We’ve always prided ourselves on our event coverage at BF, providing themed weeks/fortnights/months like our Hackney Comic + Zine Fair Month, ELCAF Fortnight and Safari Festival Fortnight. It’s been an opportunity to put a focus on your festival debut comics through reviews, interviews, features and previews. Thought Bubble has been no exception and although last year was a little more subdued (for obvious reasons!) we have been bringing you the most comprehensive pre-festival guide to launch comics at TBF for some years now. Just check out our Thought Bubble Fortnight 2019 or Thought Bubble Fortnight 2018 for a strong example of our commitment to promoting your launch comics. With Thought Bubble 2021 looming here’s some thoughts on submitting for review this year. After all, we want to make sure we have the time to spotlight as many comics as we can, so take a read and then get your work our way!
When should I submit my comic by for Thought Bubble 2021 review consideration?
We will begin our Thought Bubble 2021 Fortnight on Monday November 1st. Realistically getting a review copy to us two weeks before that (around October 16th) gives us a decent lead-in time.
However, we’re old hands at this, and we know that many of you are working on your comics and getting them ready for print right up to near the commencement of the con. So feel free to submit as late as you want but bear in mind that the closer you get to November 13th the less chance there is that we will be able to get to it. Your comic would, for example, have to be spectacularly good to get a review if you leave it to a handful of days beforehand to contact us!
What format should I submit my comic in?
Either digital or print is fine. The advantages of sending a PDF is that it means the comic can be offered to the whole team and may increase your chance of a review significantly. Conversely, though, if there are tactile elements to your comic that really factor into the reading experience you may want to consider offering a print copy too.
How do I contact you?
We have a reviews submission e-mail on our Contact Us page here. Please e-mail us rather than DM-ing us on social media. There are 9 different social media accounts associated with Broken Frontier and it’s easy for us to lose track of DMs so e-mail requests only please.
Can I submit a recent comic that isn’t debuting at Thought Bubble 2021 but hasn’t been reviewed at Broken Frontier?
Absolutely. That’s encouraged! But the priority will be debut comics/books.
What kind of work will you be covering?
You can submit anything from any genre, style or approach to the medium. But we’re Broken Frontier so we will always gravitate towards work that is doing interesting things with the language of the form, is experimental in realisation, or looks to push the boundaries of what comics can do. Equally important in consideration for us is practice that gives a voice to the marginalised or has a socially conscious mission/subject matter.
Is there any other kind of coverage you are offering for Thought Bubble 2021?
You can also approach us for potential interviews though reviews are, again, the priority. If you want to create your own content for your debut book then we are always also happy to run our creator commentary Inside Look pieces (examples here). Just get in touch with us via the BF e-mail reviews address for more details.
Will you cover everything submitted?
Sadly we won’t get through everything submitted. We’re a small team fitting our reviewing commitments around full-time day jobs but we will endeavour to get to as many comics as possible. When e-mailing us though please do also include 4-5 pages of your debut comic in decent res jpg format for potential preview coverage. That way if we can’t get a full written review up we can at least hope to give you a short preview on the site to tempt the BF audience to your Thought Bubble table.
We’re looking forward to hearing from you all very soon!
Andy and the Broken Frontier Team
For more on Thought Bubble 2021 check out the TB site here.
