The Thought Bubble Anthology is the third annual comic book accompaniment to the Leeds Comic Art Festival which this year falls on 23-24 November. Most anthologies tend to be an even mix of good and bad stories though this year's Thought Bubble Anthology was really enjoyable and features an abundance of absolutely brilliant comics from some of the best creators in the industry. Marc Ellerby's Chloe Noonan: Monster Hunter/Ellerbisms crossover was definitely my favourite as he sends up his own work (autobiographical comics), comic book perceptions of non-comics readers, and digital comics all in one brilliantly written and drawn self-contained story. The final panel is perfect and this comic will have you looking up more of this artist's work. Cameron Stewart and Brandon Graham's One Night in Comicopolis is so good it should have its own series. A woman carrying a caption box through streets made up of comics panels is pursued by a thought bubble a la The Prisoner and escapes with the help of an ideas salesman. Surreal and clever, this story is fantastic and looks terrific too with Stewart and Graham both contributing their wonderful art. Dave Berry's Hey You of a man in a hotel room unable to sleep for a monster whispering dark thoughts to him is both creepy and funny at the same time while Lizz Lunney's Hotel Feline caters to the current trend of cats in comics in the vein of The Oatmeal and Claire Belton. Ming Doyle contributes a surreal poetic story in My Dream which also incorporates childhood art and, like all of Doyle's stuff, looks absolutely amazing. Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba continue the thoughtful comics with their Rooftop story about an ambiguous time in a person's life - if you enjoyed their De:Tales book, this brief story is similar in tone to the stories collected there. Nicolas Gurewitch's comic is as funny as you'd expect, giving us the origin of how Pangaea broke up to form the world we have today (I highly recommend Gurewitch's The Perry Bible Fellowship if you've never read it) and Jeffrey Brown's comic is a sweet tribute to the late comics legend, Moebius. Other fun comics here include Jessica Martin and Mark Buckingham's tale of a woman in a park who spots an attractive cyclist and imagines their life together where he becomes a sports celebrity and she his doting wife - until she's ditched by an imaginary younger model! There's also a fun Judge Dredd story that crosses over with Elephantmen as Hip Flask goes back in time to become Judge Flash and encounters Dredd and PSI Judge Anderson in The Umpty Gun. A forbidden sweet that induces hallucinations and a weird gun all come into play in this beautifully drawn comic.
Amid all of this incredible talent are the winners of last year's Thought Bubble Art Competition which are as good as the professionals' contributions. David Parkinson's Believe In Yourself is a powerful and funny story of a small girl who dunks a basketball with the help of a group of older boys' teasing laughter, while Emily Kimbells' Mittens is a magical realist silent (no dialogue) piece about an eskimo kid who encounters mermaids in the arctic. Wonderful art and elegantly told in a single page, Kimbells' comic came second place though I feel it should've won the top prize. If you love thoughtful, original and imaginative comics, check out Thought Bubble Anthology #3 for some truly amazing work throughout and discover some brilliant new artists. Also, all profits of the comic go to the children's charity, Barnado's, so you get a great comic and help vulnerable kids at the same time. This is a delightful read that's well worth picking up.
Published by Image, Thought Bubble Anthology #3 is out now.