Thought Bubble 2013!

So last weekend I went to the Thought Bubble con in Leeds, and I had a fabulous time.  I went with an old uni friend and the Radio Bamf crew.  It was a really good weekend.

This is an image heavy post so I've put a break in.  Please do read more!

I brought loads of stuff up to get signed, and then had a look at the queues for Emma Rios, Jock, Kelly Sue DeConnick and Matt Fraction and thought no bloody chance.  I am just not in the mood to send my weekend queueing for a 2 minute chat with a creator.  I did however meet Richard Starkings and he signed my Superman/Batman: Supergirl trade, and I bought a book about lettering from him:

The message in the Supergirl book is Supes saying: You're really super, Supergirl!  He asked if I was a Churchill fan or a Supergirl fan, then clocked what I was wearing:

He said a few words about how Churchill was absolutely the sweetest guy to work with.

I also met Fiona Staples who signed a Superman/Batman comic and Lee Garbett who signed my favourite Batgirl issue:

I went to 3 panels - How they Work: Oscar Zarate, Frederik Peters and Ilya.  This one was mostly interesting for the people on the panel, not so much the topic.  Having said that, the panel did give me Christmas gift ideas and some of the art was very pretty.  We got to see in progress shots of each of the creators most recent books which focused various aspects of the comics making process.  How the panels are constructed to lead the readers eye in the correct path, how lettering and speech bubbles are important and affect the flow of the story, how to dry out watercolour paint - that sort of thing.  I'd really like to read Ilya's Room for Love now.

The second panel I went to was the Diversity in Comics one, on the Sunday.  There is a full transcript of the panel here.  From that post:

"Moderated by Louise Crosby of Leeds’ Laydeez Do Comics, the panel featured Mariah Heuhner (Angel, Emily and the Strangers, The Witching Hour), Howard Hardiman (Badger, The Peckham Invalids, The Lengths), Barry Nugent (Unseen Shadows), Gillian Hatcher (Team Girl Comic), Gary Erskine (2000 AD, War Story, Dead Boy Detectives), and Fiona Stephenson (Books of Magick, Judge Dredd, The Crow: City of Angels).

[Extra reading: You can read Mariah Heuhner's brilliant blog here; enjoy an interview with Howard Hardiman on The Lengths here; enter the world of Unseen Shadows here; celebrate Team Girl Comic here; catch up with the Roller Grrrls here; and love the gorgeous pin up art of Fiona Stephenson here.]"

The panel was really interesting and I came away from it desperately wanting to buy the Roller Grrls comic.  Number one is out next year so I'll keep an eye out for it.

The last panel I went to was titled Dreams of a Low Carbon Future.  The University of Leeds has worked with artists and schoolchildren to produce a comic about the need for a low carbon life and the effect of climate change.  It looks amazing.  The book itself was free, so I picked up 3 copies and am very much looking forward to reading it:

 Here are pictures of some of the inside art:

In terms of comic shopping, I bought rather a lot.

I got Lament of the Lost Lands Moor and The Empire of a Thousand Planets from Cinebook.  Lament is really rather good, I haven't got round to Planets yet.

I'll put a review of Lament on New readers and, Planets as well if I like it.  I think I will.  It looks like it influenced Star Wars somewhat:

I think my next Cinebook purchase will be Thorgal.  That looks good.

I got the next instalment of Clockwork Watch and Magic of Myths:

Clockwork Watch is a steampunk story and Magic of Myths is a mythic story with a modern day schoolteacher.  Here is a picture of the inside art, just to give you an idea of the amazing colours:

Both comics are darn enjoyable.  I highly recommend you try them out.

I went to @pmbuchan's stand and bought his two latest comics, Blackout: YOLO (friggin wonderful) and La Belle Dans San Merci (based on the Yeats poem).  I want to put a review of YOLO on New readers.

I got the final issue of Sugar Glider, which is bloody great because it's about a Geordie superhero, operating in Newcastle.  They call their mums Mam. I mean, it's just great seeing a well written, well constructed British superhero.  And there's a group of heroes all named after birds.  Rocking.

 Halycon and Tenderfoot is a kid's comic I haven't read yet, but am really looking forward to it:

Daniel Clifford writes both series and is invovled with ArtHeroes, an initiative encouraging kids to do comics.  By all accounts ArtHeroes did pretty well over the weekend, which is great.

I also picked up a free Science Comic, which looks fricking amazing.  And I got 20 Peter David Supergirl issues, only 9 more to go and I will have the full run!

Then I also bought Spandex, which fully deserves it's own New readers review because it is somehow excellent:

I bought one more comic which I won't detail here because it's a gift for a friend.

The last couple of things I bought were not comics at all, but pretty cool nonetheless.
AQUAMAN COASTER!!!

 It's awesome. I just wish I could remember the name of the company selling them.
I also bought this sketchbook primarily for the Wondy and Kara images:

You can find the artist at gazdowna.deviantart.com and drzwi-do-szafy.tumblr.com.
Finally, here's what I wore on the Sunday:

I'm posing with @jessienoochies.
Here's the view from my hotel room:

Here's the ceiling of the evening party venue:

And that is all I have the energy to write about!  If you got this far, thank you!

Looking forward to Thought Bubble this weekend!

This Saturday I am travelling to Leeds to go the Thought Bubble comic convention.  I went last year and had so much fun - given how disillusioned I was with mainstream comics I just fell in love with the indies I discovered.  This year I plan to revisit the creators I found last year for new books, and search out more.  Kelly Sue DeConnick will be there and I am desperate to get her to sign one of her Supergirl issues.  There's some really interesting panels going on, and the British Comic Awards.  I'm meeting up with the Radio Bamf crew and hopefully other twitterers.

Like last year I have devised some sort of costumes.  My plans to be a thin Wondy have come to naught, because, well, my belly.  But fuck it.  It is more a homage to Wondy rather than a pure costume anyway.  Here's a couple of photos of part of it:

In my head there wasn't any fat muffin top over the jeggings, but it seems like there is.  perhaps the godl belt I have will cover those bulges.  Perhaps not.  If the weather is as cold as I think it will be I'll prolly be wearing a hoody all weekend anyway.

I have also come up with a Supergirl ish outfit, but as usual, a very casual one.  I'm leaving myself with two options so that at least one of the days I don't look all fat.  I apologise in advance if anyone I'm with is embarrassed by me.  I hope I don't look too foolish.

Jenny Gyllblad and Corey Brotherson comics

Now onto my second to last (or perhaps third to last?) set of comics from Thought Bubble. (Just got Gunnerkrigg Court and  the Cinebook purchases to go now).

The magnificent Clockwork Watch and Magic Of Myths.

I had my eye on these because I'm a massive fan of Jennie Gyllblad's Skal and Jenspiration. Jennie, Corey and Yomi Ayeni have created Clockwork Watch, but it is much more than just a comic.  It's a transmedia project incorporating the comic, films (I think), exhibitions, interactive theatre, role play, letters, prose stories and more.

It was a pleasure to meet the three creators, particularly after talking to them (well mostly Jennie) for so long online.

From, Clockwork Watch I bought The Arrival and the 2013 preview book.  It's a steampunk story, so the Arrival is set in the Victorian era, and starts with an Indian family coming to England.  The father is the head of Science at Calcutta University and an expert inventor.  Most of the story is told through the eyes of his young son.   The father creates a clockwork servant, and orders his son to befriend him.  Woven throughout this is a look at how the son (Janav) and his parents feel at coming to England, how Janav tries to make sense of everything, and the distrust from the public of this new technology, threatening to displace jobs and ruin livelihoods.

Jennie paints the book, all in watercolours, and her work is a mixture of high art and cartooning.  I am a massive fan of watercolours in comics, hence why I like Dustin Nyguen's work for DC.  Jennie does wonderful work.  The colours are fabulous, the faces are expressive, the layout is perfect.  the plotting is good, the lettering complements the action, the dialogue is good.  I think everybody should read this book.

The previews book contains glimpses of the Arrival, glimpses of the next comic, a closer look into Janav's family, information about live events and collaborations, and a look into how Jennie creates the art - from simple lines to the full watercolour finish.

Go buy The Arrival here!

Then there's Magic of Myths.  I'd seen Corey mention it online but didn't know too much detail about it.  Nevertheless, I picked up issue 1 and the 2013 preview.

This book is about Eve, a schoolteacher who by night (I think always at night anyway) is transported to a mythic fantasy world where she has to undergo certain ordeals, before she's let back to her own world.  It's a fairly standard trope but this feels new and modern.  Eve is black, there are no long winded fantasy speeches, no thou and thees, no posturing, no saving the world bollocks.  Eve talks like a normal person.  The art reinforces the mythic elements, especially the glorious panelling done by Sergio Calvet.  Eve's ordeals force her to consider her life thus far and force her to face herself (OK so maybe it does have things in common with other similar plots).

But if feels fresh.  It feels new and it feels engaging. The 2013 preview gives us a sneak peek of next year's volume, a prose story, fan art and some of Calvet's sketchbook.

Magic of Myths is great, nearly as good as Princeless, which is my other modern-take-on-fairytales-and-mythic-stuff-favourite-current-comic.

Sugar Glider Stories and mini comics from Thought Bubble

More from my Thought Bubble haul.

Sugar Glider!  I gabbled on about this series over on New readers... earlier this year.  So I was stoked when I found out both creators were at Thought Bubble.  They were on different desks so after my initial foray to one desk and guessing the wrong person (sorry Gary), it was fine, and I came away with Sugar Glider 1 and 2 and another Sugar Glider Stories book.  Then I went to the other desk and badgered Daniel for a while.

These comics are brilliant.  They stand out for a number of reasons - not many indies do superheros (at least not that I've seen), it's set in Newcastle, it has a very Newcastle/UK voice, there's no Americans, and it's good.  Very very good. This is something I'd pass onto people wanting to read or know about comics.  And I'd pass it on over and above any DC or Marvel stuff.
Buy the Sugar Glider issues here.

I'll do a more comprehensive review over on New readers.

I also found myself in possession of  3 mini comics, and I don't know where from.  This is them:

If you know where they came from, or if they are yours, please tell me!  They are my first experiences with mini comics and I think I liked them.

Very very late Thought Bubble comic reviews

These will probably be incoherent as I'm still feeling off colour.

The last review I did is here, and I just talked about two comics then.  I shoudl really have also have talked about The Last Tape In Hell by Sarah Gordon as she is also involved with The Peckham House for Invalids.

The Last Tape In Hell is a short glossy comic with few words but the most amazing colours.  Satan is hard at work, doing adminstrative hellish type things.  His old cassette player is spewing out the sounds of hell (Doom....Dooom...Dooom) until it suddenly packs up, chewing the tape up.  Younger readers probably won't have a clue what I'm talking about here.  Satan then goes off on a search for The Last Tape In Hell.  I can't tell you anymore because I'll spoil it.

It's only 14 pages long but it's glorious.  Gordon's art is stunning.  She's far more inventive than the majority of 'professional' artists I see in Marvel's and DC's products.  Because there is next to no dialogue the art has to tell the story and she uses  suchclever little framing devices, and colours, and mood lines that it's just perfect.

I am so glad I picked this up.  I was at Howard Hardiman's table picking up copies of the Peckham Invalids for a friend, and he pointed this out to me.  So it was a spur of the moment thing.  Definitely a good choice!

You can read more about this comic on her site and also buy it here.  She's on twitter @ratherlemony.
Also, she's done this piece here.  Isn't it great?

Next up, Black Out. I got this because I've been chatting to @elblondino on twitter, and he was one of my target folk to seek out and say hello to at the con.  Him and his fellow stand mate was all dressed up steampunk stylee, like the Clockwork Watch folk at the end of the row of tables, and it all looked very cool.  So elbondino did mention Black Out was rather adult.. so obvs I picked it up immediately.

It is filthy!  In a good way.  It collects 11 stories and they are all, with the exception of the demonologies, incredibly crude.  If you like Tank Girl, or Viz magazine, you'll probably like this.

Wages of Sin is about a dirty fucker living in a hovel who gets haunted by Death and the Devil.  Zingo's Lament is a one pager about a clown who eats kids, or not, and gets sent to hell.  Fat Jackie is another one pager, with a fat dude carving himself into a pumpkin (with the sort of set up and presentation I find hilarious but others make not get). What's inside a girl? is a tale of unrequtied teenage love, with misundertsanidng, booze, acid and cannibalism.  Then there' sex dolls and love in the afterlife ending in a  suicide.

You get the idea.  It's definitely not for kids.  I think it's bloody great though.  You can see a sample page here. You can buy it here, in digital and print formats.

Comic reviews!!!

These have been a long time coming.  As I said before I spent 80 quid on comics at Thought Bubble, and because I've been busy moving house and doing coursework it took me a while to start reading them.  Now I've read all apart from the 3 Cinebook books, for which I want a full afternoon spare in which to revel in them, and Howard Hardiman's Badger books, for which I want an evening to sit and relax with them.

But I now feel ready to start getting down my thoughts on the other books I got.  The best books will also be reviewed on New readers.

I'll start with the weakest of the lot - Team Girl Comic.  This wasn't something I went looking to buy, but when I saw it I thought it might be the sorta thing I'd like.  You may remember I had a Wonder Woman costume on.  So there I was, stopped at the table, selling TEAM GIRL comics, and I noticed they had about 5 eager looking enthusiastic women all sort of crowded round ready to sell comics to the punters.  In fact, there's a picture of them here. But what with the enthusiasm, and me in the WW costume, and it being a girl comic, it all felt a bit cliched, which was mildly embarrassing, but also quite nice, I think.  Anyway it meant I didn't chat much to them, even though they were all perfectly nice people, and advised me to get issues 5 and 6 as they were the best.  So I did.

It's an anthology, with strips by women artists/writers in the Glasgow area.  The problem is the comics aren't that great.  The quality of work is variable and the only pieces that really stand out are Penny Sharp's Fox comics.  The rest I can easily leave.  However, I guess that's the beauty of anthology comics.  You take a punt and everything is a surprise.  Occasionally you discover a gem.  I have the first two issues of The Girly Comic, which was doing a similar thing, but I feel that The Girly Comic was much better.  Mind you, I haven't re-read them for years, so maybe they are bad too...

Next up I read Julia Scheele's I don't like my hair neat.  I first came across Julia in The Peckham House for Invalids.  I hadn't set out to find her at Thought Bubble, but I saw her name on the table and it rang a few bells and I asked her if she was involved with the Peckham House and she said yes, and so I bought the comic.  I think my boyfriend was buying something else from the same table at the time.  It helped that I saw this image of hers being given away as a postcard:

Julia's blog is here and she is on twitter at @juliascheele.  I don't like my hair neat is a collection of stories, the first (and main) one being about a woman fearing she might be pregnant. Then there's a page showing 'a short history of touches' which is actually quite moving, and a page showing what is in her handbag ( a wonder woman badge and a lot of tobacco and filters, amongst other things).  Julia's strength is in her colours.  They are incredibly vibrant and full of life.  Positive (written by Katie West) and Diem (words and concept by Chrissy Williams) are mesmerising.
On a more physical and less visual note, the paper this has been printed on is gorgeous!

That's enough for ThoughtBubble stuff for tonight.  I'll do more reviews of these indie comics in a few days, and now move onto a few DC issues which are languishing.

Thought Bubble 2012

I went to Thought Bubble this year and it was ace!

Sadly we could only go on the Saturday and we had the world's most horrendous train journey back (ending in a taxi from Peterborough to Norwich, where the taxi driver didn't know where Norwich is.  I kid you not) but the day itself was fantastic.

I went dressed as Wonder Woman:

Instead of buying a WW symbol top I got an eagle necklace and wore that instead:

In case you can't see clearly, the gemstones are blue.

I felt like a bit of a charlie at first (for charlie, read fool) but quickly got over that.  There were a few other Wonder Woman there (including a roller derby Wondy) and some appropriately tall and lithe Wondys.  I was definitely the fat one. But I enjoyed it and I reckon there's room for a few fat Wonder Women in the world :)

Most of the day was spent trawling the stalls but we did get to go to 1 panel - comic and society. It wasn't quite what I expected (a political analysis of comics), and was more of a history of American comics.  Still, it was interesting, and I was proud that I already knew most of the superhero stuff he talked about, and I even knew some stuff the lecturer didn't! (such a nerd).

I spent 80 quid on comics (the boyfriend spent 60 quid) and I met lots of people I'd previously only chatted to on twitter, which was great.  I'll post reviews of each comic I bought and talk aboutt he creators and who I met as I do the reviews.  I'll also feature the best comics on New readers...

The stallholders were on the whole from the indie scene.  There were a few professionals, but I only got to chat briefly to Phil Noto because his table was empty at the same time as we were buying a Yanick Paquette Swamp Thing poster (Paquette and Noto were seated next to each other).  I would have brought comics for the professionals to sign but unfortunately they were all in boxes due to the imminent house move.  I bumped into a twitter friend Lee Hiley who I had met previously at London Super Comic Con in February, which was really cool.  Lee got an Impulse comic signed by Mark Waid and I got jealous.  Next year I shall bring stuff!

I also didn't get a copy of the Thought Bubble 2012 anthology.  So I shall order it from my local comic book shop instead.  We also didn't go to the British comics awards because we were tired and hungry and wanted food before getting our train back.

I am definitely going to go back to Thought Bubble next year, and for the full weekend.  I'd love to go to more panels and can only do that and comic shopping if I go for the full two days.

My next con to look forward to is the next London Super Comic Con where I shall gush at Peter David at be dressed as a Blue Lantern. :)