London Trip: Day Three

Today was the big day: the UK Web Comic Thing at Queen Mary University in Mile End. This comic convention was the whole reason our group from Comic Genesis got together in the first place, so it was a rather big deal. Those of us involved had prepared sampler books of our work in advance to sell, as well as badges, free flyers, and candy to give away. I had twenty-five of my own little books made up back in Nebraska and sold them for five pounds each. I also had business cards with my web site address and e-mail on them in case anybody wanted to look me up later. Above, you can see fellow web comic artists Mr. Bob, Ryan "The Neko," and Claude horsing around. On the right is our group picture, which includes the whole lot of us.

The most exciting part of the whole day came a little later when one special visitor came to my table. Back in the fourth grade, nearly twenty years ago, I had an English pen-pal named Caroline. We kept in touch over a couple years but then I had lost her address sometime in middle school when we moved and we stopped writing. I'd recently gotten back in touch when I knew I was going to be in London, and thankfully her parents still lived at the same address! She came to visit me toward the end of the convention and we went out for authentic Fish and Chips as recommended by Matt Rosemier, who sat next to me at the convention. I can't tell you all what a thrill is was finally to meet this person I'd known for two-thirds of my whole life but had never seen in person. "Mind-boggling" doesn't even begin to cover it.

Caroline and I both wound up taking the tubes by King's Cross before we said goodbye, and while we were there I just had to run upstairs to check out "Platform 9 3/4." If you have ready any of the Harry Potter Books, you know exactly what this means. They even had a trolley cart embedded halfway through the wall!

It's been an unbelievable time in England so far, and I still have three whole days left! I can't imagine what could possibly follow all of this.