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Lakes International Comic Art Festival – Craig Thompson joins guest list

Craig Thompson
Kendal, 19th July 2016: The Lakes International Comic Art Festival (14th -16th October 2016) is pleased to confirm an appearance by one of the most critically-acclaimed cartoonists of his generation, award-winning author Craig Thompson, alongside current collaborator, the acclaimed French artist Edmond Baudoin.

Thompson is the writer and artist of the critically-acclaimed graphic novels Blankets (which has been published in 20 languages), Habibi, the New York Times best-selling graphic novel; Space Dumplins, launched last year, Good-bye, Chunky Rice and Carnet de Voyage. He has been awarded three Eisner awards, three Harvey awards, two Ignatz awards, and a Grammy nomination for album cover artwork on Menomena’s Friend and Foe.

In addition to his own solo event, Craig will be appearing alongside French artist Edmond Baudoin, sharing a stage and do what they do best – draw! These ground-breaking creators from different sides of the Atlantic are currently collaborating on a project which will undoubtedly create ripples throughout the comic art world.

Baudoin is a revolutionary comic artist and winner of three major awards at the Angouleme Comics Festival in France. His biography of the great surrealist painter Salvador Dali will be published in English by SelfMadeHero in October 2016 and will debut at the festival.

“I’ve never been to the Lakes before (the place or event), but have heard legend of its beauty,” says Craig. “So obviously, it’s an honour to be attending this year.

“For me, the international guest list is the biggest draw, the intermingling of sensibilities, and stirring the embers of enthusiasm for comics.

“In part, this’ll be a continuation of tour for my most recent book, Space Dumplins, published in the UK by Faber & Faber. But it’s also a platform for Edmond Baudoin and I to continue work on an upcoming project; a collaborative, bilingual travelogue – a meditation on arts and ageing and drawing with our brothers growing up.”

Tickets for the main events at this year’s Lakes International Comic Art Festival are on sale now.

Guests at this year’s Festival 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 novelWrinkles.

Many international and British comic creators – writers, artists, publishers and retailers – are heading to Kendal, in Cumbria, for a packed weekend of comic celebration 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.

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

Profile: Craig Thompson

Craig Thompson
One of the most critically-acclaimed cartoonists of his generation, award-winning author Craig Thompson was born in Traverse City, Michigan in 1975 and raised outside a small town in central Wisconsin.

He is the writer and artist of the critically acclaimed graphic novels Blankets (which has been published in 20 languages), Habibi, the New York Times best-selllng graphic novel; Space Dumplins, launched last year, Good-bye, Chunky Rice and Carnet de Voyage.

He has been awarded three Eisner awards, three Harvey awards, two Ignatz awards, and a Grammy nomination for album cover artwork on Menomena’s Friend and Foe.

Drawn and Quarterly re-published Blankets, Thompson’s  Eisner and Harvey Award-winning story of a young man coming of age and finding the confidence to express his creative voice, in a new paperback edition last year. Thompson’s poignant graphic memoir plays out against the backdrop of a Midwestern winterscape: finely-hewn linework draws together a portrait of small town life, a rigorously fundamentalist Christian childhood, and a lonely, emotionally mixed-up adolescence.

Under an engulfing blanket of snow, Craig and Raina fall in love at winter church camp, revealing to one another their struggles with faith and their dreams of escape. Over time though, their personal demons resurface and their relationship falls apart. It’s a universal story, and Thompson’s vibrant brushstrokes and unique page designs make the familiar heartbreaking all over again.

This groundbreaking graphic novel is an eloquent portrait of adolescent yearning; first love (and first heartache); faith in crisis; and the process of moving beyond all of that. Beautifully rendered in pen and ink, Thompson has created a love story that lasts.

Beyond the world of comics, Craig is the co-creator of TRACTORBEAMS, a platform of spontaneous, collaborative animations cooked up with his  brother, Phil, which had its soft launch via launch at Instagram andtractorbeams.tv earlier this year. Together, Craig and Phil mine the memories of their childhood for snippets of animatable entertainment.

Craig Thompson lives in Los Angeles with partner Sierra Hahn and cat Momo.

 

Blankets by Craig Thompson
Habibi

Edmond Baudoin

Edmond Baudoin
Born 23rd April 1942 in Nice, Edmond Baudoin abandoned the monotonous career of a chief accountant to dedicate himself to more creative and artistic endeavours. He slipped his first short comic-strip stories into Le Canard Sauvage in 1974 and subsequently into CircusPilote and L’Echo des Savanes. His first album, a collection of some of these early experimental works entitledCivilisation, was published by Glénat in 1981.

Refining his impressionistic and suggestive graphism, he then published a series of ground-breaking works with Futuropolis: Les sentiers cimentés(1981), Passe le temps (1982), La peau du lézard (1983), Un flip coca (1984), Un rubis sur les lèvres (1986), Le premier voyage (1987), Le Portrait (1990), Couma Aco (1991). When this publisher was taken over by Gallimard and limited itself to highlighting literary texts, he illustrated works by Le Clézio, Tahar Ben Jelloun and Jean Genet.

Scriptwriter Frank Reichert collaborated with Baudoin from 1984 to 1988 on a series of stories that were pre-published in ChicZoulou and Metal Aventures, before being collected into albums: La danse devant le buffet (Futuropolis, 1985), Avis de recherche (Futuropolis, 1985), Théâtre d’ombres (Humanoïdes Associés, 1987) and La Croisée (Humanoïdes Associés, 1988).

At the same time, Baudoin was also working with Jacques Lob. Together they produced two strips for the monthly A SuivreIntérieur Noir (1986) and Carla(1988, published as an album by Futuropolis in 1993).

The artist then turned to the small alternative companies that were beginning to blossom alongside the traditional publishing industry: Z’Editions (La mort du peintre in 1995, along with a few illustrated books), Autrement (contributions to L’Argent roi in 1994), Apogée (La diagonale des jours, based on a script by Dohollan in 1995), L’Association (Eloge de la poussière in 1995, then NamMade in U.S.Le voyage, etc ). Le Voyage won the Alph’Art for best script at Angoulême in January 1997.

Constantly exploring the relationship between an artist and his work, Edmond Baudoin is an intimate and strongly autobiographical storyteller. Les Yeux dans le mur, the first of his works that he coloured for the Collection Aire Libre and one that he composed in collaboration with a young admirer and model, Céline Wagner, is a perfect illustration of this characteristic.

Edmond Baudoin’s Dalí, a graphic biography of the great surrealist painter, will be published in English by SelfMadeHero in October 2016.

Dali - French Edition
Edmond Baudoin - Art from Dali
Edmond Baudoin - Art from Dali

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