slippers, the freelancer’s best friend

I love you, Bridget!!! This morning the postman rang the bell and I rushed downstairs – tripping over the bits of lining sticking out of my delapidated slippers – to find a mysterious box from a Brighton shoe shop waiting for me. Look at these babies, aren’t they gorgeous? My other slippers have done me proud, but they must now go to that place where old slippers go to die.
… Hehe, I kind of like the photo on the left, it reminds me of those black-and-white posters of worn-out ballet slippers that were obligatory wall decor of every ballet studio in the ’80s. I suppose these are my own particular tools of the trade, and it is fitting that they are both called slippers, even if I don’t have to walk on my tippy-toes.

Thanks, Mike Lewis at The Seattle PI, for sending me this New York Times link to a beautifully drawn comic by Dean Haspiel, Snow Dope.

That reminded me to click over for a look at the latest political cartoons by David Horsey in The Seattle Times. If you haven’t seen his work, it’s well worth going over to have a look. My parents are big fans and sent me links whenever he drew Sarah Palin.

Marc Ellerby (burnt_jamb) does a ‘Best of the Year’ round-up over here on the Forbidden Planet blog.

And congratulations to London Underground Comics for their exciting year of running a stall in Camden; here’s a video commemorating their final day at the market.

Funny thing, I was standing in the supermarket checkout on Saturday and, while idly leafing through the display rack, came across a book called Teach your Granny to Text. Since I recently got a practice text from Glasgow Auntie, whose granddaughters were teaching her this essential skill, I picked it up, wondering if that title might have been their motivation. I was very surprised when the book fell open to a big double-page spread by the DFC’s own Jim Medway! And it all sort of fit together, because Crab Lane Crew is one of the granddaughters’ favourite strips in the DFC. I must confess, I started out not particularly liking Crab Lane Crew but it’s really, really grown on me. I think it’s gotten better (as have many of the strips, we’re all learning) but it’s also something about the story’s warm, friendly atmosphere. When I met up with Simone Lia a few weeks ago, we had a girly fan session discussing our fave Medway cats.