Hot on the heels of its successful Lakes International Comic Art Festival 2025 in Bowness-on-Windermere, LICAF’s latest British Comics Now delegation is heading to Brussels this week, for a special weekend of Ninth Art events.
LICAF has also released its very first British Comics Now catalogue, a selection of exciting new work by UK-based creators which is available to view online now and download here, from the Festival’s Comics Can Change The World site.
Earlier this year, LICAF, as part of its year-round activities beyond its annual festival, announced its project to promote British comics on the world stage, British Comics Now. The initiative offers two opportunities for creators to get their work seen overseas as part of a wider promotion of British Comics.
British Comics Now – LICAF@The Comic Art Museum
LICAF has been invited by the Comic Art Museum in Brussels to run a British Comics Now weekend, running 17th October – 19th October 2025, the programme outlined here.
The format of the weekend is structured around events focussing on and highlighting comics from one showcased country, a model used previously by the museum with enormous success. The 2025 event focuses on all things British-comics related.
The weekend coincides with the ‘Museum Night Fever’ initiative, where Brussels Museums open their doors to the public until midnight. The weekend will feature a range of events by British Comics Now creators, as well as invited Belgian creators; there will be opportunities for ‘speed-dating’ with Belgian and Francophone publishers, and for networking with each other as well as with a wider group of creators, the Museum team and other partners.
Five comic creators – Neill Cameron (Mega Robo Bros, Donut Squad), Peony Gent (Sixth Illustrator in Residence for the House of Illustration), Shane Melisse (The Last Kaiju, They’re Coming Down the Stairs) and Jenny Robins (Biscuits), will represent the UK, alongside artist, writer and Festival patron Lucy Sullivan (Barking).
The creators, selected by a group that included Broken Frontier’s Andy Oliver, creator and UK Comics Laureate Bobby Joseph and Festival Director Julie Tait, will have the opportunity to experience one of the world’s most important and famous comic art museums, promote their work as part of a co-ordinated and well-publicised/attended weekend, and receive feedback from publishers and others and meet Belgian counterparts.
Between them, they will also be running workshops, drawing live, taking part in discussions, running masterclasses and giving presentations on comics.
British Comics Now – Catalogue of New British Comics by Independent Creators
The Festival has also published a British Comics Now catalogue, to be promoted between October 2025 and September 2026 – a selection of exciting new work by UK-based creators. The catalogue, promoted to industry professionals, not the general public, has been designed and printed to a high standard and targeted at overseas publishers, festival directors and other key players in the comics industry.
Aiming to showcase the range and diversity of comics and comics creators living across the UK, this first catalogue features the following 32 creators, presented here in alphabetical order: James Albon (The Delicacy), Yomi Ayeni (Clockwork Watch), Hannah Berry (Livestock), John Biggs & Thomas Armstrong (San), Tim Bird (Adrift on a Painted Sea), Corey Brotherson (Magic of Myths), Tal Brosh (Trigger Shot), Neill Cameron (Mega Robo Bros), Alba Ceide (Earth Blues), James Corcoran (Stramash), Wolfgang Crowe (Fractures), Matthew Dooley (Aristotle’s Cuttlefish), Dominique Duong (The Dog & The Cat), Mereida Fajardo (Zayani Zam), Ed Firth (Horny & High), Chris Geary (International Aces), Leo Healy (Zarjaz), Lord Hurk(Affordable Amazement), Ilya (Romo the Wolf Boy), Norm Konyu (Downlands), Beck Kubrick (Dead Girls), Chie Hosaka, Shazleen Khan (Saving Sunshine), Kamila Krol (Rusalka: Whispers of the Forest), Shane Melisse (The Last Kaiju), Chris Shepherd (Anfield Road), Zara Slattery (Sweeney’s Progress), Rachael Smith (NAP Comix), Mark Stafford (Lip Hook), Gustaffo Vargas (Nullhunter), Asa Wheatley (Shield Stories) and Lyndon White (Candles).
• Catalogue Direct Download (PDF)
The British Comics Now Delegation to Brussels
Lucy Sullivan is a writer and artist from London, who creates stories around social concerns combined with folklore and expressive mark making.
She’s best known for her acclaimed debut graphic novel BARKING, based on her own experience of a mental health crisis. A new edition launched in 2024 with Avery Hill Publishing, and is part the Required Reading List for UCLA’s Art & Trauma Collegiate.
Alongside her own comics and zines, Lucy has created a variety of commissions for Dark Horse, Image Tiny Onion for titles including Hey, Amateur!, The Department Of Truth:Wild Fictions and Black Hammer, as well as the short comic Betwixt, Between commissioned by Jeff Lemire.
She is the artist on short comics including IND-XED, Metallic Dynamite, YOSHIN10 and Razorblades.
Recently, Lucy created all the onscreen artwork for Benedict Cumberbatch’s character, Dad, in The Thing with Feathers, directed by Dylan Southern, based on the acclaimed novella by Max Porter. The film was premiered at the Sundance Festival earlier this year and goes on wider release in October 2025.
Her new Folk-Horror series SHELTER is currently in development, with support from Arts Council England. The first story, “Early Doors”, is out now – and was winner of Broken Frontier’s “Best New Periodical Series” Award 2022. It was followed by the research zine, HAGBOUND, self-published in 2023. The second long-form story, “Mothers Ruin”, is currently in development and scheduled for publication in 2026 (TBA).
Lucy Sullivan Online
Web: lucysullivanuk.com
Neill Cameron is a cartoonist and writer, creator of the graphic novel series Mega Robo Bros and Donut Squad, the Freddy VS School illustrated novels, and frequent contributor to weekly children’s comic The Phoenix. In 2016 Mega Robo Bros and Tamsin and the Deepwere both shortlisted for the British Comics Awards. In 2017, Mega Robo Bros won the Excelsior Award Jr, a national comic award voted for by school and library reading groups across the UK. In 2018 Mega Robo Bros was chosen as one of the best children’s comics of the year by both the New York Public Library and the Schools Library Journal.
Neill is a former artist-in-residence at The Story Museum in Oxford, where he contributed several large-scale comic strip installations and continues to be involved in comics-based education and activities, including curating the exhibition KABOOM: The Art of Creating Comics in 2023, and running a monthly Comics Club group for young cartoonists.
He frequently travels the country giving workshops in schools, libraries and at festivals, and is a passionate advocate for the role comics can play in developing literacy skills and encouraging children’s creativity.
Neill Cameron Online
Web: neillcameron.com
Peony Gent is an Illustrator, artist. Lecturer at Camberwell College of Arts, and the sixth Illustrator in Residence for the House of Illustration. She co-runs ‘That Portrait Club’, creative workshops and artist meet-ups.
Peony Gent Online
Web: peonygent.com
Shane Melisse is a London based comic artist and illustrator. who has been self publishing comics for over eight years and exhibiting at comic cons and fairs round the UK and parts of Europe.
Shane’s work takes influences from Jamie Hewlett, Gris Grimley and anime. He has created storyboard work, character designs, CD covers and, of course, comic work. His current personal project is Road Knight, creating a dark fantasy London, combining street wear with armour.
Shane Melisse Online
Web: shanefaced.com
Illustrator in Extra-Ordinary, Jenny Robins specialises in immediate, intelligent visual communication using really yummy lines and colours. and splashes of serendipitous collage elements.
Jenny’s aim is always to provide elegant and intelligent images that can communicate quite complex ideas, but also create a mood of pleasantly tongue in cheek fun, whether creating a complex narrative scene or a simple piece of editorial or branding work.
Currently, the majority of Jenny’s practice is in comics and mixed media work, but always comes back to the foundational elements of drawing and watercolour.
Jenny Robins Online
Web: jennyrobins.com
• Catalogue Direct Download (PDF)
• Find out more about the British Comics Now project on Comics Can Change the World: https://comicscanchangetheworld.com/our-projects/british-comics-now/
• The Lakes International Comic Art Festival returns in October 2026
• The Lakes International Comic Art Festival is online at: www.comicartfestival.com | BlueSky| Facebook | Instagram | YouTube
• For more on the Lakes International Comic Art Festival’s Comic Development Work please visit Comics Can Change the World at comicscanchangetheworld.com | Follow Comics4Change on BlueSky
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British Comics Now and the International Rights Market are supported by Arts Council England and the Adlard Family Foundation
- 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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