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Godzilla’s Lockdown Diary, published here for the very first time by the Lakes International Comic Art Festival, emerged from a long series of drawings that Edward Taylor did in 2017, which looked at what Godzilla did underground when he wasn’t above ground fighting ludicrous monsters. 40 of these drawings were exhibited at the Brewery Art Centre during the Lakes International Comic Art Festival 2019. This diary was started in February 2020, a month before the Coronavirus Pandemic shut everything down. These pages were drawn from mid-March to mid-May. Sue Auty provided a valuable editorial eye as the stories emerged on paper. Edward Taylor has spent 38 years touring nationally and internationally with the Whalley Range All Stars (www.wras.org.uk) a street theatre company he formed with Sue Auty. Drawing plays an important part in the early stages of every company production. In the last few years, Edward has worked on a variety of comic strip stories as a side-line to the theatre shows.

LICAF (The Lakes International Comic Art Festival) takes place every year in Kendal, a small town in the Lake District of the UK. The festival features a diverse range of international guests from all corners of the comics industry, from established artists at the peak of their careers, to “old school” legends, up-and-coming stars, and newbie creators displaying their work for the first time. The three-day event features a mix of talks, panels, signings, exhibitions, window displays, workshops, performances, film screenings, kids areas and over 90 exhibitor booths. 2018 was the sixth year of the festival. Guests included Charlie Adlard (The Walking Dead), David Simmerman (The Simpsons), Joe Kelly & Ken Niimiura (I Kill Giants), John Wagner (2000AD), Frank Quitely (All Star Superman) and Ian Kennedy (Dan Dare, Eagle, Commando). There were also displays from artists, publishers and festival organisers from Finland, Belgium, France, Scotland, the Netherlands, India, Russia, Kenya and Japan. Our official festival “comic journalist”, Graeme McNee, interviewed over 25 guests, volunteers, staff and, eh, one sheep to make the following comic. Part documentary, part artistic expression, we hope it gives readers an introduction to what attending the festival could be like and the amount of work that goes into the preparation and organising of such an event. For more information about LICAF please visit: www.comicartfestival.com Published here by the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. Artwork © G McNee 2018. All rights reserved.

A wonderful Festival Journal by Jean-Baptiste Pollien, a.k.a. Jibé on their official site, celebrating the 2019 weekend-long event in Kendal. Free to download, Jibé recounts his experience of visiting the Festival with other European guests, and it’s quite clear that, like attendees, this talented comic creator enjoyed his time in the Lake District!

The winning entries in the Lakes International Comic Art Festival 2014 competition, run in conjunction with Titan Comics - a challenge to find undiscovered talent with a “Lost in Space” theme. The winners were announced at Lancaster Comics Day in 2015 by the digital project’s editor, John Freeman. The competition, co-ordinated by Katie White and Phil Welch asked comic artists and writers to to create an original comic of four to six pages in length, with the winners seeing their strips published in a digital anthology, originally released by Titan Comics on behalf of the Festival.

In 2020, as part of the online event #LICAFLIVE, the Lakes International Comic Art Festival challenged 16 artists to create a 16-panel story with the loosest of storylines, directed by Luke and Joe McGarry. The result was this ‘Pass the Panel’ original comic, created by artists from around the world exclusively for LICAF Live! Pass the Panel reveals the speed, style and sheer imagination of these incredibly talented creators, who are, in order of appearance: Luke McGarry, Duncan Fegredo, Steven Appleby, Rick Stromoski, Steve McGarry, Craig Gleason, Johnny Sampson, Tom Richmond, Lucie Lomová, Charlie Adlard, Bill Morrison, Sean Phillips, Michael Lark, Francis Desharnais, Jibé, and Alex A Pass the Panel was edited by Joe McGarry, with music by Pop Noir and with special thanks to Thomas-Louis Côté and Richard Foster. This digital edition was designed and edited by John Freeman. All art and story © respective artists and writers. Find out more about the Lakes International Comic Art Festival and its many publishing projects at www.comicartfestival.com

The digital anthology of select entries to the Lakes International Comic Art Festival‘s Race Into Space Challenge is now available to read for free online. It includes the winning strip by Spacewarp artist James Newell, alongside entries from a variety of both established comic creators and newcomers to the world of comics. Judged by comics editor John Freeman and publisher Andrew Mark Sewell of B7 Media, this digital anthology features strips by (in order of presentation) entries by James Newell, David Livens, Gavin Pollock, Martin Cater, Craig Fletcher, newcomer Naomi D’Silva, Alan Holloway and Ed Doyle, the publishers of Sentinel, Fred Eggs Comics publisher David Robertson, Eagle Award shortlisted creator John Maybury and 2015 Observer/ Cape/ Comica graphic short story prize winner Richard Woods. A wide range of entries were received, mix of straight adventure, humour, surreal – no easy choice – from creators of different ages, from all over the world. More about the publishing projects of the Lakes International Comic Art Festival at www.comicartfestival.com/projects