Canada Comes To The Lakes Comic Festival

Kendal Calling! This stunning art by Festival guest Stuart Immonen is being offered as a limited edition print, available to buy here

The full line-up of Canadian creators at this year’s Lakes International Comic Art Festival (16th – 18th October) is now confirmed and includes Kate Beaton, Darwyn Cooke and Kathryn and Stuart Immonen – who will be joining many others in the dedicated Canadian Comics Lodge at The Shakespeare Centre over the event-packed weekend.

Working in partnership with the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, LICAF’s exciting events line up this year includes appearances by Estelle Bachelard (aka Bach, creator of It’s Hard To Be A Girl), Kate Beaton (Hark, A Vagrant and Step Aside, Pops!), Darwyn Cooke (DC: The New Frontier and Parker: The Hunter), Michael DeForge (Lose, Ant Colony, First Year Healthy, Very Casual and designer on the Cartoon Network’s Adventure Time), Stuart Immonen (Star Wars, Captain America, Russian Olive to Red King and All-New X-Men), Kathryn Immonen (Moving Pictures, Operation: SIN, Spider-Verse and Russian Olive to Red King), Samuel LeBlanc (Perfume of Lilacs), Conor McCreery (Kill Shakespeare and Sherlock Homes vs. Houdini) and Seth (Palookaville, George Sprott)

Along with appearances on comic panels and in workshops over the weekend, the Canadian guests will take up residence in Kendal’s Shakespeare Centre, close to the main Brewery Arts Centre venue for Festival events and the free Comics Clock Tower, which will host a huge line-up of British and international creators, publishers and retailers.

Darwyn Cooke, making his first ever visit to the UK, will also introduce a special screening of the 2008 film Justice League: New Frontier, screening at the Brewery Arts Centre on Saturday morning (17th October). adapted from the award-winning DC: The New Frontier he created, which effectively captures his gritty writing style and powerful artwork on screen.

“Festival’s offer the chance for young creators to meet other artists whom they share a sensibility with,” says guest Seth. “This is so important when you are young and is probably one of the things I am most envious of the younger artists.

“There were few opportunities in my youth to meet other young artists with the same tastes and ambitions. It was a small pool then. It’s nice to see so many young artists meeting and having fun together at these festivals.”