more time to organise everything mostly just means making more time to organise all the new extra stuff! The full programme is up online now to view at http://thoughtbubblefestival.com/full-programme/ so you can see just how much comicky goodness we’re bringing to Leeds!
Geek Syndicate
GS: Could you tell us more about the up coming anthology that will be on sale at the event? TB: Sure! This is our second Thought Bubble anthology, following on from last year’s really well received inaugural issue, and we’ve pulled out all the stops, showcasing some amazing comics talent, and all in a good cause. We’ve worked closely with Image Comics, who’ll be publishing the anthology on 7th November, in order to build on last year’s success, and this year’s anthology is even bigger and better! The anthology has a pretty amazing line-up of creators contributing to it, to all of whom we’re eternally grateful for their time and efforts, and the stand-alone stories they’ve created are just amazing. The anthology contains new and original works by past and present and future Thought Bubble guests, as well as the winning entries of 2011’s Northern Sequential Art Competition, and, having seen the proof copies, is really well served by the over-sized ‘Wednesday Comics’ format we chose for it. One of our team, the amazing Martha, created a trailer for the anthology, which you can see at http://thoughtbubblefestival.com/anthology100
2012-issue-2/ and, as you say, the anthology will be on-sale at this year’s Thought Bubble convention (17th and 18th November), and will be available in comic shops world-wide from 7th November. We’re really proud of how it turned out, and all profits will be donated to the Barnardo’s Charity, a cause which is very important to us here at the festival, so we hope people will like what we’ve created, and pick up a copy when it comes out! GS: Thought Bubble has a really different feel to it in comparison to other cons. You get that festival vibe. What made you think of going with a festival instead of a typical con? TB: Thanks! We’ve tried hard to build Thought Bubble to have that festival feeling to it, so it’s really heartening that that comes across! I think it was a natural progression really: Lisa founded Thought Bubble in 2007 and it was a one-day event that took place in the Town Hall basement, with about 300 people in attendance, then it moved to the Clarence Dock halls, became a weekend event, took over more venues, and incorporated more and more events, until we’re here in 2012 with an 8-day, multi-venue, multi-city festival, which thousands of people attend. Which is really cool, but kind of scary to think about for too long, otherwise the magic’ll disappear. This year we’re putting on two exhibitions, screening a whole bunch of films with Leeds International Film Festival, running various competitions, giving away loads of free com-
ics, bringing free workshops to schools around Yorkshire, putting on more live events than ever, and throwing our biggest convention yet! Mostly, we’ve never overthought where Thought Bubble should go, it’s a pretty organic evolutionary process, so, as long as the demand remains there, and we keep getting the wonderful crowds of enthusiastic comic fans making it all so much fun, we’ll keep putting on bigger and better events! GS: To many indie creators, Thought Bubble is the event of the year. How does it feel to have created something that means so much to so many people? TB: Ah! Thank you again we’re really pleased people view it in that light, it makes it all so worthwhile! Personally, I really enjoy that end-of-term vibe that Thought Bubble has to it; for a lot of people we’re the last show of the year, and everyone gives it their all, and it makes the atmosphere electric, which I think is why we work so hard to reflect that we want everyone to have the best time possible at Thought Bubble, so that they’ll be energised to get out of the postfestive season winter doldrums and make more comics! Everyone involved in Thought Bubble’s organisation really does love comics, so we’re just pleased to be able to give something back to the medium that’s already given us so much. GS: As our Autumn of Indie feature shows the UK indie scene seems to be prospering at the moment with some amazing talent.