(This post was backdated after my long blog hiatus.)
A very good day, today, as I caught up with old comics pal Paul Gravett for the first time in aeons.
After meeting up at New Street (sorry, Grand Central, the station’s been a New York Wannabe since 2015 now!!), we went to the new-ish Wetherspoons there for a long lunch. We had fish & chips, and I had two or three of those refillable coffees (Paul stuck with tea! Very English!).
This was a great opportunity to pose for an awkward selfie with me squinting at the camera screen…
Note my Darkseid badge! I brought Paul one too. After eating, I had a “commission” to do…
Namely, a long-promised sketch in Paul’s fabulous “Kibynomicon” sketchbook, pictured here with its embossed cover of Galactus. Paul has been getting various luminaries, and me, to draw Kirby characters in this neat A5 tome. My contribution came straight after Tom Scioli’s rendering of Galactus.
Here I am working on my drawing of Darkseid, as snapped by Paul…
The door was just behind me with people going in and out constantly. How on earth I focused with all the noise is beyond me—but Paul tells me I was extremely focused, and… well, the finished drawing came out pretty well, if I do say so myself…
After that we visited the two main local comics shops, Forbidden Planet and that place that used to be called Nostalgia & Comics back when it was good.
(It’s called Worlds Apart now. It seems oddly smaller than when it was Nostalgia.)
Finally, we ended up having a drink at good old Bacchus Bar in Birmingham. Paul’s idea—he recalled fondly our visit to back in 2004, as related here! Yep, the place is more or less unchanged since then, even if we’ve aged noticeably.
Anyhow, a fun visit! Thanks, Paul!!
Paul’s sketchbook seems pretty cool and your sketch turned out very well, especially considering the twin pressures of where you were and where you were having to draw it. I’m glad the visit went well.