Welcome to the Lakes International Comic Art Festival publications, some still available through bookshops, both physical and digital, and our festival partner Page 45 in Nottingham.
On 16 October 2014, seven artists entered a room together as part of the Lakes International Comic Festival in Kendal. Their mission was to each draw a 24 page comic in 24 hours. By the evening of the following day all the stories were drawn and boxes of the comics were being picked up from the printers to go on sale at the show. This book collects those stories.
In 2016, Dark Horse proudly presented a new original graphic novel by the legendary artist Dave McKean based on the life of Paul Nash, a surrealist painter during World War I. Initiated by the Lakes International Comic Art Festival, Black Dog – the Dreams of Paul Nash saw comic art tackling one of the most harrowing and dark periods of human history, providing a new insight into Nash’s iconic WWI artworks.
This Lakes International Comic Art Festival 2016 hosted the official global English language launch of Carrot to the Stars (La carotte aux étoiles). The LICAF team translated the publication and were joined at the festival by artist Riff Reb’s and publishing Director, Pascal Meriaux, who organises the Amiens Comics Festival, to mark the release of this special new edition.
Coelifer Atlas is the outcome of a special 24 Hour Marathon Comic project at LICAF 2016, featuring a stellar line up of talent, aiming to raise awareness of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Coelifer Atlas was written by Alex Paknadel and Dan Watters, and drawn by Dan Berry (editor), Craig Thompson, Charlie Adlard, Emma Vieceli, Petteri Tikannen, Bruce Mutard, Nick Brokenshire, Bryan Talbot, Ken Niimura, Joe Decie, Mike Medaglia and Jacob Phillips.
In October 2017, to celebrate the centenary of Will Eisner, the Lakes International Comic Art Festival launched the Spirit Centenary Newspaper featuring a cover by Becky Cloonan and work by Brendan McCarthy, Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, Graham Dury and Simon Thorp, Chris Samnee, John M Burns, Sergio Aragonés, Peter Milligan and Duncan Fegredo, Seth, Jason Latour, Jonathan Ross and Bryan Hitch, and Michael Cho.
The Lakes International Comic Art Festival 2018 saw the launch of Traces of the Great War, a remarkable, original anthology of 18 thought-provoking graphic short stories bridging the past and present. Internationally-acclaimed comic book artists, graphic novelists and writers explore the continued relevance and resonance of the First World War and its legacy in our lives today.
Based on the ambitious comic anthology ‘Traces of the Great War’, these free online learning resources offer teachers of English, History and Humanities a framework to study aspects of WWI and its legacy though narrative, discussion and artistic expression. The educational resources are authored by Natasa Lackovic of Lancaster University Educational Research Department and have been commissioned by the Lakes International Comic Art Festival and 14-18 NOW - the UK’s arts programme for the First World War centenary.
