Lakes International Comic Art Festival reveals 2024 poster by Gigi Cavenago, first guests

We are delighted to reveal our official poster for the 2024 Lakes International Comic Art Festival, running 27th - 29th September in Bowness-on-Windermere, by Italian maestro Gigi Cavenago.

This beautiful poster is a homage to the adventurous sailor Corto Maltese, created by the Italian comic book creator Hugo Pratt in 1967, and has been created by arrangement and with thanks to copyright holders CONG SA.

Gigi Cavenago, perhaps best known for his work on the Italian comic character Dylan Dog, and was one of the Festival’s guests in 2023. Although he's busy working on a major project we are hoping he can be with us in 2024, too. But for now, we can confirm several guests for this year’s annual event, among them American comic artist Dan Panosian, and Britain’s Dave McKean, making a welcome return to the annual event, and Mollie Ray, whose debut graphic novel, Giant, will be published in June by Faber & Faber.

Other guests revealed at this early stage in the run up to the Festival include Michael LarkVictoria LomaskoFumio Obata and Tom Richmond, with many more yet to be announced in the coming months.

Early bird tickets for the Festival, returning with its entertaining mix of panels, live draws, workshops, Comics Market Place and its new International Rights Fair for comic creators and publishers, and plenty of free events for children, will be on sale soon.

“We’re absolutely thrilled with Gigi’s amazing poster for this year’s Festival,” enthused Festival Director Julie Tait. “Not only does it capture our lakeside location perfectly, the art echoes international support for our Festival and ongoing promotion of global comics and creators.

“There’s an added layer to the work too, in that Hugo Pratt worked for British publisher Fleetway before creating Corto Maltese, and we hope some British creators will benefit from the presence of international publishers attending our International Rights Market. Thanks to Arts Council support for this initiative, several French and German publishers are signed up already to be part of this, the first such event in the UK specifically aimed at comic creators and publishers.”

The Lakes International Comic Art Festival returns to Bowness-on-Windermere Friday 27th – Sunday 29th September 2024 

Check out our Guests revealed so far here

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