Thought Bubble Festival reveals full 2016 line-up
Thought Bubble, the UK’s largest annual comic art festival which is now celebrating its decade anniversary, takes place in Leeds from 1st – 6th November 2016. Supported by new sponsor partner comiXology, Thought Bubble attracts fans and comic arts professionals from around the world – this year the event will celebrate a decade of bringing the very best comic book culture to the city. Guests include rare UK appearances from:
- Mike Mignola, creator of Hellboy and BPRD
- Paul Azaceta, co-creator of Outcast, now a hit TV show on Cinemax / Fox
- Erica Henderson and Ryan North, creative team behind the Eisner Award nominated smash hit The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl
- Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie, creative team behind the Eisner Award nominated, optioned for television, series The Wicked + The Divine
- Babs Tarr, Brenden Fletcher, and Cameron Stewart, creative team behind the breakout hit The Batgirl of Burnside.
The festival includes a week-long programme of events including ‘Mike Mignola in Conversation’ at Leeds College of Art, Signings at Travelling Man Comic Stores from artists such as Ryan North, Babs Tarr, John Wagner and Paul Azaceta, an exclusive exhibition of The Wicked + The Divine by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie, educational workshops, talks by industry professionals, competitions from the likes of 2000AD, the awards ceremony for the Young People’s Comic Awards, an exclusive appearance from Texan poster artists Mondo, and screenings of sequential art films.
The festival culminates in the two-day Thought Bubble Comic Con on 5-6th November, with events over the weekend including a jam-packed programme of guest and artist talks and panels by the stars of the comics scene, live drawing events, workshops, as well as a magnificent cosplay parade.
From the press release:
Thought Bubble Festival is the UK’s largest event of its kind – an annual celebration of sequential art in all its forms, including everything from superhero comics to independent and small-press artists and writers. Thought Bubble formed in 2007 as a non-profit-making organisation dedicated to promoting comics, graphic novels, and animation as an important national and international cultural art-form. The Festival’s aim is to cater to both long-time comic book fans and those who have never picked up a graphic novel before. Thought Bubble seeks to promote literacy and artistic skills through the medium of sequential art and believes it is the most stylistically and thematically diverse artistic medium in the world.
Festival director, Lisa Wood said:‘This year’s festival marks 10 years since Thought Bubble began in the basement of Leeds Town Hall – that year, 500 hundred people attended a one-day event. Since then the festival had grown beyond our imagination with nearly 10,000 people attending a week-long event in 2015. 10 years is a long time by anyone’s standards so this milestone is a very special occasion in the history of Thought Bubble. Over the last 10 years we’ve kept comic books at the heart of everything we do and today the festival is the leading event of its kind in the UK – a festival that celebrates the wonderful universe of comic books and graphic novels.’
The full programme of events can be viewed at http://thoughtbubblefestival.com/festival-programme-2016/
