Art of Reginald Heade. Pricey, but I'm sure it will be worth it. Due out 31 August.