Commando issues 5035-5038

Brand new Commando issues 5035-5038 are flying high and on sale soon! Fighting through the streets of Saigon, Middle Eastern deserts, the mountains of Northern Italy, and secret underground bunkers and quarries, anywhere can be a battlefield for our Commandoes!

5035: Escape Saigon!
Richard Davis’s story is one of friendship in the face of adversity. Two men: one American, the other Vietnamese, are best friends, meeting in the hellish setting of the Vietnam war. But neither are soldiers. Van Thieu runs an American style restaurant in the suburbs and Bill Evans is an office worker at the U.S. embassy. But in the final bloody hours of the war, with choppers ferrying the last of the American employees out of Saigon, Bill won’t leave his friend behind…
    With interior and cover art by prolific Commando artist Manuel Benet, you know you’re in for a treat. The cover is expressionistic, with thick brush strokes and bold colours, as the two friends take centre stage amidst the carnage around them. The interiors, are similarly stylised, though in a different way to the cover. With little shading and thin line strokes, the images are crisp, with more detail given to facial expressions, adding to the tone of the issue.

Story | Richard Davis
Art | Manuel Benet
Cover | Manuel Benet

5036: Hunt the Killer
This 1960s reprint is all about the villain. Attentively brought to life in Gordon C. Livingstone’s artwork, Brigadefuhrer Helmut Groot oozes evil in the best way. Eyepatch: check. Scar and stitches across left cheek: check. Receding hairline: check. A perfectly despicable design for such a dastardly brute. But Groot is a treat saved for the interior pages, as the cover focuses on our own Tommie heroes, working together and dodging Nazi lookouts.
    But, in E. Hebden’s tantalising story Groot doesn’t just look bad, no, the feared and hated Nazi commander is cunning and cruel in equal measure, never blinking as he orders entire squadrons of men lined up and shot before him. Determined to catch the scoundrel, every man in Captain Steve Simpson’s crew kept a picture of Groot, and that was as good as a bullseye on his head. And soon enough, with Hurribombers unable to eliminate the blackguard, it was time for Steve and his men to… Hunt the Killer!

Story | E. Hebden
Art | Gordon C. Livingstone
Cover | Gordon C. Livingstone
Originally Commando No 356 (September 1968)

5037: Danger in the Desert
A Commando adventure that doesn’t take itself too seriously, Stephen Walsh’s ‘Danger in the Desert’ is a tale of espionage, with plenty of action and humour thrown in for good measure. Meet Ulysses ‘Danger’ Doyle, petroleum scientist, poet, cross-country runner and a darn good banjo player. He’s on a mission in the Middle Eastern Kingdom of Majaffa to find out why the Nazis are installing pipelines in the desert when there’s no oil… Did we mention he’s also an amateur detective?
    Perfectly suited to this Tintin-esque adventure, Keith Page provides the interior artwork and the cover, keeping the whole package uniformly appealing. And, what’s more, when Walsh specified in his script that he wanted secret agent Ned Finch drawn more akin to Roy Kinnear than James Bond, that’s exactly what we got, as Page deftly obliged, poking more fun at the spy genre this issue so lovingly pays homage to.

Story | Stephen Walsh
Art | Keith Page
Cover | Keith Page

5038: Guessing Game
One look at the cover of ‘Guessing Game’ and Ian Kennedy’s artwork is instantly recognisable. The pastel greens of the tank would make it seem almost innocuous if it were not for the machine gun turret firing just off the cover, British troops falling in the haze behind them. The interior art, however, is relatively unusual for Commando, as Vila uses sounds effects in the panels. Though sparing in use, these onomatopoeias are an interactive and exciting addition as the ‘RATATATAT!!’ of a machine gun is sprawled over and under characters depending on where they stand.
    Heptonstall’s story is up to the challenge of excitement, as there are suspicious happenings afoot in the mountains of Northern Italy, with Nazis encroaching the Allied camps around Monte Cassino. Commando driver Corporal Bill Smith’s car is ambushed, his C.O. killed. He only survives by playing dead, the information he overhears vital. From what he learned, Bill thinks he knows exactly how the Axis will strike…but to find out he’ll have to risk everything and everyone. Could his guess be right?

Story | Heptonstall
Art | Vila
Cover | Ian Kennedy
Originally Commando No 2634 (January 1993)

Rebellion Releases

Rebellion releases for 12–13 July 1027

2000AD Prog 2039
Cover: INJ Culbard
Judge Dredd: Box Office Bomb by Rory McConville (w) Ben Wilsher (a) Chris Blythe (c) Annie Parkhouse (l)
Brink: Skeleton Life by Dan Abnett (w) INJ Culbard (a) Simon Bowland (l)
Defoe: Diehards by Pat Mills (w) Colin MacNeil (a) Ellie De Ville (l)
Grey Area: Life On Earth by Dan Abnett (w) Mark Harrison (a) Annie Parkhouse (l)
Hunted: Furies by Gordon Rennie (w) PJ Holden (a) Len O'Grady (c) Ellie De Ville (l)

Absalom: Under a False Flag by Gordon Rennie and Tiernen Trevallion
Rebellion ISBN 978-1781-08545-5, 13 July 2017, 98pp, £13.99 / $18.99. Available from Amazon.
OLD, IRREVERENT AND DOOMED BY SUPERNATURAL FORCES, hard-nosed copper Detective Inspector Harry Absalom is tasked with upholding the Accord – the treaty between the British Royalty and the forces of Hell. A religious fanatic is killing illegal demonic hosts, upsetting both sides of the Accord. To prevent all-out war, Absalom and his psychotic ex-boss the Guv’nor need to catch the perpetrator before it’s too late! With his grandchildren held hostage to keep him in line, Harry will need all the help he can get his hands on! Especially when he discovers the sort of place they’re being kept. This is the second collection in Gordon Rennie and Tiernen Trevallion’s fan favourite Absalom series.

Dredd/Anderson: The Deep End by Arthur Wyatt, Alec Worley, Ben Willsher, Paul Davidson, Chris Blythe and Len O'Grady
Rebellion ISBN 978-1781-08553-0, 13 July 2017, 98pp, £12.99 / $17.99. Available from Amazon.
When the dust settles... the bodycount rises! Continuing the story of the cult 2012 movie DREDD. After the brutal day in which Ma Ma and her gang were brought down telepath-Judge Anderson is trying to adjust to the brutal life of a Street Judge. After investigating a claim of demonic possession, she finds herself at odds with a merciless drug cartel. Soon after, when lethal radioactive storms from the post-apocalyptic wasteland known as the Cursed Earth hit the city, they bring more than just dust into Mega-City One. When unexplained killings coincide with the storms, Judge Dredd is forced to hunt a mysterious mutant and take his ruthless brand of justice into the Cursed Earth.

The Leopard from Lime St. by Tom Tully, Mike Western and Eric Bradbury.
Rebellion ISBN 978-1781-08597-4, 13 July 2017, 162pp, £14.99. Available from Amazon.
After being scratched by a radioactive leopard, young Billy Farmer soon discovered that he had acquired the strength, agility and senses of the mighty jungle cat. Creating a costume to disguise his identity, Billy became the masked vigilante known as the ‘Leopard-Man’ – Selbridge’s premier crime fighter. Living with his aunt and mean uncle in a small house on Lime Street, Billy juggles his time between schoolwork and saving lives, earning some money on the side as a freelance photographer for the Selbridge Sun. Created by Tom Tully, Mike Western and Eric Bradbury, The Leopard from Lime Street, is the crown jewel of British superhero comic strips. This is the second collection from Rebellion's dedicated Treasury of British Comics line, collecting lost comics from the golden age of British comics.

E F Hiscocks

This post was inspired by an enquiry by Fiona Gray asking whether I knew anything about the artist/cartoonist E. F. Hiscocks. The answer was no, although I recognised the name, as Hiscocks had illustrated a couple of stories in the Union Jack, home of Sexton Blake.

His story begins in Australia to where his Bristol-born father, Frederick Elijah Hiscocks had emigrated. F. E. Hiscocks was a map publisher who, in the 1870s, developed an interest in theatre management and managing touring variety acts with his American partner, Alf Hayman. After losing most of their capital through the collapse of Melbourne's Provincial and Suburban Bank (the two were prominent witnesses in the prosecution of the bank's directors), the partnership split and Hiscocks began managing and promoting the Federal Minstrels in 1883.

Hiscocks married Fannie Marshall in 1875 and their daugher, Fannie Evaline Hiscocks, and son, Eceldoune Frederick Hiscocks – although that first name is also variously recorded as Eceldowne, Eceldonne and Eoddonne – were born in Sydney, New South Wales, in 1877 and 1879 respectively. A third child, Dorothy, was mentioned in the death notice for Fannie in 1922. [For reasons I'll come to, I believe Dorothy is in error and the third child was named Blanche.]

It is worth noting here that a Ebay seller listed an illustration by E. F. Hiscocks giving the dates 1889-1959. I have been unable to track down the source of these dates, but I can be certain that Hiscocks was born in 1879 – indeed, on 19 May of that year at 231 William Street, Sydney – because it was announced in local papers.

The family fortunes were tied in to their father's business, which was buoyant in the 1880s but declined in the 1890s. In 1901 Frederick was laid up after an accident; theatre friends raised money to help him through what was expected to be a long convalescence, but Fred Hiscocks died suddenly in July, aged 59.

E. F. Hiscocks  was employed on the New Zealand Times – the first New Zealand paper to employ a cartoonist on staff. He worked for the Auckland Weekly News until around 1902 and for Weekly Press (Christchurch) between 1902 and 1914. Hicocks ('His' as he signed at least some of his work) was a popular cartoonist who tackled politics and local issues. Some of his work was published in pamphlet form, the best known of which was King Dick Abroad. In 1902, Richard Seddon, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, was well-known for his Falstaffian rotundity and his verbosity, both of which Hiscocks incorporated into his work as he chronicled King Dick's trip to attend the Coronation of King Edward VII.

Saints and Sinners? was a collection of anti-prohibition essays with cartoons by Hiscocks published by the drinks trade.

Hiscocks married Eva Isable Palmer in New Zealand in 1905. Eva was the daughter of Charles Edward Palmer and Mary Ann (nee Sullivan) of Napier, New Zealand, where she was born in 1880.

The two were living at 22 Aurora Terrace, Wellington, in 1911. However, E. F. Hiscocks' address was given in electoral rolls in 1914 and 1919 as Marine Parade, Seatoun, Wellington, his occupation given as journalist. Eva was not listed at the same address and during the war his next of kin was given as his mother in Guildford, Sydney, which makes me suspect that the two had split up, although remained married.

During the war, he served as a driver with the Field Artillery and was part of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, drawing cartoons for The Gunner: The Official Journal of H.M.N.Z.T. no 7 aboard the Limerick as it took artillery and troops to the front in 1914. It was recorded that Gunner Hiscocks had disembarked in Malta on 10 September 1915 from the New Zealand Hospital Ship Neveralia "slightly sick".

After the war, E. F. Hiscocks was one of the illustrators who contributed to New Zealand at the Front (Cassell & Co., 1917), which featured contributions from "Men of the New Zealand Division". Shortly after, it was appear that he moved to the UK... although it was not the first time he had been to England, as he had travelled with his family to London and was living at 33 Harrington Square, St. Pancras, at the time the 1881 census was taken. While in London, Blanche Ethel Hiscocks was born. She subsequently married James Henry Thompson on 15 July 1899.

Quite when he moved to the UK is unknown, but he was contributing to The Bystander as early as 1920 and in 1925 he joined the staff of the Daily Mail, although this may have only lasted until 1928. He seems to have remained in the UK for at least a decade, supplying cartoons and illustrations for various papers, including the Blue Magazine (1921), Cassell's Magazine (1927-30), Windsor Magazine (1927), Gaiety (1927) and the Union Jack (1930-31), where he had earlier written a series of articles entitled "The Story of the Australian Gangsters" (1926) about early larrikin types from the 1860-80 era.

What happened to Hiscocks after this, I cannot say. His wife died in Whanganui, Wellington, New Zealand in 1946, aged 65. He may have returned to New Zealand in the 1930s as Britain struggled during the economic downturn, which may have meant that work had become more scarce in the late 1920s. I have found no sign of him in marriage or death records for the UK.

His odd name should make him easy to trace, but if, as it appears, he used only initials and was known to others by his middle name – Fred – it might be the case that his death was recorded as Fred or Frederick; equally, it could simply be the case that not all records are currently available online.

Eceldoune is a unique name which might have come from Thomas the Rhymer, also known as Thomas of Erceldoune, son of a 13th-century Scottish laird who was said to be a great prophet; this subsequently became folk lore and the subject of ballads and was popularised by Sir Walter Scott in his book Minstrelsey (1803).

PUBLICATIONS

Books
The “Douk’s” Visit to the Land of the Mao, the Maori, and “the Minor”. A skit, with W. Reuben Watts. Wellington, Tate & Co., 1901.
King Dick Abroad: drawings. Wellington, McKee & Co., 1902.
Saints and Sinners? Concerning Somewhat the 1905 Elections. Wellington, 1905.
Joe Ward Abroad. Wellington, 1911.

Further information:
cartoons at the National Library of New Zealand.

G W Goss

An enquiry arrived from David Redd this week asking if I knew anything about artist G. W. Goss. The name wasn't familiar, but I've managed to scrape together a little about this interesting artist.

To collectors, his name is probably best known for his covers of Tarzan novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Although not the first British artist to produce covers for Tarzan novels, he was a regular Burroughs' artist for Methuen in the 1920s. According to ERBzine, he was the first dustjacket artist for only one title: Tarzan the Terrible in 1921; mostly, he produced dustjackets for reprint editions. his covers including Tarzan of the Apes, The Return of Tarzan, The Son of Tarzan and The Girl from Hollywood.

As well as dustjackets, Goss was also a prolific illustrator of books for children in the 1920s and 1930s. He also provided illustrations to Little Folks, Cassell's Magazine and The Wide World Magazine, and produced a series of humorous postcards featuring cats and dogs.

He was born Geoffrey Walter Goss in Battersea, London, on 10 January 1901, the son of Walter Goss (1832-1926), a piano teacher, and his second wife Christine Elizabeth Mary (nee Saunders, 1871-1956). Walter Goss had four children from his first marriage; three years after Arabella Goss died in 1895, her husband, at the age of 65, married 27-year-old Christine and went on to have three more children.

In 1938, at the age of 37, Geoffrey Goss was married to 18-year-old Patricia Tyson, who trained as a watercolourist and illustrator.

In 1944, Goss painted a portrait of Victor Roy Smith, President of the Canadian Art Club, who was visiting London from Toronto, Canada. It was perhaps this meeting that inspired his move soon after.

In 1947, Goss – then of 14 Copshall Gardens, Mill Hill, London NW7 – took his family to Canada, continuing to work as a commercial artist in Toronto. An early commission was a series of 'Vacations Unlimited' travel posters for the Canadian Government Travel Bureau promoting Canada as a holiday destination. His work in the 1960s included books for a number of religious groups, including illustrations for The War Cry.

During this period, he and Patricia lived at 206 Dundas, Halton, Ontario [fl.1957/62], 328 Trafalgar Road, Halton, Ontario [fl.1963/68]. After raising four children, Patricia began working as a teacher at the National Ballet School in Toronto, retiring in 1990 after 25 years. She was recently interviewed by the Toronto Globe and Mail (3 July 2015), discussing how she took up sculpture after retiring from teaching.

The interview notes that Geoffrey Goss had passed away, as had two of their four children, although the date has not been established.

PUBLICATIONS

Books
No Kidding. London, Hammond, Hammond & Co., 1947.

Book Illustrations

A Fourth Form Rebel by Christine Chaundler. London, Nisbet, 1922.
Jan of the Fourth by Christine Chaundler. London, Nisbet, 1923.
The Last Lap: A School Story by Walter Rhoades. London, Humphrey Milford, 1923.
Judy the Tramp by Christine Chaundler. London, Nisbet, 1924.
Winning Her Colours by Christine Chaundler. London, Nisbet, 1924.
Winnie O'Wynn and the Dark Horses by Bertram Atkey. London, Hutchinson & Co., 1925.
The Whip Hand: A School Story by Walter Rhoades. London, Blackie & Son, 1925.
Dr. Jolliffe's Boys: A Tale of Weston School by Lewis Hough. London, Blackie & Son, 1925.
The Boys of the "Puffin": A Sea Scout Yarn by Percy F. Westerman. London, Partridge, 1925.
Over the Hills and Far Away by May Wynne. London, Children's Companion Office, 1925?
Dare-All Jack and the Cousins by May Wynne. London, Children's Companion Office, 1925?
The Honour of A Guide by E.M. Channon. London, Nisbet, 1926.
Averil's Ambition by Kathleen Willcox. London, Nisbey, 1927.
Just What I Like. London & Glasgow, Blackie & Son, 1932.
The Enemy in the Midst by Captain K. Maclure. London, Sheldon Press, 1932. [frontispiece]
The Sun Will Shine by May Edginton. London, Odhams Press, 1933. [dustjacket]
Midbourne School by Edith Miles. London, Sheldon Press, 1933.
Up in the Air. London & Glasgow, Blackie & Son, 1935.
The Devil of Saxon Wall by Gladys Mitchell. London, Grayson, 1935. [dustjacket]
What Katy Did at School by Susan Coolidge. London, W. Foulsham & Co., 1935. [dustjacket]
Peter Simple from the story by Captain Marryat, retold and edited by Constance M. Martin. London, Philip & Tacey Ltd., 1940.
Peter and Tim on the Trail by T. Barton Brown. London, Hammond, Hammond & Co., 1945.
Murder in Havana by George Harmon Coxe. London, Hammond & Co., 1945. [dustjacket]
The Magic Bicycle by F. R. Evison. London, Hammond, Hammond & Co., 1946.

Fishing in a Cinch: With the Inquiring Angler in Ontario and Quebec by David Reddick. Toronto, McClelland & Stewart, 1950.
Farmyard Friends: Magic Hidden Colour Painting Book. London, Juvenile Productions, 1951?
Lexy O'Connor by Audrey McKim. Toronto, McClelland & Stewart, 1953.
The Barley and the Stream. The Molson Story by Merrill Denison. Toronto, McClelland & Stewart, 1955.
Outdoor Rambles by Stuart L. Thompson. Toronto, Longmans, Green & Co., 1956.
A Carp Water (Wood Pool) and How to Fish It by "B.B.". London, Putnam, 1958.
Anything Could Happen by Phyllis Brett Young. Toronto, Longmans, Green & Co., 1961.
Ma-Kee. The Life and Death of a Muskellunge by David Reddick. Toronto, McClelland & Stewart, 1962; as The Mighty Muskellunge, New York, Dod Mead, 1962.
God is Always With Us by Audrey McKim. Toronto, United Church Publishing House, 1964.
Adventure in Antigua by Ross Darling. Toronto, The Anglican Church of Canada, 1967.
The Architecture of Rural Society by Samuel Henry Prince. Toronto, The Anglican Church of Canada, n.d. (1960s?)

Comic Cuts - 7 July 2017

Another week of pleasing progress on the Valiant index. I've written up notes on the various industrial problems faced by comics in 1970 and the merger with Smash! in 1971, which means I've spent some time re-reading Janus Stark. And a week where you can spend some time re-reading Janus Stark is a good week!

I had a bit of a mad dash to make sure that I posted here at Bear Alley as usual – I try to do one of these rambly things every Friday and also post something on Saturday and Monday, plus some release info. for some comics on Wednesday and alternate Thursdays. But because I was going out on Saturday and was hoping for Sunday that didn't involve sitting at the computer, there was a mad dash on Friday to piece together the Vernor Vinge cover gallery.

Saturday was spent celebrating Canada Day with a Canadian friend and her family and friends; it's the first time I've been out of Essex for some while as we headed off to Suffolk with a SatNav that insisted we were in Stowmarket and spent most of the journey trying to get us to make a U-turn on the busy, fast-moving A14 motorway. After a while, I began to wonder whether this was the voice that murderers think they hear inside their heads, persistent, insistent, repeating the same deadly mantra over and over until you've been driven mad by it and will turn in the face of 70-mile-an-hour traffic just to shut the voice up.

Despite the SatNav trying to murder us, we got to our destination in one piece and much fun and barbecued food was had by all over the course of the next ten or so hours. All I can say is, Thank you Annie, Canada and Paul (I think that's the correct order): the Caesar cocktail is disgusting (Clamato! Seriously?) but more than made up for by bacon and maple syrup crisps.

I've just received a copy of The Leopard from Lime St., the Rebellion reprint of the old Buster strip, which includes an introduction I wrote a couple of months ago. Here's a taster:

Billy Farmer is, after all, an unlikely hero. The 13-year-old may have been a year or two older than Buster’s readers (the paper was aimed at 7- to 12-year-olds), but he was being bullied at school and was a bit of a swot, unlikely to inspire aspirations in Buster’s readership. However, this was precisely the same kind of un-heroic hero that Stan Lee and Steve Ditko had created a decade earlier for Marvel Comics. Shy, smart and the butt of the bullies jokes, Billy Farmer was the secondary modern Spider-Man, a vulnerable schoolboy whose problems made him both familiar and appealing.
    These early tales of “The Leopard From Lime Street” were written to entertain Buster’s 175,000 readers every week, author Tully keeping the storylines compelling and comical. Forty years on, they are no less entertaining, thanks to the un-heroic hero at their centre: a decent young boy who accidentally gains his powers and tries to do the right thing with them, by his family, by his school and by the townsfolk in Selbridge, even when faced with the terrifying headlines—“Leopard Danger to Society”, “Brutal Attack By Leopard Man”—of the local paper. As Billy proves, it takes more than putting on a costume to be a hero.

The book has a couple of little previews of upcoming titles, including Marney the Fox, with a lovely new cover by John Stokes (September), The Dracula File (October), with a cover by the mighty Chris Weston, a second collection from the pages of Misty (November) featuring 'The Sentinels' and 'End of the Line', and a gathering of the first 100 scrunges of Ken Reid's Faceache (November).

Random scans... I have a few more comedy tie-ins left over from the scans I used in a couple of columns in May. I wonder if anyone else has spotted Sid's Snake being used by Dave Gorman? And Robert Newman is better known as Rob Newman

Rebellion Releases (2000AD)

Rebellion releases for 5 July 2017.

2000AD Prog 2038
Cover: Cliff Robinson
Judge Dredd: Parental Guidance by Rory McConville (w) Leigh Gallagher (a) Quinton Winter (c) Annie Parkhouse (l)
Brink: Skeleton Life by Dan Abnett (w) INJ Culbard (a) Simon Bowland (l)
Defoe: Diehards by Pat Mills (w) Colin MacNeil (a) Ellie De Ville (l)
Grey Area: Batch Recall by Dan Abnett (w) Mark Harrison (a) Annie Parkhouse (l)
Hunted: Furies by Gordon Rennie (w) PJ Holden (a) Len O'Grady (c) Ellie De Ville (l)

Vernor Vinge cover gallery

NOVELS

Grimm's World (New York, Berkley Medallion, 1969; revised and expanded as Tatja Grimm's World, New York, Baen, 1987)
Hamlyn 0600-34083-x, (Sep) 1978, 176pp, 75p. Cover by Colin Hay
Pan 0330-30707-x, 1990, 277pp, £3.99. Cover by Chris Moore

The Witling (New York, DAW Books, 1976)
Hamlyn 0600-39402-6, 1978, 173pp, 75p. Cover by Tim White
Pan Books 0330-30709-6, (Jan) 1990, 220pp, £3.99. Cover by Chris Moore

The Peace War (New York, Bluejay Books, 1984)
Pan Books 0330-29959-x, (Oct) 1987, 317pp, £2.95. Cover by Chris Moore

Marooned in Realtime (New York, Bluejay Books, 1986)
Pan Books 0330-39960-3, (Oct) 1987, 270pp, £2.95. Cover by Chris Moore

A Fire Upon the Deep (New York, Tor, 1992)
Millennium 1857-98127-8, (Jul) 1993, 579pp, £4.99. Cover by Boris Vallejo
---- [xth imp.] (Sep) 1994, 579pp, £5.99. Cover by Boris Vallejo
---- [xth imp.] (Mar) 2000, 579pp, £6.99. Cover by Chris Moore
Gollancz 1857-98127-8, (Dec) 2002, 579pp, £6.99. Cover by Chris Moore
Gollancz [SF Masterworks] 978-1473-21195-7, (Jan) 2016, xi+579pp, £9.99. Cover by Arthur Haas

A Deepness in the Sky (New York, Tor, 1999)
Millennium/Orion 1857-98826-4, (Jun) 1999, 607pp,p £11.99 [tpb]. Cover by Chris Moore
Millennium 1857-98851-5, (Apr) 2000, 757pp, £6.99. Cover by Chris Moore
Gollancz [SF Masterworks] 978-1473-21196-4, (Jul) 2016, vi+538pp, £9.99. Cover by Sebastian Hue

Rainbow's End (New York, Tor, 2006)
Tor/Pan Macmillan 0330-45194-4, (Aug) 2007, 381pp, £6.99. Cover by Stephen Martiniere
Macmillan UK 978-1447-24972-6, (Aug) 2013, 500, £14.99 [tpb].

The Children of the Sky (New York, Tor, 2011)
(no UK paperback)

OMNIBUS

Acrosss Realtime
Millennium 1857-98119-7, (Aug) 1993, 533pp, £8.99 [tpb]. Cover by Chris Moore
Millennium 1857-98147-2, (Dec) 1994, 532pp, £5.99. Cover by Chris Moore
---- [xth imp.] (Mar) 2000, ii+533pp, £6.99. Cover by Chris Moore
Gollancz 1857-98147-2, 2001, 532pp, £6.99. Cover by Chris Moore
---- [xth imp.] 2004, 532pp, £7.99. Cover by Chris Moore

Zones of Thought
Gollancz 978-0575-09369-0, (Oct) 2010, 976pp, £18.99 [tpb]. Cover by John Harris

COLLECTIONS

True Names (New York, Dell, 1981)
(no UK paperback)

True Names... and Other Dangers (New York, Baen Books, 1987)
(no UK paperback)

Threats... and Other Promises (New York, Baen Books, 1988)
(no UK paperback)

The Collected stories of Vernor Vinge (New York, Tor, 2001)
Souvenir Press 978-0285-63821-1, (Mar) 2008, 464pp, £14.99 [tpb].

OTHERS

True Names and the Opening of the Cyberspace Frontier, ed. James Frenkel (New York, Tor, 2001)
Penguin Books 978-0241-97558-9, 2016, 292pp, £8.99. Cover design by La Boca

Claude Hunter

A minor author who had a brief career as a writer in the latter days of the Second World War. I have never found any of Hunter's books – actually slim pamphlets for the most part with only one title that could be reasonably called a book – but did discover a little about him recently. Thanks to my research pal, John Herrington for getting this one started.

Hunter advertised in The Stage between July 1944 and September 1945. A typical early advert read:
REALLY Outstanding Monos, Sketches, Acts, all types, by well-known writer. Original and Individual to the Artist. Several "Star" clients. No cheap rubbish. Many works published. Material that will build your reputation,—Claude Hunter, 97, Church-road, Richmond.

Who these "Star" clients were, Hunter never mentioned, but he continued to advertise for over a year, expanding his small ads-style invitation into a box-ad in 1945. Between issues published on the 12th and 19th of April 1945, his address changed from 97 Church-road, Richmond, to 48 Cleveland-square, W2.

Hunter's slim booklets were published by a company named Quality Music Co., who gave an address of 21b Prince of Wales Terrace, London W8; they were later to be found in Denmark Street, the Tin Pan Alley of music in London. They were able to obtain a small supply of paper in 1944 and used it to publish three titles by Hunter: Collection of Monologues and Sketches (14 pages), Vent Act and One Act Play (16 pages, with J. O. Sones) and Collection of Six Stories (24 pages). It is unlikely that they published any further "books", but the company remained active; as Quality Music Co. Ltd. it was registered in May 1956 although it was eventually struck from the Company Register due to inactivity in 1977.

Hunter's final book was a collection of short stories, Murders While You Wait, published by Alliance Press in 1945, priced 1/6 for its 60 pages. Its scarcity means that even Al Hubin's Crime Fiction Bibliography doesn't list the contents of the book. The FictionMags Index doesn't list any short stories for Hunter, nor have I found any other stories from his pen. However, we do have a little background biography for him.

He was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, on 12 September 1889, the third of five children of Thomas R. W. Hunter, a professor of music, and his wife Agnes. He grew up in Portsmouth and by the age of 21 had become a shipwright at H.M. Dockyard, still living with his parents.

He met Annie Daisy Francis—the daughter of tobacconist and hairdresser David Francis—during the war and they had a son, Kenneth Brandon Claude Hunter, born in June 1918; they married soon after and had a second son, Vernon, in 1920. Phyllis V. Hunter (later Connolly) followed in 1924 and a boy who died at birth in 1928.

Hunter was working as a representative for a combustion engineering firm living at 7 Pensford Avenue, Richmond, Surrey. In his early fifties, he served as an A.R.P. Warden during the Second World War.

Shortly after V.E. Day, Hunter's son, Vernon, was working as the manager of The Regal cinema in Foleshill Road, Coventry. Vernon had married Norah Lester Rands in 1941 but had separated from her and was living alone at 298b Foleshill Road. On Sunday, 22 July 1945, Claude Hunter received a phone call from a member of staff at the cinema saying that his son had not been seen for several days. Hunter took the night train from London and arrived in Coventry on Monday morning.

At first everything seemed to be in order at the house in Foleshill Road, but he received no answer to his knocking. He returned to the house later that morning and gained entry via a window; inside he found two letters on a table, one of them addressed to himself. Locating the source of a smell of gas, he found his son dead on a mattress in the scullery in front of the gas stove. Cracks under the door and window were stopped up with paper.

An inquest held two days later revealed that Vernon had been in poor health his whole life due to a poor heart; further strain had been put on his health by his A.R.P. work during the blitzes. Death had occurred three days before his body was found, and the Coroner recorded a verdict of "Suicide whilst the balance of his mind was disturbed."

Hunter's writing career seems to have come to an end shortly after. Hunter, who was also known as Kenneth Claude Hunter, was living at Mile End Cottage, Newton Poppleford, Devon, when he died on 14 December 1964 at The City Hospital, Exeter, Devon, aged 75.