The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

Another day, another heads up for a great comic event. This time it’s November 18th-21st and we’re in Leeds again, a couple of months after the Leeds Alt Comics Fair we have the annual Thought Bubble/Leeds Sequential Art Festival.

I missed last years Thought Bubble completely due to illness but was there for Thought Bubble 2008 for what was one of the best shows I’d ever been to.

It’s a very nice mix of people, both exhibiting and attending and the whole thing seemed very laid back (whilst being  - so it seemed – seamlessly organised). What struck me about it when I attended was how unlike most other shows I’ve been to it seemed, full of young people, lots of cosplay going on, everyone relaxed and having a good time, genuinely interested in everything on show. It just felt good and I had an enormous amount of fun discovering some very talented people that day. I’m already looking forward to visiting again.

The Leeds Sequential Art Festival is spread over 4 days with a special one day convention on Saturday 20th November. There’s a load of information about the festival over at the Thought Bubble site, far more than I can put in here, but selected highlights….

As with every convention, Thought Bubble has a host of pro guests with this years big name US guest has to be John Romita Jr, artist on many, many Marvel projects over the years, but right now he’s the artist on Kick Ass 2. Other guests include Andy Diggle, Tony Harris, Paul Cornell, Duncan Fegredo, INJ Culbard, Robin Furth, Kieron Gillen, Emma Vieceli, Al Davison and more.

(Hugh Raine’s Small Press at Thought Bubble poster – 27th August – updated with those he missed first time round! Click here for large version)

But Thought Bubble isn’t necessarily about big name guests and there are over a hundred different exhibitors listed at the site. A few are stores or dealers (FPI will have a table there, pop by for goodies) but the majority of that hundred are either self publishers or small comic companies with some very familiar faces and names to regular readers of the FPI blog: Blank Slate, Banal Pig, Neill Cameron, Sean Azzopardi, Marc Ellerby, Garen Ewing, Hugh Raine, Phillipa Rice, Francesca Cassavetti, Lizz Lunney, Solipsistic Pop, Terry Wiley, Sarah McIntyre, Martin Eden and more will all be there with tables, selling lots and lots and lots of wonderful things.

It’s practically a distillation of everything that is going on right now in a very exciting time for UK comics – especially for those of you willing to venture beyond the realms of the big companies.

There’s an aftershow party as well, to which the first 500 attendees to book their tickets will receive admittance. It takes place at the plush Alea Casino, just a stone’s throw away from the convention itself, which takes place in Savilles Hall, opposite the Royal Armouries. Hopefully, illness notwithstanding, I shall see you there for what will hopefully be a magnificent convention. More details at the numerous Thought Bubble web presences: website, blog, facebook, twitter.