Comic Cuts — 15 November 2024

I'm now taking orders for DREAMING OF UTOPIA, the new book about Utopian Publications and the history of Lloyd Cole and Benson Herbert. The proof I was talking about last week finally turned up and was pretty close to what I wanted, so with a couple of very small tweaks I decided to have the printer run off some copies so I'll have some at the Paperback & Pulp Book Fair in Bloomsbury on the Sunday, November 24th.

The book won't be available on eBay or Amazon until after the Book Fair as I want to take the small print run up to London with me. I won't be taking as many copies as I did the Badger book (BEYOND THE VOID) as I'm going to be carrying the damn things in a bag rather than try to get the trolley on and off the train again, which has given me eight months of problems with the tendons in my right arm. So I'll be bringing fewer copies, only a couple of the Badger book and maybe a couple of THE TRIALS OF HANK JANSON, unless you've asked (as one person has) for a copy of one of our other books.

As usual, I'll offer a bit of a discount to anyone ordering in the next couple of weeks. I take these advance orders through Paypal — just go to the Bear Alley Books page for price info. and where to send it. Make sure you let me know your address!

While I'm waiting for that order to go through — I'm also waiting on restocks of THE PHANTOM PATROL, which is why I haven't been able to put in a bigger order for the new books — I've put my nose to the grindstone of getting the next book started. A quick Thank You to everyone who has joined in trying to decipher my cryptic crossword-style clue to what it is — a couple of early entries were mentioned in the comments last week, but I've also had correct answers from Kid Robson, Mike Williams, Mike Hall and Ronald McNeil over the last few days.

The new books won't be out for a little while yet as I have introductions to write, pages to lay out and covers to sort out. There are four volumes and I want to get the first two out together with the others following a couple of months apart, as that will help spread my costs a little. It isn't cheap doing these books and the more I publish, the more stock I need to carry.

I'm hoping that, in between, I can work on a couple of other projects. In no particular order, I want to get the War, Battle and Air Ace libraries back in print, but in a different format, and I'd love to get back to two books I started ages ago, indexing Valiant and Action. There's another comic strip I have my eye on for reprinting, too. And I'd like to do another book about old paperbacks and already have some of the next one written... and, of course, another Forgotten Authors volume.

That should keep me busy in 2025... only six weeks away as I type this and with a lot of mince pies to be eaten before the clock strikes and the fireworks go off.