The next Bear Alley book took a step closer... indeed, the next two books, as I'm likely to be releasing them at the same time. Followed by a third book two months after that, and a fourth two months after that one. I've still to work out the details. Indeed, I've still got to sign contracts, so I don't want to get too ahead of myself.
The step is that I have a draft of a lengthy essay about comic strip writer Tom Tully, one of my favourite writers—not just of comic strips but of fiction in general. When I was a youngster reading comics, my favourites were The Steel Claw—definitely number one—and then, in no particular order, The Wild Wonders, House of Dolmann, Mytek the Mighty and Slave of the Screamer. Later, I felt the same excitement reading Death Game 1999 and Johnny Red, was thrilled by Harlem Heroes and Mean Arena, and even grew to appreciate Roy of the Rovers, the finest soap opera in British comics.
When I began collecting comics, I discovered that he had written Heros the Spartan, Pike Mason, Johnny Cougar, Kelly's Eye, Football Family Robinson, Nipper, and dozens of other brilliant strips. It seemed that every paper I looked at had another fantastic story by Tom Tully. Gil Page told me that he was writing up to a dozen scripts a week, and I was determined to find them all if I could.
Unfortunately,Tully himself was becoming more reclusive. I should have contacted him when I was compiling indexes in the late eighties/early nineties, but I had various full-time jobs and organizing and compiling the lists filled what spare time I had. When I came to ask editors like Gil and Dave Hunt about Tom, they had lost touch. I found an address and wrote, but the reply came from a lady who had taken over the property but had no forwarding address. So near... yet so far!
When I returned to the indexes after we moved to Wivenhoe in 2010, there was a rumour circulating that Tully had died. When I asked contacts if this was the case, they were unsure, although one later told me he thought that Tully had died in 2011. I stopped looking and it was quite a while later that I found out he'd died in 2013.
This is the first time I've attempted a full-length piece about Tully, so I went to town and ended up with 15,000 words of notes that I've chopped back to about 12,000 words. I'll probably cut that back further to use as one of the essays in volume two, but I already have a second essay planned for that volume—which I'll be working on next week—so I'll have to see how they both fit together. Volume three is already too big and that only leaves volume one, which is also pretty massive.
I'll figure it out.
The argument on one side is that goods trains roaring along the tracks on the other side of the houses is more likely the cause of any damage; the argument on the other is that they've taken four years of measurements and are convinced the three trees are part of the problem. My sympathy is with the tree, which was still standing as of Thursday evening.
Incidentally, the houses claiming damage are in Clifton Terrace, once the home of author Dave Wallis, who wrote Only Lovers Left Alive. So they're a site of local interest to me!
And, finally, long-time readers may remember that, once upon a time, I had plans to publish a Cursitor Doom collection. Unfortunately, when Rebellion agreed to let me do Phantom Patrol they wouldn't let me do Cursitor as they had plans to use the character. Guess who just showed up in 2000AD in the new 'Portals and Black Goo' strip by John Tomlinson & Eoin Coveney...
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