[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":11},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-post-londons-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,"Yesterday was comics play day in Soho at \u003Ca href=\"http://www.goshlondon.com/\">Gosh! London\u003C/a>, to mark the distributions of a whole bunch of great swag for \u003Ca href=\"http://www.freecomicbookday.com/Home/1/1/27/992\">Free Comics Book Day\u003C/a>! And Kermit was the first person I saw when I arrived! And his comics artist \u003Ca href=\"http://www.hotelfred.com/\">Roger Langridge\u003C/a>, the fab artist behind some of \u003Ca href=\"http://hotelfred.blogspot.co.uk/p/muppet-show-comic-book.html\">The Muppets Show comics\u003C/a>.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/gosh_london_fcbd_5-950b89c01d.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nAnd here's a peek at the \u003Ci>Vern and Lettuce\u003C/i> window I drew, with some fabulous young comics readers peeking through!\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/gosh_london_window_1-01d192bf9a.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nSo we drew comics! I took a shift at the drawing table just after \u003Ca href=\"http://www.donteatanybugs.net/\">Ray Friesen\u003C/a> of the \u003Ci>Pirate Penguin vs Ninja Chicken\u003C/i> comics, but we were so pleased to see each other that we overlapped our sessions and just had fun mucking about. Ray came over from Los Angeles, and he's a real hero of self-publishing, having created and and taken loans to print six books himself (print runs of 5,000), figured out how to distribute them, and made back his money and then some. He was one of the first-ever visitors we had at the Fleece Station studio when we started up a few years ago.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/gosh_london_fcbd_1-78039f8bb3.jpg\">\\r\n\u003Ci>\u003Cfont size=\"1\">Photo from the \u003Ca href=\"http://www.goshlondon.com/\">Gosh Comics\u003C/a> Facebook page\u003C/i>\u003C/font>\\r\n\\r\nI had an idea for a slightly serious comic I wanted to work on, but when I got there, the place was absolutely rammed with people and there was no way I was going to concentrate. So I basically asked the kids what they wanted me to draw and made a scrappy comic about that. Here's \u003Cb>Emir\u003C/b>; he and his dad were pleased as punch to see him starred in this comic. (The cat walking on sausages was Emir's idea.)\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/gosh_london_fcbd_13-2cf370be8c.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\n\u003C!--more Click here for lots more pics under the cut-->\\r\nHis dad, \u003Cb>Ricky Chandler\u003C/b>, has blogged about the event and posted \u003Ca href=\"http://tempolush.com/blog/?p=487v\">some more photos here\u003C/a>! Ha ha, I totally can't draw well when I'm talking with people and helping them with their comics, too. But it was chilled out and no one minded, they just liked seeing new comics happening everywhere.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/gosh_free_comic_book_day-53ae7db04c.gif\">\\r\n\\r\nSome of the kids were able to concentrate better than I did. Here's \u003Cb>Una\u003C/b>, who stayed focused for way longer than people think kids can, and came up with this story, which she titled \u003Ci>Newest Invention\u003C/i>. I just got a lovely e-mail from her this morning, and she's heading back to the USA soon, but I'm so glad I got to meet her while she was visiting! (Hi, Una! Keep drawing those fab comics!)\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/gosh_london_fcbd_6-7f69a69f05.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nLondon-based Nepalese comics creator \u003Ca href=\"http://kripakreations.com/Home.html\">Kripa Joshi\u003C/a> brought some of her family along, who were visiting from India, and \u003Cb>Ojas\u003C/b> drew a portrait of me. (He finds skirts a bit difficult to draw, so he cleverly solved this problem by drawing me as a ghost.)\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/gosh_london_fcbd_2-821bad4ddc.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nAnd here's lovely \u003Cb>Belle\u003C/b>! I first met Belle while doing a pirate event at Foyles. There were a bunch of kids there who didn't really know much about my books, but were lured by the promise of sweets, when suddenly Belle charged in and turned out to have an encyclopaedic knowledge of \u003Ci>Vern and Lettuce\u003C/i>. I swear, that girl knows them better than I do! We totally bonded. Here she is, displaying her colouring sheet designed by \u003Ca href=\"http://www.richard-short.blogspot.co.uk/\">Richard Short\u003C/a>, standing in front of the window painting by \u003Ca href=\"http://www.karriefransman.com/\">Karrie Fransman\u003C/a>.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/gosh_london_fcbd_4-8815ca97a4.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\n\u003Ca href=\"http://www.ventedspleen.com/\">Tom Humberstone\u003C/a> (editor and publisher of \u003Ca href=\"http://solipsisticpop.com/\">\u003Ci>Solipsistic Pop\u003C/i>\u003C/a> and fellow \u003Ca href=\"http://www.blankslatebooks.co.uk/2011/05/nelson/\">NELSON\u003C/a> contributor) and I had a good laugh sitting in the gap between the shelves and the window, trying to get the POSCA pen ink to go smoothly onto the glass. It's not as easy as you would think! You can see Roger got around the streaky problem by colouring his Kermit with lines of colour, not solidly.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/gosh_london_fcbd_14-6c927f8f95.jpg\">\\r\n\u003Ci>\u003Cfont size=\"1\">Photo from the \u003Ca href=\"http://www.goshlondon.com/\">Gosh Comics\u003C/a> Facebook page\u003C/i>\u003C/font>\\r\n\\r\nThat's \u003Ca href=\"http://www.richard-short.blogspot.co.uk/\">Richard Short\u003C/a>'s version of Dennis the Menace from \u003Ci>The Beano\u003C/i>, and Tom getting on well with his Peanuts picture.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/gosh_london_fcbd_15-6528a0754d.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nHa ha, here's me concentrating VERY HARD! \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/gosh_london_fcbd_11-cf8cfab1fd.jpg\">\\r\n\u003Ci>\u003Cfont size=\"1\">Photo from the \u003Ca href=\"http://www.goshlondon.com/\">Gosh Comics\u003C/a> Facebook page\u003C/i>\u003C/font>\\r\n\\r\nI took \u003Ca href=\"http://darryl-cunningham.blogspot.co.uk/\">Darryl Cunningham\u003C/a>'s advice about not trying to paint solid colours, and use \u003Ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointillism\">pointillism\u003C/a> instead to fill the fields of colour. It works quite well with Vern's wool! Makes an nice lacy effect. It was fun drawing Vern in a bearskin. You can't really read the speech bubbles unless you're right in front of the window, though. Vern says, \u003Ci>This hat is so HOT, Lettuce!\u003C/i> And Lettuce replies, \u003Ci>And you're already 100% pure wool, Vern!\u003C/i> (or something to that effect).\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/gosh_london_window_2-929feaa595.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nYou can just see \u003Ca href=\"http://www.louisroskosch.com/\">Louis Roskosch\u003C/a>'s Batman next to Lettuce, it was lovely to meet him. And I don't think I saw \u003Ca href=\"http://www.cwardillustration.com/\">Christian Ward\u003C/a>, but he was also involved in the day. Here's comics artist and Gosh! employee \u003Ca href=\"http://www.juliascheele.co.uk/\">Julia Scheele\u003C/a> just starting her addition to the front window. Do pop by to see the finished version!\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/gosh_london_fcbd_10-d463d4632e.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nI totally fell in love with this version of \u003Ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fungus_the_bogeyman\">Fungus the Bogeyman\u003C/a>, as drawn by \u003Ca href=\"http://whmorris.blogspot.co.uk/V\">Will Morris\u003C/a>.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/gosh_london_fcbd_8-ad7b8df5a8.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nI'm such a fan, I managed to buy it off him when he was done... score! \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/gosh_london_fcbd_7-bc85831e67.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nAfter my day at Gosh, I popped over to Chinatown and bought a bunch of pretty-looking treats for \u003Ca href=\"http://www.vivianeschwarz.co.uk/\">Viviane Schwarz\u003C/a>, who had invited Stuart and me around to her new place for dinner. The 'Ball Cake' turned out to be terribly disappointing, nearly tasteless fluff, but the 'Collon' pieces weren't half bad. (I just bought it 'cos it was called 'Collon'.)\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/viv_cheesefest_1-e0482f2093.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nHere's some lovely graffiti I saw on the way over. \u003Ca href=\"http://www.jonathan-e.com/\">Jonathan Edwards\u003C/a> on Instagram said he think it's by \u003Ca href=\"http://www.billyandalex.com/\">Billy & Alex\u003C/a>. Ah yes, just looked at the website and it's definitely theirs. (Cheers, Jonathan!)\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/viv_cheesefest_3-59d2063317.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nIt's a bit daunting, walking into Viv and Gwyn's flat. You're immediately confronted with a whole lot of WEAPONRY. Yikes! This is because they run a series of game events called \u003Ca href=\"http://www.fire-hazard.net/\">Fire Hazard\u003C/a>, which has memorably had people in masks and weapons running all over the Old Police Station and trying to break into our studio on half-hour intervals. (Never a dull moment, eh?)\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/viv_cheesefest_2-c2347e6c9a.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nBut the focus of the evening was CHEESE. When I'd been in Belgium, I'd \u003Ca href=\"http://jabberworks.livejournal.com/471486.html\">posted a photo\u003C/a> of a dinner with our friends there who'd served \u003Ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raclette\">raclette\u003C/a>. Growing up in Germany, Viv had often had raclette, it was the thing they did at parties, and she got excited and decided she was going to buy a set. So we got to break it in, hurrah! Here's Viv being Master Raclette Chef. It has the same communal feel as fondue, but everyone puts ingredients into their own little pans, shoves on loads of raclette cheese, and slides them under the grill to go toasty and melty. It's very yummy!\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/viv_cheesefest_4-309f3a90ec.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nAnd the cheese didn't stop there! I got a peek at the completed version of Viv's new graphic novel, \u003Ca href=\"http://www.vivianeschwarz.co.uk/?page_id=73\">\u003Ci>The Sleepwalkers\u003C/i>\u003C/a>, coming out next year with Walker Books. It's amazing! I read as much as I could politely read at the table with everyone there, but what I really wanted to do was curl up with it and read the whole thing through. Can't wait for this one!\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/viv_cheesefest_5-b14bd53269.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nAnd more cheese! Here's the book she made with \u003Ca href=\"http://alexisdeacon.co.uk/\">Alexis Deacon\u003C/a> (sitting behind the iPad), \u003Ci>\u003Cb>CHEESE BELONGS TO YOU\u003C/b>\u003C/i>. Another picture book to watch out for; this one explains the very complicated rules amongst rats about who owns cheese. It's a hilarious parable about the scrappy real-life functioning of a democracy.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/viv_cheesefest_6-2fae77acc4.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nOkay, and then we had all had TOO MUCH CHEESE. But that is a good thing. Thank you, Viviane!\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/gosh_london_fcbd_9-3e1507f885.jpg\">","2012-05-06T14:05:00.000Z","londons-free-comic-book-day",[],"london's free comic book day!",1776628721769]