Comic Cuts — 13 September 2024

Since I was born on a Friday the 13th, I've never been superstitious about them. It's called paraskevidekatriaphobia and it's an irrational fear that some believe in, as is triskaidekaphobia, the fear of the number thirteen. I had a look at Wikipedia to check the spelling and it seems to have been something that developed in the early 20th century alongside various other obsessions with the paranormal.

That it's all nonsense is easily proven: how many bad events can you say were the fault of the 13th of the month falling on a Friday? And there have been 688 of them in the past 400 years, so surely there should be at least 688 terrible accidents, emergencies or eruptions... and what do you blame the bad things happening on other days on? Titanic hit an iceberg on a Sunday the 11th, Hindenburg went up in flames on Thursday the 6th, and Krakatoa almost ripped an island apart on Monday the 27th.

There's nothing to fear and a lot to celebrate: and that's what I'm doing today and have been since Wednesday, because Rebellion signed off on THE PHANTOM PATROL and once I have a final printed proof in hand, it should be out towards the end of the month.

I have been tinkering with the Utopian book, having now cleaned up all the scans I have (some good, some not so good); there's a second section about the guy who wrote a lot of the stories for the magazines Utopian put out (Norman Firth) and I need to sort out the scans I have of his books, but it's moving in the right direction.

I'm also working up some material for the next comic strip reprint, a big sprawling essay about the writer of the strip, which I'll probably chop up into a couple of parts as this version includes everything I can, including the kitchen sink. Or should that be kitchen sink drama, because there was certainly some of that in his work.

This is a short column, because I spent quite a chunk of time this week cleaning and cropping photos for the Invasion Colchester column (below if you're on the main page, here if you've come from Facebook), and I need to crack on with all the odds and ends that putting out a new book entails. Fingers crossed, I might have figured out a release date by our next Comic Cuts column.

• 13 Sep. The latest report from the US website Deadline on Neil Gaiman's various screen adaptations says that production on the third and final season of Good Omens has been paused by Netflix.
• 9 Sep. Mark Millar's Millar Time features an interview with John McCrea. (video 1h 20m)
  
• 6 Sep. Alan Moore has a new novel due out on 1st October, a historical fantasy. "The Great When departs from Moore’s beloved Northampton—the “obvious centre of the universe”—and settles in London in 1949, when the city and its populace are physically and psychologically “in pieces”. This precarity provides a fertile backdrop for the misadventures of the novel’s protagonist, the hapless Dennis Knuckleyard, a motherless 18-year-old living and working with the profoundly grotesque bookshop owner, Coffin Ada."
• 6 Sep. Given the shitstorm that is currently surrounding Neil Gaiman, it's no surprise that decisions are being made about various properties connected to him. Warner Bros., for instance, have announced that Dead Boy Detectives (Netflix) won't be getting a second season; a movie adaptation of The Graveyard Book is on hold at Disney; but Good Omens 3 is moving ahead, although this report reveals that with filming not due to start until next year, it will be 2026 at the earliest before we see the results.
  
• 4 Sep. Si Spurrier is interviewed at the Ideas Don't Bleed podcast. "I was very excited to finally get Si on the show. In addition to being friends for years, he is a writer who constantly gets me excited about comics. From character defining runs on X-MEN books and HELLBLAZER, to groundbreaking creator owned books like CODA, ANGELIC, GODSHAPER, CRY HAVOC, THE SPIRE, STEP BY BLOODY STEP, and DAMN THEM ALL, each new title changes and reinvents what I think I know about his work. So it was a blast to get to catch up, and even more fun to get to pick his brain about how he does what he does." (podcast, part one, 34m)
  
• 4 Sep. Telos Publishing are now taking orders for The Fantastic Art of Ron Turner by John Lawrence, completed with the assistance of Phil Harbottle and due to be published in November. Phil has been interviewed by Sequential 21. "Shortly before Turner had died in 1997, John had told him in hospital that he planned to write a book about his life and work, and he had said, “Oh really. Do you think anyone would be interested?” When John responded “Yes, of course!” Ron’s rather self-deprecating reply as he shook his head was, “I can’t think why!”"
  
• 30 Aug. Garth Ennis has another new mini-series on the way, a piss-take on all things sword & sorcery entitled Babs. "Babs follows the titular heroine, described in the book’s opening sequence as “raven haired, suspicious minded, wielder of an okay sword… fair of face yet shit of luck…” on a series of misadventures in a typical medieval-style fantasy setting."
  
• 27 Aug. Simon's Cat, which began life on YouTube in 2008, had become a huge brand and is about to become a Meme Token, $CAT. "$CAT, will be the cornerstone of the Simon’s Cat Web3 community, presenting the brand to a whole new audience of crypto enthusiasts, while introducing existing fans to the benefits of blockchain technology." Simon Tofield's hugely popular creation has also benefited Cats Protection, who have received a healthy donation.
  
• 26 Aug. Comic Beat has a preview of Alan Moore's The Moon and Serpent Bumper Book of Magic. "Messrs. Steve and Alan Moore, proprietors of the celebrated Moon and Serpent Grand Egyptian Theatre of Marvels (sorcery by appointment since circa 150 AD), have produced a clear and practical grimoire of the occult sciences that offers endless necromantic fun for all the family. Exquisitely illuminated by a host of adepts including Kevin O’Neill, John Coulthart, Steve Parkhouse, Rick Veitch, Melinda Gebbie, and Ben Wickey, this marvellous and unprecedented tome promises to provide all that the reader could conceivably need in order to commence a fulfilling new career as a diabolist."
  
• 22 Aug.  Garth Ennis has rounded up a crack team of creators for the new Battle Action volume. "Volume Three features best-in class machine-gun-toting creative work from Garth himself and a specially-selected crack squad of his favourite creators: Brian K. Vaughan, Chris Burnham, Keith Burns, Rob Williams, John Higgins, Torunn Grønbekk, John Wagner, Dan Abnett, Steve White, Henry Flint, John McCrea, Tom Foster, PJ Holden, Dan Cornwell, Mike Dorey and Patrick Goddard!" (video, 22m)
  
• 21 Aug. Producer/director Brandon Vietti and actors Katee Sackhoff and Titus Welliver discuss the animated adaptation of Watchmen Chapter 1. "Dave’s art is so solid and strong and beautiful. A lot of us had to raise our art game to find a way to try to duplicate what he did seemingly so easy in the Watchmen book and all throughout his career. It was kind of a gift for a lot of us to go to the Dave Gibbons school while making this movie."
  

Invasion Colchester 2024

This year's Invasion Colchester took place on Saturday, with the town centre swamped with cos-players dressed up as everything from Princesses to Predators. This is a charity event hosted each year for the benefit of St Helen Hospice, Colchester and Ipswich Hospitals Charity and MIND (Mid & North East Essex). 

It has been going annually sine 2011, and if you click on the 'Invasion Colchester' tag at the end of this post, you can travel back in time to previous invasions. I haven't been every year (Covid also put a pause on the event in 2020) and (annoyingly) I didn't have a camera with me the first year, but Mel and I have otherwise managed to snap a few pictures over the years.

Congratulations to everyone involved. The pic immediately below comes from the event's Facebook page, but the rest of the photos are by myself or Mel.