Joe Decie is the author of The Listening Agent and The Accidental Salad from Blank Slate Books and Pocket Full of Coffee from Retrofit Comics.

Warwick Johnson-Cadwell has worked with Blank Slate Books, Self Made Hero, The Dandy, The Phoenix and most recently with Titan Comics on Solid State Tank Girl (check out our competition to win copies!). He is the co-creator of Dangeritis from Great Beast Comics.

Joe and Warwick will join the previously-announced artists – Dan Berry, Kristyna Baczynski, Sarah McIntyre, Fumio Obata and Jack Teagle – in the marathon to create a comic in 24 hours – which the Festival also hopes to print during its Festival weekend (17th – 19th October).The Marathon will start on Thursday 16th October, as part of the Festival.The 24 Hour Comics challenge was devised by Scott McCloud in 1990 and thousands of artists have risen to this challenge since.

The usual format for a 24 hour comic is to disallow planning and preparation beforehand. Some variations include constraints announced at the commencement of the 24 hours to make planing ahead futile.

The Festival intends to do things a little differently. Planning and preparation is not only allowed, but encouraged because they want to be able to tell the very best stories with the short time the creators have.

“The quality and quantity of the applications was very high, making choosing a significantly difficult task,” say Festival Director Julie Tait and Marathon Co-ordinator Dan Berry in a joint statement on their final choice.  “While there was some very stiff competition from some incredibly talented and supremely capable artists, we felt that Joe and Warwick would not only rise to the challenge of the 24 hour comic, but would excel at it. Each of their distinctive styles and approaches to storytelling stood out from the applicants and we are thrilled to welcome them aboard.

“We would like to thank everyone who made an application and look forward to developing the Lakes International Comic Art Festival 24 Hour Comics Marathon further in 2015.”

“We had a very difficult time choosing,” added Dan separately on Twitter. “Thanks everyone that made an application, there’s some talented b***** artists out there y’know!”