Comic Cuts — 20 December 2024

I'm trying to get a few things finished ahead of Christmas and doing pretty well. As well as my own upcoming projects—I'm working on the first two volumes of a comic strip reprint—I've also been helping out on a couple of books for publication abroad, one in Germany and another in Spain.

The latter two both feature the work of Don Lawrence and I've become involved because of my earlier works on Don. In 2023, All Verlag did an expansion of my Don Lawrence Scrapbook, published as an Illustrators special in 2018, and I have been working on the third volume for publication next year. I wrote an introduction earlier this week, and gathered together a load of images to illustrate the piece. I believe I have the last two scans we need to hand and they should be heading off later today.

The second book is a reprint of the Wells Fargo & Pony Express book I did back in 2010 for Book Palace, which is to have a Spanish edition. I'm hoping that they will accept my original introduction, which had nothing to do with the comic strips themselves, but instead was a history of transport across America from the days of... well, Wells Fargo and the Pony Express and how they were replaced by rail and road over the next century. It might not be your usual cup of tea, but I must confess that I was incredibly happy with the way it came together and I put it up as a Kindle ebook ten years ago. I don't suppose it has been read by more than a handful of people in that time, but at least it's out there.

I have similar thoughts about the Forgotten Authors series... they don't sell in any great numbers, but it's my way of pulling together what information I can on these obscure authors and making it available to the handful of readers who are interested. Volume six has been on my mind as I'm writing an essay for it now, although it will perform double duties as I can reuse the research in one of my next books. I've also got my eye on another author I want to write about and have just spent a little too much money filling in a few gaps in my meagre collection of his novels, which spanned science fiction, horror, spy thriller, romance and murder mystery. I have some fun reading to do before I put fingers to keyboard!

As this will be the final post for the year, I should do some sort of wrap-up for Bear Alley Books. It has been our busiest year since before the pandemic. Post-Covid (2020-23), I was doing a lot of scanning for Spanish and Italian publishers which caused a number of projects to be put aside. The plan was to restock my bank account so that Bear Alley wasn't on such a rocky financial footing, but slow (and no) payments meant that by early-2023 things looked pretty precarious.

Thankfully the prompt payment from some publishers (thank you Editoriale Cosmo, All Verlag and the folk at Die sprechblase), some work for the Guardian and some paying gigs writing introductions, kept me afloat at what was a difficult time for both Mel – who was made unemployed when Aceville was closed down – and I.

Things have picked up a bit since then and I've managed to get THE TRIALS OF HANK JANSON, BEYOND THE VOID, FORGOTTEN AUTHORS Volume 5 and DREAMING OF UTOPIA published in a fourteen month period, as well as putting out two comic reprints, HIGH SEAS AND HIGH ADVENTURES and THE PHANTOM PATROL, and getting a friend's book into print, FEMALE DETECTIVES IN EARLY CRIME FICTION 1841-1920.

I hope that I can keep up the pace and we will have another half-a-dozen books out next year.

With new books appearing regularly, sales have been a lot better compared to 2021-23, although not quite so good as 2020, when I had five books out. My best years, incidentally, were 2014 and 2013, the former thanks to the publication of my Countdown book, which continues to sell, albeit at a much slower pace. Here's the Top 10 sellers for the year 2024:

1    Beyond the Void
2    Phantom Patrol
3    High Seas and High Adventures
4    Dreaming of Utopia
5    Countdown to TV Action
6    Eagles Over the Western Front
7    Trials of Hank Janson
8    Hurricane & Champion
9    Lion: King of Picture Story Papers
10    Ranger: The National Boys' Magazine

The first four places were books newly out this year, but Countdown and Eagles Over the Western Front both continue to sell in (low) double-digits (and getting lower as we move down the chart!)

We had our "works outing" on Wednesday... in other words, me and Mel went down the pub for the Bear Alley Books Xmas Party... Merry Christmas everyone. Have a wonderful holiday and don't drink too much on New Year's Eve. See you in 2025.