Caption Small Press & Comics Festival

Paul Cornell has written episodes of Elementary, Doctor Who (‘Father’s Day’ and ‘Human Nature’), Primeval, Robin Hood and many other TV series, including his own ITV children’s show, Wavelength. He’s worked for every major comics company, including his creator- owned series I Walk With Monsters for @thevaultcomics with Sally Cantirino (Artist, Cover Artist), Dearbhla Kelly (Colorist), Andworld Design (Letterer); The Modern Frankenstein for Magma with Emma Vieceli (Artist) and Pippa Bowland (Letterer); Saucer Country for Vertigo with Ryan Kelly (Artist), Giulia Brusco (Colourist), and Sal Cipriano (Letterer); and This Damned Band for Dark Horse with Tony Parker (Artist), Lovern Kindzierski (Colourist). Plus runs for Marvel and DC on Batman and Robin, Wolverine and Young Avengers. He’s the writer of the Lychford rural fantasy novellas from Tor.com Publishing. He’s won the BSFA Award for his short fiction, an Eagle Award for his comics, a Hugo Award for his podcast and shares in a Writer’s Guild Award for his Doctor Who and the Grand Prix Nova and Scribe awards for the audio series Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Firewall. He’s also the winner of the Terrance Dicks Award for lifetime achievement in Doctor Who writing. He’s the co-host of Hammer House of Podcast and Telefantasy Time Jump. His latest book is the SF novella Rosebud and his latest graphic novel is the forthcoming Who Killed Nessie? with artist Rachael Smith. https://www.paulcornell.com/about-paul/

Darryl Cunningham is a writer and artist whom @brokenfrontier described as having “established himself as one of the most vital and important voices in British comics… it’s creators of Cunningham’s calibre who are at the forefront of the resurgence of graphic journalism as an accepted form of reportage.” His work ranges from the all-ages fun of the Uncle Bob Adventures (from Blank Slate) to the topical myth -busting of Science Tales (from @myriadeditions), and his breakout book Psychiatric Tales (from Blank Slate @bloomsburypublishing) is praised as “undoubtedly one of the pivotal works in the rise of graphic medicine in the UK over the last ten years”. Other work includes: Supercrash: How to Hijack the Global Economy (@myriadeditions); Putin’s Russia: The Rise of a Dictator (@drawnandquarterly); and his latest book, Elon Musk: American Oligarch (@7storiespressuk), described by Alan Moore as “an exceptional piece of work, right when we need it most,” and we all know Alan Moore knows the score. https://myriadeditions.com/creator/darryl-cunningham/

Al Davison is an English comic book writer and artist from Newcastle, England. He now resides in Coventry, where he runs TAG!artworks, his studio and comic shop in Fargo Village with his wife Maggie. He is most famous for his autobiographical graphic novel The Spiral Cage from Active Images, (2003) which describes his lifelong struggle with Spina Bifida and his life as a comics creator, martial artist and multimedia artist. He is also known for his work on IDW’s Doctor Who comic, and numerous titles for DC/Vertigo including The Dreaming, The Unwritten and Hellblazer. The Spiral Cage featured in Tony Isabella’s 1000 Comic Books You Must Read. Muscle Memory is an online sequel to The Spiral Cage. Al was commissioned by Unlimited and The Space to create a multimedia version (Muscle Memory in Motion) starting with Chapter 6, designed to make the work more accessible. He hopes to get funding to develop this approach across the whole book. Al is also keen to find a publisher for a physical edition of the book. https://al-davison.com

Alison Sampson is a South London based comic artist, book cover maker, illustrator and writer. Her sequential work includes Wolverine & Bloodline (writing AND drawing), Hellboy, EC Comics, Winnebago Graveyard, The Department of Truth, Werewolf By Night, Sleeping Beauties, Redacted, Hit-Girl: India, work with Tori Amos, Iron Maiden, Stephen King, Steve Niles, broadcasters, print newspapers, art galleries and with a plethora of clients, plus loads of book covers and more. She has multiple Eisner nominations for team books (this year Cruel Universe and The Department of Truth) and is still an Architect (including being Project Architect for the recently built School of Environment at Oxford Brookes). It has been quite a journey since winning the British Comic Award for Best Emerging Artist just ten years ago. She is currently working on the series Redacted for Redacted and a cover for the revived A1 Deadline with Kate Nash. https://www.alisonsampson.com/

Bobby Joseph is an acclaimed South London comic creator whose work has often challenged and inspired its readers. His early work includes the creation of cult comic classic Skank magazine, where his best-known strip, “Scotland Yardie”, first featured, and was later published by Knockabout Press. He has written for The Guardian newspaper, Dazed and Confused, and Vice.com. His comic work was a prominent feature at the Anarchy in the UK comic exhibition at the British Library in 2015 and was seen by over 60,000 visitors. Since the beginning of his career, he has been a vocal advocate for diversity and representation in comic books. His graphic novel, Scotland Yardie, published by Knockabout Comics in 2017, was the first diverse graphic novel to be studied as a module on an English Literature MA course at King’s College, London. As a Secondary school teacher, he believes that comics are a gateway to literacy and learning and has used comics in the classroom to build subject knowledge. His forthcoming graphic novel – My Dad Fights Demons! with artist Abbigayle Bircham (@abbiebsart) will be released in September 2025 by Self-Made Hero. He is the fifth incumbent to be named Comics Laureate, and the first comic creator of Indian origin to become Comics Laureate.

Zen K. is a UK-based illustrator and comics artist whose work includes The House on 52 Carlton Street and Runaway Mayhem. A fresh voice in the indie comics scene, Zen exhibited at ShortBox Comics Fair 2024 and has since been published by Koguchi Press. She was named one of Broken Frontier’s Six to Watch 2025, marking her as an emerging talent to follow. https://zenk.myportfolio.com/work

Steve Tanner: Writer, editor, designer and publisher behind Time Bomb Comics, with everything from historical horror to mind-bending science-fiction, which can be found on sale in newsagents across the UK. He’s also the editor for Time Bomb’s Spectrum, the Gerry Anderson themed anthology title, produced as part of their licencing arrangement with Anderson Entertainment, as well as the popular regular anthology, Quantum. https://timebombcomics.com/

Lucy Sullivan is an Artist/ Writer based in London, UK. Her debut Barking based on the her own experience of a mental health crisis was first published in 2020, supported by the National Lottery /Arts Council England fundingand co-commissioned by LICAF. Since publication the graphic novel has garnered awards, praise from critics and is on the required reading list for UCLA’s Art & Trauma Collegiate Program. A new edition launched with Avery Hill Publishing in 2024, available in US/Canada for the first time. Lucy’s previous work includes a Black Hammer story for Jeff Lemire’s Tales From The Farm, alongside artwork for Metallic Dynamite with Jordan Thomas and TheWishmaker’s Grimcrack with Ram V + Aditya Bidikar, amongst many more. Her new Folk-Horror series Shelter is currently in development. The first story Early Doors is out now. The second story Mothers Ruin is scheduled for publication in 2026. Lucy is also patron of the Lakes International Comic Art Festival and hopes to start a new comic & zine fair in Brighton in the future. https://lucysullivanuk.com/

Paul B. Rainey is a British cartoonist who has been making comics for decades, and has been a regular attendee of Caption through the years. In 2015, his self published series There’s No Time Like the Present was published as a graphic novel by Escape Books. He has been a regular contributing cartoonist to Viz since 2013. He won the Observer/Jonathan Cape/Comica Graphic Short Story Prize in 2020 with the strip Similar to But Not. In it, he recounts meeting Madonna in his local pub in 1985. The film rights to his recent work Why Don’t You Love Me?, published by Drawn & Quarterly, was announced last year to have been snapped up by A24 with Jennifer Lawrence set to star. https://drawnandquarterly.com/author/paul-b-rainey/   

UPDATE: Beck will now not be able to attend Caption 2025.

Beck Kubrick is a Manchester based creator and one of 2023’s Broken Frontier Six To Watch list. They are best known for Dead Girls: Beach Day (2022), and MEAT4BURGERS: Welcome to Burgertory (2022 to 2024) with Christof Bogacs. Their work has been described as “Sylvia Plath meets Peanuts” (Bond, 2023) and are known for their “dark humor and knowing wit” (Oliver, 2023). Don’t Worry I Die at the End (2023) was voted Best One Shot in Broken Frontier’s 2023 awards. Beck’s self published debut, Coby, Alone (2021) was just shy of 1,000% funded via Kickstarter and received nominations for the MICE shorts award and Broken Pencil’s comic awards. They have worked with Mad Cave Studios, Cartoon Network, and Oni Press. Their upcoming work includes two unannounced graphic novels. In their free time, they like thinking about the apocalypse. https://beckkubrick.com/

Cara Brown is a comic artist and writer based in Liverpool and Leeds (UK), specialising in autobio and horror comics. She has also been selected this year as one of Broken Frontier’s Six To Watch 2025. Her first autobio comic Everything’s Fine was self-published in 2024, kicking off her start in comics, her work being described as having an “immediate empathetic connection between artist and reader” (Broken Frontier 2024). Since then she has been featured in many comic anthologies including Let Us In, a comic by non US creators, LAU’s Garland Anthology and multiple LCC anthologies including Cryptids of Leeds and Mixtape of Mystery. Cara doesn’t only create comics but also dabbles in creating posters for short films, like The Death of The House Party and Pond, which are then later presented at film festivals around the UK. Although her journey has just begun, she is taking any opportunity that comes her way and strives to have her voice heard, finding comics and art to be her primary method of communicating her struggles and emotions. Her future works are currently underway, including a new autobio project and an untitled Young Adult fiction comic. https://www.instagram.com/caraashji/

Zara Slattery is a shed dwelling Illustrator, Comic Artist and Tutor. Zara’s first full length graphic memoir, Coma, was shortlisted for the Myriad First Graphic Novel Competition 2018, The Arts Foundation Futures Awards 2020 and longlisted for the LDComics Awards 2019. Coma won the graphic novel The British Book Design and Production Award Nov. 2021. Her current project, in collaboration with writer Gregory Norminton, is Sweeney’s Progress, a retelling of the medieval Irish poem Buile Suibhne. It is a spiritual and ecological fable for our time. A graphic novel and hymn to the natural world as a place of trial and healing, and as such a conduit between ancient wisdom and our present desperate need of it. The creation of Sweeney’s Progress is supported via https://www.patreon.com/SweeneysProgress. Zara is also co-director of the Comics Cultural Impact Collective (CCIC) along with some inspiring comic creators. Together they’re working to create a better funding environment for comic creators in the UK. As part of @comicsculturalimpact Zara put together a Comic Art & Zine Fair Organiser’s Accessibility Checklist. The aim of this checklist is to give event organiser’s the basic information they need to communicate access to guests, exhibitors and audiences with disabilities and chronic illness from the get go and create a more inclusive event and programming for all, and this was used when deciding on venues for the Caption Festival. You can download it free from the checklist from the CCIC website (https://www.thecomicsculturalimpactcollective.org/The-Power-of-Comics). https://zaraslattery.com/.

Dominique Duong is an illustrator and comic artist based in London (UK), who creates queer fantasy, horror and romance comics, as well as autobio. At the core of her work, she is most interested in creating stories about damaged people and the dysfunction, solace and complexity of their relationships with each other. Since her career began, her work has been published by SelfMadeHero, Discord Comics and Quindrie Press, among others. She’s one of Broken Frontier’s Six Small Press Creators to Watch of 2020 and her comic The Dog & The Cat was nominated for an Ignatz Award. She’s worked on editorial and book illustration, theatre set designs, concept art, mobile games and comics. Currently, she’s working on her debut graphic novel, Patchwork, set to be published by Jonathan Cape in 2026. As well as illustration and comics, she also runs workshops and guest lectures on comics, self-publishing, self-employment, illustration, drawing and tabling at conventions and fairs. Other work includes contributions to anthologies such as Succulent, Mind Over Margins and Tilt, among others; and the self published The Flower Maiden, and The Clowntober Artzine. https://domduong.com

Shane Melisse is a comic artist based in North London and has been self publishing comics for a decade. He has exhibited at various comic cons and art fairs around the UK and parts of Europe. In 2021 Shane was one of Broken Frontiers Six To Watch. His comics have varied over the years from slice of life diary comics to horror parodies to urban fantasy, including a series called Road Knight, using traditional fantasy aesthetics to highlight, rather than escape, London life. Other work includes The Last Kaiju (Written by Tobias Hamilton), the webcomic Living With The Living, Shanefaced and They’re Coming Down The Stairs. https://www.shanefaced.com

Mike Armstrong is a cartoonist based in Suffolk, whose work has been featured in several WIP Comics anthologies as well as his self-published minicomics. He enjoys creating stories set in fantasy-adjacent worlds, much like the one he lives in. Previous work includes Span, Bigger, and Rose Thornhill and The Troll Bridge. https://mike-armstrong.com

Chris Shepherd is an artist, writer, filmmaker, and British comedy legend. He’s done everything—from the 43rd World Stare-out Championships with Paul Hatcher for BBC’s Big Train comedy sketch show to working on music videos for Reverend and the Makers, Holly Johnson, Lambchop (as HeCTA), and The Wave Pictures. He also created animations for BC Camplight, Sara Pascoe, Nathan Barley, et al. He’s won tons of international film awards, including a BIFA and two BAFTA nominations. Chris is also a senior lecturer at Central Saint Martin’s successful Character Animation MA as well as curator and co-founder of Bar Shorts film nights at The Garden Cinema. Published by Titan Comics, Anfield Road is Chris’s debut graphic novel, a beautiful coming of age story centered around growing up in the working-class dynamics of Merseyside in the late eighties. For fans of emotional stories about family and ambition and set in the rich history of Liverpool. It was chosen as The Guardians’ Graphic Novel Of The Month. https://anfieldroadstory.com/

Shane Chebsey- Publisher at Scratch Comics including Dracula The Return, and Claudia Christian’s Dark Legacies. An activist for independent and small press comics for over thirty years as a writer, distributor and organiser of multiple events, Shane is volunteering his time for portfolio reviews. https://www.scratchcomics.co.uk/

Richard Starzecki: Course leader for the Oxford Brookes BA Illustration at Swindon and short course teacher in short courses on Animation and storyboarding. Richard’s new graphic novel is book 1 of his scientific romance trilogy, Broken Lenses. https://rstarzecki.com/

Paul Hatcher: Best known for his 1996 comic pack The World Stare-out Championship Final, adapted to animation for the 1998 BBC2 comedy sketch show Big Train and published over two books by Bloomsbury in 2000. He’s prolific with series, Lost In Space, and the sold-out Oddsock. https://thehouseofhatch.blogspot.com/

Alex Fitch: Presenter of Panel Borders, the UK’s premier radio show about comics, on Resonance FM. Alex has been a chief organiser on multiple previous Caption and Graphic Brighton events. He is a research student at the University of Brighton, interested in the overlap between architecture theory and comics studies. http://www.panelborders.com/ 

Daniel Merlin Goodbrey: A hyper-narrative pioneer, he created the Tarquin Engine for creating and viewing infinite canvas comics. Noted for his collaborative webcomics Necessary Monsters, Brainfist and The Rule of Death. Daniel lectures in Narrative & Interaction Design at Hertfordshire and is overseeing their new MA in Digital Comics. https://e-merl.com/

Ally Nuttall: writer on webcomics Cherry, Footloose and Black Market Magic; serialised prose work, The Ballad of Piper Wren, and children’s book The Zombie Project, published by Chicken House https://www.footloosecomic.com/

Hannah Berry: Hannah Berry is an occasionally award-winning comics creator, scriptwriter and campaigner, a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and UK Comics Laureate 2019-21. 

Author of three solo graphic novels for Jonathan Cape – BRITTEN & BRÜLIGHTLY (Official Selection at Angoulême 2010), ADAMTINE (currently in development as a feature film), and LIVESTOCK (Best Writer award winner, Best Graphic Novel nominee, Broken Frontier Awards 2017) – she has also contributed comics to a wide variety of publications from 2000AD to The New England Journal of Medicine. She is currently collaborating on a new graphic novel with artist VV Glass.

Berry is a founding committee member of the Society of Authors’ Comics Creators Network, which advocates for creators and offers professional support, and co-founder and co-director of the Comics Cultural Impact Collective CIC, dedicated to raising the profile of comics and supporting creators.. https://hannahberry.co.uk/ 

Sarah L. Miles: Writer behind supernatural prison horror, No Escape From Vida Futura, and mental health short, Don’t Tell My Therapist. Sarah is also an active comics journalist and panel moderator, prose fiction author and book reviewer. https://sarahlmiles.com/ 

Jason Atomic: Oxford artist specialising in documentary life drawing and painting with themes of magick & sexuality, pop culture and comics. Worked on Topps trading cards and for the National Gallery. Specialises in quick portrait painting. Writer/artist behind 1990s UK sp comic, Wongoboy, later translated to Japanese. One half of OCCULTZ (The Oxford Comics, Cult and Zine Fair) https://jasonatomic.co.uk/

Owen Michael Johnson: The other half of OCCULTZ, Owen is an Oxford writer/artist working for Rebellion. His comics have met with multiple award nominations: The Mirage featuring a lounge musician in a heist, and his graphic novel, The Reel, about a young boy enamoured with cinema, told in kinetic black and white. https://changelingstudios.bigcartel.com/