So here we are: it's Thursday, around noon as I write, and the news is breaking that Boris is to resign. Politics doesn't have a place here and I have tried to keep Bear Alley free of it, but, by the Lord Harry, it's about time. The man is a disgrace and has treated the country like he does his mistresses. The only thing I consider to be worse is that, if he wasn't such a narcissist who will cling on to power as long as he can while the next PM is chosen, Dominic Raab would have been in charge.
After a couple of busy days of scanning, I now have the next three books of reprints scanned, although all the scans still need to be gone over with a fine toothcomb. I finished the third book on Wednesday around 4 o'clock, while BoJo was testifying before a committee, and I had that on in the background. But I ended up watching because, like most people, I can't stop watching car crash TV. It really looked like the greased piglet would be pinned down this time.
My other recent fascination has been the 6th January Commission that has been broadcasts on US TVs, but which I have been watching on YouTube. It has been utterly compulsive viewing with compelling testimony from people who were behind the scenes as the Capital was stormed in 2021. Like many, I watched it happening in real time, but it is only through the testimony of witnesses under oath and with the gathered video evidence that the full story is beginning to emerge.
No more politics. As I mentioned above, I have been able to get a good way into the next phase of the Spanish reprints that I have been working on. For various reasons I ended up scanning quite a lot of material during the last phase that will end up in the latest lot of books. That was why I was running behind schedule back in May. Hopefully that won't be the case this time, although it is still very easy to lose a day to general maintenance — copying files to storage, shifting scans around so I can keep track of what has been done and what hasn't, creating enough space on my hard drive to work, run batch programmes in Photoshop, etc. — even without political distractions.
Trying to pull ahead also means that I have some forewarning of any problems. For instance, I was working on The Spider yesterday and discovered that two issues I have borrowed (thanks, David!) have damaged covers. If you have Lion's from that era (1967/68), you'll know that The Spider begins on the reverse of the cover. I was also four issues missing, of which I was able to buy three on eBay. Also a replacement for one of the damaged copies. That leaves me with two holes to fill: so does anyone have the issues for 21 October 1967 (that's the issue in the column header on the left) and 2 December 1967 (below). I need high res. scans of the first page of The Spider in the former issue, and the whole strip (5 pages) from the latter. If you have those issues and a scanner, drop me a line (my e-mail address can be found below the photo, top left) and I'll talk you through what I need.
And while I'm here... does anyone out there collect Girl? The 1980s photo story version rather than the Hulton Press title from the 1950s. I'm trying to track down some issues especially, at the moment, issue 310 and any holiday specials that might contain Patty's World. (I'll put up a note about these missing issues on Facebook and Twitter, so I apologise if you get swamped with the same begging letters.)
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