Friday, October 25, 2024

Comic Cuts — 25 October 2024


I'm in a race to get the next book finished. It's called Dreaming of Utopia, a history of Utopian Publications and some related publishers that involved Lloyd Cole and Benson Herbert, whose publishing careers were briefly entwined. So this will be short.

I'm seventy or so pages in with one article to go, so I'm getting close. However, I know how long the proofing and printing process takes, and it's unlikely that I'll have everything right straight out of the gate, so that's two proofs before I hit the button to get copies for the Paperback & Pulp Book Fair on November 24th. Working backwards, and allowing 8-10 days for each printing to arrive, that means I should finish work on the book TODAY. Unfortunately, there's still one article left to finish and design before I start checking through everything.


I can jump one step and upload the book and order myself a proof just to check that all the colour in the book works. Then proof the text while I wait for that to arrive. If the colours look fine, I can make any last-minute corrections and upload the (should it need to be) revised version and order the second proof. Normally I'm aiming to get everything right first time, but the turnaround time means doing this arse about face.

That's about it for news... Hibernia have a new book out collecting 'Slave of the Screamer' which I wrote the introduction for, so please support that so they ask me back. Rebellion have announced the 'Maroc the Mighty' reprint, which, again, I've written the intro for. PHANTOM PATROL continues to sell, maybe a copy a day, so it's not making me rich in monetary terms, but it does my heart good to know that the book is finally available to readers. We got a great review in SFX, where it was described as "the perfect blast from the past" and given four stars. There's a link to my eBay shop to the left—let your spouse/significant other know you want a copy for Christmas!

That's the lot. I'm rushing to get this posted Friday morning. By this evening I need to have that final article written and in place. Wish me luck!

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