The 2026 Caption Comics Festival, dedicated to independent and self-published sequential art, will be held in Oxford at Seacourt Hall on the weekend of the 8th-9th August.
Caption is the UK’s longest running comics event that focuses on professional networking, support and community. This year’s guests include Broken Frontier’s Six To Watch comics creators as well as Broken Frontier’s editor-in-chief, Andy Oliver.
Each year the event adopts a theme, with this year’s being pirates. That informs the nature of some of the events, including the traditional Saturday night quiz as well as a special comedic theatre performance.
There are also creator panels, which this year are dedicated to comics journalism, the impact of AI on art intelligence and how creative communities can provide well-being support.
Caption is a non-profit event run entirely by volunteers with its organising committee made up of working creators and journalists that have a special interest in comics. Its focus is on supporting artists and instead of the typical comic convention approach of fandom and signings and meet’n’greets.
At Caption there’s no dividing line of access between creators and readers. It’s also different from other events in that the only sales table is shared for everyone with only a 10% cut asked for to support the event’s running costs.
“We have some fairly high-profile people coming,” says Peet Clack, freelance illustrator, “and also people who are just literally doing it in their bedroom, photocopying or printing it themselves. It’s quite a mix but it is all very friendly and really nice – and people do come from all over the country to take part.”
“It’s all about small press publishing,” adds Alex Fitch, host of Panel Borders, Resonance FM, “and giving advice to people who are trying to break into the industry.”
• Tickets for Caption 2026 are on sale now at caption.sumupstore.com
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as 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.
Categories: British Comics, Comic Art, Comics, Creating Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Events
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