Filed under: About Thought Bubble, Art by Guests, Film and Sequential Art, Guests 2009, Small Press and Independent Friends of Thought Bubble, Thought Bubble 2009, What is Sequential Art? | Tags: Comics, Hugh Raine, Leeds comic con, Leeds comic festival, Leeds Thought Bubble comic festival, Patrick Lynch, Sequential Art, Small Press, UK Conventions, Webcomics
Hiya Bubblers! It’s now just a scant 67 days until the start of this year’s festival – the orbital period for planet Gliese 581 D, a seven-Earth mass spacial body discovered in April of this year – a short enough period that you should all be well and truly psyched, I know we all are. To continue raising the anticipation to near insurmountable levels I have here, potentially, the final Small-Press and Independent Friend of Thought Bubble (or Challengers of the Unfriendly) for this year. For this week’s friend we continue our voyage across the Irish sea to be greeted on our arrival by none other than Patrick Lynch, an up-and-coming talent on the webcomics scene, whose work – examples of which can be viewed in the handily placed gallery below, or at his site – has shot from strength-to-strength over the past year.
Patrick hails from Dublin, Ireland and is a graphic designer, illustrator and independent comic artist who has been active in the Irish and UK Small Press scene for about a year and a half now. Since June of 2008, he’s published three comics – namely Last Bus, In the Aquarium, and Stop Gap, as well as contributing shorter pieces to a couple of anthologies. Patrick is also one half of Cardboard Press, a small press publishing outfit which he runs alongside his partner Katie Blackwood, under which they issue comics and artists’ books.
Patrick’s personal work tends to be subtle, meditative, and slice-of-life based, although he’s not ruling out the long-form science fiction epic just yet. At the moment Patrick makes a living mainly through commercial graphic design, but is beginning to balance this with more illustration and comic work. Alongside this he is also one third of the Edition Book Arts collective, which formed in 2009 with fellow artists Katie Blackwood and Philip Barret. The collective exists to promote and organise events, showcase illustrative work, and foster interaction in and around the book arts, comic and fanzine communities in Ireland. Edition Book Arts organised the highly successful Summer Edition event in July 2009 – a fair/convention held in the centre of Dublin – which brought over 30 exhibitors from throughout Ireland and the UK together for a day long celebration of self-expression through the medium of DIY publishing. They hope to continue to organise events throughout the coming year and have plans for a similar Summer Edition convention for 2010. They’d love to have more people come over from the UK, so if you’re interested (and you should be), get in touch!
As if this staggering workload wasn’t enough, Patrick also helps run the monthly Dublin Comic Jam event, which has been going for the last 12 months and serves as a great regular meet up for comic artists/illustrators.
That, I’m sure you’ll agree, is pretty damn fine comicking for someone relatively new to the scene – a great way to cap off this year’s series of profiles on some of the Small Pressers you can meet at Thought Bubble in November – if you don’t mind my saying. You don’t? Good. There may be one more special entry into this canon, but for the remaining run-up to the festival we’ll be having something a little different to tickle your fancy. Starting soon, maybe even sooner, the Thought Bubble Blog will be hosting a series of mini-interviews, or minterviews, with the various creators who’ve been featured over the past year. A, sort of, Inside the Artist’s Studio if you will. Look out for them, they will be epic.
In other small-pressy news, the super-cool Hugh Raine has created a poster (below) for this year’s convention, detailing some of the various Indie guests who’ll be appearing, I think you’ll agree it shows those high falootin’ superhero types a thing or two. We love it, and for this the blog is bestowing its highest honour on the man of the hour – an imaginary high-five. Use it wisely, Hugh.
And that’s your lot. We hope you’ve enjoyed the Small Press and Independent Friends of Thought Bubble for this year, commemorative programmes are available in the foyer, please keep your parking tickets handy for validation by an usher.
- Clar
Filed under: About Thought Bubble, Art by Guests, Film and Sequential Art, Guests 2009, Programme 2009, Small Press and Independent Friends of Thought Bubble, Thought Bubble 2009, What is Sequential Art? | Tags: Comics, Leeds comic con, Leeds comic festival, Leeds Thought Bubble comic festival, Philip Barret, Sequential Art, Small Press, Webcomics
Greetings Earthlets! Time for another helping of the Small-Press and Independent Friends of Thought Bubble (or the League of Extraordinary Friends); the only series of blog posts which eight out of ten super-cat owners would say that their feline prefers, although quite how we worked that out I’m not sure, because, for the life of me, I can’t think of many past Captain Marvel’s Talky Tawny and Streaky, Superman’s cat. Our friend this time is a favourite from the emerald isle: Phil Barrett. His work, some of which can be viewed in the gallery below (featuring some art never before seen on the interwebs) or at his site, is both delightful and ever so slightly deranged – a thoroughly winning combination.
Philip Barrett resides in Dublin, Ireland and has been working on comics of one sort or another for as long as he can remember, an enterprise which became a bit more regular (i.e. producing at least something a year) in 2001, upon the release of his first self-published work.
Phil has, to date, written and drawn 9 issues of ‘Matter’, which is a catch-all title for various short stories mostly preoccupied with the collision between the worlds of the fantastical and the mundane. He has also worked with Liam Geraghty to produce ‘Gazebo’ and ‘The littlest Arsonist’ (some free copies of which are still available).
Phil has contributed to numerous anthologies including ‘Sorry I can’t take your call right now…‘ and ‘You Ain’t No Dancer‘, and at the moment he’s working on a couple of longer stories, but still allowing himself to be sidetracked at any opportunity. For more information on Phil’s excellent work please visit his blog.
Well, there you have it, we’re at the end of yet another Friends of Thought Bubble, which, as the festival looms, is slowly winding down for this year, inevitably cooling as blue-shift occurs, entropy grinding to a halt, the vast expanses of its reach collapsing inwards until it is nothing more than a super-dense dot of information, a kernel of knowledge if you will, waiting for the cyclical nature of space-time to re-ignite the flame and cause the big bang anew. However, don’t get too morose, the old girl’s got a few tricks up her sleeve, so we’ll be back with a couple more yet. Just promise to never tell us the odds, and we’ll see you with another friend of ours next week.
- Clark
Filed under: About Thought Bubble, Art by Guests, Film and Sequential Art, Guests 2009, Small Press and Independent Friends of Thought Bubble, Thought Bubble 2009, What is Sequential Art? | Tags: Comics, John Allison, Leeds comic con, Leeds comic festival, Leeds Thought Bubble comic festival, Scary Go Round, Sequential Art, Small Press, UK Conventions, Webcomics
‘Sup, guess what? After another, increasingly familiar, hiatus (my bad), the Small-Press and Independent Friends of Thought Bubble (or Blog-Force) is back – just when you thought it was safe to go back in the internet. This edition focuses on one of the big guns in British webcomics: John ‘Scary Go Round‘ Allison. Operating, in a small-press context, since almost the inception of the internet*, and thus producing quality sequential output on a regular basis for longer than is generally thought healthy (but is hugely appreciated by his multitude of fans), John is one of the institutions (meant in the nicest way possible) of internet comics. If you don’t believe me – and I repsect the need for proof in the face of such high praise – then check out the gallery below, or his site.
*Ok, maybe not since the inception of the internet, but since 1998, which, in internet terms, is a long time.
John is one of the UK’s premier makers of comics on the internet. He grew up in Addingham, in West Yorkshire, and is old enough to remember when Thought Bubble was all fields. He now lives near Manchester and has been, variously, a music writer, a magazine designer, and a web designer, as well as having earned a degree from Sheffield University in “the journalism”.
John previously drew Bobbins, one of the first webcomics, from 1998-2002, which came runner-up in the category of ‘best online comic strip’ at the 2002 UK National Comic Awards. He subsequently followed this with Scary Go Round which began in 2002 and will conclude (after a staggeringly succesful run) next month, followed by his new project, Bad Machinery, in late September. Comics have been John’s full-time job since 2003, and examples of his fine wares can be found in his shop. For more information, and to keep up with John’s new project, you can check out his website or his blog. Both are AMAZING.
Well, sadly, that brings us to the end of yet another ‘Friends of Thought Bubble’, big thanks to John Allison who will also be appearing at this year’s festival. If all goes to plan there should be a couple more posts in this series on the horizon, followed by a super-secret plan the like of which would stun even Lex Luthor into humbled silence. If you think the Manhattan Project, meets Dream Patrol, meets Voltron, well, to be honest, you’d be miles off, but it’s a sweet idea in itself so who am I to judge? If you build it, they will come…
- Clark
Filed under: About Thought Bubble, Art by Guests, Guests 2009, Programme 2009, Small Press and Independent Friends of Thought Bubble, Thought Bubble 2009, What is Sequential Art? | Tags: Comics, Leeds comic con, Leeds comic festival, Leeds Thought Bubble comic festival, Lizz Lunney, Small Press, Webcomics
Right, so, after a brief hiatus, covered admirably by the ‘Best of the Web Series’ (installments of which can be found here and here), the internet phenomenon known as the Small-Press and Independent Friends of Thought Bubble (or Defenders of the Mirth) is back once again to astound and delight. This week’s friend is Lizz Lunney whose online comic sushi serves up bite-size portions of excellence to eat-in or take-away on a regular basis – a tasting menu can be found below (click on the images to enlarge) – and are a fine example of haute bandes dessinées cuisine.
Lizz is an illustrator and animator from Birmingham. Amongst other things she likes black tea, knitting and cats. Other animals she thinks are good include rabbits, elves, bears, dragons, unicorns, monkeys, dinosaurs, lions, tigers and meercats.
Lizz’s latest comic is ‘Sushi Karaoke’ which comes with free 3D glasses. Her previous work includes ‘I Love Dinosaurs and they Love Me’ 2008, ‘Tofu and Cats” 2007, ‘Party Animals’ 2007, ‘Waiting for Sushi’ 2006, and ‘Bears in your Face/The Man with Tetris on his Chin’ and ‘Cat Hearts/Peanut butter and Marshmallows’ two colourful flip comics. In May 2008 she became one of the artists for the Top Shelf 2 online comic. Other examples of her illustrative work can be found in her online sketchbook.
Lizz’s site also features examples of her brilliant animation work as well as a shop from which you can purchase all sorts of excellent gifts. This month also sees the start of the one-a-day comic sushi extravaganza, which can be found here. For more information on Lizz’s work please visit her site, her blog, or check out her MySpace page.
As with all the Friends of Thought Bubble, Lizz will be appearing at this year’s convention at Savile’s Hall, Leeds, on the 21st November.
All good things must come to an end, and Friends of Thought Bubble posts are no exception to this age-old adage, so without much further ado I’ll say fare thee well for now and hopefully will see you back here in a week or so with either another Friend of Thought Bubble in tow or a further installment of our Best of the Web series. May the force be with you, always.
-update-
Latest news hot of the (small) press: a new workshop has just been announced for later in the year and it’s one all you comic lovers will, well, love!
Thurs Oct 9th 6.30 to 10.00pm Travelling Man Leeds
This October sees an incredible masterclass lead by industry genius Adi Granov. Adi made a huge impact on the comics scene a number of years ago as one of Marvel’s young guns. Since then he has gone from strength to strength, with an exceptional run of covers for various Marvel titles, the brilliant Iron Man Extremis with Warren Ellis and mind blowing concept work for the Iron Man movies, Adi has become one of the comic book industry’s shining stars!
Numbers are very limited so sign up soon to secure a place. (travellingmanshops@googlemail.com or telephone 0113 2436461)
Adi will also be appearing at this year’s Thought Bubble convention, but for a unique opportunity to see a truly great comic artist at work this workshop is not to be missed!
- Clark
Filed under: About Thought Bubble, Art by Guests, Guests 2009, Programme 2009, Small Press and Independent Friends of Thought Bubble, Thought Bubble 2009, What is Sequential Art? | Tags: Comics, Ellerbisms, Leeds comic con, Leeds comic festival, Leeds Thought Bubble comic festival, Marc Ellerby, Sequential Art, Small Press, Webcomics
Hey there everyone! We here at TB Towers are happy to present the next in the series of posts known pithily as the Small-Press and Independent Friends of Thought Bubble (or Aqua Teen Hunger Friends). This week on the cavalcade of comics we profile sequential-art super-star Marc Ellerby, a name near synonymous with the UK indie comics scene, and for good reason as his work – some of which is viewable in the gallery below – is sheer brilliance. If you don’t believe me check out his diary comic Ellerbisms or his illustrative work both of which showcase his trademark artistic style and infectious sense of humour.
Marc Ellerby is a comics illustrator living in Essex, England. Although he’s dabbled in some illustration work (Mannequin Republic/Atlanta Records, Truck Festival, Drowned In Sound) his main focus over the past few years has been comics.
Marc illustrated the “rock and roll romance” graphic novel series Love The Way You Love (written by Jamie S.Rich and published by Oni Press) which was selected as one of the Young Adult Library Services Association’s top graphic novels for teens in 2009. His work has also been published in the This Is A Souvenir and Put The Book Back On The Shelf anthologies (both Image Comics). He has more anthology work coming-out soon in the shape of Fat Chunk 2 – Zombies (Slave Labour Graphics) and Popgun Vol. 4 (Image Comics).
As well as working for the American comic industry, Marc is still a firm believer of the UK small press scene and reguarly makes mini comics to showcase new ideas and collect work. Previous mini comics have included Venal Muse, Polar Opposites, Sad Girls For Life and Speed Trail.
He is now, however, concentrating on two series, Chloe Noonan and Ellerbisms.
Chloe Noonan (pages of which can be viewed in the gallery above) is a monster hunter – but like most 19 year old girls (whose surname is not Summers), she doesn’t have any powers; she gets a stitch when she runs, is kinda rubbish at fighting and has to take public transport to even hunt the monsters as she can’t drive. Life is tough for ol’ Chloe Noonan, especially when it involves the bus.
Ellerbisms is an autobiographical web comic which takes a small moment from the day and isolates it within a comic. Like life, it can be quite dark at times, though there’s hope and humour throughout – the story now concerning Ellerby’s life with his girlfriend Anna. There are three collections so far, all of which are avaliable from his website.
For more of his work visit his site and for rambles and updates he has both a Twitter, and a blog.
And with that we bring to a close another edition of the Friends of Thought Bubble, swiftly followed by a couple of quick reminders: first, the thought bubble hotmail account has finally been consigned to the great trash compactor in the sky so contacting us can only be done via our googlemail account (thoughtbubblefestival@googlemail.com); secondly, don’t forget that next weekend sees the first TB Workshop of 2009 (details below) with a free manga masterclass from the thoroughly excellent Yishan Li. See you next week for another post, but until then: Keep watching the skies…
- Clark
Filed under: About Thought Bubble, Art by Guests, Guests 2009, Small Press and Independent Friends of Thought Bubble | Tags: Banal Pig Comics, Comics, Leeds comic con, Leeds comic festival, Leeds Thought Bubble comic festival, Sequential Art, Small Press, Steve Tillotson, Webcomics
Welcome to the fourth in our weekly (for the time being) series of posts detailing some of the Small Press and Independent Friends of Thought Bubble (or Uncanny X-Friends), bringing to you the best in sequential art on a regular basis. This week we usher into the spotlight Mr Steve Tillotson, producer of brilliant art, both sequential and portraiture, whose site is a treasure trove of wondrous delights – some of which can be viewed in the gallery below.
Steve Tillotson trained as an artist at Batley School of Art and Design, and went on to do a masters degree at the Royal College of Art, London. He started making comics as an outlet for his frustrations (artistic and otherwise) which include the titular Banal Pig Comics (with contributions from Gareth Brookes), Ethel Sparrowhawk (with Jemima von Schindelberg), Jolly Bear and Fun Coconut, The Manly Boys Annual (again with Gareth Brookes), and an anthology of landscapes to mention but a few.
All of Steve’s art is available for purchase through his store, and, for the more thrifty amongst you, he is even giving away some pieces for free! Further information on Steve’s projects can be found on his blog which contains regular updates on his myriad works, and which is where you can also find his self-penned funnies webcomic.
That dose of delectation wraps up yet another edition of the Friends of Thought Bubble, I’ve got another one in the works so make sure y’all tune in again next week same bat-time, same bat-place, to see some more top-flight sequential art. It’ll make the wait until this year’s Thought Bubble just fly by! (Not a legally binding guarantee.)
- Clark
Filed under: About Thought Bubble, Art by Guests, Guests 2009, Small Press and Independent Friends of Thought Bubble | Tags: Comics, Jack Fallows, Leeds comic con, Leeds comic festival, Leeds Thought Bubble comic festival, Sequential Art, Small Press, Webcomics
Apologies for a dearth of posts in the Small Press and Independent Friends of Thought Bubble (or Agents of F.R.I.E.N.D.) canon recently, but hark, for all that is about to change: We’re back and we have plans afoot, so tell your friends, heck, go ahead and tell your enemies, the more the merrier.
This week we welcome into the fold the fantastically multi-talented Mr Jack Fallows, purveyor of fine artistic wares, both illustrative and musical, uniformly excellent examples of which can be seen at his site, his blog, his store and also (as if those weren’t enough) the gallery below – including a custom image made just for us (ain’t we lucky?).
Jack Fallows is a self-taught illustrator and comic book creator from Newcastle, UK. He has been drawing for as long as he can remember, and hopes to continue drawing for longer than he could forget.
His first small press comic was a photocopied mini-comic put out by There Goes Tokyo entitled Coffee Break Comics, which he created when he was 14. Since then he has produced a number of self-published titles, which he would like to believe got better as they went. These include Blackout 1-3 (with Phil Marsden and Phil Buchan), Rusty Nail (with Phil Buchan), The Gentleman Ghost (with Mike Thompson) and Costume Party. Outside of comics, Jack has done illustration work for local publications, promotional work for local radio, events and bands and personal commissions. He is currently working on a series of postcards and artist’s prints, the first installment of which, entitled Quattrobots, is available now (an example of which is viewable in the gallery above).
As well as this, Jack founded the Paper Jam Comics Collective some two plus years ago (although can’t take credit for the name), and runs a bi-weekly Comics Evening at the Travelling Man comic shop in Newcastle where he works, which is their meeting place. The collective have released a series of quarterly anthologies to which Jack has contributed, and held launch parties in their honour, which he has performed at and helped to organise and promote.
Well, that’s all for this time folks, and I can happily confirm that there will be another brand new, shiny, mylar bagged edition of The Friends of Thought Bubble waiting here for you in just seven days. So until next time borag thung, earthlets!
- Clark
Filed under: About Thought Bubble, Art by Guests, Guests 2009, Small Press and Independent Friends of Thought Bubble | Tags: Adam Cadwell, Comics, Leeds comic con, Leeds comic festival, Leeds Thought Bubble comic festival, The Everyday
This week’s Small Press and Independent Friend of Thought Bubble (or Super Friend) is the fantastic Adam Cadwell a freelance illustrator whose diary comic The Everyday – which is by turns hilarious and poignant – features consistently top-notch art, which is also apparent in his illustrations and commercial work. The gallery below (click on the thumbnails for larger versions) contains a small sample from the wealth of excellent material available for viewing on his site.
Adam Cadwell is a comic creator and freelance artist who has been working professionally as a visualiser and illustrator since early 2007. Gaining experience by working in-house at advertising agency TBWA\Manchester and then by running commercial art company DRAW, Adam now works independently as Cadwell Illustration and is based in Central Manchester.
Adam’s work has been published in Love The Way You Love (issue #6), The Pirates of Coney Island (issue #6), and Phonogram (issue #4), and can also be found in the self-published titles The Everyday and My Beloved Monsters #1 & #2 (with Chris Doherty).
For more information on Adam’s comics and professional work visit www.adamcadwell.com or drop by his blog.
That’s it for another edition of the Small Press and Independent Friends of Thought Bubble, I think it’s safe to assume that updates won’t be regularly on a Wednesday, due to poor time management and hypervelocity on my part, but I’ll try and keep it at least somewhere close to an approximation of a weekly posting. Excelsior!
- Clark
Filed under: About Thought Bubble, Art by Guests, Guests 2009, Small Press and Independent Friends of Thought Bubble | Tags: Comics, Hugh Raine, Leeds comic con, Leeds comic festival, Leeds Thought Bubble comic festival, Reet, Sequential Art, Small Press, Webcomics
As part of the build-up to the Thought Bubble Festival I’m going to post a semi-regular feature (updates on Wednesday) whereby we here at the TB Blog-o-mat exhibit some of the awesome work of the Small Press and Independent Friends of Thought Bubble (spift-bee for short, possibly.)
Hopefully this will introduce those of you unfamiliar with the more online/indie aspect of comics to some of the genius works that are out there, and also let you get an idea of what to expect from this years convention.
Kicking off this Tony Hart-esque series of posts is the work of the brilliant Mr Hugh Raine owner and proprietor of Reet – a thoroughly excellent example of Leeds’ flourishing Small-Press scene – some of which can be seen in the gallery below (click on the thumbnails for larger versions).
Hugh ‘Shug’ Raine is a cartoonist and small-press comic book maker from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire and self-published REET! for nearly four years, which was a free comic-zine distributed in Leeds and Hull.
The free comic was retired so Shug could persue other comic projects, like Jenny’s Weird Friend for the alternative arts magazine Dangerous Ink, various anthology contributions such as Fat Chunk and titles such as Barbs, Interference and Olive’s Mix Tape, produced for small press and alternative press fairs across the UK.
For information about upcoming REET! projects and more free comics than you can waggle a twig at, visit www.reetcomic.co.uk or check out his regularly updated blog.
Hopefully that little lot will satisfy any sequential art cravings you might be harbouring, remember to come back next week for another installment of this steadily growing pantheon of small press lovliness.
- Clark
