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Hello from out here on the Thames Delta. Autumn is here. I’m writing this bit on Friday morning, when two ministers have just resigned from the UK government, just in time for Farage to reference it in a conference speech, because actual political skills are apparently a thing of the past, lost in time like Rishi Sunak in rain…

Oops, little bit of politics, as we used to say back in the days when Margaret Thatcher was one bad bottle of Bell’s away from putting Daleks on the streets…

In this letter:

• the best daily routine

• Gil Kane’s Blackmark

• a few links

• Thought For The Day

• New Ed James Book

• LTD

THE WORLD SERVICE

NEVER KNOWINGLY UNDERDRUNK

People’s daily routines fascinate me - probably because my own is so dull and I always feel like I’m not getting enough done. Up around 10, straight outside with coffee to get some sun and read the news, protein shake, in the office before 11, music on, process email and RSS a bit, write a LTD post, get to work.

But did you ever see Winston Churchill’s daily routine? Woke up at 730am, breakfast and a whisky and soda in bed, where he rotted for three and a half hours reading the papers, doing correspondence and working before he got up for a walk. He strolled around for two hours drinking whisky and presumably throwing things at servants before he sat down to lunch and drank a pint of champagne. After a two-and-a-half-hour lunch, he worked for ninety minutes with a glass of cognac before taking a ninety-minute nap. He farted around for another ninety minutes before sitting down to dinner. Which usually lasted til midnight, involving another pint of champagne and a few cigars. He then got up and worked for at least another hour, sometimes three, powered by more brandy. He lived to the age of ninety. He was Prime Minister twice and wrote more than forty books.

I have decided to do more correspondence. And drink more.

RED by me and Cully Hamner is back in print, this time as a Vertigo volume. This is the book that was made into the film starring Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren, John Malkovich and Brian Cox. I got to introduce my daughter to Bruce Wills and Helen Mirren, and I used my payment from the film to buy her a pony. Beat that. Lovely to see this little book stay in print thanks to our friends at DC. Out in October, it seems. Ask your local comic shop or bookshop for a copy first.

OPERATIONS

BLACKMARK

That's a page from BLACKMARK, a paperback-sized graphic novel Gil Kane did in 1971.  There are a few of these quixotic, heroic things in his bibliography, attempts to change the path of the American industry and innovate new directions.  He re-invented the wheel a couple of times, just to put new ideas and approaches out there.  The text is often set into negative space beside the panel, which you also find in SIN CITY after the first dozen pages or so.  (I lifted it for my book JOHN CONSTANTINE HELLBLAZER: HAUNTED)

Gil Kane wanted to widen the space for comics. So he convinced Bantam to let him do a graphic novel as a mass market paperback. A format that’s been on my personal bucket list forever.

Mass market paperbacks are around 4 by 7 inches, as opposed to the popular mange size of 6×9 or the US comics size of 6.6×10.25 inches. It’s a pocket format, designed to be carried around and beaten up a bit.

With Conan and all happening again at the time, Gil Kane was convinced “barbarians” were the next big thing, and that there was crossover potential between audiences.

Think about it: it’s 1971, the graphic novel barely exists as an idea, Eisner’s A CONTRACT WITH GOD is still seven years in the future, and Gil Kane convinces a publisher to do a graphic novel in the same size as a regular paperback novel. Amazing.

It’s all a bit more ZARDOZ than CONAN, obviously, and typeset lettering was probably a big mistake - Byron Preiss took it up for his graphic novel line later in the decade, and I think it’s too distancing an effect — but look how those pages crack along. Big, strong, statement graphics set against text, lots of negative space. With graphic novels now allowed to be any size they want because they’ve been accepted as a category by bookstores and comics shops have always dealt in different shapes of work, I think it’d be wonderful to see people try this size of book again.

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ORBITAL

JUST A FEW LINKS

MEGALOPOLIS is now streaming on MUBI. If you’re not on MUBI and you want to try it, sign up with this link and you’ll get 30 days free.

There’s a new Olga Tokarczuk novel.

Calling your boss a dickhead: not a sackable offense.

Recently: THE DEPARTMENT OF MIDNIGHT audio drama podcast, DESOLATION JONES: THE BIOHZARD EDITION, THE STORMWATCH COMPENDIUM., THE AUTHORITY Compact Edition, the LIGHTS OUT Anthology.

This newsletter survives on word of mouth. If you enjoy it, tell somebody.

Ardnamurchan Point

These are the collaborations between myself and painter AJ. Sometimes she sends me an image and I respond to it in text, sometimes I send her a piece of text and she responds with an image. Find her work at brady-pictures.com and her IG.

OPS

DEBTS

He was sort of on the borderline between good-looking and weird. His forehead was too short and that goatee made him look like a sex case.

OUR DEBTS TO THE PAST by Ed James, eighth in the Rob Marshall crime sequence, is the last of my light easy reads for the year (probably). Ed James, like MW Craven, is a crime novelist for the pure simple pleasure of it, and it’s a joy to be just carried along by the storytelling. If there’s one thing that will hook me into reading for pleasure, it’s a miserable British detective slogging his way through a miserable and weird little crime. This is in fact one of the best books in the sequence. (UK) (US)

Bought myself a ticket to a gig later this month: only my second this year.

GOT MORE TIME?

LTD

I keep a digital writer’s notebook and you’re invited to read over my shoulder.

Morning Computer: a few useful things first thing in my day

Nine Bells: evening notes

HOB’S LANE: new this week, parts 21-25

• notes on THE SHORTEST DAY by Colm Toibin

• MEGALOPOLIS on blu-ray

• notes on THE FINAL VOW by MW Craven

• notes on THE TAIGA SYNDROME by Cristina Rivera Garza

• notes on THE LAST WOLF

LTD is very much my daily log of what I’m seeing, hearing and doing. Pop in every day and you’ll see something new. Add it to an RSS reader or stick it on your phone as a shortcut. It’s free and there are no ads.

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And that’s me this week. Hope you’re doing well. Look after yourself.

W