Birthday girl

Our lovely daughter Sophie has turned twenty today. Hard to believe :-)
Here she is making friends with some Imperial Stormtroopers...

and here she is enjoying a cupcake with Sarah. These photos are from a Vintage Fair in Gloucester at the weekend.

And some bloke got in this photo too...

And here are a few pics from a recent photoshoot that Sophie did in Bristol.

And here she is with ( not so ) little brother, James :-)

 Happy Birthday Babs!

FF Fridays: Happy Birthday to the King

Readers of this 'ere blog with long memories may remember a series of posts called "FF Fridays" way back in the mists of time. ( Actually about three years ago. ) Like many other intended regular features here they sort of fell by the wayside but a couple of things have prompted me to dust 'em off and bring 'em back. Firstly, it would have been the 98th birthday today of Jacob Kurtzberg aka Jolly Jack Kirby aka the King Of Comics and I thought a tribute to this sadly-missed genius would be in order. And secondly, I just happened to buy a trio of terrific tomes featuring the King's Kosmic Koncepts a couple of days ago. These were from the wonderful Dave's Comics down in ( not-so ) sunny Brighton. ( And, yes, I may have to inflict some photos from said two-day jaunt to the south coast on you, Dear Reader, at some point. ) I'm always looking to fill gaps in my FF collection and I was very happy to find these three issues all for very reasonable prices. So please cast your eyes on these fine examples of Kirby's cover artwork at its peak, circa 1967, when the FF really was The World's Greatest Comic Magazine...

And not forgetting Kirby's writing partner on the FF, here's some of Smilin' Stan Lee's deathless dialogue for Bashful Benjamin Grimm aka The Thing from FF #63:
"Shucks, you ain't seen nothin' yet! In fact, I got a real treat in store for ya now...! Just in case ya lost yer wrist-watch or somethin', I'm gonna show ya what time it is... It's clobberin' Time!"

Bristol street art

We had an afternoon in Bristol yesterday, followed by a meal with Sophie and her boyfriend AJ, and while walking around that fair city I snapped a few cool examples of Bristol's ubiquitous street art. All of these were in the Stoke's Croft area of Bristol, near to Sophie's flat. The one above is probably my favourite.

This Manga-esque cutie was hidden away in a small corner of a building.

This one ( and the close-up below ) adorns the wall of the famous Lakota club...

This colourful artwork, further along the same wall, reminds me in a way of the Zap Comic work of such countercultural greats as Rick Griffin and Victor Moscoso.

And this one's just nuts...

I've been saying for ages that I want to go to Bristol and take photos of the street art, so this small sample may just be the beginning. And not a Banksy amongst them...

Soundtrack: Dark Side Of The Moon by those Pink Floyd boys