Comic Convention
Caption Comic’s Festival Announces A Second Shipload Of Guests
UK Longest-running Indie Comics Festival Is Back Again This August
Caption Comics Festival, dedicated to indie and self-published sequential art, is in Oxford at Seacourt Hall 8-9 August. This year’s Pirate-themed Festival has announced a second wave of guests who will be part of the show’s panels and events which include: a Trans Narratives panel featuring exclusively trans creators, writer and artist speed-dating (matching artists and writers for potential collaboration) and a panel where creators discuss the impact of generative AI; among many other fascinating events to be announced officially soon…
Richard Starzecki – Course leader for the Oxford Brookes BA Illustration at Swindon and short course teacher in short courses on Animation and Storyboarding. Richard’s new graphic novel is book 1 of his scientific romance trilogy, Broken Lenses. https://rstarzecki.com/
Pete Trainor – An author and public speaker on change, design, data and technology. The creator of Comic Vault, a free catalogue management platform for comics and cons. His new book, Drawn to Extinction, considers AI’s impact on comics. Part cultural criticism, part memoir, it takes a research-led approach through interviews with a variety of innovating practitioners to study how AI threatens jobs, erodes beliefs and impacts creator’s mental well-being and sense of purpose. https://trainor.fyi/
ILYA (Ed Hillyer) – An experienced writer, artist and editor, with 100s of comics and more than 30 book titles to his name. These include graphic novels Manga Shakespeare’s KING LEAR, SKIDMARKS, ROOM FOR LOVE, KID SAVAGE, and the award-winning END OF THE CENTURY CLUB series. His latest is ROMO the WolfBoy, an All Ages character-based series released to great acclaim and newly available in paperback. He’s part of the UK independents revival, A1 Deadline, and a regular cartoon historian for The New Internationalist. His work has been translated into multiple languages. https://edilya.substack.com
Adam Karenina Sherif – Adam is an academic historian, comics critic, editor and sensitivity reader. His writings can be found regularly at The Beat but also contributing to Broken Frontier, Shelfdust, 2000 AD and BBC Sounds. He’s one half of indie guitar duo, th’sheridans. https://www.comicsbeat.com/author/adamsk/
Alex Taylor
Alex Taylor is a transmasculine genderqueer queer artist, currently based in London. influenced by his queer identities, and experiences with mental health, ‘Azbt’ works primarily through illustration, comics and zines to explore emotional landscapes, human relationships, and the deconstruction of gender. https://azbtart.com/
Ky Lawrence
Ky Lawrence describes himself as a cartoonist, monkey fan and animator. He graduated from Norwich University of the Arts in 2023, and is based in Leigh-On-Sea. His comics include ‘Going Home, ‘Sick Twisted Hell World,’ ‘Forbidden Move,’ ‘Making Bears,’ and ‘Bugboy.’ https://www.kywol.net/
The Mollusc Dimension
The Mollusc Dimension is a British-Chinese, trans, queer, neurodivergent multidisciplinary artist. His colourful graphic memoir “The Weird & Wonderful Surviveries of Squid Horse” (2024) was shortlisted by The Selfies Book Awards for non-fiction. He has received two project grants from Arts Council England for the latter and also for his music video “Asians Have Feelings Too” (2022) which received the “Favourite Award” at the Trans Pride Brighton Film Festival. The Mollusc Dimension’s art and writing appears or is forthcoming in: Aghh! Zine, Butch Bait, Covert, Queer Out Here, t’ART, Wasafiri, Wrong Directions and others. https://www.themolluscdimension.com/
Kitsune Art
Lucia alias KitsuneArt is a queer comic artist and illustrator based in London UK. She loves creating images and stories with a strong emotional core and LGBTQIA+ themes.
They’ve been self publishing comics and exhibiting at comic cons and fairs in the UK since 2019 and in Italy since 2013. She has been published by HellBound Media and Third Bear Press and in various international independent zines and anthologies. Her illustrations have been shown in collective and solo exhibitions in Italy, UK and the US. https://www.kitsuneart.net/
Aru Ruddle / Aruudlay
Aruudlay is a queer artist making fantasy/sci-fi comics and games. Comics creator of Rascal Prince, Creatures Beneath and His Yaoi Hands, as well as multiple zines. Arrudlay has written an RPG called Star Gays. https://aruudlay.carrd.co/
Karrie Fransman
Karrie’s graphic novels ‘The House That Groaned’ (2012), and the award winning ‘Death of the Artist’ (2015), were both published by Penguin Random House. Two co-authored illustrated books published by Faber & Faber. ‘Over, Under, Sideways, Down’, the tale of an Iranian teenage refugee was a collaboration with the British Red Cross and won a Broken Frontier Award for Best One-Shot. The BBC, Oxford University, TEDx, the National Portrait Gallery and Tate Modern are just a few of the many many high profile places on the international stage where Karrie’s comics, installations, workshops, and speaking events have occurred. https://karriefransman.com
Debasmita Dasgupta
Debasmita is a south-Asian illustrator and graphic novelist who lives in Windsor. She just loves telling stories through art. Whether it’s fiction or nonfiction.
She holds a First Class with Distinction MA in children’s book illustration and graphic novels from Middlesex University in London. She has worked with some amazing global publishers like HarperCollins UK, Scholastic Asia, Penguin Random House India, Barefoot Books, Oxford University Press, Lerner Publishing Group, and more. Her latest graphic novel, Faiza is a Fighter, was named one of the BEAT’s Best Kids Comics of 2025. Debasmita was also nominated for a Kirkus Prize in 2018, which was a huge honor.
For Debasmita, art isn’t just about pretty pictures; it’s about making a difference. She’s a big advocate for “art-for-change,” which means she serves on the advisory boards of several nonprofits to help amplify the stories of real-life changemakers. Over the years, her art has been exhibited across Asia and Europe, featured by over 50 international media outlets, and her animated stories have even made it to the Raindance Film Festival screens in London and Toronto. Some of her latest graphic works will be exhibited at the Musée de la Bande Dessinée in France and at the Museum of Art and Photography (MAP) in Bangalore, India.
When she’s not at her drawing desk, she’s usually on the move. She loves teaming up with international literature festivals, schools, book councils, and museums to mentor the next generation of emerging picture book artists. There is nothing quite like helping someone else find their creative voice.
Caption Comics Festival is the UK’s longest running comics event that focuses on professional networking, support and community.
Caption is a non-profit event run entirely by volunteers with its organising committee made up of working creators and journalists that have a special interest in comics. Its focus is on supporting artists instead of the typical comic convention approach of fandom, signings and meet’n’greets. At Caption there’s no dividing line of access between creators and readers.
It’s also different from other events in that the only sales table is shared for everyone with only a 10% cut asked for to support the event’s running costs.
Find out more at Caption’s website
