Comic Cuts — 28 November 2025

My self-imposed deadline of finishing the writing on the new book by the end of the month has come and will go over the weekend. I forgot how much I still need to re-read and the fact that the re-tooled Action ran for fifty issues, so that's 150 pages of tiny printed text for all of the longer-running strips (Spinball, Hellman, Lefty, Dredger, Hook Jaw). I have a suggestion for Rebellion, who are planning to reprint the first ten issues next year: Make 'em Apex Edition size so that old geezers like me can read the darn thing.

Other than not finishing it, I'm pleased with the way the book is coming together. Over the past few days I've had to take a look at everything from the history of punk rock to the plot of Lord of the Flies; eagle-eyed David Roach has also just added the name of another artist who contributed to the paper, one I recognise from his having worked with F. Solano Lopez's studio and as an assistant to Hugo Pratt.

Various disruptions (some welcome, some not so) have kept me busy in other areas than what I'm meant to be doing. Vistors on Saturday; a problem with storage on Sunday that involved a whole morning shuffling files between external hard drives; another morning spent researching the aforementioned Tibor Horvath (there isn't anything about him in English); an afternoon experimenting with AI text-to-sound programmes to help a friend "read" a book that he wouldn't otherwise be able to read; lugging a box of envelopes down to the post office to return them to a new supplier... they were meant to be like the envelopes that I send out my books, but these were incredibly flimsy and no better than a standard A4 envelope (the card was that flexible!). I've just put in an order with my previous supplier, and damn the expense.

Tuesday saw the funeral of my friend David Slinn. I learned a few things about David's background (he was a fiercely private man) and his love for—and career in—comics was a big part of the wonderful humanist ceremony his family organised. When something I had written about him was read out by the celebrant, some dust must have got in my eye as I'm usually pretty stoic. Unfortunately, I'm of an age where there will be more and more family funerals in my future.

Let's not end on a sad note. There's a good chance that I will be going to Glasgow in March for what's known as the Commando and British Comics Swapmeet, to be held at Cameron Halls, 147 Mossgiel Road G43 2BY. These swapmeets have been held in Stoke, Glasgow and Colchester for a couple of years now, and I've attended four (three in Colchester, one in Stoke) and I've always managed to do OK. So the offer of a ride to Glasgow seems too good to turn down. Hopefully it'll get some of my books in front of a new audience who might not have seen them before. 

I'd love to do more shows, but frankly the costs are too high. A table at most shows is five times (or more) the price and transport for me (I don't drive) is always going to be a problem; when I took books up to the London Paperback & Pulp Bookfare in March last year I knackered my arm and, eighteen months on, it's still less mobile and more painful to this day, but nowhere near as bad as it was last year.

OK, so I've just spent most of the afternoon looking into the work of Tibor Horvath and it looks like he was Solano Lopez's assistant on over 50 episodes of 'El Eternauta' in 1958-59. Amazing! Even after forty years of digging around in comics, I'm still stunned by how much there's still to learn.