Macclesfield’s Comic Art Festival – MACC-POW! – Launches GOOF Comic For All Ages Fun & Laughs

Macclesfield’s MACC-POW! Comic Art Festival takes place this year on 20-23 June 2024 — and they’ve got a comic-sized funny surprise launching for the Festival: GOOF!

Now in its 9th year with a full weekend of comics, guests, and exhibitors happening in June, MACC-POW! is another one of the UK’s great comics events where the focus is firmly on comics and nothing else – just as it should be!

This years’ festival opens on the evening of Thursday 20th June, with an exclusive showing of the 2009 comic book film Kick-Ass at Cinemac Macclesfield. This is followed with the main exhibitors day in Macclesfield Town Hall on Saturday June 22nd (10-4 pm) with two rooms full to bursting with some really great names in comics. Additionally, you can find plenty of activities taking place across the town – Beano drawing with Laura Howell in the library, Emma Reynolds returning for her Five minute portraits in Acacia Tree café, and a full day of workshops and activities downstairs in the Town Hall building. Finally, on Sunday 23rd of June, The Monocle café transforms into the Graphic Novel Reading room, and Macclesfield’s comic and cartoon art studio, Room For Comics, hosts a full day of drawing workshops, with the whole festival ending with another film at Cinemac, celebrating 40 years of robots in disguise with the 1986 Transformers Movie.

They promise plenty more to announce, including the always incredible Felt Mistress with a month-long exhibition at the Silk museum starting May 15th, so it’s definitely well worth heading there if you can.

All of this is supported and made possible by continued support from Macclesfield Town Council, another local authority that have put their money up to make a great event happen.

As for the guest list, well there’s a hell of a lot of great, great guests – take a look at these names for some comic greatness… Tor Freeman, Sheena Dempsey, Kev F Sutherland, Lew Stringer, Daps Draws, David Leach, Rachael Smith, Mr Hope, Asimina Hollinsworth, Blakemore comics, Charlie Adlard, Jacob Phillips, Sean Phillips, Nick Brokenshire, Emmeline Pidgen, Roger Langridge, Monty Nero, John Allison, Laura Howell, Peter Hogan, Hunt Emerson, Emma Reynolds, Eleanor Dixon, Paul McCaffrey, Little LICAF, Katie and Phil‘s Marvel D&D, Tripwire magazine, Felt Mistress and Jonathan Edwards, and Emma Vieceli. And that’s without even getting into the exhibitors.

But that’s not all – this year we also have MACC-POW! launching a new project, again with support from Macclesfield Town Council, the one-off GOOF! comic for all-ages.

It’s a new 20-page, full-colour comic for all-ages, based on the online GOOF! that Macc-Pow launched back in 2018 and ran monthly for a year – GOOF! in print will be launched at the festival and more than half of the creators in the comic will be present – perfect for signing and sketching opportunities.

GOOF! promises to be “a gloriously daft publication that celebrates the joy of funny comics, goofy gags, silly stuff, and more! It’s a classic comic, with a modern appeal. Our aim? To make you laugh out-loud! Prepare to splurt your drink across the room in hysterics, or fire your cereal like a machine gun in delight towards a family member!”

And given that the list of creators involved is full of some darned funny folks who make side-splittingly great comics, I reckon it’s a must to buy – even if you can’t make it along to MACC-POW!

Creators involved in GOOF! include Lew Stringer, Tor Freeman, Asimina Hollingworth, James Kolchaka, David Leach, Rachael Smith Illustration, Waldo Pancake, and Mika Song.

MACC-POW! Comic Art Festival runs 20-23 June in Macclesfield – full details here.

GOOF! will be available to buy first at the Festival on Saturday 22 June. It will then be available online here with orders shipping out in the week commencing 24 June.