Kids! Dare You Enter Our Doctor Who Monster Comics Challenge?

The Lakes International Comic Art Festival, in partnership with Doctor Who Magazine, published by Panini Comics UK, is delighted to announce a Doctor Who Monster Competition for children aged 8 - 12!

Design a Doctor Who monster of your very own, and see it featured in a special comic strip in Doctor Who Magazine, the official magazine about the long-running SF show.

This competition is open to children aged  8 – 12 and all entries must be submitted by Thursday 1st August 2024 to be considered for a short list of just 15 designs, the final overall winner decided by a special panel of experts led by Doctor Who Magazine editor Jason Quinn, Doctor Who comic strip writer and former DWM editor John Freeman, and artist Mike Collins. Also involved in the judging will be Doctor Who expert Archie Phillips, brought on board as a local superfan of the show.

The winning monster will appear in a special comic strip in Doctor Who Magazine in 2025.

The overall winner will be publicly revealed at the start of a special Sixty Years of Doctor Who Comics event at the Lakes International Comic Art Festival 2024 (27th- 29th September 2024, Bowness-on-Windermere www.comicartfestival.com), celebrating sixty years of many SciFi fans favourite time and space traveller in comic strip form, starting in TV Comic, way back in 1964!

Jason, John and Doctor Who comic artist and series storyboard artist Mike Collins will lead a special session where we come up with a possible story featuring the winning monster, working with the audience to create a special comic strip tale to amaze DWM readers in 2025! Along the way, find out some of the secrets behind how a Doctor Who comic is created, Jason will tease you about upcoming stories and Mike will draw some key scenes from the planned comic on stage!

Interested? Here’s all young fans have to do…

• Design a monster (submissions should be no more than 210 mm x 297mm, A4 in size, please), draw it and send it to us at comicart@comicartfestival.com or by post to the Lakes International Comic Art Festival, Beatrix House, Kendal Road, Bowness-on-Windermere, Cumbria LA23 3FB by Thursday 1st August 2024. Make sure you include its name, its special powers, and tell us in no more than 100 words a bit about your creation. We’ll need your contact information, too!

Head to the Lakes International Comic Art Festival web site for full rules and further information about the 2024 Doctor Who Monster Challenge

Here’s what we do then…

The judges will whittle down the entries into a short list of 15 and decide on a winner by Thursday 22nd August, so we can inform them, in the hope they can be at the event and take part.

We’ll announce the winner, who will be sworn to secrecy until then, at the start of a special "Sixty Years of Doctor Who Comics” event at the Lakes International Comic Art Festival 2024 (27th- 29th September 2024, Bowness-on-Windermere www.comicartfestival.com) – where we will also ask the audience to come up with ideas on a story for this dangerous new adversary for the Doctor!

The winning monster will appear in a special comic strip in Doctor Who Magazine in 2025

Head to the Lakes International Comic Art Festival web site for full rules and further information about the 2024 Doctor Who Monster Challenge

COMPETITION RULES

• The competition is only open to children aged 8 to 12 

• Your entry must be your original work – no creating a new version of an existing Doctor • Who monster like the Daleks or Cybermen, for example

• Your entry must include a declaration that the work is your own and original, signed by a parent or guardian.

All you need to include is the following, written on the back of physical entries or in an accompanying letter, or in the submission email:

“I certify this is an original work, for consideration for the 2024 Doctor Who Monster Challenge organised by the Lakes International Comic Art Festival, and give permission for the image to be used in publicity material released by the Lakes International Comic Art Festival, and in Doctor Who Magazine. I understand physical art cannot be returned, due to the expected number of entries.”

• Entries must be submitted by Thursday 1st August 2024 to the competition address, by email or to Beatrix House, Kendal Road, Bowness-on-Windermere, Cumbria LA23 3FB

• The decision of the judges is final

NO PHYSICAL ARTWORK CAN BE RETURNED - WE ARE EXPECTING A LOT OF ENTRIES - SO PLEASE KEEP COPIES!