[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":11},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-post-free-comic-book-day":3},{"_type":4,"body":5,"bodyHtml":6,"excerpt":5,"featuredImage":5,"publishedAt":7,"slug":8,"tags":9,"title":10},"blogPost",null,"Look, a monster by committee! I drew the head, \u003Cb>Garen Ewing\u003C/b> drew the middle bit and \u003Cb>Neill Cameron\u003C/b> drew the feet. Hooray! You can see the fun place where all this stuff goes on over at the DFC group's blog, the \u003Ca href=\"http://supercomicsadventuresquad.blogspot.com\">Super Comics Adventure Squad\u003C/a>.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/sarahneillgaren-a301449fc4.gif\">\\r\n\\r\nSpeaking of which, today Stuart and I went to see the DFC's \u003Cb>Emma Vieceli\u003C/b> at a comic shop in Richmond called \u003Ca href=\"http://www.twau.co.uk/\">They Walk Among Us\u003C/a>. The shop was taking part in the worldwide \u003Ca href=\"http://www.freecomicbookday.com\">Free Comic Book Day\u003C/a> and happily, Emma was mobbed with fans, so Stuart and I got all the free comics we could and a copy of Emma's Manga Shakespeare \u003Ca href=\"http://www.mangashakespeare.com/titles/much_ado.html\">\u003Ci>Much Ado About Nothing\u003C/i>\u003C/a>. In this terrible photo, you can also see \u003Ca href=\"http://www.jamiemckelvie.com\">Jamie McKelvie\u003C/a>, \u003Ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andie_Tong\">Andie Tong\u003C/a> and \u003Ca href=\"http://www.kierongillen.com\">Kieron Gillen\u003C/a> (who looks worryingly like lifestyle guru Paul McKenna). We also saw \u003Ca href=\"http://www.frazerirving.com\">Frazer Irving\u003C/a> and the DFC's \u003Cb>John Aggs\u003C/b>. Here's Stuart with some of our loot:\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/richmond2-6bdb7400eb.jpg\"> \u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/richmond4-1edff8909b.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nWe cycled all the way across south London on our bikes and now I am bone-tired. We were a little overambitious in planning to go to two other exhibitions afterward, which we didn't do, but the weather was too good to hang around indoors. We had a picnic by the river in Putney and the city really was looking its best in the sun. We were consulting our map on one street corner and, I looked over at its sign and realised we were on Mr Benn's road! I'd just been doing a fair amount of research on writer and illustrator \u003Cb>David McKee\u003C/b> for \u003Ca href=\"http://jabberworks.livejournal.com/180013.html\">the interview I did with him in March\u003C/a>, so I'd learned that Mr Benn's 'Festive Road' was actually based on this one. (You can watch a Mr Benn animation over there with the interview.)\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/festiverd3-651e884bab.jpg\"> \u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/festiverd4-b06d64ad75.jpg\">\\r\nThe street had Mr Benn's park and everything! I forgot the exact number as I was going up the road looking for Mr Benn's house, but I hovered in front of No.60 just as a nice lady was coming out of it. She smiled and told me I'd found it, she lived in Mr Benn's house, and she really ought to get a plaque and start charging admission. So I took a photo of No.60. When I got home and watched a Mr Benn clip, I realised he really lived at No.52! What?! But I looked at the video, and I think maybe he did actually base it on 60 and just call it 52. Maybe No.52 and No.60 fight over it, heh heh.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/festiverd2-7cb9d037b1.jpg\">\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/festiverd1-6290a146a3.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nAnother funny thing we saw on our way: There was these few roads (Hillersdon Avenue, Glebe Road and another) that were absolutely filled with stone lions. Really, the lions were \u003Ci>everywhere\u003C/i>. I'll show you some photos, it is only the tip of the iceberg.\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/lions1-7c947a38fd.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\n\u003C!--more More photos from our cycle ride here-->\\r\nYou really have to see it. If anything in the photos remotely looks like it might be a lion, \u003Ci>IT IS\u003C/i>. It looks like an architect went totally mental. \\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/lions5-8927381187.jpg\"> \u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/lions4-a09aaed304.jpg\">\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/lions2-c8ea1e6eeb.jpg\"> \u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/lions3-eff93878d3.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nWe stopped to watch the herds of deer in Richmond Park, but my photos came out so badly, I won't show them. (My mother reads this blog and would be so unimpressed. She can't even \u003Ci>push\u003C/i> the deer out of her garden, they are so determined.) We saw a tree full of Green Woodpeckers and lots of these black and grey birds. Just curious, does anyone know what it is? It doesn't look like a crow (not Stuart, the other one):\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/richmond3-2b1e51bdb8.jpg\"> \u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/mysterybird-3b2cdf0037.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nOne more pic of the lovely view of the river in the Richmond:\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/richmond1-59a03d0206.jpg\">","2009-05-02T22:56:00.000Z","free-comic-book-day",[],"free comic book day",1776628732176]