Thought Bubble at 20: Eight Independent Comic Artists to Watch

Thought Bubble’s 20th year puts independent comic makers in the foreground. The Yorkshire festival began as a one-day event in the basement of Leeds Town Hall; this year, more than 600 exhibitors will gather at Harrogate Convention Centre on 14–15 November. For working artists, that scale makes the event a useful place to find distinctive approaches to illustration and storytelling before they reach a wider audience.

Alice Oseman offers a striking example of what an early festival table can lead to. Before their LGBTQ+ young adult series Heartstopper became the UK’s fastest-selling graphic novel and was adapted for Netflix, Oseman applied through Thought Bubble’s open exhibitor process and travelled north to sell work alongside independent creators. Now a headline guest, they return with a British Book Award, three Goodreads Choice Awards and a Silver Inky Award to their name.

Eight creators to seek out

Festival directors Martha, Amy and Chloë selected eight small press artists whose work makes a strong case for browsing beyond familiar names. Their choices show how widely comic art can range: from medieval pageantry and historical narratives to surreal pencil work, queer characters and comedy-horror.

Riotbones, a Filipino illustrator, builds intricate, dark imagery across a run of self-published comics. Their debut graphic novel, Strange Cases, is out now. That combination of independent publishing and a book-length debut offers readers a chance to follow a practice across formats.

Sajan Rai works with vivid colour, uneasy imagery and otherworldly subjects. The directors single out his illustrated haiku series, where a compact poetic form meets a textured visual style. For illustrators, that pairing suggests a useful constraint: a short text can leave room for an image to create its own mood rather than simply explain the words.

In ’Tis Thee, Not Me, Clarice Tudor turns bad dates and worse advice into carefully drawn stories styled after medieval illuminated manuscripts. The contrast gives contemporary embarrassment an ornate historical frame. Tudor has also designed a T-shirt for this year’s festival, extending her imagery from the page to something visitors can wear.

Beck Kubrick, a UK-based writer and cartoonist, brings comedy-horror and apocalyptic thinking to her work. Her young adult horror comic Dead Girls is the directors’ recommendation. Fiona Marchbank, a comic creator and illustrator who volunteers at Thought Bubble, makes colourful queer historical stories; her new book, Ladies of the Knight, is out now.

The other selections span material and subject. Nadia Schlosser mostly works in pencil, using an ethereal, surreal style to address serious issues; the directors noticed her work at last year’s convention. Tim Bird, an illustrator based in Winchester, recently completed an MA in Illustration at Falmouth University. His graphic novel Adrift on a Painted Sea is a memoir dedicated to his mum and includes her paintings, bringing family artwork into the book’s visual record.

Rein Lee draws queer people, nature and nerdy subcultures through a dreamy, experimental and poetic approach. Together, the eight recommendations make the exhibitor floor feel less like a catalogue of styles and more like a set of entry points: look for how artists adapt their materials, tone and subject to suit a particular story.

Panels on mythology, health and the working life

The programme also makes room for discussion of how comics borrow from older stories and how creators build a practice. In Myths that shaped Comics, host Kofi Smiles joins Mohsen Ashraf, Kieron Gillen, Erica D’Urso and Emma Ríos to discuss mythology’s continuing pull. The examples range from Marvel’s version of Asgard to Promethea, The Wicked + The Divine and Pantheon Myths. The session asks what these retellings gain from myth, and how newer creators can carry the material in fresh directions.

The 2000 AD team presents The Galaxy’s Greatest Panel as the publication approaches its 50th anniversary next year. The discussion is set to include its worlds and characters, among them Judge Dredd, Rogue Trooper and Strontium Dog, with surprises and reveals promised by the festival’s source.

Comics, Mental Health & Healing brings together Dr Ian Williams, founder of the Graphic Medicine field, with Kay Medaglia, Rubyetc, Kim-Joy and Jaleel Hudson. Their conversation centres on the ways comics can contribute to healing. Meanwhile, The Waifs and Strays Return: Comics into a Career gathers eight rising creators to talk through the practical work behind a creative career: developing a recognisable style, building a portfolio, finding collaborators and pitching projects.

The wider guest list includes Simon Bisley, Matt Fraction, Emma Ríos, Christian Ward, Kate Beaton, Jahnoy Lindsay, Yudori, Rubyetc, Charlie Adlard, Becky Cloonan, Al Ewing and Jamie McKelvie. Tula Lotay, the illustrator also known as Lisa Wood, co-founded Thought Bubble with Nabil Homsi, director of Leeds comic shop Travelling Man. Two decades on, the festival has grown in scale while keeping its focus on the artists who make comics and the readers who seek them out. For visitors, the anniversary offers a practical route through both: discover new work on the exhibitor floor, then hear creators discuss how they make it.