B|t|B : #TBF2015 : Panel #1 Gosh! Comics Presents : The best thing I have read all year

Hello my fellow bookworms and Page Turners! It’s time to begin the comic extravaganza that was the Thought Bubble 2015! in today’s post kick off with ….

*Drum Roll*

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

Lets start off by equating you with our panellists:

Hannah Chapman is the Co-Founder of Comic Book Slumber Party which is  an international girl gang of comic creators.  they  organise events and workshops and publishing books and anthologies featuring exciting comic talent.

Margueritte Bennet  is a former student and protégé of the great Scott Snyder (creator of the comic series ” wytches”) . Margueritte is currently a writer and artist for DC comics and is most well known for her love of all things horror and her work on DC comics Bombshells.

Al Ewing is a British comics writer who has mainly worked in the small press and for 2000 AD, in truth he has done a bit of everything. He currently writes Mighty Avengers and Loki: Agent of Asgard for Marvel Comics[9] and co-writes the new Doctor Who title with Rob Williams.

Emi Lenox, who was dubbed “the cutest person in comics” by Margueritte Bennet  during this panel. is a comic artist and illustrator. she made a name for herself with her first diary style comic, EmiTown, which has been collected by Image into 2 trade paperbacks. She has done work for Image Comics, DC Comics, DC Vertigo, Nickelodeon, and Oni Press.

Finally we get to our last panel member and host Tom Oldham I believe is the front runner of Gosh! Comics store in London and one of the founder of Breakdown Press which is a comics publisher based in London, UK, dedicated to publishing the very best in comics art, whether the cutting edge work of new cartoonists or undiscovered classics of the past.

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During this Panel they discussed what they had read and what was the highlight of their year comic book wise, as well as telling both tall and tiny tales about their lives careers and what they have encountered at the convention so far.

The first comic that was discussed was  the Multiversity – “Pax Americana” as created by the allstar -a class team of writer Grant Morrison & artist Frank Quitely. The comic features well established DC characters such as The Question, Blue Beetle, Captain Atom, Nightshade and Peacemaker!  the story follows a timeline that has just witnessed the assassination of the U.S. president, which leads to political intrigue never really touched upon in comics thus far. we were told that it asks all the right questions and nothing can really be said about it other than wow.. without giving away the plot!

 

Moving away from DC actually about as far away as you can get the panel discussed Jillian Tammaki’s recently  published comic web series “Super Human Magic Academy” which was sold to me by the artwork when I had a peak later on but unfortunately my money level was not high enough at the time. The pages themselves are all their individual stories however it’s made to binge read, as the more you read the more you realize that the pages relate to one another, and characters and themes become more poignant and at times it can get very emotional!

Emi Lenox then took centre stage, and announced her favourite read of the year was a very hard to find comic called “Last man – The Stranger” by three Frenchmen called Balak, Michaël Sanlaville, and Bastien Vivès. This comic has adopted a kind of Manga’esc style to it and Emi described it as “Dragon ball, but without all the anger” – It starts out about a young boy wanting to join in on a fighting style tournament in his home town but he can’t as he needs a team mate in order to compete “enter tall dark mysterious man” and the boy gets his wish, however but more recently its moved away from the fighting and has posed some very intriguing insights into the comic world. Which upon the discovery that there was another book, meaning she could find out the answer to this apparent “hanging mystery” she actually squee’d and I don’t know about you, but if an accomplished comic book writer / artist squee’s over something that she has no vested interest in.. it’s got to be good right!

Another curve ball was thrown again shortly after in the guise of a murder mystery come detective comic book, drawn in a very unique style, what’s the name of this comic? I hear you ask well its Ripples, by Wai Wai Pang : A young boy mysteriously disappears after he is peer pressured to find a treasure in a lake. Is he dead? Is he.. not dead? It’s up to our great detective to solve the case. What clues will she find along the way? Sounds mysterious, because it IS A MYSTERY!

 

The Panel then wrapped up in conclusion, and each one of the panel members noted some comics to check out while walking around the convention other then the great picks they had already mentioned prior, to this segment these included

Dr Geoffs – Fetishman: “it’s not porn it’s a comic” : a humorous adult-themed comic about a man in a restrictive latex suit who invariably fails to fight crime due to his being in a restrictive latex suit

 

Ray Fox’s – The People Inside

 

Farel Dalrymple’s – “wrenchies” – set in a very weird  & demented future, where whatever life remains on earth is oppressed by the evil shadowsmen. Only a gang of ruthless and powerful children called the Wrenchies can hope to stand against them

and last but not least!

Scott Snyders – Wytches! : This is an amazing creepy but fascinating series that follow the Rook family, in particular their daughter Sailor, who was being bullied by this well.. bitch called Annie, rumours and heartache cause the family to move to another town. This proves to be unsuccessful as some of the rumours have followed the family and Sailor still feels ostracised from her new school peers. The family is also largely unaware that the town is home to its own supernatural secrets, in particular a tradition where a person will pledge a person to strange beings in the nearby forest in order to gain a boon from them. Sailor soon finds herself confronted by Annie, who was taken by the beings inhabiting the forest but sent back to finish her attack. (seriously guys read this one its ace!)

That wraps up today’s post!, I hope you have all enjoyed it and will check out some of the amazing comics highlighted within this panel overview!

 

Until next time, read more books!..