Filed under: Film and Sequential Art, Previous Thought Bubble Festivals, Programme 2012, Thought Bubble 2012, What is Sequential Art? | Tags: Better Things, Documentaries, Films About comics, Indiegogo, Jeffrey Catherine Jones
Hey gang!
Plans are continuing apace for this year’s Thought Bubble, and we’ll have a full update coming soon with regards to all manner of shenanigans we’ve got in the pipeline. For now, we’ve got a quick little post about a fundraising appeal (with some excellent rewards up for grabs) for a lovely documentary that we had the immense pleasure of screening during last year’s Thought Bubble festival.
Here’s what our fearless leader, Thought Bubble festival director, Lisa Wood had to say about the film:
Better Things is an extremely insightful look into both the life and work of Jeffrey Catherine Jones – one of the foremost fantasy artists of her generation, and sure to be a source of immense inspiration for generations to come.
Jones was one of the few artists to pave the way for a more painted abstract feel to comic books in the 70’s and 80’s, and as such her work deserves much wider recognition, and this film serves as a testament to that need. Her artwork would have been just at home in a classical art gallery as a comic book, with Frazetta describing her as “the world’s greatest living painter”, and seeing the pieces, and their sometimes turbulent inception, brought to life on screen is a delight.
The documentary also offers an invaluable look in to the lives and working environment of other similar artists and contemporaries of Jones who were working around that time such as Vaughn Bode, and the group known as ‘The Studio’, which included greats such as Michael Kaluta, Bernie Wrigtson, and Barry Winsor-Smith, all of whom would in some way drive and inspire the advances in comic art for years to come.
One of the best documentaries I have seen, on a much loved artist who will be sorely missed.
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The Indiegogo fundraising campaign for the film’s wider release is currently running, and full details can be found here. There’s some amazingly candid interviews with creators that were working in comics at the time, and have been influenced by her work since, and some great rewards (including an excellent art book with an amazing line-up of contributors), so well worth checking out.
We’d like to be able to show more films like this at Thought Bubble, and part of that is making sure the ones that do get made find their audience.
We’ll be back soon with the first round of updates for this year’s festival. EXCITE!
Filed under: Film and Sequential Art, Programme 2012, Thought Bubble 2012, What is Sequential Art? | Tags: 1000 Words, Comics, film, music, Sequential Art, Talks, television, video games, writing
Over the last couple of weeks, the extremely lovely Matt Sheret has been popping up videos from the ‘1000 Words’ strand of talks that he curated (along with web-presence-phobic Thought Bubbler Mikey B) at this year’s Thought Bubble convention. After the jump there’s a summary of the event, and links to all the talks collected in one handy block, but first – a few thank you’s…
If any of you went to last year’s We Are Words + Pictures strand of talks on independent comic creation at Thought Bubble’s convention, then that was organised by Matt too, and this was coming off the back of his working as Thought Bubble 2011’s Writer in Residence, so to say that we owe Matt a debt of gratitude is a bit of an understatement. We’d highly recommend checking out his Paper Science anthology, and, if we can convince him and Mikey to put on 2000 Words: A Space Odyssey next year, then we’re sure we’ll be thanking him again in December 2013. Cheers Matt, you’re a Good Egg.
Another big thank you has to go to Anne Hollowday, whose films on Thought Bubble and the British Comic Awards had already put us eternally into the red on the karmic balance sheet, but her filming of the 1000 Words talks has cemented the Wookiee life-debt we now owe. Thanks Anne, may your lenses ever be clear.
Massive thank you’s as well to all the speakers, including Kate Brown, Andy Belanger, Kristyna Baczynski and Laura Snapes for delivering some excellent talks on the day, all those whose presentations are presented below, and our lovely technical crew. And a big final thank you to all those who came along and made up the audience, we hope you’ll be back for more next year!
That’s enough preamble, on with the shows!
***
1000 Words was a series of short talks about comics & culture by those who make them curated by Matt Sheret and Mike Bennet, full information on the talks can be found by clicking here.
1000 Words 2012 video presentations:
Emma Vieceli – 50 Shades of Niche
a talk about the distinction between mainstream and niche, and about one very popular novel…
Anne Hollowday – Don’t Over Manage the Scene
a few lessons from the world of documentary filmmaking and tells us how it links to comics writing with the Marvel Method…
Si Spurrier – Day of the Dingle
some delicious brainfarts on the topic of Collaborating With Creative Humans, as filtered through a true story from Spurrier’s brief and traumatic career in TV.
Antony Johnston – And His Massive Ego
setting us straight about the terrific and powerful ego of artists and writers everywhere… or does he?
Hannah Donovan – Digital Craft
a talk about music, personal expression, and the pixels we pin to our bedroom walls.
Kieron Gillen – Decimation [2012’s Keynote Talk]
As a writer, Kieron’s been dancing with comics for a decade now. He’s trying to decide if he’s learned anything. If he has, he’ll tell you about it. If not, this video will be extremely quiet…
Filed under: Thought Bubble 2012 | Tags: 1000 Words, advice, Comics, Kieron Gillen, quotes, Talks, writing
Over the last couple of weeks we’ve been posting footage from many of the speakers at 1000 Words, the day of talks that ran at this year’s festival.
Our final video comes from Kieron Gillen. As a writer, Kieron’s been dancing with comics for a decade now. He’s trying to decide if he’s learned anything. If he has, he’ll tell you about it. If not, this video will be extremely quiet…
DECIMATION by Kieron Gillen from Matthew Sheret on Vimeo.
That wraps it up for our videos from 1000 Words. Huge thanks to everyone who spoke, and to Kate Brown, Andy Belanger, Kristyna Baczynski and Laura Snapes for delivering some great talks on the day.
Filed under: Thought Bubble 2012 | Tags: 1000 Words, design, digital craft, music
Over the last couple of weeks we’ve been posting footage from many of the speakers at 1000 Words, the day of talks that ran at this year’s festival.
Hannah Donovan is up next, talking about music, personal expression, and the pixels we pin to our bedroom walls.
Digital Craft by Hannah Donovan from Matthew Sheret on Vimeo.
Filed under: Thought Bubble 2012 | Tags: 1000 Words, Antony Johnston, Comics, ego, Talks, writing
Over the next few days we’ll be posting footage from many of the speakers at 1000 Words, the day of talks that ran at this year’s festival.
Today it’s the turn of Antony Johnston, who sets us straight about the terrific and powerful ego of artists and writers everywhere… or does he?
Antony Johnston’s Massive Ego from Matthew Sheret on Vimeo.
Filed under: Thought Bubble 2012 | Tags: 1000 Words, Comics, film, si spurrier, Talks
Over the next couple of weeks we’ll be posting footage from many of the speakers at 1000 Words, the day of talks that ran at this year’s festival.
Today it’s the turn of Si Spurrier, bringing some delicious brainfarts on the topic of Collaborating With Creative Humans, as filtered through a true story from Spurrier’s brief and traumatic career in TV.
Day of the Dingle by Si Spurrier from Matthew Sheret on Vimeo.
Filed under: Thought Bubble 2012 | Tags: 1000 Words, Anne Hollowday, Comics, film, marvel method
Over the next couple of weeks we’ll be posting footage from many of the speakers at 1000 Words, the day of talks that ran at this year’s festival.
Today it’s the turn of Anne Hollowday, who delivers a few lessons from the world of documentary filmmaking and tells us how it links to comics writing with the Marvel Method…
Don’t Over Manage the Scene by Anne Hollowday from Matthew Sheret on Vimeo.
Filed under: Programme 2012, Thought Bubble 2012 | Tags: 1000 Words, Comics, Emma Vieceli, Talks
Over the next couple of weeks we’ll be posting footage from many of the speakers at 1000 Words, the day of talks that ran at this year’s festival.
First up, it’s Emma Vieceli, taking about the distinction between mainstream and niche, and about one very popular novel…
50 Shades of Niche by Emma Vieceli from Matthew Sheret on Vimeo.
Filed under: About Thought Bubble, Art by Guests, Programme 2012, Thought Bubble 2012
Hi Everyone, Matt Dyson here again.
As promised I’m back again wearing the hat of “Thought Bubble Director of Silly Fun” fresh from our first two workshop sessions at Bradford Central Library.
Over the course of Tuesday we had sessions with four school groups planned and what fantastic fun we had.
The children and I set about making our very own comics based around a short fairy tale style story where they set out on an adventure to save their pet who had gotten lost in the deep dark scary woods!
It wasn’t just the children that got involved either, we had teachers drawing along and naturally we made them stand up at the end so we could see just how much better the kids had done!
All in all it was a fantastic day. We have another session tomorrow at Shipley Library so if you’re booked in there I’ll see you soon, otherwise I hope to see you all in Leeds at the weekend!
Bye for now,
Matt
Filed under: About Thought Bubble, Art by Guests, Programme 2012, Thought Bubble 2012
Hey there everyone!
Matt Dyson here, I hope you’re all enjoying the festivities of the week so far and are looking forward to the convention at the weekend.
I don’t know about you but I’ve been getting so very excited about Thought Bubble. I got so excited in fact that tonight I managed to sneak my way into Thought Bubble Towers! I was walking the dusty halls when I noticed a beam of light coming down from the ceiling at the end of a long hall. I went to investigate and there, bathed in light on a risen platform, was the most beautiful of all hats! Written on it’s brim were the words “Director of Silly Fun”.
Naturally I put the hat on straight away.
My first act in my new role will to be to spread a little of that “Silly fun” around using the magic of AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION! Tomorrow morning we will be starting a series of three comics workshops at Bradford Central Library as part of the festival.
Children from local schools will get a chance to try their hand at making comics based on a short fairy tale where they are the hero! As part of my official hat based duties I shall come back and report on their progress later in the week with photos and some of their wonderful drawings of monsters!
So, if you’re one of the lucky locals who is coming along with your school then I’ll see you soon!
Matt
Director of Silly Fun (at least until they steal my hat back)
Thought Bubble 2018 runs 17th - 23rd September! 