Comic Cuts - 8 February 2019

Today's Comic Cuts column is going up a little later than usual because I was in London on Thursday helping to film a segment for The One Show. I was contacted last month by a BBC production office who were tasked with putting together four and a half minutes on the subject of Harry Bensley, the man who claimed that he walked around the world in an Iron Mask.

I first wrote about Harry here on Bear Alley way back in 2014, turning it into a slim book in 2016. The text was expanded for the current version of the book that was first published in the summer of 2018. There's a new draft of the book available at the moment where I've tidied up a couple of things for clarity. It's a complicated story and The One Show can only give the subject a few minutes, a stripped back version covering the main facts. If you want to explore further, well... there's a book...

So how did I end up wandering around in front of a camera in Trafalgar Square with social historian and author Ruth Goodman watching a K-Pop video being shot and then going to watch some shoes rising and falling... rising and falling... rising and falling... like breathing... at a shoe museum?

As these things usually do, it began with an e-mail from a guy called Paul from the BBC in Belfast asking whether I'd be willing to chat about Harry Bensley with a view to maybe being interviewed for a segment on The One Show. Why, yes, I would like to chat about Harry Bensley, I thought.

After a couple of interviews with a researcher (Hi, Siobhan!) trying to straighten out and simplify the storyline until a rough script could be prepared. I was due to travel up to London on the Thursday for filming at Galeria Melissa in Covent Garden at around 3:30pm. This is the aforementioned shoe museum, based at 43 King Street, which used to be the location of the National Sporting Club, where the wager between the Earl of Lonsdale and J. P. Morgan was laid down that set Harry Bensley on his way around the world in a mask. Well, that's the story, anyway.

On Wednesday, the plan changed... could I be in Trafalgar Square for 2.00pm. As I'd planned a little redundancy into the train times, I could, and easily.

I'd planned to do a little exploring of old haunts and wander down Charing Cross Road looking in some of the old book shops. But London is changing and the area where Tottenham Court Road meets New Oxford Street is just one huge building site. Denmark Street (the site of the original Forbidden Planet) is all scaffolding and the bar where FP and Titan did all their signings has gone, replaced with a rather boxy looking. The Forbidden Planet that was in New Oxford Street is now a Korean and Japanese supermarket.

There were only two secondhand bookshops down Charing Cross Road, neither of which had a particularly good SF section, so I headed off to Trafalgar Square early.

The first thing I noticed was another change. When I was a kid and we were taken to Trafalgar Square by my Mum on Nan, it was packed out with pigeons. One of the attractions was feeding them and then scrambling around on the sticky back of a lion that was covered in pigeon poop.

Well, there are only one or two pigeons these days thanks to the banning of bird seed sellers in 2001 and the 2003 ban on feeding the birds. You could still feed them on the North Terrace (outside the National Art Gallery), but that was banned in 2007. And if that wasn't enough, Ken Livingstone (who must have really hated pigeons) brought in hawks to scare off the stubborn ones who liked hanging out in central London, spending over £350,000 to kill 130 pigeons (just £2,729 per dead bird) between 2003-09.

It has definitely reduced the number of pigeons, but there's still a gull on the head of every statue.

At precisely two o'clock the phone rang and Paul tells me they are about to arrive at Trafalgar Square. We met up and he introduced me to cameraman Austin and to Ruth Goodman who will be interviewing me. We find a corner of a fountain where we begin filming. You'll be able to see some of these bits when the piece goes out, so I'll just say here that it involved answering a few questions, usually a couple of times so I could get the answers straight and get the information across concisely (anyone reading this will realise that even my writing rambles).

Then we had to walk across Trafalgar Square, avoiding the Asian girl in the tight top who was dancing like she was under attack from ants but was almost certainly trying to film a K-pop video, avoiding the conga lines of tourists also crossing the square, and trying to remember not to stare or gurn at the camera as I passed by.

Then it was off to Covent Garden and the former home of the National Sporting Club, now the Galeria Melissa, a shoe museum. This bit will actually come ahead of the Trafalgar Square part of the interview in the finished piece, so I had to avoid actually naming Harry Bensley, as he is only revealed after the Galeria Melissa interview.

I only saw a couple of rooms of the shoe museum, the psychedelic entrance hall, the room of hanging shoes and a nicer little nook with a couple of comfy armchairs. There was a bit more chat about the Iron Mask and what the wager involved. I'd spent the morning wandering around the kitchen and living room reciting "the trip involved 160 towns and cities across 40 counties in the UK, in each of which he had to get the signature of a dignitary – the mayor or a doctor – to prove that he had been there. Then he had to visit 19 countries, Ireland, North and South America, New Zealand and Australia, Japan and China. Then Africa and through Europe, back to the UK." I think I managed to repeat this almost exactly three times, along with some additional lines about a companion and a mention that he had to find a wife.

We were finished by five. The last shot was Ruth and I walking into the room with the hanging perspex boxes of shoes. I'm no expert, but I'm guessing these were all modern classics and the rising and falling of the boxes was quite hypnotic.

And that was the filming over. Ruth headed off for her taxi, I headed off for the underground and Paul and Austin headed off to the airport. I arrived at Leicester Square tube station still buoyed by adrenaline. That lasted about two minutes. Believe me, there's nothing like being bumped and buffeted around on the Northern Line to bring you straight back down to earth.

I don't know when the film will appear, but I'll be sure to let everyone know. I'm hoping that it will give the book a little bit of a boost – it only costs £5.50, so it's not a hugely expensive item, and if you're ordering something else that's not expensive enough to get free postage, it might just nudge you over the free postage limit, which means it has only cost a couple of quid.

Commando 5199-5202

The longest-running British war comic reaches its 5200th issue as Commando releases brand new issues 5199 – 5202! Check out the mysteries of Pyu city ruins in Burma, monuments to a minotaur in Crete, Aussie redemption in the jungle, and a prankster in the British Army!

5199: Labyrinth

Move over, Indiana jones! Writer Dominic Teague’s Lieutenant Ned Morris is here to discover ancient artefacts and save the day from the Japanese! But something slithers in the dark in Burma! Defeo and Morhain’s art will make you cry – “Snakes! Why did it have to be snakes?!”

Story: Dominic Teague
Art: Morhain & Defeo
Cover: Janek Matysiak

5200: Sky Blitz

Sky Blitz is our 5200th issue – and what an issue it is! Don’t be fooled by the dramatic cover by Scholler because inside lies a zany Eric Hebden plot! Based in the real Palace of Minos at Knossos, Captain Colbert fends off the relentless attacks from German paratroopers during the Battle of Crete. But the palace holds a secret – and it isn’t just Greek partisans.

Story: E Hebden
Art: Sostres
Cover: Scholler
Originally Commando No. 152 (February 1965).

5201: Jungle Redemption

From the writer of 2018’s best-selling Commando issue ‘Flak Run’, comes another ripper of a comic! In this issue, Brent Towns’ Sergeant Ted Jones is deep down in the jungle of a remote Indian Ocean island! But when his mission to destroy a Japanese airstrip goes pear-shaped, Ted has to leave his cobbers behind! Strewth! Now he’s determined to go back for them at any cost!

Story: Brent Towns
Art: Khato
Cover: Neil Roberts

5202: The Joker

What a cover! And what a Commando! Private Bob Dyson isn’t called “The Joker” for nothing! But Dyson and his by the book Company Sergeant Major, Alec Collins, get off to a bad start when the private’s mischievous streak strikes! Highlights includes changing the CSM’s cap badge to a sheriff’s badge and a dummy grenade!

Story: Burden
Art: Gordon C Livingstone
Cover: Dalger
Originally Commando No. 2775 (July 1994).

Rebellion Releases (2000AD)

Rebellion releases for 6 February 2019.

2000AD Prog 2118
Cover: Raid71
JUDGE DREDD: MACHINE LAW by John Wagner (w) Colin MacNeil (a) Chris Blythe (c) Annie Parkhouse (l)
SKIP TRACER: LOUDER THAN BOMBS by James Peaty (w) Paul Marshall (a) Quinto Winter (c) (a) Ellie De Ville (l)
THARG'S 3RILLERS: KEEPER OF SECRETS by Robert Murphy (w) Steven Austin (a) Pippa Mather (c) Ellie De Ville (l)
BRINK: HIGH SOCIETY by Dan Abnett (w) INJ Culbard (a) Simon Bowland (l)
JAEGIR: BONEGRINDER by Gordon Rennie (w) Simon Coleby (a) Len O'Grady (c) Annie Parkhouse

A S Boyd

A.S. BOYD

by

Robert J. Kirkpatrick

A.S. Boyd was a Scottish illustrator, cartoonist and painter, who was best-known for his work with The Graphic and Punch. He also illustrated a variety of books, including many with a Scottish background, and several girls’ stories by authors such as May Baldwin and L.T. Meade.

He was born on 7 February 1854 in Glasgow, and baptised as Alexander Stuart Boyd on 26 March 1854. (His second name occasionally appears in official records as “Stewart”.) His father, Alexander Boyd, was a muslin manufacturer, who had married Janet Mathieson on 5 June 1851. Alexander Stuart was the second of their four children. At the time of the 1861 census, the family was living at 156 Crown Street, Govan, Glasgow.

His interest in art was stimulated when he was recovering from a serious illness when he was around four years old, and an aunt bought him some illustrated papers and a box of paints. He was subsequently encouraged by a neighbor, James Cowan (who later became his brother-in-law), an amateur artist who was an early member of the Glasgow Art Club. He was then taught drawing at his local day school. However, after leaving school he began working as a clerk for the Royal Bank of Scotland in Glasgow, whilst painting and sketching in his spare time. At the time of the 1871 census, he was living with his widowed mother (his father had died in 1865) and his siblings at 2 Allanton Terrace, Govan. After six years with the bank, and probably inspired by having a painting exhibited at the Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts in 1877, he decided to become a professional artist. He studied with the life class at the Glasgow Art Club, and in 1880 he spent a few months at Heatherley’s Art School in London.

In the meantime, he had begun his career as an illustrator, having been commissioned to illustrate a serial by Sarah Tyler in the periodical Good Words in 1879. In March 1881 he joined the staff of the newly-launched Quiz, a Glasgow-based loose equivalent of Punch. He stayed there for seven years, producing comic black and white sketches, and then joined The Bailie, another Glasgow periodical which had been founded in 1872. For both periodicals, he used the pseudonym “Twym.”  Many of his illustrations from these two publications were collected in book-form in Glasgow Man and Women, published in 1905 by Hodder & Stoughton. In 1884 he contributed to the Glasgow magazine Sunday Talk.

On 6 August 1880 he married Mary Rennie Wilson Kirkwood at Frankfield House, Millerston, Glasgow. Born on 15 October 1860, she was the daughter of James Dunlop Kirkwood, am accountant, and his wife Agnes, née Marshall. The couple moved to 100 Buccleuch Street, Glasgow, Boyd having previously been living in Langside Road, Govan. In 1887 they moved to 257 West George Street, Glasgow, where they had their only child, Alexander Stuart, on 7 June 1887.

By then, Boyd had illustrated at least six books, beginning with Leaves of Healing for the Bereaved, published by Houlston & Sons in 1880. He was also exhibiting his paintings regularly – he had exhibited with the Glasgow Art Club since 1879; he was also a regular exhibitor with the Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts (every year between 1882 and 1889); in 1882 he was elected a member of the Royal Scottish Watercolour Society; and throughout the remainder of the 1880s he also exhibited with the Royal Scottish Academy of Arts, the Kilmarnock Fine Art Institute, the Glasgow Society of Painters in Watercolours, and, in 1887 and 1896, at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

In 1890 he was appointed as the Glasgow Correspondent of the newly-launched Daily Graphic. In the summer of 1891 he was invited to join the staff of The Daily Graphic’s parent paper, The Graphic, in London by its editor W.L. Thomas. He therefore left Glasgow, in October that year, and settled at “The Hut”, 17 Boundary Road, St. John’s Wood.

He subsequently more or less abandoned painting (other than having a picture exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1909, along with one by his son, who had adopted the name Stuart Boyd) in favour of illustration. In 1892 he began contributing to The Idler, which had been launched in February that year by the author Robert Barr (with Jerome K. Jerome as co-editor), and a year later he began contributing to The Pall Mall Magazine. In April 1894 he began a long association with Punch. He subsequently went on to contribute to other periodicals, including The Ludgate Monthly, Black and White, The Sunday Magazine, The Art Journal, and, in the early 1900s, The Strand Magazine, The London Magazine, The Woman at Home, The Young Man, Printers’ Pie and The Odd Volume. He often signed his early work “A.S.B.”

As a book illustrator many of his books had a Scottish background or setting – for example collections of songs and ballads, and two books by the author Ian Maclaren. Whilst he was living in Glasgow, he was used by Scottish publishers such as William Blackwood and David Bryce & Son, and after moving to London he forged relationships with publishers such as Chatto & Windus, Hodder & Stoughton and W.& R. Chambers. Amongst his best-known books were A Lowden Sabbath Morn by Robert Louis Stevenson, published in 1898, and The Cotter’s Saturday Night by Robert Burns, published in 1905. Between 1907 and 1911 he illustrated four girls’ school stories by May Baldwin and three girls’ stories by L.T. Meade. He also illustrated five books written by his wife, who wrote as Mary Stuart Boyd.

In October 1898 Boyd and his wife set out on a round-the-world trip, via Australia and New Zealand, returning to England in May 1899. Their journey was subsequently told in Mary Stuart Boyd’s book, which had 170 illustrations by her husband, Our Stolen Summer, published by Blackwood in 1900.

Boyd’s son Stuart, who had been educated at University College School, Hampstead, enlisted in the Army Service Corps in August 1914. In March 1915 he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 13th Battalion The Sherwood Foresters, and was promoted to  Lieutenant in the 3rd Battalion in January 1916. He was subsequently attached to the 1st Battalion of the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment in France in August 1916. He was wounded during the Battle of the Somme in September, and died of his injuries on 7 October, being buried in the Dernancourt Communal Cemetery Extension. He had been a promising artist, exhibiting at the Royal Academy in 1909, 1913, 1914 and 1915.

Along with many other periodical illustrators, A.S. Boyd found his work in less demand after the war, with photography becoming the preferred medium for reportage. Boyd and his wife therefore decided to emigrate to New Zealand – one source suggests that Mary had relatives there. They left from Southampton on 20 November 1919, and settled in Auckland. Boyd quickly joined the Auckland Society of Art, serving as President between September 1926 and September 1928, and in 1923 was one of the founder members of the Auckland Sketch Club. From 1920 onwards he regularly gave lectures – on art, humour, authors he had known, and, one of his specialities, Robert Louis Stevenson. He had given up illustration as a career, but he continued painting.

He died on 21 August 1930 at his home at Rewhili Avenue, Takapuna, Auckland.

His wife had a long career as a journalist and author, often using the pseudonym J. Colne Dacre. Whilst living in London she wrote reviews, features and stories for periodicals such as The Woman at Home, The Lady’s World, The Morning Post, The Observer, Chambers’s Journal, The Graphic, and Black and White, and several novels. In New Zealand, she became the first President of the League of New Zealand Penwomen. She died in Auckland on 28 July 1937.

PUBLICATIONS

Books illustrated by A.S. Boyd
Leaves of Healing for the Bereaved ed. by Arthur Guthrie, Houlston & Sons, 1880
Martha Spreull: Being Chapters in the Life of a Single Wumman by Henry Johnson, Wilson & McCormick, 1884
Personal Recollections of Peter Stonnor, Esq. by Charles Blatherwick, Chapman & Hall, 1884 (with James Guthrie)
The Birthday Book of Solomon Grundy: His Wisdom and Humour by Will Robertson, Gowans & Gray, 1886
Sweet Briar: Songs and Sketches from “Quiz”, Houlston & Sons, 1886
Legal and Other Lyrics by George Outram, W. Blackwood & Sons, 1887 (with William Ralston)
Bute and Beauty: Tour To and Through the Island by W.M.M., John C. King, 1888
Some Old Scottish Songs, with Music, David Bryce & Son, 1889
Other Old Scotch Songs, with Music, David Bryce & Son, 1889
The Gailes of ’89 as Imprinted on the Mind of an Officer (anon), D. Robertson & Co., 1889
Childe Ronald’s Pilgrimage per S.S. “Columba”: A Souvenir of the Clyde, David Bryce & Son, 1890
Songs of Scotland: A Choice Selection ed. by William Moodie, F.A. Stokes (USA), 1890
Jeems Kaye: His Adventures and Opinions by Jeems Kaye, “The Bailie” Office, 1890 (with other artists)
One and Twenty Pages: Sketches, David Bryce & Son, 1891
Sweet Content by Mrs Molesworth,. Griffith & Farran, 1891
Told After Supper by Jerome K. Jerome. Leadenhall Press, 1891 (with other artists)
A Chronicle of Small Beer by John Reid, Isbister & Co., 1893
At the Rising of the Moon: Irish Stories and Studies by Frank James Mathew, McClure & Co., 1893 (with Fred Pegram)
Tavistock Tales by various authors, Isbister & Co., 1893 (with other artists)
Novel Notes by Jerome K. Jerome, Leadenhall Press, 1893 (with other artists)
Ghetto Tragedies by I. Zangwill, McClure & Co., 1894
John Ingerfield and Other Stories by Jerome K. Jerome, McClure & Co, 1894 (with other artists)
Greater Love and Other Stories by Alexander Gordon and other authors, Isbister & Co., 1894 (with other artists)
The Bell-Ringer of Angel’s by Bret Harte, Chatto & Windus, 1894 (with other artists)
A Protégée of Jack Hamlim’s by Bret Harte, Chatto & Windus, 1894 (with other artists)
Old English, Scotch, and Irish Songs, with Music: A Favourite Selection ed. by William Moodie, David Bryce & Son, 1895
Sketch Book of the North by George Eyre Todd, Morison Bros., 1896 (with other artists)
A Lowden Sabbath Morn by Robert Louis Stevenson, Chatto & Windus, 1898
The Days of Auld Lang Syne by Ian Maclaren, Hodder & Stoughton, 1898
Rabbi Saunderson by Ian Maclaren, Hodder & Stoughton, 1898
Gilean the Dreamer by Neil Munro, Isbister & Co., 1898
Mr Punch in Society: Being the Humours of Social Life, Amalgamated Press, 1898 (with other artists)
Mr Punch Afloat: The Humours of Boating and Sailing, Amalgamated Press, 1898
Mr Punch in the Highlands, Amalgamated Press, 1898 (with other artists)
Our Stolen Summer: The Record of a Roundabout Tour by Mary Stuart Boyd, W. Blackwood & Sons, 1900
Horace in Homespun by J. Logie Robertson, W. Blackwood & Sons, 1900 (re-issue)
A Versailles Christmas-tide by Mary Stuart Boyd, Chatto & Windus, 1901
The Shoes of Fortune: How They Brought to Manhood Love, Adventure and Content by Neil Munro, William Blackwood & Sons, 1901
When We Were Laddies at the Scüle by Kenneth Airsbil, A. Elliot, 1902
Wee Macgreegor by J.J. Bell, Scots Pictorial Publishing Co., 1903 (re-issue)
A Little Ray of Sunshine by various authors, “The Daily News” Office, 1903 (with other artists)
Jess & Co. by J.J. Bell, Hodder & Stoughton, 1904
Doctor Luke, of The Labrador by Norman Duncan, Hodder & Stoughton, 1904
Mr Lion of London, and Some Affairs of the Heart by J.J. Bell, Hodder & Stoughton, 1905
Glasgow Men and Women, Their Children and Some Strangers Within Their Gates: A Selection from the Sketches of Twym, Hodder & Stoughton, 1905
The Cotter’s Saturday Night by Robert Burns, Chatto & Windus, 1905 (re-issue)
The Lady of the Lake: A Poem in Six Cantos by Walter Scott, David Bryce & Son, 1905 (re-issue)
The Golden Astrolabe by W.A. Bryce and H. de Vere Stacpoole, Wells Gardner, Darton & Co., 1906
The Children’s Hour by various authors, George Newnes Ltd., 1906 (with other artists)
Mr Punch’s Scottish Humour, Carmelite House, 1906 (with other artists)
The Follies of Fifi by May Baldwin, W. & R. Chambers, 1907
Mysie: A Highland Lassie by May Baldwin, W. & R. Chambers, 1907
Her Besetting Virtue by Mary Stuart Boyd, Hodder & Stoughton, 1908
Golden Square High School by May Baldwin, W. & R. Chambers, 1908
Sweet Content by Mrs Molesworth, W. & R. Chambers, 1908 (re-issue)
Prince Madog, Discoverer of America: A Legendary Story by Joan Dane, Eliot Stock, 1909
The First Stone by Mary Stuart Boyd, Hodder & Stoughton, 1909
Betty Vivian: A Story of Haddo Court School by L.T. Meade, W. & R. Chambers, 1909
Muriel and Her Aunt Lu, or School and Art Life in Paris by May Baldwin, W. & R. Chambers, 1909
The Speshul: Being the Book of the Glasgow Press by various authors, Glasgow Journalists’ Institute, 1909 (with other artists)
Mr Punch’s Golf Stories: Told by his Merry Men, Educational Book Co., 1909 (with other artists)
Rosa Regina: A Story for Girls by L.T. Meade, W. & R. Chambers, 1910
The Doctor’s Children by L.T. Meade, W. & R. Chambers, 1911
The Mystery of the Castle by Mary Stuart Boyd, James Nisbet & Co., 1911
The Fortunate Isles: Life and Travel in Majorca, Minorca and Iviza by Mary Stuart Boyd, Methuen & Co., 1911
Princess Marie-José’s Children’s Book, Cassell & Co., 1916 (with other artists)
Hamewith (Verses) by Charles Murray, Constable, 1917 (re-issue)

Comic Cuts - 1 February 2019

After two months working in-house, I'm back to working from home. I'm still writing material for the same firm, and will be for another six weeks or so. Working at the firm was always temporary, but it helped keep me focused on the job. I've just got to make sure I don't let e-mails, or Facebook, or watching something good on the TV, or fancying a walk round the block, distract me.

So, of course, during my first week back at home, I'm going to be in a tearing hurry to post an update to my Iron Mask book ahead of filming a little interviewette for The One Show next Thursday. The piece will be presented by social historian Ruth Goodman, probably best known for her shows and books about historical farming and Victorian life and practices.

I'll probably be on for about thirty seconds out of four minutes thirty. Even for such a short piece they are filming in at least three locations. Would they send me to Norfolk, or to Trafalgar Square or somewhere exciting to film? No, I'm in a shoe shop.

(Actually it's a little bit more exciting than I've made it sound, but I'll hopefully be able to talk about it next week.)

So that's my "One" news... more next week.

Just enough time left to mention a couple of upcoming releases from Rebellion. I posted in the Rolling News column to your left that Rebellion were releasing some reprint material from the humour titles in their archive and also had a Cor! and Buster Special lined up for publication on 17 April. Well, here are a couple of covers for you to enjoy.

The special, on the left, has cover artwork by Neil Googe and interior artwork by Ned Hartley, Cavan Scott, Abigail Bulmer and Tanya Roberts, with a lead-off strip by Lew Stringer. Good to see Frankie Stein, Martha (of Monster Make-Up fame) and Face-ache all making an appearance.

The other title is a freebie for Free Comic Book Day on 4 May and will contain reprints from various titles. It's great to see that Rebellion are making use of the full range of titles that they've acquired.


I haven't had much time for TV of late. I haven't been watching as much as normal because I'm not watching a show at lunchtime and I'm so knackered of an evening that I've not been watching anything just before bed. You'd perhaps expect that to be good for my eyesight, but actually it has been the cause of much eyestrain of late. I now have my new glasses and my eyes are gradually getting used to them... another reason I'm happy to be back at home where I have my chair, desk and monitor all carefully positioned to make long hours of computer work as comfortable on the eyes as possible.

I did manage to finish The Little Drummer Girl, adapted from a novel by John Le Carre which I have absolutely no memory of reading. I thought I had... I know I've got a copy, but I seem to have wiped the plot from my memory – which was great as it meant I could come to the TV series fresh.

I haven't read any reviews, but I suspect it was greeted with a bit less razzmatazz than The Night Manager was a couple of years ago. I quick dip into Wikipedia reveals that the latter was nominated for 36 awards and won 11, including 2 Emmys and 3 Golden Globes. When your show has Tom Hiddleston, Hugh Laurie and Olivia Colman, it is going to get noticed.

By comparison, The Little Drummer Girl was a relatively quieter release. If you can take Mel as a typical viewer, she watched and enjoyed The Night Manager, but wasn't inspired by the trailers to watch The Little Drummer Girl.

I thought it had a slow burning storyline which occasionally exploded into action. There were some incredibly tense moments, usually moments of spycraft, such as when Charlie drives a car lined with Semtex into a town square. Who knew waiting for something to happen could be so tense? I didn't know many of the actors (Charles Dance aside, I probably only knew Alexander Skarsgard from True Blood and Generation Kill), but there were no disappointments on that front, and the whole thing was ably directed by Park Chan-wook, whose Oldboy is a classic South Korean action thriller, but whose Stoker I found unwatchable, despite it getting some excellent reviews. The Little Drummer Girl was highly watchable.

I'll leave you with some more "Ones"...

.

Rebellion Releases (2000AD)

The latest release from Rebellion, out today.

2000AD Prog 2116
Cover: INJ Culbard

JUDGE DREDD: MACHINE LAW by John Wagner (w) Colin MacNeil (a) Chris Blythe (c) Annie Parkhouse (l)
SKIP TRACER: LOUDER THAN BOMBS by James Peaty (w) Paul Marshall (a) Quinto Winter (c) (a) Ellie De Ville (l)
THARG'S 3RILLERS: KEEPER OF SECRETS by Robert Murphy (w) Steven Austin (a) Pippa Mather (c) Ellie De Ville (l)
BRINK: HIGH SOCIETY by Dan Abnett (w) INJ Culbard (a) Simon Bowland (l)

C P Shilton

C.P. SHILTON

by

Robert J. Kirkpatrick

C.P. Shilton was a versatile painter and minor illustrator of periodicals and children’s books, able to work in a variety of styles and subjects.

He was born on 19 March 1887, and baptized on 12 July 1887 at St Margaret’s Church, Stoke Golding, Leicestershire (it is sometimes erroneously referred to as being in Warwickshire, as its post town is Nuneaton). The baptism record gave his name as Claud Percival Shilton Pegg – however, all later records give his first name as Claude (with an “e”). His father was Thomas Shilton Pegg (1861-1953), a grocer and carpenter, who had married Susan Hall (1860-1931) on 25 December 1882 in Stoke Golding. Thomas was the son of another Thomas Shilton, who had married Elizabeth (or Eliza) Pegg in February 1863 – hence the family name of Shilton Pegg, although the Pegg was quickly dropped. Thomas and Susan went on to have three children: Harry (born in Winshill, Derbyshire, in 1883), Hetty Angela (born in Stoke Golding in 1887) and her twin brother Claude (both Hetty and Claude were baptized on the same day).

At the time of the 1901 census, the family was still in Stoke Golding, at Dadlington End, with Thomas now working as a grocer, baker and draper, and his son Harry working for him as an apprentice. The family was comparatively comfortably-off, as in both the 1891 and 1901 census records they were shown as having a young female domestic servant (aged 13 and 15 respectively).

It is known that Claude Percival Shilton received his artistic training at the Leicester Municipal Technical and Art School (founded as the Leicester School of Art in 1870), although when he studied there is not clear). When he joined the RAF in 1918 his service record gave his occupation as “Artist, Poster Designer and Illustrator”, with his employer as the School of Art, Leicester, between March 1908 and June 1911, and the Westminster School of Art, London, between February 1912 and July 1914. This suggests that he was employed at both establishments, although he could have been there as a student.

At the time of the 1911 census Shilton was recorded at 35 Margarette Terrace, Chelsea, working as a commercial designer, and one of three boarders of Beatrice Hitchens. However, he was also recorded in the Leicestershire Electoral Register as a lodger at The Birches, Stoke Golding, having the sole use of an unfurnished bedroom in a property owned by his father.

During the First World War Shilton served in France with the 3rd Leicestershire Regiment, rising to the rank of 2nd Lieutenant. In April 1918 he was transferred to the R.A.F., and was eventually discharged in March 1919. (When he joined the R.A.F. his enlistment form showed his date of birth as 19 March 1889. This was presumably a mistake by Shilton or the officer who completed the form – Shilton would have had no need to lie about his age.)

In the meantime, on 18 March 1918 (when he gave his address as being in Hursley, Hampshire) he had married Alice Payne, a teacher (born on 6 October 1887, the daughter of James Payne, a manufacturer) at St. Margaret’s Church, Stoke Golding. After his discharge from the R.A.F. he and his wife moved to 49 Elsham Road, Kensington, while at the same time Shilton was renting a studio at 7 Brook Green Studios, Hammersmith. In 1927, they moved to West Hall Road, Mortlake, Surrey, where he remained for the rest of his life.

Whilst he had obviously been working as a professional artist before the First World War, most of his work appears to have been anonymous – as a commercial designer he would presumably have worked on things such as advertisements, posters, packaging etc. His career as an illustrator appears to have begun in 1914, when he produced the cover for an issue of the story magazine Yes or No, although his next known work did not appear until 1920, when he was one of several artists who contributed to Arthur Mee’s book on England and its history, Little Treasure Island: Her Story and Glory, published by Hodder & Stoughton.

In 1922 he designed the dustjacket for an edition of Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles, published by John Murray.

He went on to illustrate a handful of children’s books published by the Religious Tract Society and Cassell & Co., between 1925 and 1931, mainly school and adventure stories, by authors such as Frank H. Shaw, Michael Poole, David Ker, M. Harding Kelly, Rita Coatts, Gunby Hadath and Alfred Judd.  He also became a regular contributor to children’s annuals and similar books, with his illustrations appearing in volumes such as Collins’ Schoolgirls’ Annual, The British Girl’s Annual, The Best Book for Girls, Schoolgirls’ Stories, The Empire Annual for Girls, The Empire Annual for Boys, Teddy Tail’s Annual, Thrills and Spills, Young People’s Own Annual, Girls’ Interests, The Girls’ Adventure Annual, The Schoolboys’ Story Book and The Boys’ Budget.

He also contributed to a variety of periodicals, including Young England, Modern Wonder, The Schoolgirls’ Weekly, The Red Magazine, The Detective Magazine, The New Magazine, The Bystander, and, most notably, Chums (between 1925 and 1940). He also contributed covers to George Newnes’s Black Bess Library in the early 1920s.

As a painter, in oils and watercolours, he specialized in landscapes, village scenes (both in the UK and abroad), and flowers – he did several paintings in Kew Gardens. Some of his paintings verged on the twee, being the sort of image commonly found on biscuit tins and chocolate boxes, but many others showed a real talent. Little of his work as a designer has been identified – his best-known work, “The Girl at the Wheel”, appeared in a magazine in the 1930s, and has been widely reproduced.

He illustrated only a handful of books in the 1930s, and seems to have concentrated on his commercial work, as he was recorded in 1939 registered with the Temple Art Agency. His entry in the 1939 Register recorded his occupation as “Commercial artist and magazine illustrator.”

On 13 June 1939 Shilton enlisted in the 6th East Sussex Regiment, and a year later was transferred to the Queen’s Royal West Surrey Regiment, with whom he served as a Lieutenant until 1945, when he briefly joined the Pioneer Corps.

He continued his artistic career after the war, illustrating a few more books and also being used regularly by the Mellifont Press as a cover artist for their western and horse-racing paperback reprints in the 1940s, 50s and 60s. In the 1950s, he was a member of the Society of Fulham Artists.

He died, of a cerebral haemorrhage and arteriosclerosis, on 15 May 1968 at 81 West Hall Road.  His wife died in March 1976.

PUBLICATIONS

Books illustrated by C.P. Shilton
Little Treasure Island: Her Story and her Glory by Arthur Mee, Hodder & Stoughton, 1920 (with other artists)
Red Blossoms: A Story of Western India by Isabel Brown Rose, Religious Tract Society, 1925
Go-Bang Garry: A Public School Story by Gunby Hadath, Hodder & Stoughtopn, 1926
The Gordons' New Mother by Kathleen M. Macleod, Religious Tract Society, 1926
Jerry Makes Good by Theodora Wilson Wilson, The"Boy's Own Paper" Office, 1926
The Spirit of the Game: A Quest by Basil Mathews & other authors, Hodder & Stoughton, 1926
Outlaws of the Air by Frank H. Shaw, Cassell & Co., 1927
Boys of Gresham House by M. Harding Kelly, The "Boy's Own Paper" Office, 1928
The Isle of Adventure by Alfred Judd, Cassell & Co., 1928
Wonder Island by Gunby Hadath, Cassell & Co., 1928
Cousins in Devon by Amy Le Feuvre, Religious Tract Society, 1928
Brownie Blue-Shoes by R. G. Parkinson, Religious Tract Society, 1929
Grimshaw of St. Kit's by Michale Poole, Cassell & Co., 1929
Storm Sent: A Mystery of the Sea by David Ker, The "Boy's Own Paper" Office, 1929
Quinton Kicks Off! by Michael Poole, Cassell & Co., 1930
Nancy, New Girl & The Girl Who Was Different by Ethel Talbot, Frederick Warne & Co., 1930
Tony D'Alton's Wireless by Arthur Russell, The "Boy's Own Paper" Office, 1931
Mary’s Shining Light by Ethel Nokes, Religious Tract Society. 1931
The Riddle of the Screen by C. W. C. Drury, Sheldon Press, 1932
Facing It Out by Rita Coatts, Juvenile Productions, 1937
More Thrills with the Paratroops by"Pegasus", Hutchinson & Co., 1944
Ringed Round with Foes by C. Bernard Rutley, George Newnes Ltd., 1945
Paratroops in Action by "Pegasus", Hutchinson & Co., 1946
The Story of Our People Vol.1: The Making of the Kingdom, 55BC to AD1170 by Oswald Harland, George Newnes Ltd., 1951
The Leopard Men by James Shaw, Frederick Warne & Co., 1953
Midshipman’s Luck by S.C. George, Frederick Warne & Co., 1955

(* I previously published a brief piece about Shilton in 2011 which contains some examples of his paintings.)

Comic Cuts - 25 January 2019

My life is a case of one step forward followed by a stumble. Last week I mentioned I was waiting on new glasses which were due to be picked up on Saturday. I got into town early and arrived at Specsavers at about a quarter past nine. Hung around at the collections counter and was seen between five or ten minutes later. Tried on the glasses and they felt OK. There was a blurry line on the right lens, a manufacturers mark, which the girl serving me went off to clean.

She came back ten minutes later and said that the mark on the lens wasn't shifting and the new glasses were in the lab upstairs where they were soaking the lens in... something (I didn't catch what it was) that would lift the mark off the lens. I pushed off for ten minutes to look in one of the charity shops and returned. Was seen ten minutes later by a different girl who said that the mark was proving to be particularly stubborn, could I come back in ten or fifteen minutes.

I actually went to some shops across town and returned at eleven. Was seen ten minutes later by a guy this time who said the problem hadn't been resolved and all they could do was send them back to the people who manufactured them.

So I'm going back on Saturday and will hopefully be in receipt of my new glasses. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

But to balance this bad karma, I was asked recently whether I wanted to be interviewed for a little piece that's going to be filmed for The One Show. It's about Harry Bensley, a.k.a. Iron Mask. It's just a short piece and I don't yet know all the details, but I'm heading up to London on the 7th of Feb, so I'm guessing it will be broadcast the following week... maybe? I'm not sure how far in advance there little films are filmed.

So we've got "lenses" and "ones" for our random scans this week. I'll have some more "ones" next week and hopefully a bit more news.

Commando 5195-5198

Tons of Motor Torpedo Boat action, a Gloster Gladiator duelling Messerschmitts, a risky attack on a U-boat base during an eclipse, and the triumphant return of Ramsey’s Raiders! All this and more in brand new Commando issues 5195–5198, out today!

5195: Spitfires of the Sea

“Get the kettle on, Dawes!” Not for all the tea in China did Able Seaman John Dawes want to be posted to a Motor Torpedo Boat! But he would soon find out why those little boats were so important to the war! Iain McLaughlin spins a tale that the Commando Editor calls a very classic Commando yarn in ‘Spitfires of the Sea’, with everything a good comic needs – action, drama, and a nice warm cuppa!

Story: Iain McLaughlin
Art: Morhain & Defeo
Cover: Janek Matysiak

5196: The Flying Fox

You may be asking why the Gloster Gladiator on Ian Kennedy’s fantastic fiery cover has six guns… because of the Flying Fox, that’s why! Brian Fox was known as the Flying Fox before a horrible accident nearly ruined his pilot career. Now a stationed on a small island in Greece, he’s harassing Italians and German pilots with his modified museum piece!

Story: Brunt
Art: Terry Patrick
Cover: Ian Kennedy
Originally Commando No. 495 (August 1970).

5197: Ramsey’s Raiders: Race Against Time

You may have seen the full-colour Ramsey’s Raiders graphic novel, but for the first time since 2015 Ferg Handley’s Ramsey’s Raiders return in a brand-new adventure in the biweekly Commando comics! This time the ragtag team of mavericks are on the trail of a deadly nerve agent developed by Nazi scientists to turn the tide of the war! The race is on for the Raiders to stop them!

Story: Ferg Handley
Art: Keith Page
Cover: Ian Kennedy

5198: Operation Eclipse

Finishing off the trifecta of stunning Ian Kennedy covers in this set of Commandos is ‘Operation Eclipse’. Alan Hebden’s unusual plot follows an attack on Germany’s strongest U-boat in Norway – during an eclipse! But with a cowardly captain commanding a crew of convicts, will the operation go off without a hitch? You’ll have to read it to find out!

Story: Alan Hebden
Art: Dennis McLoughlin
Cover: Ian Kennedy
Originally Commando No. 2758 (May 1994).

Rebellion Releases (2000AD)

Rebellion releases for 23-24 January 2019.

2000AD Prog 2115
Cover: Cliff Robinson / Dylan Teague (colours)
JUDGE DREDD: MACHINE LAW by John Wagner (w) Colin MacNeil (a) Chris Blythe (c) Annie Parkhouse (l)
BRINK: HIGH SOCIETY by Dan Abnett (w) INJ Culbard (a) Simon Bowland (l)
SKIP TRACER: LOUDER THAN BOMBS by James Peaty (w) Paul Marshall (a) Quinto Winter (c) (a) Ellie De Ville (l)
THARG'S 3RILLERS: KEEPER OF SECRETS by Robert Murphy (w) Steven Austin (a) Pippa Mather (c) Ellie De Ville (l)
FIENDS OF THE WESTERN FRONT by Ian Edginton (w) Tiernen Trevallion (a) Annie Parkhouse (l)

Zombo: I'm a Good Boy Really!
Rebellion ISBN 978-1781-08670-4, 24 January 2019, 114pp, £6.99 / $9.99. Available via Amazon.

An all-new digest sized edition of the riotous and hilarious sci-fi horror comedy about a polite bio-weapon zombie! When flight 303 crash-lands on the lethal deathworld known as chronos, all is not looking well for the surviving passengers. Enter zombo; a top secret government experiment - part zombie, part human ghoul, with a taste for living flesh and aspirations of pop stardom! Written by Marvel superstar Al Ewing (The Incredible Hulk, Loki: Agent Of Asgard, Mighty Avengers).

Hector Breeze (1928-2018)

Cartoonist Hector Breeze died in December 2018, shortly after his 90th birthday. Rupert Besley, writing on the Professional Cartoonists Organisation website, says, "Hector Breeze developed what was surely the perfect cartooning style for the kind of pocket-sized gags he churned out so prolifically and successfully over so many years (since the late 50s). With their robist lines, economy of detail and strong use of solid blacks, HB cartoons were instantly recognisable as his and stood out a mile off as funny. Central to them were his stock characters, ever charming, ever bewildered. Tramps, army chaplains, oddballs, kings. You had to warm to them. 'Gentle humour' is a damning phrase, usually coded for 'not funny'. Hector Breeze cartoons were never savage or angry, but they were funny. Damned funny."


In 1996, Ralph Steadman wrote in Art Review that Breeze's "clumsy, bewildered characters restore my faith in the seriously daft." Pete Dredge, naming him his favourite cartoonist in 2011, described him as "A master of the pocket cartoon. Out of the mouths of the mundane, benign, chunkily drawn characters comes the sharpest of captions." Ian Banx picked the following cartoon from Punch as one he loved on Breeze's 90th birthday.

Hector L. Breeze was born in London on 17 November 1928. He was educated at Dartford Technical College and found employment in a government drawing office, studying art at evening classes. He sold his first drawing to Melody Maker in 1957.

Breeze subsequently worked in advertising while selling cartoons to Punch, Evening Standard, Daily Mirror, Daily Sketch, The Spectator and the Guardian letters page. He sold his first cartoon to Private Eye in 1963, and continued to sell to them regularly for three decades. In 1973 the magazine published a collection of 100 of his best jokes in Private Eye: Cartoon Library 2. Breeze was also a contributor to The Hamlyn Cartoon Collection (1978) and illustrated Terry Wogan's The Day Job (1981).

Breeze featured in a one or two minute item on The Roy Hudd Show for Yorkshire TV (1969) and appeared on Quick on the Draw in the 1970s.

He became the Daily Express's pocket cartoonist in 1982. He was awarded the CCGB Feature Cartooist of the Year in 1984 and 1985 and was voted Pocket Cartoonist of the Year in the Cartoon Art Trust awards in 2004, but was sacked by the Daily Express six months later in 2005.

One of his hobbies was letter-carving in stone.

Breeze lived in Hastings, Sussex, before moving to Kirkby Stephen, Cumbria, in the mid-2000s. He is survived by his wife Johanna (nee Bywater), whom he married in 1960 and sons Alexander and Julius.

Tom Peddie

TOM PEDDIE

by

Robert J. Kirkpatrick

Tom Peddie had two distinct artistic careers – firstly as a London-based illustrator for periodicals and children’s books between the late 1890s and the late 1920s, and then as a painter and muralist in his native Scotland.

He was born on 4 October 1874 in Musselburgh, Midlothian, and baptized as Thomas Hutchison Peddie. He was one of 8 children born to William Peddie, a baker, and his wife Margaret, née Hutchison. At the age of 16, whilst living with his parents at Perth Road, Scone, Perthshire, he was working as a house painter, but by 1893 he was studying at the Glasgow School of Art. In 1894, he was a prizewinner in The People’s Journal for an “amusing sketch.”

After finishing his studies, he moved to London, where, in 1898 in Wandsworth, he married Maud Worley, born in Iver, Buckinghamshire, in 1876 and the daughter of Samuel Worley, a farm labourer, and his wife Mary, a school caretaker. Tom and Maud went on to have four children: Philip Tom, born in 1899 at Endell Street, Long Acre, Covent Garden; Violet Mary, born in 1902 at 27 Coram Street, Bloomsbury; Maud Margaret, born in 1903 at Littlecroft, Hampton Road, Feltham; and Hugh Hutchison, born in 1914 at 57 Temple Fortune Hill, Hendon.

In the meantime, Peddie had begun his career as an illustrator with contributions to The Ludgate Monthly in 1898 and The Penny Pictorial Magazine in 1899. In the first decade of the 20th century his illustrations appeared in Short Stories, The Windsor Magazine, The Sunday Magazine, Good Words and Black and White. In 1908 he began a long association with the boys’ story paper Chums, and two years later he began an even longer association with Cassell’s Magazine (1910-1930), the same publisher’s The New Magazine (1910-1930), the Amalgamated Press’s Red Magazine (1910-1925), and George Newnes’s The Strand Magazine (1910-1929). His work for The Strand included illustrations for three Arthur Conan Doyle stories, “The Three of Them” in 1918, “Billy Bones” in 1922, and “The Maracot Deep” in 1927.

He also began illustrating children’s books in 1910, although only eleven have been identified. Most notable were the 38 illustrations he did for a volume of Enid Blyton’s The Teachers’ Treasury in 1926. He also supplied some illustrations for a revised edition of Hutchinson’s History of the Nations, published in 1914.

Brian Doyle, in his Who’s Who of Boys’ Writers and Illustrators (1964) commented that Peddie’s style “was rather like that of Thomas Henry’s and was best-suited to the lighter stories, especially humorous school yarns, though he could and did turn his hand to all types.” Certainly, there are echoes of Thomas Henry in some of Peddie’s illustrations, for example for The Windsor Magazine, and some of his other illustrations bear similarities to other artists such as Jessie Wilcox Smith and Susan Beatrice Pearse. Equally, he could turn his hand to historical scenes, and while not as good as other artists who specialized in this field, he was competent enough.

Having moved a few times since arriving in London, Peddie and his wife continued to live a fairly peripatetic life, moving to 29 Queen Anne Avenue, Bromley, Kent (1911), 57 Temple Fortune Hill, Hendon (1919), 59 Gordon Square, Bloomsbury (1922), and 19C Palace Gate, Kensington (1927). Throughout this period, Peddie worked for a further range of periodicals, including The Pall Mall Magazine, Cassell’s Magazine of Fiction, The Wide World Magazine, The Sunday at Home, The Yellow Magazine, The Home Magazine, Punch, The Quiver, The Crusoe Magazine and The Golden Magazine. In 1915 he began providing illustrations for the boys’ magazine The Captain, and three years later he began a 10-year association with The Boy’s Own Paper. He also designed several postcards, mostly of a whimsical/sentimental nature.

In around 1930 Peddie returned to Scotland, where he began his second career as a painter and muralist, settling at 22 King Street, Perth, and later at 3A Charlotte Street, Perth. One of his first apprentices/assistants was David Stratton Watt (1912-2008), who went on to become well-known for his paintings of the Scottish sport of curling. Amongst the work for which Peddie became known were murals in the Masonic Lodge in Atholl Crescent, Perth; murals on “The Queen Mary”; and murals of Mary Queen of Scots’ entry into Aberdeen in the dining room of the refurbished Douglas Hotel, Aberdeen, painted in 1937. He was also commissioned to paint 10 pictures for the dining room of the Gordon Hotel, Kingussie, Invernesshire, which he completed between 1936 and 1938. Three more of his paintings are owned by Perth and Kinross Council.

Peddie’s wife died in Eastbourne, Sussex, in 1935, and on 28 January 1944 Peddie married Mary Kennedy Mackay, born in Perth in 1893 and the daughter of Hugh Mackay, a painter and decorator. They had known each other since at least 1922, when they were neighbours in Golden Square. They went on to live at Fairmount, Melville Terrace, Glenfarg, Perth.

For some reason, Peddie briefly returned to illustration in 1953, when he was commissioned by the Amalgamated Press’s Len Matthews to illustrate five issues of the Thriller Comics Library, all of them adaptations of historical novels by Walter Scott, Charles Kingsley and Edward Bulwer Lytton.

Peddie died on 18 June 1954, at his home in Melville Terrace, after suffering from prostate cancer for five years.

PUBLICATIONS

Books illustrated by Tom Peddie
The Heart of Marylebone by “Handyside” (Emily Buchanan), Hutchinson & Co., 1910
The Lucas Girls, or The Man of the Family by Dorothea Moore, S.W. Partridge & Co., 1911
The Right Sort by L.H. Bradshaw, A. & C. Black, 1912
Alice Howell by M. Corbett Seymour, Religious Tract Society, 1912
Hutchinson’s History of the Nations ed. by Walter Hutchinson, Hutchinson & Co., 1914 (with other artists)
Round the Camp Fire by Herbert Strang, Oxford University Press, 1917
The Secret Channel and Other Stories of the Great War by Percy F. Westerman, S.W. Partridge & Co., 1918 (with other artists)
Songs of Joyland by Josiah Booth, Blackie & Son, 1919
The House of Gladness by Emma S. Allen, Religious Tract Society, 1921 (re-issue)
The Three Merles: A Boys’ School Story by R. St. C. Page, S.P.C.K., 1926
Hetty the Discoverer by Kate Mellersh, Religious Tract Society, 1926
The Teacher’s Treasury (Vol. 3) ed. by Enid Blyton, Home Library Book Co., 1926
The Adventures of Two Brothers and a Sister, J.M. Dent & Sons, 1927

Thriller Comics Library:     
No. 36   Castle Dangerous  1953
No. 48   Quentin Durward  1953
No. 52   Hereward the Wake  1953
No. 59   The Talisman  1954
No. 69   The Last of the Barons  1954

Comic Cuts - 18 January 2019

As the proud owner of a lovely new washing machine...

Yes, we had to bite the bullet and buy a new one. I wrote the column last week under some duress as we were waiting for someone to come round and fix the old one. We heard nothing from the guy who was due, nor have we heard from him since. On Friday I phoned up a couple of other people but neither could offer any help, instead recommending we buy a new machine. Which we have.

It's very similar to the old one, different in only a couple of ways, chiefly the spin function is 1,400rpm rather than 1,600rpm – although improvements in design and efficiency may make up for the difference – and IT WORKS! We've tested it and run a full wash through it and it seems to be working perfectly. No more hand washing my smalls of a weekend (OK, one weekend).

Next up, new glasses, which I'll be picking up tomorrow, Hopefully it will resolve the eye strain I'm currently suffering. The work I'm involved in at the moment means I'm reading tons of stuff on the computer screen and I'm beginning to realise how bad a lot of websites are, with their pale text against coloured backgrounds. You know it's bad when you have to highlight paragraphs to read, or (what I've been doing) cutting and pasting them into text documents, where the text can be made black and of a size that's reasonably comfortable to read. (It also means I have those notes should I need to go back to them, rather than try to figure out which one of a dozen websites that I've been looking at contained the information I'm after.)

The "con" to this is speed. Although I'm keeping up a reasonable pace of around 1,200 to 1,400 words a day, I'm often missing one or two vital details – usually financial, which companies often won't commit to their website. Trying to get this information out of said companies is a nightmare and I'm seriously worried for some. Who ignores the opportunity of free advertising?

A quick plug: on 1 February, Crikey! Volume 1 appears reprinting the first five issues of the magazine from 2007-2008 in a 200-page, perfect bound book. This is a best of rather than a full reprint, but will include articles about Frank Bellamy, Don Lawrence, Ron Embleton, Adam Eterno, Lady Penelpe, Andy Capp, plus features My Comicy Saturday, Nutty Notions and The Crikey! Chat.

If you never had the opportunity to read the original mag., this is a great chance to catch up.

That's my lot. Tired eyes have got the better of me.