PORCELAIN: Bone China Preview

Thought Bubble is something my husband and I look forward to every year. Some readers may remember that we got engaged on stage there in 2012 during the cosplay competition, so it's special to s for a LOT of reasons.

This year was a little more low-key for us. We got married in September, honeymooned, got new jobs and other life-stuffs and didn't get our costumes for this year's cosplay up to our usual standards. We decided to attend ThoBubbs for just one day and in our civvies - a first!

One thing that remained on out absolutely-have-to-to list was to visit our Improper Books Chums. I wrote (what seems like an age ago) a review of the first offering of theirs that I came across which I think goes some way to explain how I feel about this incredibly creative and imaginative team.. PORCELAIN: A Gothic Fairy Tale was perfect bait for the butterflies in my belly and I'm so excited that the second instalment of this beautiful story will be available to swap for magic beans (though probably not, probably just cash) in 2015...

PORCELAIN: Bone China Preview

Hearing of this preview made me nervous. Anxious in a kind of 'never meet your idols' way. I adored A Gothic Fairy Tale and had such high hopes for its sibling. I was worried about it for about .000001 of a second before reminding myself that these guys know exactly what they're doing and that we have nothing to fear.

For those of you who weren't able to get down to TB or who (like me) need to inhale every molecule of their favourite stuff, you can download a .pdf of the PORCELAIN: Bone China preview for your enjoyment.

Let's just talk about the cover for a moment. Green. Green is my favourite colour, the hue of my blogging alias and of course, the shade of choice for the great and magnificent Oz. Some of these things may be coincidence, though I feel that the latter is not. Like A Gothic Fairy Tale, this book already feels like an old familiar bed time story, your favourite after-dark childhood story told by torchlight, but with those veins of adult reality running through every word.

Here come the (semi) spoilers.

I feel like child is my favourite niece. Or an on-paper version of the adventurer I thought I was when I was a kid. In A Gothic Fair Tale, she tugged at my heart strings and knocked on the lid of the box of my fondest memories. In Bone China, she's like a familiar cousin - one you've always looked up to, admired and loved. Her barbed wit and matured into a venomous, assured spear that she will throw if you so much as err on the wrong side of her.

The introduction of a whiff of a love interest admittedly evoked mixed feelings in me. I feel protective of child but very quickly, this empathic emotion-set shifted as we see Child planted so firmly 10 years on from when we saw her last. She is stunning - Wildgoose has done our girl proud and rendered that little scamp into a beautiful young woman. This fits. This is how the story goes and it flows so well from before. The introduction of a few new characters doesn't feel shoe-horned and I'm excited to see how this all pans out.

The full release of the next gorgeous chunk of this story will be out next year - 2015 can't come soon enough.

Thought Bubble 2012

We can't believe it's over already! We're are still reeling from all the super-excitement of the weekend, but we'll sit still long enough to tell you of our adventures! A double dose of Thought Bubble delights this year and stayed in Leeds for the whole weekend. We dawdled, grinning through what seemed like miles of comics, art, creative folks and fun. I dedicated Saturday to emptying my wallet, which as I suspected, was not a difficult or taxing chore at all. Here's a little look at my loot!

Where do I start? At the beginning is as good a place as any... Saga has been on my list for longer than I can remember. Recently, at my local comic shop in Hull - it's owner and my friend Paul, with backing vocals from my friend Downsy loudly sang the praises of this book and all but accused me of lunacy for not reading it already. The same was said about my boyfriend Tom, so this is his copy in the snap above.

Tom and I stumbled upon this brilliant Deadpool print and simultaneously giggled with glee. Not least because he was actually cosplaying as Deadpool, but because the print features noms from ' Los Pallos Hermanos', AKA the Mexican food joint / drugs Op cover-up in Breaking Bad. We're totally obsessed with this show and this with Tom's favourite character in one print was a 'don't-even-need-to-think-about-it' purchase. Signed by the artist; Gibson Quarter and inker; Guillermo (will) Ortego. We love this print and proudly added it to our art collection ready for display when we move house in't new year. Next is a gorgeous little Becky Cloonan print from The Mire. It was great to get a chance to chat to Becky about her new stuff.

I don't know why I love this simple scuba-pus print so much, it was just one of those things that caught my eye. When we got our ThoBubbs booty back to the hotel, I discovered that this is actually printed on the back of an album sleeve - for none other than the classic musical South Pacific. Don't tell my Mum! This would be like blasphemy to her!  The blue octopus, scribbly viking and top hat dude are all hand printed and painted by Dan Charnley, a thoroughly lovely chap who actually threw in one of these prints free despite us trying to pay him for all three. 'Illustrator and imagineer' and fellow Northern monkey and a  with a love of blogging, Dan has an  Ebay shop where he has prints for sale from 99p. Not bad at all, eh? 'The Indian Fighter' was another little treat that provoked an 'ooooh' and convinced us pretty easily to dig out four English pounds and purchase a copy. Gareth Sleightholme created this, his first comic from my neck o' the woods; Hull. You'll find regular updates on their blog where there passion for creating what they love is almost tangible. We're yet to sit down with The Indian Fighter, but if Sleightholme's excitement for this venture is matched even by half in the book itself - then we're in for yet another treat. Expect to see more on this gang.

The super-sweet icing on our nerd-cake booty from this weekend comes from Improper Books -  'a collective of comic creators formed in 2009 by Benjamin Read (Writer), Laura Trinder(Artist) and Chris Wildgoose (Artist). While collaborating together on the set of UK independent feature WARHOUSE, the trio discovered a mutual love for comics, illustrated books, and the darker side of fairy tales and set about making their own. '

Porcelain: A Gothic Fairy Tale was laid out across a whole table and refused to be ignored. I'm always scavenging for something new and unique and I honed in on this specimen immediately. My interest tickled, we ambled through the crowds, closer to the table upon which laid even more delights than we first thought. We were welcomed and then invited to take a copy of Porcelain by Benjamin Read, who explained to us what they hoped to achieve by creating, what they loved about, and what they have delivered in their work. Defined on Twitter as 'a comic and graphic novel imprint focusing on stories that have a touch of the fairy tale, the Gothic or the macabre'  the samples we were lucky enough to get our mitts on have earned that juicy description, for sure.

Deliciously dark and deep, the eerie art is coloured to perfection by Andre May to create panoramas and close-ups of equal detail and emotion. Page by page, this preview gripped me more tightly and it's final page left me feeling like I'd been riding a bus and suddenly everyone vanished right in front of me. Shocked, confused then intrigued  If it weren't for some little pre-treats from Benjamin Read on what's coming next, I'd have felt absolutely stranded; precisely the way you should feel after a 'gothic fairy tale'. Needless to mention, I can't wait for the rest of this!

From the very same comic-collective; Butterfly Gate, which actually appears before Porcelain on that snap up there, but formed the second part of my Improper Books discovery - and hey, these are HoB rules for writing so I've done a tad of jumbling. After chatting to the wonderfully excited and passionate Benjamin about Porcelain, he gave us a little run-down on Butterfly Gate, or at least it's little black and white preview that was also sprawled out on their table.

Nurtured to fruition by the same creative team who worked on Porcelain, Butterfly Gate  features 'A Brother and Sister leave our world and its rules behind, journeying into legend through the Butterfly Gate, where every step they take will come at a price.'  This is truly another snippet of something brilliant form a team who know exactly what they're doing. A story told through art and panels alone, totally empty of text and yet utterly full of some of the best story telling I've read in a long time. Both stories run with child protagonists and yet don't feel childlike in the delivery of their tales, their imagery or their themes. Butterfly Gate, especially is a deep and exploratory introduction to what I feel will hold strong in it's intention to form the foundations of an epic story. I only got to see the black and white preview of this new treat but the full thing will be released in full colour.

Keep your pupils pointed this way for further chat on these favourites. Hungry as always for exciting new creations, this is a mere taste-test of these new and vast segments of the world that've got us thumping the table with our knives and forks. My boyfriend Tom and I absolutely loved discovering this gems together and haven't stopped talked about Thought Bubble 2012 since we got back a week ago. Of course, it could also have something to do with the fact that he did this: My boyfriend Tom proposed on stage during the Cosplay Competition!  I got fiancéed at Thought Bubble 2012! Bleeding Cool put this online just moments after we did - which is pretty mega!

Thank you so much to everyone for all of your kind comments and congratulations. This was the best convention I've ever been to, the quickest I've ever made a costume (1 week) and the happiest day of my life so far. Nerdiest proposal ever? Just wait for the wedding!