Opinião sobre Nada

ENG

(I apologize to the PT people perhaps I can review this post in Portuguese later on!)

It’s making about a Month now, since I went to Thought Bubble Sequential Art Festival. For personal reasons I had a bit of trouble processing the whole trip but I found myself in the latest days going over the Zines I adquire there and so came the necessity of finally speaking about it.

Leeds was a nice town. I thought I was going to be in a little town but really, compared to Portugal what is a little town. The first day I was there (I went with my friend Mosi) we went to discover the beautiful streets, eerie corners AND WHAT WAS 4 DEGREES CELCIUS (we also took a photo with the Tardis). We quickly discovered the Travelling Man which was one of the BEST comic book store I was ever in. It wasn’t that big but the variety and quality of the books there was astonishing (same for the gameboards) and the INDIE comics!!! OMgggggg. Leeds was a quite open city with beautiful gardens and hot drinks in every coffee shop everyone was nice and the only low points were the awfull design in beauty shops and how early everything closed (seriously we had no place to eat at 9pm except Mcdownlads that was closing at 10pm with also awful design and no Ice Tea).

But the Juicy part was The COMIC BOOK FESTIVAL

There were so many authors (SERIOUSLY THOUGH 440 Exhibitor Tables! - and here was I saying 200) one could easily get lost in so many wonderful works. It really pushes up the bar to what happens compared to Portugal. In Portugal the current Cons (growing now) are all turned to Merchandise and in Thought Bubble everything was turned to AUTHORS . Authors, writting, drawing - art everywhere - Panels discussing the latest INDIE releases and pressing matters. The only stores there were selling BOOKS. And since you have so many authors around you just turn off from the big companies (or at least I did). I serious felt a bit guilty not being able to pay attention to every author I passed by because every table was so carefully disposed, so much good work and you saw that everyone there was pushing themselves to aim higher and higher (I even felt a bit ashamed xox).

I didn’t know anyone there except for Sarah Graley Illustration (cutest!)works and KIM JUNG F***ING GI - which already made the experience overwhelming! - But I crossed a few people I’d like to mention because I was quite touched by their work. Note to Sarah: I’m sorry if I sounded awkward I was just really exited to meet you guys in person ๑•́ㅿ•̀๑) ᔆᵒʳʳᵞ

The first I’d like to mention is Maria Stoian Illustration. Even though her book was the main spotlight (and congratulations on that ;O;) I got instantly drawn to her zines since their graphic language seemed somewhat familiar to me. It’s a honest touching kind of work that I don’t think I can really describe and even though we’re not on the same page it seemed to me like a work i could heavily relate to. I just wish I could have given you something in return.

One of the main reasons that brought me here was We All Start At The Begining. A zine about mental-health and, most important, recovery. Una Comics was an author I was driven to meet by the description of her new book On Sanity at the Laydeez do comics panel. It was the only panel I was able to watch from half a dozen I was really interested in and all the authors speaking in the panel were working on stories of intense intimacy. The works of Una around mental health were specially moving to me both in the presentation and back at home. They have an honest aura around them, a touching yet gentle way to them. I’ll definitely follow them. Since all of this was brought on sensitive subjects I’d like to mention The Sad Ghost Club, the cutest club in all of Thought Bubble! I got some of the cutest stickers I’ve ever seen from them but mainly I just fell in love with the whole project and the nice message around mental health and self-acceptance! Congrats to Laura & Lize and I’m sorry I didn’t speak!! I really loved this project! And yet about nice messages one of the artists with the sweetest messages was Mike Medaglia. I only met him on a rush out of the con but the whole exhibitor table was so ever sweet! His work is completely sweet to the very last detail! And I’m repeating sweet here because I can’t think of a better adjective! I brought a Bee with me**

Last but not the least, another author with a very elegant kind of work was anja uhren illustration. It was so graceful I was apprehensive to even open her zine for I was afraid to tear it! Her work is a kind of magical comfit, a bit overwhelming. A quick thanks to #Jakedetonator for his trust and his Beatles poster!

Also would like to mention Daniela Viçoso, André Caetano and Ricardo Bessa Illustration who were the portuguese folks among the exhibitors!! They all have wonderful work you should totally check out. There are more author’s I’d like to mention and had no record of their name T-T But I have a cute Bumm Bag and Powerup patches to remember them (Doctor Geof!!! awesome patches here!).

For all of this review I could have spoken about how awesome was to hang with some of the best Portuguese authors, how JungGi Kim drew me (OMG!STILL) or how Mike Mignola was right there, but what touches me the most are small and simple projects with a lot of heart to them. I thank for everyone I met in those days and everyone who crossed my trip but I really wanted to make a little post about these projects that came home with me and, if you read it this far, I hope you will be just a little curious to check them out for they deserve recognition (as well as everybody there, really, this was so overwhelming x-x)

ALSO THANKS MOSI FOR BEING AN AWESOME FRIEND AND I LOVED TO GO WITH YOU T-T BAE FOREVER (Ɔ ˘⌣˘)♥(˘⌣˘ C)

External Links: Thought Bubble Travelling Man Maria Stoian Una Laydeez do comics The Sad Ghost Club Mike Medaglia Anja Uhren #Jakedetonator And if you didn’t know already! Sarah Graley Kim Jung Gi And portuguese exhibitors Daniela Viçoso André Caetano Ricardo Bessa