Thought Bubble Festival

Thought Bubble Festival
StatusActive
GenreComics, Comic art
Date(s)November
FrequencyAnnual
VenueHarrogate Convention Centre
Location(s)Leeds, Yorkshire
CountryEngland, United Kingdom
Inaugurated2007; 17 years ago (2007)
FounderTula Lotay
Most recent12–13 November 2022
Next event11–12 November 2023
Attendance13,000
PatronsTravelling Man, Leeds Arts University
Filing statusNonprofit
PeopleManaging director: Nabil Homsi;[1] Festival Director: Chloe Green,[2] Martha Julian,[3] Amy Bellwood[1]
Websitewww.thoughtbubblefestival.com

Thought Bubble:The Yorkshire Comic Art Festival is an annual comics art festival and comic book convention held in Yorkshire. Established in 2007,[4] Thought Bubble has been credited as being the UK's largest comics convention [3] and in 2023, Popverse named Thought Bubble "the most important comic convention around"[5]

Thought Bubble takes place for a week in November each year, taking place all over Yorkshire, and culminates in a two-day comic convention in Harrogate. A dance party is usually held on the Saturday night before the festival's final day.[6] The not-for-profit festival's chosen charity is Barnardo's.

Thought Bubble is held in the spirit of European conventions like the Angoulême International Comics Festival. As such, it is focused on the art and literature of the comics form, and only minimally on related pop-culture expression and merchandising.[7] In addition to the exhibitor tables, Thought Bubble features art exhibits, animation screenings, panel discussions, workshops, and a costume parade.[8] As founded by Tula Lotay, one of the festival's central aims is to celebrate female comics creators. Each year, the main image for that year's festival is illustrated by a woman. Lotay said, "Moving forward we're going to keep this theme alive and expand it to include other diverse groups within the industry. I can't wait to see the next set of wonderful images."[9]

Beginning in 2011, the Thought Bubble Anthology, an annual collection of original comics, was released in conjunction with the festival.

From 2012 to 2016, the British Comic Awards were presented at Thought Bubble.[10]

  1. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference TandA was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference HI was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b "Thought Bubble: Thousands of people in Leeds attend UK's largest comic book festival". Yorkshire Evening Post. Retrieved 2013-10-17.
  4. ^ "Leeds comic book queen is picture perfect". Yorkshire Evening Post. 14 August 2014. Archived from the original on 28 March 2017. Retrieved 27 March 2017.
  5. ^ "Thought Bubble is the most important comic convention around". Popverse. Retrieved 2024-02-25.
  6. ^ Murray, Matthew. "Thought Bubble 2010," The Beat (Nov. 29, 2010).
  7. ^ Freeman, Sarah. "Bubble rap: How comic books changed our lives: Struggling to read as a child, Lisa Wood found escape through comic books. Now an artist, she tells Sarah Freeman about the Thought Bubble festival which is devoted to comic art," The Yorkshire Post (16 November 2014).
  8. ^ "Thought Bubble '09 on Yorkshire Regional news," YouTube (Nov 24, 2009). Retrieved July 11, 2022.
  9. ^ "Our History," Thought Bubble Festival official website. Retrieved July 13, 2022.
  10. ^ British Comic Awards official website Archived 2018-12-07 at the Wayback Machine. Accessed Feb. 5, 2016.