Comic Cuts — 29 May 2026

After two weeks of PIRATES!, I've had to switch back to the book I was working on while I was awaiting the release of ACTION: THE SEVENPENNY NIGHTMARE. If you find all these over-lapping projects confusing, imagine what it's like for me!

I mentioned back in early March that the scanner was running hot in preparation of me working on the next couple of books of comic reprints. Well, while I was scanning one strip, I couldn't help but get caught up in another from the same paper... so I scanned that at the same time. And the more I dipped into it, the more I wanted to make this the next book from Bear Alley.

And that's how it has worked out. Once ACTION was out of the way, I began the clean-up operation on the artwork, some idea of which you can see in this post from six weeks ago. I did most of the work in April, but there was the process of sorting out contracts to get through, and I needed a break, so alongside the clean-up operation (and, after a few days, taking over from it), I spent a couple of weeks doing some old paperbacks research, and discovering some surprising facts about a few authors that will eventually go into a book — it's one (in fact two) I have planned, but I need to get more illustrations if I'm to make it as visually good as the BEYOND THE VOID history of Badger Books. I've made a bit of a rod for my own back!

That's when I picked up the threads of PIRATES!, which was something that I worked on for about five years in the late 1990s; then there was a twenty-or-so year gap and I did some more during one of the COVID lockdowns; and now I'm about three-quarters of the way through the first book (of three or four) covering the independent (or "pirate") publishers of the post-WWII decade, from importing US comics to publishing British editions and home-grown comics that often aped American comics, and ending with the horror comics. There's still a long way to go before anything sees print. Maybe I should set up a Substack so that I can publish some of it ahead of the book(s) coming out. 

And now I'm back on the book begun in early April. I have promises of two introductions and I'm trying to sort out a cover, but the draft contract is agreed, and I'm waiting for the actual contract. I did a second pass on the artwork, which thankfully didn't require much additional work; I have 200+ footers in place (basically a line plus the page numbers) and I'll design a header for the top of the pages tomorrow.

I'll then take a break and continue with PIRATES! for a few days before I start work on the next pair of books. I also have to make sure my trip to Stoke for the next Swap Meet is organised. I might even have a proof of the new book to show off.... but don't hold your breath as there are quite a few moving parts to get in place before I can go to print.

And now I'm off to mow the lawn. It's Thursday morning as I write this. Normally I would be finishing this off Thursday evening, but we're going out tonight to see Tiff Stevenson perform. With luck I'll have some pictures for next week's column. Now I need to get outside before the heat gets too much.

(* Our header this week is something I stumbled upon when I was doing the deep dive into the Jeff Bogar novels a couple of weeks ago. The artist's name is unknown. The other pic is the cover of the original Hamilton & Co. edition, painted by John Pollack.)