I'm back on track with the Air Ace Companion. I mentioned a fortnight ago that I might have something to show you within the fortnight and I have actually started doing layouts. Admittedly, as of writing I haven't got very far but I have got through the sitting in front of a blank page, trying to think of an easy-on-the-eye style that I can lay the pages out in.
I've adapted slightly the way I've designed my recent books on Badger and Utopian Publications and, like them, the book will be printed in colour. It'll cost a bit more, but I want to make best use of the Air Ace cover artwork that I have photographs of—while they would reproduce OK in black & white, you wouldn't get the full, glorious impact that you get in colour.
I finished what should be the last of the biographical essays on Monday—I say should be because it isn't unknown for me to change things or add things at the last minute: for Forgotten Authors vol. 5 I wrote a last-minute essay because one of the intended essays was written in too much the same style as another; there was nothing wrong with the piece that was dropped and it will turn up in a later volume.
Where was I? Oh, yes, the last essay... I think there's one piece that needs some rewriting and some have yet to be checked through, but the book will run to roughly 40,000 words.
Air Ace aside, it has been a deadly quiet week. Yes, I spent a little time in the garden, but not much—enough to fill the bin that we have to use nowadays and which we pay extra for... so I make sure I don't waste any of the collections. I wanted to clear one area in particular which is a popular pathway for cats. Since our neighbours moved away, taking their two cats with them, we've seen an increase in the number of other cats wandering through now they've realised our garden is unclaimed territory. There's a big, fluffy grey cat that looks a bit of a bruiser that we've seen on a couple of mornings, although there is also a second cat, a tortoiseshell, that we've seen in the evening. Maybe they're both claiming territory and their schedules are not overlapping.
One interesting find: a little while back, I mentioned a trip to IPC's artwork storage warehouse in Camden Town. That's where all the artwork for the war libraries was discovered. Well, I've found a short video that I filmed at the time. I'm not quite sure what to do with it but I'll figure out some way of letting everyone see it. In the meantime, I grabbed a couple of screenshots of War Picture Library artwork. If you saw how it was stored you'd probably cry!
Time to get back to laying out a few more pages... the next essay is about Graham Coton, so you can guarantee that there will be at least one full page pic. I really like Graham Coton's work.
Surprisingly, TV21 editor Alan Fennell told me he didn't like Graham Coton's artwork on Fireball XL5, which is why he never reprinted it in Thunderbirds The Comic back in the '90s and started with Mike Noble's first episode. Personally, I quite liked Coton's five episodes and was glad to finally see them reprinted in the 60th Anniversary Comic Anthology book in 2022.
ReplyDeleteSome of his comic strips were a bit slapdash unless he liked the subject matter (planes, racing cars). His illustrations for Look & Learn and covers for the war libraries are by far his best work... so much energy!
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