Iconic conventions like 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:MCM London Comic Con and EGX are excellent places to meet with friends and celebrate the things you love, but smaller artists, writers, and similar creators can often be swallowed by the much larger and much louder voices. Independent creatives, along with those who reside in the smaller artist alleys, are the most exciting, with groundbreakingly inclusive stories that push the boundaries and tap into ideas the mains𒁃tream seldom can.
Thought Bubble has been taking over Yorkshire since its inception in 2007, growing into a full-blown comic convention with panels, talks, activities, and a variety of guests from around the world. This year will see names like Jason Aaron, Hamish Steele, Molly Ostertag, and countless otꦯhers descend upon the North. I hope they brought some warm jumpers...
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Ahead of things kicking off we caugh🔯t up with festival director Chloe Green to talk all things Thought B꧒ubble.
TheGamer: How did Thought Bubble get started as a festival, and how does it feel to see it grow into something that spans an entire city over the course of a week in 2023?
Chloe Green: The convention started as ꦯa tiny one day event, attached to Leeds Film Festival; it was originally an idea by our founder Lisa, who was working at the comic shop Travelling Man in Leeds at the time in 2007. The owner of Travelling Man, Nabil, pushed Lisa to get her idea going; an event completely focused on comic artists and writers. And it just blew up from there! It’s really exciting to see how much we’ve grown, I joined in 2019 and even from there we’ve grown. We have events in Leeds, Harrogate, Sheffield, Bradford and more this year, it’s very cool, and very exciting.
TG: From my perspective, even with a bunch of international guests, Thought Bubble feels like a festival built with and for the local community. Is there truth to that?
CG: Oh absolutely, we bring guests in and have exhibitors from all over the world but Leeds, and Yorkshire as a whole, has an incredible comics' community that we love. We have close ties with local comic shops, and we work really closely with Leeds Arts University that has a couple of comic based courses, so we see fresh comic creators find their feet at the convention and get to see them absolutely thrive over the years, that is a very good feeling.
TG: What goes into selecting guests and speakers for an event like this, given comics are such a wide reaching and diverse medium when it comes to art and storytelling?
CG: Honestly, there is no re🦋al set process, mainly because of what you just said, it is such a growing and diverse area! But my life is very comics based. I do loads of research throughout the year; reading comics journals and n♎ews sites, keeping up with who are winning the awards and selling big, but also the people who are doing something new, interesting and impactful in small press/indie publishing.
The Thought Bubble team are all comic fans and the genres, styles and subjects we are drawn to all vary, which works really well when we’re aiming for a cross-section of comic guests. We work with Travelling Man (the comic shop) to get 🀅insights too. And, at the end of the convention we send out feedback forms to all ticket holders and exhibitors and ask them directly who they want to see too! That has given us so many great suggestions recently.
TG: What are the logistical and creative challenges that come with not only holding a festival like this each year, but iterating upon it? Is there a desire to maintain that local feel while still opening it up to as many people as possible?
CG: That's a really good question! I think we maintain the local friendly atmosphere purely through our exhibitors, I sometimes feel like a broken record saying this, but the exhibitors are what make Thought Bubble, their enthusiasm for comics and their support of Thought Bubble makes this incredible vibe, so yeah, whilst we slowly grow, we still are lucky to have this close-knit-community feel. Comic people are just super nice and inviting!
It's something we always check in on when making changes too, that feeling of if it’s still Thought Bubble enough.
TG: How would you compare a festival like Thought Bubble to larger Comic Con conventions across the United Kingdom that have begun to lean into different aspects of popular culture? To me, it feels more focused and homely.
CG: Comic Cons are a lot of fun, Thought Bubble is different in that we totally focus on comic creators and their fans, we don’t veer into the pop culture side of things. This means that every ticket holder is here to buy comics and to meet the creators; we’re all here for the exact same thing, and it's a celebration of that unifying hobby. At Thought Bubble can get up close to your favourite creators and chat to them on a united level, we’re all equal here, and we all want to buy comics.
TG: The guest list this year is especially extensive, attracting talent from all over the world. Does this level of prestige and interest still surprise you after working with Thought Bubble for so many years?
CG: Every year I talk about how blessed we are to have so many incredible people wanting to come to our convention. When we approach a new guest, a lot of the time they have heard of us and are excited to come experience it for themselves. We aren’t a big-money convention, we can’t offer what some other shows will be offering, so that kind of reputation is whaꦜt helps us get the best of the best over to Yorks💧hire.
TG: Could you tell me more about ‘Friends of Thought Bubble’ and the work you’ve been doing with local communities?
CG: Our Friends of Thought Bubble is like a booster ticket for the convention, where the extra funds go towards our outreach programme, this includes things like hosting closed workshops for schools, which are run by excellent cartoonists 🅺and creators. It helps us donate comics to libraries, run our quiet space Bubs Lounge at the convention and all the little things like that that make a big difference.
TG: Comics and their associated arts can be quite a difficult hobby to get into, would you consider Thought Bubble a suitable place for a newcomer to jump in and discover a new love for the medium?
CG: Totally🎃. It can be a daunting experience, especially if you’re not 100% what you want to read or what you’re interested in. I am probably a pretty good example, I had always loved illustration and comics, but never knew how far they went. I volunteered at the 2018 convention and never looked back… I guess it’s because Thought Bubble has every genre under the sun in one space, so if you come along with an open mind, chat to some exhibitors and ask for recommendations you’re going to find something you love!
TG: Queerness and comics also go hand in hand, and some of my favourite creators in the space are those who are unafraid to show the vulnerable parts of their identity through their work. Are these all areas that Thought Bubble is happy to embrace?
CG: I think all my favourite comic creators are part of the LGBTQ+ community. And yes, it's not just that we embrace them, it's that we are blessed by their presence at our show. Thought Bubble wouldn’t be what we are without the Queer community (both in terms of our exhibitors and guests, but also past and present Thought Bubble staff).
We do our absolute best to listen to and uplift them; every year at the convention we produce a Rainbow Road Map which highlights all those in the community, and we also have a Trans and Non-Binary Spo🐠tlight table (run by the excellent Tab Kimpton). We’ve also provided micro-bursaries which we hope to keep doing year-on-year. Embracing diversity in every sense leads to the most beautiful things.
As someone who has attended larger, more corporate conventions, it’s refreshing to see that smaller, grassroots festivals like this are still able to not only function, but attract thousands of visitors and renowned guests, all with the goal of creating an inclusive environment that's all about sharing a collective love of all things comic book. Thought Bubble plays an important role in making that possible.
I’ve never been up north before, so I’ll see you there when Thought Bubble kicks off early next month.