More old style Industry. This comic strip recalls the humiliating pranks that first-day factory workers would have inflicted on them by their experienced elders. Other joke tasks included being sent to the Parts Department and instructed to ask for "a long stand". This, of course, resulted in the innocent apprentice being left to wait for at least half an hour. Once these "rites of passage" had been endured (as the smug sociologist character in the last panel comments) the new worker was accepted as another one of the lads/lasses.

Comics as documentation?

About two years ago I drew this Industrial Estate page after discovering some unusually old fashioned buildings tucked behind some more modern local manufacturing units. These half empty brick structures really did deserve the title Industrial Estate, definitely not a Business Park or an Enterprise Zone. I could almost see ghosts of cig-smoking men in boiler suits and noisy machinery in use through the dusty windows. Sensing their inevitable demolition I took some digital photos of the buildings and then drew the silent comic strip. The above photo is how the site looks now. Even the modern factory units have gone. Next year there will be retail outlets built here and the promise of several fast food restaurants.

Want to see my holiday snaps?

The activity of blogging seems to appeal to the self-indulgent so I may as well go the whole hog and post some of my Prague holiday photos. Prague is certainly a beautiful city and there are hardly any buildings (in the old town) which could be described as ordinary. The display of devils and Santa figurines is from the city's excellent Toy Museum and the religious graphic above comes from a carrier bag bought in the Museum shop of the church of Our Lady Victorious. The famous Holy Infant effigy is housed in this interesting Carmelite church - no photographs were permitted but I'll treasure the memory of seeing the little tyke in all his baroque finery.