Following up on our reports on the international and British guests attending this year’s Lakes International Comic Art Festival in October – which includes Steve Bell, Darwyn Cooke, Dave McKean, Kieron Gillen, Kathryn and Stuart Immonen and many more – the organisation has begin to announce its Clock Tower line up.

The Clock Tower is the free admission venue where comic creators, organisations, publishers and retailers offer a huge range of wares, from self-published comics to artwork. As with other events like Leeds Thought Bubble, it’s a major part of the Festival line up and gets a massive amount of footfall from both fans and newcomers to the wacky world of comics, many of them amazed there is more to the medium than The Avengers and Batman.

Comics writer Alex Paknadel is one of creators in  the Clock Tower. Read our interview

Comic Creators

This year’s Clock Tower creator line up includes (in alphabetical order): award-winning artist Asia Alfasi; Joe Bailey Sculpture; Leeds-based illustrator and comic book artist Kristyna Baczynski; IDW’s Amelia Cole comic artist Nick Brokenshire; creative team PM and Byron Buchan; artist Keith Burns (who’s drawing the new Johnny Red comic over at Titan Comics), Tank Girl artist Warwick Johnson Cadwell; the Cartoonists’ Club of Great Britain; Decadence Comics, a comic anthology and collective that publishes science fiction stories; comic artist EdieOP; creative team Everything and Mondays (Matt Boyce and Danny Noble); Fancy Butcher Press, which was  was formed by London underground comics pioneer Lord Hurk and bookish Canadian Kevin Ward; Kieron Gillen will also have a table in the Tower; comic artist Verity Glass, perhaps best known for her recent work on Titan Comics Doctor Who titles, Happy Space Sloth, the creative collaboration of Midlands illustrator Sarah Spendlove and Welsh fine artist Charles Gershom; The Jeff Hawke Club; Hitsville UK; comic book writer and artist Ilya (Ed Hillyer) comics writer Antony Johnston, animation artist Talib Kadhim; British comics veteran Roger Langridge; Laydeez do Comics, the unique graphic novel forum with a focus on comic works based on life narrative, the drama of the domestic and the everyday; comics writer and artist Aimee Lockwood; comics artist and illustrator Mike Medaglia; cartoonist and scholar John Miers; the creative team behind Roller Grrrls, including Marvel Comics artist Gary Erskine; Bristol-based artist and zine-maker Simon Moreton; comics writer Alex Paknadel, whose new comic, Arcadia, is to be published this year by Boom!; comic creator Jacob Phillips; Seeing Poetry: Poetry in Words and Comics, an ongoing collaboration by illustrator Louise Crosby with poet Clare Shaw; ; artzine Tiny Pencil; the Cumbria Comics Collective; and Tom Ward, the creator and writer of Merrick, The Sensational Elephantman.

Also at the Festival will be Winshluss (Vincent Paronnaud), the author of Pinocchio and In God We Trust, published by Knockabout (who will also be at the Festival).

Publishers

Radio On, published by Analogue Press, a semi-regular anthology of graphic storytelling based loosely around the theme of music. For further info, check out the Radio On page.

Publishers in the Clock Tower include: US comic publisher AdHouse Books; The Analogue Press, a North East-based small press, publishing comics featuring emerging talent from across the UK and beyond including the Radio On anthology; ace UK comics publisher Avery Hill Publishing; Black Hook Press, a small press based in Yokohama, Japan; London-based Breakdown Press; Centrala, a publishing house originally based in Poland, specialising in comics since 2007; Cinebook, the largest publisher of European graphic novels (bande dessinée) in English, with over three hundred books in fifty-eight series published to date; independent publisher Disconnected Press, set up in 2012 by writer Lizzie Boyle and artist Conor Boyle;  Failboat Press, founded by Naniiebim (the artist name of Louise Ho, an illustrator and artist based in the UK since 2003); Fanfare (Ponent Nom); Lancaster-based book distributors and publisher Gazelle Books; Improper Books, a comic and book publishing studio focusing on creator-owned stories that have a touch of the fairy tale, the fantastical, or the otherworldly; Myriad Editions, publishers of one of the most thought-provoking and characterful lists in the UK; the comics and other media magazine, Tripwire, edited by Joel Meadows;  publisher SelfMadeHero; the publishers of the Meanwhile anthology Soaring Penguin Press; Team Girl Comics (including Gill Hatcher, founder and editor); London publishing powerhouse Titan Comics; and independent publisher Wobbly Rock.

Retailers

Retailers at the Festival are Lancaster-based First Age Comics, London’s Forbidden Planet, Orbital Comics, Carlisle-based Imagination Station and Nottingham’s Page 45 (the latter taking over the Clock Tower’s Georgian Room, as they did last year).

• Tickets for this year’s Festival go on sale on 3rd June 2015. For the full Clock Tower line up visit the Festival’s web site: www.comicartfestival.com | Follow the Festival on Facebook | Follow the Festival on Twitter @comicartfest

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.

Categories: British Comics, British Comics - Current British Publishers, Creating Comics, downthetubes Comics News, Events

Tags: AdHouse Books, Alex Paknadel, Antony Johnston, Asia Alfasi, Avery Hill Publishing, Black Hook Press, Breakdown Press, Byron Buchan, Cartoonists Club of Great Britain, Centrala, Charles Gershom, Cinebook, Clare Shaw, Cumbria Comics Collective, Danny Noble, Decadence Comics, Disconnected Press, EdieOP, Everything and Mondays, Failboat Press, Fancy Butcher Press, Fanfare, First Age Comics, Forbidden Planet, Gary Erskine, Gazelle, Gill Hatcher, Happy Space Sloth, Ilya, Imagination Station, Improper Books, Joe Bailey Sculpture, John Miers, Keith Burns, Kristyna Baczynski, Lakes International Comic Art Festival, Laydeez Do Comics, Louise Crosby, Matt Boyce, Mike Medaglia, Myriad Editions, Nick Brokenshire, Orbital Comics, PM Buchan, Ponent Nom, Sarah Spendlove, Seeing Poetry: Poetry in Words and Comics, SelfMadeHero, Simon Moreton, Soaring Penguin Press, Talib Kadhim, Team Girl Comics, The Analogue Press, The Jeff Hawke Club, Tiny Pencil, Titan Comics, Tom Ward, Tripwire, Warwick Johnson Cadwell, Wobbly Rock