Transcription of interview conducted by telephone on 22 December 2014. Parts of this interview were used in Farthing, A. & Priego, E., (2016). ŌGraphic MedicineÕ as a Mental Health Information Resource: Insights from Comics Producers. The Comics Grid. 6(0), p.3. DOI: http://doi.org/10.16995/cg.74 BISERKA STRINGER-HORNE, BLOGGER FOR COMICS CREATORS AT COMICS EXPLORER TUMBLR AND FESTIVAL COORDINATOR FOR THOUGHT BUBBLE COMIC ART FESTIVAL COULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR ROLE WITH THOUGHT BUBBLE? WeÕre quite a small organisational team, so everybody does a little bit of everything. ŹDuring the year, we have one full-time member of staff whoÕs called Martha [Julian], and I basically just help her with all of the day-to-day running and organisational stuff. ŹSo I work two days a week, and we help organise guest travel, exhibitor liaison, table planning, venue booking, project management, facilitating making comics Š pretty much everything that goes into organising a festival. ŹWe work with refugees and the Leeds Autism Services and do things throughout the year with them, and we always do a big project every year thatÕs funded, so we organise all of those things as well. So Martha works five days a week, and I think there are seven of us, eight of us, who work for Thought Bubble at different levels. Martha does the most, and then everyone else does it as and when weÕve got time because, apart from Martha, weÕre all unpaid. CAN YOU DESCRIBE WHAT YOU THINK EVENTS LIKE THOUGHT BUBBLE GIVE TO COMICS PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION? Well, from my experience of it, I think the biggest thing that it gives is that itÕs a really great networking opportunity for creators and for publishers, because most of the time people are at home on their own making their work, and if theyÕre lucky theyÕll be at a studio with a couple of other creators, or theyÕll know a few people who live locally that theyÕll meet up with. But I know that Thought Bubble is the biggest networking event of the year, because itÕs kind of the festival that everybody knows everyone will also be at. So thatÕs always been really great for us to see new partnerships coming up, or people meeting other creators that theyÕve admired for a really long time. And we have quite a lot of social events in the evenings and you always just end up getting loads of creators, just sitting around and sharing all of their techniques with each other and talking about the things that inspire them and sharing all of that, which is really lovely to see. So I think in that respect, itÕs helping bring people together so that they can encourage each other in their work, which is really good. And also itÕs a really good place, because weÕve got a lot of publishers, big publishers, who come and do portfolio reviews and things like that, and then smaller publishers as well, and itÕs a really good place for creators and publishers to seek each other out. And so a lot of people go along to festivals Š not just our one Š with the view that theyÕre going to take their comics to publishers, to try and get taken up by them. And also I think for finding new fans Š festivals are also a really, really good thing. ŹSo itÕs broadening peopleÕs reach, so that helps with their financial base, to help create more comics. AND TO WHAT EXTENT DO YOU THINK CONVENTIONS AND FAIRS ACTUALLY INFLUENCE THE WORK OF PRODUCERS AND PUBLISHERS? A lot of people blog about their experience after they come to us, and one of the big things they say is, for example, ŌBeing in a room full of 300 really talented people really made me want to up my gameÕ or ŌBeing around all of those great people made me want to just improve what I do even more.Õ And I think that thatÕs one of the big things that I think that festivals are really great for, when theyÕre done right Š people get so inspired by each other. I donÕt know if youÕve been around the comics community in the hub of it very much, because itÕs just such a friendly and wonderful community. Everybody is willing to share each otherÕs expertise and help each other out. ŹLike when I started out in comics, people who I barely knew gave me a leg up and made sure that I had work, so that I could get into it. And I met them at Thought Bubble when I came the first time and I exhibited. I think thatÕs really great because it just brings everybody together and encourages you to network. IT SEEMS THE COMICS WORLD IS FULL OF ENTHUSIASTS. IS THAT YOUR EXPERIENCE? Yeah, definitely. Well, itÕs not a place that you can be in and make loads of money, unless youÕre Rob Liefeld [comics creator and co-founder of Image Comics], I think heÕs the only person whoÕs ever made money in comics! But yeah, itÕs something that is driven by a love of it. What IÕve found as well Š this is in my situation and also most people that I speak with Š that people get into comics because itÕs escapism from something. ItÕs like a form of self-therapy. So some people will get into comics because they feel socially excluded. I got into it because I was ill. And itÕs like a safe haven for people when they first get into creating them and itÕs like a different mode of expression, because itÕs such a hybrid of loads of different art forms. And I think thatÕs something that makes the community so special, because we all know that none of this us there because we want to make money Š weÕre all there because we love it, and that is really wonderful. Again, because you just love comics so much, you want to help everybody make great comics, because then thatÕs kind of good for you, too. When I first came into it, I kind of assumed that it would be like any other industry, where thereÕs a level of healthy competition, but I didnÕt find that at all. My first job, the guy who gave it to me, I think that he kind of passed up on him doing that job, so that I could have it, and IÕd never done anything like that before. And the only reason that he connected to me was because we were both from Newcastle! We were talking at the first Thought Bubble I was at, and we both found out we were from Newcastle, and it was kind of like, ŌAh, right Š IÕve got to look after you now.Õ It was really sweet. DO YOU THINK SOCIAL MEDIA AND INTERACTIONS INFLUENCE HOW PEOPLE PRODUCE COMICS IN ANY WAY? I think so, but I donÕt think that itÕs an influence on actual content. I think itÕs an influence on their production. So thereÕs the great networking stuff that we do at festivals like Thought Bubble, and then you go away and youÕre working on your own, and maybe youÕve been working for a couple of weeks and youÕre feeling a little bit down or a bit lonely, and social media Š especially Twitter, where most of the comic creators talk to each other Š thatÕs a really great lifeline back into the community. Because weÕre all isolated from each other mostly, and when you go on that and interact with each other and see what other people are doing, you get a little bit of moral support Š that can be a really good way of perking you up when youÕre having a bit of a dip. So, in that, for keeping you going, social media, especially Twitter, is essential. And then thereÕs other things like Instagram and Tumblr, which are really great for sharing your work and getting a lot of kudos for it. I know that Instagram is becoming increasingly popular, because itÕs just such a quick way Š because itÕs so visual, when people are drawing or doodling, and itÕs a great to instantly share that. And itÕs really good to be able to see the little techniques that people are using in their sketches and stuff like that. Tumblr is really good for spreading the word, because I think a lot of people find it really hard finding new fans, and I think that Tumblr is one of the few places where itÕs good to reach out to new people, to be able to spread stuff thatÕs outside of festivals. But in terms of the production, I think that a lot of people communicate with each other on social media, so if youÕve got a creative team, who donÕt see each other face-to-face quite a lot, then it can be good for that, in the same way that email can. I canÕt really imagine comics would be where they are without a way for everybody to keep in touch with each other en masse. I think even if we just had email, it would be a lot more isolated. A lot of people at festivals talk about going and meeting their online friends in real life, because theyÕre people that theyÕll have spoken to on Twitter a lot. So I think that in terms of keeping people together and that kind of motivation Š itÕs important that comics are driven by a creative drive thatÕs inside you, and I think that helps keep it going. And yeah, I think that some of the peripheral stuff of the production of comics maybe it just wouldnÕt be as easy. DO YOU THINK THEREÕS A LOT OF SHARING OF TECHNICAL EXPERISE ON SOCIAL MEDIA AS WELL? Yeah, that was kind of one of the motivations for me starting up my blog, because every day you go on Twitter and somebody has shared a link thatÕs really useful. And I imagine there must be people who miss out on that if you donÕt follow quite the right person or something. So I felt that thereÕs this social media platform where people are doing that anyway, but why isnÕt there a website where people can go to and get those things as well? Because the memory of a social media platform is so short, that if you miss something one day, youÕre never going to see it again. But something on a website Š itÕs there, itÕs always there, and you can search through it and all of that. So that was a big motivation to me. DO YOU ATTEND ACADEMIC COMICS CONFERENCES, SUCH AS COMICS FORUM THAT RUNS ALONGSIDE THOUGHT BUBBLE? IÕve never actually been to Comics Forum, and IÕve wanted to go every year. The one year that I thought I could go was when I joined Thought Bubble, and I just had no time. But I do quite a lot of academic reading around comics studies, so although IÕve never been to a conference, I feel a lot like IÕm plugged into it, more than most comic creators are. DO YOU THINK THAT WIDER COMICS CULTURE SHAPES THE ACADEMIC DISCOURSE TO ANY DEGREE? Yeah, I think so. ŹA lot of the stuff that IÕve come across gets caught up in the whole stumbling block that I think has been in the academic discourse for a while Š that Ōcomics arenÕt a real art formÕ. And I think a lot of people in the beginning were trying to justify comics studies as much as piggybacking on their having to justify comics. I donÕt know very many comics creators who are plugged into the academic stuff thatÕs going on in comics Š so I wonder if maybe academics pay attention to comics, but they donÕt talk to comic creators, and comic creators donÕt really pay attention to academic stuff. ŹThe two fields are running in parallel, but theyÕre not really talking to each other, and it seems that academics are learning a lot from the comics that are made, but comic creators arenÕt learning that much from academics. And I think thatÕs a bit of a shame because thereÕs stuff out there Š Ian [Hague] who runs Comics Forum wrote this great book Comics and the Senses, and there are a lot of people who are working on that kind of stuff. So it would just be fantastic if comic creators took that on board, if you could make comics for people who were blind and thatÕs the kind of stuff that IÕm really interested in. That may be something where we could work on together. But from the wider culture of comics, I donÕt really see that academics are feeding in, but I see it the other way around. DO YOU THINK COMICS CAN SEEM IMPENETRABLE OR INTIMDATING TO PEOPLE WHO ARE OUTSIDE THAT WORLD OR TO WIDER AUDIENCES? Yes and no. I remember when I first got into comics, I thought it was kind of intimidating, because I think a lot of peopleÕs first entrance into comics is through the cartoons or the superheroes stuff and film. I think people who are really into that have always really been into comics, thereÕs no entry point for them Š they just launch in. But if youÕre the kind of person thatÕs a bit of a casual viewer of that Š I know that I worried a lot that I wouldnÕt know enough or IÕd get something wrong. But I think that nowadays, definitely in the past three or four years, itÕs changed so dramatically, now that graphic novels are quite well-respected and theyÕre stocked in places like Waterstones. And so you donÕt have to go into a comic shop to get into comics Š you can just wander into a normal bookshop and pick up stuff off the shelf. And thereÕs so much that doesnÕt have anything to do with superheroes, that people can pick up a graphic novel and itÕll just be a really good book, and so they can just get into it that way. ŹAnd I think that with that kind of level of respectability, it has become a lot less intimidating. And I know definitely from the demographic of people that we see at Thought Bubble, because IÕve been involved in that in one way or another for four or five years now, and every year we get more women, more black and minority ethnic groups, and loads more children. And this year, we had even a couple of volunteers who I would never have placed as being interested in comics Š pristinely made-up girls who looked immaculate, and you kind of imagine them being out shopping somewhere. I think Thought Bubble is quite a friendly festival anyway. But nowadays you see more people are being more open, coming into comics and theyÕre finding it less and less intimidating. I think that because of small press and the indie stuff becoming a lot more visible, that you can be involved in comics and read comics your whole life, and never have to pick up a superhero comic book Š youÕll never have to engage with that stereotypical view of what a comic is. HAS THERE BEEN A SHIFT IN CONTENT OR STYLE OF THE COMICS SOLD AT THOUGHT BUBBLE IN RECENT YEARS? I think itÕs both, because a lot more people are coming into making comics as well. I donÕt know if youÕve noticed it through research, but one of the big things about comics is bringing more people into it, and thatÕs what comics creators are always talking about and stuff. I think that there has been a big shift in the kind of people who are starting to make comics and where theyÕre coming from. So thereÕs a lot more people who are coming at it from a graphic-design background or fine art or photography Š so the breadth of the styles of people making comics is so different. And because people are making comics all over the world and influences are so varied Š thatÕs been really positive, because itÕs kind of influenced everybodyÕs creation. And the content has changed as well. ŹI think Š because in the late 1990s and early 2000s there was such a big boom of autobiographical and Š I wouldnÕt really know how to describe it Š kind of like Ōdepresso comicsÕ [laughs], people talking about real-life issues. ThatÕs become quite mainstream now, and people can talk about anything Š there are comics that are scientific biographies and Darryl CunninghamÕs made comics about economics and stuff like that. I just think that thereÕs no limit on the kind of stuff that you can make, and that mental shift that people have made. I think IÕve found that, from my own experience as well, that there was a process of winning people over. I think young people have come into it with more of an open mind anyway, but then there have been a lot of older people who have been won over, and a lot of people who have the nostalgic stuff of they used to read The Beano or something, and theyÕre coming back into comics now that itÕs kind of acceptable. ItÕs not something that they have to give up once they stop being a kid. I was really keen to be involved in this research because of my own experience with engaging with mental health services, which was kind of disastrous. Also, because I got into comics through my chronic illness, I remember the first time I read Epileptic by David B and just how cathartic it was. Just having this story about chronic illness, and it was really powerful in a way that maybe a painting or a prose book wouldnÕt have been. Just the way that he could visualise the illness, with all of the monsters and spiral patterns and stuff, that really affected me. ŹAnd IÕve spoken to other people who have got physical and mental illnesses, that have had really similar experiences with other comics, and I think that in terms of catharsis. A LOT OF THE SUPPORTERS OF THE USE OF GRAPHIC WORKS LINK IT TO NARRATIVE THERAPY, WHERE ITÕS IMPORTANT TO DISCOVER THE STORY OF A PATIENT, IT SEEMS LIKE SOME OF YOUR OUTREACH WORK IS ABOUT THAT. ItÕs a shame that there are still quite a lot of people who just cast comics aside, based on this idea that they had from 30 years ago. WeÕve worked with the Bradford Refugee Centre and I think it was last year, we did a project with them Š I mean, IÕm not familiar with narrative therapy, but it sounds like it was quite similar to that. We use an art therapist on all of our projects, and she helps craft comics that help them explore their stories, their emotions and stuff that came out of their status in the UK and their journey. And it was a really good medium for that, because obviously the language barriers and all of that stuff just didnÕt apply, because it was just purely visual. ŹAnd that was a really, really rewarding project for all of us. ENDS