Lancaster University is taking part in this year’s Lakes International Comic Arts Festival.

The ever-popular annual event takes place in Kendal from October 11 to13.

The exciting line-up includes Hannah Berry, UK Comics Laureate, a post the University is proud to sponsor.

The Comics Laureate champions the role of comics in improving literacy in schools, libraries and education.

Hannah, who takes over the role from ‘Walking Dead’ artist Charlie Adlard, is an award-winning graphic novelist, comics creator, writer and illustrator.

She says: “Comics are the perfect gateway drug to literacy. I gained my love of language as a child though reading comics, and I look forward to inviting new audiences to discover comics for themselves.”

Celebrating the amazing world of comic artists, creators and writers, the festival brings the biggest names in comic art to Cumbria with more than 70 special guests from across the comic world.

Across Lancaster University, academics in different disciplines share a passion for comics and graphic novels and recognise their transformative potential.

Lancaster’s writers, psychologists, education researchers, health scientists, sociologists, designers and linguists are working with academics, authors and artists locally and around the world.

Together they’re engaging with those who are socially excluded and using graphic fiction and comic art in education and community initiatives that transform lives.

Lancaster University is the:

· Founder of ReOPeN, a vibrant international network and hub for community and education projects that integrate illustration, comics and graphic novels around the world

· Sponsor of the UK Comics Laureate, Hannah Berry

· Home of the UK’s first Professor of Graphic Fiction and Comic Art, Benoît Peeters

To see what Lancaster University academics will be doing this weekend and for the full festival line-up go to: https://www.comicartfestival.com/