Who would work in an office like this?

This month we venture into an office that has been accused of looking like the bedroom of a teenage boy, which may be a very apt description as it acts as HQ for Thought Bubble, an annual sequential art festival held in Leeds dedicated to promoting comics and graphic novels as an important cultural art form, which is run by the lovely Lisa Wood.

1. Hi Lisa! So we’re sure your lovely new office is your pride and joy – care to share with our readers a little bit about what you get up to in there?

You know that episode of the Simpson’s where Willy is dancing like a psycho to maniac, well that’s me in my office! I spend hours on end working on my Mac and it drives me a bit insane so every now and again I’ll jump up and down to Devo or Slayer just to make my legs work again.

My profession is mainly illustration, I’ve worked for various role playing games doing mainly covers and clients like the Leeds International Film Festival drawing horror posters and The Science Museum drawing diagrams. I spend what spare time I have drawing too but there doesn’t seem to be much spare time nowadays! My office is where I run the Thought Bubble Festival operations which I can explain more about later.

I also like to try and play my SG, read comics and study astro psychics up here. My husband bought me a beautiful orrery with tonnes of magazines on the solar system this year, so I’ve bee slowly working through them all. I’ve started what I call a science club with my mates Dr T and Homstar where we look at Michio Kaku’s theories and crazy physics s**t. Our first lesson involved us camping on Ilkley moor to hunt some aliens, I invited Dan Aykroyd along too but sadly there where no aliens or Dan. However the moors are terrifying in the pitch black so that was fun!

My comics are piling up at the moment as I don’t seem to get any time to read them, when I do though my favourites are the old reprints of Prince Valiant, Jack Kirby stuff and Conan. More contemporary titles that I love are Daredevil, any Chris Ware, Eleanor Davis, Spider-Woman, Wednesday Comics, Dan Clowes and Walking Dead to name a few.

I have a projector set up in my office which I play survival horror on, I totally love Resident Evil and I’m playing Res 5 at the moment. To relax I like to watch horror films. I’m a huge film buff and I tend to like all horror good or bad, I’m just watching Halloween 3: Season of the Witch as we speak, that film totally rocks! Although my favourites which I watch on a regular basis are the Romero zombie films, The Thing, The fog, The Evil Dead films and I love Italian horror, Fulci and early Argento. My husband says my office looks like a teenage boys bedroom………it’s true!

2. November must be a really busy month for you – tell us more…

November is CRAZY!! I run a comic art festival called Thought Bubble which I mentioned earlier. It’s an annual event which takes place every November. This years dates are 19 – 22. Thought Bubble involves comic based film screenings programmed by the Leeds International Film Festival, free workshops, talks, parties, a huge book crossing and a massive comic book convention which takes place at Saviles Hall (opposite the Royal Armouries) on Sat 21st Nov. I set it up 3 years ago to promote the idea that comics are not only a wonderful medium but also a valuable educational tool. Since then Thought Bubble has teamed up with Leeds Central Library, Leeds Young Peoples Film Festival and Breeze International Youth Festival to provide free workshops for the public run by industry professionals.

I’m really exited about this years event because we have some amazing guests! Frank Quitely one of my favourite artists, will be there, he’s worked on Batman and the X-men and his art is soooo beautiful, I’ve been a fan since I was little! He will be signing at out convention and also run a Masterclass on Sunday 22nd November. We also have Ben Templesmith attending who has worked on the ground breaking horror graphic novel and movie 30 Days of Night. I love his work too, his use of colour is pure brilliance! It’s great I get to meet and work with people I admire and who inspire me. My heart has always been in comic books every since I was a child, I always wanted to be a comic artist myself so I guess the next best thing is to hang out with my heroes!

3. So, all the comic books in the world have been stolen by an evil overlord, you can only save one for the whole of mankind to cherish. Which one would it be?

Man that is so tough but it would have to be Daredevil by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev.

4. What have you been up to lately to quench your thirst for culture?

Ooohh loads, I have a habit of doing far too much. I tend to visit a lots of museums in London. The last one I went to was the Cartoon Museum for Bryan Talbot’s book launch of Grandville, that was lots of fun, I love Bryan, he is a genius and I got to see Hannah Berry there too, a shining new star of the graphic novel.

I saw the John W Waterhouse exhibition at the Royal Academy which blew me away! St Eulalia is one of my favourite paintings. I also saw lots of Mucha prints at the Mucha museum in Prague a few months ago. Mucha was an incredible Art Nouveau artist who is highly treasured by the city of Prague. He designed the Prague Municipal Building in the heart of the city which is breath taking. The walls inside are covered in his beautiful art, you can take guided tours to view them. I didn’t have time this trip to see his Slave Epic which he dedicated to the city before his death but I plan to go back next year to view that.

I’ve visited the British Museum three times this year. I collect masks, and love seeing all the Native American and Mexican masks held by BM. They have an exhibition on at the moment on an Aztec ruler called Moctezuma, I plan to see that in December.

I was also in karlovy Vary earlier on in the year for their film festival, I didn’t get to see much tho. I really wanted to see the new Hanake film, the director of Hidden and Funny Games but I missed it, I can’t wait for that tho and the new Herzog/Lynch collaboration ‘My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done‘. I absolutely love Lynch, I would go as far as to say I’m slightly obsessed, always have been since I saw Dune when I was about 12. I remember one summer holiday I must of watched it like 30 times!

5. Well thanks for your time Lisa, just before you go is there anything you’d love to plug?

Thought Bubble! Please go! Everyone! If you love art and literature, you will love comics, I promise! There is a comic out there for everyone, whatever your interests, politics, love, history, war, religion, fantasy, anything! Come along and see what it’s all about!

You can find out all about Thought Bubble on the website here