Comic art festival line up announced

Now in its fifth year, the acclaimed festival will feature more than 48 international comic creators.

Taking place on October 13-15, attendees will have the chance to utilise new limited edition festival passes, giving access to a huge range of events.

"We're hugely excited to be bringing such a diverse range of comic creators to Kendal this year," said festival director Julie Tait. "We also think our new festival pass ticketing will encourage a lot more 'experimentation' from visitors, finding out more about comics from around the world than perhaps they ever have before."

The festival will open with a 'Quick on The Draw' gala night, as talents such as Sergio Aragonés and Tom Richmond compete to deliver a fully interactive feast of fast-paced cartooning.

Included in the line-up is Walking Dead artist and comic laureate Charlie Adlard, web comic maestro John Allison and Judge Dredd artist Brendan McCarthy.

The festival will also have a special delegation of talent from Finland, in partnership with the Finnish Institute, along with many Moomin-themed celebrations.

The line-up also includes Johanna Rajola, the equivalent of the UK's Comic Laureate in Finland and one of the Nordic country's leading comic artists; and Petteri Tikkanen.

From Australia, inspirational comic creator Bruce Mutard will bring some of the best and up-and-coming artists and writers from the Antipodes with him.

The family-friendly festival will include special tributes to Will Eisner, creator of The Spirit, and Tove Jansson, creator of The Moomins, plus further commissioning of new comics work.

"Our international exchange programme, bringing ever more incredible guests from around the globe has just exploded this year," Julie said. "We think our line-up will be pretty hard to be beat.

"We're also delighted to be expanding our range of commissioned comics works, side by side with the festival. This is another part of what makes our festival unique to the UK."