Bear Alley: Comic Cuts

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, May 06, 2022

Comic Cuts — 6 May 2022

This will be a super short post because I have been busy and have done nothing other than scanning and clean-up of scans for the past week.

It really has been a solid wall of work; we had a long weekend, but apart from a visit from a friend on Saturday and a little gardening on Sunday the longest break I've had was the three hour running time of The Batman, which was not bad. Not the best Batman movie ever, but pretty good. I enjoyed Riddler being the bad guy for a change, although the TV series Gotham had brilliant takes on Riddler and Penguin; Paul Dano as a Zodiac-style killer is at least new (if you ignore the Zodiac), although his supposedly cryptic riddles were solved in a matter of seconds, reminding me of the tortured but instantaneous logic of Adam West in the 1966 Batman movie.

Hopefuly Robert Pattinson will be given better directions and more to do in the sequel. "You're a miserable goth," won't carry a second movie. And can I point out that when two people are in a room and not hiding from a killer, they speak in normal tones and use their voice to convey emotion. This modern practice of having everyone whisper at each other is as annoying as it is ridiculous.

I'm going to use the rest of my time here to promote two things. One is DHL, the courier. I had to borrow some comics for the latest job and was very kindly offered a loan by David McDonald of Hibernia Books fame. This meant getting a courier, as I needed to get them from Ireland to England safely and securely.

I had to fill out a couple of forms and arrange a pick-up. Last Friday was out because David was on a half day at work, so we agreed on this Tuesday, the 3rd. However, DHL had a van in the area and contacted David on Thursday, offering an early pick-up, which he arranged and the parcel arrived here on Monday, a day before it was due to be picked up! How's that for time-bending efficiency.

So this is my chance to say a public thanks to both David and to DHL. I had a little involvement with David's latest offering, collecting the Brian Lewis episodes of 'Captain Condor' from the pages of Lion. It's a fantastic little book, the third of his collections based on Rebellion material. There are two more in the works: 'Sergeant Strong', which ran between March and December 1975 in Valiant, and then 'Timequake' from the first 13 issues of Starlord, plus various special and annuals.

These books sell out pretty quickly, so visit the Hibernia shop at Comicsy, where you can also still find The Indestructible Man by Scott Goodall and Jesus Blasco. But quickly... the Captain Condor was almost sold out, last I heard.

If you recall my rant last week, I have had payment from one company, another should pay one invoice this week, and a third will pay all outstanding invoices within a fortnight. I thought you deserved to be kept up to date after the outpouring of sympathy. Thank you... and goodnight.