A SIGN OF THE TIMES...

I used to be a signwriter.  I started off as quite a good signwriter and, in the fullness of time, became a very good one - an excellent one in fact.  (If I say so myself - and I do.)  That's probably why I found lettering for comics to be relatively easy - at least there was no climbing up and down ladders and scaffolding in the rain when putting speech balloons next to comic characters' heads.

Occasionally, even during my career in comics, I'd be prevailed upon to do a sign or two for someone or other.  While going through some old photos earlier, I discovered the two images which adorn this very page.  (Both sides of a sandwich board-type sign, for display outside a shop.)  They're scanned and enlarged from quite small images so might not be quite as sharp as I'd like, but I think they'll suffice to give you a fair indication of just how proficient I was.

Someone must have thought so, because it was stolen after only a couple of days or so.  What can I say?  It's nice to have one's work appreciated.  (Obviously it was nicked so that someone could paint their own signs over mine, or perhaps some drunken neds dumped it in the woods further along the street and across the road.)

Signing off for now.  (Har, har!  Pun intended.)