The Lakes International Comic Art Festival, often referred to as LICAF, is an annual comicsart festival. Established in 2013,[1] the not-for-profit festival takes place for a weekend in October each year.
The Lakes International Comic Art Festival established the Comics Laureate in 2015. Dave Gibbons, best known for his artwork on Watchmen as well as numerous projects for Marvel, DC Comics and 2000AD, was appointed as the inaugural Comics Laureate in February 2015.[3]
To celebrate the 200th Anniversary of Cumbrian author and illustrator Beatrix Potter in 2016, the festival launched a student competition Beatrix Potter Reimagined. International comic artists, including Luke McGarry, Duncan Fegredo, Hannah Berry and Charlie Adlard, also contributed artworks that interpreted Beatrix Potter’s tales with a modern comic art style.[4]
At the fifth festival in October 2017, cartoonist Sergio Aragonés launched a new accolade in the comic art industry, the Sergio Aragonés International Award for Excellence in Comic Art.[5] The award was established as a partnership between the National Cartoonists Society and the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. The first award was presented by Aragonés to English artist Dave McKean.[6]
The sixth Lakes International Comic Art Festival in 2018 saw the official launch of Traces of the Great War, an anthology of illustrated short stories featuring over twenty international comic book artists, graphic novelists and writers.[7] The publication was part of 14–18 NOW, the UK’s arts programme commemorating the World War I centenary.[8]
As described in the comics internet news site Bleeding Cool, the job of the UK Comics Leaurate is to play... "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 appointment is made biennially to a distinguished comics creator, writer or artist in recognition of their outstanding achievement in the genre."[10]