Comics Laureate Stephen L. Holland will be taking part in just one of several events forming part of the  Festival of Libraries next week, at an in-person event at Altrincham Library on Friday 11th June 2021.

At this free event, Stephen will introduce you to the misunderstood medium of comics, revealing to those unfamiliar just how it’s thousands of years older than you think, a great deal craftier, and you’re already reading them – whether you know it or not!

Stephen L. Holland, fervent comics advocate, journalist and creator and curator of Page 45, a 26-year-old independent comic shop which has won awards both inside and outside this industry for its championing of diversity, has begun his work as UK Comics Laureate, picking up the baton from Hannah Berry.

The Comics Laureate is an ambassadorial and educational role for the comics medium and aims to raise awareness of the impact comics can have in terms of increasing literacy and creativity.

This week’s Lakes International Comic Art Festival Podcast, hosted by Ian Loxam and Nicole Bates, features not one, not two but three separate interviews with comic creators.

Walking Dead artist Charlie Adlard, animation director, comics artist and illustrator Maria Björklund, 2000AD and Doctor Who artist and comics archivist David Roach, cartoonist, illustrator and writer Kate Charlesworth and NOMMO award nominee and storyteller Ziki Nelson are among the latest guests joining the line-up for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival, which is on course to take place in Kendal 15th – 17th October 2021.

This year’s Annecy International Animation Film Festival, taking place 14th – 19th June 2021, both in the French city and online, includes the annual Mifa Pitches, which aim to showcase the best original animation film projects in development, part of the impressive programme that has expanded to include the work of comic creators, among them Britain’s Rachael Smith, Canadian creator Marie-Noëlle Hébert, French creators Théa Rojzman, Didier Tronchet and Sandrine Revel, and

The Rez, the UK’s first major children’s podcast series, uses comics, psychology, and a bit of silliness to spread its messages of kindness and resilience, and the whole series is available now.

Comic creator Rachael Smith returns to the Lakes International Comic Art Festival Podcast this week, to talk about her new upcoming web comic collection Quarantine Comix.

The Lakes International Comic Art Festival is pleased to announce more guests for its ninth event taking place in Kendal 15th – 17th October 2021.

Working with Abraham Moss Community School, Manchester, the Lakes International Comic Art Festival has begun an important research project into Comics Literacy, in partnership with Comic Art Europe, with support from The Phoenix comic and Manchester City of Literature.

The official site for the 10 Years to Save the World comic art anthology project has just launched, as part of the Earth Day 2021 celebrations, featuring art by a great range of comic creators, including British artists Sayra Begum, Darren Cullen, Jack Teagle. Clarice Tudor and Zoom Rockman.