Comic Cuts — 9 September 2022

We've had a lively week, with some work on two books and a day trip out to Walton to see the sea for the second time in a matter of weeks. I'm taking advantage of Mel's holidays to get out of the house, and I haven't been to Walton since I was a kid. Its full name is Walton-on-the-Naze, but the Naze isn't a river, as you might expect, but a headland sticking out into the North Sea. There's a famous tower (Naze Tower) that was at one time a light-house, although we didn't walk up the coast quite that far.

We did, however, walk quite a distance in weather that was hot but blustery, which kept it feeling too hot. There had been rain in the morning, but the skies cleared while we were making our way there and it managed to stay dry until we were coming back home, when we ran into a very sharp shower storm that soaked everything for five minutes and then abruptly stopped. Thankfully we were sat in a cozy, dry train carriage for the whole shower.

With schoolkids back in class, the beaches were for the most part empty, apart from what looked like five coach-loads of day-trippers up from London, who were clustered together in one stretch of beach. The rest of the front was quietly colourful, lots of beach huts and one or two (generally elderly) folk taking in the last of the summer sun. We got talking to a little group who were renting a cottage in town, and, as is often the way, it turned out they were from just around the corner from where my Mum lives.

The pier had been closed down all summer, so we didn't take a walk along its length. We did have some very nice fish and chips and pottered around the High Street for a bit, although we found only two charity shops. All in all, a very pleasant day.

It was nice to relax as I had had a couple of days at full pelt, one trying to sort out illustrations for a book to (potentially) be published in Germany. If it happens I've already done the work; if it doesn't I don't get a penny. Just one of the perils of freelancing.

I'm also still copy-editing this book about a world trip by bike. I'm hoping to have it finished by the end of the week, as I have another scanning job already lined up and a deadline.

Last weekend was the annual Invasion Colchester event, with the centre of town invaded by cosplayers, a fantastic way of collecting for charity and a fun day out for youngsters, who like to dress up as their favourite heroes, whether that's Spider-Man or Elsa. This was the first since 2019, and town was packed. Maybe because it was the most crowded I had experienced for three years, I was finding taking photos incredibly frustrating... by the time my camera had focused you could bet pounds to pennies that someone had wandered into the foreground of the shot, or the character you were trying to photograph had turned because a little kid wanted a selfie.

Luckily, Mel was also in town, and managed to fill a few gaps, so the regular Invasion Colchester photo selection isn't too bad. I see I have been posting these for ten years now. The first was in 2011. Looking back through the Comic Cuts columns for that period, I didn't even mention it as it coincided with a period when I was busy with one of the early books that appeared from Bear Alley (the C. L. Doughty collection, which took ages to complete), but I was there... I just forgot to take my camera. Same goes for 2013, when I had the release of the Boys' World book to distract me.

Thankfully, I have been better organised for the other eight years the event has been held. And there's always the Facebook page, which has a gallery of over 200 images from this year's event. Scroll down to see mine and Mel's photos. If you've arrived from Facebook to this specific post, just click on the Bear Alley banner and that will take you to the home page where you can see all my recent posts. I don't know if that works on all blogs, but that's the way I set mine up!