Thought Bubble 2018 runs 17th – 23rd September!

Hey gang!

Ahead of table registration for this year’s convention opening on Monday 2^nd March, we wanted to put up some more information on the curation process, and how that will work for this year’s show.

2015’s convention will run on the weekend of 14^th and 15^th November, taking place at Leeds Dock, on Armouries Square. A map of Leeds with the venue locations on can be found by clicking here.

This year’s Thought Bubble convention will have three exhibition halls: New Dock Hall, Royal Armouries Hall, and the custom built TB Marquee (a hard-shell structure, with carpeting throughout and heating). For more information on all three halls, please click here.

We have always prided ourselves on being as inclusive a show as possible, and it’s very important to us that we stay that way. As much as we’d like to be able to include everyone who may wish to exhibit at the show, Thought Bubble has now reached the stage where the demand for exhibition space exceeds the venue space available to us, and the convention will be curated. This will involve a simple online registration form which will be going live on the website on Monday 2^nd March, and remain open for two weeks until 5pm on Monday 16^th March. In order that this process remains as fair as possible, after this time we won’t be able to accept any more exhibitor applications (including to the reserves list).

Following the close of the registration window, we’ll contact those who applied by Monday 30^th March to confirm whether we’ll be able to accommodate them this year, and also to take payment for the table.

Because of this curation, and the nature of the festival as a forum to promote comics and those who make them, it means that where possible we need to give priority to comic book publishers and retailers, and comic book artists and writers (either independent or publisher-affiliated). If you have exhibited with us in the past and do not fit into this category, please do still fill in the online form once it goes live, as we would love you to come if we do have room in one of the halls.

Every year, we also have a small number of people who book tables and are then unable to attend, and so we’ll form a reserves list of unsuccessful applicants who will be offered tables should they become available. As these offers are based on previously confirmed exhibitors cancelling, we are unable to advise on the date at which they will become available, but as soon as we receive a cancellation we’ll contact the next person/group on the reserves list with first refusal.

The decision on who we can accept to the convention will be made by the organisational team as a whole, to ensure the process remains as fair as possible, but due to the number of applications we receive, we’re unfortunately not able to give feedback to unsuccessful exhibitors, as we’re only a small team. However, to give an idea of what we’re looking for, we’ll need to see:

·         Examples of your work, ideally online versions (including webcomics)/e-shop listings of comics/graphic novels/prints/illustrations you’ll have for sale at the show;

·         If the above is unavailable, then a portfolio website such as DeviantArt or Tumblr will also be suitable;

·         If your work is mostly print, as opposed to online, then we’d also be able to view scanned versions of documents via dropbox links;

·         If you’re a solo creator with no online examples of your work, then please link to a bibliography/list of credits where possible;

·         If you’re a retailer with no formal online presence, then please give as full an idea as possible as to the range of merchandise/titles you’d be bringing to the convention;

·         If in doubt shout it out – tell us about what you think you can bring to Thought Bubble, even if it may seem obvious to you, if it’s not immediately apparent on the information you provide to us we may not know about it, and we don’t want anyone to miss out;

·         Finally, and perhaps most importantly, when filling out the application form, take your time – you’ve got two weeks from the form going live, and all applications received in that window are considered fully after the close of the registration period before a final decision is made, so make sure to fill it in correctly and with as much detail as possible to the answers.

Full details as to pricing and tabling terms and conditions will go live on the website along with the registration form on Monday 2^nd March. Please make sure to read these carefully, as they contain very important information about attending the convention, should your application be successful.

Once the registration form goes live, we’ll be asking for your help to spread the word, so that no one misses out on applying to attend. We’ll be shouting out on our twitter (@thoughtbubbleuk) and Facebook Page (search “Thought Bubble Festival”) once the registration form goes live, and we’ll also be emailing all previous year’s exhibitors and applicants to let them know.

We’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who supports Thought Bubble, and we look forward to seeing many of you this November!

Hey gang!

Welcome to the start of the countdown to this year’s Thought Bubble Festival! Our website has undergone its annual regeneration, and has come back new and improved, and now features the first batch of updates about this November’s events!

This year’s Thought Bubble will be taking place from 9th – 15th November at venues across Leeds (and beyond!) and will see legions of comics creators and fans travel from around the world to visit Yorkshire. For the first wave of information, please read on!

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Festival Image

This year’s official festival image can be seen below, and has been illustrated by the amazing Babs Tarr! We’ve been loving Babs’ art on Batgirl recently, and she’s brought an awesome L.A. beach party vibe to this year’s image! Look out for it gracing our anthology and festival programme later in the year.

Guests

Each year we have the immense pleasure of welcoming some amazing creative talent to Leeds for the festival, and this year we’re hoping to see even more new faces coming to the city and helping expand the minds of the comics loving public, and those who’ve never even picked up a funny-book before.

Our first wave of guests can be seen below, and we’ll be adding to this list on the website throughout the year, so be sure to check back regularly!

Initial guests confirmed to attend this year’s festivities are:

Kate Beaton;

Joan Cornellà;

Becky Cloonan;

Gemma Correll;

Farel Dalrymple;

Ray Fawkes;

Tess Fowler;

Nicholas Gurewitch;

Jeff Lemire;

Kate Leth;

Jerome Opeña;

Amy Reeder;

Rick Remender;

Emma Rios;

Scott Snyder;

Noelle Stevenson;

Kurtis Wiebe

Exhibitors

We’ll be opening up our exhibitor registration on Monday 2nd March this year, and this application period will be open for two weeks until Monday 16th March – we’ll have another blog post coming with more details on Friday, and the registration form will go live on our website for potential exhibitors to complete on the date above. We saw some amazing talent at the convention last year, and we’re hoping that this year’s show will be our most diverse yet!

Dyslexia Typeface

On the banner above, you can see the dyslexia typeface we’ll be using on our print material for this year’s festival – provided by opendyslexic.org – we’re hoping this will make Thought Bubble’s programme more accessible and easier to read. We’re very please to be able to support the OpenDyslexic project, and we would highly recommend checking out their work, as it’s for a very good cause.

Bubscasts

As part of last year’s Thought Bubble, we were awarded a very generous grant from Arts Council England in order to allow us to take video recordings of the panels and talks at 2014’s convention, and we hope that this will get you in the mood for this year’s festival!

We’ll be uploading lots of videos to our YouTube channel throughout the year, as 2015’s Thought Bubble approaches ever closer, so make sure to subscribe to our channel so you don’t miss any! You can find Thought Bubble’s YouTube channel by clicking here.

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That’s everything for now, but we’re going to be updating the website throughout the year as we confirm guests, exhibitors, and events! To find out as soon as this happens you can subscribe to this blog, follow us on Twitter (@thoughtbubbleuk), or like us on Facebook.

We’ve got a lot of fun stuff planned for 2015, and we hope to see you soon – we’d also like to say a big thank you to everyone who supports Thought Bubble and makes organising it such an enjoyable and rewarding experience.

256 days to go!