Edit, December 28th 2012: Okay, so I finally decided to go back and expand this scene, after all. I came to the conclusion that the kitchen scene is really too important to show in just two panels … (More explanations.)

Anyway, the funny building to the right in the first panel is Blacks cinema, which opened in 1909, closed in 1960 and was torn down in 2006 (I think). To the left you can barely see part of the old glass works, which were torn down around the same time. Here is a photo from 1967 and one of the cinema from around 1980. I can’t help but think that post-gentrification Gateshead could have been a much prettier town if they would have renovated all these interesting old buildings instead of just tearing them down. :3

[Yay I fixed the apparently invisible typo too …]

I tried to cram in some backgrounds here, in spite of the continuing “talking heads” …

I had the nerve to take some liberties with the geography in the first panel, because that house on the corner with John Street was so nice (see photo a and photo b). :3 They actually came down to Sunderland Road from Howe Street, and John Street is a few blocks away to the east. (Or was, because it’s been flattened now – not sure what will replace the old terraced houses.)

Then, they walk past the tower blocks Tennyson Court and Eslington Court (somewhat visible in the background of panel 5 …), then past the cemetery (panel 6), until they start to close in on the office buildings Chad House, Bede House and Aidan House (last panel), which we already know from the beginning of this chapter.

There are many interesting historical photos from around this time in John M. Berry’s photostream on Flickr.

That’s a rather nice corner in the last panel. :3

This is their very nice and very big doggie, Masha:

She has a part in the story I drew for the Swedish Comic Sin 3 anthology (which you really should get a copy of – already Masha alone makes it an absolute ‘must-read’ V^(oo)^V).

Over at the Driftwood Tumblr, I’m currently doing a series of posts about Gateshead and all the places where this story is set, which you might be interested in checking out …

V`(oo)´V -( … )

I’m supposed to start working on a totally different, shorter, comic right now, but all I can think about comics-wise is the sequel to Driftwood. X_x