Thought Bubble Festival

Date: 2008 November 07 13:43

Posted by Joe

UK anime fans who can get to Leeds will want to keep the 13th to the 16th November 2008 free for the Thought Bubble Festival. The Festival will have a great selection of anime and manga stuff, including film screenings too.

The Convention on Saturday 15th November 2008 (10am - 5pm) will have free entry to cosplayers!

They'll be screening the following films:
Sword of the Stranger
Mind Game
20th Century Boys
Detroit Metal City

We've already seen Sword of the Stranger, and watching it on a big screen is recommend.

Full Story

Press release as follows:

Thought Bubble: The Leeds' Sequential Art Festival is back for its second year!
The Thought Bubble Festival runs as part of the Leeds International Film Festival from November 13th - 16th 2008, and focuses on sequential art in all its forms. From comic books to storyboarding, it's all covered!

This includes a massive one day convention on Saturday 15th from 10am to 5pm at Saviles Hall Leeds and the Alea Casino, opposite the Royal Armouries. This is FREE to cosplayers!

There will be a number of fantastic guests at our convention event including Mark Millar (the creator of Wanted), Alex Maleev (award winning artist on Daredevil), Adi Granov (Iron Man film designer), Emma Vieceli, (Manga Shakespeare: Hamlet) Yishan Li (Cutie B) and Sonia Leong (Once Upon a Time) to name just a few.

All our guest artists and writers will be available for signing and sketches on the day. A select number will also take part in a variety of fascinating panels and talks. C.B. Cebulski will be conducting a Marvel portfolio review session, so any budding comic book artists should brush up their portfolios. There will also be a manga portfolio review held by Dimensional Manga at their booth! We'll have well over 100 tables of retailers selling everything from comics to Japanese merchandise, plus independent artists, small press and gaming! EA games will also present a terrifying walkthrough installation of their new game Dead Space!

Tickets for the convention are only £6 for the day, or £4.50 concession. Under 12s get in free with a full paying adult. Cosplayers get in FREE and are entered into our cosplay competition.


Don't miss Thought Bubble's first Book Crossing!
For the launch of our second festival we will attempt to turn Leeds into one huge comic shop in our goal to promote literacy and sequential art. This will involve a team of dedicated volunteers leaving some incredible graphic novels all over Briggate and the surrounding area in various cafes and shops. We want people of all ages to find these books, read them, keep them or pass them on.

Thought Bubble presents FREE art and writing based workshops for adults and young people!

We will also hold FREE art and writing related workshops for adults and young people run by top industry professionals. Our workshops will take place at various venues in Leeds on between 14th and 16th November. All you have to do is register in advance as places are limited. Keep an eye on our website for workshop details.

www.thoughtbubblefestival.com

A superb programme of comic related film screenings!

As part of the Leeds International Film Festival we are also able to present the best in brand new Anime and comic based movies. Over the course of our four day festival we'll be showing fantastic films at venues across Leeds, for more information visit www.leedsfilm.com


Manga related screenings

Anime Screening, Sword of the Stranger, 2.15pm & 8.45pm, Vue at the Light, £6/£4.50
One of the best action films of the year, Japanese anime Sword of the Stranger is the masterful debut of director Masahiro Andô, the key animator on Cowboy Bebop and Metropolis, and features breathtaking animation and a stunning soundtrack. On the run from the Ming's fighters, a young boy named Kotaro meets a nameless samurai who is haunted by a dark past and has vowed to never draw his sword again. In their friendship they face conflicts with feudal lords, conflicted monks, and an entire army.

Anime Screening, Mind Game, 4.30pm, Vue at the Light, £6/£4.50
The title of maverick anime masters STUDIO 4°C's cult magnum genius opus gets closest to explaining its 'What the hell?!' experience. Spawned from the equally cult underground manga series by Robin Nishi, from the magazine Comic Are!, Mind Game is what happens when the creative forces of hugely talented anime artists are unleashed inside your head. Nishi is an awkward young manga artist who is killed (graphically of course) in a yakuza crime, yet that is only the start of his staggering story... 'Exhilarating, life-affirming, a jolt of electricity straight to the eyes', Efilmcritic - 'Mindblowing', Japan Times.

Film Screening, 20th Century Boys, 5.30pm & 8.30pm, Vue at the Light, £6/£4.50
Based on the award winning, best selling Japanese manga series, this epic and stunning live action adaptation follows Kenji and friends as they race against time to stop a mysterious new cult led by 'Friend'. A series of catastrophic events appear directly linked to prophecies made by the group when they were children, prophecies that climax in an enormous, terrifying robot attack on the entire city. Friendship is tested in a world gripped by hysteria, assassination and acts of terror committed on a massive scale.

Film Screening, Detroit Metal City, 2.30pm, Hyde Park Picture House, £6/£4.50
The world's first and perhaps last death metal romantic musical comedy is here. Detroit Metal City brings the hit manga to hilarious life with songs about cheese tarts and sex on the River Styx, and guests Gene Simmons and the Power Rangers. Ken'ichi Matsuyama (Death Note's L) is a small-town farm boy who dreams of being a Japanese pop sensation and instead finds enforced stardom as death metal knight Sir Johannes Krauser II. How can he capture back his dream and his love from the claws of his fornicating devil persona?