Filed under: Art by Guests, News, Programme 2011, Thought Bubble 2011, What is Sequential Art? | Tags: Comics, Graphic Novels, Leeds comic con, Leeds comic festival, Leeds Thought Bubble comic festival, Nelson, Sequential Art, Signings, Small Press
Hey gang! Hope you all had a very happy Star Wars day, and if you don’t celebrate that particular holiday, well, laugh it up fuzzball. Something a bit different on the blog today, as we’re bringing you the first bit of news about an exciting new British comics project!
Nelson, a new collaborative graphic novel from Blank Slate Books will be launching this November at Thought Bubble’s convention, and features an awesome line-up of British comics talent. We’ll be celebrating the arrival of this major new work with signings and a panel, and will be bringing you more information throughout the year as the launch approaches.
So, who is Nelson? Well, Nel Baker’s story starts in 1968 (the year of her birth) and takes us through to the present day, with each creator presenting a snapshot of one year of her life. In the words of Rob Davis (Dr Who, Don Quixote) the anthology’s editor – “I don’t know if anyone’s tried anything like this before, I just think it’s a great way to show what separates comic artists from other artists – we don’t just draw pictures, we tell stories! I wanted us to avoid the ‘pick-and-choose’ aspect of most anthologies and get everyone writing their own chapters, working together to tell one continuous story. So whether a creator is your favourite or someone whose work you’d never normally go near, they all become an essential read.”
We’ve got a sneak peak at some of the art below, as well as some more information, simply click the images to embiggen them.
The line-up of talent involved looks simply stunning, but don’t take my word for it, have a gander at the contributors…
Rob Davis, Woodrow Phoenix, Ellen Lindner, Jamie Smart, Gary Northfield, Sarah McIntyre, Suzy Varty, Sean Longcroft, Warwick Johnson-Cadwell, Luke Pearson, Paul Harrison-Davies, Katie Green, Paul Peart-Smith, Glyn Dillon, Ian Culbard, John Allison, Philip Bond, Matt (D’Israeli) Brooker, Simone Lia, Daryl Cunningham, Jonathan Edwards, Ade Salmon, Kate Charlesworth, Warren Pleece, Kristyna Baczynski, James Harvey, Rian Hughes, Sean Phillips + Pete Doree, Kate Brown, Simon Gane, Oliver East, Adam Cadwell, Faz Choudhury, Jake, Jeremy Day, Dan McDaid, Roger Langridge, Will Morris, Dave Shelton, Carol Swain, Hunt Emerson, Duncan Fegredo, Philippa Rice, Garen Ewing, Tom Humberstone, Dan Berry, Kate Evans, Laura Howell, Andi Watson and Dave Taylor.
Very much a project worth getting excited about, so come to Thought Bubble 2011 and meet Nel Baker for the first time!
That’s all for now, Friends of Thought Bubble returns next week!
- Clark
Filed under: About Thought Bubble, Thought Bubble 2010, What is Sequential Art? | Tags: Comics, Leeds comic con, Leeds comic festival, Leeds Thought Bubble comic festival, Sequential Art, Signings, Small Press, UK Conventions, Webcomics
Hey gang!
It’s just over two months until the start of this year’s festival and we’re well on the way to bringing you the best Thought Bubble yet!
This week we received the lovely news that we will once again be getting funding for this November’s events from the Arts Council. A proper post with the details of this will be forthcoming, but in the meantime it will suffice to say that we’re over the moon! (Literally – we blew the money on a multi-stage launch vehicle and are currently in orbit over the sea of tranquility.)
To keep you full of comic-related cheer in the run up to Thought Bubble 2010 here are some details of related events that are taking place soon!
First and foremost is the, er, first Leeds Alternative Comics Fair, which will be held at A Nation of Shopkeepers in Leeds on Saturday 18th Sept 2010, from 12-6pm.
It will be free to enter, and the bar itself is open until 3am, serving good food and a large selection of drinks. A number of excellent exhibitors will be showing off their wares, and a communal table – featuring comics from many more creators – will be present for perusal.
The Thought Bubble team will be about, in a rare example of our attending a comics event for purely social reasons. It should be a most enjoyable afternoon!
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Next up is Posy Simmonds in Conversation with Paul Gravett at the National Media Museum in Bradford on Tuesday 28th September, 7.35pm.
Posy Simmonds, writer of the Guardian’s original Tamara Drewe comic strip will be interviewed by comics expert Paul Gravett on her extensive career as a cartoonist, writer and illustrator, and the ever-popular Drewe character.
(Tickets £5, £4 concessions)
This event will be followed by a screening of Tamara Drewe at 8.40pm.
(Tickets £6.50, £4.50 concessions.)
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Finally, we want to see your comic art for the New NORTHERN SEQUENTIAL ART COMPETITION hosted by Travelling Man and Thought Bubble. The deadline is approaching fast so don’t miss out!
All entries will be showcased in a digital exhibition at venues in Leeds and the surrounding area for a period of two weeks prior to Thought Bubble taking place.
The panel of judges (including 2000 AD Editor Matt Smith, Imagine FX Editor Claire Howlett and Marvel Spider-Man Editor Steve Wacker) will select two runners up and a winning entry from each age group, the overall winner in each category will receive £200 of graphic novels and a private tutorial with a leading writer or artist based in the North of England.
To view the application form click here.
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That’s it for now, fresh minterviews on the horizon though! Check back soon…
- Clark
Filed under: About Thought Bubble, Film and Sequential Art, News, Thought Bubble 2010 | Tags: Comics, Emma Vieceli, Leeds comic workshops, Leeds Thought Bubble comic festival, LYPFF, masterclass, Sequential Art, Signings, UK Conventions
Who’s ready for a paradigm shift?! Well you’d better be, because boy howdy do we have one for you here at Thought Bubble towers.
First up you’ll probably notice that the blog (this thing you’re looking at), the website, the facebook, and the twitter have all had a stylistic overhaul courtesy of the amazing Eleanor Davis who has designed this year’s logo. The website also contains updated information about Thought Bubble 2010 and our expanded contact options.
Next, we have some up-coming events to announce to y’all…
First up is Emma Vieceli’s workshop which takes place as part of the Leeds Young People’s Film Festival on Tuesday 6th April at Travelling Man Leeds (details here). This year’s LYPFF looks set to be their best yet and has loads of amazing events throughout for youngsters of all ages. Well worth checking out!
Next is the Doctor Who roleplaying game day, also taking place as part of the LYPFF at Travelling Man Leeds on Wednesday April 7th (details here). Hosted by Steve Lyons and with all the information you need to create a suitably heroic chrononaut it’ll be heaps of fun. Allons y!
Following closely on the heels of those superb events is Travelling Man Leeds’ Walking Dead Zombie Day on Saturday April 17th, featuring a signing by illustrator extraordinaire Charlie Adlard! Not to be missed, more info on the poster below…
Finally, for the time being, we’ve started making the videos of Thought Bubble ’09′s workshops available via our YouTube channel, so far we have Andy Diggle and Jock’s talk on comic creation, as well as the brilliant Frank Quitely masterclass wherein he converses with fellow illustrator – the similarly amazingly talented – Peter Doherty about his art! Just part of the service we provide to you, the fans, ’cause we loves ya.
That’s it for the time being, enjoy those sequential art based wonders and friends of Thought Bubble will be back sooner than you can say “series profiling various UK-based small press creators”. Try it, I dare you.
By the power of Greyskull!
- Clark
Filed under: About Thought Bubble, Film and Sequential Art, Guests 2009, News, Programme 2009, Thought Bubble 2009, What is Sequential Art?, Workshops 2009 | Tags: Comics, Leeds comic con, Leeds comic festival, Leeds comic workshops, Leeds International Film Festival, Leeds Thought Bubble comic festival, masterclass, Sequential Art, Signings, Small Press, UK Conventions, Webcomics
Greetings Bubblers! It is now less than six weeks until this year’s Thought Bubble Festival and we are very pleased to be able to share with you our full programme line-up for those four heady days in November.
We think you’ll be blown away by the awesome guests and exhibitors we’re honoured to have in attendance, as well as our extensive range of masterclasses and workshops…
Full details as to this year’s programme can be found on the Festival Information 2009 page (on the list to the left), while Thought Bubble’s guest list also looks amazing (although there may be some surprise announcements coming soon), and we have some brilliant small press exhibitors in attendance. Make sure to look out for our brochures, which will be hitting the streets very soon.
We’re all really psyched about this year’s festival, and we hope you feel the same way and will be able to join in the fun in November.
Until then, remember – with great power, comes great responsibility!
- Clark
Filed under: About Thought Bubble, Film and Sequential Art, News, Programme 2009, What is Sequential Art? | Tags: Comics, Leeds comic con, Leeds comic festival, Leeds Thought Bubble comic festival, Sequential Art, Signings, UK Conventions
Hiya TB fans (that’s thought bubble, not tuberculosis – mycobacteria fans will have to look elsewhere), I have some more information here for the Anime League’s London event which is taking place in November – a mere week before Thought Bubble’s main festival. I don’t believe you would begrudge me a ‘Whoop’ at this point. Whoop! Details are as follows…
Taking place on November 14th in The Slug and Lettuce, America Square, London, and running at between 200 and 400 people, ALCL is London’s fastest-growing anime convention. It’s just £5 for all day from midday to midnight, 18 or older only.
They have dealers, video gaming, anime screening, an Artist Alley, DDRing, roleplaying, card-gaming, along with many events such as a masquerade, pub-quiz, parties, special guests (Roppongi Street, and MasakoX of DBZ/Naruto Abridged are announced, with more to come) and much, much more!
You can read all about ALCL on the official website, forums, and facebook.
ALCL will take place every 3-4 months (three times a year). Their intention is to enable London to have a proper anime club again, following the sad demise of LAC last year.
The league is always on the look-out for new volunteers, and, lets be honest,who doesn’t want to be able to say they’re a member of a league – sign up to help a brother/sister out!
In Thought Bubble blog news – the, soon to be, legendary series of interviews with the Friends of Thought Bubble will be starting this weekend. It’ll be like Frost/Nixon, in space, on bonfire night. Guaranteed.
Oh, and there’s only 55 Days until this year’s TB festival – about the life-cycle of your average silkworm of the species Bombyx mori. Fact.
- Clark
Filed under: About Thought Bubble, Film and Sequential Art, Guests 2009, News, What is Sequential Art? | Tags: Animation, Anime, Comics, Dan Abnett, Leeds comic con, Leeds comic festival, Leeds comic workshops, Leeds Thought Bubble comic festival, Sequential Art, Short Films, Signings, Sonia Leong, Talks, YouTube
Hotter on the heels of our last post than the Flash in pursuit of Captain Cold, here’s a whole other bunch of sequential art themed goodness for you to stare in wonderment at…
First up is news of a signing at Tokyo 15, Manchester’s finest purveyors of manga and anime-themed wares. Sonia Leong, manga artist extraordinaire – who will also be appearing at this year’s Thought Bubble festival – is going to be in-store signing books and giving talks, so if you’re able to get to the rainy city in the North on September 12th then it promises to be well worth your while! For more information visit their site, or glance downwards slightly for a cheeky peek at the flyer…
As if that signing wasn’t enough, word on the street has filtered up to the lofty spires of TB towers of a signing at Travelling Man comic shop, Leeds by a legend of British comics – Dan Abnett. Having sold over 1.1 million Warhammer novels worldwide, his last novel Horus Heresy: Legion, was the 8th bestselling science fiction and fantasy title overall in the UK for 2008. As well as having written 20 novels for Warhammer, and books and audio plays for Doctor Who and Torchwood, Dan has penned numerous comic series for legendary imrpints DC and 2000 AD. To celebrate the November release of his latest work, Blood Pact, Travelling Man will be holding a signing on October 19th at 3pm, followed by a Q&A session, at their Leeds branch. Mere adjectives will not suffice, so needless to say we think this is going to be ‘the bomb’.
Finally, and more directly Thought Bubbly, never let it be said that we aren’t at the forefront of modern advances in technology, for we now have a YouTube channel! This is going to be the zenith of video repositories, where you’ll be able to find comic trailers, animations, films made by attendees of the Thought Bubble festival, and video blogs made by us! There is now no communication format known to man, carrier pigeons aside, which we don’t have our agents working tirelessly to keep updated with the newest of news, all for your delight and delectation. The upshot of this is that, hopefully, you’ll never be more than 1.8 feet from some way of getting the latest updates about this year’s festival, short of us coming round to your house and shouting through your letterbox (although we are considering this for our marketing campaign next year).
That’s it for now, we’ll be back soon, and, if the trend the last few posts have set continues, it will be with even more exciting sequential art news, all the better to build the anticipation for November’s Thought Bubble to fever pitch. Oh yeah!
- Clark
