Home › Comics › Animation director Kevin Eric Raymundo and more join Lakes International Comic Art Festival 2023 lineup

Animation director Kevin Eric Raymundo and more join Lakes International Comic Art Festival 2023 lineup

By John Freeman on July 25, 2023

The Lakes International Comic Art Festival has confirmed further comic creators from around the globe for this year’s annual event in Bowness-on-Windermere (29th September – 1st October 2023), including French, London-based artist Lucie Arnoux, animation director and comic artist Kevin Eric Raymundo, and multi-media artist Eldo Yoshimizu.

The three acclaimed comic creators, along with Mari Ahokoivu, Darryl Cunningham, Marc Jackson and Jacob Phillips join an all-star line-up of creators already announced, which includes Mehdi Annassi, aka Machima, Charlie Adlard, Gustavo Duarte, Hunt Emerson, Mai Koraiem, Michael Lark, Lucie Lomová, Dave McKean, Steve and Annie Parkhouse, Sean Phillips, Festival poster designer Mohamed Salah, David Shenton, Rachael Smith, Bryan and Mary Talbot, “Awkward Yeti” creator Nick Seluk, and many more.

Tickets are on sale now, with bookings taking off as the event dates in Bowness-on-Windermere edge ever closer – offering a whole weekend of comics-focused activity, including the popular, free, child friendly “Little LICAF” events at the Jetty Museum, a plethora of talks and workshops, a massive Lakeview Comics Marketplace with over 90 exhibitors, Fringe events, a never-to-be repeated opening night of comedy with comedians Josie Long and Frankie Boyle (the latter also a comics creator), and much more.

“We’ve always been determined to ramp up the range of comic creators at our Festival every year” says Director Julie Tait, “and we’re really expanding what we have to offer in 2023, thanks to the different opportunities Bowness offers us.

“We’re really excited about some of the award-winning guests, and new creative talent who are coming to the Lakes in 2023, and it we’re not alone!”

• The Lakes International Comic Art Festival returns to Bowness-on-Windermere 29th September to 1st October 2023

• Buy your “Frankie Boyle and Josie Long Talk Comics” Festival Opening Night tickets here | Check out the LICAF “Festival Fringe” Page

• Sign up for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival Newsletter

Meet The Guests

Lucie Arnoux started drawing comics aged 14, when she joined the Studio Gottferdom. Her work was first published at 17 in Lanfeust magazine, where she produced monthly autobiographical stories in its pages for six years.

She studied in Paris before finally moving to the UK, graduating from Kingston University in Illustration and Animation and settling in London for good.

Lucie is the creator of Stonetop, a tabletop fantasy adventure RPG centred on a village community, working with Jeremy Strandberg and Jason Lutes, and her graphic novel, Je Ne Sais Quoi, published last year by Jonathan Cape.

Lucie has been busy designing theatre backdrops and prop painting with Olivier award-winning designer Tim Bird, live sketching as artist-in-residence for Sidmouth Folkweek, Womad and the Rose Theatre, illustrating comics and children’s books published internationally.

Kevin Eric Raymundo is an animation director and comic artist who worked on animated shows like My Little Pony, Curious George, Tom & Jerry, Eliot Kid, and George of the Jungle.

He is known for his hit webcomic, Tarantadong Kalbo (“Shamelessly-Foolish-Disrespectful Baldy”), that started as the daily life of a young couple, but became a biting mirror on the stumbling government policies during the pandemic.

Through the brightly coloured and well-controlled art, the webcomics sharply showed the inequality of the rich and powerful, against the poor and working class, and the inconsistencies and lies that came with official statements, that were infuriating and comedic at the same time.

In 2021, Kevin created “Wild Wild West Philippine Sea” for the Ten Years to Save the World project, supported by the British Council. In partnership with LICAF in the UK and Komiket in the Philippines, Ten Years to Save the World was part of a number of creative commissions in response to climate change and COP26.

Eldo Yoshimizu won acclaim as a multi-media artist, including public sculptures in his native Tokyo. In 2016, he created his debut manga independently, by first exhibiting the original artworks in a gallery.

His Ryuko trilogy captures the ravishing, raven-locked yakuza heroine in his cool, cinematic, retro-inspired graphics.

For his eco-fable Hen Kai Pan (All in One), created in 2022, he added watercolours to portray how five guardian spirits judge humanity’s mistreatment of our planet.

Mari Ahokoivu, who received the Puupäähattu prize earlier this year from the Finnish Comics Society, is a Finnish Illustrator and a comic artist who draws comics and illustrations for both adults and kids, and has been published in Finland as well as abroad. She lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Darryl Cunningham is the cartoonist/writer of Psychiatric Tales (Blank Slate 2010), Science Tales (Myriad Editions 2013), Supercrash (Myriad Editions 2014) and Graphic Science (Myriad Editions 2017), all factual based books that explore subjects as diverse as mental health, science, economics and politics. Billionaires: The Lives of the Rich And Powerful (Myriad Editions 2019) contains biographies of four of the richest and most influential people on the planet: Rupert Murdoch, the Koch Brothers and Jeff Bezos.

He has given talks at the London School of Economics and the City of Arts and Lights, Valencia.

In 2015, he was one of 30 world-renowned photographers, painters, sculptors, writers, filmmakers and musicians who were invited to contribute to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Art of Saving a Life project, to promote vaccination in the developing world. In 2018, he was awarded an Honorary MA from Leeds Arts University.

2021 saw the publication of Putin’s Russia: The Rise of a Dictator (Myriad Editions), the story of how a lowly KGB bureaucrat became one of the most powerful men in the world.

Marc Jackson is a cartoonist from Macclesfield, Cheshire, who has created comics and characters for BEANO, Aces Weekly, The Brooklyn Red hook star revue, Freaky mag, the Sunday HaHa, SCARFFF comics newspaper, Tripwire magazine, and HEY KIDS COMICS!

He self-publishes comics online using KO-FI (and then in print) and, after four-years of persevering, his strip, “Duck Dare”, appears in The Phoenix comic this summer.

He also visits schools, libraries, and festivals celebrating his love of comic art, and opened ROOM FOR COMICS with his wife, Jane, in September last year. They also run MACC-POW!, a comic art festival in their hometown, that Marc feels is the fun little sibling of LICAF.

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 16 years and today he is the artist on That Texas Blood with writer Chris Condon, and also Newburn, with Eisner Award winner Chip Zdarsky from Image Comics, as well as colouring projects such as Reckless, Criminal and MADI.

Lakes International Comic Art Festival 2023 art by Mohamed Salah

Announced guests for the Lakes international Comic Art Festival 2023 in alphabetical order are: Charlie Adlard, Mari Ahokoivu, James Albon, Mehdi Annassi, aka Machima, Lucie Arnoux, Silvia L. Ballart, Frankie Boyle, Gigi Cavenago, Darryl Cunningham, Gustavo Duarte, Hunt Emerson, David Gaffney, Gerhard, Lina Ghaibeh, Bernard Hage (The Art of Boo), Peter Hogan, Stephen L. Holland, Marc Jackson, Jad (George Khoury), Štěpánka Jislová, Mai Koraiem, Michael Lark, Lucie Lomová, Josie Long, Dave McKean, Fouad Mezher, Bill Morrison, Seif Eddine Nechi, Steve and Annie Parkhouse, Eva Pavlič, Jacob Phillips, Sean Phillips, Kevin Raymundo, Tom Richmond, Marek Rubec, Mohamed Salah, Václav Šlajch, Rachael Smith, “Awkward Yeti” creator Nick Sulek, and Eldo Yoshimizu

The Festival will also host over 90 comic creators, publishers and illustrators in our Lakeside Comics Marketplace this year:

Creators in the Lakeside Comics Marketplace include: Chris Askham, Yomi Ayeni, Bardic Illustration, Sayra Begum, Clark Bint, Tim Bird, Tori Cat, Jon Davis, Doctor Geof, Pete Doree, Jonathan Edwards & Felt Mistress, Emma Evans, Ed Firth, Simon Furman, Steven Fraser, Warwick Fraser-Coombe, Jessika Green, Lyndsey Green, Katie Handley, Isabel Hatherall, Jack Harvey, Luke Hyde, Jenika Ioffreda, Owen Michael Johnson, Roger Langridge, Joe Latham, Russell Mark Olson, Shaun Martland, Drew Marr, Chris Mole, Alex Moore, Beatrice Mossman, Nigel Parkinson, Markus Pattern, Mollie Ray, Reabault, Emma Reynolds, Schnumn, Paul Shinn, Martin Simpson, Matt Simmons, Zara Slattery, Cam Smith, Matt Smith, Rachael Smith, Mark Stafford, Lucy Sullivan, Kev F Sutherland, David Taylor, Tom Ward, Kevin Wells, Lyndon White, Kate-Mia White, Steve White, Dan Whitehead, Andrew Wildman, Manon Wright & Tal Brosh

Independent Publishers, and other Exhibitors in the Lakeside Comics Marketplace include: 1826, The77 Publications, After the Robot Apocalypse, Art-Bubble, B7 Comics, The Cartoon Museum, Catfood Comics, Centrala, CoCo Comics, Colossive Press, Comics Youth CIC, Conundrum Press, Fanfare UK, First Graphic Novel Competition, Foxhat, Galaxia Prince, I&M Illustration, Indie Novella, Iqbal A. Comics, Kannter Art, Knockabout Comics, LDComics, Meraki Comics, MoonSquid INK, Nevercity Creations , Nona Gallery, Parable Games, Peak Hare Collective, Playstation Studios, Power Comics Studios, RAWHEAD, Scratch Comics, Sector 13 Comics, SelfMadeHero and Sloth Comics

• The Lakes International Comic Art Festival returns to Bowness-on-Windermere 29th September to 1st October 2023

• Buy your “Frankie Boyle and Josie Long Talk Comics” Festival Opening Night tickets here | Check out the LICAF “Festival Fringe” Page

• Sign up for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival Newsletter

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.