Review by Luke Williams
“Lawless” is essentially an unofficial 2000AD convention in everything but name. Yes, there are the presence of other comics , notably a healthy and strong small press and indy contingent, but the Prog’ looms large.
For your £35 a day entry fee you get access to an impressive array of creators, panels, a goodie bag and access to the 4 rooms that make up the convention in a wing of the Doubletree by Hilton hotel in Bristol, not that far from Bristol Temple Meads railway station.
The Creator Room is a perfect indicator of how far above its weight Lawless can punch. The names the Con’ attracts is staggering. Last year the big draw (among a plethora of big draws) was Brian Bolland. This year, possibly the most high profile was Dave Gibbons, but the Con’ has regularly attracted the likes of Mike McMahon , Rob Williams, Glenn Fabry, David Roach, John Higgins and John Wagner to name a few, just take a look at the guest list.
Conveniently as is the 21st century, most creators now have one of those wireless card reading machines. Each creator has a stack of material stuff they’d like exchange for your life savings: sketches, copies of their finished work or more tantalisingly, original pages of artwork. You can pick up art and sketches relatively cheaply. Inevitably you will have to queue at some creator tables, but not for that long.
Lawless is not restricted to the big name creators. The Creators Room has a row of tables dedicated to the publications of the ’77 team, promoting This Comic is Haunted via one of the 7 panels on the Saturday, plus the much anticipated Ian Gibson’s Lifeboat and the completely out of the blue (to me anyway) launch of the Kickstarter for the The Bogie Man . Moving into the dealer room, traders sell merchandise, art and more from the UKs burgeoning independent comics scene.
This year, the exhibition room hosted a collection of original art by the late great Steve Dillon. Dillon was incredibly prolific and produced a huge body of work, the exhibition comprised examples from just about every stage, everything from “Nick Fury” for Marvel UK to his later Marvel US work, alongside pages from Hellblazer, Warrior, 2000AD, Preacher and Axel Pressbutton.
Probably the most impressive exhibits were the title page from the much celebrated “ABC Warriors : Red Planet Blues “ strip drawn by Steve, written by Alan Moore and coloured by John Higgins and the double page spread from “Judge Dredd : Block Mania” – absolute classics and breathtaking for the art nerds amongst us. The exhibition has appeared at a few different conventions and locations, look out for it – no fan of British comics or comic art should miss it.
An interview with Dave Gibbons kicked the panel programme off. Mr. Gibbons is a man never short of anything to say and never fails to entertain; wind him up watch him go. Ostensibly there to promote his autobiography Confabulation, in a short period he covered everything in his career from Rogue Trooper to Doctor Who, his Batman versus Predator series and more personal work like The Originals.
At the “War of the Words” panel Ian Edginton and Di’Israeli were interviewed about their long standing partnership, what brought them into comics and finally what was coming up next from them as a team. As well as being one of the UKs most talented artists D’Israeli rivals Dave Gibbons in the chatty stakes.
Artists of different eras of Rogue Trooper were interviewed for “The Rogue Trooper Reunion” panel. Commentary on the creative process from Chris Weston, Mike Dorey, Henry Flint, Dave Gibbons and Patrick Goddard and insights where each creator would have taken the character had they stayed on the strip, and revelations from Dave Gibbons on the design inspirations for the character.
“Battle Action Chat!” featured some good natured banter between veterans Mike Dorey and john Wagner and the panel which also included Rob Williams and Dan Cornwell took us through what we were to expect from the 5 issue mini, capped off with a short presentation from Wagner on “The Bogie Man” Kickstarter.
“The Lawless Draw Off” featured Lew Stringer, Henry Flint, Lee Carter, Patrick Goddard & Mike Collins in a series of themed elimination drawing contests. Sketches were to be raffled off with proceeds going to the Samaritans. These began, respectfully with “Steve Dillon” resulting in some spectacular werewolf art, but following audience consultation quickly degenerated.
Round 2’s theme was “Ant Dec and Jimmy Nail in a 70s disco” which led to a Henry Flint drawn three headed roller skating freak : echoing an early episode of “Flesh” and proof that Mr. Flint is quite clearly disturbed.
Further down the scale of taste theme three was Fall song redolent “Ming the Merciless On a Space hopper Drunk Shopping”.
Finally Mike Collins emerged victorious with his interpretation of “Tank girl Knighted by King Charles Using a Dildo”, which I’m sure by now is framed and has pride of place on someone’s wall.
A hugely entertaining (if not family friendly) panel, spurred on by banter from the compere and the sound tech.
Considering it’s in a physically small area compared to some other cons, Lawless attracts an amazing array of talent. It’s incredibly well run with love and care with an incredibly easy going friendly atmosphere with a very imaginative coeterie of cosplayers to add some colour. The programme is packed –it’s difficult to see everything and everyone in a day, but all the best cons are like that. If there is a criticism, it’s that occasionally some of the panels could have done with more direction, and occasionally there were some problems with sound : mainly over use of the mics.
Attending Lawless is incredibly rewarding, you leave with a warm glow. A fantastic convention and celebration of British comics. Can’t wait for next year.
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