Press: Thought Bubble 2009- Down the Tubes!

DOWN THE TUBES has review of the rather lovely Thought Bubble event from the last weekend, and FQP get a mention!



Thanks to Jeremy for the nice words!

Thought Bubble 2009

This was the first time that I had attended Thought Bubble, but it won’t be the last. I’ve been to many conventions in the time I’ve been involved with the Small Press, but I can honestly say that from an exhibitors point of view- this was the best organised, and possibly the most varied I’ve ever seen.

The venue is superb, right opposite the Royal Armouries in Leeds, I managed to guide the Bolt-Mobile there with almost no mistakes at all, a rare feat. As soon as we entered the hall, we were greeted and shown to our table by one of Lisa’s horde of helpers. A change from one convention where I had to go looking for someone who knew where we were, or another where all we got was a numbered diagram that left us to work it out based on the relative position of the moon and the stars….



ANYWAY! We got set up quickly and away we went! As with any new gig I’d not got the slightest idea of what to expect, but for next year I’ll be more prepared for the vast number of Cos-players, both of the slightly scary Manga variety and the more normal Supergirl or Iron-Man type.

It was lovely to catch up with so many familiar faces at the show, and also to meet some folks I’d only ever spoken to via the internet before. Networking wise I managed to get a proper confirmation for an upcoming cover for Zarjaz, discovered a few juicy bits of info that might be of interest to readers of a certain Megazine and saw an upcoming cover for the galaxies greatest comic.

I also got to make a fool of myself in an interview, scoff a donut given to me by an actual Art-droid and even sell some comics!

Overall it was a quiet day, though I did get to sketch Gene the Hackman for one young reader of 2000ad who knew a lot more than I thought he would.

Next year I’m going to be unleashing my newest assistant- Micro-Bolt! Mini-Bolt will be away at Uni (where do the years go? I remember building his kit as if it was yesterday) and so the baton of minion will pass to the younger Micro-Bolt.

This just in: DEJA VU

DEJA VU is the latest strip to be finished for the next edition of FutureQuake. Written (and lettered) by Adrian Bamforth with art by the superbly talented Toby Philp. This strip will most likely be in FQ 15, spring 2010.

Reminder: Thought Bubble!

Just a quick note to remind all you good, good people that the Bolt-mobile will be making its way up the M1 in the early hours of the morning, laden with FQP Product for the fine people of Leeds.

If you have so far managed to avoid picking up copies of the finest Small Press titles in the known multiverse, then tomorrow is your chance to take a peek and see what you are missing. It is also a rare chance to pick up a copy of the FQP family special, for just ONE pound.

And I'll even be scribbling sketches for those that want them.

See you tomorrow!

New Link added for Creator:

I've no idea how useful these are to folks, but if you are a creator on one of our strips, at any time in the present or the past- and you want to- send me a link to your blog. I've added a few that I've been asked to, and every now and then I think I should get organised enough to add more, but if you lot send me the links in- then I'll have no excuse.

Thanks to Eric Jackson (He's got a strip in the next Something Wicked called 'A Measure of Wheat for a Penny') for prompting me to do this by asking for a link.

1st Peek BUTCH STONE

BUTCH STONE is a strip commissioned for FutureQuake by writer Mike Moreci and Artist Andy Scordellis. Andy did THE CHEMICAL MARRIAGE is the current issue of FQ (14, you
do have a copy, don't you) and the pin-up he did for that was featured on this very blog.

Normally I don't like teasing for things that aren't finished yet, but I reckon this is spot on and a great way to warm up for a main strip.

The State of play November 2009.

I did this for Zarjaz & Dogreath last week, so it is only really fair to do it here too. There are a lot of strip pages currently awaiting printing for FQP. So far we have:

Murder, Ink by Nick Xylas and Rehaan Akhtar (3 pages for FutureQuake)
Flower Story by Azure and Sophia Grant (10 pages for MangaQuake)
Halloween in Hero town by Dan Rafter and Triluz (7 pages for MangaQuake)
Hunter/Prey by Mark Smith and Paul Johnson (3 pages for MangaQuake)
Outside the Box by Lawrence Conquest and Bolt-01 (5 pages for FutureQuake, and also available as part of the current TEMPLE
The Deadly Merger of Brilaxia Fo by Tom Davies and David Tomson (4 pages for FutureQuake)
Edge of Creation by Dan Hill and Bryan Coyle (5 pages for FutureQuake)
Ookai by Inko (7 pages for MangaQuake)
Search & Avoid by Inko (7 pages for MangaQuake)
A Measure of Wheat for a Penny by Eric Jackson, Chris Walker and Chris Fenoglio (6 pages for Something Wicked)
A Hobby a Day by Dan Hill and Matt Birks (2 pages for Something Wicked)
The Unleashing of the Ineffectual by Dave Tallerman and Duncan Kay (4 pages for Something Wicked)
Tom Foolery by Zackarya Anwar and Tony Suleri (8 pages for FutureQuake)
War of the worlds by Mark Howard and George Coleman (5 pages for FutureQuake)

Which is quite a bit!

We also have 123 pages of ‘actively commissioned’ strip and 101 pages of Script awaiting an artist.

All of which goes to show that we are going to be bringing you the best in the small press for quite a while yet!

Visit, The TEMPLE

The Temple is a digital showcase for many of the finest British comic creators and has five issues available for download.

The latest issue features OUTSIDE THE BOX, a strip that will be in the next issue of FQ, so if you want a preview of the strip take a trip to the temple and download the current issue.

The next issue is also going to be featuring FQP as it's small press feature, so I'd better get my big ol' behind in gear and sort out the stuff they need.

In other news- it is only two weeks to THOUGHT BUBBLE! Mental!