The Lakes International Comic Art Festival, the only festival of its kind in the UK, is a not for profit arts festival, aiming to raise awareness of the transformational power of comics - and has just launched a GoFundMe specifically to support its expanding youth-focussed content.

The first edition of the Lakes International Comic Art Festival Podcast for 2020 offers recording of one of 2019’s most popular panels: “My Own Private Hell” with Junko Mizuno (Hellbaby), Sean Phillips ( Hellblazer), Duncan Fregredo (Hellboy) and Lawrence Campbell (Hellboy).

The panel is hosted by Chris Thompson and features artists creating their own hell inspired art and talking about their processes and work.

On the Christmas 2019 episode of the Lakes International Comic Art Festival Podcast, co-hosts Ian Loxam and Nicole Bates catch up on their trawl through of a stack of comics, as well as giving their favourite comics of the year.

In the latest episode of the Lakes International Comic Art Festival Podcast, the Ian Loxam and Nikki Bates report back on their recent trek to Harrogate for this year's Thought Bubble Festival, now in a new town.

"In this episode we have a chat about the event, our thoughts and feelings and what we enjoyed," Ian tells us.

Mike Williams talks about the most important aspect of his weekend at the Lakes Festival back in October, and what books he came away with.

London's Cartoon Museum recently played host to a unique gathering of current Comics Laureate Hannah Berry and past holders Dave Gibbons and Charlie Adlard.  All three were able to look back on how the post has evolved since it was launched by the Lakes International Comic Art Festival in partnership with Lancaster University, and their very different experiences of being the laureate.

The Comics Laureate is an ambassadorial and educational role for the comic genre and aims to raise awareness of the impact comics can have in terms of increasing literacy and creativity. The Comics Laureate appointment is made biennially to a distinguished comics creator, writer or artist in recognition of their outstanding achievement in the genre.

The Comics Laureate is an ambassadorial and educational role for the comic genre and aims to raise awareness of the impact comics can have in terms of increasing literacy and creativity. The Comics Laureate appointment is made biennially to a distinguished comics creator, writer or artist in recognition of their outstanding achievement in the genre.

The Comics Laureate is an ambassadorial and educational role for the comic genre and aims to raise awareness of the impact comics can have in terms of increasing literacy and creativity. The Comics Laureate appointment is made biennially to a distinguished comics creator, writer or artist in recognition of their outstanding achievement in the genre.

In the latest episode of the Lakes International Comic Art Festival Podcast, team members Nikki Bates, Ian Loxam, Pete Taylor, Mike Williams and Tom Stewart get together and discuss the recent Festival weekend in full.

Pete discusses his time behind the table in the Comics Clock Tower, Nikki, Ian and Mike chat about their Festival experience and Tom talks about the view from the outside, as the weekend went on.