Good news! I will be tabling at this year's Thought Bubble Comic Con!
I will have copies of Taped From MTV, Ms Blackbird's Home For Peculiar People, and hopefully some copies of Cloudbusting for publishers, now that I have purchased the ISBN!
I am also hoping to run one or two workshops over the weekend.
This includes Cloudbusting, the graphic novel, Taped From MTV, and all Cloudbusting merchandise.
I have ordered a limited edition print run of Taped From MTV, so I will have 20 copies to purchase, along with the zine Ms Blackbird's Home For Peculiar People, and other prints, postcards etc.
I will be at table 58A in the redshirt hall!
I am unsure whether I will be able to bring my all new sanitisation station on the train! But here it is for visitors planning to come!
So, the following is my experiences for my first Thought Bubble Festival!
Arrival!
For information, travel and accommodation was paid for out of my last respite funds. I haven't been awarded any more respite funds for next year, as apparently I'm "just a Mum". So following the advice of Kev Comics, I am thinking of running a workshop in Harrogate to cover this next year if they are still being trying to economically stonewall me.
Who wouldn't want to buy these amazing goodies?
The goal: To earn a minimum of £500 via sales and commissions.
I aimed higher than this, as I need another £800 worth of sales to reach the £1000 turnover threshold to be eligible for a SEISS grant.
Stock value is over £1000, so this was achievable.
Evening doodling at Major Tom's Social for Thought Bubble Broken Frontier Drink N Draw!
The prompt was "The World's Oldest Man", so I drew The Curator from Doctor Who - see below, bottom sketch :-) Someone did the Tenth Doctor when he aged hundreds of years :-)
The Starling Cafe inspires more bird - themed art!
The results: End of Day 1 = No sales :-(
I was obviously using respite funds, so I took time out to have a look around Harrogate, and I liked what I saw!
The Pump House Museum and an original sulphur spring! Of course, we had Harrogate Spa water to keep us replenished :-) Except one mad person who brought a bottle of Buxton... Oooh!
I discovered this lovely fika cafe - called Fik! For frokost :-)
But first, kaffe!
I later found the female Thor And Loki! And Una Comics!
Sunday morning, I was invited for a breakfast for kings and queens with Supermeeps at Betty's Tea Room :-)
I need to find the Yorkshire version of Dearnley's Tea-O-Meter I was in the process of making! Here's one for the Care Crisis!
Results: Day 2 I sold one print for £18
Lots of interest in Cloudbusting, so I'm still hopeful people will buy a copy online - glad I didn't get loads printed.
And I did get my hands on a Swear Trek badge...
Goal: £500 Actual earnings: £18
Highlights were Nicolas Cage trousers, female Thor & Loki, and the panel about British comics :-)
So, in all, I was glad to have made it, but I'm planning a strategy for how this can be improved.
1. The stall was kindly offered for free by Thought Bubble, so this could be a permanent thing for illustrators who are carers?
Otherwise, I would need to gain either commissions for leather jackets, or workshops sometime before January. I'm currently not planning any workshops until the New Year, unless funding is successful.
2. The hotel and train travel was funded by respite funds, so I will be working towards restoring that funding by July 2022.
Otherwise, I would need to gain either commissions for custom converse, or workshops sometime before November. I'm still working on sourcing funding for more workshops from spring next year, otherwise I could organise one for Harrogate in the week before, or on the Sunday, which was something I had thought of before the weekend, but we had new carpets fitted, so I had no time to organise it.
3. Sales of work! I had over £1000 worth of stock, so a minimum of £300 worth of sales would cover the hotel and train travel! My goal was a minimum of £500, but £800 would make the £1000 threshold to be eligible for a SEISS grant...
I'm starting to think it would be better for business to mint all work as NFTS...
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