london visit

Ok if this seems a bit hashy that's because I've basically torn it from Jess' blog who was smart enough to document our visit pretty much as soon as we returned from it and not almost 3 monthes later like me.

So I was in Birmingham visiting Jess in her shitty student house (I mean it was shitty for a student house. Yeah.) She says she's going to london on a trip with her course and I took this as an opportunity to see what the crack was in the big city and get to know some more cool doods.

Train gets cancelled, twice and we're jammed into tiny space on a train for about an hour and a half (?) but then it picks up when we arrive.

First stop, V&A,

Lots of handmade books, high quality shit, Paula Rego etc. Very inspiring.

Next, the Illustration cupboard,

I'm feeling lazy so here's what Jess thought:

Really nice little place with a huge amount of original work there. John Lawrence was up at the time...he does etching and its the most friggin intricate thing you've ever seen...amazing....beautiful...and really inspiring. There was alot of big names like Oliver Jeffers, Babette Cole, Shirley Hughes (Alfie!) and Raymond Briggs. But by far the highlight was seeing the work of Brian Wildsmith in the flesh...not even prints...actual original artwork. So unbelievable in flesh and you realise how little justice his books do to his work....Not that they are bad in print but they were so vibrant and fullof life in reality. I guess its inevitable that you lose some of the quality in print. It made me realise how important a consideration it is in books.

Ouch, bad grammar alert.

Then Jess' tutor (found here at EATMYDRAWING) took us around London sharpish and stumbled us into what is possibly the most awesome-est comic book shop evar around the leicester square area. I don't know the name so I suck balls but I'll do my best (well...) to find that out. It was basically a 2 floored cavern filled to the rafters with graphic delights which I hunger for again. I know it's rubbish, can't explain it much more than from an emotional standpoint; if someone could make an attempt to identify it from this palid excuse for a description I'd be very happy.

And... that was it I think.

Kids; next time you go somewhere, write down what happened ASAP FFS!