New Lakes Festival Guests: The Yanks Are Coming!

By John Freeman on May 28, 2015

Simpsons artist Bill Morrison

Two top US comics creators have joined the already impressive international line-up announced for this year’s Lakes International Comic Art Festival in October.

From Bambi to Bart Simpson and Mowgli to Moe, Bill Morrison has drawn them all, and almost everything in between. For the past few years he has spent most of his waking hours on projects related to the hit animated television show The Simpsons, including video games, books and posters. When the Simpsons’ creator, Matt Groening, set up Bongo Comics, Bill was hired as art director and realised his cartoonist’s dreams when he drew the very first Simpsons comic.

“This is a major coup for us,” says Festival Director Julie Tait’s of Bill’s appearance at the Festival, whose UK trip is the the result of a partnership with the US National Cartoonists Society. “We’ve been working hard behind the scenes and delighted to pull it off. Attracting the creator of comic art work with such resonance in popular culture will help us open up the festival to a wider audience.”

Pittsburgh-born Frank Santoro’s most heralded work, Storeyville, inspired the legendary Chris Ware to say, “I consider reading Storeyville for the first time one of the touchstones of my life as a cartoonist, and the book itself one of the landmarks of comics’ development.” It was self-published in tabloid newspaper form in 1995 and has since been reissued in deluxe hard cover editions by publishers in the US and France.

Since then Frank has produced a unique body of work that includes Cold Heat with Ben Jones, in a wide variety of formats and in the process pioneered an approach to comics’ production that tailors form to content. At the same time he acts as an online tutor and guru to the next generation of comic creators around the world.

On an exclusive visit to the UK, Frank and his work will be introduced by one of his dedicated followers, renowned artist Oliver East.

These world-renowned creators join a host of already-announced international and British guests including Canadian creators Darwyn Cooke, Stuart and Kathryn Immonen, top Japanese Shojo manga artist Akiko Hatsu (making her first UK appearance) Steve Bell, Dave McKean and Kieron Gillen.

• Tickets for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival go on sale from 1st June 2015 from the Brewery Arts Festival. For the latest news on the 2015 Lakes International Comic Art Festival visit: www.comicartfestival.com

• Follow Bill Morrison on Twitter @atomicbattery

• There’s more to see and read by Frank Santoro at cold heat and his blog

• Sign up for the Festival’s newsletter here for the latest news

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.