• Wednesday 26 October 2005

this book may change my life
I received this morning, in my latest mail-order comics parcel, a book entitled Graphic Novels: Stories to Change Your Life (rather confusingly published with a different subtitle in the US, Graphic Novels: Everything You Need to Know) by famed comics guru Paul Gravett (Aurum Press).
It's the follow-up to his enormously successful Manga: Sixty Years of Japanese Comics and is the same lush format, oversized, 192 full colour pages and beautifully designed by Peter Stanbury.
It's essentially a guide to the very best in literate graphic novels - the usual suspects like Ware, Burns, Crumb, Moore, Clowes, Eisner et al rub shoulders with lesser-known creators like Hornschemeier, Mattotti, Dorgathen, Hine and, er, Millidge.
It's an impressive selection, one that matches my own remarkably closely, but what makes the volume unlike any other is the prolific number of full-page interior reproductions, which allows the reader to sample the works for themselves (rather than relying on cover repros and/or out-of context single panel enlargements). It's rather like a 21st century successor to The Staros Report, a one-stop shop window for the best of what the world of the graphic novel has to offer.
It's an essential, fabulous volume, one which any self-respecting comic connoisseur would be proud to own, and I say that without even having read it yet.
The fact that Paul has selected Strangehaven as one of the featured books is probably my biggest accolade to date and I'm proud to have been included alongside so many of my peers, inspirations and heroes. It would be understandable for you to think that the selection of my book has clouded my judgment a little, and you may be right, but I don't think so. Locate a copy, flip though it and you'll be convinced, I'm sure.

Paul Gravett also has a brand spanking new website up and running, at the easily memorable URL of www.paulgravett.com

• Monday 24 October 2005

a return to cyberspace
What with all this foreign publishing malarkey, a family holiday and all the usual cobblers, I've hardly had time to check my e-mails, let alone write up my day-to-day business for this wee diary. So it's catch-up big time, starting with ...

a rather belated report on my ace comics signings
As part of Strangehaven's 10th anniversary celebrations and to launch the publication of the third Strangehaven trade paperback Conspiracies, a special double-store signing was arranged to take place on 17th September at both Essex branches of the fine ACE Comics.
My companion for both signings was Mr. Chronic Fatigue of the rather splendid comics Mixy and Wildermere. I had never in fact met C.F. (as his friends call him) before, and hadn't even seen his work. Until now, he hasn't been distributed via Diamond, nor has he been part of the Bristol Festival Small Press crowd. Despite this, his titles have sold surprisingly well and has established a enviable following, apparently consisting mainly of teenage girls. I can only describe his work as in the vein of the gothic humour comics of Slave Labor, with a touch of manga influence - yet more lavishly illustrated and with a wider vision. It's pretty cool stuff and is well worth checking out. He also has a nice website.
The day began at my local ACE comic shop in Southend (formerly part of the Into the Void chain, which has since made its own unfortunate name entirely appropriate), where I was greeted by the friendly face of 'Biff' Averre, owner of ACE Comics (aka Planet ACE) and Southend shop manager Lea. The signing ran from 11.00 AM until a little after 12.30 PM (even though the window poster made the extraordinary claim that we would be there until 12.30 AM). Chatting to the stragglers left us running a little behind schedule, and a dash up the A130 in convoy to Colchester was required to enable us to reach our destination for the advertised time of the second signing of the day.

october's delights

cds

Priest=Aura [the Church] ****
Blink 182 [Blink 182] ***

movies
Hellboy [2004] ***
Gladiator [2000] ***
Elf [2003] **
The Butterfly Effect [2004] ***
The Order [2003] ***

dvd
A Clockwork Orange [1971] ****

tv
Hex [2nd series] ***
Lost [1st series] ***
Property Ladder [C4] **
Monarchy [C4] *****
Elizabeth II [C5] ***

novel
Voice of the Fire [Alan Moore] *****

comics
FF Big In Japan #1 ****
Devil Dinosaur [2004] ***
Albion #3 ***
Stray Bullets #39 ***
Jack Staff #9 ***

footie
Everton 1 v Chelsea 1 **
Chelsea 4 v Real Betis 0 ****
Chelsea 5 v Bolton 1 *****
England 2 v Poland 1 ***
England 1 v Austria 0 **

blog archive
week ending :
18 September 2005
04 September 2005
21 August 2005
14 August 2005
07 August 2005
31 July 2005
24 July 2005
17 July 2005
10 July 2005

As I followed Biff's speeding vehicle through Colchester High Street, I almost ran down a couple who had the audacity to walk across a Pelican crossing while looking the wrong way. It turned out that the couple were my sister Pam and her husband Derek, who coincidentally had the same car as Biff (a Chrysler Cruiser) which explained the fact they weren't looking at the oncoming traffic, but checking out the subtle differences between their respective models. It's a small world, but I wonder what the police would have made of my running down two of my own family members.
Fortunately, further major incidents were avoided and C.F. and I took up positions in ACE's huge and labyrinthine Colchester shop a little after 2.00 PM. We both had readers waiting for signatures and sketches, and had to munch through our cheese sandwiches while we cleared the backlog.
Finally, as the last of the day's punters drifted away somewhere past 4.00 PM, we packed away our pencils and headed off home with the knowledge of a job well done. I gave C.F. a lift to a train station that would eventually take him back home to Brighton and picked up some dog food before making my own way back to the comfort of my own house.

stood up at the altar of comics
Unfortunately, copies of the Conspiracies book itself failed to make a showing at the ACE signings, despite building an extra week into its scheduling just to make sure that it did arrive.
The abridged version of the story goes like this: my printer in Canada assured me that delivery by the date would be no problem. I checked that all was on schedule throughout production and received assurances. The week prior to shipping I checked again and yup, all was well. By the Wednesday before the Saturday signings, I was getting a little twitchy (Fed Ex and other couriers take two days minimum to ship from North America to the UK, so Wednesday would be the last possible day they could be sent if I were to receive them by Friday).
An e-mail from the printer's rep confirmed it. The boxes had been sent. On Thursday, I received another e-mail from them, "did you get your books?"
Very nice of them to ask, of course, but no I didn't. Can I have the tracking numbers please I asked. "Sure" they replied.
Then, a bit later; "Oh no, sorry, we didn't actually send them yet. We'll send them now, you'll have them by Monday."
"MONDAY'S NO FRIGGING GOOD! THE SIGNING IS ON SATURDAY! CAN YOU SEND THEM FOR SATURDAY DELIVERY? PLEASE? (sob, choke)."
"OK, we'll check," they said. "Oh, no, sorry. Fed Ex can deliver on Saturday, but UK customs are closed over the weekend, so they would just be sitting in a warehouse at Stansted Airport. Sorry."
So that was that. One I had passed the denial stage, I excised my rage on several floor-standing items around the house, then went off for a stomp around Leigh-on-Sea during the wee small hours until my rage had descended into depression. Thankfully, I had a day to come to terms with the disappointment before the Saturday signings,which went ahead regardless, but it must rank as one of my lowest days in ten years of self-publishing.
Fortunately, Biff came up with a plan; to sell 'vouchers' for the trade paperbacks, which could then be redeemed for a signed and personalised copy of the book when it finally did arrive. Hardly ideal, but a neat solution nonetheless. It was still embarrassing to have to explain the story to all who turned up expecting to purchase a copy, especially after all the publicity in the local press, radio, tourist offices, in-house at the ACE Comics shops and to the Strangehaven faithful via this website and direct e-mailing.
Still, them's the breaks. To their credit, the printer has made an effort to compensate me for the shambles, although I declined their offer to fly over and personally flay the personnel responsible in their shipping department.

our pier got burnt down again (part 3)
The buildings at the end of the world's longest pleasure pier were destroyed by fire the other week. We residents of the seaside town of Southend-on-Sea (and its boroughs) are rightfully proud of our pier, as it's not often you can boast about having the world's longest anything...
Unfortunately, the tourist attraction is rather accident prone and this is the fourth time in 40 years that it has caught fire. In 1959 the shore end burnt down to be replaced by a bowling alley. The bowing alley itself caught fire and burnt down in 1995. In between, the pier head burnt down in 1976, and the pier was completely severed by a wayward trawler in 1986.

You can read all about our historic pier, all one and a quarter miles of it, including its 'adopt a plank' scheme here.

• September's snippets