Mourning Ritual, a new self-published short comic by Bex Glendining, is set to make its publishing debut at Thought Bubble’s twentieth edition in Harrogate. The comic will be available at Travelling Man Hall, table C40, during the festival’s November 14–15 convention dates.
Its premise is intimate and sharply Gothic: Evelyn, a newly turned vampire, must face the “funeral” of her husband, who was also her maker. The setting is described as a Victorian-era-inspired England, placing personal bereavement beside vampire mythology and the social weight of ritual. That combination gives the short a potentially unusual focus for the genre—not the mechanics of becoming a vampire alone, but the immediate emotional and ceremonial consequences of that transformation.
A death ritual for the undead
Glendining has described Mourning Ritual as a short comic and said it follows Evelyn as she deals with the funeral of her husband and maker. In vampire fiction, a maker is the person responsible for turning someone into a vampire. That relationship can carry implications of power, origin, obligation and family, even before the added complication of marriage. Here, the two roles being held by Evelyn’s husband make the loss especially layered: he is both the person she loved and the person tied directly to her new existence.
The quotation marks around “funeral” are notable. They suggest that the book’s ceremony may not map neatly onto an ordinary human funeral, though no details have been given about the ritual itself. The title likewise foregrounds process rather than spectacle. A mourning ritual is something people do in response to loss: a set of actions that can offer structure, duty or community when grief is difficult to contain. A vampire setting gives that idea a natural tension, because death and continued existence may mean something different for characters who have crossed that supernatural boundary.
The Victorian-era-inspired backdrop is also well suited to the premise without requiring the comic to be a strict period piece. Victorian Gothic fiction is commonly associated with atmospheres of mourning, darkness, social propriety and the uncanny. In this case, the supplied details establish inspiration rather than a promise of historical reconstruction. Readers should expect a Gothic England shaped around the story’s emotional and supernatural concerns, rather than assume that every setting detail follows a particular historical year or event.
A short comic with a larger ambition
Mourning Ritual is not being presented as a closed-off one-time idea. Glendining has said the short is part of what she hopes will become a larger body of work. That is an important distinction for a debut: the comic can function as a concentrated story about Evelyn’s loss while also establishing a world that may return in later work.
There is no confirmed sequel, release plan or wider series format in the available information, so those future possibilities remain aspirational. Still, the stated ambition signals that the vampire funeral setting is meant to hold more than a single premise. For readers, that makes the debut an opportunity to encounter the foundation of a potentially expanding project at its earliest published stage.
Glendining is also bringing additional new comics and zines, along with prints and copies of on starlit shores. A zine is generally a small, independently produced publication, often made outside conventional large-scale publishing systems. At creator-focused events, comics and zines can give artists room to present short-form, experimental or personal work directly to readers. The selection at table C40 therefore extends beyond Mourning Ritual, even though the vampire story is the newly debuting title.
Where to find it at Thought Bubble
The convention portion of Thought Bubble is scheduled for November 14 and 15 at Harrogate Convention Centre in Harrogate, England. Glendining’s location is Travelling Man Hall, table C40. She has indicated that she expects to be at the table across the weekend except while appearing on a Sunday Novel Finds Podcast panel; her partner is expected to cover the table during that time.
Thought Bubble is a fitting venue for a self-published comic debut because the festival emphasizes creators, including small-press artists and writers. Its twentieth show is part of a broader week of festival activity across Yorkshire, culminating in the Harrogate convention. The event encompasses comics, illustration and animation, but its convention is especially associated with the people making comics and the direct interaction between creators and readers.
For more from the same festival and another supernatural, queer-focused comic project, see Jessica Fong’s Liminal Cafe at Thought Bubble.
Thought Bubble’s journey to Harrogate
Thought Bubble began in 2007, founded by Yorkshire artist Lisa Wood, who is also known as Tula Lotay. It was originally organized as part of the Leeds International Film Festival, with the aim of raising comics’ profile in the area. The first event took place in the basement of Leeds Town Hall and drew only a couple of hundred people.
The festival later expanded beyond that beginning. It originally operated throughout Leeds before moving to nearby Harrogate in 2019. The move followed issues involving Leeds City Council as well as a need for more space. By its twentieth edition, the event is described as the UK’s largest comic art festival, a scale that illustrates the growth from its basement origins while preserving a focus on independent work.
That history matters to a book such as Mourning Ritual. A self-published short does not arrive with a large publisher’s rollout, a long pre-release campaign or a confirmed chain of future volumes. Its first public availability is instead tied to a particular creator, table and convention weekend. Thought Bubble’s small-press emphasis creates room for that kind of direct launch, where a reader can discover a new comic within the same event that celebrates the wider breadth of comic art.
What is confirmed—and what remains open
- Confirmed: Mourning Ritual is a self-published short comic by Bex Glendining.
- Confirmed: It follows Evelyn, a newly turned vampire, during the funeral of her husband and maker.
- Confirmed: Its world is a Victorian-era-inspired England.
- Confirmed: Its publishing debut is planned for Thought Bubble at Travelling Man Hall, table C40.
- Confirmed: Glendining intends the work to be part of a hoped-for larger body of work.
- Not yet established: Further installments, a release schedule, or specific details of the vampire funeral ritual.
For attendees, the practical detail is straightforward: table C40 is the place to look for the debut issue as well as Glendining’s other comics, zines, prints and copies of on starlit shores. For readers following emerging horror and Gothic comics, Mourning Ritual offers a compact premise built around transformation, partnership and grief—then leaves open the possibility that Evelyn’s world may eventually grow beyond its first funeral.
