Thoughtbubble was jolly good fun and I learnt a lot.
This year we were initially rejected which really bummed me out but then like a month before the deadline we got a table cos someone cancelled so then it was a mad rush of making stuff in that month to make it a feasible 603 brief and therefor not a waste of time. So i suppose a months preparation is better than the week I gave it last year, when I knew about it way in advance. I am growing as a human, slowly but surely.
The Thursday night there was a little event on at LS6 that Adam Becky and Tom were doing where they drew people live in the bar and there was a little comics exhibition. I initially declined to attend because I had a billion things to finish up before Saturday but in the end they were still there after we left college at nine so I went and joined in. It was a real test to the drawing skills having people right in front of you and sketching them live, in pen, next to like five other illustrators. People seemed to enjoy it though and they were free so it's fine. Nearer the end the management gave us a donation pot and we got like £16 in the last half an hour cos some guy gave us a tenner.
When it came to the actual event I was very grumpy because the night before at work I'd been given a flu jab and thus had a mild but quite debilitating case of fake flu.
I soldiered on though because I am very hardcore. After a litre bottle of pink lucozade I was back in the game.
Once I felt better I took advice from Kristyna, when she said at the zine fair, that she stands up at the table to get her more actively into talking to people and look more approachable. It did work it forced me to talk to people and them to talk to me, and I had a lot of nice chats.
There was one girl who was also an illustrator and she said I was way undervaluing my work and bought some stuff but paid me double for it
Then a guy came who bought giant tess last year and came back to see if I had something new
Then Mark Ellerby bought my giant tess
And eat sleep sniff bought some stuff too
And adams grandparents bought my cabaret poster
And I had a chat with a guy who claimed to hate digital work till I told him mine was significanlty digital and he hadnt realised and it blew his mind
There were many more pleasant interactions but these are the main ones I can remember right now.
The best sellers were the posters, at a fiver each, and I sold all 18 so yeah maths
Aside from that I sold out of tinder and cat zines, people have predictable tastes.
Giant tess did a lot better this year, i only sold two last year, one to the guy who came back and one to a girl called tess, but this year i sold way more just by redesigning the cover, so that paid off,
In the end I made just short of £200, which when you put it down to earnings per hour is quite poor and doesnt match up to my dentists job BUTTT it was £200 earnt doing something i ENJOYED, both making and selling the work, it was more of a social experience than a job, so despite the low hourly rate i'll be applying again next year
In the brief time i had to look around I bought some pretty rad stuff
I spent like £40 at drawn and quarterlys table cos I got the 25 years book with all the special convention ephemera they add for events its so nice, and Adult conteperary which he signed and its really nice and we talked for a while
Broco and friends are the most hilarious comics I've read in a long time, if not ever
the world is by the swedish risograph guys and they seem to have expanded significantly since last year
Theres a lot of great stuff going on when you filter through all the back issues of batman
