Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Explosive Sweet Freezer Razors, harrogate, thought bubble

Gareth A Hopkins Launches Explosive Sweet Freezer Razors

Published Fri, 11 Nov 2022 03:57:09 -0600

Gareth A Hopkins has two new books launching at Thought Bubble this weekend. Explosive Sweet Freezer Razors and its companion comic Pyramid Studies, after being successfully Kickstarted in September. And he has big claims to make about them. Ones he is prepared to back up!

Explosive Sweet Freezer Razors is a 244 page collection of 10 abstract comics unlike anything you'll have read before. Manifest as paper it has a soft cover and is A5, a mighty slab of wonder. 8 of the comics included are full colour, the other two are black & white.

Pyramid Studies is a bewildering rush of abstract narratives. Created from the parts of the Explosive Sweet Freezer Razors project which didn't fit neatly into the 10-part structure of the collection, Pyramid Studies supports and recontextualises its parent book.

Each of the stories in Explosive Sweet Freezer Razors, including Pyramid Studies, is a combination of the fantastic and the mundane, told within and against a background of vivid and uncompromised abstract art.

Some of the stories have previously been released relatively widely; others were released in extremely limited, hand-bound editions; some are being printed for the first time in this collection.

A collision of the spiritual and the visceral, the heart-warming and the horrific. You haven't read anything like this before.

Here's a look at some sample artwork from some sample stories…

THE BONES OF THE SEA is about the place that exists after the end of the world, and it's also about apples, sandwiches, and waiting in car parks.

NOTHING gives us glimpses into the lives of 65 different people, and reality crashing shut after them.

A HILL TO CRY HOME is about ghosts, and baths.

PETALBURN is about the last great night out you'll have.

THUNDERS is about having your hair cut, trying veganism, and experiencing time slips after an alien abduction.

MOON PUKE tells the story of Jonathan as he swims in the energy of empty car parks.

THE HUM is the hypnotic and fractured retelling of a totally normal weekend at home.

THE CHILDREN OF THE VALLEY follows a landscape as it's twisted and forced out of shape by unseen forces.

In NOT THIS HOUSE you'll meet a ghost, and the house that it haunts

And in TUESDAY'S SALTED CURSE you'll follow the dance of a group of witches as they finally murder a ruined world.

Thought Bubble is the UK's largest comic art festival; a week-long celebration of comics, illustration, animation, and more that culminates in this weekend's comic convention. Focused on those who create comic books, specifically the artists, and the writers, it is especially supportive of small press. The festival was founded in 2007 by Yorkshire artist, Lisa Wood, also known as Tula Lotay, and was organised as part of the Leeds International Film Festival to raise the profile of comics in the area. The first Thought Bubble was held on Saturday, 10 November 2007 in the basement of Leeds Town Hall and was attended by a couple of hundred people, but has grown a little since then. The convention originally ran throughout Leeds but, in 2019, due to issues with Leeds City Council and the need for more space, the convention moved to nearby Harrogate. And earlier this year, Lisa Wood stepped down from the role of director to be taken by Travelling Man's Nabil Homsi. This week's events are already underway and the convention begins on Saturday the 12th of November until Sunday the 13th of November. Bleeding Cool will be reporting from the show all weekend long. Do feel free to say hi!

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