From one Benn to another
It’s our subterranean, antipodean friend Ben’s birthday today… Happy birthday, Ben.
I was going to draw a comic about birthdays for you today, but the truth is I couldn’t think of anything that would stretch over three cells… dogma you see, Sunday strips are always three-celled. I don’t know why, and you’d think, because I make the rules, that I could break them… apparently not.
The first idea I had was a birthday cake with sticks of TNT instead of candles, Ben’s Birthday Bash. Then I got on to thinking about party games and go side-tracked by the idea that postal workers probably didn’t like playing ‘pass the parcel‘… still no good, so then I started thinking about fancy dress parties…
Fancy dress parties, plus Ben… it awoke a character from my childhood. Mr Benn.
I’m not sure how well travelled he is, but the children’s books and the cartoon about a stereotypically British man (Bowler hat and all that) who liked to dress up and have adventures appealed to me. He’s sort of like a superhero with many costumes.
The theme tune runs through my head whenever I’m in a changing room.
Here’s a quick video I found on Youtube… You’ll notice the classic line ‘As if by magic, the shopkeeper appeared’… In geeky terms, that line has appeared in so many RPG games over the years as I direct homage to the cartoon.
I’ll probably draw the cake with TNT this week though, back when the single strips are acceptable. In the meantime I’m going to try and work out why I set the three-cell rule in the first place.
Ty on 
Ben on
I wonder if there’s any way to do this:
Post a short audio clip of someone playing the melody for “Happy Birthday,” then allow commenters to record themselves singing over the recording, and post that. All audio comments get overlayed automatically with the original clip, so that when you push the play button, you hear everyone singing, seemingly together. It’d be cool! But a programming hassel — my limited knowledge of Java lets me know that it’s well beyond my abilities.
So: in lieu of that, Ben, you’ll just have to imagine me singing out of key. Happy Birthday!
It is a good idea, and presumably one that would allow you to elay the production of podcasts and such… I’m pretty sure it is doable, even if it hasn’t been done (which it might).
I think Mr Benn is particularly British… the animation style is definately local… as in Paddington Bear (which is a little more sophisticated but still has a very similar look).
It is one of the things I’m most grateful for living in this country was the range of often surreal, but educationally valid cartoons I was subjected to as a child… the childhood television maketh the man… apparently.
grrrr, now I can’t stop imagining you singing out of key.
lol
Incidentally, Mr. Benn is hilarious, and just a little creepy. I’ve never heard of him before.
Happy birthday Ben!
And whoo! Mr Benn, the coolest little dressing up man ever.
And hello folks. Yes I have been lazy/busy and not commented for ages. I will right this wrong. But I have exams next month. Be wary of that, as I may have *exagerated speechmarks*prolonged PMT*close exagerated speechmarks*
Hey Maddie, good to have you back…
It’s a horrible time of year for all that, exams. Not only is the sun shining and the television good but there are so many better things than revision… it was on the news this morning, about sats and the pressure they put people under.
Good luck with the revision and exams, and presumably coursework… if there’s anything we can do to help, let us know.
Thanks Maddie!
Thanks
And sorry I haven’t been around much, I am trying.
Adam, is there any way you can fix the e-mail thingy so it tells me when there are new comments? otherwise I have to come and look. I will check if it’s something to do with my e-mail, but I reckons it’s more likely a problem this end.
Justine, good luck with your exams! You’ll do fantastic.
hey maddie, you havent been around much of late
btw i know where youre coming from on the exams front! my countdown has begun, two weeks to go…they put my calculus and physics exams on the same day!
*blush*
It was Mothers Day here aswell, I managed to go unnoticed till about 11am before any one realised it was my birthday.
Very flattering to have a comic in honour of my b’day.
By far the best pressie!
*goes to look up “antipodean”*
I’ve never been incarcerated, only detained
in my childhood, so I’m not an authority, but
my impression is you can decorate your cell
however you like, as long as it does not contain
contraband. Be crative, use roman numerals to
mark time, do what you wanna do, it’s basically
freedom in a box, freedom in a box. Fly, bird, fly.
adam, you have no idea what youve done with the mr benn thing! its kind of a thing ben and i have. youre telepathic or something, right?
Not telepathic at all, just churn out a lot of stuff so that some of it must be true…
oh, and happy birthday Ben.
and a peench for growth
and another peench for good luck.
Thanks to all the b’day wishes.
Still hearing Roo singing in off key.
Mwa ha ha ha!