The springboard meetings are back! Our hugely popular one on one portfolio reviews provide the chance for young creatives to meet industry experts, show their work or ask questions to gain insight into the professional creative industries.

Each expert is available for an hour, divided into 4 golden slots  of 15 minutes each.

This year’s experts include: Anna Ridley (Commissioning Editor, Children’s books, Thames & Hudson), Andy Oliver (Editor in chief, Broken Frontier), Charlotte Dumortier (Artist and Illustrator), Harriet Birkinshaw (Senior Commissioning Editor, Nobrow/Flying Eye Books),  John Walters (Editor, Eye Magazine), Leyla Reynolds (Art Director, Gal-Dem Zine),  Suzanne Tromp (WeTransfer, Editor WePresent) and many more!

Be sure to get in quick as spaces fill up fast. Booking is free and you can do it here.

The festival is fast approaching and we are looking for enthusiastic people to join our team! Volunteers play a crucial role in ensuring the success of the festival and we have various opportunities for you to get involved before, during and after ELCAF. If you’re enthusiastic about comics and illustration, like working with the public and don’t mind getting stuck in to different tasks, see our opportunities page for more details.

We’re super excited to announce the full programme for ELCAF 2018 today. Check our programme page for full details and tickets too! In addition to our roster of international artists giving talks and workshops, we have tonnes of local talent involved as well.

ELCAF’s 7th edition will be open 22-24 June and will again feature over 1oo exhibitors plus a programme of talks, screenings and workshops led by different artists from across the UK and beyond, including: Charlotte Dumortier, Patrick Kyle, Nina Cosco, Conor Stechschulte, Tor Brandt, Sammy Stein, Aisha Franz, Akvile Magicdust, Dawid Ryski and many, many more.

From May, in the lead up to the festival, ELCAF Season features talks, masterclasses and exhibitions in London and around the UK. Find out more info on our ELCAF Season page.

We can’t wait to see you there!

We are now taking submissions from exhibitors past and present to transform their ideas into a reality. The winner of the award will receive a £3,500 grant to print and publish their book for ELCAF 2019. Good luck to all, we’re looking forward to receiving your submissions.

Artwork by Akvile Magicdust, winner of the ELCAF 2017 award. Her book ‘Tropical Wildchilds’ will be launched at the festival in June.

Belgian illustrator Charlotte Dumortier joins ELCAF as our artist in residence 2018. Based in Antwerp, her work is characterised by bright colours and bold shapes. As well as being an illustrator, she also works as a motion graphics animator. Charlotte makes comics for zines and anthologies and her “first real comic book” is called Murphy’s Miserable Space Adventures and is published by Oogachtend. She also makes mini comics and zines under the moniker yum yum zines with her friend Shamisa Debroey who will also be joining ELCAF 2018.

Charlotte’s ELCAF 2018 poster will be available in June as a limited edition screen-print.