Comic Cuts — 21 October 2023

A bonus 'Comic Cuts' column!

Because I spent my usual Friday column talking about last weekend's comic swap meet, I didn't have room for my usual boring-ass ramblings about my boring-ass life, and for once there were a couple of things worth mentioning. Hence this bonus blog post.

I spent most of Sunday dealing with the fallout of the swap meet — not as bad as it sounds. For instance, I keep a spreadsheet of sales for every one of Bear Alley's books, which needed to be updated, and as I had forgotten to note the books as they sold, I spent ages trying to figure out a way of using the photos Mel and I had taken of the table to work out how many books I'd taken, and then take stock of what I bought back to figure out what had sold. It worked out at twenty-one copies of ten different titles. I then had to order more copies to replace those that had sold.

Between that and catching up on my mail took most of the day.

I spent Monday and Tuesday writing a piece about the late Keith Giffen for The Guardian, which didn't overrun nearly as long as I usually manage. Because the paper is a different size now (it shrank from broadsheet to 'Berliner' to tabloid over a period of 13 years), there's less room for the obituaries desk staff to indulge my rambling essays. It isn't just The Guardian... I remember being told off by the editors of Starblazer back in 1989 that my panel descriptions were way too long—another example of my "everything plus the kitchen sink, oh, and some kitchen utensils, too" writing style. I just don't like leaving anything out.

Anyway, in this instance I managed to keep it down to 40 words over the requested length, and after they queried a couple of points, they added another ten words that I'll get paid for! There's only one response anyone could make to that: "Bwah-ha-ha-ha-ha!"

I have some tidying up to do on A Laverda Journey, which is the next Bear Alley release, and then I should be able to get back to Beyond the Void, the book I'm writing about the history of Badger Books. I also need to keep up the promotion of The Trials of Hank Janson, which is selling OK—by which I mean double figures each month so far, not Rowling levels!—but which will inevitably tail off. I want everyone to be aware what a nice Christmas present a signed hardback copy would make...

I also had a nice big parcel in the post on Wednesday containing the first two volumes of the Fleetway Comics Archives from Book Palace. I first heard of the new series back in the spring from publisher Geoff West when he asked if I would be interested in writing a couple of introductions. I was and did, the first for Don Lawrence's Billy the Kid back in May and the second, for Jet-Ace Logan: The Complete Comet Stories, in September.

Both books have now been released and they're gorgeous! The Don Lawrence shouldn't need any introduction as there are plenty of examples of Lawrence's exemplary work on western strips already published (I put together Wells Fargo & Pony Express for Book Palace back in 2011 and Don also drew episodes of Longbow, still available from Bear Alley). The book runs to 136 pages and includes strips from Sun, Lion, an episode from Cowboy Picture Library and a couple of colour strips from Valiant Annual 1966.

The Jet-Ace Logan book is just amazing, reprinting the complete run of stories from Comet in one 376-page volume. It's easily my second favourite hardback released in the last two months (The hardcover of Trials of Hank Janson is a thing of beauty and I'm 100% biased in its favour!). It's typical of the fists-first action yarn that was so popular in the 1950s, but well-written by Mike Butterworth and David Motton, who could both tell a good story. The artwork was taken over by newcomer John Gillatt with the second storyline, and you can see how his talent and style developed over the next fifteen stories.

It's rare nowadays to find a complete run of the original Comet comics, so this will be the fist time many (including me) will have a chance to read Jet-Ace's adventures in full. They're seventy years old and they show their age, but you can forgive that in the same way that Flash Gordon serials are still watchable. I'm already thinking that a marathon reading session might be an excellent way to spend the weekend.

Also increasingly rare: finding pre-decimal paperbacks in the wild. I've only found a couple in the past month, and thought would make nice illustrations.