Comic Cuts — 30 May 2025

Sunday was my Big Day Out as I headed off to the Paperback & Pulp Book Fair at Bloomsbury's Holiday Inn in Coram Street, London, just around the corner from the Royal National, where the Book Fair was held for many years. The renewed Fair has been running for a couple of years (I think November 2023 was the first) in association with the Ephemera Fair run by Etc Fairs.

I was up nice and early, although I had everything planned out pretty well, my bag packed with copies of BEYOND THE VOID, DREAMING OF UTOPIA and some sample copies of MYTEK THE MIGHTY to show people. Still quite hefty to carry: my shoulder has never quite recovered from the March 2024 show where I took up a load of books in a shopping trolley, forgetting that I would have to carry it up stairs at one of the underground stations; my ligaments still twang when I try to lift boxes and throwing things is painful (which, admittedly, I don't often need to do).

This time I was able to sling the bag over my good shoulder and all I had to put up with was the weight bouncing onto my hip. A vast improvement!

I had no particular aims travelling up to the Fair. I've just spent a significant sum licensing Mytek and I'm about to spend more on printing the first two books, so I knew I wasn't going to be spending too much. As long as the trip (£50 for the trains; I took my own food and drink) didn't cost a huge amount. Hopefully selling a couple of books would cover that. (It did.)

I managed to pick up a small selection of books I wanted, ranging from fairly modern SF Masterworks (I still have a few gaps in the numbered series... thirteen shy of the 72 total, but I also need a couple with the original covers rather than the later reversed out covers) to filling some more gaps in my Fifties SF paperback collection thanks to Bob "mrbook451" Wardzinski who I've known since ye olde dayes when he was Bob "The Talking Dead" Wardzinski. He always has something on his stall that I want, and this time I was able to pick up a couple of Jon J Deegan novels that I need for a future article I'm planning.

Jamie Sturgeon had an old Piccadilly Novel that I decided I must have as soon as I spotted it. Just a slim little crime novel by a guy called Frank Griffin, who is surely in line for a Forgotten Authors essay if I can pick up a few more of his books (I only have three, I think, which isn't enough to get a good overview of his work). From Mick Cocksedge I picked up an old Denis Hughes western. Mick is someone I need to talk to: our collecting interests overlap (British "mushroom" paperbacks) but I've never had a chance to chat with him — and whenever I saw him on Sunday I was mid-conversation with someone or he was off looking at something or chatting to someone himself (I hate to interrupt!).

One nice surprise was amongst the books bought by dealers in the Ephemera hall — knowing that the book collectors are coming en masse they often bring a box or three of paperbacks, and someone had bought some old comics and pocket libraries, from which I extracted Combat Library #1 — the text library rather than the comic strip Picture Library. Written by Erroll Collins, the pen-name of Ellen Redknap. I've always found her output fascinating — I wrote an article once called 'On the Trail of Erroll Collins' — and I've always wondered how she came to write the first of the Futuristic Science Thriller series for Stanley Baker and the first Combat Library for Micron/GM Smith. Did they advertise for writers? And did she write more for them under different pen-names?

(A quick aside. Many years ago, when I was working on Vultures of the Void, I skim read the five Baker novels in the Futuristic Science Thriller series at the British Library and thought they were all by the same author. Since then, I have managed to pick up two of them for my collection and I also have a couple of Erroll Collins novels for comparison, and I now believe that she wrote only the first. If I ever get a chance to read all four of the remaining titles I might have an idea who did write them. I try to spread the word when I make mistakes, and in this case managed to get a correction into the SF Encyclopedia entry.)

As for the show itself, it was busy and I believe everyone did pretty well. Everyone's feeling the pinch, but I think we all came out to spend a bit of money and there were a lot of bargains to be had. I think this is the fourth of the Bloomsbury fairs (one in 2023, two last year, and this one) and many have realised that a few boxes of lower grade stock put out for a couple of quid will be eagerly riffled through by buyers and they'll happily take home a bag full as long as it doesn't cost the earth. Only two of the books I bought were over £4.

As usual, Jules Burt was there to document the day and he has a video which shows him searching through boxes of books, intercut with a number of interviews (including yours truly in a stunning new t-shirt) and commentary. I always enjoy these (and not just for my participation) and it really is the best way to visit the fair if it wasn't possible to come in person, or you want to see what was available but don't want to spend anything.

The column header is from his video, by the way. I think I'm trying to work some Jedi mind trick on Jules to feature my books. And I'm wearing that t-shirt (sorry: lifestyle recycled poly jersey) that cost me £32. No, it's not for sale — it's a one-off I made to promote the upcoming books. Looks good, tho'.

Jules joined David Hyman, Barry Hunter and myself on a trip to the pub for a quick pint as things started to wind down in the afternoon. A nice young lady took a photo for us, which you'll find below.

I was expecting to be knackered on Bank Holiday Monday, but we managed to get out in the garden... well, on the road as we cut back a hedge and our neighbour's tree. Our former neighbour has just moved out as their landlord is selling the house, so I've taken the opportunity to chop a tree back so that it's no longer hanging over the pavement. Anyone walking by had to step out into the road or walk into a tangle of branches; it bugged everyone who lived in the area but the people living there refused to cut it back. Now there's a seven foot or so tunnel in the overhanging branches and Richard Osman or Greg Davies could pass underneath without ducking.

I even managed to get a bit of work done. Most of the essays for the AIR ACE COMPANION are written or well under way. Some need some rewriting or some additional writing, but it's all heading in the right direction and I'm thinking about doing some layouts to see what it might look like. I might even have something to show you in the next fortnight or so.

Cheers!