Comic Cuts — 1 August 2025

OK, some good news to start with. The backlog of orders caused by the equipment failure at the printers is slowly getting sorted. I had an order dating back to June 30th arrive on July 30th, so hopefully that means that the books ordered between 3rd and 12 July, which I think has been the most badly affected period, should start arriving with readers shortly.

I think part of the hold-up has been that the earlier orders had to be fed back into the system so began their journey all over again. I'm having a think about how I can prevent this from happening again in the future. It hasn't been the best book launch I've managed!

Looking forward, the next comic mart in Colchester is going to be on the 4th of October at the usual venue. There are already plans for a broader art show and I imagine the same dealers will be turning up with some interesting stock. I believe Keith Burns is already confirmed as a guest, so it'll be worth coming down just for the chance to meet Keith. 

Before that, I should have the next volume of MYTEK THE MIGHTY out and hopefully also the AIR ACE PICTURE LIBRARY COMPANION. I've just finished writing some pocket biographies of all the artists and writers who don't have a full-length biography in the volume—don't forget that I'm planning a couple more volumes covering the Fleetway war libraries, so potentially there will be another twenty or thirty biographies to write. I'm not sure how quickly I'll be able to get them out as it has taken probably four months to write and design the AIR ACE and now I've got another month of proofing, correcting and getting printed copies.

I'm not sure what I'm doing next, but it's likely to be finishing off a project that I started a few years ago. It'll be good to get one of the many titles I've announced over the years finished. Which one though?

I haven't been up to much else. We're having problems with one of our two tomato plants which is suffering from Blossom End Rot—caused by a lack of calcium getting through to the fruits, either through the too tight packing of the roots in the pot we have it in, or a lack of water (which I don't think is the problem as I have been watering them regularly). I wonder if the fact that the plant pot was attacked by ants the week we got the tomatoes. I'm watering the plants more often, and we're looking to buy some bone meal (which will require a trip into Colchester as there's nothing locally), but I'm not hopeful that we'll get a good harvest this year.

I'm thinking that next year we might get the plants out of the pots and replant them, but it's difficult to know where they'll get the same level of sunlight. But I guess anything is better than having them rot on the vine.

We're off this evening to see Jessica Fostekew. Wish us luck—it's an outdoor venue and there's a threat of rain!

• 2 Aug. JD Wetherspoons have taken the opportunity of refurbishment of The Navigation pub in Kings Norton to celebrate the work of Reg Bunn and The Spider.
• 30 Jul. Rich Johnston reports on Alan Moore's charitable work in Northampton, which has allowed two community hubs to reopen.
• 25 Jul. James Bacon is among the academics discussing the history of Irish comics at the National Library of Ireland in Dublin on Friday, 8 August. "Discover a selection of extremely rare comics dating from the 1930s -1960s, ranging from Greann — “The Only Irish Comic” – published in 1934, by Joe Stanley, 1916 Veteran and Printer, to 1968’s “Éamon de Valera, Hero Of Ireland” as drawn by legendary Fantastic Four artist, Joe Sinnott."
• 24 Jul. Showrunner Allan Heinberg discusses how the finale of The Sandman Netflix series lays the groundwork for a possible return to the Sandman universe. SPOILERS. "No comic book property I’ve ever encountered goes as deep or as wide as Sandman. It’s not an inexpensive show to make. And if we had a viewership that really demanded it and it made financial sense for Netflix, I could happily go on writing Sandman forever."
• 23 Jul. Si Spurrier discusses his departure from The Flash after 25 issues. (video 16m)
• 17 Jul. The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok) is to direct a new Judge Dredd movie, from a script by Drew Pearce (The Fall Guy, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation). Can I be the 10,000th person to call for Karl Urban to be reinstated as Dredd.
• 14 Jul. Rich Johnston has noted that a scene in the new Superman movie seems to have been lifted from an episode of The Authority by Mark Millar and Frank Quitely. (Spoilers)
• 13 Jul. Loving the Alien is a new podcast, the first episode featuring Sean Phillips talking about his past work, Criminal and the upcoming Criminal TV series from Amazon Prime. (1h 5m)
• 13 Jul. David Lloyd, Carlos Yacolca and Alberto Rayo discuss the webcomic Aces Weekly at AIPT. "Apart from basic maintenance costs, online comics have no need to pay for repro, printing, packaging, and distribution. The pages are just files to be slotted in, sometimes just before the day they’re due to be read, and it’s all just sent down the super highway. And it looks better on screen — no bad printing to worry about — and you can have it really big on your smart TV! Sadly, the mass of comics readers are still hopelessly in love with their customary form on paper and cling to it with annoying tenacity, so despite all the good things we offer for a good cause, we’re still battling for it.”
• 10 Jul. Chris Weston reveals that the MCU is still using comics as concept art, writing on Facebook: "Wow. They've literally reproduced my cover from "Fantastic Four: First Family"! Come on, Marvel Studios, that's got to be worth a couple of free tickets, surely!
• 7 Jul. Al Ewing and Dan Cornwell take Judge Dredd on holiday in the upcoming 2000AD Sci-Fi Special. Ewing: "In some ways, it was like slipping back into an old and comfortable pair of shoes – or tight boots, maybe. Part of that is that it was quite a light brief ... I don’t have to worry that much about what Dredd’s been up to in the years since I last handled the character, or how the politics of Mega-City One have developed – it’s just Dredd being Dredd..."
• 7 Jul. The Sandman showrunner Allan Heinberg explains how the edecision to end the Netflix series after two seasons came about. "I had always thought of 'The Sandman' as a three-season show with 11 episodes in each season," Heinberg admits, but that plan changed once they made Tom Sturridge's Dream their protagonist.
• 5 Jul. Glenn Fabry and Simon Furman have been honoured at the London Film and Comic Con at Olympia and have been inducted into the LFCC Hall of Fame. Rich Johnston has photos at the link.
• 4 Jul. Comics by Perch interviews Mark Millar about his new project with John Romita Jr., Psychic Sam, which is available on Kickstarter now. (video, 59m)