The Lakes International Comic Art Festival has announced early bird tickets are now on sale for its annual gathering, taking place Friday 29th September – Sunday 1st October 2023 in Bowness-on-Windermere.
They can be booked now through the Festival web site.
Offering a heady mix of comics creators, panels, exhibitions, comedy, cosplay, workshops and events especially tailored for younger comic fans through Little LICAF, the Festival has also announced Charlie Adlard, Gerhard, Gigi Cavenago, Michael Lark, Marek Rubec and Rachael Smith as guests.
They join a line-up that also includes Dave McKean, Lucie Lomová, Festival poster designer Mohamed Salah and “Awkward Yeti” creator Nick Sulek – 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.
“We’re thrilled to welcome both new and returning guests to our Festival,” said Festival Director Julie Tait. “Some of our guests have often returned to our event, but we’re delighted to welcome new faces, too, such as Eisner Award-winning creator Gerhard and Gigi Cavenago.
“Both are internationally acclaimed and more than deserve to be in the spotlight among our international line-up of comic creator all-stars.”
The Festival weekend will open with an as-yet-under-wraps comics and comedy night, mixing comic creators with comedians, which proved a hugely popular combination last year.
FESTIVAL DATES: The Lakes International Comic Art Festival returns to Bowness-on-Windermere 29th September to 1st October 2023
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Charlie Adlard has been a “veteran” of the comic industry for over 25 years. He’s spent the majority of his time since 2003 working on The Walking Dead, which finished in 2019, and has received many industry awards for his work on the series culminating in winning the Sergio Aragonés International Award for Excellence in Comic Art in 2019.
In his time as a comic creator, he has worked on many other projects as far reaching as Mars Attacks, The X-Files, “Judge Dredd” for 2000AD, Savage, Batman, X-Men, Superman, and more, and creator-owned projects closer to his heart like Astronauts In Trouble, Breath Of The Wendigo, Codeflesh, Rock Bottom, Vampire State Building and White Death.
Eisner Award-winning creator Gerhard worked as background artist, environmental designer and cover colourist on the Cerebus for 20 years, a project which has been hailed as “one of the most sprawling pieces of visual fiction ever created.” His designs and meticulously crafted drawings served to ground even the most fantastic of events, or drastic of stylistic shifts.
Since completing Cerebus in 2004 he has been mostly doing commissioned work through his website, GerhardArt.com, and exploring other creative endeavours, including contributing to the awesome Winsor McCay tribute book, Little Nemo, Dream Another Dream; doing a variant cover of The Walking Dead; illustrating a Grant Morrison story, “Smile of the Absent Cat”, and, most recently, colouring the upcoming Becoming Frankenstein.
Gigi Cavenago lives and works in Italy, in comics and as a concept artist for cinema and TV. In comics, he has worked especially for Sergio Bonelli Editore, creating several issues for series such as Cassidy (2009) by Pasquale Ruju, Orfani (2013) by Recchioni and Mammucari, and, finally on Dylan Dog, the best-selling and highly-acclaimed horror comic book, created by Tiziano Sclavi in 1986.
For Dylan Dog, he created “Mater Dolorosa” (2016), the issue that celebrated 30 years of the series, immediately after he became the official cover artist until 2021. He also worked on the first issue of “I Racconti di Domani” by Tiziano Sclavi and, together with Werther Dell’Edera, drew the Batman/Dylan Dog crossover.
He worked solely for Italian comics publishers for 15 years, making his debut in American comics with The Magic Order Volume 3 by Mark Millar, released in early 2023.
Michael Lark is the artist and co-creator of Lazarus and Lazarus: Risen from Image Comics.
In his nearly thirty years in the comics industry, he has drawn many of the most iconic characters in the medium, including Spider-Man, Captain America, Daredevil, Batman, Superman, and many others.
Marek Rubec is a comics artist, freelance illustrator and animator. His short comics have been published in many Czech and European magazines and anthologies, and he became first Czech artist to create Google Doodle.
He won the prize ARNAL for the best comics without words in 2013 and, four years, later won the international comics competition at Frame Festival in Prague, and also Muriel Award for The Best Czech Short Comics in 2018.
He gained popularity in 2018 thanks to Jarmil, published by Centrala, offering short, sarcastic stories about a monkey man living in a small, creepy town, somewhere in the middle of Europe. He followed this up with Jarmil in India, published in 2021.
In his work, he often is inspired by the environment of blockhouses and the lives of small town people.
Rachael Smith is an award-winning comic artist and writer, who has created many critically acclaimed graphic novels, including Quarantine Comix, Wired Up Wrong, and The Rabbit. She has also worked for The New Yorker, Image, Boom! Studios, and Titan Comics, among others.
Other Festival Guests in 2023
Announced guests for 2023 in alphabetical order are Lucié Lomova, Dave McKean, Mohamed Salah and Nick Sulek – with many more to be announced!
Lakeview Comics Marketplace Exhibitors 2023
The Festival has over 90 comic creators, publishers and illustrators in their Lakeview Comics Marketplace this year.
Creators include: Chris Askham, Yomi Ayeni, Sayra Begum, Clark Bint, Tim Bird, Lewis Campbell, Jon Davis, Pete Doree, Phil Elliott, Emma Evans, Ed Firth, Simon Furman, Steven Fraser, Warwick Fraser-Coombe, Jessika Green, Lyndsey Green, Katie Handley, Isabel Hatherall, Jack Harvey, Luke Hyde, Jenika Ioffreda, Owen Michael Johnson, Roger Langridge, Joe Latham, Russell Mark Olson, Shaun Martland, Drew Marr, Chris Mole, Alex Moore, Beatrice Mossman, Nigel Parkinson, Markus Pattern, Mollie Ray, Reabault, Emma Reynolds, Schnumn, Paul Shinn, Martin Simpson, Matt Simmons, Zara Slattery, Cam Smith, Matt Smith, Rachael Smith, Lucy Sullivan, Kev F Sutherland, David Taylor, Tom Ward, Kevin Wells, Lyndon White, Kate-Mia White, Steve White, Dan Whitehead, Andrew Wildman, Manon Wright & Tal Brosh
Independent Publishers, and other Exhibitors include: 1826, 77 Publishing, After the Robot Apocalypse, Art-Bubble, B7 Comics, The Cartoon Museum, Catfood Comics, Centrala, CoCo Comics, Colossive Press, Comics Youth CIC, Conundrum Press, Doctor Geof, Drawn Strip, Fanfare UK, First Graphic Novel Competition, Foxhat, Galaxia Prince, I&M Illustration, Indie Novella, Iqbal A. Comics, Kaarinart, Kannter Art, Knockabout Comics, LDComics, Meraki Comics, MoonSquid INK, Nevercity Creations, Nona Gallery, Parable Games, Peak Hare Collective, The Pig Patch, Power Comics Studios, RAWHEAD, Scratch Comics, Sector 13 Comics, SelfMadeHero and Sloth Comics
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.
Categories: Comics, downthetubes News, Events
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