Thought Bubble history
Thought Bubble started life in November 2007 as a one day event, an idea sparked by renowned comic artist Tula Lotay (aka Lisa Wood). At the time Lisa worked in a Leeds comic book shop, Travelling Man. Travelling Mans Director, Nabil Homsi, encouraged Lisa to get Thought Bubble going, he gave guidance and financial support to make it happen. The first convention took place in the basement of Leeds Town Hall. The following year the convention grew, and then grew again and again.
From the very beginning Thought Bubble’s ethos has been to celebrate comics and the people who make them. This focus on comics, the creators and the fans makes Thought Bubble a unique kind of festival, especially loved by comic creators themselves! This leads to a consistently high calibre of talent at our annual comic convention.
With humble beginnings, Thought Bubble has gone from strength to strength, with an unparalleled reputation and a growth built primarily on word of mouth and a deep love of comics and the people who make them. Now the event has grown to a huge week long festival and attracts thousands of attendees and guests from around the world.
Festival Artwork: 2008 - Present
“When I founded Thought Bubble in 2007, my aim was to create a friendly and inclusive event that showed everyone the wealth of sequential art and highlighted it as one of the most interesting and diverse art mediums. The industry was pretty different back then, and as a female artist it will always be really important to me that the industry I work in and love embraced diversity.
This is why, 12 years ago, I decided that every Thought Bubble festival image would be created by a woman. Commissioning a unique piece of art is always really exciting and being able to show-case women's art in this way is really special to me. 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.”
