harrogate

Thought Bubble 2025

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A photo of the comics, posters and related paraphernalia that we picked up at Thought Bubble

Last Sunday, we went to Thought Bubble Festival Comic Con in Harrogate. Overall, it’s our fifth time that we’ve been, and the second year in a row.

We first went to Thought Bubble in 2014. Back then, it was hosted at the Royal Armouries in Leeds, and used their event space, the New Dock Hall and a temporary marquee. We also went in 2016, when Christine was pregnant, and again in 2017, with our then 10 month old baby in tow.

We then had a seven year gap, before going back last year. By this point, Thought Bubble had outgrown the Royal Armouries, and so it’s now hosted at the Harrogate Convention Centre. This was first built in 1982, and hosted that year’s Eurovision Song Contest thanks to Bucks Fizz winning with ‘Making Your Mind Up’ the year before. It’s been expanded a couple of times since, and Thought Bubble takes over 4 of the halls plus the Queen’s Suite.

What we like about Thought Bubble is that the focus is on comic art and the artists that create it. The only celebrities there are the comic artists themselves – you generally won’t find anyone who’s acted in a superhero film here. And whilst there are comic artists for the likes of Marvel, DC and Dark Horse here, there are many, many independent creators too. Amongst these creators, LGBTQ+ people are well-represented, and there were a few people of colour there too. This is no accident – Thought Bubble offers micro-bursaries to under-represented groups, which is really welcome. After all, comic books are about telling stories, and it’s great to have a wide variety of people able to tell their stories.

Kid’s zone

Another great thing about Thought Bubble is that about half of one hall is a designated kid’s zone. This includes those whose comics are primarily for kids, but also includes a play area, and a big area sponsored by The Phoenix. The Phoenix is a weekly kids comic – a bit like the Beano in some respects, except the individual comic artists are more prominent. If you’ve ever come across Bunny vs Monkey, Super Robo Bros or Donut Squad, these are all regulars in The Phoenix. Our nine-year-old loves all of these, and was delighted to be able to take part in a workshop with Donut Squad’s creator, Neill Cameron.

The photo at the top shows most of the things we picked up there, which should keep us busy for a while. Christine also bought a new pair of socks, and we bought a couple of games, including The Necrohamster.

I’m pretty sure we’ll go back next year. It’s fun and all three of us enjoy it.

Visiting Harrogate

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Harrogate Royal Pump Rooms Museum

Today Christine and I took advantage of the fact that we both had annual leave and went on a day trip to Harrogate. Unfortunately it was rather cold, wet and very windy, so it wasn’t the most enjoyable visit.

We visited the Royal Pump Room Museum, which is built above two of Harrogate’s famous wells and charts the history of the town. It’s a nice little museum in an interesting building, which takes around an hour to get around. Oddly there’s also a small exhibition of Egyptian artefacts there as well.

No visit to Harrogate would be complete without a visit to Betty’s. Admittedly Betty’s isn’t unique to Harrogate; there’s two in York, one in Ilkley one in Northallerton and a second tea room and tea house at RHS Harlow Carr, but unlike the team rooms in York the queue for lunch isn’t usually snaking out of the door and around the block. In fact, we could pretty much walk straight in when we visited at midday today, although it was, of course, a Monday in February – not exactly peak tourist season.

I like Harrogate because it has character, and many of its Edwardian and Victorian buildings have been well-preserved. We don’t go there very often, as it takes a good two hours to get there by train from Sowerby Bridge, but it’s a nice day out.

Some of the photos that I took are already on Flickr. I also uploaded several from our last visit in May 2010, as apparently I didn’t upload those at the time. Which makes me wonder what else I haven’t uploaded to Flickr over the years.