At this year’s Thought Bubble, 2000 AD returned with the only talent search of its kind in the UK – with the prizes being paid work with the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic!

It’s Dragons’ Den meets the Nerve Centre as Tharg the Mighty’s droids sit in judgement on hopeful writers and artists looking to join their ranks.

The script competition, at which would-be writers have two minutes to pitch their idea for a Future Shock, took place on the Saturday afternoon in front of a panel made up of current 2000 AD editor and writer Matt Smith, writer Leah Moore, and writer and former 2000 AD editor Andy Diggle. Almost 30 entrants nervously awaited the chance to stand before a live audience and deliver their pitch, with a dozen making it through in time.

Congratulations to Liam Johnson, whose pitch impressed the judges and will now be published in a future issue of 2000 AD!

Script competition winner Liam with Leah Moore (left) and panel host Molch-R (right)

This year, entrants for the art competition had to draw pages from The Ticket, a Terror Tale by Paul Tobin and originally drawn by Dan Cornwell. After getting through a HUGE line of would-be contestants, 2000 AD editor Matt Smith chose nine entries to go forward to the judging panel on the Sunday morning.

In front of a live audience the panel – made up of writer Leah Moore (Storm Warning), and artists Mike Dowling (Anderson, Psi Division) and Frazer Irving (Judge Death) – went through each entry and gave advice to the artists on how to improve their work.

But in the end there could be only one winner – and the panel unanimously chose the entry by Robin Henley!

Art competition winner Robin Henley (right) with (from left) Leah Moore, Mike Dowling, and Frazer Irving

Robin will now join previous winners Paul Williams, Tom Foster, Daniel Dwyer, Will Morris, and Tilen Javornik who have all gone on to appear in the pages of 2000 AD!

This is the first two pages of Robin’s winning entry:

Thanks to all the contestants of both competitions – we’ll be back to Thought Bubble next year on the hunt for new talents for the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic!

And here are the other entries who made it through to the judging panel – which is your favourite?

Alfie Gallagher:

Andrew Strachan:

Anne Farron:

Brett Burbridge:

Dave Peloe:

Neil Williams:

Norm Chung:

Philip Reed:

Sinclair Elliott: