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Friday 20 March 2015

Comics Go Pop! Lakes International Comic Art Festival announces Phono+Graphic Exhibition


Comics Go Pop! Lakes International Comic Art Festival announces Phono+Graphic Exhibition

Phono+Graphic Exhibition Poster
The Phono+Graphic Exhibition poster featuring Sean Phillips cover for the Stereo MCs album, Supernatural.
Kendal, 20th March 2015: The Lakes International Comic Art Festival is delighted to announce the first of several exhibitions to coincide with this year’s comics gathering in Kendal, which will feature record album artworks by numerous comic artists.
Phono+Graphic: 60 Vinyl Record Covers by 60 Comic Book Artists, to be exhibited at Kendal Museum in October, has been curated by the locally-based, internationally-renowned comics artist Sean Phillips, who is also one of the Festival patrons.
The exhibition includes record covers by the likes of acclaimed Batman artist Neal Adams, Judge Dredd artist Brian Bolland, cartoonist Robert Crumb, Gorillaz co-creator Jamie Hewlett and some of this year’s Festival guests – Charlie AdlardHunt Emerson, Dave McKean and Phil Winslade.
While researching the exhibition, Sean was surprised to discover just how many well-known comic artists had drawn album covers.
“I'd planned to have two covers by each artist if they'd done that many, but I soon had to change that plan. There's far too many to fit in one exhibition.
“I had to be quite ruthless in my curation, although it was more suprising to discover covers that I had no idea had been drawn by comic artists. Albums like David Bowie's 'Diamond Dogs', with a painted cover by Guy Peellaert.
Equally hard was whittling down the art to just 60 pieces, says Sean.
“Some classic sleeves and albums just had to be included, but apart from that, I just went with what I liked,” he reveals. “I had to either like the work of the cover artist or the music, and sometimes both happened! There's a lot of old classics, but also plenty of recent covers by contemporary artists.
“On a purely artistic level, I really like Christian Ward's cover for 'The Pictish Trail' and Dan Clowes cover for 'Las Vegas Grind Volume Four'. Nostagically, Richard Corben's painting for the cover of Meatloaf's 'Bat Out Of Hell' can't be beaten for music lovers of a certain age.
“All the records also had to be on 12" vinyl,” he expands, “and apart from one which is too good to miss out, I've managed that. The art looks at its best at that size – and nobody wants to be squinting at a CD sized picture on the wall!”
The oldest picture in the exhibition is a French, spoken-word album of a Tintin book.
“The original picture was drawn by Herge in the 1930s but I think the record is from the 1950s,” Sean notes. “He's one the greatest European cartoonists ever, and everybody knows who Tintin is, so I'd be daft not to include it. The next oldest is 'Cheap Thrills' by Big Brother and the Holding Company. Robert Crumb drew that cover in 1968, and the exhibition also includes another of his covers from 2008.
“The most recent is the self-titled debut album by Cosmic Rays. Fellow festival guests and band members Charlie Adlard and Phil Winslade both contributed art to the gatefold sleeve.
“Charlie will be taking a break from drawing zombies for The Walking Dead for the band to play at the festival so I had to include them!”
After all his hard work putting the exhibition together, what does he think makes a good record cover?
“A good cover is one that makes you want to buy the record and listen to the music!”
And which artist or group would the artist on critically-acclaimed comics such as Fatale and his current work, The Fade Out, personally like to do an album cover for?
“As I'm not remotely cool, I'd love to paint a cover for an Elvis Presley album!” he enthuses.
“Our exhibitions program is intended to appeal to a broad range of tastes and interests and to demonstrate that there is more to comic artists and art than meets the eye,” enthuses Festival Director Julie Tait.
“Sean has created a fantastic exhibition which reflects the diversity and brilliance of comic art, which we’re confident will draw all kinds of visitor to the Museum.”
• Phono+Graphic: 60 Vinyl Record Covers by 60 Comic Book Artists – Curated by Sean Phillips | 5th – 20th October 2015 Kendal Museum, Kendal, Cumbria
• For the latest news on the 2015 Lakes International Comic Art Festival visit: www.comicartfestival.com

• Sign up for the Festival's newsletter here for the latest news! 
Carmel: Bad Day - Art by Serge Clerc
Meatloaf: Bat out of Hell - Art by Richard Corben
Gorillaz - Art by Jamie Hewlett
Paradise Lost: As I Die - Art by Dave McKean

Festival Guest Spotlight: Comic Artist and Festival Patron Sean Phillips

Sean Phillips
Drawing comics professionally since the age of 15, Eisner Award winning Sean Phillips has worked for all the major publishers. Since drawing Sleeper, Hellblazer, Batman, X-Men, Marvel Zombies, and Stephen King’s The Dark Tower, Sean has concentrated on creator-owned books including Criminal, Incognito, Seven Psychopaths and Fatale. He's currently drawing The Fade Out, written by his frequent collaborator Ed Brubaker.

He lives in the Lake District in the UK with his wife and three sons.

Web: www.seanphillips.co.uk

Photo: Joe Gordon

Comic Artist Charlie Adlard

Charlie Adlard
Charlie Adlard has been a "veteran" of the comic industry for over 20 years. He's spent the majority of his time since 2004 working on The Walking Dead for which he has received many industry awards. In his time as a cartoonist he has worked on many other projects as far reaching as Mars Attacks, The X-Files, "Judge Dredd" and "Savage" for 2000AD, Batman, X-Men, Superman etc and creator-owned projects closer to his heart like Astronauts In Trouble, Codeflesh, Rock Bottom, and White Death.

Web: www.charlieadlard.com

Photo: Olivier Roller

Comic Artist, Illustrator and Film Maker Dave McKean

Seth
Dave McKean has illustrated and designed many award winning and ground breaking books and graphic novels including The Magic of Reality (Richard Dawkins), The Homecoming (Ray Bradbury), Varjak Paw and Phoenix (SF Said), The Savage, Slog’s Dad and Mouse Bird Snake Wolf (David Almond), What's Welsh for Zen (John Cale), Arkham Asylum (Grant Morrison), Wizard & Glass (Stephen King) and Mr. Punch, Signal to Noise, The Wolves in the Walls, Coraline and the Newberry and Carnegie Medal winning The Graveyard Book (Neil Gaiman).
His self penned Cages received several awards for the year’s best graphic novel. He has also written and illustrated Pictures That Tick Volume 1 and 2 (collections of short comics) and Celluloid (an erotic novel). He has created hundreds of CD, book and comic covers for Michael Nyman, Alice Cooper, The Rolling Stones, Bill Bruford, Bill Laswell, Tori Amos, Altan, Fear Factory, Roy Harper, Frontline Assembly, John Cale, and the entire run of Neil Gaiman's influential Sandman series. He has exhibited in the US, Europe and Japan and has released four monographs of photographs.
Dave has also designed characters for two of the Harry Potter films and directed five short films and three feature films, MirrorMask (winner of seven International Awards), Luna (BIFA and Raindance Best Feature Awards) and The Gospel of Us (2 Bafta Cymru awards) with Michael Sheen.
He is currently working on a fourth film, a new graphic novel called Caligaro, a musical theatre commission from the Manchester Jazz/Literature Festival, a book of paintings inspired by silent cinema, and a VR project.

Web: www.davemckean.com
Photo: Allan Amato

About the Lakes International Comic Art Festival 2015

Lakes International Comics Art Festival LogoA huge line up of both British and globe-spanning international comics talent is being lined up for this year's Lakes International Comic Art Festival, taking place 16th – 18th October 2015.

International guests announced so far are award-winning Canadian artist Darwyn CookeKathryn Immonen, Stuart Immonen, Seth, Kate Beaton, Michael deForge,  Simpsons Comics artist Bill Morrison (thanks to the National Cartoonists Society in the US), Boulet, Winsluss, Benoit Peeters and Antoine Cossé - with many more to come.

Announced British guests include 24 Hour Marathon organiser and artist Dan Berry; graphic novelist Joe Decie, who is working on a longform project thanks to funding from the Lakes Festival; Oliver East, author of titles such as Trains Are Mint, who is working on another project with the Festival following the success of The Homesick Truant's Cumbrian Yarn; internationally-acclaimed cartoonist Hunt Emerson, creator of Calculus Cat;  author David Gaffney, who has recently been working with Dan Berry on a new graphic novel, The Three Rooms in Valerie’s Head; and UK-based stitcher and prolific tea drinker Felt Mistress AKA Louise Evanswho has created a range of one-off bespoke creatures with her partner, illustrator Jonathan Edwards, including Poblin, the Festival's mascot.

The hugely successful 2014 Festival in Kendal featured a stellar cast of both British and international creators and a number of special exhibitions, and attracted thousands of fans young and old to the Lake District town.

The Festival’s dedicated organisers are determined to build on last year’s visitors numbers still further, reflecting their aim to deliver a truly European-style comics festival involving the whole of the local community and visitors in a truly unique comics experience.

Festival-connected events in the twelve-month run up to the 2015 weekend include a partnership with the Friends of Lancaster Library for Lancaster Comics Day (Sunday 14th June), which will see the announcement of the winners, and the publication of the “Lost in Space” digital anthology June, which is being produced in partnership with Titan Comics and will include a cover by Festival patron Sean Phillips. Announced guests at that event include comic writer Andy Diggle, Eddie Robson and Tim Quinn, artist Dave Taylor and editor John Freeman, 

Comics Clock Tower 2015

Applications for for tables for the Comics Clock Tower - the Festival's free venue where the public will be able to mix with creators and publishers – are now closed. The Festival will notify all successful applicants by Friday 20th March 2015

Festival Sponsors and Benefactors

The Patrons of the Festival are comic creators Boulet, Sean Phillips, Bryan Talbot, Mary Talbot and Emma Vieceli, and Stephen L. Holland, owner of the award-winning independent comic shop Page 45 in Nottingham.

The Festival is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, with funding from South Lakeland District Council and Kendal Town Council working in partnership with the Brewery Arts Centre and Kendal College.

Commercial sponsors include the Westmorland Shopping Centre.

Lakes Festival: Some Past Releases

French creators set to storm Lakes International Comic Art Festival

Lakes International Comic Art Festival announces new patrons

Find out more about our international guest, Darwyn Cooke

• You can view the full 2014 Festival programme here


 
The Lakes International Comic Art Festival run 16th - 18th October 2015. Sign up for the Festival's newsletter here for the latest news on its plans for 2015!
For further information contact: Julie Tait - julie@comicartfestival.com
Images of most announced guests, Festival poster and mascot images can be found here:
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