Home › Comics › Crowdfunding Spotlight: “Little LICAF” campaign launched to offer more events for young comics readers at Lakes International Comic Art Festival

Crowdfunding Spotlight: “Little LICAF” campaign launched to offer more events for young comics readers at Lakes International Comic Art Festival

By John Freeman on April 26, 2023

The Lakes International Comic Art Festival has launched a “Little LICAF” crowdfunding campaign to offer more events for young comics readers at its 2023 Festival later this year.

Little LICAF offers a free space at the Festival for children and their families, and also offers free online resources on the organisation’s official web site, with the aim of reaching non-comics readers, disadvantaged children and their families and those from the autistic community.

Under the Little LICAF banner, the Festival also runs projects to research the value of comics as a medium, for education purposes and as entertainment for younger people.

Little LICAF at the Jetty Museum, 2022 (Lakes International Ciomic Art Festival)

The crowdfunding campaign – now live on Crowdfundr – aims to increase the number of Little LICAF events at the Annual Festival, taking place once more in Bowness-on-Windermere, 29th September – 1st October 2023, in partnership with the Jetty Museum where they will take place.

Funds raised will also enable the continuation of the Festival’s year-round programme of research in schools, building on past work at Abraham Moss Community School, Manchester, where the organisation began an important research project into Comics Literacy, in partnership with Comic Art Europe, with support from The Phoenix comic and Manchester City of Literature.

The Festival also hopes support through its Crowdfundr campaign will enable the expansion of its collection of free online downloadable resources for children and parents to use at school and in the home, working with a variety of comic creators.

“Introducing children to comics at an early age can bring the joys of reading to even the most reluctant reader and have a big impact on their health and well-being, confidence and learning more broadly,” notes Festival Director Julie Tait. “Our research in schools, complementing the work of other organisations, has gathered clear evidence that visual storytelling can cut through to children who struggle to read and write and/or those whose first language is not English, including refugees.

“We hope our modest Crowdfundr will help boost funds for this important part of our work and help us make this year’s Festival even more of a weekend to remember for younger comic fans.”

Backers of the Crowdfundr can also opt to buy a limited release discounted £20 Festival Weekend ticket (50 tickets available) and/ or a limited edition Festival 2022 print by artist and patron Sean Phillips, which can either be collected at this year’s Festival, or can be posted to UK supporters.

You can back the Little LICAF Crowdfundr here. In the US, you can also text a donation via (870) 800-GIVE (4483), and in Canada on (506) 700-GIVE (4483)

Lakes International Comic Art Festival 2023 art by Mohamed Salah

The annual Lakes International Comic Art Festival returns to Bowness-on-Windermere from Friday 29th September – Sunday 1st October 2023. Tickets can be booked now through the Festival web site.

Offering a heady mix of comics guests, panels, exhibitions, comedy, cosplay workshops and events especially tailored for younger comic fans through Little LICAF, the Festival has announced Charlie Adlard, Gigi Cavenago, Gerhard, Michael Lark, Lucie Lomová, Dave McKean, Marek Rubec, Mohamed Salah and Rachael Smith and “Awkward Yeti” creator Nick Sulek as guests – with a wide range of internationally acclaimed creators still to be announced over the next two months.

The Festival has also already revealed full details of exhibitors in its Lakeview Comics Marketplace, which includes a bigger, wider range of comic creators, publishers and other creatives than at any previous Festival.

The Festival weekend will open with an still-under-wraps comics and comedy night, mixing comic creators with comedians, which proved a hugely popular combination last year.

• You can back the Little LICAF Crowdfundr here. In the US, you can also text a donation via (870) 800-GIVE (4483), and in Canada on (506) 700-GIVE (4483)

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

• Head to the Festival’s official web site now and book your weekend tickets at a special “Early Bird” price, an offer that ends 31st May 2023

• 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.