THOUGHT BUBBLE MONTH 2026! Heaven is an Afterparty #1-3 are brought to us by Finn Kidd, a London-based multidisciplinary creator in comics, music, education, and academic studies; and, Los Angeles-based animation writer, Joel Newman.
The third issue of this fun series brinsg not yet aged-out party planner Ari back to university with teammates and friends DJ Cecille, Bouncer Bryce, and tech whiz Dots, to help activist Faith infiltrate Southeast Western University. A graduate student there is developing microplastics as a new (deadly) food source. Ari is excited by the prospect of conquering college life with her own brand of party. Cecille argues with Ari that she is out of touch with the current university scene (as Ari chants, “To-Ga! To-Ga!“). With Ari challenging the frat house brohood in escalating absurdities and Faith and the rest breaking into the laboratory to take out the graduate student’s research, let’s just say hi-jinks ensue and everything goes hilariously wrong.
Newman does a great job extending his clever premise from the first two issues. The espionage and rave culture mash-up actually work very well together. With nothing being taken too seriously, the ridiculous lengths the characters go to throughout land with a laugh rather than a thud.
Kidd’s art work is deceptively loose, although it has tightened and developed considerably since the first issue. The characters are all distinguishable with the minimum amount of lines. Layouts get more elaborate this issue with many switches in panel count from the base six panel grid, to slow down or speed up the action. Grey tones are used throughout almost as a second colour. Their use on outdoor scenes with trees or buildings in the background with no outline, is particularly effective. The overall cartoony tone blends well with the ludicrous antics of the characters, but also works when the fleeting moments of introspection creep in between the lighter ones.
Heaven is an Afterparty #3 is the perfect encapsulation of Thought Bubble, an independent comic with an off the beaten path premise produced by two creators bringing their own fresh perspective to the comics medium.
Joel Newman (W), Finn Kidd (A) • Self-published, $7.99
Review by Gary Usher
Heaven is an Afterparty are at table C54b in the 2000 AD Hall (sharing a table with Radu Draws)
Thought Bubble 2026 runs from November 9th-15th with the convention weekend taking place on the 14th-15th. More details on the Thought Bubble site here.
Read all our Thought Bubble 2026 coverage so far in one place here.
Poster art by Núria Tamarit
