Carlos Ezquerra, Duncan Fegredo, Doug Braithwaite and Jose Munoz on stage for the Lakes Festival’s opening ‘Big Draw’ event. Pete Docherty in charge (sort of…)
The weather is mixed but far from the howling storms some nay sayers feared when the Lakes International Comic Art Festival came up in conversations earlier in the year.
And even despite some rain, the greeting to Kendal could not be warmer from most locals so far, from those wardening Bryan Talbot’s amazing retrospective exhibition, spotted almost as soon as I got off the train, to the genial landlady who showed me to my room, despite being interrupted from the more important task of making rainbow cake with her granddaughter.
Bryan Talbot’s retrospective, from his early years to the present, is at the Wildman Studios in Wildman Street, Kendal.
The Batman flag is flying high above the Clock Tower, shops aplenty sporting comics in their windows, Festival banners strung across the high street… I’m sure some attending are taken aback by the way Kendal has already embraced this inaugural event.
There are plenty of amazing comics goodies about to go on sale tomorrow, a day of book signings in Waterstones and Tim Perkins, Dave Windett and Kev F. Sutherland will be entertaining the youngest of comic fans with drawing sessions in the town’s shopping centre.
The Festival kicked off with a packed and entertaining “Big Draw” event at the Brewery Arts Centre, with Doug Braithwaite, Duncan Fegredo, Carlos Ezquerra and Jose Munoz in action on stage, talking about drawing comics and creating some terrific images at the same time.
(I’ll confess I wasn’t sure about the ‘backing music’ and someone should really have switched their phone off before they went on stage as even on silent it caused feedback, but these are minor niggles).
Not having been to many comics events in the past couple of years, it’s been great to catch up with folk in the flesh such as Garen Ewing, Jeremy Briggs, Bambos Georgiou, Dave Taylor, Russell Willis and many others already.
Organiser Julie Tait – already thinking about next year’s Festival, never mind this one! – said on stage this evening that what she and her team planned as a small test event this year has become something of a monster. I have a feeling it’s going to be the soft cuddly kind and not a beast… despite some Lakeland rain!
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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, Featured News
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