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This weekend I attended one of the UK's premier comic festivals, the Lakes International Comic Art Festival, in the Lake District, northwest England. In fact, if judging by the variety of top comics guests, you could say it's the premier comic festival in the UK. I've really enjoyed my trips to LICAF over the years, however this was my first visit since it changed location in 2022. Could it rekindle the flame that it once held in my heart?
Let's tackle the biggie first - LICAF has relocated from the small quiet town of Kendal, moving 10 miles west to the bigger town, and beating-heart of the Lake District, Bowness-On-Windermere. Whilst Kendal is no slouch in the looks department, Windermere is undoubtably a step-up. Set on the shore of its namesake lake, it is a postcard come to life. Beautiful old architecture, winding lanes, the imposing lake welcoming in flocks of birds, all set against a backdrop of rugged hills. You are spoilt for choice for a selection of top class pubs and restaurants, which outdo Kendal's standard English town fare (the fabulous Indie Craft Beer shop/bar one of the honourable exceptions). In terms of audience reach, the tourist mecca of Windermere means the festival could reach many more people than it could in Kendal.
And yet. And yet.
I couldn't help feel something was lost. The soul of the festival was missing. In Windermere the wonderful pubs are stacked to the rafters with tourists, locals, and the odd hen party, whereas in Kendal you were almost guaranteed to sit down in a pub next to someone connected with the festival, whether that be a fellow aficionado, or a comic book legend. The smaller town really embraced the event, with signs and banners all over the place. Shops enthusiastically joined in with the comics vibe with specially curated displays, and Kendal's central focal point, the town hall, playing host to stalls and signings. In the Brewery Arts Centre, with its cinema rooms, art spaces, and theatre, it had the perfect location for the multitude of events put on by LICAF, and that's before you throw in the art gallery, local museum, and more.
In Windermere, you feel the festival subsumed into the masses. The main event space being a small theatre in local tourist hotspot 'The World of Beatrix Potter', and the comics marketplace and some other event spaces relegated to a marquee tent in the park. Minimal decoration and signage around the town made me question whether I was even in the right place at first! The 30-minute walk from the train station to the festival locations brought the closeness of Kendal layout into sharp focus - especially as the heavens opened on Saturday night. And as for the cost of accommodation in the town - forget about it! I actually stayed in Kendal and got the train in, cutting my hotel costs in half.
Look, Windermere is great, and it is certainly several rungs above most settings for comics festivals around the country (maybe even the world!), and it may well have increased the visitor numbers (though that was not apparent from the events I attended), but I think it will take me a couple of visits to get over the perfection that was Kendal.
Attending was a last minute decision, which meant not only did I have to leave at the end of Saturday, but the always fun Friday night event - a live draw extravaganza featuring a host of talented cartoonists - was already sold out. Though I did use the Friday night exploring Windermere and its bars for a couple of hours to get my bearings. So, my LICAF experience was unfortunately relegated to one day. On the plus side - it was a great day!
First up on Saturday's itinerary was a talk with one of the biggest names in comics - Craig Thompson - promoting his new non-fiction meets memoir graphic novel Ginseng Roots. It was hosted by Keli Lark, but she hardly got a word in edgeways with the gregarious and experienced Thompson (not such a bad thing, we were there to see him after all). Surprisingly honest and open, the discussion ranged from his family relationships to his approach to drawing. Ginseng Roots is a look at the plant of the title, and its farming in rural Wisconsin for the Chinese market. It's narrative winds between the history of ginseng, the connection it has created between small town America and China, and Thompson's own childhood - he worked in the industry for many years, getting hist first ginseng job at just 10 years old!
Unsurprisingly, given the subject of the book, Thompson spoke to his parents as part of his research into the project, and they are included in the story. Rather more surprisingly, is that this has followed a long period of a fractured relationship following publication of his breakout graphic novel Blankets, his coming-of-age story that included his upbringing in his fundamentalist Christian family. However, he did speak of the close relationships with his siblings, which feature in his book, and that his brother contributes art to the project. It was interesting to hear about his research based approach, rather than just working from personal memory or imagination - in fact, he almost abandoned the idea as he was unsure he had the required skills due to his lack of an academic background. There was also discussion of a genetic condition that effects his hands that has led him to consider whether he could continue drawing at all - but fortunately for fans of his work, he assured us he was well enough to continue for some time yet.
The conversation meandered away from strict comics talk, taking in the differences between the rural America where he was raised - and the story is set - and the liberal cities, which inevitably touched upon Trump and the state of modern America, as well as tales of his time in China. I would have liked a bit more discussion about his artistic process, given how visually striking Ginseng Roots is, but unfortunately we only had an hour. In the end, it was an intriguing conversation with one of modern comics leading lights, and a reminder that LICAF usually hits the ball out of the park when curating their guests.
After a short break, I was back at The Old Laundry Theatre for a talk with legendary Italian comic artist, Lorenzo Mattotti. Admittedly, I wasn't that familiar with his work and career - the only Mattotti I have is a lovely, lush adaptation of Bob Dylan's A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall, but he was an engaging and thoughtful interviewee. As usual for someone who apologises in advance for their English, he spoke it better than most English people! This was the more typical talk-us-through-your-career discussion common to these types of events, and perfectly hosted by the incredibly knowledgeable Alex Finch (host of the UK's only broadcast radio show about comics). It was intriguing to hear from a comic artist who has constantly evolved his style, sometimes taking radically different approaches for different projects. His more impressionistic style feels so definitively European, and shines a light on the possibility of comics when they divert away from the traditional comic art styles. I'm sure many in attendance found his ideas about trying to communicate the internal to the external to be incredibly inspiring.
I followed that talk up with a trip to the Lakeside Comic Marketplace, situated next to Windermere lake. This was also the location of the signing events and 'The Other Space' where some of the festival events were taking place. Helpfully for any hungry festival goers there were also several food stalls/trucks here - which was handy if you didn't fancy going for a full meal at one of the many restaurants. There was a decent selection of comics stalls here - though missing the fantastic Page 45 from Nottingham, which was usually the busiest part of Kendal's marketplace. Most of the commercial graphic novels on sale focused on the guests who were scheduled for signings during the weekend. There was, as always, a die hard bunch of self-publishing creators who had a lot of impressive work in display. Having spent most of my budget on travel and accommodation, I limited myself to a couple of comics from Cinebooks, who have always had a presence at LICAF.
After a drink and bite to eat, it was time for the pièce de résistance of the festival - well, the reason I had endured a 3-hour plus train ride anyway - the famous/infamous Grant Morrison. The writer rarely makes festival or convention appearances in the UK, so it was no surprise that the queue was the longest of the day by some margin. Hosted by fellow Scot, the affable John McShane, the theme of the talk was 'Desert Island Comics', where Morrison selected some of their favourite and influential comics to talk about - before opening up to the audience for questions.
The Flash #163 - DC Comics
The cover features The Flash, hand out to the reader, imploring 'Stop! Don't pass up this issue! My life depends on it!' Meta-comics and breaking the 4th wall are trademarks of Morrison's work, and they say it started with this comic. Morrison was struck not only by the conversation from a fictional character direct to the 'real' reader, but you could also put your hand on the Flash's and make a physical connection with the character. Discussing this lead Morrison on to the 80s/90s trend of asking 'what if superheroes were real' as exemplified by Watchmen, however they found that a nonsensical argument - superheroes aren't and never can be real - and has spent their career focusing on asking 'if they're not real, what actually are they?', an exploration of the nature of fiction and our relationship to it.
Strange Tales #178 - Who is Adam Warlock?
This comic had a huge impact on Morrison, and challanged their ideas of what comics could be. Their first introduction to the writing and art of Jim Starlin, this Marvel tale was heavy on philosophy and drug influenced psychadelic art and concepts.
The Adventures of Luther Arkwright
Bryan Talbot is a regular attendee to LICAF, and this year was no exception, so sat in the audience for this talk he must have been delighted to have Morrison pick he seminal work, Luther Arkwright, on this list. Morrison was at pains to say how important Talbot's work, and this comic specifically, has been not just on themselves, but the British comics scene as a whole - everything that's come after has been influenced by it, they claimed.
Solo #12 - Brendan McCarthy
Solo was a limted series put out by DC, where artists would get an issue each to both write and draw a selection of stories. Morrison picked this not for the title itself - although they did recommend others in the series - but because it was by Brendan McCarthy. They heaped praise on McCarthy and said he was always ahead of the curve in regards to comic art, and the work he was doing now will be copied by others in years to come.
Tales Designed to Thrizzle: Volume One
Morrison just talked briefly about this, saying it was one their favourite comics of recent times - in facy they had been reading it the nighy before, laughing out loud - a genuinly hilarious comic.
At Morrison's instance the focus they shifted to questions from the audience. A few of which were:
What was their favourite work of their own? Morrison picked Seaguy, because everything he's wanted to say was said in it. They lamented the fact that it remains unfinished - with only 2 of the 3 planned volumes ever published. They did note that the reason for this was the artist, Cameron Stewart, was 'caught up in the whole MeToo thing'.
I didn't quite catch one question, but it was related to Morrison's exploration of transgender and gender identity issues in his work. Morrison agreed it had been a present theme over the years, but they had suprsingly found that since publication of their recent novel, Luda (about a drag queen), that the urge to write about these issues seemed to have been satisfied.
Asked which of their own work they liked the least, they considered this for a while before suggesting Spawn - though they were at pains that even this had stuff he enjoyed and thought was worthwhile. They did tell an amusing tale of how the Spawn work came about. At the time Spawn creator Todd McFlarlane had hired some if the industries top writers to work on the comic - Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, and Frank Miller - and the British magazine Comics International [much missed!] ran a story that Morrison was also picked to write it as well, which came as news to Grant! They called McFarlane to ask if it was true he had told them Morrison was writing Spawn, he said not, but did he fancy doing it anyway?
I managed to chip in a question - they've worked with some amazing artisits over time, but did they come up with a project and then find an artist to fit it or did they have an artist they wanted to work with and come up with a project? Morrison said there really wasn't any set formula, and (surprinsingly) when they were working with publishers they often had the artist picked for them and had to deal with whoever they got. This branched off ito talking about how they wrote scripts differently depending on the artist.
Someone raised the issue of their comics not including all the necessary information - that readers often had to look up references or find other resources to figure things out. Morrison said that they had noticed this had become popular in other media since the advent of the internet and smart phone. It was absolultely intentional to make the experience interactive for the reader in having to look outside the text for clues and infotmation.
Overall it was a thoroughly entertaining and informative converastion. Morrison was on fine form, and given his opublic image and the tone of much of his work, was mich more laid back, funny, irrevenant, and talktaive, than you might imagine. The format meant there was a nice balance between discussing comics that had influecned them, and then moving on to their own work.
After that highlight it was time to race up the hill to the train station and begin my ardious trip back home. Despite my reservations about the change it location, it was - as always - a great experience. The bredth and calibre of guests really is unparalleled in the UK. There were, regrefully, other talks I'd love to have to in the Sunday if I'd been able to do so. After a little break for me, I think LICAF will once again become a annual ficture for me. So, maybe see you there next year!
