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Comics Create a Better World project gets British Council backing

By John Freeman on January 18, 2024

The British Council has just announced the latest grantees in its Connections Through Culture grants programme, supporting 76 projects across East Asia, which include the Comics Create a Better World project from the Lakes International Comic Art Festival and Komiket in the Philippines.

Building on a 2021 collaboration, the project focuses on exchanging knowledge between UK and Filipino creators to engage children and young people in the process of creating their own original work on climate change.

Key elements include selecting creators from underrepresented communities in the UK and the Philippines, providing virtual training sessions, and mentoring the creators for workshops with young people.

The British Council’s Connections Through Culture grants programme is designed to nurture fresh cultural partnerships between East Asia and the UK. These grants are instrumental in supporting new ideas and collaborations from artists and cultural organisations at any stage of development.

The grants supported in this round of Connections Through Culture programme have focused on two distinct areas: diversity and inclusion and, addressing climate change. The collaborative efforts across borders and artistic disciplines will lead to new thoughts and ideas created to address global challenges.

The grants support new connections, exchanges and collaborations. These grants help build long-term relationships and collaborations between artists, cultural professionals, creative practitioners and art and cultural organisations, hubs, networks, and collectives.

During a time when selling opportunities for komiks creators were scarce in the Philippines, komiks creators Paolo Herras, Mark Navarro, JP Palabon, Tepai Pascual and Jon Zamar, came together to provide more opportunities for the local comics community.

Komiket positioned itself as an affordable comics art market, an accessible entry point for first time comics creators, artists and readers. The Filipino Komiks Art Market was launched on 5th April 2015, Easter Sunday, at Centris Elements, Quezon City with 40 exhibitor tables, and approximately 120 creators. In order to grow more creators, Komiket taught the Comic Book Creator’s Workshop, where students were guided from story concept to comic book development and launched their work in a free batch table at the next Komiket held on October of the same year. From a one-day event, Komiket quickly grew to a two-day affair.

As Komiket evolved over the years, the vision of Komiket remains constant — to help nurture and grow the Filipino komiks community, responding to its needs and challenges though various missions.

The Lakes International Comic Art Festival is the only one of its kind in the UK, centred on events and comics projects brought to you from one of the country’s most beautiful areas – the English Lake District, in Bowness-on-Windermere. Modelled on European-style festivals, such as Angoulême in France, the annual Festival usually takes over the whole town for a weekend of comic art.

The Festival’s aim is to celebrate the whole spectrum of comic art, inspiring existing comic art fans and creators and, it hopes, generating new audiences and creators too. It invests in creators through a commissioning programme and has an emphasis on developing international collaborations.

The Festival also supports the work of the Comics Laureate, Bobby Joseph, and is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England and the UK Government. It is also supported by Lake District National Park Authority and Westmorland & Furness Council.

Other projects that have gained grants include “Biosignals“, a collaborative project between the Philippines, the UK, and New Zealand (AwhiWorld); “God Save The Queers, Bless The Badings“, which will culminate in a month-long Queer Festival in June 2024, hosted by Elephant, from the Philippines and Inferno London, that aims to platform the spectrum of religious experiences through a queer perspective; “Inspiring Creative Action to Help Artisan Communities Surmount Climate Change Induced Disaster” from the League of Artisans CIC in the UK and Twinkle Ferraren the Philippines, a project that aims to develop a practical toolkit for textile artisans in disaster-prone areas; “Listen: Can you hear the fish cry?“, an audio project from Michelle Roche and Binhi Creatives, an innovative project fosters a cross-cultural dialogue between artists in Bacolod and the UK; “Performing Diwata: ecotransfeminism in precolonial Philippine mythology“, from Giulia Casalini in the UK and Ram Botero in the Philippines, a collaborative Research and Development project; “Song and Sovereignty: Food Justice and the Preservation of Local Farming Culture” from Tilted Axis Press in the UK and Gantala Press, Inc in the Philippines, a project seeking to preserve the literary culture of women in the Philippines amidst changing farming practices due to climate change and political instability.

Operating in the Philippines since 1978, the British Council supports peace and prosperity by building connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and countries worldwide. The organisation connects with thousands of students, educators, policymakers, academics, researchers, creatives and entrepreneurs in the Philippines annually.

The Council combines the UK’s deep expertise in arts and culture, education and the English language, our global presence and relationships in over 100 countries, our unparalleled access to young people and influencers and the organisation’s creative sparkle.

The Council works directly with individuals to help them gain the skills, confidence and connections to transform their lives and shape a better world in partnership with the UK. They support them to build networks and explore creative ideas, to learn English, to get a high-quality education and to gain internationally recognised qualifications.

• Connections Through Culture 2023 – Full List of Grantees on the British Council website

• UK Arts: A Directory of Directories

For grant applicants who are looking to partner with UK artists or arts organisations, the British Council has listed links to various directories compiled by UK organisations. They have included brief descriptions which were copied from each respective websites to help you find the information that suit your needs

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.