Comic Cuts — 20 March 2026

It's Friday and I'm on my way to Glasgow. The plan is to be on the road by 6.30 and in Scotland around noon hopefully, so—depending on when you're reading this—I might be on my way, already there or already back home (and to those readers I say "Where have you been? We were worried sick"). 

I'm heading up north with one of the organisers of the Commando Swap Meet. Karl Kennedy, who has used the full power of his charms and possibly some hypnotic drugs to make me leave the house a few times over the past few years. There are three of these Commando Swap Meets—in full the Commando and British Weekly Comics Swap Meet—which, for me, began in October 2023 when I had a table at the Colchester Swap Meet. This was the 12th such event, but the first in Colchester. Back of a fag packet maths tells me that there must have been 11 previous meets at Stoke and Glasgow.

A bit of digging through Facebook reveals they began in 2017, probably in September, probably in Glasgow. I'm basing this on the fact that the third bi-annual meet was on 29th and 30th September 2018.

The original organiser was the late Colin Noble, who passed away in March 2021. The organization has since been run by Stephen Hume, Andy Yates and the aforementioned Karl Kennedy. 

October 2024

That first Colchester Meet was very much an experiment for me. Mel and I lugged books to the venue in a trolley and a sports bag. I see from the Comic Cuts column written the following week that I took £287.

Karl has since taken the pain our of getting books to the venue by offering to chauffeur me and my goods, which has increased year on year until I'm now taking copies of 27 different books to this year's Mart—six full boxes—with the new ACTION: THE SEVENPENNY NIGHTMARE taking up a good chunk of space. But I'm also taking up copies of MYTEK (all four volumes), the AIR ACE COMPANION and copies of other indexes and comic strip reprints. 

I'm amazed to say that Bear Alley has published eleven books since that first show in October 2023, when the new title just out was the revised The Trials of Hank Janson. Since then we've had Beyond the Void (March 2024), Forgotten Authors Volume 5 (May 2024), High Seas and High Adventures (July 2024), The Phantom Patrol (September 2024), Dreaming of Utopia (November 2024), Mytek the Mighty vols 1-4 (July-November 2025), The Air Ace Picture Library Companion (November 2025) and Action: The Sevenpenny Nightmare (March 2026).

June 2025

All these new books to squeeze onto a table alongside the older ones! The problem is that I have no idea who will be coming through the door and what they will want to buy. Last show, for instance, I bought three copies of the LION index and sold all three. I hadn't sold more than one at any of the other shows and often none as they're quite expensive. So I end up taking up lots of stock, just in case. About 120 books this time as it's the first time I've been in Glasgow and I don't know what the people coming through the doors might want.

I suspect it's going to be a full-on day Saturday and we're booked into an Airbnb for Friday night. I think there might be four of us! I'll try to keep a little diary on my phone (which is recharging as I write).

I've had quite a relaxing week. Mel was away at the weekend so I watched a couple of films that I've had sitting around on DVD for ages: Blood Brothers was a Chinese movie set in Shanghai in the 1930s produced by John Woo, but it didn't have the gun-play he's famous for, which was a bit disappointing. And I watched one of the most depressing films ever: On the Beach, based on the novel by Nevil Shute. I haven't seen it for forty years and I'd forgotten how bleak the ending was. Next time I'm on my own for an evening, I'm going to say bugger it and re-watch one of the John Wick movies.

October 2025

I've started working on the next book, which should be another comic strip reprint. I haven't signed any paperwork yet, so you'll understand why I'm keeping stumm about the title. I've got my eyes on a couple of other reprints, too, but I'll need a break from cleaning up artwork as I find it's so desperately dull and tedious and stuffy and boring that I want to be a lion tamer... or at least take a break from the artwork and do some writing. I do have a project that I'm thinking about that I want out before the end of the year. And there's the War Picture Library Companion too, which I'm still keen to do.

I'm also still planning to put out another little video, but the one I'd filmed went rapidly out of date as I launched the ACTION book ten days earlier than what I'd planned. I did do an edit, but I was talking about waiting on the proofs to arrive and I'd rambled way off the intended topic. I'll do another one when I get back from Glasgow and post a few things from the semi-mythical BAM! "Semi" because it actually exists, albeit incomplete. I'll reveal more when I next write.