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Lakes International Comic Art Festival reveals 2024 poster by Gigi Cavenago, first guests

By John Freeman on February 21, 2024

The Lakes International Comic Art Festival has revealed the official poster for its 2024 Festival, running 27th – 29th September in Bowness-on-Windermere, by Italian maestro Gigi Cavenago.

Lakes International Comic Art Festival 2024 by Gigi Cavenago

The poster is a homage to the adventurous sailor Corto Maltese, created by the Italian comic book creator Hugo Pratt in 1967, and has been created by arrangement and with thanks to copyright holders CONG SA.

Gigi Cavenago, perhaps best known for his work on the Italian comic character Dylan Dog, and was one of the Festival’s guests in 2023. Although he’s busy working on a major project the Festival is hoping he can be with them in 2024, too. But for now, they can confirm several guests for this year’s annual event, among them American comic artist Dan Panosian, and Britain’s Dave McKean, making a welcome return to the annual event, and Mollie Ray, whose debut graphic novel, Giant, will be published in June by Faber & Faber.

Other guests revealed at this early stage in the run up to the Festival include Michael Lark, Victoria Lomasko, Fumio Obata and Tom Richmond, with many more yet to be announced in the coming months.

Early bird tickets for the Festival, returning with its entertaining mix of panels, live draws, workshops, Comics Market Place and its new International Rights Fair for comic creators and publishers, and plenty of free events for children, will be on sale soon.

“We’re absolutely thrilled with Gigi’s amazing poster for this year’s Festival,” enthused Festival Director Julie Tait. “Not only does it capture our lakeside location perfectly, the art echoes international support for our Festival and ongoing promotion of global comics and creators.

“There’s an added layer to the work too, in that Hugo Pratt worked for British publisher Fleetway before creating Corto Maltese, and we hope some British creators will benefit from the presence of international publishers attending our International Rights Market. Thanks to Arts Council support for this initiative, several French and German publishers are signed up already to be part of this, the first such event in the UK specifically aimed at comic creators and publishers.”

The Lakes International Comic Art Festival returns to Bowness-on-Windermere Friday 27th – Sunday 29th September 2024

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2024 Festival Poster Creator: Gigi Cavenago

Born in 1982, Gigi Cavenago is a comic artist who lives and works in Italy, who also works as a concept artist for cinema and TV.

He has worked exclusively for the Italian market for over 15 years, especially for Sergio Bonelli Editore, creating several issues for series such as Cassidy (2009 ) by Pasquale Ruju, Orfani (2013) by Recchioni and Mammucari, and 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 becomes the official cover artist until 2021. He worked on the first issue of “I Racconti di Domani” by Tiziano Sclavi and, together with Werther Dell’Edera, drew a special Batman/Dylan crossover.

Gigi made his debut in American comics with The Magic Order, written by Mark Millar.

Festival Guest Profiles

Black Dog – The Dreams of Paul Nash - Sample Art 5 — Art © 2016 Dave McKean

Dave McKean is an illustrator, photographer, graphic designer, filmmaker and musician. He is also one of the UK most acclaimed comic artists.

His work incorporates drawing, painting, photography, collage, found objects, digital art and sculpture.

McKean’s projects include illustrating comics by authors such as Neil Gaiman (Violent Cases, The Sandman series, The Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Mr Punch) and Grant Morrison (Batman – Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth).

He has directed three feature films and created innovative performances for the stage incorporating graphic art, music and spoken word, including Black Dog – The Dreams of Paul Nash, commissioned to commemorate the 100th centenary of World War One and performed on the Somme, in Kendal and at Tate Britain.

His latest comic, Raptor, was published in 2021, and was translated and published in Germany in 2022.

Daniel Panosian hails from Cleveland, Ohio and lives in Los Angeles, California with his wife and son. If he had a pet, he would have mentioned it in the first sentence. But he doesn’t.

Without the company of a friendly animal, he began working for Marvel and DC Comics which led him to Image Comics. From there, he branched out into the video game world and, eventually, film and TV. But the lure of comic books was too great and once again he was back in its lovely, full colour embrace.

Not content with merely making a living drawing, he co-created “Drink and Draw”, a popular social network of artists that gather at bars, taverns and lounges, and created Slots for Image Comics, with Skybound Entertainment.

He also created An Unkindness of Ravens and Alice Ever After for BOOM Studios, Black Tape for AWA and is the co-creator of Canary, along with Scott Snyder, for ComiXology and is a regular cover artist for Marvel and DC Comics.

Sure, he’s won awards but his true win is every smile he’s received from a collection of stick figure illustrations he’s produced in chalk outside his doorstep.

Giant by Mollie Ray - Cover (Faber and Faber, 2024)

Mollie Ray is an illustrator and comic artist based in Lancashire. Her debut graphic novel, Giant, will be published in June 2024 by Faber and Faber.

In 2019, she graduated from The University of Edinburgh with a First-Class Honours degree in Illustration. Her work has been featured by Creative Boom, The AOI and Broken Frontier’s ‘Six To Watch In 2021’.

She has also done work for the BBC in support of David Attenborough’s Wild Isles series, and self-published multiple short-form comics.

Announced guests for 2024 in alphabetical order include: Charlie Adlard, Mehdi Annassi, aka Machima, Gigi Cavenago (TBC), Marc Jackson, Michael Lark, Victoria Lomasko, Dave McKean, Fumio Obata, Sean Phillips, Pieter de Poortere, Mollie Ray, Tom Richmond, and Peter Rogiers – with more to come

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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.