The publisher of the Dapper John App is Panel Nine, an imprint (do we say imprint when talking of apps?) of iEnglish.com operating out of Tokyo. The guy behind that is Russell Willis. Russell goes all the way back to the Brit comics small press of the early 1980s. In fact, one of his publications was obliquely mentioned in the Big Alec book in the How To be an Artist chapter. He had interviewed David Lloyd in the first issue of his little journal Infinity. I picked a fight over something David said and the argument continued in each issue of the magazine after that. I was argumentative in those days. Russell was interviewed at DownTheTubes.net in Sept 2008 when he released a nostalgic ninth issue of Infinity, being the one that had remained unpublished since 1985, containing final salvos from both Campbell and Lloyd. Some of his lines in the interview take me back to the ramshackle but vital small press days.

"The first issue was 40 copies, photocopied then stapled on the steps of Central Hall where the Westminster Comic Marts took place. I met a brash, young Warren Ellis (while) stapling on those steps.

(image from the 1993 Fantagraphics intro pages, contained on the app, see yesterday)