Comic Cuts - 13 September 2019

The latest book from Bear Alley Books is a bit of a change of pace for me. It was an unexpected opportunity that came about when my uncle, John Chisnall, phoned to ask some questions about publishing a book. He and his co-author had been in touch with a publisher who were offering to publish their book but on a weird contract that would see them paying a ridiculous fee for a dozen copies.

I had a look at their website and it was clear that they were a vanity publisher and were actually offering very little for the fees. There were a ton of complaints about their practices on various forums. So I phoned back with a warning and half-jokingly said I could do  it for a third of the price (I might have said a tenth of the price... their fees were incredibly high!) and, when the book was done, they would be the publishers and would receive all of the profits, not just a tiny percentage of the cover price in royalties.

And that's just what we've done, although Bear Alley Books is now the publisher for want of a better idea, and the book should be published within the next week or two. I had a proof copy arrive last week, the final corrections are done and print order has been processed and paid for.

 The book is 156 pages, black & white and covers John's life and work from humble beginnings to his career as a trophy-winning motorcyclist and beyond. I'll set up a page for ordering the book at the Bear Alley Books website [a bit rough and ready, but hopefully functional] and put in a link over to the right should anyone be interested.

After the break... Mindhunter. With spoilers, so skip the review if you don't like 'em.

Mindhunter is a slow, relentless thriller set against the background of the early years of the Behavioral Science Unit at the FBI. The show launched in 2017 to great – and well deserved – critical acclaim, the first season set in 1977 as FBI agents Bill Tench and Holden Ford begin to explore the idea of interviewing serial killers to get an insight into their motives, methods and murderous instincts. They are joined by Dr. Wendy Carr, a psychology professor who tries to make sense of the interviews and codify their findings.

As the second series begins, Ford has suffered a panic attack while meeting Edmund Kemper, the "Co-ed Killer", and his colleagues are covering for him. However, Tench is also struggling with a situation he has kept private from his friends: his young son has been complicit in the accidental murder of a small child and he and his family are now the subject of intense scrutiny of psychiatrists and social workers. (The murder is based on a real incident.) Dr. Carr is also entering a new relationship which begins to fall apart.

While it continues to explore the lives and the work of its protagonists, the focus of the second season is on how their work as criminal profilers impacts on an investigation, the Atlanta Child Murders of 1979-81. Twenty-four mostly African-American children aged between 7 and 17 were kidnapped and murdered. Curfews and offers of rewards failed to stem the tide of deaths.

The desperation of the local community trying to raise awareness of the situation is painful. The paralysis of the police and the FBI as conflicting lines of inquiry spread resources and manpower is pitiful. The lack of political will to make the murders public is criminal.

The show builds slowly towards its climax. This is not a movie where you will get a big reveal in the third act. The murderer is nobody we've met before, a rather ordinary looking guy with no outstanding characteristics. The tension comes from trying to find proof that backs up Ford's conviction that they have the right man.

If you like fist fights and car chases, this is not the detective show for you. If you like meticulously constructed dramas based on real-life incidents, it's a must-see.

(Incidentally, the murderer was convicted on only two murders, both adults. While I was digging around, I discovered that the cases of 22 children that had been closed after the conviction, were reopened in March 2019 in the hope that modern-day DNA evidence might bring some certainty to a case where questions still remain forty years on.)