THE Lakes International Comic Art Festival celebrates the ground-breaking work of American comic creator Will Eisner with a series of special projects this year.

Remembering the creator of The Spirit comic in what would have been his centenary year, the Kendal event will mark his incredible contribution to the development of the comics form with a competition of aspiring creators, a celebratory comic and an exhibition for the festival in October.

Born William Erwin Eisner on March 6, 1917, in New York, by the time of his death in 2005, Eisner was recognised internationally as one of the giants in the field of sequential art, a term he coined.

In a career that spanned nearly 70 years and eight decades - from the dawn of the comic book to the advent of digital comics - he was considered the "Father of the Graphic Novel".

The Lakes International Comic Art Festival will stage a new competition open to students across the globe to showcase their comic art talent that could see them end up being part of event's tribute exhibition to Eisner.

The competition will be judged by comic artist Sean Phillips, one of the founding patrons of the festival, and one of the world's most successful and popular crime writers, the award-winning Ian Rankin.

Noting Eisner's creation of crime-fighting adventurer The Spirit, students from across the globe are being challenged to imagine a vigilante hero or heroine for the Lake District.

Festival director Julie Tait says: "This may be a comic strip, a single illustration or a series of illustrations reflecting Eisner’s comic style in The Spirit.

"Your interpretation could illustrate crime drama, adventure, mystery, horror, comedy or be a creative reinterpretation of an original artwork from The Spirit with a Lake District comic art twist."

The competition, entitled Revealing The Spirit of the Lake District, is supported by the University of Cumbria. The deadline for entries is September 1, 2017, and full details of the competition can be found at www.comicartfestival.com/competition-2017

Commissioned to mark the Eisner Centennial, the Lakes International Comic Art Festival has also announced the impending publication of The Spirit of Eisner, a celebratory broadsheet comic, created in a style that homages Eisner’s original work.
Will Eisner (photo by Patty Mooney)

Featuring a cover by Becky Cloonan, officially sanctioned by the Will Eisner estate, the 12-page broadsheet, co-ordinated by Sean Phillips will feature comic strips created by festival guests Sergio Aragonés, Ed Brubaker, John M. Burns, Michael Cho, Viz's Graham Dury and Simon Thorp, Jason Latour, Brendan McCarthy, Seth, Peter Milligan, and Duncan Fegredo, as well as broadcaster Jonathan Ross.

All the art featured in the publication, which will be launched at this year’s Lakes International Comic Art Festival weekend, will feature in an exhibition at Kendal’s Brewery Arts Centre, in the Warehouse Gallery.

To add to all this, the festival will also present Will Eisner: A Centennial Celebration, a special exhibition featuring scores of key images from throughout his long career, including rare surviving pages from 1930s comic books, World War Two posters, several complete Spirit stories and splash pages, and key sequences from his groundbreaking graphic novels from the 1970s through 2004.

Julie adds: "Lakes International Comic Art Festival is proud to play a leading role in the UK in celebrating the life and work of Will Eisner in his centenary year.

"Our close collaboration with the family and guardians of his legacy have enabled us to put together a unique and varied programme. Leading creators from around the world presenting an homage to his Spirit, alongside new responses from up-and-coming talent is a recipe of which we are convinced he would have approved."

The Lakes International Comic Art Festival runs in Kendal from October 13 to 15, 2017. Tickets are available from www.comicartfestival.com/buy-tickets