Thought Bubble Festival is an annual week-long celebration of comics, with events spread across the whole of Yorkshire! It includes lots of little events, such as socials like drink and draws, hands on workshops, unique and fun exhibitions, talks from those in the comics industry, and loads of other comic goodness for you to enjoy.
Take a look through our past festivals below:
Thought Bubble Festival 2025 was so much fun! It was so great to get so many comic fans, old and new, together to celebrate our favourite medium! Comics took over the entire Mercer Gallery in Harroage, which hosted the Vision & Labour: Making Comics - The Art Of Avery Hill Publishing exhibition. Stories from Sweden brought the amazing Bim Erikkson over to visit to Travelling Man Leeds, and OK Comics, to sign some of her books! Steve Webb wowed Leeds primary school students with his drawing workshops! Pints and Pencils, our drawing get together, was busier than it has ever been before, thank you to the Leeds Comic Collective and Brew Society for hosting. Our annual Rainbow Age event, took the form of Comics Out Loud, a vibrant evening of live comic readings hosted by local artist MOLLYPUKES at Travelling Man Leeds. And, over in Sheffield, our pal Graphic Novel Reading Room, celebrated their 4th birthday! Thank you to everyone who hosted an event or came long. See you next year?!
Our 2024 Festival was another excellent week of comics! We looked at, talked about, made and celebrated comics in so many ways! We started off the Make Mine Manga, a free exhibition at Leeds Central Library, specially curated by Paul Gravett and in partnership with The Lakes International Comic Art Festival! Then the beautiful and powerful exhibition Enter the Mulberry Tree and Fly Free took over Left Bank Leeds showcasing the work of twelve Palestinian comic artists. We had an insightful Banned Books Talk at Leeds’ independent Queer bookshop, The Bookish Type. Our LGBTQIA+ Book Club Rainbow Age returned to Leeds Library with Theo Parrish discussing their latest book "‘Home Body’, hosted by the wonderful Jack Fallows. James Chapman headed into Garforth library to draw some silly circles, and also a closed workshop in a local school too! Harry-Anne Bentley led a sellout panel “My Illustrated Life”, where three incredible comic creators focussing on autobiographical work chatted about their work. Leeds Arts University hosted Creative Networks with James Tynion IV in a one on one interview to a sold out crowd. Over in Harrogate we have Avery Hill Publishing showcasing the art of Sue Bird and Tim Bird at the Mercer Gallery; who also hosted the Secrets of the Majestic exhibition and launch, celebrating the infamous Majestic hotel toilets! Phewwwww! See you next year!
Special thanks to The Lakes International Comic Art Festival for support this year!
Our 2023 Festival Week was CRAMMED with excellent comic focused events. First, we decorated independent businesses in Leeds with an art trail of 16 of our past festival images! We had ND Stevenson and Molly Knox Ostertag in conversation as part of Creative Networks at a packed out Leeds Arts University. Vice Press screened the iconic Batman ‘89 in Leeds AND Harrogate, with a beautiful exclusive art print to go with it. Leeds Central Library hosted our annual Rainbow Age Book Club this year with a ‘Queer Comix Forever’ talk, hosted by the excellent Jack Fallows. The incredible Tula Lotay and Becky Cloonan wowed us with live painting at the DSTLRY Launch Party. Our friends Travelling Man donated heaps of LGBTQ+ comics to Leeds Libraries. We brought Dapo Adeola to Yorkshire to run fun children’s workshops in Headingley Library! We had an excellent time sketching with pals at Pints and Pencils. And FINALLY, we put our beautiful past festival images into the windows of 15 independent businesses around Leeds, to create a comic art trail. Phew.
Thought Bubble Festival 2023 was proudly sponsored by LeedsBID. Photo credits to Andrew Benge, Sarah Oglesby and Wisdom Makubile.
Thought Bubble Festival 2022 was packed full of comics-focused events, from Masterclasses to Socials, Workshops to Exhibitions. We brought huge names into Yorkshire, like Gail Simone’s In Conversation evening at Leeds Arts University, and Ram V whose Masterclass at The Leeds Library was packed with folk taking notes of wisdom. CJ Reay of Black Lodge Press joined us for our Rainbow Age Book Club, and discussed their work and influences in their Art as Agitation talk, and Hamish Steele ran a sold-out storytelling workshop in the beautiful Drawing Room at Leeds Central Library! Tula Lotay graced The Corn Exchange with her art exhibition, and Mondo took over Belgrave Music Hall with music, signings and records, while Jock treated us all to a live painting of Judge Dredd. With the help of Diamond UK we gave away hundreds of comic books in local libraries, we also had the amazing JAKe running drawing workshops for kids in Bradford and Emily Ormerod teaching Leeds kids how to draw strange creatures! There was loads, loads more - the whole festival was a joy, and we can’t wait to do it again in 2023.
Thought Bubble Festival 2022 was proudly sponsored by LeedsBID. Photo credits to Andrew Benge and Wisdom Makubile.
