Lakes International Comic Art Festival Tickets On Sale Now

Guests at this year’s Festival (14th – 16th October 2016) include Charlie Adlard (artist on The Walking Dead), Jordi Bernet (Torpedo and Jonah Hex), Rufus Dayglo (2000AD‘s “Bad Company”, Last Gang in Town), Isabel Greenberg (The Encyclopedia of Early Earth), Joe Kelly (I Kill Giants, Deadpool), Bryan Lee O’Malley (Scott Pilgrim, Seconds), Luke McGarry and Steve McGarry, Mick McMahon (2000AD), Leah Moore and John Reppion, artist and Festival art designer Ken Niimura, and Paco Roca, best known for his award-winning graphic novel Wrinkles.

For the Opening Night Comics Clash, putting the case for Belgium’s world-famous boy detective Tintin is Dr Benoît Peeters, novelist, philosopher, Professor of Comics at Lancaster University, and author of two books on Tintin’s creator, Herge. Holding out gallantly against the oppressors will be Peter Kessler, BAFTA award-winning producer and author of ‘The Complete Guide to Asterix’.

Joining them live on stage will be Walking Dead artist Charlie Adlard, comic book writer Leah Moore, Australian comics scholar and creator Stuart Medley and Amiens Comics Festival Director Pascal Mériaux. On screen will be a host of comics artists, authors and readers, with the ever-popular comic creator Hannah Berry acting as referee.

To top it all, our special festival guests, all the way from Los Angeles, Luke and Steve McGarry, will be bringing their fast-draw cartooning talents to the table illustrating the entire event as it happens.

International and British comic creators – writers, artists, publishers and retailers – are heading to Kendal for a packed weekend of comic celebration in the Lakes in October, crammed with panels, exhibitions, children’s events and other activities. The town will be entirely given over to comics, with business owners lining up to support the Festival’s famous “Windows Trail“, providing store front space to display comics art created by artists and local groups and school children.

While panel events and film screenings are ticketed, the Comics Clock Tower offers plenty of free access to many comic creators and their work, and there’s an exciting line up of free events lined up for children, too, in assorted venues across Kendal.

“Having learned lots of great lessons from our growing audiences and previous international guests, I think we have one of our best programmes yet,” enthuses Festival Director Julie Tait, “It aims to feed the hunger of comic art fans whilst also appealing to those new to it all or, at least, new to a comic art festival of this kind.

“We have some of the most exciting and inspiring artists and writers working in comics, film, animation and gaming from across the globe all descending on what we think is one of the most beautiful towns in the world.”

The October weekend is just one of a number of comics projects from the Festival, which has included the world premiere performance of Black Dog – the Dreams of Paul Nash by Dave McKean that took place in May and will return to Kendal for the Festival.

• Buy your tickets now from The Brewery, Kendal – www.breweryarts.co.uk (Social media short link – http://bit.ly/LICAF16-Tickets) | Box Office 01539 725133 | Email

• Event ident images for all tickets events are up on the Festival Flickr page

• For all events information visit the Lakes International Comic Art Festival web site:www.comicartfestival.com | Find the Lakes International Comic Art Festival on Facebook | Follow the Festival on Twitter @comicartfest

• For more information on the Lakes International Comic Art Festival, contact: Julie Tait: julie@kendalartsinternational.com

There are some questions that divide the nation. You cannot sit on the fence. You have to choose. This is the biggie. In the second half of the twentieth century, Francophone comics culture was dominated by two nerdy little characters: a cub reporter from Belgium with an unlikely quiff, and a pint-sized ancient Gaul with an improbable moustache. Between them they have spawned 60 books, 24 movies,dozens of scholarly works, at least one theme park and an entire art style, ligne claire. Their creators have been deified with honours like the Legion d’Honneur and demonised by being banned from libraries over the years. But the weird thing is: few people like both of them. You’re either an Asterix or a Tintin fan.

For the opening event of LICAF 2016, we’re going to settle this thing for good. We’re bringing together two top teams to slug it out on stage – without the help of a magic potion – and establish which character most deserves that cherished place on your oversized bookshelf. Putting the case for Tintin is Dr Benoît Peeters, novelist, philosopher, Professor of Comics at Lancaster University, and author of two books on Tintin’s creator, Herge. Holding out gallantly against the oppressors is Peter Kessler, BAFTA award-winning producer and author of ‘The Complete Guide to Asterix’.

Joining them live on stage will be Walking Dead artist Charlie Adlard, comic book writer Leah Moore, Australian comics scholar and creator Stuart Medley and Amiens Comics Festival Director Pascal Mériaux. On screen will be a host of comics artists, authors and readers with the ever-popular Hannah Berry acting as referee. To top it all our special festival guests, all the way from Los Angeles, Luke and Steve McGarry, will be bringing their fast-draw cartooning talents to the table illustrating the entire event as it happens.

This opening event is courtesy of Lancaster University to inaugurate and celebrate the appointment of Benoît Peeters as their first Professor of Comics. And, as if all this wasn’t enough, at the end of the evening we will be revealing who will be the second UK Comics Laureate for 2017 with its first incumbent Dave Gibbons handing over the baton.

Presented by Lancaster University & Supported by Wallonie-Bruxelles International