The Lakes International Comic Art Festival is delighted announce its first guests for its weekend-long event in October 2019, with Early Bird Passes on sale now.
Announced are Japanese manga artist Junko Mizuno, who has also provided the stunning art for this year’s Festival, an event focused on how comics are always Pushing Boundaries, while celebrating, as usual, the rich diversity of the entire comics medium.
Other announced guests are Pénélope Bagieu, Doug Braithwaite, Becky Cloonan, Garth Ennis and Rob Williams – with many more international and British guests to be announced.
Over 11th – 13th October 2019, the Festival, now in its seventh year, will offer comic creator panels, workshops, Live Draws and Family Zone fun, plus a range of exhibitions across Kendal that will include a celebration of The Smurfsand Hellboy, and much, much more.
As usual, there will be plenty of international comic stars at the Festival this year, including Belgian, Quebecois, Finnish and Italian guests, with a particular focus on Belgian comics and, more widely, Belgian beer and waffles… but the Festival is playing its cards close to its chest on that front about exactly what is planned for now in that department!
Opportunities for comic creators to be part of the Festival to promote their work have been expanded this year, with more dedicated spaces across Kendal being opened up as an extension of the event’s popular Comics Clock Towerplatform for artists, writers and publishers.
Early Bird Passes for the Festival – which enable admittance to most events through the entire weekend at one price – are on sale now from the Festival web site.
There will, as usual, be many free events, too, including the Family Zone, and once again the town will be taken over by comics thanks to the generous support of local businesses taking part in the annual Windows Trail.
The first guests for October 2019 are announced hot on the heels of the Festival’s ground-breaking Breakthrough project to develop new comic voices, and the launch of its online resources as part of the Traces of the Great Warproject.
“We’re really excited about this year’s line-up,” says Festival Director Julie Tait. “We’ve done even more than ever to bring a huge diversity of comic creators to the Lake District, whose work spans a huge range of themes, from work on 2000AD and horror comics through to humour and manga tales.
“Our work promoting comics is constantly expanding with projects through the year, but the Festival is always the Festival remains the highlight of the year for everyone.”
