Comics Experience community members gathered for a meet-up during the Thought Bubble comic art festival in Leeds, UK, November 15-16!
Thought Bubble is a week-long event celebrating all forms of sequential art, and culminating in a 2-day convention during the closing weekend. Guests and events represent a range of styles and interests, from superhero comics to independent creators.
A group of CE community members attended the festival and meet-up: Steve Aryan, Christoper Hurst, Chris Lewis, Glenn Møane, and Pete Rogers. All are members of the CE Creators Workshop; Chris and Christopher are also alums of CE courses.
Among the group members’ achievements are Chris Lewis’ upcoming series, Drones – the second book to be released as part of the CE/IDW publishing alliance. And as part of the festival, Glenn Møane was selected by a Thought Bubble committee to participate in a pitch meeting with Image Comics!
Steve Aryan reflected on the event:
Thought Bubble is my local convention and it’s been great to see it grow over the years from a small event in the basement of Leeds Town Hall, eight years ago, into what it’s become in 2014. As well as the comic book convention, there’s a week of events leading up to it with special screenings, workshops and masterclasses. The whole festival is a celebration of comics and graphic novels, and because it’s run as a not for profit event, it’s attracted widespread support and funding from local government, businesses and other groups. The end result is that the reach of the festival is much wider and more people of all ages are finding out that comics are an exciting and thriving medium.
As well as attracting some of the biggest names in the industry, the comic convention is also a fantastic showcase for British comic book creators and the wealth of material being produced. Anytime someone says comic books are just superheroes, I think of Thought Bubble. It’s always great being able to meet creators, hear their stories on panels and talk to them in person. The best part of the convention for me is meeting up with old friends, making new ones, and leaving the convention re-energized and keen to make comics after spending time with so many creative people. That’s what Thought Bubble gives me each year.
Pete Rogers provided photos of the CE community members’ time together, and shared his thoughts about CE’s role in their relationships as friends and collaborators:
It was great to meet up with other forum members again and to be able to attend panels together, then discuss what had been said on them afterwards. I’m co-writing two books with Steve (Flux, The Promise), editing Chris Lewis for an anthology (no comic code) and planning to pitch to Glenn’s anthology (Outré), so not only are we fellow Workshop members, we’re also a group of collaborators. We compared notes on projects and got to chat through what we are all working on while we were all together. On the Image writers’ panel, Ales Kot talked about helping others achieve success, as there’s definitely enough to go around. That really rang true, as that is exactly what the CE Creators Workshop is all about.
Thanks to Steve, Christoper, Chris, Glenn, and Pete for sharing their experiences, and to Pete for the photos!
To learn more about our Creators Workshop, visit our page here!
——————————————-
If you want to make comics, write, draw, letter, and color comics, or improve as a comics creator, you’ll find like-minded friends and colleagues in our online workshops and courses. We hope to see you there!
Posted by Nicole Boose
nicole@ComicsExperience.com
Twitter