Oliver East: Photo: Yorick de Munnik

Oliver East, creator of the Lakes International Comic Arts Festival-funded project The Homesick Truant’s Cumbrian Yarn will be giving a talk and Live Draw at Hardknott on Track, the new real ale pub, Station Building, Millom this Saturday, 14th March between 1.00 – 4.00pm.

Oliver, whose books also include Trains Are Mint, published by Blank Slate Books is one of a new wave of comic creators who takes both art and comics in uncharted directions. His work is pithy, humorous and ironic, celebrating not the sublime but the everyday and transitory. He was the worthy recipient of the first Lakes International Comic Art Festival artist commission in association with The Brewery Arts Centre Kendal.

During the harsh winter of 2014, he began his most ambitious project to date, walking walked over 140 miles in ten stages from Arnside train station to Carlisle train station keeping as close as possible to the Cumbrian Coastal Train Line. 

The result was The Homesick Truant’s Cumbrian Yarn, commissioned by The Lakes International Comics Art Festival and Kendal’s Brewery Arts Centre, supported using public funding by Arts Council England and published as eight comics with Comics Four and Five covering his journey to and through Millom. 

In addition to this event, an exhibition of Oliver’s drawings is on show at Millom Discovery Centre until the 13th March 2015.

• The Hardknott on Track is at Millom Station Buildings, Station Road, Millom, Cumbria LA18 5AA. No telephone as yet: call the Hardknott Brewery (01229 779309) for information or visit their web site at www.hardknottontrack.com | Find them on Google Maps