Comics unmasked

Yesterday evening, Dan and I travelled down to London to spend a couple of days with my folks. We arrived in their neck of the woods around eight-thirty and all went for something to eat at their local curry house, which was a welcome end to the journey.

They're out tonight, so I'd arranged to go and visit some old friends of mine, Keith and Angela, this evening. I'd texted Ange to say that we'd arrive late afternoon as I was intending to take Dan up into London in the morning.
"Are you going to see the comic show at the British library?" she replied.
"I am now!"

I wasn't quite sure what to expect but, to be honest, I was mildly disappointed by what we saw. Basically, it was a load of well known British comics, pretty much every one that I've ever heard of and plenty that I haven't. The comics were loosely grouped and there was a copy of each one, opened so you could read a couple of pages, with a card that gave a bit of its history. The highpoint for me was probably seeing an original 'Marvelman' (the strip upon which Alan Moore's superb 'Miracleman' was based).

Perhaps the most interesting thing was seeing an example of the biblia pauperum, which shared all of the fundamental features of modern comics: the panels; exposition/narration; thought and speech balloons. I had no idea the medium was over five hundred years old!

But Dan found it really interesting and enjoyed walking around on his own and, on balance, that was the main thing. It was odd, though, that so much of what he saw as history was material that I bought at the time it was released.

Anyway, emerging out into the heat and sunlight, we saw some table tennis tables set up, so we stopped and had a few games, although even this mild exercise was enough in the proper summer sun. Then we strolled through London, down to the river, and crossed over Waterloo Bridge, and stopped to have frozen yoghurt on the South Bank. I could almost have dropped off to sleep there, sat looking over the river.

After that we were going to head straight for the train but then we came across these huge chairs next to that roundabout that runs around the Imax. So we hung around there for a while, chatting, until eventually we did get the train and headed down to Hampton, where we met up with Angela and her daughters, and took a walk down to Bushey Park, where we saw some deer. Then it was back to their house for a barbecue, which was when Keith joined us. All in all, a most wonderful day!