With little over a month to go before this year's Lakes International Comic Art Festival (11th – 13th October 2019) in Kendal, work is proceeding apace on a number of exhibitions at the event, These will include an exclusive take on the Hellboy comics of Duncan Fegredo, the previously-announced Smurfs and Tom of Finland exhibitions and more.
A special exhibition-related event will be "Next Frame", a rare opportunity to see eight international artists respond to work in the town's prestigious Abbot Hall Gallery collection.
Artists who include Britain's Charlie Adlard, Doug Braithwaite and Italy’s Paolo Baclieri, Canada’s Julie Rocheleau and Marine Schneider from Belgium will take residence in the Gallery for a few hours or more and respond to a work from the collection by creating what they think could be the "next frame" i.e. what happens next...
Each artist will be given a selection of works from the gallery collection in advance to choose from and, once finished, the next frame will be displayed alongside the original for at least one week after the Festival.
Alongside its exhibitions, some running only for the Festival weekend, others longer, the Festival has also announced a celebration of the hugely influential roleplaying game Dungeons and Dragons, today published by Wizards of the Coast, with Becky Cloonan (Gotham Academy), Andy Diggle (Green Arrow), Simon Spurrier (Coda, Labyrinth).
Chris Thompson will host a discussion with the three creators who are addicted to D&D, and a great line up of other events is also planned, including a special short fantasy RPG campaign that will be run in the Brewery Arts Centre on Saturday and Sunday, produced especially for the event, written by Andy Diggle, with all proceeds of sales of the campaign going to the Festival's partner charity, OCD Action.
""We are really excited to be hosting an RPG room at LICAF this year," enthuses 'Dungeon Room' co-organiser Katie White, who's working with Phil Welch on this aspect of the Festival. "There are so many crossovers between the RPG and comics world, from storytelling, character creation and of course the amazing artwork.
"There has been a huge rise in popularity for Fantasy RPG games recently, and many comics reflect this. We have found some amazing exhibitors who all have art and comics inspired by Fantasy RPG, and will be running some fantastic activities throughout the weekend!"
The family-friendly Festival offering a full weekend of wonderful events, activities and workshops for all ages, many of them free, would, of course, not be the popular event it has become since its launch in 2013 without its Family Zone activities. Throughout the Festival there will comics adventures for kids of all ages - and the Westmorland Shopping Centre will again be transformed into The Family Zone for the weekend.
Look out for events headed up by festival favourites Robert Deas, Ilya and Marc Jackson, and a "Superhero Challenge" organised by Sarita Robinson and Nicky Danino challenging kids to test their puzzle solving abilities in a number of fiendish brain-teasers to see if they have what it takes to be a superhero.
Promising kick-ass superheroes, future worlds, fantastical creatures, zombies, crime fighters, politics, satire, documentary, comedy, manga and much more, the full Festival programme is available to read online and as a downloadable PDF. Tickets are on sale now!
• The Lakes International Comic Art Festival returns to Kendal at various venues across the town 11th - 13th October 2019 | Buy Tickets | View the full Festival programme online or grab the Festival Guide as a free PDF download
• Tickets for the 2019 Festival are on Sale Now at www.comicartfestival.com/buy-tickets
• Web: www.comicartfestival.com | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | Podcast
