Comic Cuts — 18 March 2022

We had our closest to a Covid scare this week following Mel's trip to a convention when she was told that someone had been "pinged" on Monday, and a general warning had gone out to attendees on Facebook. She was feeling a bit scratchy in the throat, but tested negative. A friend, however, tested positive on Tuesday, so everyone is taking tests daily. I will add that all of us are fully jabbed and boosted, so nobody is expecting anything other than a mild infection, if anything. It does mean that four of the nine games' players who regularly get together for our Saturday zoom games have now had the bug. Keep being careful, folks! [[Thursday night update: we're up to five now; another friend who attended the same convention has the bug. As of this morning Mel's latest test came back negative and I'm feeling fine.]]

I have been waiting on some information in order to complete my first batch of Spider introductions, so I still have a little bit of tinkering to do there, although they're for the most part done. While I have been waiting I've switched back to cleaning up artwork, concentrating this week on 'Patty's World' so that it can be translated into Spanish, coloured and published in a nice, neat hardback format as 'Esther y su mundo' [Esther and her world]. I wasn't involved in the first volume, but did some work for the second, which is coming out at the end of this month, and I'm currently working on volume three for (I think) publication in the summer.

I'm told that copies of the first two books I was involved with are on their way, which I'm very much looking forward to. One will be the third edition of The Steel Claw that I've been involved with (one for Titan, one for Egmont in Finland, and now one in Spain!). It's still my favourite strip!

What does this mean for the Action book. Well, this is what will pay for it. I have kept Bear Alley Books going for over a decade, but it isn't by any means a money-spinner. I've had to pause work on books on more than one occasion so that I can earn some money. If I'm frugal, that means I can then spend a few months researching and writing the next book. It occasionally means projects getting left along the wayside — The Valiant Index is still waiting to be completed, the new edition of The Mike Western Story, updates to the Power Comics indexes and the trio of Knockout, Comet and Sun... they're all waiting in the wings.

In the meantime, I still have rent to pay every month and it looks very much like we're about to go into a Seventies style inflationary spiral again, thanks to the three fisted gut-punch of Brexit, Covid and Putin. I don't have the financial parachute of a steady job, and my business costs are rising (everything is going up from printing costs to postage charges) — and that's on top of the soaring cost of living. Like everyone, our gas and electricity bills are about to more than double, the cost of food is rising (faster than inflation if, like me, you favour the value ranges of foods which are rapidly becoming a thing of the past), and both council tax and National Insurance are going up next month.

I don't want to sound too gloomy, but I'm in a niche market and, while I never expected to make a fortune, I also can't afford to lose my shirt. I love doing these books, but they have to take a back seat for a couple of months so that I can pay the bills. But do let me know if you know any oligarchs with a spare billion or two that they need to offload quickly, and I'll drop everything and get back to work on the last section of Action!