The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

Thought Bubble 2010 – the annual Leeds Sequential Art Festival that’s turned into one of the essential comic shows to go to.

I’d been there once before in 2008 and found it to be a spectacularly relaxed and enjoyable event, full of a wide range of creators and customers.

And 2010 was just the same, only moreso. It was every bit as diverse and interesting as before, with a much wider mix of people coming through the doors than most conventions – some hardened comic people, some cosplayers out having the time of their (young) lives, some complete newcomers to comics – it’s a very nice mix and a very relaxed time.

The one very noticeable thing this year was how crowded and cramped it was – far more tables and far less space than 2008. They’d moved the events and panels to the casino around the corner and completely filled the room with tables this year. And the aisles, at times, proved just too narrow to really cope. Wonderful that there were so many people there of course, but difficult to navigate and a good job I wasn’t claustrophobic:

(Two scenes from midday at Thought Bubble, small oasis’ of calm were around but most of the time it was heaving)

The upshot of this busy, crowded hall was that most of the artists I spoke to were very, very happy with the business they were doing all day, many talking of best convention takings for quite a while and how one day at Thought Bubble is the sales equivalent of two days at MCM Expo or BICS.

It was absolutely lovely for me as I had the wonderful Molly with me, really keen to get around and buy things, get lots of sketches and generally have fun. But there was one thing she wanted to do more than anything else, and that was to meet Sarah McIntyre, artist of the beloved Vern & Lettuce and someone she’d never met before.

We got in, we wandered down the first aisle, I stopped off to chat to a few people, including the rather camera shy Kenny from Blank Slate who was there with the very talented WJC and Rob Davis, and the equally talented Daryl Cunningham was in attendance on the con floorl – quite the Blank Slate experience!

Next stop was at Neill Cameron’s stand, where Molly was chuffed to find out how pleased Neill had been with her enjoyment of Mo Bot High:

(Neill Cameron and Molly, TB 2010)

And then it was time to be dragged down to the area where Sarah McIntyre had set up a little children’s section, christened “The Space Station”, along with Gary Northfield, Lauren O’Farrell and Gillian Rogerson – and Molly could have cheerfully stayed there most of the day – as could lots of other very happy children.

(Gary Northfield, who was there with his much enjoyed by Molly Derek The Sheep and his new newspaper format Bad Dog – that definitely can’t be enjoyed by Molly! Alongside Gary with a host of lovely badges was Lauren O’Farrell)

(And then they met ….. Molly finally gets to meet Sarah McIntyre, who was everything Molly thought she would be – the coolest, nicest, most welcoming comic artist you could ever hope to meet. Within a few moments Molly was right at home!)

I had to drag Molly away from “The Space Station” to go and visit the rest of the show. It had taken nearly 2 hours to get down 1 aisle. Another 5 to go, and just 3 hours to do them in… ooops.

After that the afternoon was spent in a rather enjoyable haze of table hopping, chatting to those artists I knew, introducing myself to those I didn’t. I managed to miss far too many people, and if you’re sitting there reading this wondering why I didn’t stop, it was most probably because you were just too darned busy first time round and I simply ran out of time at the end of the day to make many return visits!

I also completely failed to get to see, or photograph any of the big name guests, although the queues I saw for John Romita Jr and Tony Harris were quite amazingly long.

(Marc Ellerby‘s show was rather spoilt by the no-show of his Chloe Noonan #3 – down to a printer screw up. Although it seems his printer thinks it’s fine to print some lovely greytones as checkerboard effects – so much so that they’re threatening him for their screw up.)

(Emma Vieceli with her newly released collection of Dragon Heir, early issues of which I looked at here, and the reworked collection I shall be tackling soon)

(Lizz Lunney and Chris Doherty)

(My Cardboard Life artist Philippa Rice and her incredibly detailed MCL model)

(Terry Wiley, somewhere behind a copy of the wonderful VerityFair issue 2. Well, I say wonderful – I haven’t read it yet, but seeing how good issue 1 was, I’m figuring wonderful is a pretty safe bet.)

(Adam Cadwell, pictured here with Kayla Hillier, did Molly a wonderful sketch – a mini Molly, that she was absolutely fascinated by. So much so that she decided on the way home that she was going to tell her art teacher that she was going to do all her art in a cartoonist’s style from now on. It took a while to dissuade her)

Of many things Thought Bubble does magnificently well is it’s cosplay – the place is absolutely full of so many weird and wonderful costumes. The work that goes into them, and the fun they bring is quite lovely to see.

But there are two distinct types of cosplay; The first is the young people cosplaying, having a wonderful time, full of enthusiasm and just enjoying meeting up with other fellow cosplayers. The scene outside Thought Bubble when the groups are meeting up is quite incredible – costumes everywhere:

The second is the distinctly more organised and grown-up sort of cosplay, like these two ladies from Dr Sketchy’s, the alt.drawing movement ith branches around the globe. Silk Spectre and Catwoman were there for the after show party, handing out flyers as they walked the hall:

Thought Bubble’s also a place to meet up with people you haven’t seen for a while – didn’t take long to spot Rich Nunn, whom I worked with for years at Nostalgia & Comics. He did said he was there for the comics but his facebook photo says otherwise….

(These were the Zombie Rollergirls. I really have no idea what they were doing there.)

I didn’t make it to the annual after show party, as Molly and I had to  (of all things) get across to Leeds Ikea for a new desk for her (oh, my exciting life). But from all accounts it was the usual, booze and music filled affair, with comic types dancing the night away. Kieron Gillen’s excellent write up of Thought Bubble concentrates (just like he did last year) on the after show part:

“Just lots and lots of fun. I wish I danced to twice the songs I did in the evening, and I danced to twice as many as was physically a good idea. Even as I left, the Dancefloor was full, and showed no sign of coming to an end. There were people who seemed to be on there literally all night, and seeing them so committed fills my heart with joy. Thought Bubble was my favourite UK con before it even did the dancefloor, but that it’s the only con I’ve been to which does have this regular, genuinely packed party with a ctual dancing for vistors and guests alike is a sign of how special it can be. Geeks getting sweaty is a beautiful thing, and I shun anyone who thinks otherwise. I shun them, I say.”

So, yet again, Thought Bubble was an absolute blast – a wonderfully enjoyable convention.  One day practically flew by, but the word is that next year I’ll have more time to get round to everyone, as they’re planning a two day convention in addition to all of the events in the week leading up to it. I shall see you there.

A huge thanks to the wonderful artists, including those of you who very kindly made Molly feel like such a star. And most especially a huge, huge thanks to all of the organisers and volunteers without whom Thought Bubble wouldn’t be the absolute success it most definitely is. It’s a genuinely great convention. You really should go!

UPDATE: Clark, one of the TB organisers has put his review of the event up online at the Thought Bubble site.

Various Links etc coming up (and I know a lot of them are Facebook pages, which is hardly the best way to do this sort of thing. C’mon people, lets stop putting things like this behind a registration and login page – blog them, Tumbler them, LJ them, Flickr them, Twitpic them….. anything but Facebook please!)

Lynn Allingham – Facebook photos.
John Allison – Report.
Sean Azzopardi – short report, Flickr set of photos.
Bleeding Cool – Report.
Adam Cadwell – Report.
Cinebook – Facebook photos.
D’Israeli – Report.
Joe Decie – Report (mostly about egg nog).
Down The Tubes – Report.
Garen Ewing – Report.
Freddie H/Dirty Rotten Comics – Report.
Guardian Leeds – Report.
Kayla Marie Hillier – mini report.
Ellen Lindner – Report.
Selina Locke – Facebook photos.
Lizz Lunney – Facebook photos.
Simon M – Report.
Sarah McIntyre -Report, facebook photos.
David O’Connell – Report.
The Other Murdoch Papers – Report.
Paper Jam Collective – Flickr set.
Simon Perrins/Hope For The Future – Report.
Symon Pierce – great cosplay Flickr set.
Ernesto Priego – Detailed report on the academic events in the days leading up to the convention.
Hugh “Shug” Raine – Report.
Vicky Stonebridge – Report, Facebook photos.
Jack Tempest – Flickr set.
Steve Tillotson – Report.
Terry Wiley – Facebook photos.
Ian Williams – Facebook photos.
Yami Cosplay UK – Flickr set.

And there are bound to be reports we missed – send those links along! You can see more pics on the FPI Flickr here.