Design an Original Beano Character competition

By John Freeman on July 27, 2013

We met up with Julie Tait, the organiser of the Lakes International Comic Art Festival, earlier this week, and among other things (like telling us about supporters of the Festival creating knitted comic charcaters to promote it, an amazing tie-in with a local brewery we can tell you more about later and the fantastic things being planned for the 2000AD ‘Odyssey’ event), she reminded us about their Design an Original Beano Character competition.

This is a special festival competition in partnership with The Beano for young creatives aged 15 or under. They’re being challenged to design an original Beano character and be crowned the Comic Prince or Princess of the Lakes.

The winner’s comic character – the winning entry judged by the comic’s Editior-in-Chief Mike Stirling – will feature in a one-off mini comic strip in The Beano.

Julie tells us the response has been incredible, with hundreds of entries already pouring into the offices of the North West Evening Mail, who are helping manage this particular challenge. You can enter online (download the entry form PDF here from the Festival web site) or hand your entry in via local libraries and other Festival-supporting venues listed.

The competition ends 4.00pm 20th October 2013. You must be aged 15 or under (on July 4, 2013.

• All of the Festival’s current competitions are listed here: www.comicartfestival.com/competitions; book tickets here: www.comicartfestival.com/ticketsbookings

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.