Q&A with November Banner Designer Lisa Wood comes a little late considering Thought Bubble may be wrapping up for the year. So don’t forget to book tickets next year!
1) What is Thought Bubble?
Thought Bubble is a festival dedicated to promoting all forms of sequential art. We are unique amongst UK comic shows and events in that we combine an extended festival of programmes with a “traditional” comic convention. We’re the largest festival of this type in the UK now, and we’d like to think that you won’t find anything else like it on the comics event calendar. We’ve tried to make the programme as varied as possible in order to cater to everyone’s tastes, and we think we’ve succeeded.
More than anything though, Thought Bubble brings an overwhelmingly friendly atmosphere to proceedings. We’ve tabled the events to appeal to both the hardcore comics devotee, as well as someone who’s never picked up a comic before, and everyone else inbetween, but we hope that everyone who attends, or is considering attending, will appreciate just how much fun it is being here, in amongst the action.
The only way to find out for sure is tom come along and join in the experience!
2) What encouraged you to start the Thought Bubble Festival?
I’ve always loved comics and have been around them all my life, through reading and collecting as a child and working in several comic stores from the age of 18. I still work for Travelling man, we have 4 comic shops in Manchester, Leeds, York and Newcastle. I was lucky with Thought Bubble. The original idea I had of a sequential art based festival attracted attention from the Leeds International Film Festival, so that gave me momentum to make it happen. The event started very small (only 500 attendees in a small room at Leeds Town Hall) and so was easily manageable, and with the marketing of the film festival behind it, it gained an audience almost immediately. With help from major partners, guests, volunteers and sponsors along the way, it has gone from strength to strength every year.
3) How has the audience for comics and sequential arts developed over the past 5 years?
Our audience and exhibitors have always been immensely welcoming, friendly, inclusive. Everyone seems to come away with such a positive attitude towards comics, and the comics community, that’s so infectious, and it’s due in large part to the wonderful audience that Thought Bubble is lucky enough to attract. Everybody who attends helps to add to the special feel of the events, be it our amazing cosplayers who brighten up the convention with their brilliant outfits, our wonderful guests who show that comics attracts some of the friendliest creators of any medium, or our excellent volunteers – without whom none of this would be possible.
We are a non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting education through sequential art. The majority of our workshops are free for everyone, and all events are free for children. So I think this always creates good will from attendees and exhibitoers. Everyone works so hard to put on a great show. The only thing which has changed about the audience is the scale. With the support of Arts Council England and Travelling Man, the event has now become the biggest comics festival in the UK. We have developed the event from our initial one day convention to become a week long festival taking place across two cities.