B|t|B : Thought Bubble 2015 – Comic Convention

Hello again my fellow bookworms and page turners. wow, now that was a whirlwind of a weekend. Talk about a Rush, Panels, Drinking, food and most of all more comics to shake a stick at,  I don’t even think Nottingham Forest has enough sticks! This years Thought bubble festival has left me well and truly awestruck amazing artwork, panels and questions, not to mention some of the awesome people I met as well, that I wasn’t sure how to really begin!.

Thought Bubble formed in 2007 as a non-profit-making organisation dedicated to promoting comics, graphic novels, and animation as an important national and international cultural art-form. Now in its ninth year, the festival has been extended over a full week with a jam-packed programme of events, of which I plan to cover a few as well as some reviews of the comics I have bought for myself with the little money I had going spare this month!. These events are held at a variety of venues across the city throughout the entire week, however as I could only manage to get there over the weekend (damn that pesky thing called work!) The events and Panels I attended were held around the Brewery Wharf / Leeds Armouries area of Leeds . Their aim, according to the website blurb  is to cater to both long-time comic book fans and those who have never picked up a graphic novel before! and i think its safe to say they have achieved their aim from well established comics such as marvels Spiderman to DC’s Batman not to mention the indie comic vendors, illustrators, storytellers & Cosplayers their is certainly something for everybody, no matter what the fandom.

I think you can see where I am going with this!, i have always felt that comic books and manga are a very understated version of literature, so as-well as the fantasy literature (don’t worry i’m not abandoning the fantasy stuff after all it is my first love, I think i’m going to branch out into comic’s not don’t scoff, I think they may surprise you I wont be looking at Marvel or DC’s main stream comics I will be looking at the unsung hero’s of the comic book world! I refer to of course the smaller publishing firms and not to mention Indie Writers and Illustrators! (but I might cover image.. because come on.. its image!)

over the next week i plan on covering Four panels, and over the next 2 -3 weeks I plan on reviewing some of the awesome comics I have picked up over the weekend which you can see on the picture below!:

The Comics I am planning to review (over the next few weeks) from the above for the time being are:

1. Deadendia – Hamish Steele (Vol 1 -4) [plus a cover of the animation if possible]

2. The Rivers of London – Ben Aaronovitch (Vol 1 -4)

3. Free x Lancer – Martin Kirby (Vol 1 & 2)

4. The Spire – Simon Spurrier (Issue 1)

5. Nimona – Noelle Stevenson

I also hope to have a review “uprooted” & “of mice and men” wrapped up very shortly as well! but only time will tell.

The three panels I plan to cover within the festival are the following :

Panel 1 : Gosh! Comics Presents : The best thing i have read all year – with Hannah Chapman | Margueritte Bennet | Al E-wing  | Emi Lenox | hoted by Tom Oldham

Panel 2 : Live Sketching Event – with Doug Braithwaite | Wes Craig | Isabel Greenberg| Amy Reeder Hosted by Peter Doherty

Panel 3 : Writers Round Table- with  Margueritte Bennet | Ray Fawkes | Emi Lenox | Charles Soul | Kurtis Wiebe

Panel 4:  Live Sketching Event- with Kate Beaton | Farel Dalrymple | Tula Lotay | Ben Templesmith

So I hope you are all looking forward to some visual spectacles from the panels and some good recommendation into something you might not of otherwise have read!

Until next time, read more books!