Look behind you!First up, no blathering on about the garden this week. We've had too much rain, so I have only been tinkering around the edges of the patio and stripped some ivy that was growing over the back garden gate, which we have never used as it simply leads into the estate beyond out fence which hasn't anything useful like a second-hand bookshop or a chippie.So how have I been keeping ..read more

SUPERNOVA STORIES FROM A SIDEWAYS UNIVERSE!It's the summer of true nuclear fusion as 2000 AD mashes and smashes its most popular strips together in the return of its pulsating Sci-Fi Special! Exploding into shelves on 3 July in a 48-page supernova, the 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special will feature an all-thriller AND killer line-up of creators including Ian Edginton, Dan Abnett, Ben Willsher, Nicol ..read more

I have been slacking on the Bear Alley Books front for a few weeks following the release of BEYOND THE VOID: THE REMARKABLE HISTORY OF BADGER BOOKS, which is selling reasonably well. It's the eternal frustration of all small publishers that they can never get reviewed in any major media: I've sent books to newspapers and magazines in the past and its like throwing books into a black ..read more

Tanks, Mosquitos, Legionnaires and a grenade-wielding British Officer, all in Commando issues 5743-5746! On sale from today, Thursday 25th April, 2024. 5743: Frank the TankThe M4 Sherman Firefly named Frank was a beast of a machine. Tough, stubborn, and a heck of a thing to drive. Corporal Ken Roberts, Frank’s driver, soon found out that if you upset Frank he would go nowhere and you would end up ..read more

Constanza’s Vampiric War Continues! Pre-Order Fiends of the Eastern Front Vol 2 Today!The second omnibus in the Fiends of the Eastern Front series, collecting Ian Edginton and Tiernen Trevallion’s thrilling horror tales into a new, definitive edition!Fiends of the Eastern Front is one of the bloodthirsty crowns in 2000 AD history, a vampiric epic which spans multiple eras and travels across ..read more

Another year, another volume of Eagle Times, the remarkable magazine dedicated to the original Eagle.  Remarkable because the original lasted 19 years (1950-69) and ET is heading towards double that in 2025 but still has new things to say about the paper that inspired its launch back in 1988.Truth be told, much of this issue is only related to Eagle glancingly, although there are enough ..read more

I have been keeping busy with a third commission from The Guardian, this one on the late Trina Robbins, which took me four days to complete: Sunday gathering information, Monday listening to some audio interviews and making notes, Tuesday reading her autobiography and various interviews. During this period of information gathering, I was also writing notes that I eventually pulled together into ..read more

The latest episode of the 2000AD Thrill-Cast is not for the nervous! At least that’s what Ghastly McNasty, the editor of Scream! might claim! With a brand new hardcover collection publishing all the stories from the 1980s horror comic in order out in May, the Thrill-Cast talkes to its editor Ian Rimmer, sub-editor and writer Simon Furman, and SFX editor and Scream! reader Darren Scott about the ..read more

If you're read BEYOND THE VOID: THE REMARKABLE HISTORY OF BADGER BOOKS, you'll know that I've nominated Barney Ward as probably the worst science fiction writer of all time. I reprinted an extract of his story 'Weird Planet' in the book to give you a taste of his writing style... now here's the whole story in audiobook form, presented in three 15-minute-or-so episodes. It's the most bizarre story ..read more

After last week's late-running Comic Cuts column, I was convinced I wouldn't have any similar problems this week. Of course, I wasn't taking into account trying to hit a deadline with a piece I'm writing for The Guardian that I want to get out of the way before my birthday. So yesterday was dedicated to getting a first draft finished rather than my usual sit back, feet up Comic Cuts ..read more