Last Saturday was the third annual
Thought Bubble comic convention in Leeds. I'd heard and read lots of good things about this one day event and having had good experiences for the last two years at
Hi-Ex! in Inverness I decided that Thought Bubble would tempt me down south to give it a go.
I travelled down the day before via one car journey and two train journeys and managed to miss most of the rotten weather that had blighted the UK. Arriving in Leeds at 4:15 on a Friday I probably saw more people in the central train station than I'd seen in the last six months, that's what happens when you work from home and hardly venture beyond the drawing board. I was met by
DownTheTubes contributor Jeremy Briggs who once again had kindly agreed to help out at my table for the show. After booking into the perfectly adequate and cheap Travelodge for the night we set off for a very quick look around the city centre and take in two of Leeds three comic shops before grabbing dinner.
Next morning saw the fog arrive and I snapped one of only two photographs from the whole trip. I don't know why I carry a camera with me sometimes and especially at comic conventions because I never remember to take pictures. Thankfully the internet is filled with other pictures and reports of the show so I'll list a few for you to check out at the end of this little report. Other pictures here are thanks to Jeremy.
The show was set to run from 10am until 5pm in the Saviles Hall, which from the outside is a pretty unspectacular looking building but the hall itself is huge and was expertly filled with tables, chairs and plenty of staff to help find you to your correct table. I was delighted to find that our table neighbours for the day where
Garen Ewing (and Ellie) and
Leigh Gallagher (and Niki), two friends who I'd had every intention of tracking down on the day and catching up with and now we where right next to each other, chatting distance no problem!
After setting up the table for the day and having the obligatory photo taken by Jeremy I was in for a further surprise as my good mate and brilliant artist
Dave Hitchcock appeared having decided to come along at the last moment. Dave had 70 odd sample pages of his new graphic novel with him to show the public and they look great, an essential purchase some time next year when the book is finished.
Soon the public where appearing and the hall filled quickly and stayed pretty much filled for the whole day. I had decided on a target to aim for the day for selling sketches, art, books and prints. I was aiming to hopefully cover my costs of the weekend and I was doubtful as to how well some of my sketches would sell as I'd unfortunately not had a chance to concentrate on producing many comic sketches for the show having a very busy job on for the last month before the event. Still I'd brought along all my Doctor Who sketches and a few others (see the
gallery for the full list) and hoped there was enough Doctor Who fans attending to help me out. Thankfully there was! I came back home with seven out of the 22 prepared ink sketches which I think is a pretty good result for a public not necessarily looking for Doctor Who sketches. Overall I sold enough sketches, pencil drawings, art and prints to cover my expenses buy some comic books from the
Cinebook table and pay for food too. Pretty good result :)
As I expected the show past by in a flash and with much help from Jeremy we kept tempting the public to buy and take the odd chance to say hello to various friends. Many thanks must go to those who dropped by and said hello including
Ralph Horsley,
Darryl Cunningham,
Steve Tanner and
Jay Eales. Also I had said before in a previous post that the public like to chat and we certainly did that. I had many long conversations about Doctor Who, comics and art. Always a pleasure!
End of the show suddenly appeared and the hall cleared just as quickly as it filled as the staff had less than an hour to empty it out. A quick bite to eat and a very wet walk to the train station and I was on the repeat journey back home. A deadline of Tuesday on some work meant I needed to skip the after show party and head home to be able to get back to work.
Very enjoyable show and one I think I'll attend next year if its on again? Note to myself is to produce a more varied selection of sketches. So you can expect to see more Doctor Who (the new series seems more popular than the classic), UK comic characters (Dredd, Charley's War, Dan Dare etc.), US Superhero's (Batman, Spider-Man etc.), films (Star Wars, Aliens and anything that takes my fancy), Manga (Death Note, Akira etc.) and maybe even some kids characters (The Gruffalo, The Cat in the Hat etc.) and any thing else that people might want to suggest. I think a good varied range might cover many bases for a sale.
Here's some links to further reports and pictures from the show:
Jeremy's ReportLeigh Gallagher's ReportGaren Ewing's ReportMatthew Kitchen's Flickr Set
More horror movie fun but this time of the science fiction variety. 'Alien' was of course the 1979 film directed by Ridley Scott starring Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, John Hurt and a few more trapped in their spaceship 'Nostromo' with an alien superbly designed by H.R. Giger.
