I think the person involved was being sincere though if he was I'd have to asky the interest in an A-Z if he's never purchased one of my books?
Someone asaked why I don't do an A-Z of British Golden Age characters since I know them and their hiostories better than most?
Firstly, there are so few copies left of, say, the Swan titles that you could not pinpoint which issue a character first appeared in. This is confounded by the fact that due to war time ink and paper restrictions a character from Swan might appear in 3-4 titles. The best way to guess when a character first appeared in via the yearly albums which basically contained whole issues or the "best of" contents of the comic such a Funnies for that year.
Most strips were written and drawn by the artists but we have a problem in that IF someone else wrote short scripts we do not know who or for which issue and that still does not tell us who created the character. But we can, at least, state dates known or first albums (a common term for yearly collections back then and right into the 1970s so why certain morons keep stating -because they know nothing but are just copying and pasting obviously- "Swan decided to call them albums rather than annuals" to indicate something other than, I assume, making themselves look like asses?
So, yes, a collection of character illoes -maybe a hundred- along with text to set the record straight because most people not just filching off what I've posted get things totally wrong seems interesting.
But here is the reason why it will never happen: total apathy. Not on y part but on the part of alleged comic fans. In the United States magazines and even bookslookingat their Golden Age of comics sell. Not fortune building salesa but there is an interest. Look at Alter Ego magazine still going strong with comic fans interested.
When I first publishe the Black Tower Gold Collections I had response after response from members on my Golden Age comics groups and blogs. Damn, yeah, they were going to grab a copy when it appeared. There are six volumes and I can tell you that not a single copy has sold. The 400+pp Ultimate Golden Age Collection has sold 8 copies since first published in 2013? and I know who bought those. Brian "Bib" Edwards loved the collection and I am glad he enjoyed it.
So where were all of the ardent British Golden Age comics fans who were going to buy copies? Oh, they would take free strip scans as would those stealing from my blogs and claiming it was all their own work (including some well known British comickers).
Then I relaunched Comic Bits as the Journal of British Comic Book History looking at Penny Dreadfuls, Boys papers the Platinum and Golden ages -creators, characters and even comic strips reprinted for the first time in 70-80 years. Two copies sold -one to Canada if I remember correctly and one to the UK.
I closed the Face Book British comic histories page, the blogs and Yahoo obviously beart me to closing those groups. Issues 3-5 of Comic Bits are all ready to go into final editing but they will not appear.
I cannot afford months of my time working on books that no one -or one person- will purchase. I have the original books and know all I need to and don't get me wrong; I love to share these forgotten characters and creators with others who are interested but as a publisher I need to be practical and if out of the thousands who check out posts on these books there is no one interested in buying then I stop publishing new editiomns. That simple. There is no "legacy publishing" (where selling continues after someone dies) either because my family has no interest in this and I have made out the legal directive that when I go my online store goes -every book. Apparently, my family intende cremating my rubbish comic collection anyway.
So, no, I am not planning on publishi8ng an A-Z of characters.
Support publishers and creators while they are alive and not try to grab and exploit their books after they are dead.
New reviews start tomorrow with more from Hexagon Comics -some lovely titles, too!
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