Comic Cuts - 24 January 2014

ORDER YOUR COPY NOW

I've now received the proof copy of The Man Who Searched For Fear and, with some minor tweaks, it should be out on schedule next week . . . so copies should start arriving with people about a week later. During the week I've published a handful of adverts for the book which anyone with a blog or website can repost. You can grab the images – right click on the one you want and "Save Image As" to your computer – and post to forums, chat groups, Twitter, Facebook . . . wherever you think people who might be interested can see it.

I've had a bit of an up and down week. I did my tax returns and it hammered home how little I'm earning these days. Bear Alley barely earns anything and I need to at least treble the turnover of Bear Alley Books before it generates enough to make a living from. I also received my annual PLR statement, which informed me I'd earned the grand sum of £20.52 and my total income from Kindle for 2013 amounted to £22.90.

Despite headlines in the Daily Express, I'm certainly not seeing a booming Britain.

While we're on the subject of newspapers, I wrote a piece on the late Charles Grigg for the Daily Telegraph, which appeared in the paper on Wednesday. The text is available online.

Our random scans this week are again from the collection of Morgan Wallace. A couple of Milestone Books, the fist (Too Late To Shout) with art by Len Gard.

The most interesting of these is Find The Lady by R. C. Finney, an early Scion paperback with a really nice expressionistic cover. The last, Don't Die Too Soon, is from the tail end of the gangster boom, published by Ralph Stokes in around 1953/54. Not sure who the artist is . . . perhaps Kris?

I have an obituary for cartoonist Frank Whitford lined up for tomorrow. Beyond that, I will probably return to the Bionic Woman Annual, as promised last year.

Commando issues 4671-4674

Commando issues on sale January 16th, 2014

All issues feature an exclusive Commando postercard – free!

Commando No 4671 – Miracle At Mons

On the morning of the 28 June 1914 two pistol shots fired in a Sarajevo street would plunge the world into the most destructive war it had ever known as a spider’s web of alliances set Great Power against Great Power.
   At the time, the event in Bosnia meant little to Sid Blake, a reluctant cavalryman — but willing soldier — in the Army of King George the Fifth. It meant more to him when he and his horse were shipped to France to play their part in the opening salvoes of The Great War.

Story: George Low
Art: Keith Page
Cover: Ian Kennedy (wrongly credited to Keith Page)

Commando No 4672 – The Raiders

Nearer dead than alive, a dozen men of the Long Range Desert Group struggled on across the burning sands of the Western Desert. A Nazi plane had shot their trucks from under them.
   And then they heard the terrifying whine of the diving aircraft again, and the hammering of its machine guns made them seek desperately for cover. But there was none. Young Lieutenant Pete Strong saw every one of his men — all his closest buddies —mowed down before his eyes.
   At that moment Pete made a vow that for every drop of British blood that was spilled the Nazis would pay tenfold.
   This is Pete’s story…

Introduction

Classic, classic Commando. An action-filled story, crammed full of bullets, bombs and burning vehicles brought to life by one of the best comic artists ever — Victor De La Fuente. Victor’s line influenced a whole raft of comics illustrators — very much for the better — enabling them to bring dynamic movement to the most static of images. His drawings give the Clegg script, with its thinly disguised military message, a vivid quality inside a scene-setting cover from fellow Spaniard Chaco.
   A bit late for Christmas but it’s still a cracker!

Calum Laird, Commando Editor

Story: Clegg
Art: Victor De La Fuente
Cover: Chaco
Originally Commando No 129 (August 1964), re-issued as No 679 (September 1972)

Commando No 4673 – The White Russian

Andrei Glazov had been a soldier of the Russian White Army. He had also been a bodyguard in China — where he learned truly astonishing fighting skills. When the Second World War broke out, though, he was peacefully settled in France, his fighting past behind him.
   Then a young British soldier — Private Charlie Hicks — called upon the Russian to pass on his fighting skills and knowledge. It seemed that Andrei would be going to war — and to the East — once again…

Story: Steve Coombs
Art: Morahin
Cover: Janek Matysiak

Commando No 4674 – Three...Two…One…Zero!

Two men on a mission of doom. Two sinister black shadows pulling themselves silently out of the water. Half of their job had been done. Now the other half awaited them. The sentries must not see them, must not hear them. Closer and closer they crept, through the icy darkness. Now they were only yards away…

Introduction

Deputy Ed Scott is on holiday this week so I get to tell you about the latest addition to our Silver Collection. If the quality of menace in this story’s cover is more than silver, though, it’s Ian Kennedy at his Gold Star best. I don’t know about you, but I almost feel sorry for the two Germans the pair of Royal Marine frogmen are creeping up on.
   Cracking title, too, much better than the very matter-of-fact “Frogmen” working title. That didn’t do Mr Daniel’s story any favours. Gordon Livingstone’s artwork does, though. It’s action all the way in a style all his own.
   Scott doesn’t know what he missed! You won’t tell him, will you?

Calum Laird, Commando Editor

Story: Daniel
Art: Gordon Livingstone
Cover: Ian Kennedy
Originally Commando No 974 (October 1975), re-issued as No 2315 (October 1989)

Comic Cuts - 17 January 2014

ORDER YOUR COPY NOW

With luck and a good tail wind we should have The Man Who Searched For Fear out by the end of the month. I've set the release date as 31 January 2014.

It has been a week of fiddly jobs finally coming to an end. I finished the cover on Monday — that's the finished front cover at the top of the column — and completed work on the internal art on Tuesday. By the end of Tuesday, these disparate elements were starting to look more like a book and I had my first PDF run-through to make sure I had all the pages in place. I started writing and designing the introduction pages on Wednesday, a job I finished on Thursday.

There are plenty of other fiddly jobs involved in putting a Bear Alley Book together. One is to update the Bear Alley Books web page with information; even creating the buttons so that you can order the books via PayPal in one simple click takes time.

The results of the week's work is that I have a book I'm happy with; I'm now waiting on a printed proof, which I'll hopefully have in my hands by next Friday. If anything needs correcting, I should be able to turn an updated version around quickly enough for the second proof to be in my hands before the release date.

You can pre-order your copies of the book now and I'll make sure they're the first copies to ship out.

There's no rest for the wicked, or for me. I'll be back to working on the Countdown/TV Action index and hopefully that will be out before Bear Alley Books celebrates its third birthday in March.

The latest issue of Jeff Hawke's Cosmos has landed. Volume 8 number 2 contains five stories which were originally published in the Scottish Daily Record newspaper. The star of these strips was Lance McLane, but a decision was made to syndicate the strip as Jeff Hawke, who looked slightly different as Lance sported a beard and had dark hair, while Jeff was blonde and clean-shaven. So there were two versions of the strip, one with Jeff, reprinted here, and one with Lance.

The stories were generally shorter than the old Jeff Hawke yarns in the Daily Express. The tales reprinted here ran for between eight and ten weeks and you get a full year's worth, from late November 1978 to early December 1979, in this volume. Lance ran for twelve years, so there are plenty more stories to look forward to.

As always, editor William Rudling packs in plenty of extras around the strips, including Duncan Lunan's story notes, a trip to an aero-museum in Gothenburg, a brief look at the Fireball XL5 Annual and the 2013 Dundee Comics Day, where Syd Jordan was one of the guests.

Subscription rates are £26 for three issues here in the UK (£28.50 via PayPal) and £31/38/41 for overseas subscribers, payable in a variety of ways. You can find more details (and back issues) at the Jeff Hawke Club webpage or by contacting william AT williamrudling.co.uk.

The first of this week's random scans is from David Ainsworth, who provides the following information. The publisher was The Queensway Press, New Chevron series no. 77, published c.1939/40. The book was a translation of Leon Groc's "La maison des morts", originally published in France in 1930.

The next three are all from Muir Watson, the Glasgow-based publisher run by John Watson; all three are from the collection of Morgan Wallace. Bullets at Bar-K is by Nick Wolff (the cover is too tightly trimmed!) is by John Russell Fearn; Lannigan's West, although credited to W. J. Hanson thanks to a typo, is by Vic J. Hanson; and finally, a silhouette cover for one of Muir Watson's gangster novels by Hans Vogel, this one penned by Norman Lazenby.

Next week... um... I'm really not sure. Depends what I can get done at the weekend.

"School Friend" Pets Annual 1959 part 5

 

 

 

 

 

(* © IPC Media)

Recent Releases: January-April 2013

JANUARY 2013 

 

All-Star Future Shocks by Neil Gaiman, Grant Morrison, Mark Millar, Peter Milligan, Kevin O'Neill, Brian Bolland, Frazer Irving, John Higgins, et al.
Rebellion ISBN 978-1781080740, 8 January 2013, 192pp, £12.49. [£11.23 from Amazon]
Future Shocks – these self-contained short stories from the pages of 2000 AD have been the testing ground for many of comics greatest writers and artists. From the far reaches of the galaxy to the lowest depths of hell, discover what lurks within the fevered imaginations of such luminaries as Neil Gaiman, Grant Morrison, Kevin O’Neill, Brian Bolland, Alan Grant, Peter Milligan, John Higgins, Alan Davis and Mark Millar to name but a few.
Order from Amazon.

Cartoon and Comic Strips by Terry Bave.
Terry Bave, 11 January 2013, 308pp. £14.99. [£12.74 discounted]
Terry Bave was at the heart of English cartooning and had a long, successful career as an artist working on children's comics, such as Whizzer and Chips, Cor!!, Buster, Whoopee, Dandy and Beano. From the heyday of the sixties and seventies, Terry saw the rise, and eventual decline, of creative cartooning for children's comics. His story is not just a tale of one artist, working in creative partnership with his wife Shiela, but the story of comics themselves.
Order from Lulu Marketplace.

Johnny Red Vol. 3: Angels Over Stalingrad by Tom Tully & Joe Colquhoun.
Titan Books ISBN 978-1848564381, 29 January 2013, 104pp, £14.99. [£9.59 from Amazon]
The final collection of Joe Colquhouns work on the seminal aerial combat story! After Johnny Redburn is discharged from the RAF for killing an officer, he takes to the skies in a stolen Hurricane. Soon, he meets the Falcon Squadron of the 5th Soviet Air Brigade, and begins his fight against Germany from the other side of the Iron Curtain! Includes a feature on Stalingrad by comics legend Garth Ennis (The Boys, Preacher, War Stories).
Order from Amazon.

Judge Anderson: The PSI Files Volume 3 by  Alan Grant, Steve Sampson, Arthur Ranson & others.
Rebellion ISBN 978-1781081068, 17 January 2013, 304pp, £19.99. [£15.99 from Amazon]
Cassandra Anderson, Psi Division's finest Judge, has faced many tough challenges in her career - from saving Mega-City One from total annihilation at the hands of the Dark Judges to dealing with a loss of faith in the Justice System, but her toughest challenge is still ahead. Something evil from the depths of space is about to crash down into the 'Big Meg', presenting the Judges with a bigger crisis than they have ever faced before...
Order from Amazon. 

Lion: King of Picture Story Papers by Steve Holland.
Bear Alley Books ISBN 978-1907081675, 18 January 2013, 262pp, £25.99.
Lion King of Picture Story Papers is a massive, 262-page volume covering the story of one of the most popular titles released in the post-Second World War "silver age" of British comics. Launched in 1952, Lion was Amalgamated Press's answer to Eagle, featuring its own space hero, Captain Condor on its cover.
__This was one of the company's first adventure story comics and its twenty-two-year history is the story of British adventure strips in the 1950s and 1960s. Over the years Lion starred some of the most popular characters in British comics, including Robot Archie, Paddy Payne, Karl the Viking, Zip Nolan, The Spider, The Spellbinder, Black Max and Adam Eterno. 290 authors and artists are identified in the index which also covers the Lion Annual, Lion Holiday Special and Lion and Valiant Special Extra.
__Heavily illustrated throughout, Lion King of Picture Story Papers includes a lengthy historical introduction, an index to the weekly comic covering comics, text stories and features, contents listings for all 35 Lion Annuals and spin-off annuals, all 17 Lion Holiday Specials and Lion and Valiant Special Extras and includes a title index and creator's index.
Order from Bear Alley Books.

Space Ace Vol. 1 by Ron Turner
John Lawrence [no ISBN], January 2013, 40pp, £8.95.
Four vintage stories from the pages of Lone Star Magazine and Lone Star Annual featuring Space Ace. From John Lawrence's introduction: "Space Ace was a labour of love for Ron. It attracted possibly the lowest page rate ever compared to much of his other work, but it was free from any editorial constraints ... His enjoyment shines through in the four stories I've selected... These stories originally appeared in black and white, but now, for this publication, Ron's marvellous artwork has been enhanced by the superb colouring of John Ridgway, an artist absolutely in tune with Ron's own colouring sensibilities."
Order from John Lawrence.[see review here for details]

The Ten Seconders: The American Dream by Rob Williams, Dom Reardon & Mark Harrison.
Rebellion ISBN 978-1781080665, 3 January 2013, 144pp, £14.99. [£11.99 from Amazon]
Earth, the near future. Humanity has been all but destroyed by a race of super-powered beings, who initially offered to help mankind, but really intended to rule them. Those that fought back against the tyranny of the Gods were nicknamed the Ten-Seconders their name based on the average life expectancy of those brave enough to battle to face of against such powerful opposition. This is their story of resistance.
Order from Amazon.

FEBRUARY 2013

Commando: Airborne Assault, ed. Calum Laird.
Prion ISBN 978-1853758928, 14 February 2013, 208pp, £5.99. [£4.49 from Amazon]
Following the bestselling success of Carlton's man-size "Commando" anthologies, here is a new pocket-format compilation of three classic comic-strip war stories printed the same size as the original "Commando" comics. "Here Come the Paras" features a trio of explosive Brits-versus-Wehrmacht yarns that show this elite British fighting force at their best during such operations as D-Day and Market Garden. This action-packed but handily formatted collection of stories will thrill "Commando" fans of all ages.
Order from Amazon.

Commando: Behind Enemy Lines, ed. Calum Laird.
Prion ISBN 978-1853758911, 14 February 2013, 208pp, £5.99. [£4.49 from Amazon]
Following the bestselling success of Carlton's man-size "Commando" anthologies, here is a new pocket-format compilation of three classic comic-strip war stories printed the same size as the original Commando comics. "Behind Enemy Lines" features a trio of explosive Brits-versus-Wehrmacht yarns that show the heroic British Tommy at his best. This action-packed but handily formatted collection of stories will thrill "Commando" fans of all ages
Order from Amazon.

Commando: Tank Attack, ed. Calum Laird.
Prion ISBN 978-1853758935. 14 February 2013, 208pp, £5.99. [£4.49 from Amazon]
Following the bestselling success of Carlton's man-size "Commando" anthologies, here is a new pocket-format compilation of three classic comic-strip war stories printed the same size as the original Commando comics. "Tank Attack!" features a trio of explosive Brits-versus-Wehrmacht yarns that show the heroic British Tommy at his best. This action-packed but handily formatted collection of stories will thrill "Commando" fans of all ages.
Order from Amazon.

Commando: Weapons of Vengeance, ed. Calum Laird.
Prion ISBN 978-1853758942, 14 February 2013, 208pp, £5.99. [£4.49 from Amazon]
Following the bestselling success of Carlton's man-size "Commando" anthologies, here is a new pocket-format compilation of three classic comic-strip war stories printed the same size as the original "Commando" comics. "Weapons of Vengeance" features a trio of explosive Brits-versus-Wehrmacht yarns that show the heroic British Tommy and the stoic British home front at their best. This action-packed but handily formatted collection of stories will thrill "Commando" fans of all ages.
Order from Amazon.

Everybody Loves Tank Girl by Alan Martin & Jim Mahfood.
Titan Books ISBN 978-0857687500, 22 February 2013, 80pp, £14.99. [£9.59 from Amazon]
Everyone's favorite outback anarchist is back to blow things up, swear profusely and offend the elderly in your household!
__This time, Monsieur Alan Martin teams up with wunderkind Jim Mahfood to bring you Tank Girl as you've never seen her: wild, raw, foul-mouthed and forever rockin' but rendered in a style that will bring pleasure to thine eyes.
Order from Amazon.

Judge Dredd Day of Chaos: The Fourth Faction by John Wagner, Colin MacNeil, Staz Johnson, Ben Willsher & Henry Flint.
Rebellion ISBN 978-1781081082, 14 February 2013, 160pp, £17.99. [£9.59 from Amazon]
Legendary Judge Dredd-co-creator John Wagner has written the longest, most eventful and world-shattering Dredd-epic of his career. Mega-City One has seen nothing like this since the Apocalypse War, and this time things are looking even darker. With the much-loved mayor of Mega-City One presumed dead by the citizens, an election has been scheduled to choose his successor. Cadet Judge Hennessey has predicted that something terrible will happen on the Election Day and she may be right. East-Meg assassin Nadia has arrived in the Big Meg, looking for a scientist who has created a very dangerous virus... This is the first of three volumes chronicling Day od Chaos.
Order from Amazon.

Unearthing by Alan Moore & Mitch Jenkins
Knockout/Top Shelf ISBN 978-0861661824, 25 February 2013, 184pp, £19.99. [£16.99 from Amazon]
Knockout/Top Shelf ISBN 978-0861661817, 25 February 2013, 184pp, £49.99. [£42.49 from Amazon]
One of the world’s foremost authors of the fantastic, Alan Moore, joins internationally esteemed photographer Mitch Jenkins for an unprecedented visual and literary experience. An intensely poetic and innovative work of biography, Unearthing maps the lifetime of author, orientalist and occultist Steve Moore, while simultaneously investigating the extraordinary history of South London with which that life has been intertwined. Integrating text with haunting and exquisite imagery, Unearthing excavates a territory at the margins of a city, of reality, and of human imagination.
Starting life in Iain Sinclair’s seminal anthology LONDON: City of Disappearances, this dazzling and hypnotic piece has evolved through a series of live performances and acclaimed recordings, culminating in this breathtaking full-color volume. Two formats are available, a deluxe softcover edition, as well as a special oversized hardcover edition limited to 1,500 copies worldwide.
Order from Amazon: paperback or limited edition hardcover.

MARCH 2013 

H. Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines, Allan Quatermain, Montezuma's Daughter, edited by Steve Holland.
Book Palace Books ISBN 978-1907081163, 16 March 2013, 128pp, £15.99.
Three stories from the pen of the master storyteller H. Rider Haggard. In 'King Solomon's Mines' (art by Bill Baker & C. L. Doughty) adventurer and hunter Allan Quatermain is approached by Sir Henry Curtis and his friend Captain Good to help find Sir Henry's brother, last seen travelling into the heart of unexplored Africa in search of the legendary King Solomon's Mines; in 'Allan Quatermain' (art by Mike Hubbard), the hunter persuades his friends to set out once again for Africa; and in 'Montezuma's Daughter' (art by Jesus Blasco), Thomas Wingfield sets off to avenge the murder of his mother. After a brush with the Spanish Inquisition, shipwreck and slavery, his search eventually leads him to the shores of Mexico, where he is captured by Aztecs.
Order from Amazon.

Judge Dredd: Judge Child Saga by John Wagner, Alan Grant & Brian Bolland.
Rebellion ISBN 978-1781081099, 14 March 2013, 160pp, £6.99. [£5.24 from Amazon]
When Judge Feyy, Mega-city One's oldest pre-cognitive, has a vision of the city being destroyed in 2120, Judge Dredd and a select group of other Judges, including future Chief Judge Hershey, are sent on a mission to find the Judge Child. Apparently, young Owen Krysler may be the only one with the power to stop the apocalyptic event from ever happening. With the fate of the 'Big Meg' in the balance, Dredd will travel through the irradiated wastelands of the Cursed Earth and venture out into the depths of uncharted space to find him!
Order from Amazon.

Judge Dredd: Origins by John Wagner, Carlos Ezquerra & Kev Walker.
Rebellion ISBN 978-1781080993, 19 March 2013, 192pp, £12.49.[£11.36 from Amazon]
History is written in this land-mark Dredd story. The severed hand of Chief Judge Fargo, the very first chief judge, is delivered to the Grand Hall of Justice with a ransom note. Dredd and his team must travel into the Cursed Earth to try and recover the body of the Judge Father. But this is more than just a journey across America, this is a journey into the past and into the history of the Judges and Mega-City One itself! Reissue (originally published in May 2007).
Order from Amazon.

King Solomon's Mines by Mike Butterworth & Mike Hubbard.
Bear Alley Books ISBN  978-1907081-69-9, 15 March 2013, 44pp, £9.99.
Welcome to H. Rider Haggard's classic novel adapted in full colour by Mike Hubbard, originally serialised in the pages of Ranger and reprinted for the first time! This was a daring attempt to publish the novel in its original language, using Haggard's own words, although abridged, making it one of the most faithful of all adaptations.
Order from Bear Alley Books.

Mean Team by John Wagner, Alan Grant, Alan Hebden & Massimo Belardinelli.
Rebellion ISBN 978-1781081105, 14 March 2013, 160pp, £13.99. [£9.65 from Amazon]
In the year 2886, Death-Bowl is the most popular sport in the galaxy. In the history of the game, 'Bad' Jack Keller and his squad of hardened killers, known as the Mean Team, have racked up more wins than anyone else their incentive being the hope of freedom! But team owner Richman Von is not so eager to lose him champions, So Jack, Amok the alien Beester, the robotic steelgrip - and Henry Moon the telepath trapped inside the body of a panther - will have to bring their battle out of the arenas and out into the big, wide world!
Order from Amazon.

Modesty Blaise: The Girl in the Iron Mask by Peter O'Donnell & Enric Badia Romero.
Titan Books ISBN 978-0857686947, 22 March 2013, 104pp, £11.99. [£8.27 from Amazon]
Features the classic stories "Fiona", "Walkabout" and "The Girl In The Iron Mask" written by popular British crime writer Peter O'Donnell and beautifully illustrated by Enric Badia Romero! Willie's admirer Fiona returns, Modesty faces the outback alone and an iron mask could mark her end in this latest gripping volume! It features story introductions by "Blaise" archivist Lawrence Blackmore!
Order from Amazon.

Nemo: Heart of Ice by Alan Moore & Kevin O'Neill.
Knockabout ISBN 978-0861661831, 5 March 2013, 56pp, £9.99. [£6.89 from Amazon]
In the grim cold of February 2013 a new League of Extraordinary Gentlemen book will surface: Nemo: Heart of Ice, a full-color 48-page adventure by the inestimable Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill. It's 1925, fifteen years after the death of Captain Nemo, when his daughter Janni Dakkar launches a grand Antarctic expedition to lay the old man's burdensome legacy to rest. Accompanied by Nemo's shipmate Ishmael, a ration of rum, and her father's log, Janni embarks on a perilous journey to the bottom of the world pursued by employees of the megalomaniacal Charles Foster Kane, who seek the return of plundered loot. Jules Verne meets H.P. Lovecraft in the final showdown beneath the Mountains of Madness – the uncharted gap in the map where time is broken and our hero's reality is about to crack! Ready the Nautilus! She's going back to the South Pole!
Order from Amazon.

Superior by Mark Millar & Leinil Yu.
Titan Books ISBN 978-0857685957, 26 March 2013, 200pp, £10.99. [£7.58 from Amazon]
Simon Pooni had it all going for him - plenty of friends at school, good looks, and his coach called him one of the most talented basketball players he's ever seen. But that was when he could still move his legs. Now he's living with multiple sclerosis - until SUPERIOR entered his life! The newest smash graphic novel from Mark Miller ("Kick-Ass") and Leinil Francis Yu ("Secret Invasion")! Softcover edition.
Order from Amazon.

Tales from Beyond Science by Rian Hughes, Mark Millar, John Smith & Alan McKenzie.
Image Comics ISBN 978-1607064718, 5 March 2013, 88pp, £25.99 [hardcover; £22.09 on Amazon]
Image Comics ISBN 978-1607067177, 5 March 2013, 88pp, £12.99 [softcover; £11.69 on Amazon]
Follow your host Hilary Tremayne on eight surreal journeys into the unknown. Discover the truth behind the mysteries of spontaneous human combustion, the Bermuda Triangle, the lost 13th month, and the real reason men have nipples.
Order from Amazon: hardback, paperback.

Treasure Island by Mike Butterworth & John Millar Watt.
Bear Alley Books ISBN 978-1907081-68-2, 15 March 2013, 44pp, £9.99.
Here for the first time since it was serialised in the pages of Ranger is one of the finest adaptations of the classic Treasure Island, beautifully painted by John Millar Watt and retold in Robert Louis Stevenson's original language – making it one of the most faithful adaptations and well as one of the most visually stunning.
Order from Bear Alley Books.

APRIL 2013 

Indigo Prime: Anthropocalypse by John Smith & Edmund Bagnell.
Rebellion ISBN 978-1781081112, 11 April 2013, 160pp, £14.99. [£9.59 from Amazon]
There are an infinite number of realities within the multiverse. With the risk dimensional instability as an ever-present threat, these parallel worlds all need to be managed; enter Indigo Prime, troubleshooting reality agents. So what do Indigo Prime want with Lance Corporal Danny Redman? Why is a Neanderthal walking around in modern Britain? How do you catch a dimension-jumping Bewilderbeast? And where in the multiverse is Spacesick Steve? All of these questions and more are answered in this mind-warping adventure from the fertile minds of John Smith and Edmund Bagwell, the team who brought you Cradlegrave, and Lee Carter (Judge Dredd, Greg Area).
Order from Amazon.

Kick Ass 2 by Mark Millar & John Romita Jr.
Titan Books ISBN 978-1781166123, 9 April 2013, 208pp, £14.99. [£9.59 from Amazon]
This is the sequel to the biggest creator-owned comic of the decade - the one that spawned the No. 1 hit movie and the worldwide phenomenon! "Kick-Ass" is back! As everybody's favourite psychotic 11-year-old Hit Girl trains "Kick-Ass" to be...well, a bad-ass, nemesis. Red Mist gathers a team of super-villains to take them down! It's superhero mayhem as only Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. can bring you!
  Originally published in hardcover (ISBN 9780857687869) and also in a hardcover edition with a variant cover (ISBN 9781781164631) in June 2012.
Order from Amazon.

Marshall Law: The Deluxe Edition by Pat Mills & Kevin O'Neill.
DC Comics ISBN 978-1401238551, 30 April 2013, 480pp, £37.99. [£32.29 from Amazon]
In the spirit of Judge Dredd and the current hit series "The Boys", "Marshal Law" is a violent, satirical series about a futuristic law official charged with policing super-heroes gone rogue by any means necessary, all while fighting his own self-hatred for being the thing he hates most: a super-hero. Featuring art by Kevin O'Neill, illustrator of "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen", the centerpiece of this massive volume is the original six-part tale in which "Marshal Law" hunts down the Sleepman, a serial killer who is somehow connected to the popular hero known as The Public Spirit.
Order from Amazon.

Ranger. The National Boys' Magazine by Steve Holland & David Slinn.
Bear Alley Books ISBN 978-1907081705, April 2013, 162pp, £15.99.
Where did the Trigan Empire begin its epic rise? Where did schoolboy Rob Riley and space cadet Jason January first attend school? The answers are in Ranger, the National Boys' Magazine, first published in 1965. Intended as a rival – if not a replacement – to Eagle, the paper featured some astonishing strips and illustrations by the likes of Don Lawrence, Mike Hubbard, J. Millar Watt, Frank Hampson, Francis Marshall, and dozens of other talented artists.
  Ranger. The National Boys' Magazine features an extensive history of the magazine, a comprehensive index to its contents. And to give you a flavour of the original magazine, it also features three classic strip features: adaptations of 'The Adventures of Macbeth', with art by Ruggero Giovannini, and 'Moby Dick', with art by Franco Caprioli, and a series about flying aces of the two world wars by artist Colin Merrett.
Order from Bear Alley Books.

Slaine: The Grail War by Pat Mills & Steve Tappin.
Rebellion ISBN 978-1781081129, 11 April 2013, 176pp, £17.99. [£9.59 from Amazon]
Sláine MacRoth Celtic warrior and High King of the tribes of the Earth Goddess Danu, continues his journey through time. Sláine arrives in thirteenth century France, where he comes face to face with Crusader Simon De Montfort, the sworn enemy of the Cathars. While searching for the tortured reincarnation of his lover Niamh, Sláine is compelled to join forces with De Montfort in order to seek out the Grail Stone. The quest won't be easy, however Sláine will have to defeat the dark forces of El if he is to stand any chance of saving Niamh s soul!
Order from Amazon.