The Lakes International Comic Art Festival Announce Details For This Year’s Virtual Con

Like so many other comic book events, The Lakes International Comic Art Festival has cancelled this year’s show but will be making their presence felt online through a number of various online events announced today on social media and taking pica ever the weekend of Oct. 9th -11th.
Guest include Charlie Adlard, Yomi Ayeni, Sayra Begum, Hannah Berry, Paul Cornell, Gemma Correll, Robert Deas, Hugleikur Dagsson, Elyon’s, Dave Gibbons, Dave McKean, Ken Niimura, Paul Gravett, Marc Jackson, Nicola Jennings, Sarah McIntyre, Junko Mizuno, Sean Phillips, Tanya Roberts, Julie Rocheleau, Martin Rowson, Posy Simmonds – and many more to come.
Called LICF Live programming in the works includes:
A live “Big Comics Pub Quiz” – with virtual Festival goers able to compete by yourself or form a team. Suitable for comics fans of all ages, with rounds ranging from Disney characters to the history of comics, to Outer Space, there will be prizes for the winners, plus the immortal accolade: Comics Cleverclogs 2020!
Showing Off – a range of live draws and challenges including creators from locations as far-flung as Japan, Finland and the United States
Drawing on Japan – Both live and pre-recorded, celebrate some of our best live draws from LICAF 2013-2019 with Junko Mizuno (USA/Japan), Ken Niimura (Spain/Japan), Emma Vieceli (UK) and Petteri Tikannen (Finland), who will draw on their inspirations from Japan to create an original piece of art for LICAF LIVE

Pass the Panel – 16 artists are challenged to create a 16-panel story with the loosest of storylines. Taking turns, each of them will draw a panel of a new comic story, passing from one to the next until the story is complete. The finished strip could be tragic, silly, profound or hilarious. “The only thing we can safely predict,” enthuses Festival Director Julie Tait, “is that watching it take shape will be utterly mesmerising!”
Live Cartoon Challenge with Luke McGarry – Live from Los Angeles and featuring special cartoonist guests, no challenge is too great for this award-winning, go-to designer and cartoonist
Daft as a Brush – five cartoonists from Denmark, Iceland, the UK and USA each tackle five crazy cartoon challenges live and pre-recorded for your delight and delectation!

The virtual event, bustling with extraordinary talent, will also offer several “Comics Up Close” events, leading with a huge range of international collaborations – special events featuring top creators from France, Quebec and Denmark in association with Lyon BD, Quebec BD festivals and Art-Bubble, Denmark; “Comics, Clouds and Kendal Mint Cake”, examining why the Lake District is such a great place to inspire artists, and to read comics; Desert Island Comics – asking leading comic creators to choose which five comics, one luxury item, and their favourite crisps they would take to a desert island; and “Through the Comics Keyhole”, where celebrity comics collectors take us into their homes and show us their prized possessions!
The weekend will also offer free workshops, hosted by comics creators Steven Appleby, Jason Chatfield, Ben Cullis, Joe Kelly, Joe and Luke McGarry, Tom Richmond, Lucy Sullivan, Tom Ward and Emma Vieceli.
Plus, a number of exhibitions, two in collaboration with the Italian Institute and the Czech Literature Centre feature as part of a festival online gallery experience and much, much more, to both challenge and entertain. Also planned are “Coronacartoon of the Year”, a virtual exhibition of cartoons about the pandemic, taken from newspapers and other sources worldwide, and “Weirdest Comic Image of All Time“, a collection of the most bizarre, disturbing, accidentally hilarious and just plain wrong comic panels that have ever appeared in print.
For full programming plans, which also include Infinity and Beyond in association with SouthernGFX, a special section of LICAF LIVE devoted to how technology is pushing the boundaries of comics, and LITTLE LICAF LIVE, designed especially for kids (12 and under) and families – a wonderland of workshops, downloadable resources, readings and more – visit the Festival web site now.