THAT COMIC SMELL SPECIAL: Thought Bubble 2019

The latest episode is now online.

Documenting our trip to Thought Bubble!

From the web:

“I’VE BEEN BLOWING BUBBLES!”
Welcome to this very special episode of TCSPod in which our heroes, David, Mike and Tom, take a trip to Harrogate to visit the 2019 Thought Bubble Comic Festival. We document from when we arrive to just before we leave. There is some sleep deprivation, some purchases talk, some creator interviews with the likes of Olivia Hicks (@missoliviahicks) Charles H Raymond (@not_so_tiny) Pete Taylor (@thismanthispete) & Vince Hunt (@jesterdiablo) , what our accommodation is like, how we were setting up, what went wrong over the weekend and so much more. CAUTION! Must be given though as we record bit at the festival and at a pub after when we got food, so there is A LOT of background noise at points. You have been warned.
This and all the usual comics chat on the only comics podcast to survive on coffee and a wish for the best part of 3 days…
That Comic Smell!
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AN ENGLISHMAN IN SAN DIEGO

I was a guest on Leonard Sultana's An Englishman in San Diego.

Alongside Lucy Sullivan (Barking), I discussed Bell Time, comicons in general, and Thought Bubble in particular.

Click below to watch:

BELL TIME at NEVER IRON ANYTHING

Tony Esmond has included a review of Bell Time in his "Some Comics to Look Out For at Thoughtbubble 2019."

"This book is absolutely as fun as it sounds and manages to cross all those great school comics and tv series we remember with the world of time travel. David has a simple and iconically British style and he understands how a comic should flow.
Highly recommended."

Have a read of the entire article here.

BELL TIME COVER

Here's the cover for my next comic, "Bell Time", which is launching at Thought Bubble Comic Art Festival, 9-10 November 2019. Hope to see you there!

THAT COMIC SMELL 5: LOVE AND ROCKETS

The new episode of That Comic Smell is now online.

Have a listen at Soundcloud here and YouTube here.

From the website:

"On the newest episode of "That Comic Smell" We are joined by a Guest!! Our friend Mike Sedakat dropped in to talk comics with us.

This month we talk about The Hernandez Brothers own, incredible, "Love and Rockets".
We dive into the timeline of the stories, a little brief overview and general chat about what we all think about it.
Later we have another cup of tea and David tells about his time away in Leeds at "Thought Bubble" with "Treehouse Comics"
He also shares with us some of his finds whilst there.
We then talk "Doctor Strange" before firing into a tangent on "The A Team"
All this and more on this months episode.
These are some of the titles we discussed:
Love and Rockets (The Hernandez Brothers)
The Cleaner [Man of Destiny] (Fraser Geesin)
Island (Rozi Hathaway)
Sneaky Business (Rozi Hathaway)
I Don't Believe in the Sun (Stephen Merritt, Lem)
Safe From Harm (Joan Edam)
Beats (One Beat Zines)
Bum Storm (Robert Luckett)
Madness on Mars (Joe Bamford, Doctor Simpo)
Skip Tobey Vol.1 (Andy Herd)
Fear (Zu Dominiak)
The Orb (Zu Dominiak)"

THOUGHT BUBBLE 2016

I travelled to the Thought Bubble convention in Leeds at the weekend where Treehouse issue 10 was launched.

Cover by Kathryn Briggs

This latest issue features Kathryn Briggs, Andy Herd, David Peter Kerr, Balazs Lorinczi, Stuart McAdam, Neil Scott and me!

It's available to buy online now, along with my new edition of the collected Berserkotron. Have a look here.

The con was great fun. I always enjoy hanging out with the Treehouse crew and it's nice to see in person comics creators from across the UK that I admire and/or usually only converse with online.

This year it was good to see many folks from the Dundee Comics MLitt course in attendance too, as exhibitors, volunteers and punters!

I managed to completely miss people I would have liked to have seen, but it's so busy that always seems to happen.

A couple of haul photos!

I bought these comics from creators tabling at the con:

Also dug around in the back issue bins for this lot:

I was geeking out a bit about Mike Mignola being in attendance and got him to sign a few comics I brought along…

On Saturday afternoon I took a little detour and walked into Leeds city centre. I'd taken part in the Thought Bubble competition this year and they had the entries on display digitally in the library's art gallery. 

Another enjoyable Thought Bubble Comic Festival!

PEZZ

Thought Bubble comic festival is next week.

I put an entry in for the event's competition and it's up at the website. A comic called "Pezz".
Have a look here.

I'm pleased to say it's in an exhibition at Leeds Central Library too.

I'm getting excited for the trip to Leeds now. See you at the con, if you're going!

BERSERKOTRON returns!

I've put together a complete collection of my first self-published comics Berserkotron 1 & 2.

It's a 56 page story with a new 10 page "behind the scenes" making of section, which was fun to put together.

A lot of material in here that made me cringe. I was tempted to "fix" the most obvious howlers, but in the end I didn't change anything. It is what it is!

I wanted it finished in time for this year's Thought Bubble convention, and here it is.

Hopefully see you there!

INKSTUDS at THOUGHT BUBBLE

I wrote before about how keen I was to see Robin McConnell do the two Inkstuds live sessions at Thought Bubble.

They were recorded, and the first is now online here.

Robin has even pinched the photo I took, and so I will now hunt him down and demand whatever it is he is due me for doing that.

(In all seriousness, I was quite chuffed).

THOUGHT BUBBLE 2014

I went to my first Thought Bubble Comics Festival in Leeds last weekend. It was a fun experience. I attended as an exhibitor with cartooning comrades from the Treehouse Comics anthology.

As there were a few of us in attendance, we were able to take turns manning the table. Here are Anna Rathband and Neil Scott…

Anna again, with Nina Sharp...

I particularly wanted to go see Robin McConnell do both of his Inkstuds panels. I listen to that show a lot and was excited to get to see the show live. If you haven’t listened, it’s a Canadian series of interviews with comics creators. Recently McConnell did a Kickstarter and is now taking the show on the road. Here he is with Emma Rios, Dave Taylor and Scott Snyder…

The costumes and make-up people wore were amazing. Very creative, and they added to the fun of the event. This trio came to our table. The one in the middle had black contact lenses in, and when she looked into my eyes I felt like I was being hypnotised…

There was another Treehouser in Leeds. Norrie Millar, who was officially with the Universe team. Norrie also contributes to this anthology which comes out of The University of Dundee as part of Chris Murray and Phil Vaughan’s course. Here he is non-stop drawing at their table, alongside the Cosmic crew…

One of the nice things about cons is touching base with other folk in the world of comics. I spoke with a few people I hadn’t seen for a while, and also met some in person for the first time such as Andy Oliver of Broken Frontier. 

Here’s Stuart McAdam catching up with Alex Tobin of Yuck n Yum:

As well as enjoying this tabling experience, I also put on my comics buying hat quite a few times over the weekend. So, here’s my haul photo:

I’ll finish with this photo of Anna, Jon Adam, Nina and Neil. It sums up the fun we had taking Treehouse to Leeds. Hopefully we’ll be getting out on the road to other events soon...