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There’s a chap in Lithuania, Irmantas Povilaika, who’s done a deal with 2000AD publisher Rebellion to reprint The Swots and the Blots, which ran in Smash in 1969-71, drawn by the legendary Leo Baxendale!

You may know Leo as the creator of the Bash Street Kids, Minnie the Minx, and many other classic British comic characters. You might even know him for the extremely naughty Willy the Kid books, or I Love You Baby Basil from the Guardian. The Swots and the Blots is prime Leo and irresistable to someone who loves quality cartooning. Go and buy it from Irmatas’s website, and while you’re there, he’s also published a collection of another Baxendale strip, Mervyn’s Monsters, from Buster in 1968, and two collections of another British comics legend, Ken Reid: Frankie Stein (also featuring Jasper the Grasper) and Queen of the Seas (also featuring The Nervs and Dare-a-Day Davy)!

I’ve been part of Sector 13 Comics, a gang of creative people based in Belfast who publish group anthologies as well as comics by our members. This month we launched three new comics at the Enniskillen Comic Festival, one of which was all my own work.

Penny Blood and Other Stories is a 52-page anthology featuring three stories:

*Penny Blood, a continuation of my Victorian alien invasion story from Sector 13’s previous anthology, Anno Domini 1900

*John Landlorn Beyond the Sundering Strait, a fantasy story about a medieval knight lost in a strange land

*A Virtual Circle, a 1990s tech thriller about virtual reality conspiracies.

Faces of War, our group anthology, is nearly 100 pages of war stories, behind a cover by Will Simpson. Features Shell Shock, by Ryan McVeigh and me; Verdammt Major by Will; The Kings Reach Commandos by Paul Trimble and Joseph McCafferty, and many others.

The Gift, by legendary cartoonist Davy Francis, is a wordless picture book that will appeal to fans of classic British humour comics and American superhero comics alike, with a touching message about found families.

If you’d like to buy any of them, visit the Sector 13 Comics website.

Aside from that, our friend Ryan McVeigh also had a new comic out, Tales of Monster Mayhem. Three monster stories written by Ryan, with art by Ciaran Duke, Dave Metcalfe-Carr and the mysterious Dethzon, behind a cover by me.

This one’s available from Ryan’s website.