Comic Cuts — 19 June 2026

Good evening... yes, I'm posting this Thursday night, because I'm not going to be around on Friday morning to cross-post this to Facebook (my one social media outlet... I haven't embraced Instagram or TikTok and I no longer post on Twitter, buy Teslas or launch satellites through SpaceX—I don't see why I should support or enrich Elon until he buys some of my books).

So... where am I? I'm in Stoke at the British Comics Swap Meet (or Swop Meet as the advertising has it... oops), which is being held on Saturday, 20th June, at Wolstanton Methodist Church, ST5 OHS. This was the first swap meet outside of Colchester I did and had such a good time I even went to Glasgow earlier this year. 

I should have copies of most Bear Alley titles, although some are in short supply as I had a late rush of orders and haven't had a chance to restock. I should also have a card reader, which should make payments easier. While I try to keep prices down, short print runs and rising prices aren't helping matters, so show discounts are slim. But the books are Post-free, which might help customers stretch their pounds a little.

I need all the cash I can get to pay for this week's extravagances. It has been our busiest week in months as we headed out on Tuesday to see Mitch Benn at the Colchester Arts Centre to catch his latest tour, The Lehrer Effect, about one of his greatest influences, Tom Lehrer. By tragic (or useful PR) coincidence, Lehrer passed away three days before Mitch Benn's first show up in Edinburgh last year—which is always the risk you take when writing about a 97-year-old. 

Even if you're not a fan of Lehrer, you'll probably know 'The Elements' (a list of every element in the periodic table) or 'Poisoning Pigeons in the Park', which are typical of Lehrer's lyrical cleverness and very dark humour. As Lehrer rescinded his copyright on all his songs, Mitch was able to give us his own renditions of these, adding 16 further elements that have since been discovered to the first. His own songs fitted in beautifully and he has even returned to writing an instant song during the 20-minute break, based on bits of local or national news suggested by the audience: this time around it was Ipswich getting their new bins before we have, the Russians firing on a yacht, and the cat that interrupted a performance of Romeo & Juliette. The last time he did one of these in Colchester it was "Fenton!" about the dog chasing deer in Richmond Park way back in 2011.

The gig was thoroughly enjoyable and we now have the show on a key fob, which contains a ton of songs from the show and many more inspired by Lehrer that Mitch has written over the years. The header pic is of Mel meeting Mitch. Amazing to think we've been attending his gigs since 2007!

Wednesday we went to Southend-on-Sea, although we didn't see much of the sea compared to the amount of time we spent in book shops. I do like a good book shop (who'd have guessed?) and there's a particularly good one in Southend: Books-on-Sea. Has an excellent stock of second-hand books, including a  good selection of science fiction. I bought seven books, but could easily have bought seventy if I wasn't so aware that I'm just about to spend a fortune licensing and printing a new book.

The haul included Alan Moore's The Great When, which I'm really looking forward to reading, and a Ken Macleod novel that I leapt on not realising it was the third part of a trilogy. Now I'm going to have to buy the other two (oh, no, what a disaster!). I picked up a copy of White Fang Goes Dingo and a couple of John Sladek novels, all of which I used to have until I did a big cull back in the late nineties. I'm sure I'm not the only person regretting the decision to pay the rent rather than keep the books.

Finds in charity shops included Karla's Choice by Nick Harkaway, a sequel to the works of his dad, John Le Carre, and Hearts, Hands and Voices by Ian McDonald, a rather beaten-up copy with a nasty sticker pull that disfigures the lovely Jim Burns cover... but it will fill a gap until I can find a better copy.

One thing I particularly like about Southend is the street art, which you find on any flat building surface. It's amazing. 

Which brings us to today, writing up the above, scanning some book covers, packing boxes with books for sale, writing up a price list, and all the other hundred and one things that need to be done ahead of a show. Just remembered to charge up the phone and the card reader. We're heading off around 7 or 7.30 tomorrow morning for the three-and-a-half-hour drive, but I'm told there's going to be a detour. No idea what or where to. I'll tell you all about it in the next Comic Cuts.