“It’s nicely positioned in that it’s not strictly a comic’s con and more an arts festival”

Ken Johnson

Thought Bubble is the Leeds Sequential Art Festival held over 4 days across various venues in the city.  Due to having only a short amount of time, I just went down to the main convention on the Saturday which was held in that dedicated monument of achievement:  Savile’s Hall in Leeds Armouries.

Wandering around, almost everyone exhibiting a table was approachable and happy to chat (although there were the odd one or two sourpusses – what’s the point of you being there if you’re just going to sulk?).  Adam Cadwell gave me a huge breakdown of every stand and exhibitor there (which I promptly forgot most of) and Matthew Craig crushed more information about the Birmingham comic scene into five minutes than I could fully digest or keep up with.

Sally-Ann Hickman

Oliver East

Paul Rainey

Mal and Jo of Fallen Angel Media

Things what were highlights:

• A massive amount to crush in.  The sheer breadth of stuff there was quite impressive and made the Eurogamer event I’d been to the previous month here look a bit sparse.
• The general atmosphere of cheeriness and enthusiasm (which is sometimes rare in events).
• Being able to chat to the artists and creators directly freely (with the odd bit of queuing for people like Adi Granov) without some surly PR or salesman scowling at you.
• Oliver East quite happily plugging stuff for Blank Slate, who couldn’t be arsed to man their own stall.
• The bloke on the Alpha Gods stall playing guitar and managing to clear the blocked crowd down that aisle so people could get through easier – sterling work fella!
• Going to buy The Manly Boys Annual from Steve Tillotson, only to be told he’d forgotten it (his mum later came to the rescue).
• Watching Keiron Gillen (Phonogram) regaling some tale to an itinerant hack in the Alea lobby like some senior club member blithering on about the Crimea.

There was a right old wodge of things to see and do, most of which I missed.  Tucked away in the curtained corner of the convention hall and in the Alea Casino opposite were talks, discussions, portfolio reviews and cosplay costume competitions.  On the Sunday, there were screenings at the Carriageworks, Alea Cinema and the Hyde Park Picture House of various Manga films, loads of workshops in Leeds Library and Art Gallery and a Dr Sketchy’s Burlesque Drawing Night.  If I’d have had more time, I would have ploughed into most of the events on the different days, but it’s also structured that the Saturday gives you enough to look at.

Ken Johnson

Howard Hardiman

Matthew Craig

For someone whose comic knowledge extends to the Beano and Viz, I found Thought Bubble really friendly and approachable.  I was initially hesitant to go, mainly because to me (and from reading up on similar events) it seemed a bit of a closed world and the cosplay stuff could come across as a bit much.  Once I got there though, there was enough for everyone at whatever level of interest.  As Ken Johnson says above, it comes across as more of an arts festival with a lot of comics in it, and because it’s got a very broad spectrum with the likes of Marvel and DC through to small press work and individual artists, there’s something for everyone.  If you’re planning to go next year, and it comes highly recommended that you do so, make sure you scrutinise the timetable on the Thought Bubble website and plan ahead.

These people particularly caught our eye:

Sally-Ann Hickman – http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/2008/propaganda-sally-ann-hickmans-beautifully-crafted-tales-of-smelly-dogs-and-brutally-honest-autobiography/

Paul Rainey – http://www.pbrainey.com

Philippa J Rice – http://www.philippajrice.com

Jim Connolly – http://www.jimcportfolio.co.uk

Kristyna Baczynski – http://www.kriskicorp.blogspot.com/

Fallen Angel – http://www.thefallenangel.co.uk/

Howard Hardiman – http://www.cutebutsad.co.uk/comics/

Matthew Craig – http://thematthewcraig.com/

Liz Greenfield – http://www.lizgreenfield.com

Ed: Tell us how you got started in illustration and comics?

Adam Cadwell: I began to really focus on illustration and comics in my final year of Uni, so 2003/4. I was on a course where you could use all of the art faculty’s equipment so you could work in any medium. I’d written a kids’ book, made a zombie film with friends and got into photography and pixel art but with the realisation I was going to be kicked out into the real world I went back to what had interested me all through my life which was simply drawing on paper. My degree show was just a bunch of comics in frames on the wall which looked very traditional compared to the weird sculptures and installations and video pieces everyone else was trying.

E: You got laid off at the end of last year, how’ve you been going since then?

AC: It’s been up and down month to month, to be honest, but for the first 6 months of working freelance in the middle of a deep recession I’ve done alright. I can pay my rent and I can still buy a round, so I’m surviving okay. Creatively, it’s been great, I’m finding time to work on more of my own ideas and stories and I think the more secure my income gets the less I’ll worry about it and the more time I’ll have for comics. In a way it was good the commercial art company closed down because it forced me to start working for myself, I was given no notice and setting up as a freelancer was the quickest way to get some money coming in. It worked out in the end. I hope.

E: In addition to your regular work, you write an autobiographical web comic The Everyday which is pretty upfront?  Is there any reason why you made it so readily clear cut – most cartoonists in my experience are a bit insular and dress it up a bit.

AC: Heh, I don’t really think of The Everyday as upfront, I worry it’s a bit too subtle for a larger audience, but I do try and make it as honest as possible. I knew I was joining a crowded genre when I started an autobio webcomic, so I thought to help it stand out I’d draw people how they actually looked. Not a lot of cartoonists do that, and now I know why, it can be tricky getting likenesses right when you’ve only met someone once but they happen to be there when something comic worthy happens. Facebook is a big help. But mostly I didn’t want there to be any reason for people to doubt what I’d shown actually happened so I draw myself as I look – people have actually recognised me from my comic before – and often use photo reference for locations, photos I’ve taken on my phone. I didn’t want to hide behind a cartoon. Or maybe I just love drawing my own face over and over again.

E: You’re also the benevolent puppet master behind the Manchester Comix Collective, can you explain a bit about that?

I’ve always wanted to be a puppet master. I set the site up using the Ning social network tools to create a hub for comic artists, writers and readers in and around Manchester. There was no focus to the scene before that, no one place everyone could go. It’s not that big a city so it frustrated me that we didn’t all know each other already. It’s been going close to 2 years now, we’ve got over 150 members, we exhibited together at the two big UK comic shows last year, we’ll be at Birmingham again this year in October and we have monthly meet ups called the Drink ‘n’ Draw. I’m planning an exhibition of our work for November too. The DnD is the physical extension of the site really, people come along and meet other people interested in making comics, they chat, drink, draw, show each other their work and eat all the pistachios.

E: Dan Clowes seems to wield a massive amount of influence over you and other similar cartoonists like Marc Ellerby or Jamie McKelvie, is there any particular reason why he seems to have stuck with you?

AC: I can’t speak for Marc or Jamie, I don’t really see Clowes in their work, but for me he was one of the first comic artists I discovered. I’ d read in The Face (remember The Face?) that a movie had been optioned of this underground cult comic book called Ghost World and the blue tinted panels they had shown really struck me. It just looked really cool. So I got the book just before the film came out and quickly bought every other Clowes book I could find. This would have been 2001/02, I was 20 and in my first year at Uni. I was going into the (then) only comic shop in Manchester and just picking up comics I liked the look of trying to learn about modern comics. I discovered Mike Allred back then too and a little later Jaime Hernandez. I always say those three are my big influences.

As for why Clowes has stuck, I don’t know. It’s like saying why you like your favourite band so much, you just do, you just love it. Thinking about it it may be because his work is so accomplished, and this goes for Allred and Hernandez too. I loved the look of it straight away, it’s fun and comicky and cool and unique, but the more I see the more I appreciate it and I learn from it more. Their work helps me see what mine could be and how to get there.

E: Anything in particular you’d like to plug?

AC: All I have for sale right now is the print collections of The Everyday, available from my online shop, all 3 for £10, what a deal!

I’ll have a 2 page story in not the next Phonogram but the one after, issue 6 of the current series. So buy that when it eventually comes out, late September hopefully?

I’m colouring a horror comedy comic called Zombie Death Squad that we’ll pitch to Image once it’s done so you can follow the progress of that on Facebook. It’s coming together really well and the art by newcomer Gavin Mitchell is ace.

And for news of all my other projects you can subscribe to my blog and help me feel popular.

E: Who should we interview next?

AC: Comics related? I’ll be in trouble if I don’t say my friends, but honestly Marc’s new Chloe Noonan comics are really exciting, Chris Doherty’s Video Nasties has just been picked up by Blank Slate and John Allison is ending Scary Go Round after seven and a half years and starting anew so lots of interesting things to talk about with those guys.

Not comics related? My brain is consumed with comics and illustration all day and night, so I really can’t think of anyone outside that right now… That’s pretty sad isn’t it? I’ll just go and draw my own face now to cheer myself up.