The countdown to this year’s Lakes International Comic Art Festival (LICAF) annual festival is well and truly on, mixing both new and returning comic guests in one explosive mix.
Returning to Kendal Friday 2nd to Sunday 4th October 2026, guests include Charlie Adlard, Chrissy Williams, Gemma Correll, Jacob Phillips, Muntsa Vicente and Sean Phillips. Tickets are on sale now
Some are Festival regulars, and much appreciated supporters of the work of the year round work championing comics and creating comics by the Barrow-based Lakes International Comic Arts Foundation. Others are, like many other guests, such as Bill Sienkiewicz and Marcos Martin, new faces to an event modelled on European comic festivals, focused on promoting the comic form with panels, talks, workshops and much more.
This year’s Festival will include a Comics Marketplace, workshops, exhibitions, international rights market, and more, right across the Cumbrian town of Kendal. The full guest line-up so far features on the LICAF website, and tickets can be bought here.
The Festival will kick off with a return rematch event pitting European giants Asterix and Tintin against each other, as a range of creators argue their support for the creations of Hergé or René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo.
“The Festival has always mixed new and returning guests” enthuses Julie Tait, Director of LICAF. “and we try to have plenty of surprises, too. We’ll certainly have plenty to entertain!”
• The Lakes International Comic Arts Festival (LICAF) will take place in Kendal from Friday 2nd – Sunday 4th October 2026. Tickets are on sale now
Further details on specific panel times, exhibition hours, and festival ticketing will be announced in the coming weeks. For more information, visit licaf.co.uk
Guest Spotlight
Charlie Adlard has been a “veteran” of the comic industry for over 25 years. He’s spent the majority of his time since 2003 working on The Walking Dead, which finished in 2019, and has received many industry awards for his work on the series culminating in winning the Sergio Aragonés International Award for Excellence in Comic Art in 2019.
In his time as a comic creator, he has worked on many other projects as far reaching as Mars Attacks, The X-Files, Judge Dredd, Savage, Batman, X-Men, Superman etc and creator-owned projects closer to his heart like Astronauts In Trouble, Breath Of The Wendigo, Codeflesh, Rock Bottom, Vampire State Building, White Death, Heretic and, more recently, Altamont.
Chrissy Williams is an award-winning comic book writer, poet, and editor based in the UK, whose writing has been featured on BBC radio and television. Her debut comic was Golden Rage (Image Comics), and the new miniseries Golden Rage: Mother Knows Best came out recently.
She co-edited Over the Line: An Introduction to Poetry Comics (Sidekick Books) with Tom Humberstone, about which Alan Moore said “I really can’t recommend this venture highly enough”.
Gemma Correll is a British illustrator and cartoonist currently based in Southern California, where she lives with her husband and beloved pugs. She studied Graphic Design and Illustration at the Norwich School of Art and Design. Gemma imbues her simple line drawings with narrative and humour to create illustrations that catch the eye and tell a story.
Her unique style has gained her work for clients ranging from Amazon to The Washington Post on projects as varied as animated online advertisements and autobiographical comics. Gemma has also illustrated numerous children’s books and has worked extensively in publishing, editorial and on social media projects as well as licensing her art for products such as greetings cards and T-shirts.
Her graphic memoir, Anxietyland, was published by Particular Books in April 2026.
Jacob Phillips is a comic artist and colourist residing in tropical Manchester. He has been drawing his whole life, self-publishing his first comic Roboy at the age of 11 and selling it at Brighton Comic Con.
Skip forward some years and today he is the artist on That Texas Blood,The Enfield Gang Massacre and Vertigo’s The Peril of the Brutal Dark: An Ezra Cain Mystery with writer Chris Condon, as well as Newburn, Megalopolis, and hit series Everything Dead & Dying, with Tate Brombal.
He is also a two times Eisner-Nominated colourist on books such as Reckless, Criminal, Night Fever and more.
An illustrator whose clients include Elle magazine, Harper Collins and Vitubrio Leo Burnett, Muntsa Vicente has recently accepted to apply her incredible colour talent to several comic-book projects.
Besides being fellow Festival guest Marcos Martín’s colourist on all their Panel Syndicate series, she continues to work at companies like Marvel or DC Comics, as well as focusing most of her illustration work on children’s books.
Drawing comics professionally since the age of fifteen, multiple Eisner Award-winning Sean Phillips has worked for all the major publishers.
Since drawing Sleeper, Hellblazer, Batman, X-Men, Marvel Zombies, and Stephen King’s The Dark Tower, Sean has concentrated on creator-owned books with Ed Brubaker including Criminal, soon to be a television series on Amazon Prime, Kill Or Be Killed, Incognito, Fatale, The Fade Out, Pulp, Night Fever, Where The Body Wasand the Reckless series.
He lives in the Lake District in the UK, where he is currently drawing the next Brubaker/Phillips book.
• The Lakes International Comic Art Festival returns in Friday 2nd – Sunday 4th October 2026 across Kendal
• The Lakes International Comic Art Festival is online at: comicartfestival.com | BlueSky | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube
The Lakes International Comic Arts Festival (LICAF) will take place in Kendal from Friday 2nd – Sunday 4th October 2026. Tickets are on sale now.
The 2026 Festival will again bring the best artists and creators to the Lake District and explore the potential and power of comics as a force for good and creative endeavour, in the UK, and through continued international partnerships.
This year’s annual event will centre on activities the Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal, with elements taking place in other venues around the popular market town, including Kendal Town Hall, Cross Lane Projects Gallery, and businesses across the Town.
The annual Festival is just part of a dynamic, year-round programme of international comic art activity organised by LICAF, with the over-arching theme, “Comics Can Change the World”, including a yet-to-be revealed event for younger comic fans in Barrow in early 2026.
The full programme for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival will be available in late July 2026
Announced Festival Guests for 2026 So Far…
Guests at LICAF 2026 in alphabetical order included in alphabetical order, Charlie Adlard, Leonie Bischoff, Serge Bloch, Kate Charlesworth, Gemma Correll, Dagsson, Mike Derderian, Colleen Doran, Louise Evans aka Feltmistress, ILYA, Khaled Jarada, Emad Hajjaj, Luke Healy, Keli Lark, Michael Lark, David Leach, Sonia Leong, Joanna Lorho, David Lumsden, Marcos Martin, Joe McGarry, Luke McGarry, Steve McGarry, Metaphrog, Mobidic, Francisco de la Mora, Bill Morrison, Jacob Phillips, Sean Phillips, Nicolas Pitz, Gemma Plum, Pieter de Poortere, Quindrie Press, Frank Quitely, Bill Sienkiewicz, Nina Six, Zara Slattery, Faye Stacey, Byan Talbot, Mary Talbot, Muntsa Vicente, the team from VIZ comic, and Chrissy Williams. More to come!
Full profiles on the Festval’s Guests page
The Festival also hosts a Comics Marketplace – its Exhibitors lineup including many independent creators and publishers
- About the Author
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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, Comics, Creating Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Events
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