LICAF 2026 Line-up: Doran, Quitely, Martín & Sienkiewicz Join
Reading time: 4 minutes
The LICAF 2026 line-up is taking shape, with a huge range of international talent confirmed for this year's festival. Colleen Doran, Frank Quitely, Marcos Martin and Bill Sienkiewicz will all head to Kendal for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. It is running from Friday 2nd to Sunday 4th October 2026. Tickets are on sale now.
The LICAF 2026 line-up mixes returning guests, such as Charlie Adlard and Sean Phillips, who have long supported the festival. It also welcomes two first-time guests: multi-Eisner Award-winning and Emmy-nominated artist Bill Sienkiewicz, and cartoonist Colleen Doran. Sienkiewicz created this year's eye-catching Festival poster. He is best known for Marvel's Elektra: Assassin, Moon Knight, and New Mutants, along with his acclaimed graphic novel Stray Toasters. Doran is a New York Times bestselling, award-winning cartoonist known for American Gods and Norse Mythology. She also adapted Good Omens with Terry Pratchett. At the time, it was Kickstarter's most successful comics crowdfund, raising over $3.1 million.
From the UK, ten years since his first appearance, LICAF is delighted to welcome Frank Quitely back. A star attraction to the LICAF 2026 line-up. He is best known for All Star Superman, New-X-Men, We3, and Jupiter's Legacy.
Another newcomer to the LICAF 2026 line-up is Marcos Martin, a Catalan comic book artist. His work at Marvel and DC includes Batgirl: Year One, Breach, Dr Strange: The Oath, Amazing Spider-Man, and Daredevil. The festival itself will span the Cumbrian town of Kendal, featuring a Comics Marketplace, workshops, exhibitions, and an international rights market.
The full LICAF 2026 line-up so far is featured on the LICAF website. The Festival will kick off with a return rematch event pitting European giants Asterix and Tintin against each other. A range of creators will argue their support for the creations of Hergé or René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo.
Recent guest announcements include five of Belgium's most exciting and diverse contemporary comic creators. Festival-goers will have the chance to see, meet, and learn from five artists. Leonie Bischoff is the award-winning creator of Anaïs Nin: Sea of Lies. Nina Six is celebrated for evocative graphic novels such as Mousse, Pissenlit and La Sorcière de Londres. Nicolas Pitz is acclaimed for Jusqu'Ici tout va bien, Les Vous, and La Dent. Joanna Lorho is renowned for her striking, poetic visual storytelling in A Travers La Nuit. Mobidic is known for lush, atmospheric fantasy and nature-driven narratives such as Roi Ours.
"Not only are we excited by our return to Kendal, but our amazing guest line-up, too. We have been hoping to bring some of our creators to the Lakes for some time now, and the whole tam is thrilled plans have come together to bring the likes of much-in-demand artists such as Bill Sienkiewicz here. It's going to be a brilliant weekend!" - Julie Tait, Director of LICAF.
The Lakes International Comic Arts Festival (LICAF) will take place in Kendal from Friday 2nd – Sunday 4th October 2026. Tickets are on sale now.
Further details on specific panel times, exhibition hours, and festival ticketing will be announced in the coming weeks. For more information, visit licaf.co.uk
Special Guests
Bill Sienkiewicz
The multi-Eisner Award-winning and Emmy Award-nominated artist Bill Sienkiewicz. He is most noted for Marvel's Elektra: Assassin, Moon Knight, and New Mutants – inspiring FX's Legion and Disney's New Mutants – and his acclaimed graphic novel, Stray Toasters. He also earned two Emmy nominations for his work on the animated series Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?
Sienkiewicz has also contributed on-set and promotional artwork for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, The Batman, Dune: Part One, Dune: Part Two, the Disney Moon Knight series, 2018 Halloween remake, Logan, The Grinch, The Green Mile, and Unforgiven. In 2025, his work spent a month aboard the International Space Station.
Colleen Doran
Colleen Doran is a New York Times bestselling cartoonist. She was an early contributor to The Sandman, and she also adapted the short stories Troll Bridge, Snow Glass Apples, and Chivalry, winning two Eisners, The Bram Stoker, Locus, and Ringo Awards, and nominations for Best Penciler/Inker Eisners, Reubens, the Excelsior, Rondo, and Tripwire Awards. She is currently a nominee for the Will Eisner Hall of Fame.
Other works include American Gods, Norse Mythology and the adaptation of Good Omens with Terry Pratchett, at that time, the most successful comics crowdfund in Kickstarter history at over $3.1 million.
She taught Syrian refugees for the US Embassy and the Athens, Greece National Library. She also contributed to Comics for Ukraine: Sunflower Seeds to benefit Ukrainian refugees. The project is an Eisner winner.
Colleen also created the space opera graphic novel series A Distant Soil at age twelve. She is working on the final instalment.
Frank Quitely
Frank Quitely was first published in the underground comic scene in Glasgow in the early 90s. This led to work with the Judge Dredd Megazine, Vertigo, DC, Marvel, and Image. Best known for All Star Superman, New-X-Men, We3, and Jupiter's Legacy.
He's currently working with Grant Morrison on a new creator-owned project.
Marcos Martín
Marcos Martín is a Catalan comic book artist whose work at Marvel and DC includes such titles as Batgirl: Year One, Breach, Dr Strange: The Oath, Amazing Spider-Man, and Daredevil.
In 2013, he founded the online platform Panel Syndicate together with writer Brian K. Vaughan and illustrator/colourist Muntsa Vicente in order to distribute their creator-owned comic, The Private Eye. The series went on to win an Eisner Award for Best Digital/Webcomic. It also won the Harvey Award for Best Online Comics Work.
The Private Eye and Panel Syndicate have received critical acclaim and media attention for their role as one of the first DRM-free, pay-what-you-want comics and has continued to publish other works by the same team (Barrier, The Walking Dead: The Alien) as well as opening up to other renowned creators like Jay Faerber, Ken Niimura, Alex de Campi, David López or Albert Monteys.
He's last teamed up with writer Ed Brubaker on their post YA comic book series Friday, also with Muntsa on colours, which has earned them two more Eisner Awards and another Harvey Award.
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