Baatsheep Begins at the Lakes International Comic Art Festival

Today the second Lakes International Comic Art Festival launches. There lies before us a weekend of top flight talent from around the globe - internationally acclaimed writers, artists and publishers - all descending on the Cumbrian town of Kendal.

It's a place more renowned for mint cake and Wainwright, so seeing the Bat symbol fly over Kendal Town Hall may come as a shock to some local residents.

But if they keep there eyes open, there's even more disruptive behavious to see.

The Comic Windows Art Trail is colonising 38 shop windows around the town, to display work by a number of creative individuals and organisations, tied into the general theme of the Comic Art Festival. It's not all superheroes but they do tend to dominate.

When I was asked to join in, back in May, I airily said "yes" and decided to worry about it later. As the deadline approached, it occurred to me that I hadn't got a clear idea what to do. I was going to occupy the Westmorland Gazette window. Something on a Gazette theme? Maybe boasting about having celebrated 30 years as their cartoonist? That seemed a little self-referential.

Then I happened across one of my old postcards and a theme began to emerge.

The first sketch was a little rough

But it soon developed into something more promising

The addition of a spoof Gazette front page was fun and I added an iconic image for the Dark Knight fans. Finally, it was due to finish with the original postcard. Time and a trip to Brussels got in the way of that plan so I ended up redrawing it, firing it off to MTP-Media and relying on them to instal it for me whilst I was away!

The final display is now in the Westmorland Gazette window. 

There's a competition. You can vote for it, if you wish, and I may win a lavish prize. (You don't have to do this but I will ask the NSA where you live.)

But whatever you do … don't miss the rest of the Comic Art Festival weekend.

PS You may find me tweeting about the festival here. I'll be armed with a sketchbook so will post some sketches on the blog. And meanwhile, here's that front page …