When she was seven years old, Lisa Wood used to go every Wednesday to Batley Market where a stall sold cheap magazines that had been returned from newsagents and were due to be pulped.

Her dad always bought boxing magazines; Lisa was drawn to the American comic books which were sold for 5p each or five for 20p.

Her weekly 20p haul of Daredevil, X-Men and Return of the Jedi issues set in motion a lifelong love of comics that today sees the Ilkley woman not only at the helm of an internationally-renowned comics convention and festival, but working as an artist with some of the major names in the industry.

Lisa - who works under the pen-name Tula Lotay (she thought her given name was a bit too anonymous for people to find her and her work online) is currently doing the art for Supreme: Blue Rose, a superhero thriller from Image, one of the major international publishers (along with Marvel and DC). It's written by Warren Ellis, one of the industry's genuine superstar names, and has received a rapturous critical response both in the US and the UK.

Lisa, 39, is currently putting together art for issue four of the seven-part monthly series, and has been burning the candle at both ends because Sunday sees the start of the week-long Thought Bubble comics festival, which culminates after a week of events with a full-blown comics convention in Leeds on the weekend of November 15-16.

The guest list is a veritable who's who of comics talent from around the world, artists and writers including Becky Cloonan, Jamie McKelvie, Kieron Gillen, David Lloyd, Leah Moore... names to have any self-respecting geek salivating.

This is the eighth year that Thought Bubble has been held, and it was the brainchild of Lisa who, back in 2007, spoke to a few friends at the comics shop where she was working, Travelling Man in Leeds, and said she'd love to create West Yorkshire's very own comics convention.

"I had no experience of event management or anything like that," she says. "Fortunately, the Leeds Film Festival were very supportive and we got some space with them in the basement of Leeds Town Hall. I was hoping maybe a couple of hundred people might turn up."

In the end, the weekend attracted 500. It amazed Lisa, but from humble beginnings, Thought Bubble continued to grow. Over the course of the next week, between 10-11,000 people are expected to attend the events.

"It's completely amazing," says Lisa. "The feedback we get from people is that Thought Bubble is a friendly, inclusive place, and that's the sort of vibe we try to create."

Like its bigger cousin, the San Diego Comic Con in America, Thought Bubble thrives on cosplayers - fans who dress up in often startlingly elaborate costumes of their favourite comic characters. Lisa says: "The first thing anyone will notice when they walk in to the convention is hundreds of cosplayers. They make it feel such a friendly event."

It was through Thought Bubble that Lisa achieved her life-long dream of drawing for comics. By her own admission she was the "weird kid" in her school - "and I went to an all-girl school, which made it worse!" - she began by copying the art from those comics she bought on Batley Market and, discovering a talent for art, went on to study at Dewsbury College and then sat a degree in fine art at the University of Bradford.

Despite being told at various points in her training that comics were a worthless medium, she persevered, practicing each night during her job as a projectionist at an arthouse cinema at Bradford's Priestley Centre for the Arts. She says: "It was Thought Bubble that gave me the encouragement and confidence to show my work to people - being surrounded by my peers."

She came to the notice of various industry professionals, including Captain Marvel writer Gail Simone, and that led to a meeting with Image Comics head honcho Eric Stephenson, who told her he wanted her to work on Warren Ellis's new project.

There followed work for DC Comics' adult imprint Vertigo, and when Supreme: Blue Rose ends Lisa has another project with a major writer for a US publisher in the pipeline.

The days of being told her love of comics was pointless have long gone. Lisa says: "Thanks to Hollywood embracing superhero comics the rest of popular culture has as well. And what a wonderful thing that is!"

* Thought Bubble runs from November 9-16. For more details log on to: thoughtbubblefestival.com