Comic Cuts — 11 September 2026

Good news, everybody! The imaginary progress bar attached to the latest Bear Alley Books' title has reached 100%. On Wednesday I sent the files to our printer and should receive a proof copy in 8-10 days, hopefully sooner. I have some proofing to do, but hopefully I've already caught any errors. If everything works out, I should have the book on sale at the Colchester Swap Meet at the Baptist Church on 10 October. I'll be offering the usual advance order discount to everyone who can't make it to the capital of Roman Britain.

I always wait until contracts have been signed before announcing titles, and hopefully that will be done within the next week or so and I'll be able to show off the cover. Then I knuckle down to the second volume of this set which I'm hoping will be out in November. Before Christmas, anyway. The gap just helps me to spread costs a little.

I've had my nose so tightly to the grindstone that I haven't really done anything other than laying out the pages for the new book. There has been one good bit of news: on Saturday, sales of ACTION: THE SEVENPENNY NIGHTMARE suddenly took off. Normally I sell a book or two every day across the whole selection of Bear Alley titles. Between about seven and ten in the evening I sold nine books, eight of them copies of Action. On Sunday I sold another five copies of Action, on Monday two and on Wednesday one.

Now, this was after a bit of a drought on sales of the book, which sold well in its first two months (March/April) and has been steadily selling since, but only at a rate of a couple per week. Someone, somewhere must have mentioned it, but all I can find is one mention on Facebook. I'm not exactly across all social media!

I'm certainly not complaining. I was a bit worried that I was about to run out of copies and had to promptly put in an order with the printer to restock. I need copies for the Swap Meet anyway, but I'm hoping that there might be another little run on the title, as I think it's one of the best things I've written and I'm especially proud of the way it looks as well as the way it reads. Took me ages to design, but it was worth the time and effort, I think. 

Saturday was also the annual Invasion: Colchester, which saw a record crowd packing their way into the town centre like sardines in a tin. After a while it became almost impossible to take photos without someone pushing past you, ducking in front of you (but still managing to ruin a shot), or you ended up simply taking photos of other people's kids. Thanks to Mel, I managed to put together a collection of reasonable photos for the blog on Sunday, which you can find by scrolling down (or clicking here, if you've arrived from Facebook).

Rather than ramble on, I'll post a few random cover scans. I should be able to reveal the title of the new book next week.