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Niffenegger, Fegredo, Boulet and Stok join Lakes International Comic Art Festival Line-Up
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Kendal, UK, 30th May 2014: Not content with an already-announced guest list that includes top comic creators Scott McCloud, Gail Simone, Jock and Becky Cloonan, plus a Doctor Who-inspired group that features publisher Dez Skinn and top creators Nick Abadzis, Mike Collins and Robbie Morrison, the Lakes International Comic Art Festival has announced four new top names have joined their event line-up in October.
The newly-announced guests are visual artist and author Audrey Niffenegger, perhaps best known for her novel The Time Traveller's Wife, but whose most recent book, Raven Girl,
was adapted into a dance for the Royal Ballet in London last year by
Wayne McGregor, Resident Choreographer. She has been collaborating on
comics with Festival guest Eddie Campbell, including Thursdays, Six to Eight p.m., which was published in the Guardian in May 2014.
Audrey will be interviewed by fellow author and festival patron Mary Talbot and tickets for her event on Saturday 18th October, available now, are very limited.
Returning to the Festival in its second year is Duncan Fegredo,
delivering a free, impromptu and unusual live drawing experience.
Duncan is best known for collaborating with Mike Mignola on his
signature creation, Hellboy and is currently aiding and abetting the
expansion of Mark Millar's Millarworld with MPH.
Confirming the Festival's truly international flavour, also joining the Festival is top French artist Boulet, who has over 25 graphic novels in print in his native country and has also worked on two books of the Dungeon series with Lewis Trondheim and Joann Sfar, available in English. He'll also be providing a live drawing experience.
Rounding off these eleventh hour announcements is Dutch creator Barbara Stok, author of Vincent,
a graphic novel biography of Van Gogh (SelfMadeHero). Well known for
her candid autobiographical graphic novels, in 2009 Stok was awarded the
Stripschapprijs for her oeuvre, one of the most prestigious prizes for
comic books in the Netherlands.
Barbara will be appearing as a Festival guest and will also be found in the Comics Clock Tower, along with many other comic creators, publishers and retailers over the weekend.
These four guests are by no means the final surprises in store for
Festival goers. Keep your eyes peeled on the event's official web site ( www.comicartfestival.com) for the latest news... |
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Tickets for all the events at the Lakes International Comic Art
Festival (17th - 19th October) are on sale now. For the full guest list,
details of events and exhibitions and bookings visit: www.comicartfestival.com
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Guest Spotlight: Audrey Niffenegger
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Audrey Niffenegger is a visual artist and a writer. She lives in Chicago.
Miss Niffenegger makes drawings, prints, photographs, and paintings. She
specializes in making visual books, which she writes, illustrates,
prints and binds herself. These books include The Three Incestuous Sisters, and The Adventuress, which were published in trade editions by Harry N. Abrams (US) and Jonathan Cape (UK) in 2005 and 2006. Her comic, The Night Bookmobile, was originally serialized in the London Guardian in 2008 and was published in book form by Abrams and Cape in 2010.
Miss Niffenegger’s first novel, The Time Traveler’s Wife, (MacAdam/Cage, 2003, Jonathan Cape, 2004) was a New York Times bestseller and received a British Book Award in 2005. It has been published in 36 languages. The Time Traveler’s Wife was adapted into a movie by New Line Cinema in 2009.
Her second novel, Her Fearful Symmetry, was published by
Scribner and Jonathan Cape in 2009. It was an international bestseller
and received a favorable front-page review in The New York Times Book Review. She is in the process of adapting it for the screen herself.
Audrey Niffenegger helped to found the Columbia College Chicago Center
for Book and Paper Arts. Her art has been exhibited at Printworks
Gallery since 1986. Her work has been collected by the Newberry Library,
the National Museum for Women in the Arts, the Houghton Library, the
Art Institute of Chicago, the Library of Congress, Northwestern
University, and the Rijksmuseeum Meermano in the Hague. She was given
her first retrospective in June, 2013 at the National Museum of Women in
the Arts in Washington DC. The catalog of the exhibition, Awake in the Dreamworld, was published by powerHouse Books in 2013.
In 2013 her most recent book, Raven Girl, was adapted into a dance for the Royal Ballet in London by Wayne McGregor, Resident Choreographer.
She has been collaborating on comics with Eddie Campbell, including Thursdays, Six to Eight p.m., which was published in the Guardian in May 2014.
She is currently a Professor in the Creative Writing Department of Columbia College. She teaches a seminar on writing novels.
Miss Niffenegger is a Ragdale Distinguished Fellow. She has also been a Resident at Yaddo.
She is currently working on her third novel, The Chinchilla Girl in Exile, and on a sequel to The Time Traveler’s Wife.
Web: http://audreyniffenegger.com
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Guest Spotlight: Duncan Fegredo
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 Duncan Fegredo has drawn for as long as he has been walking although, to this day, he says he finds he wobbles at both tasks.
Illustrating comics for pretty much all major publishers he is probably best known for his work on Mike Mignola's Hellboy and continues to collaborate with Mignola to this day.
Previously he created a bunch of fabulous books at Vertigo with Peter Milligan on Enigma, Girl and Face, worked on the hilarious Jay & Silent Bob with writer/director Kevin Smith and was also lead story artist on Darren Aronofsky’s NOAH.
Currently Fegredo is aiding and abetting the expansion of Mark Millar’s Millarworld with MPH.
Web: www.duncanfegredo.co.uk
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In His Own Words!
Boulet, age 39, French. 6 feet 2, 200lbs. Blood Type A+. Draws comics (more than 25 books published in France. Check out Notes, Dungeon, La page blanche, Raghnarok...).
Likes: TV shows, science books, whisky (Single Malt Islay), french fries.
Hates: Astrology, homeopathy, people who say "In my humble opinion".
Motto: "Heavy is the cinderblock of reality on the strawberry pie of our illusions". Probably loves you.
Web: english.bouletcorp.com
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Guest Spotlight: Barbara Stok
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Image: Ricky van Duuren, via Wikipedia (Creative Commons)
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Barbara Stok is the author of Vincent,
a graphic novel biography of artist Van Gogh published by
SelfMadeHero. Well known for her candid autobiographical graphic novels,
in 2009 Stok was awarded the Stripschapprijs for her oeuvre, one of the
most prestigious prizes for comic books in the Netherlands. Robert
Crumb has said of her stories "[they are] funny, well-told, courageously
truthfull". In addition to her work for newspapers and magazines, she
has eight books to her name.
Vincent documents the brief and intense period of creativity
Van Gogh spent in Arles, Provence. Away from Paris, the painter falls in
love with the landscape and light of the south of France, and dreams of
setting up an artists' studio in Arles. But attacks of mental illness
leave him disorientated and confused. When his friend Paul Gaugin
refuses to reside permanently at the Yellow House, Van Gogh cuts off
part of his ear, and his dreams are left in tatters. But throughout all
this, Vincent's brother Theo stands by him, offering constant and
unconditional support. Stok's graphic biography breathes new life into
one of the most fascinating periods of art history.
Web (Dutch site): www.barbaraal.nl
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About the 2014 Lakes International Comic Art Festival
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The Lakes International Comic Art Festival
(17th – 19th October 2014) is a new kind of comic art event in the UK.
Modelled on a European-style festival it aims to take over the market
town of Kendal, on the edge of the Lake District, with comic art
presenting the widest range of genres. Events include a 24 Hour Comic
Marathon, children’s comic workshops, talks, signings, Great War in
Comics art exhibition and a Comics Fair.
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The huge line up of guests that this year's Lakes International Comic Art Festival include acclaimed comics creator and newspaper strip artist Nick Abadzis (author of Laika); Walking Dead artist Charlie Adlard; Fables and Sandman artist Mark Buckingham; The Mire and Wolves creator Becky Cloonan; Alec and From Hell artist Eddie Campbell; veteran publisher Dez Skinn; Watchmen co-creator Dave Gibbons; 2000AD artist Jock; digital comics pioneer Scott McCloud; Japanese artist Junko Mizuno; Drowntown co-creator Robbie Morrison; leading US comics writer Gail Simone; the creator of the multi-award winning Bone Jeff Smith; Grandville and Luther Arkwright author Bryan Talbot, one of the Festival's patrons alongside Sean Phillips and Mary Talbot; and Emma Vieceli will also join other comic creators for Kendal's second comics extravaganza.
• Visit the Festival web site for the full guest list announced so far |
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The 24 Hour Comic Marathon creative team is: Dan Berry, Marathon curator and producer; Kristyna Baczynski (NME), Warwick Johnson Cadwell (Tank Girl), Joe Decie (The Accidental Salad) Sarah McIntyre (Oliver and the Seawigs, shortlisted for the Blue Peter Book Awards 2014), Fumio Obata (author of the graphic novel Just So Happens) and Jack Teagle.
• For more information about the 24 Hour Comic Marathon visit: www.comicartfestival.com/competitions
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Festival Sponsors and Benefactors
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The Patrons of the Festival are comic creators Sean Phillips, Bryan Talbot and Mary Talbot.
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, SEQUENTIAL and Knockabout.
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Tickets for the Lakes International
Comic Art Festival (17th - 19th October 2014) are on sale now. Sign up
for the Festival's newsletter here for the latest news!
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