Lawless in Bristol: Six Comics Superstars Tell us Why They Love Comics
This weekend it was my pleasure to visit my favourite con, Lawless. Unlike some of the larger comic conventions you might have heard of, the Bristol-based Lawless does something quite revolutionary: it focuses on comics! Personally, as someone who both writes comics and is still a massive fan (I also run Why I Love Comics on Instagram and Facebook) it’s the best of both worlds, the prefect place to talk to the legends of the comic world, make new friends and stock up on back issues. And they’ve got a bar.
Lawless started off as Lawgiver (until the Justice Department had a quiet word) and its focus is very much on British comics, especially 2000AD. When you consider however how many of the comics world’s global stars started off at The Galaxy’s Greatest there really is something for everyone here. In what become somewhat of an annual feature, I was fortunate enough to speak to a number of some of the finest UK comics artists, asking them who their favourite comic character is what makes that character so special. Hunt Emerson, Dylan Teague, Aly Fell, Doug Braithwaite, Brian Bolland and Alan Davis spill the beans bellow! (If you’d like to read my conversations from last year with Mike Perkins, Mike Collins, Andrew Sawyers, Glenn Fabry and Liam Sharp you’ll find it here: https://comicscene.org/2024/06/01/breaking-the-law/ )
Alan Davis: The Steel Claw
Alan’s love for The Steel Claw, as drawn by Jesus Blasco, is well known. “Blasco made the Steel Claw my favourite character when I was a kid. I couldn’t understand how he drew the way he did, just that it all seemed so real.” Alan even managed to smuggled the character into his iconic Captain Britain with Alan Moore, even if they had to change the name to The Iron Tallon for legal reasons! As Alan said to me at Lawless “It’s self-explanatory!”
Hunt Emerson: Popeye
“Popeye was the very first cartoon that I ever saw on the telly. I think the was the opening day of Tyne Tees television. The cartoons were very much about Popeye and Olive oil and Bluto but the comics… the comics went much more of an adventure. They were more the world that we lived in, I like the fact that they all hung around at the burger bar and that was because at the time. It was prohibition when they first started doing it so they couldn’t show a drinking bar, you know? So you’ve got all of this stuff going on in the, the bar, the sandwich bar, fighting and arguing. Yeah. Treating each other to a sandwich instead of a beer… and he still exists today! And recently his stories were being written one of my favourite American underground artists Bobby London. And I don’t think any comic character has a better catch phrase than ‘I am what I am!’
Brian Bolland: The Penguin
We were very lucky to a sketch of Brian’s iconic take on The Joker (“This has become like a signature rather than drawing!”) before he started to explain why The Penguin is his favourite character: “I like him because he has a different body shape. I tend to think of him as a sort of rotund little man.He looks prickly, easily offended. He’s dangerous because he’s easily offended.”
See more Bolland sketches in the History of Comics and more Penguin in the Best of Batman as part of the £5 sale in our ComicScene Store here
Aly Fell: Tintin
Why have I chosen Tintin? Well, when I was sick as a kid and off school, mom and dad, instead of buying me Lucozade would buy me a Tintin book to read instead. So I sat and read Tintin while I was sniffing and snuffing in bed. The Black Island was my favourite. Tintin has stuck with me ever since. Asterix as well. But Tintin was first.
Get your Tintin inspired Tara Togs by Stref at our ComicScene Store here
Dylan Teague: Judge Dredd
“For me it’s all about the world of Dredd, the language, the culture, Mega-City One. I vividly
remember the Daily Star collections drawn by Ron Smith. Reading those complete stories collected together really made an impact.”
Doug Braithwaite: Spider-Man
Why Spiderman? Well, it’s the, the, that’s the character that got me into comics. I’d seen superhero comics before around that time like Superman and Batman but when I saw Spider-Man, I think it was the costume and the dynamics of the character. That just kind of took me from there, really. I loved Spiderman, you know what it’s like when you’re a kid, with the cartoon series and the comic. I wish I’d had the Mego action figure! But I think the version of Spider-Man that appealed to me more than anything was John Romita’s. I think it’s just the way he drew the character. Even looking back now, every time I think of the character, I think of John Romita’s. And I think it’s not just Spiderman, it’s, it’s the supporting cast as well.. That was my character and yeah, I’ve drawn every character since. But Spider-Man was the first character that got me into comics, and that, that version, the Romita version is my favourite”
Author: Michael Powell
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