A PAIR of South Lakeland youngsters have picked up a pile of top prizes after wowing judges in a comic artwork competition.

Finlay Dalziel, 14, from Natland, and Sarah Docker, 17, from Barrow, both impressed with their entries to the contest which was held as part of the recent Lakes International Comic Arts Festival — and have won a clutch of prizes including games consoles, books, sketching and watercolour kits and festival posters and T-shirts.

The competition was open to anyone who attended a school or college in Cumbria or Lancashire. Prizes were awarded in 13 different age categories, with one for each ‘school year’, while Finlay and Sarah took the overall top spots.

The competition was judged by the festival’s founder patrons Sean Phillips, Bryan Talbot, Mary Talbot and Hannah Berry, author of graphic novels Adamtine and Britten and Brulightly.

The 2013 competition called on young artists and comic fans to show off their ‘creative flair and story-telling imagination’.