It's that time again. Time to prepare for the end of year festivities and mass Irn Bru and shortbread consumption. Time to look back at the year and revel in one's achievements and forgive one's odd indiscretion here or there. Oh and time for Jimbo's Top 9 of 2009. And I can exclusively reveal there's been enough material published (or re-published) in 2009 to justify another Top 9 featuring everyone's 25th favourite comics writer ranging from Spider-Man to Judge Dredd to Samurai Jack. Please note boy and girls with the exception of Nos. 1 & 6 (which are creator owned) each comic strip listed is copyright its respective publisher. So without further avail…

Nice. Innit?

Jimbo's Top 9 of 2008 #1: The Ripper Legacy

Collecting the original mini-series originally published by Caliber with a major overhaul by artist Mark Bloodworth. I also took the opportunity to right some writing wrongs and there you have it an 80+ page tome. Repost if ever there was one to the dude who asks what I’ve done besides 6 page stories (not that anyone has asked me that kind of thing for a while). And it's good. I think it's really good. Oh and I got to pen the introduction.

Welcome to a journey not only into the heart of darkness, but one where you rip out the heart and put it on display also. Welcome to the pages of The Ripper Legacy, and please begin. Jim Alexander. March, 2008.

You can find out more at: http://www.transfuzion.biz/TITLES/ripperlegacy.htm

Jimbo's Top 9 of 2008 #2: Samurai Mack

It has been my great privilege to work with many great artists - and oh man in my humble opinion come up with some pretty damn good work. Occasionally - only very occasionally - I read a strip that ends up as near perfect as I imagined in my head. It's one of those very rare things, where the artist takes my panel descriptions and produces an end product story and art (but especially story) with which I can find no fault. 'Samurai Mack', which appeared in Cartoon Network Action Pack 29, did just that. And that's why it's number 2 on this little list of mine. Winter woolly hat off to artist Mr Philip Moy. He's one to watch guys and gals.

Jimbo's Top 9 of 2008 #3: Lego Batman The Videogame

Batman Lego game on the X-Box? Free comic inside? Wondering why you recognise the name of the writer? That's because it is I! It's a neat little no-dialogue piece showing the same story from the very different perspectives of the Batman and the Joker.

It was a whirlwind commission and not without incident. Michael Wright at DC Licensing contacted me to ask if I was interested. I of course said yes and having pitched successfully was faced with the prospect of completing the script over a weekend. The days in question just happened to coincide with a stag weekend held in Madrid. Not only that but on the Saturday I turned on my ankle (non-alcohol related honest), which grew to the size of a large cabbage. And it had grown even larger by the time I returned to Glasgow on Sunday. I could hardly put any weight on the bugger and the next day needed my pal Drew to drive me to my son’s school in order to pick him up. But I still got my Batman Lego script done on time. Hey I know you're thinking it so I may as well say it - "what a guy!"

Jimbo's Top 9 of 2008 #4: Aku's Fairy Tales

Aku's Fairy Tales is an occasional series appearing in Cartoon Network Action Pack where big bad Aku tells children (named after my son and niece) stories that cast Samurai Jack in a very bad light. I took the inspiration for the series from the Samurai Jack cartoon episode of the same name. I thought these pithy irreverent text heavy 4 page strips would break things up a little. The first as way of introducing the strip portrayed Aku as the good guy, but it was the evil dastardly Jack who took all the credit for Aku's heroics. The other two appearing this year riffed on Sleeping Beauty and Jack and the Beanstalk. And all drawn by the fair hand of Ethen Beavers. Oh and in case you're wondering they take me an eternity to write, but hey I'm not complaining (well not all of the time)!

Hell I even got a good review out of it. Comicbookbin writes, "Jim Alexander's Samurai Jack mini-story is a really novel comic fantasy that captures a sly, funny side of the menacing Aku." Couldn't have put it better myself.

Jimbo's Top 9 of 2008 #5: 4 Days

Appearing in Big Jim Stewart's underground magnum opus Ganjaman Presents #1, 4 Days is a one-pager by me and one-time winner and the other time nominated Eagle mainstay Declan Shalvey. There are words, but really Dec's pictures say it all. Ganjaman Presents is a wonderfully erratic, eclectic, gloriously disrespectful ensemble piece featuring luminaries such as Doug Moench, Gilbert Shelton, Bryan Talbot, and Alan Grant. And Big Jim published it all off his own back. I mean wow. Was delighted and honoured to contribute in my own small tiny way. Happy New Year to ye all!

Jimbo's Top 9 of 2008 #6: Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries: The Golden Carrot

I had two stabs at Granny, Sylvester and Tweety. The first one The Tweety Effect wasn't great. There was some good stuff in there, but I think I just tried too hard. The Golden Carrot, which appeared in Looney Tunes #166, was no less ambitious but I think a more satisfactory affair. It featured Marvin the Martian, Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam. Not only that at the end Granny walks off the comic page in order to chastise and wave her umbrella in the direction of writer and artist (Chynna Clugston). Except that the writer doesn't bear my likeness, but was drawn in the guise of inker Mike DeCarlo, moustache and everything! I suppose that was rather naughty of Mike and his shady hirsute behaviour is even acknowledged by the editor in the final edit! I'm not even sure about the spelling of lapsang souchon either. Mad, I tell ye, mad!

Jimbo's Top 9 of 2008 #7: Sideburns: Conjoined Sins

Appearing in Bullet Proof #2 a rather eclectic, bold new UK anthology edited by Matt Yeo. Or should I say reprinted but with a spanking new lettering makeover. Lets face it the number of lettering mistakes on its original publication in Negative Burn was nothing less than shocking. Superbly drawn by Jon Haward, this was the second outing of our dog-eared ham shackled private detective. And not particularly lovable either as in the end he condemns one of his friends to a brutal gang war execution. I can't quite remember what frame of mind I was in when I wrote this one, but I could probably make an educated guess :-)

The third Sideburns script is in the can and with the over busy Mr Haward. It doesn't have a happy ending either.

Jimbo's Top 9 of 2008 #8: Camp Lazlo: Vote Lazlo!

The cover story of Cartoon Network Block Party #51 (cover by Robert Pope and Mike Decarlo, interior art by Mike 'say it quickly' Kazaleh). The blurb says it best: Scoutmaster Lumpus is missing, and Lazlo and the other campers decide that one of their own must replace him! They do so by contesting an election. I wrote the script in the middle of a typically seemingly interminable US presidential race. Can you remember the time when people were discussing the result between Obama and McCain as too close to call? And then one Monday everyone realised the voting was due the next day and that history was finally going to be made. A month or so later this story came out and I was so grateful I hadn't put any topical references in there. Cute baby hamsters, maggots crawling into ears, mind-control rosettes, someone throwing a shoe at the departing Scoutmaster... No nothing topical in there at all.

Jimbo's Top 9 of 2008: #9 Samurai Jack: Waiting For the Cavalry


This is the first of three Samurai Jack entries that rank as my publishing highlights for 2008. This year I've scripted a lot of stories starring the tall chap and it does help that I'm such a fan of the character. The best thing about Jack is how I can tell a story from his and others' perspectives keeping it fresh and iconic. 'Waiting for the Cavalry' appeared in Cartoon Network Action Pack #31. A four-page story told from a boy's point of view describing Jack's timely arrival to save a town from a group of marauding wrecking machines. The townspeople prayed for the cavalry to arrive and Jack duly obliged. The artist is Philip Moy and this is one of his pencilled pages (which I unashamedly lifted from his blog). Note the top left panel where Jack is finally, fully, revealed at the start of the last page. Looking all iconic and cool. With that chain in his hand don't be surprised if he's not in fact queuing up for the new Guns n Roses CD. Man he's that type of guy.

Hey, hi kids. Just a quick note (and my first entry this year I'm aghast to type) to say I'll be attending the up and coming NYCC. Indeed my flight leaves Glasgow Int. at 9am the morrow. Things have been a little quiet I'm the first to admit. Alas The Last Posse has been shelved indefinitely. Since then I've handed in a bunch of Samurai Jack and other Cartoon Network strips to DC. And scheduled for June is the Ripper Legacy Graphic Novel written by me with Mark Bloodworth on art and published by Transfuzion. More on all of this later - honestly. I do miss this blog. I miss the therapy. Okey doke I need to dash and I'll see y'all over the weekend somewhere in Manhattan. Cheers, Jim.

And while I'm on it I'm waiting for Ewan McGregor to grow old enough to play Ed MacBrayne in the movie.

It’s strange. After Scotland’s injury time loss to Italy at the football some weeks ago, which means we won’t be going to next year’s European Championships in the land of cuckoo clocks and lederhosen, I found myself searching the web looking for comments on ‘Calhab Justice’. Calhab was a strip written by me featuring a future Scotland, which appeared in Judge Dredd Megazine, oh, about 15 years ago. It went on for a wee while with artists John Ridgway, Colin McNeil, Lol, and Kevin Cullen contributing their woolly socks off.

Future Scotland as in reflecting the Scottish political situation back when another term of Conservative government (yep, the Tories in power, told you it was science fiction) was at odds with Caledonian yearnings of self-government. You know in some ways it was pretty prescient if I say so myself. I type now in a land with a Scottish Parliament run by the Scottish Nationalists.

Needless to say the story evolved, and not to everyone’s taste. Hipsterdad sums it up on his blog in his occasional review of old Megazines: “The weak link is certainly Calhab Justice, which has devolved from a light-hearted story about frontier judges fighting addictions to radioactive whiskey into some mad thing about a psychic super-judge obsessed with having children and bringing about the next stage of evolution or something.”

As attempt of explanation I have admitted in the past to my head disappearing up my arse, but I’ll have to think up something different in the future. And it would appear that I’ll never be forgiven in some sectors for pitching the main Calhab Judge Ed MacBrayne as a cross between Judge Dredd and Billy Connolly. But one can only run naked through Sauchiehall Street so many times before coming to the decision that full recompense has been paid.

And y’know 15 or so years on it’s still good to see the strip garner so much comment. It hasn’t been forgotten unlike so many other fragments of pop fodder over the last one and a half decades. And hey some of you guys have even fessed up to liking it. And there are some comments out there that tickle me pink, like a blog entry from Alex F (no relation), which ties into the comic strip panel up above:

“And of course there's comedy. We don't see the main character's face in this one, but rather his hapless chief commissioner - an indication that the series is very likely to make a comeback. One which will involve more mismatched police shenanigans. It almost doesn't matter what the story is (Calhab Justice, by the way) - you just need a certain kind of protagonist and you could transpose this panel onto the end. Strangely, this doesn't bother me.”

Strangely it doesn’t bother me, either.

In the middle of scripts at the moment. Few weeks ago I was commissioned a nice bundle of six scripts for DC/Cartoon Network (4 Samurai Jack and 2 Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy). I've now finished and sent off all the Samurai Jack. Don't know if you've seen the cartoon, but I think it's great. Jack is a Conan/Ronin-like figure who battles a magical monstrous tyrant called Aku. Primarily action, but with time for reflection, and dare I say it even a little pathos. I like it a lot. All in all I've scripted eight stories now for Jack, three having been published so far (the latest called 'Checklist' is in Cartoon Action Pack #18) and y'know it took me those first three strips, maybe not to find my feet, but to do the character justice. And I think with these new ones, particularly 'Tunnel of Stone', I've done just that. There's a source of personal satisfaction to be found there that I can barely begin to explain.

Now I'm starting the Grim stories with gusto. There's a different kind of tempo with these characters, dare I describe it as madcap...? The opening line reads, 'This here represents my greatest achievement since I balanced a saucepan on my head a week last Tuesday!' Capmad maybe.

Yes Birmingham looks that complicated even on a map! It probably took us nearly an hour to get out of the city centre by car. But at least we got to see that little more of the city than we bargained for - again and again and again.

The weekend was great. Everyone was smiling except for the writers mostly, it's always the writers. I didn't really spend much time at the Convention itself. It seemed really well organised and I really like the guys behind it and hope they did okay out of it. For someone like me I've finally discovered there's not much point being at these type of things unless you're actually involved in or looking to promote something. There's absolutely no work to be found that's for sure! But it was good to see everyone, and it was good that they saw me :-) I came back to find I had four Samurai Jack and two Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy scripts to compose for Joan Hilty at DC/Cartoon Network. So I'm not going to moan any more and go out for a couple of beers instead.

Oh and as a footnote I did find a bar showing the Scotland v Ukraine game last Saturday in Birmingham (well done the Sports Cafe on Broad Street). There were a few Scots present. Instead of a piper there was a guy with a harmonica playing 'Flower of Scotland'. Surreal is not the word (but it'll just have to do). For the record we won 3-1 and I jumped up and down and nearly cried when that third goal went in but checked myself just in time. Fast forward four days and we're beaten 2-0 by Georgia, which sets up an all or nothing game against Italy in Glasgow 17th November. Don't think I'm not aware of the stakes involved. I forbid any of my work to be translated into Italian forthwith. It begins here.

Hey there I haven't expired or anything. I just got out of the habit of writing about writing and it's taken a wee while to get back on the saddle so to speak. Thanks to all the good folks who lamented its absence. I'm with the Divinyls on this one: 'When I think about you, I dust my shelves.'

This weekend I'll be attending this years BICS or Birmingham International Comics Show for people who like a bit of a mouthful. It's my first convention appearance of 2008 which is worthy of a footnote, um, somewhere. I'll be buggering off early in the Saturday though to find a pub showing Scotland v Ukraine kick off 3pm. C'mon the Scotchland!

Out now is Cartoon Network Action Pack #10 from DC Comics. I have a Samurai Jack strip in there called 'Hit or Myth'. Of most interest I think is that this has been an idea I've been shopping round for years. 2000 AD's Pulp Fiction, Warhammer Monthly, crikey even a Star Wars anthology published by Dark Horse... All received a variation of the story and all rejected it. But y'know if you believe it's good enough, then stick with it, tweak it/improve it, and hey presto it'll get there eventually.

Well that's the plan anyway. Plenty more in the locker!

Progress on The Last Posse gathers apace. A redraft has been submitted and format set. 16,000 words of prose spread over a 80 page comic size tome, bookended by single-page illustrations with double-page ones inbetween. Artist Ken Hooper will be supplying those purty pages. Ken's worked extensively for DC among others and for your viewing pleasure his Primal Force cover is to the left.

Last year I did ok. Birds of Prey, Fury/Spidey/Captain Britain, Star Trek manga. With The Last Posse I've stretched myself further. Which was painful and I might have to go and see my doctor.

Watch this space dudes, dudettes, lads, and lassies.

Well friends and lassies that’s another year confined to the airing cupboard. Looking forward to 2007 my aspirations continue to remain modest in the extreme. This is a writer’s blog so I hope to continue reporting on my writing exploits for the mighty world of comics and prose. I don’t think my writing is ever going to change the world – unless I write that ‘Commando’ book of course – but I can have a darn good time trying.

Happy New Year to you and yours and lang may your lums reek!