The Lakes International Comic Art Festival is delighted to partner on the Qusasat Comics & Digital Production Training Camp, taking place in Bethlehem in July 2025. Representing the British comics community at the event for young Palestinians will be Mollie Ray, whose much-praised debut graphic novel, Giant, was published in June 2024, by Faber and Faber.

Qusasat is a ten-day intensive training camp in Bethlehem that brings together young artists from Palestine and the UK to explore the art of comics and visual storytelling. Through hands-on workshops in comics techniques, drawing, animation, and digital production, participants will develop their own original comic projects under the guidance of professional British comic artists.

This is the first camp of its kind in Palestine, designed to support emerging voices and creative talent using an innovative, multidisciplinary approach. 

The program includes individual and group training in comic art and storytelling; digital production and creative software sessions; guest talks and panel discussions with Palestinian and British artists; and cultural tours and local artistic activities.

The initiative is a partnership between Power Group (Bethlehem) and the Lakes International Comic Art Festival (LICAF), supported by the British Council and Amos Trust. It builds on a creative exchange that began with a fellowship in the UK and is now expanding into this pilot training program.

Following the camp, participants will continue to receive mentorship to further develop their projects, with the goal of showcasing their work at LICAF in the UK and launching it digitally.

“We’re delighted to be part of this internationally supported project, commented LICAF Festival Director Julie Tait. “We are hoping this will lead to further collaborations, involving and investing in young comic talent across the world, as we have done in many other parts of the globe over the past few years.

Power Group is a youth-led cultural initiative based in Bethlehem, established in 2012. It works at the intersection of visual arts, media, and community engagement, using creativity as a tool for self-expression and social change.

“At Power, we’re always exploring new creative tools to help young people tell their stories, and comics, combined with digital media, open up exciting new possibilities,” says Sliman Mukarker, co-founder of Power Group. “Our partnership with LICAF is long-term, and we see ‘Qusasat’ as the beginning of what we hope will become an annual training program that supports a new generation of storytellers in Palestine.”

Mollie Ray is an illustrator and comic artist based in Lancashire. Her debut graphic novel, Giant, was published in June 2024 by Faber and Faber. In 2019, she graduated from The University of Edinburgh with a First-Class Honours degree in Illustration. Her work has been featured by Creative Boom, The AOI and Broken Frontier's “Six To Watch In 2021”.

She has also done work for the BBC in support of David Attenborough's Wild Isles series, and self-published multiple short-form comics.