Andromeda Bookshop Card

The other evening, as I opened an old paperback book, M.A.S.H.,

that I have owned, since it twas given to me, 

by an unappreciative Aunt, in 1973 or thereabouts, I discovered a couple of things that I had tucked into it's pages.

Firstly, there was a bookmark/business card from the second location of the amazing,

Andromeda Bookshop.

Which was something that I had completely forgotten that I had!

One more small piece of my past, luckily preserved, 

like a fly in amber.

The other thing, which has more value to me, than to anyone else, 

was a ballpoint pen sketch of Conan,

from 1974, when I was 17 and Robert E. Howard's barbarian hero was my absolute favourite comic book at that time.

There are any number of things wrong with the execution of the drawing but I am actually quite amazed at some of the details of the figure that I did quite well.

Except for the fact that, I am fairly sure, I drew this while I was supposed to be doing something more constructive (at work), 

I would suspect that I was copying it from a panel in a comic book.

So how I managed to draw the figure, as well as I did, is a complete mystery.

I am not sure, if anything that I draw, these days, has nearly as much passion in it but then again, I am almost fifty years older and there has been a lot of changes in my life, since I was an avid teenager, sketching in Birmingham.