In what has now become an annual event, the 2009 Inkwell Awards round table is posted and ready to be read . Like last years interview a number of diverse people involved with the awards were interviewed - this year sees Bob Almond, Bob Shaw, Dave Simons, Jimmy Tournas, Dan Panosian, Ernie Pelletier, and Mark McKenna, and some idiot named Daniel Best. Yeesh! Without wanting to sound too vainglorious, the interview itself is actually quite interesting to read. It was conducted over a period of about ten days, edited together by yours truly and is now out there for the world to judge. Be kind. Next up will be the voting for the awards themselves!!

What will the coppers here do??

Eventually I knew this day would have to come, and now that it has I have no idea how to feel. I was tipped off, so to speak, a few weeks ago about my father and his ailing health, how the cancer that he boasted he’d beaten to me last year had returned with a vengeance and was now beyond treatment. How he’d been sent home as there was nothing left that could be done for him and how he’d made his own peace with the world that he existed in, and how he was content because his family were going to be by his side. The last part, typical of my father, wasn’t quite the truth. Two members of his family were never going to be by his side before the end, my brother and me. But, as my father was always a fantasist, a little fact like that was never going to stop him. He loved to bend the truth to suit himself; not in a good way, ala Big Fish, but in a twisted way. It suited him to tell me how he always sent birthday cards with cash as gifts in them only to have them sent back by my mother,

Interesting stuff this. Currently on eBay at the moment are a selection of Captain America letters pages - those pages that a few of us often read but the bulk of people probably ignored totally. What makes these pages interesting is that they all feature a mix of production art in the form of the letters themselves (pasted on) and images - some of which appear to be original art and the rest appear to be mechanical artwork with slight touch ups. Such touch ups doesn't really mean it's original art, but damn, they look kinda cool. My question - has anyone out there actually seen one of these in the flesh, and if so, how many of them actually contain original art in it's purist form? This page is from Captain America #273. The art here isn't original - the Spider-Woman ad, but apparently has been touched up. It's clear that this ad isn't the original art as it appeared in several Marvel comics at the same time, having said that, it is a cool little ad i

Since I went public with the concerns surrounding the Gene Colan Daredevil #1 piece the consignor has come forward with the following explanation, "Hello everyone, I am the original consignor of this piece. I arranged to have it done directly with Gene and Adrienne many years ago as a gift for my husband. It was to be the first in a series of Daredevil cover recreations and this was before Gene had started doing Daredevil cover recreations. If anyone is interested I do have the original letter that accompanied this piece when Gene sent it to me. "Over the years we have donated a lot of original art to various charities and this was one of those pieces. I hope this helps clear things up." Now, if only Heritage could have done that, instead of being as vague as they are. As it stands, the art is genuine, so bid away!

I'm sure I'll cop some flack from this one. The art you see here is currently up for auction over at the Heritage web-site . The official description states, Gene Colan Daredevil #1 Penciled Cover Re-Creation Original Art (undated). Celebrated as one of the Man Without Fear's best artists, Colan has re-created the landmark, first cover appearance of Marvel's Daredevil, and he has captured all the vitality and charm of the Jack Kirby and Bill Everett cover in his homage. Drawn in pencil, this piece has an image area of 10" x 16.25", and the art is in Excellent condition. Now I have an issue with this, and I'm not alone. Three other people also have an issue with this - Gene Colan, his wife, Adrienne and his long time inker, Dave Gutierrez, and frankly they'd know. Gene doesn't remember drawing it, Dave, who usually sees these things, doesn't remember seeing it. So what is it? I'm not sure, but I am fairly convinced that it's not

All Good #1During a routine scroll through emails and on-line stuff I've come across this gem, published by St John in 1949. Nothing flashy about that cover - perhaps a fre of today's publishers could learn a lesson or three from it. I have no idea what the contents are, nor do I care to know, I have been told it contains comedy material - I just love the cover. I'd buy it for that alone. It did remind me of two of my favourite Australian horror reprint covers though. Stark Terror #3, as published by Page in the mid 1970s. Contains a pile of 1950s horror reprints, most of which I've not been able to track down, having said that my indexing has fallen away of late, something I need to redress. This cover makes me laugh each time I see it. You can just imagine that the art director has run out of images and needs something very quickly, so they grab some office boy, run out into the car park and tell him he's fired and his dog has just exploded, just to get

Hi there! I wasn't expecting to be in your in-box again quite so soon, but there's a been a big change to the release of The Long Man . It will now be appearing alongside The Point Man in early 2010 - not on its own this July. The reason is simple. Retailers around the country, most prominently Barnes & Noble and Borders, told Tor they wanted both books at the same time so that people who bought the new one could easily satisfy their curiosity about the old one, and people who bought the old one could easily make the leap to the new one. It remains true that you can read either one without needing the other, but the retailing consensus was, people will want both. And I have to say, I can't argue with that. I made sure you wouldn't need the other book, but I know what the collector's mind is like, and how much fun it is to have everything. Now, if this were comics, you could just ship The Point Man earlier than scheduled, alongside the previously-scheduled L

Back in July of last year I ran a short piece on my blog alerting people about Ric Estrada 's failing health and asking for his fans to just drop him a line telling him how damned good he was. I subsequently heard that a lot of people did this and that it helped bring cheer to Ric, so that's an excellent result. Sadly Ric has passed away and his wife, Loretta, has passed this email on for people to view. ------------------- Dear Friends and Family, My sweet Ric passed away at about 7am this morning after a rapid decline in his health over the past week as the result of advanced prostate cancer which no longer responded to treatment. All of our children except for Ric's daughter Zilia were able to be here to share in supporting him in his transition to the next life. We had several hours with Ric after his passing to talk, sing, laugh, cry and say our goodbyes. We are all on the emotional ride that will take a different course for each of us. I am so grateful for Ric and