Josh Francis

Local comic shop Comics World has moved from its location on Clasketgate to the Lincoln Central Market this week.

Owner Mark Brunton explained that the move came about when his place of business was to be converted back into accommodation.

“I had to move out when the building I was in was sold off to be changed from business premises to accommodation. So all the businesses had to move out.

“I decided to move to the market place so I could be more central and hope it’d pick up people who wouldn’t usually notice us. It’s mostly the same except I haven’t got the same space.”

Brunton also mentioned that he would still be selling the same sort of products.

“I still save the latest comics for people who order them and come in every week, and have supported the shop over the years.

“I still sell the latest American comics and some back issues for what I do at 50p.”

“We mainly sell the latest American comics like Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, Image and what people order.

“We can usually can get back issues as well from roughly six months ago if anyone is missing any numbers.”

Relaunch

As well as the shop starting afresh in its new location, one popular comic brand has also relaunched its older titles.

“DC comics have relaunched all their titles back to issue 1 and we’ve had a lot of people coming in quite interested about that and it’s been quite a good seller,” Brunton explains.

“I think Marvel will also do the same thing since it’s worked out so well for DC.”

“What I think I’ll be doing over the next few months is doing more advertising, and probably concentrate on the newer stuff and less on the 50p back issues.”

Local author Hobb Whittons recently released his latest book Blue Fire Burning, part of his Tales of the Pahleen series. The Lincolnite caught up with him to talk about his motivations and inspirations.

Hobb explains that the book is a weave of themes: “Overall the book is aimed at 16 to 24-year-olds but is really for anyone who has a respect for nature.

“The story is basically about a three realms: Pathleen, a world of winged telepaths, Nocturnia, a realm of possessed goblins and zombie servants and Earth, where the story takes place in a country called Bellantua.

“The story starts with something being lost in the Pathleen realm which leads of ecological disaster forcing the king of the realm, Kilron, to do something which is forbidden to his ancient race.”

Hobb reveals a lot of his inspiration came from around Lincoln: “My pen name was inspired by two places from around Lincoln.

“Hobblers hole was one which is near the Hills and Valleys beside Whitton Park which leads me onto the rest of my name.

“I toyed with a lot of names but this one just felt right.

“I spent thousands of hours playing cricket in Whittons Park and exploring Hobbs hole, since I wasn’t part of the X-Box generation I developed more of a respect for nature.

“Nature and sea faring traditions are big part of the book, the main city in Bellantua which is called Bllona is a port town and most of the action takes place near or by the sea.”

Hobbs hopes the book could achieve a place in the city’s heritage and on a bigger scale.

“Since a lot of the city inspired me for the book I hope it makes people feel proud of the city. I’m really proud of this city and that includes the football team [which he hopes can get back up].

“It also comes from how I felt we’d become divorced from this planet and how as a race we seemed to have distanced ourselves from nature.”

Hobb also touched on what he planned to do next in the series: “I’m toying with two ideas at the moment.

“One is a straight forward follow up and the other is a series of short stories or novella about two pre-teen Pathleen characters called Niktoc and Riochy.

“If I didn’t discipline myself I could spend the rest of my life writing about those two, but right now I’m just trying to work out what to do next.”

Tales of the Pahleen: Blue Fire Burning is available in paperback from all good bookshops and eBook formats online.