Comics are not just for children, or geeks. But even if you think they are, embrace your inner child or geek and go along to the first ever Crouch End Comic Arts Festival (CECAF).

Organised by local artist Sean Azzopardi, it will bring together more than 25 of the best and brightest cartoonists and independent publishers from the UK comic scene who will showcase their work and be on-hand to talk about how they create it.

“For me, cartooning is an endlessly fascinating language,“ says Sean, who was a founding member of London Underground Comics. 

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“Despite being a reader and a creative, I feel I’ve only scraped the surface of its potential, of comics, creative possibilities.“ The 47-year-old, who goes under the pen name Seanazz, has been making and self-publishing comics for 11 years including the acclaimed Ed, Twelve Hour Shift and Dark Matters.

Like many he says the first comic he ever read was The Beano, but he still reads them now and insists they are “not just for geeks.

“Comics are for everyone. There is a huge range of subjects and material that will appeal to a variety of tastes. Including geeks.“ He adds: “The biggest misconception about comic art is that it’s just for children, that it’s a childish medium.

“Comics are for all ages, and function on many cognitive, emotional levels. Anyway there’s nothing wrong with something being child-like or childish, is there?“ The festival was initially just going to be for artists living in Crouch End, but when he found out Earl Haig Hall was free for hire, Sean decided to expand it into a full one-day festival.

Among those exhibiting will be fellow Crouch End local Zoom Rockman, who has been writing, drawing and publishing his own comic, The Zoom!, since he was nine and started working for The Beano comic aged 12 and has a monthly strip featuring his character Skanky Pigeon. 

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You can also see work from Roger Langridge, who has worked on self-published work Fred the Clown to established properties The Muppets, and former Crouch Ender Karrie Fransman, who has created comics for The Guardian, The Times, The Telegraph, The New Statesman, Time Out and Psychologies and published a graphic novel The House That Groaned, with Random House’s Square Peg.

Sean, who has recently worked on Necessary Monsters for First Comics and was part of the Crouch End Festival, says despite being the first one, the festival has been fairly easy to organise.

“The cartoonist community is large and always helpful and Earl Haig Hall has great people to work alongside. I like organising events, mixing with like-minded people, so i seeing it come together and getting a positive result is very rewarding.“

Earl Haig Hall, Elder Avenue, Crouch End, Saturday, November 8, from 11am to 6pm. Details: www.cecaf.uk