03 Sep The Lawless Story…
It takes roughly six months to organise Lawless Comic Con.
Sometimes we start a little earlier, usually we have a bit of a summer break after the show. It wasn’t always so straightforward. In the earlier days, where we hadn’t run a convention before and social media engagement was a foreign concept, it was nearly a full twelve months work!
It all began because of those damn Judges…
I’d even go as far as saying that it began when Karl Urban attended MCM Comic Con and a tonne of 2000AD fans and cosplayed Judges rocked up in London to get a sneak peak at the new Dredd film. (That opening mall scene….”Hot Shot.”)
I met a whole bunch of very cool folk at that event and again at conventions that followed. The Judges were raising money for charity, sharing costume ideas, creating their own props, posing for photo shoots and generally making a nuisance of themselves in the same way that Stormtroopers did at Star Wars conventions. It was a niche fanbase, but a welcoming one. Somewhere along the line, someone suggested a Dredd themed event and I thought….”We could do that!”
Lawgiver was born!
- 1 Day in Birmingham.
- 60 Attendees
- 6 Creators
- A bunch of props courtesy of Steven Sterlacchini
- Some Tabletop gaming
- A showing of Judge Minty and an interview with its star Edmund Dehn
Our beginnings were small but successful. We broke even on the first show and decided to do it again the next year. We’ve been doing that ever since!
We started treading a little to close to copyright issues for Dredd and 2000AD in terms of use of imagery and promotion, so after the first few shows we decided to widen the net and celebrate British Comics in general. We changed from Lawgiver to Lawless. (Yes, I know there’s a 2000AD comic called Lawless – it wasn’t intentional, we were just trying to find a ‘Law’ adjacent name!)
And so now we’re entering into our thirteenth year! I’ve always said, we’ll keep on going if you keep on coming. Its a fan-based convention – we’re not in it to retire on the profits, or beat the convention down the road.
We’re in it for the LOLs.
It’s fun. You guys are fun. Our creators are fun.
In today’s climate, fun is in short supply.
So fuck it. Lets keep going. 🙂