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ARC, a new, free Comics Festival comes to London in July

By John Freeman on 29 May 2026 • ( 0 )

ARC – London is a new festival of contemporary comics in South East London, taking place over four days in July.

ARC Thursday 9th – 11th – Sunday 12th July 2026 Unit 08, Copeland Park, Peckham, London SE15 3SN | Free | Web: arc-london.uk — Poster by Lando

Launching with an exhibition and talks (Thursday 9th – Friday 10th), the event will showcase some of the best independent comics, graphic novels, sequential art and form-altering visual narrative.

It culminates in a comics fair over two days (Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th), featuring a curated line up of over one hundred UK based and international artists and publishers.

All the details, programme and exhibitors are already coalescing here at arc-london.uk. There’s a huge lineup of participants involved, including Gareth Brookes, Antoine Cossé, Dan Cox, Avery Hill Publishing, Breakdown Press, Broken Frontier, Darren Cullen, Josephine M. K. Edwards, Fraser Geesin, Gosh! Comics, Gareth A Hopkins, Fredde Lanka / Queer Youth Art Collective, Kayla Lui / 9010 Press, Jake Machen, Douglas Noble, Ed Pinsent, Jul Quanouai, Joe Stone, Donya Todd, Clarice Tudor and Ben Wheatley, and more.

ARC has been organised by Lando of Decadence Comics, who also created the event poster, Miranda Smart, Peter Cline of Otto Press and Tom Oldham of Breakdown Press.

Joe Kessler and John Molesworth curate the exhibition, and Gareth Brookes is programming the talks.

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John Freeman

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.