The Thought Bubble Sequential Art Festival is one of the premier comic conventions and celebrations of comic art in the country; it has grown exponentially over the last decade, from a tiny con in a basement of the Leeds Town Hall to the massive event it is today. For the last nine years, Thought Bubble has evolved to attract hundreds of thousands of rabid comic art fans, culminating each year with its world famous two day convention in the multi-room Royal Armouries location at Leeds Dock.

Today, the organisers of the show have announced their plans for next years week-long event, with a shift in dates into early in the year: 18th-24th September 2017. The convention – to held at the close of the Festival on the weekend of 23rd and 24th September will also be making a move back into Leeds Town Centre, with marquees spread across open spaces in the city, including Millennium Square and Victoria Gardens – this now means that Thought Bubble will be positioned squarely in the face of the general public, in a prime time of year right at the end of summer, opening up the festival and ‘…[bringing] our message to a wide audience’.

Well, at least it won’t mean a long trudge anywhere to find a working ATM next year! Sorry, Tesco Express but you got hammered!

This development will continue to allow Thought Bubble to grow and expand further as it takes over more locations in the city with events in the festival programme taking up residence in the Leeds Town Hall, Carrageworks Theatre and Leeds City Museum, all a stones throw from the TBF tented campus. (Indeed, the event will be making sure it retains its independent grass-roots vibe from the Royal Armouries setup instead of going the obvious comic convention route of taking over the First Direct Arena, located just up the road.)

Todays announcement is not exactly startling news, mind: the shift in dates for 2017 was confirmed at this years event to yours truly by an major exhibitor, which will be working with Thought Bubble on a collaborative project. We also had our suspicions back in October, with NICE Comic Con organiser Jeff Chatel stating back in October that, with the move of the dates of London Super Comic Con ‘and another large convention, due to the end of September’, it made the operation of NICE untenable – that event will be returning, refreshed in 2018.

The organisers have also planted their flag with the announcement of the first major Special Guest of the Festival: under the auspices of a celebration of the first anniversary of DC’s Young Animal imprint, creative director and curator Gerard Way (co-creator UMBRELLA ACADEMY / THE TRUE LIVES OF THE FABULOUS KILLJOYS) will be in attendance as a guest of honour to the show.

While this is not the first official representation of DC Comics at Thought Bubble – in the past, there have been panels featuring DC talent, including one in 2015 featuring creatives from the Vertigo imprint – this marks a increased presence from a major publisher outside of Image Comics which has been, at previous shows, the largest concession to the mainstream comics industry.

It will be interesting to see if this trend will continue as the Festival gets closer, whether it can maintain its independent spirit and keep attracting smaller creative talent or whether they will be swamped by the burgeoning headline-grabbing marquee names. Thought Bubble has done fine by this talent pool so far, by attracting individuals of a world-class caliber and giving them table space right alongside first time comics creators, but we shall see how the Festival will handle an appearance by one of the Big Two, even in this imprint capacity.

More om Thought Bubble 2017 announcements as we get them. You can also follow Thought Bubble on their social medias for the latest news, including their Twitter and Facebook.

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