How Thought Bubble Was Entirely Awesome & Introduced Me to Two New Entirely Awesome Comic Book Titles

When I went to the Thought Bubble comic book convention last year, I had one hell of a time. I met Adi Granov, bought a whole host of awesome new comic books and left determined to return again this year. As you can probably tell from the title of this post, I did return and let me start off by telling you this: it was FUCKING AWESOME.

For those of you unaware of the convention, Thought Bubble is arguably the best comic book convention in the UK, organised by the Travelling Man comic books chain. It hosts an array of entirely guests each year and if you believe the industry gossip, artists and writers alike agree that it’s one of the best conventions on cicruit. Last year boasted the talents of John Romita Jr, Tony Harris and Adi Granov and this years talent line up was much more impressive. Tim Sale, Adam Hughes, Charlie Adlard, Gail Simone and Jeff Lemire juts to name a few.

This year, with a more extensive talent list I went to Thought Bubble more determined to get a little more out of the convention, or more accurately get my comic book sketch started with a bang. Well, maybe not started; I’ve had a few gift sketches in my time which I’ve duly cherished (the most impressive being a Rorschach by the fantastical Dave Gibbons) but certainly I wanted to start a sketch book of comic book art that I could be proud of.

And I did. And it’s beginning to look awesome, but please judge for yourselves:

Pretty cool, right? If asked which I like the best, after soul searching I’d have to choose Charlie Adlard’s sketch of who he called “Wrecked Rick” from the acclaimed comic books series (and now awesome TV show) Walking Dead above the rest, but perhaps that’s just because the guy was discussing going to get drunk at lunch with the amazing Sean Phillips and he forever gained my respect.

Which is your favourite sketch?

Speaking of Sean Phillips, the zombie Hawkeye sketch was drawn by him and it was at his desk that I found two entirely awesome comic book series which he did the artwork for and I must insist, if you haven’t read them already, go out at get them. Immediately. Both are in collaboration with the amazing story-teller Ed Brubaker and go by the titles Criminal and Incognito.

For those unfamiliar with the titles, Criminal is a down-to-earth strickly non-superhero title which deals with real life crime and criminals. Starting in 2007, the title contains 6 (the 6th story arc collection is available 21st December – check out the link below) self-contained story arcs which are both gritty and excellent in equal measures. Incognito on the other hand, is a balls to the wall superhero, or accurately supervillain, title which reeks of classic comic book tradition but boasts an incredibly fresh angle to tackle the subject matter in which the writer puts us in a position where we can empathise with a murdering supervillain. It’s excellent writing and just like the Criminal title, Phillips artwork goes a long way in making both the story and the characters believably gritty.

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