The Lakes International Comic Art Festival has announced its first tranche of guests for its annual weekend of comics celebration, taking place across Bowness-on-Windermere over Friday 26th – Sunday 28th September 2025.
Festival Passes are available now. The Early Bird Festival Pass Offer ends on Friday 16th May, so be quick if you want to take advantage of that!
Announced this week are, in alphabetical order, Shelly Bond, Simone Lia, Lorenzo Mattotti, Bill Morrison, Robbie Morrison, Mike Perkins, Sean Phillips, Chris Shepherd, Lucy Sullivan, Donya Todd and Craig Thompson. More guests will be announced in the coming weeks.
Offering an entertaining mix of panels, live draws, interviews, presentations, workshops, award announcements, a Comics Market Place and the International Rights Fair for comic creators and publishers, plus plenty of free events for children, you can expect a full weekend of comic craziness in the Lake District town!
“We’re delighted to announce our first guests for our 2025 Festival,” says Festival Director Julie Tait. “The weekend is a vital part of year-round commitment to promoting comics as a medium, alongside local, national and international partners.
“The continued support of the Arts Council and other funding bodies is much appreciated.”
“Comic creators like Shelly Bond, Bill Morrison, Festival patron Sean Phillips and Craig Thompson will be familiar names to many comic fans, but we think we have a great mix of guests for all to enjoy, from established names to rising stars. We’re looking forward to a busy weekend!”
The Lakes International Comic Art Festival returns to Bowness-on-Windermere Friday 26th – Sunday 28th September 2025
• The Lakes International Comic Art Festival is online at: comicartfestival.com | BlueSky| Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | Little LICAF on Facebook | Little LICAF on Instagram
• For more on the Lakes International Comic Art Festival’s Comic Development Work please visit Comics Can Change the World at comicscanchangetheworld.com | Follow Comics4Change on BlueSky
• Want to receive news about the Lakes International Comic Art Festival? Then sign up for their newsletter now
Festival Guests
Author and Comic Book Editor Shelly Bond has been throwing red ink at comics all-stars and up-and-comers for over three decades including 22 years at Vertigo/DC Comics working with Grant Morrison on The Invisibles, artist Mark Buckingham on Fables, and the comics-to-television series Bodies and iZombie. Currently, Shelly edits the multiple Eisner Award-winning series, Bitter Root, and teaches Comics Editing at Portland State University.
Over the past three years, Shelly created an unprecedented graphic memoir trilogy on editing comics and original graphic novels, and navigating the industry, beginning with Filth & Grammar: The Comic Book Editor’s (Secret) Handbook, which Michael Allred says is “Required reading for anyone who wants to make comics.” Fast Times in Comic Book Editing, the second volume in the trilogy, details Shelly’s rise up the ranks at ‘90s Vertigo, with art by an astounding array of young British artists and industry legends. 2025’s i-DOPPELGäNGER: Portrait of the Comic Book Editor in the 21st Century is the final part of the autobiographical trilogy that debuts in June 2025.
Shelly and Philip Bond live in Los Angeles where they spend all their time indoors making comics, listening to music, eating candy, and avoiding the sun.
Simone Lia is an artist and writer, the creator of the weekly “Simone Lia” comic strip in The Observer.
Her debut illustrated fiction novel, They Didn’t Teach THIS in Worm School! published by Walker Books was described by her German publisher, Königskinder, as “a philosophical essay on friendship”.
Her work is an ongoing investigation into what it means to be human and she often communicates her ideas using anthropomorphism, making her stories accessible to audiences of different ages and backgrounds. Lia has the ability to communicate complex emotional relationships, simply and with a warm sense of humour.
Lia has almost thirty years of experience working with image, text and story since studying illustration at the University of Brighton and then completing a Masters in Visual Communication, at the Royal College of Art. She is currently documenting the life of Fluffy Pulcino, a 23-year-old rabbit who lives in London. Simone also lives and works in London.
Lorenzo Mattotti is an Italian-born, Paris-based cartoonist and illustrator. He has published numerous books, including Fires (1986), Caboto (1992), and Stigmate (1998). He illustrated The Raven by Lou Reed (2011) and collaborated with Neil Gaiman on the children’s book, Hansel & Gretel (2014).
His graphic novel version of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde (with Jerry Kramsky) won an Eisner Award in 2003. He is also a prolific illustrator for publications such as The New Yorker, Vogue, and Vanity Fair.
Bill Morrison is best known for his work with The Simpsons and Futurama as Creative Director, writer, and artist at Matt Groening’s Bongo Comics.
He began his career as an illustrator, painting dozens of movie posters including many for Walt Disney Pictures, such as The Little Mermaid, Bambi, Peter Pan, Cinderella, The Prince and the Pauper, and The Jungle Book.
In addition to his publishing work at Bongo, Bill has created thousands of Simpsons and Futurama drawings for T-shirts, video games, posters, toy packaging, books, calendars, limited edition prints, etc.
Bill also did visual development for the Futurama TV series and served as series Art Director, and also worked as a development artist on Groening’s Netflix series, Disenchantment. In 2018, Morrison wrote and drew the official graphic novel adaptation of The Beatles Yellow Submarine in time for the 50th anniversary of that celebrated film. That was a busy year, as he also filled Harvey Kurtzman’s old job, Executive Editor of MAD Magazine.
He is currently living near Detroit, Michigan where he continues to create art for Simpsons merchandise and various comic book projects, while also teaching animation and comics classes at his alma mater, The College for Creative Studies.
Scottish comic book writer Robbie Morrison grew up in the villages of Linwood and Houston, but as no one outside of Scotland has heard of them, he usually claims he’s from Glasgow.
Robbie is celebrated for “Nikolai Dante”, “Shakara” and “The Bendatti Vendetta” in 2000AD, the graphic novels Drowntown and White Death, and, more recently, the award-winning Inspector Jimmy Dreghorn novels, Edge of the Grave and Cast a Cold Eye, set in 1930s Glasgow.
One of the most respected writers in the UK comic-book industry, he sold his first script to Dundee publishers DC Thomson at the age of 23. He has also scripted iconic characters such as Batman, Doctor Who and Judge Dredd. Nikolai Dante was serialised for over 15 years in cult science-fiction comic 2000AD, then collected in book form.
Edge of the Grave won Bloody Scotland Debut Crime Novel in 2021, and it was shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize and the Crime Writers’ Association Historical Dagger. Cast a Cold Eye was shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize and the Historical Writers’ Association Gold Crown, and was Waterstones Book of the Month in Scotland, April 2024.
Robbie’s latest graphic novel – with Walking Dead artist Charlie Adlard – is Heretic, a historical thriller in which real-life figures Cornelius Agrippa and Johan Weyer are plunged into a maelstrom of murder, madness and magic as they investigate a macabre series of killings in 16th Century Belgium.
Mike Perkins is a comic book illustrator whose many credits include Captain America, Thor and Spider-Man. After wrapping up the 31-issue adaptation of Stephen King’s The Stand, he transitioned into illustrating Astonishing X-Men, and has since successfully re-launched Deathlok, Carnage and Iron Fist.
Mike has recently moved to DC Comics, where he has depicted the adventures of the Green Lanterns, collaborated with Greg Rucka on Lois Lane, and launched The Swamp Thing with Ram V.
His most recent work is the prestige format series, Bat-Man: First Knight, and Justice League: The Atom Project. He has been nominated numerous times for Eisner and Harvey Awards and, as well as winning the Eagle Award, counts being on the New York Times bestseller list and being exhibited in Munich, London and Paris amongst his career achievements.
Drawing comics professionally since the age of fifteen, multiple Eisner Award-winning Sean Phillips has worked for all the major publishers.
Since drawing Sleeper, Hellblazer, Batman, X-Men, Marvel Zombies, and Stephen King’s The Dark Tower, Sean has concentrated on creator-owned books with Ed Brubaker including Criminal, soon to be a television series on Amazon Prime, Kill Or Be Killed, Incognito, Fatale, The Fade Out, Pulp, Night Fever, Where The Body Was and the Recklessseries.
He lives in the Lake District in the UK, where he is currently drawing the next Brubaker/Phillips book.
Chris Shepherd is an artist, writer, filmmaker, and British comedy legend. He’s done everything – from the 43rd World Stare-out Championships with Paul Hatcher for BBC’s Big Train comedy sketch show, to working on music videos for Reverend and the Makers, Holly Johnson, Lambchop (as HeCTA), and The Wave Pictures. He also created animations for BC Camplight, Sara Pascoe, Nathan Barley, et al. He’s won tons of international film awards, including a BIFA and two BAFTA nominations.
Chris is also a senior lecturer at Central Saint Martin’s successful Character Animation MA as well as curator and co-founder of Bar Shorts film nights at The Garden Cinema. Anfield Road is Chris’s debut graphic novel.
Lucy Sullivan is a writer and artist from London, who creates stories around social concerns combined with folklore and expressive mark making. She’s best known for her acclaimed debut graphic novel BARKING, based on her own experience of a mental health crisis. A new edition launched in 2024 with Avery HillPublishing, and is part the Required Reading List for UCLA’s Art & Trauma Collegiate.
Alongside her own comics and zines, Lucy has created a variety of commissions for Dark Horse, Image Tiny Onion for titles including Hey, Amateur!, The Department Of Truth:Wild Fictions and Black Hammer, as well as the short comic Betwixt, Between commissioned by Jeff Lemire. She is also the artist on short comics including IND-XED, Metallic Dynamite, YOSHIN10 and Razorblades.
Recently Lucy created all the onscreen artwork for Benedict Cumberbatch’s character DADin The Thing with Feathers (Dylan Southern, 2025) based on the acclaimed novella by Max Porter.
Her new Folk-Horror series SHELTER is currently in development, with support from Arts Council England. The first story Early Doors is out now – Winner of Broken Frontier’s “Best New Periodical Series” Award 2022. It was followed by the research zine,HAGBOUND, self-published in 2023. The second long-form story Mothers Ruin is currently in development and scheduled for publication in 2026 (TBA).
Craig Thompson is a cartoonist and the author of the award-winning books Blankets; Good-bye, Chunky Rice; and Habibi. His graphic novels also include Carnet de Voyage and Space Dumplins, and Ginseng Roots (2025). Habibi was an Observer Graphic Novel of the Month and a New York Times bestseller, which was described by Neel Mukherjee as “a landmark publication”.
Ginseng Roots, published by Pantheon in April 2025, explores class divide, agriculture, holistic healing, the 300-year-long trade relationship between China and North America, childhood labour, and the bond between two brothers. His work has received four Harvey Awards, three Eisner Awards, two Ignatz Awards and a Rudolph-Dirks-Award.
Donya Todd is an artist, illustrator and book-maker inspired by the magical, mystical and macabre. Donya is currently working on a graphic novel, The Witch’s Egg, coming out October 2025 with Avery Hill. Previous titles include Buttertubs, Death & the Girls and Bimba.
The Lakes International Comic Art Festival returns to Bowness-on-Windermere Friday 26th – Sunday 28th September 2025
• The Lakes International Comic Art Festival is online at: comicartfestival.com | BlueSky| Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | Little LICAF on Facebook | Little LICAF on Instagram
• For more on the Lakes International Comic Art Festival’s Comic Development Work please visit Comics Can Change the World at comicscanchangetheworld.com | Follow Comics4Change on BlueSky
• Want to receive news about the Lakes International Comic Art Festival? Then sign up for their newsletter now
- About the Author
- Latest Posts
John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as 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, Creating Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Events
Related Articles
-
2000AD Ian Richardson signing announced
-
Comics, Creativity and Hastings Comic Con with Colleen Douglas, Dennis Menheere and Lucy Sullivan
-
Comics, Creativity and Hastings Comic Con with Russell Mark Olson, Karrie Fransman and Ant Williams
-
French award for Tom Taylor and Jon Sommariva’s “Neverlanders”