Lakes International Comic Art Festival Main Events: Sunday 28th September 2025
Day by Day Program links for this year's Festival
• Saturday 27th September 2025
Crowdfunding Fundraising – Top Tips with 77 Publishing
9.30 – 10.30am, Yet Another Space (beside our Lakeside Comics Marketplace)
77 Publishing have launched 30 fundraising campaigns raising over £250,000, including for John Wagner, Ian Gibson and Pat Mills. Find out how to build a successful campaign from scratch with Ben Cullis and Steve Bull, who will present a top tips workshop and QA session.
Dessine-moi Inyeon ("Draw Me Inyeon") – Live Performance
10.30 – 11.30am, Old Laundry Theatre
Laëtitia Marty and Jung-sik Jun present a new commission by Comic Art Europe. Draw Me Inyeon is an immersive stage performance blending intimate storytelling, mime, vocals, video and live drawing.
At the heart of this hybrid show is Poppy, a woman born in South Korea and adopted in France who tries to reconstruct the red thread of her destiny. Between shadow and light, she experiences abandonment, wandering, violence, but also joy, resilience and self-conquest that lead her to true love.
Through visual and poetic language, the show explores sensitive and hopeful themes.
Presented by Pascal Meriaux, Director of On a Marche sur la Bulle and in association with Comic Art Europe
Salopians Assemble!
10.00 – 11.00am, The Other Space (marquee alongside the Lakeside Comics Marketplace)
There’s something in the water in Shrewsbury! There are more comics creators per capita then pretty much anywhere else in the UK outside of the capital cities. Here we feature three of their flag-bearers in a live draw and chat about their current projects, collaborations and why Shrewsbury? Hosted by Andrew Sumner
Mike Perkins is a comic book illustrator whose many credits include Captain America, Thor and Spider-Man. His most recent work is the prestige format series, Bat-Man: First Knight, and Justice League: The Atom Project.
Michael Lark is the artist and co-creator of Lazarus and Lazarus: Risen from Image Comics. In his nearly thirty years in the comics industry, he has drawn many of the most iconic characters in the medium, including Spider-Man, Captain America, Daredevil, Batman, Superman, and many others.
Charlie Adlard is best-known for The Walking Dead, but when he finally turned his back on zombies, a whole new world of comics creation opened up to him. His most recent project is with Benjamin Dickson – The Mountains Belong to Us, a story of a young girl forced to shepherd a flock of sheep to safety across a mountainside, with no experience and all the time being pursued by hungry wolves.
Graphic Design Careers in Gaming
11.00am – Noon, Yet Another Space
Come and find out what it takes with Chris Margerison from PlayStation Studio’s Creative. He’ll talk about design careers in the video game industry and his own experience of graduating to becoming a professional graphic designer now working at PlayStation. He’ll also reveal how the PSS Creative team finds and works with independent illustrators in their creative work too.”
Geezer – Philip Bond & Will Potter
11.30am – 12.30pm, The Other Space
Celebrating the Britpop Underdog epic live at LICAF are its 2 creators Philip Bond and Will Potter.
Philip started writing and drawing comics in the seminal 1980s Deadline magazine. He has since “squandered talent” on books like The Invisibles, Doctor Who and Eve Stranger, but is still best known for drawing Grant Morrison's Kill Your Boyfriend (1995). Will played bass in Top 30 indie band CUD from the late 1980s to early 1990s, while writing and drawing “Nommo” for Deadline.
In 2017, with CUD having reformed, he began collaborating with Philip on a comic – strip unreliable biography of the band, Rich and Strange, followed by Geezer.
Find out more about their work and unique partnership with a live draw and in conversation event MCed by Shelly Bond.
Phoenix Fest @ LICAF presents Intergalactic Monkey Business with Jamie Smart
Noon – 1.00pm, Old Laundry Theatre
Join Jamie Smart, award-winning creator of Bunny vs Monkey, as he ventures into the world of his latest book, Bunny vs Monkey Intergalactic Monkey Business! Learn to create comics like a pro in this draw-along event.
Heretic – Robbie Morrison & Charlie Adlard
12.30pm, Yet Another Space
Robbie and Charlie go back a long way. In 1998 they were founder members of Les Cartoonistes Dangereux and created White Death together. Since then, Robbie has become an award-winning crime writer, and Charlie has gained worldwide fame as the artist on The Walking Dead.
They have joined forces once more to create a new graphic novel, Heretic, an historical thriller in which real-life figures Cornelius Agrippa and Johan Weyer are plunged into a maelstrom of murder, madness and magic as they investigate a macabre series of killings in 16th Century Belgium. John McShane explores this exciting new collaboration whilst Charlie draws live.
An Avery Hill Double Bill – Lucy Sullivan & Donya Todd
1.00 – 2.00pm, The Other Space
Published by Avery Hill Publishing, both Lucy Sullivan and Donya Todd have highly distinctive styles which push the boundaries of comics.
Lucy creates stories around social concerns combined with folklore and expressive mark making. Best known for her acclaimed debut graphic novel Barking, based on her own experience of a mental health crisis and published by Avery Hill. Donya is an artist, illustrator and book-maker, inspired by the magical, mystical and macabre. She is currently working on a graphic novel, The Witch’s Egg, coming out in October 2025, with Avery Hill.
In a live draw and chat they come together at LICAF to reveal why their comics stand out from the crowd, how their work has evolved and where they’re heading next. Hosted by Broken Frontier’s Andy Oliver.
From Palestine
1.30 – 2.30pm, Old Laundry Theatre
Meaning snippets, “Qusasat” is a collaborative project between LICAF and the Power Collective in Bethlehem. Its first phase was a summer camp in July 2025 to create a new digital anthology by twelve young Palestinian artists, co-led by Mollie Ray. Sliman Mukarker, co-founder of Power, will join us to launch this brilliant new anthology.
Meanwhile LICAF is proud to have been working with one of the Palestinian comics scene’s leading lights, Khaled Jarada, who is from Gaza, now based in Paris, and is producing his first full-length comic with LICAF, mentored by Lucy Sullivan which il be shared at LICAF for the first time.
Last but not least is Mohammad Sabaaneh, an award-winning cartoonist whose most recent book 30 Seconds from Gaza is now published in English and formally launched at LICAF at this event hosted by Paul Gravett.
Every member of the audience will receive a copy of Qusasat and Khaled Jarada’s new work
Supported by the British Council & the Amos Trust
SelfMadehero: A Double Bill
2.00 – 3.45pm, Yet Another Space
Celebrating two of SelfMadeHero’s most exciting new additions for 2025 where you can join for one or both sessions…
How to Fight Demons!
2.00pm – 2.45pm, Yet Another Space
Comics Laureate Bobby Joseph reveals his and Abbigayle Bircham’s forthcoming YA graphic novel My Dad Fights Demons! with a live reading from this tale of absentee fathers, social media influencers, and mind-bending urban fantasy. Plus a Q&A with the authors about their process.
A Tale of Two Sisters
3.00pm – 3.45pm, Yet Another Space
The Rickard Sisters discuss their latest literary adaptation from SelfMadeHero: Ethel Carnie Holdsworth’s This Slavery. In pre-war industrial Lancashire, one sister fights to free her community from the subjugation of the factory; the other is trapped in another kind of slavery altogether: marriage.
Hosted by John Freeman
A Spotlight on Alison Sampson
2.30 – 3.30pm, The Other Space
Alison Sampson is an award-winning artist and writer in the fields of horror, fantasy, science fiction and adventure. Recent collaborators include Stephen and Owen King, Steve Niles, Mike Mignola, Futurific, Subterranean Press and Iron Maiden.
Kate and Alison will be in conversation with fellow creator Lucy Sullivan about their most recent work, and plans for the future.
Patchwork with Kate Evans
4.00 – 5.00pm, The Other Space
Kate Evans is a cartoonist, artist, author and quilter. In her new story, Patchwork, Kate illustrates Jane Austen’s story using the fabrics of the quilt that she made, and pieces together the narrative from Austen’s own words.
Join Harriet Earle as she discusses the inspiration for and creation of this extraordinary graphic novel with a unique opportunity to see Kate’s handmade quilt first-hand.
Live Draw Finale
3.30 – 4.30pm, Old Laundry Theatre
Life Drawing is an important part of an artist’s development and comic artists are no exception. In fact, in 2019, LICAF published Life, charting Charlie Adlard’s life drawing journey.
For this year’s finale, we invite four artists to participate in a life draw featuring some of our special guests – but don’t worry they’ll be keeping their clothes on! They will be adopting poses from some of their best-known work or work by others they most admire.
Featuring Bill Morrison (USA), Sean Phillips (UK), Philip Bond (UK/USA) & Mehdi Annassi (Morocco) and an array of special guests who like to pose!
Posers: Shelly Bond, Charlie Adlard, Chris Condon and Keli Lark herself
• For more information on our Guests for 2025 head to this dedicated page
Day by Day Program links for this year's Festival
