PSYCHO-MANIA! Stephen Jones, editor  Another bulky collection from the doyen of British horror editors, Stephen Jones. Psycho-Mania! is a quirkily varied and lively collection, sporting enjoyably gruesome tales of bloodletting and serial killers from such reliable talents as Kim Newman, Paul McAuley and Christopher Fowler. These writers rub shoulders with veterans such as the late R Chetwynd-Hayes and the author of Psycho itself, Robert Bloch, (who provides an introduction and personally adorns the jacket, grinning with blood-dripping kitchen knife).

MAGIC WORDS: THE EXTRAORDINARY LIFE OF ALAN MOORE  Lance Parkin  This is as an exhaustive and detailed a life of a key comics creators (and source of a variety of films) as one could wish for – and it is particularly refreshing to report that it is no hagiography; Moore’s protean talent is clearly matched by his uncompromising, rebarbative nature, and his lengthy succession of fallings-out with colleagues are discussed in full, as is his remarkable work on such comics work as Watchmen, Superman and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

PSYCHO-MANIA!  Stephen Jones, editor is published by Robinson/MAGIC WORDS: THE EXTRAORDINARY LIFE OF ALAN MOORE by Lance Parkin is published by Aurum Press