VIP Brands has gathered all the publishers and titles they will be presenting at the first British International Comic Rights Market at this year's Lakes International Comic Art Festival in September in Bowness-on-Windermere into an online resource, available for anyone to access. You can visit it here: licaf-rights-market.com
The portal, supported by funding from Arts Council England, features a list of publishers here, and the titles they are presenting; and a full catalogue of titles from all publishers here.
British publishers attending this first Rights Market include mainstream publishers Curtis Brown, David Fickling Books and the Phoenix Comic, Koguchi Press, Knockabout Comics, Korero Press, Penguin Random House, Rebellion (publishers of 2000AD), Scholastic, SelfMadeHero, Tim Bomb Comics, Titan Comics, VIP Brands Ltd and Watson, Little; and a wide range of independents, including The 77 Publishing Ltd, Avery Hill Publishing, B7 Comics, Blue Fox Comics, Clicky Sprout Wife, Engine Comics, First Graphic Novel, Full Bleed Rights, Pigeon, Sloth Comics, ThirdBear Press and Tripwire Comics Presents.
Individual creators will also be presenting projects and include Yomi Ayeni, Corey Brotherson, Bambos Georgiou, Ed Firth, David Gaffney & Dan Berry, Stuart Lloyd Gould, ILYA, Sam Hart, Joe Latham, Tinglin Liu, John McCrea, Monty Nero, Emma Reynolds, Smith vs Smith, Kev F. Sutherland, Connor Tierney, Myfanwy Tristram, Lyndon White, Stevie White and Andrew Wildman.
International publishers involved include Argo, Avant-Verlag, Becco Giallo, La Cafetière Editions, Carlsen Verlag, Dupuis, Helvetiq, Nathan, Scratch, Scream Comics, Steinkis Groupe / Jungle, Sylvain Coissard Agency/Scout, Timof, VigeVage Knjige, and WSOY.
We hope this resource is also of interest to British as well as international publishers, since the catalogue also highlights work by leading comic creators from across the country that is available for licensing.
At the annual Lakes International Comic Art Festival, the main aim of its Comics Marketplace has always been to create an environment which encourages networking and opportunities to discover more about the global comics scene alongside selling to our audiences and guests. Ultimately, the Festival has always wanted to find ways to get British comics seen more widely, and to provide a platform for the developments of creators’ careers.
In the pursuit of the goal to promote British Comics on the international stage the Festival secured the funding from the Arts Council and The Adlard Foundation to present the UK’s first International Rights Market for Comics, at LICAF 2024.
The only other International Comics Rights Market dedicated to comics is at the Festival International de la Bande Dessinée d’Angoulême. It brings together international buyers of comics, the acquisition editors from foreign publishers, with publishers wishing to sell rights to comics, who discuss and negotiate possibilities and terms and then, hopefully, the buyer translates, publishes and distributes these comics in their own language/country or countries. The LICAF International Rights Market for Comics will be a bit different, in that it will also be open to individual creators to meet with buyers.
In its first year the Rights Market will feature several buyers, drawn from across Europe who the Festival has identified, with expert help, as ripe for buying British comics.
The Festival will be providing an online session in advance for all those accessing the Rights Market to discuss how you should prepare and what to expect.
• Find out more about the International Rights Market and international publishers attending here
