After over a year off, Comic Convention season is back again. And there are few bigger than the Thought Bubble Comic Festival 2021 in Harrogate. It takes place on November 13th and 14th in Harrogate and is a veritable Whos Who of the indie and small press world. It’s the Glastonbury of indie comics, the Mecca of small press, and the focal point of the year for many. As such we have put together our epic annual Thought Bubble preview, featuring some of the amazing comics which will be making their debuts at the event. So get your shopping list read and here’s what you should be picking up at Thought Bubble 2021!

Dan Butcher will be bring the 4th volume of his fantastic Brit superhero webcomic Vanguard to the hall. Read our full review of it soon. And you can find him and the rest of the Awesome Comics on the day. Read our full review here

Dave Cook’s Killtopia #3 will be available at a convention for the first time. You can read our full review of it here.

The Black Rubric from Chris Mole is a really fun slice of music based horror. When black metal singer stills is conned into releasing a demon through his new song it is up to the remaining members of the grip to help vanquish the demon. Despite the dark subject matter, artist Kate brings a light cartoonish touch to the pages and creates a book which is a lot of fun. Part band on tour part evil exorcism this is one ritual worth engaging in.

It’s been a bit of a quiet year for the wonderful Avery Hill this year, with only the new Tillie Walden collection Alone in Space and Lizzy Stewart and Molly Naylor’s Lights Planets People coming our way. But that looks set to change with Thought Bubble debuts for B.Mure’s Method of Dyeing (the latest chapter in the glorious Ismyre series which is without a doubt Avery Hill’s most under-rated series!) as well the brilliant looking Jinx Freeze by Hurk and Sour Pickles from Clio Isadora. We’ll have reviews of all of those very soon!

The brilliantly monikered Moonsquid will be releasing a new volume of her ‘eldritch fantasy horror’ series Tempest Red along with a repurposed chapter 1.

It’s the UK convention debut of small press classic Halloween Man collection Superdeformed. Edited by Russell Hillman (who will be manning the table) with story and art from Drew Edwards, it also features early artwork from Nicola Scott and David Baldeon, as well as introducing the flesh-eating superhero and his supporting cast.

It wouldn’t be Thought Bubble without a new book from Mat Greaves – his Chip McFitz books have been a perennial favourite for the past 3 years! Although this year we aren’t getting a new adventure from our favourite caffeinated detective, we at least will see BLAT his anthology homage to classic comix making it’s convention debut!

Based on the old school musical concept of a split EP, Split see two of our favourite small press creators: Matthew Dooley (Flake) and Joe Stone (Stutter) combine to create a surreal double header based loosely on the theme of split. As you would expect from this superb pair, it is gloriously weird and equally wonderful. Full review coming soon!

After a wildly successful Kickstarter Nick Bryan and Rosie Alexander’s technicolour fantasy Fairy Fare will be making it’s convention debut. Read out full review of it here.Nick will also have his 8-page mini comic Toys Of Fate from the WIP Comics anthology available.

Another collected edition hitting the convention scene for the first time is Fraser Campbell and Jame Corcoran’s Alex Automatic volume 1. This is a fantastic chance to read the first few issues of this mind bending mix of 60s sci-fi and dark conspiracy theories all in one place. Fraser will also have his book IND-XD which he produced with Lucy Sullivan available for the first time.

Dan Whitehead’s Hex Loader is another book which is getting the collected treatment. Set in the world of 1980s computer games, it’s a brilliant mix of 80s nostalgia and creepy tech horror that really benefits from being able to read the whole thing in one go. Read our review of issue 1-3 here and we’ll have a review of the whole thing soon.

Asa Wheatley will be bringing the second volume of his wonderful viking anthology series Sagas of the Shield Maiden Book 2 to Thought Bubble. Check out our review of Book 1 here.

The delightfully dark and sinister Frank at Home on the Farm will be available in a hardcover collection.

Rob Luckett is back with another volume of his toilet obsessed series Bumstorm: A Horse of Course. This one mixes Rob’s love of shonen manga like Dragonball, with his British sense of humour that revolves mainly around flatulence. For long time fans this work as an action packed ending to the first four issue run. For everyone else, there’s a lot of toilet based silliness involved!

Another surprise team up see sJohn Reppion (Conspiracy of Ravens) and MD Penman (Eimurian Tales) join forces for Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. A fascinating re-telling of this classic slice of Arthurian legend, with some truly eye catching artwork from Penman. Read our full review here!

Planet A Satellite sent us links to three fantastic looking books which they described as folows:  Hypnotopia – is an urban fantasy about the power of dreams; Return to Olympus is a fantasy story very much influenced by classical greek mythology and The Strange Dark is a sci-fi tale of inter-dimensional travel. All 3 have awesome looking covers and we can’t wait to find out more about them!

The brilliant Peter Morey will be releasing the 3rd chapter of his series Endswell – in our review we describe it as having “the quintessentially British family melodrama of the Archers, but told through the lens of a UK small press comics”. It’s another superb chapter in this wonderful series and well worth checking out! Read our full review here.

It’s been a while since we have seen a new comic from Dean Beattie (Random Trials) and so we were really intrigued to hear about this new team up with Eben Burgoon called Tiny Wizards.

The wonderful NPC Tea from Sarah Millman will be available in a collected edition for the first time. This has been one of our perennial favourites ever since the first glorious cyan and pink first issue, so use this as a chance to revisit this fabulous tale of fantasy character residing in tea shops in Cardiff!

We have been eagerly awaiting Candles, this epic new book from Lyndon White (The Mind of James Svengal, Mandy The Monster Hunter) and Cast Iron Books. We’ve been following it’s progress on social media and this looks set to be Lyndon’s best work yet and we cannot wait to check it out!

Don’t let your Dead Ones Die by Steve Thompson is described as “A zombie story with a big difference” – we’ll look forward to finding out what that is!

Kariss Jones creator of webcomic Orbit: Encounter will be bringing a collected print edition to a convention for the first time.

Madius Comic’s favourite Nick Gonzo will be releasing his new book Black Dragon. Based on Nick’s track record this is sure to be a fascinating and outlandish read!

Rebecca K Jones’ Boomerang part 2 is described as: “set in 2009/10 this coming of age story follows psychology graduate Claire who is languishing in her home town, in her continued search for employment. Expect awkward job interviews, gentle storytelling and recession era romance.” This looks like a wonderful series and we’ll have a full review soon.

Pete Doree (Stan and Jack) has teamed up with David Holman and Sean (Criminal) Philips to bring us The Kids from the Rec Road.

Another favourite from Thought Bubble 2019, Golf Girl from Chris Hazeldine looks set to bring us a new collected edition of a young girl embued with the powers of supreme golfing – despite hating golf!

CJ Barrett and Toria McCallum look set to bring us the enigmatically titled Charlie Don’t Swim.

Mollusc a Scottish muckmonster story set on the shores of Loch Ness. Find it at Table 26a in the Comixology hall.

ZomCon which is currently on  Kickstarter  will be debuting, it’s about a group of friends who go to Comic Con but oh no the zombie apocalypse breaks out! Gotta fight to get rare comics AND zombies now!

O Sarilho volume 2 is happening Find out more here.

Turning Roads is an anthology of Irish folklore comics, retelling old myths and legends in modern and future settings. Utilising elements of science fiction, fantasy and magical realism, 18 creative teams – featuring over 30 comic creators from Ireland and abroad – have come together to create a collection like no other.

Charles Raymond (who released the final chapter of his Death Inc trilogy in 2019) be releasing his new comic, The Gravedigger at Thought Bubble! He describes it as “A dark, absurdist comedy about a gravedigger and a dead comedian.” If it’s half as entertaining as Death Inc then it is sure to be another cracker!

Another creator who will be bringing a book to Thought Bubble after a successful Kickstarter this year is James Lawrence’s Legend of La Mariposa – The Climb And Other Stories. Read our full review here. This is a collection rarities and supporting stories which James produced while finishing his epic tale of a superhero luchador trying to find the elements of the Demon Gauntlet and join the Sons of Justice! As huge fans of comics and wrestling, this is one of the finest examples of a wrestling comic, but don’t worry if you’re not a grapple fan as it’s awesome heroine and colourful action packed artwork make it perfect for everyone!

The brilliant Martin Simpson (The Needleman, SKRAWL) has put together a fantastic limited edition artwork featuring some of his most popular print and commissions called PIX: A Book of Art by SIMO.

If like us you are huge fans of Russell Mark Olson’s Gateway City, then you will be excited to hear Russell will have the latest edition of his Gateway City Quarterly newspaper sized comic available on his table.

The glorious folk horror gangster comic Lad #3 from Umar Ditta will also be making its debut. Read our full review of it here.