It's worth mentioning that this was to be my first proper comics event in - unbelievably - 30 years. In the mid 80s, at the height of my comic fandom, I had attended the first two UK Comic Art Conventions (UKCAC) held at the University of London Union. A mere £7.50 gained my friends and I access to two days of panels, dealers rooms, presentations and all night film shows. This was the first opportunity we had to listen to and meet the great and the good of the comics world - not only from the UK (2000 AD creators were richly represented) but also from the more 'exotic' world of the US - including the like of Marv Wolfman, Bill Sienkiewicz, Dave Sim and Chris Claremont.
Alan Moore was at the peak of his fame and I think this was famously where he was hounded for his autograph wherever he went, even into the men's toilets (no wonder he gave up going to events). These conventions were also where Karen Berger and Dick Giordano began seriously scouting the UK talent to get them to work for DC, in what became known as the 'British invasion'. Everyone mingled together and there was a lively, relaxed atmosphere.
They were exhilarating times and I have lots of good memories of both weekends, even if I was exhausted afterwards through lack of sleep! The big question was - how would the 2000 AD festival measure up ?
One last thing before I begin - it's important to note that I was accompanied on this journey by good friend, writer and podcaster Al No (of 'No Complications' and "RevNo" fame), who had flown down all the way from the Arctic especially for this historic event. The second thing to mention is that our pilgrimage actually began the day before...
Friday 10th February 2017
Having collected Al from the airport and fortified ourselves against the Arctic weather that seemed to have descended with him, we decided that there was only one proper way to begin the weekend of 2000 AD hullabaloo - a visit to the 'Cartoon Museum' to see their exhibition of original artwork from the title. Appropriately titled "Future Shock" it featured over eighty pages of incredible art from every decade of "The Galaxy's Greatest Comic". That may not seem like a lot considering the 50,000+ pages that have been published over the years, but clearly space was limited and one can imagine that it was important to get a good spread of artists, styles, stories and eras.
The displays certainly didn't disappoint on that score. All the classic greats from the comics earliest beginning were there - Dave Gibbons, Mick McMahon, Kevin O'Neill, Brian Bolland, Ron Smith, Cam Kennedy, Brett Ewins, Steve Dillon, Ian Gibson - plus the master himself Carlos Ezquerra. Then there were what I would class as the 'second wave' of artists - Mark Harrison, John Higgins, Bryan Talbot, Simon Bisley, Glenn Fabry, David Roach, John Hinckleton and David Pugh. Lastly and certainly not least there were re the creators from the more modern era - Frazer Irving, Henry Flint, Carl Critchlow, Simon Fraser, Chris Weston, Greg Staples, Dave Taylor, Simon Davis - the list goes on and on.
The various sections were laid out according to character rather than chronology, which meant that you not only got a great view of how different artists interpret the same character or series, but also how a single artists work could change over the decades. Each piece was beautifully framed with a small label next to it detailing the artist, plus the story and issue number it came from. What is more surprising is how much art had survived from those first one hundred or so issues.
There were a few personal highlights amongst all this jaw dropping work. As much as fans rave about Bolland's precise lines or Fabry's moody cross-hatchings - and it was great to see those represented - I couldn't wait to see the original "Dan Dare" pages from Bellardinelli. I've waxed lyrical about his work before here but being up close to it sent a shiver down my spine. He was an absolute master at drawing weird alien creatures and the first artist I found instantly recognisable, whether it was in the pages of "Flesh", "Inferno" or "Meltdown Man".
It was also lovely to see the clean futuristic lines of Ron Turner represented. He's most famous for the "Daleks" strips from "TV Century 21" comic (although I bought "Battle Action" and "Speed" which also had some stunning work). He didn't do a lot for 2000 AD, but I really liked his episodes of the Judge Dredd story "Robot Wars" and the various others he contributed to specials and Annuals over the years.
All in all it was a hugely impressive collection of art and a fitting testament to a comic institution that has lasted far, far longer than anyone could have ever predicted. The exhibition runs until 23rd April 2017, so if you are in London it's well worth a couple of hours of your time.
Our thrill-receptors clearly needed recharging after being exposed to so much raw power, so after a brief chat to the lovely people behind the counter of the museum shop, Al and I wended our way home for some well-deserved rest. The main event was almost upon us...
Saturday 11th February 2017
It was an early start when Al and I left the house around 7.15 am to get the train into London. The journey itself was uneventful although once we got outside of Hammersmith tube station it was obvious that Mega-City One Weather Control was on the fritz again, as all the winter sunshine we had ordered had been replaced by cold gusts of wind and a shower of sleet. Finding the hotel where the event was being held was almost a quest worthy of Slaine himself, as we wandered around in vaguely the right direction directed by the app on my phone until we saw a few other hardy adventurers heading the same way. Finally a relatively unassuming revolving door gave us a way out of the weather.
However there was to be one more obstacle before we could make our way to registration. The entranceway presented us with a bare space and the doors to two lifts. A small sign indicated that we should take the lift up to the hotel reception area. I'd come across this kind of thing before in a hotel in Rotterdam, so assured Al that this was the way to go. However a quick press of the button for floor one led to the doors closing and...nothing else. Despite repeating stabbing of the console, all we succeeded in doing was reopening the doors to be greeted by some more bemused looking 2000 AD fans. A stylishly bearded gentleman got in and pressed another button - on an entirely different set of controls on the other side of the lift ! With a smooth motion the lift doors slid shut and we ascended without further delay. I can only assume that this was one of Tharg's tests and if we had not been saved by the other Squaxx Dek Thargo, the floor would have opened up and we would have been dismembered courtesy of Mek-Quake.
Winding our way through the deceptively large insides of the hotel and following the signs down several sets of escalators, we came to the registration hall and the actual process of giving our names and receiving a goody bag and red wrist band was entirely painless. We had to be on our best behaviour though, as when we joined the already lengthy queue waiting to enter the event at 10.00 am, a Judge straight out of the Karl Urban "Dredd" movie was patrolling up and down the line with a severe look on his face.
Eventually the hour was upon us and we were lead to the door of the main hall itself - wrist bands duly checked while overseen by a blue skinned genetic infantryman - and then we were in!
One small thing to note before we go any further. It was such a busy day and I was so caught up in the whole atmosphere that I neglected to take very many photographs. So some of the images below are my own but others are ones I have borrowed for the purposes of illustration. I acknowledge the copyright of the original photographers bur finding who they are has been difficult. At the very least I will mark out those which I did not take myself.
The entrance to the festival (not my photograph)
The main auditorium was laid out with rows of tables for most of the artists / writers in attendance, so it was possible to start of the left and zig-zag your way up and down the rows to see who was where, and join the appropriate queue for a signature, sketch or to buy anything they may have for sale. There was also large ("Millicom") and small ("Tir Nan Og") panel halls, an area for live art demonstrations, various Lawmasters and props from the "Dredd" movie and of course the obligatory bar.
I'm in there somewhere... (not my photograph)
I was surprised that there was only one dealers' table devoted to the graphic novel collections and just the excellent Orbital Comics selling back issues - although there were plenty of other retailers such as Planet Replicas, threeA Toys and Vice Press with their exquisite ranges of badges, figurines and prints. There were some exclusives from these guys that were in high demand. The merchandise arm might have been my thing back in the 80s when it was small (and I bought a number of T-shirts and wax candles and tiny lead figures), but now it was big business - even for a comic that didn't have the power of a Marvel or DC brand.
As I had hoped, this was a definitely a small scale "festival", nowhere near the size of something like the modern day MCM Expo's or even some of the larger UK comic conventions. At a guess I would say that there were no more than 1,000 attendees, which made it feel small and intimate, but ensured that there was a steady flow of people passed all the artists and writers tables and panels were always well attended, with most full to the brim.
Without a doubt the star of the show was Judge Dredd co-creator Carlos Ezquerra. Practically everyone wanted to meet him and the lines of people were never less than huge the whole day. Some poor fans had to queue up three different times to get to meet the great man, as just as they were approaching the table he was whisked away for a panel or an event elsewhere in the hall. I sincerely hope that someone had a ice cold compress ready for his hand at the end of the day because he was signing and sketching and drawing the entire time with barely a break. I'd met Carlos myself years ago so I thought I would let others have their turn with 2000 AD's greatest ever artist.
Carlos hard at work (not my photograph)
I'd already decided that my 'autograph book' was going to be my coveted 1985 Judge Dredd Annual (which naturally came out in August 1984). Back in the day I had attended a number of 2000 AD signings organised by Forbidden Planet (then located in their fondly-remembered store on Denmark Street). The first page of the opening Dredd story featured a Carlos image of an atomic mushroom cloud rising above a sector of Mega-City One. Above this were a number of signatures I had obtained at the signing - Alan Moore, John Wagner, Kevin O'Neill and Brian Bolland. The intent was to add as many key scrawls as possible to this hall of heroes, time and panels allowing.
The "old school" creators from the early days were obviously high on the list but there were people from all eras of the comics history in attendance. There were actually almost too many people to get round in the time available. At the start with the first rush of enthusiasm some of the queues were long and it was enough to marvel at the original artwork they had on display or for sale, or watch in awe as they did a personal sketch or full commission for another fan. With others it turned out to be easier to be able to pause for a while and chat, especially as the day wore on and the crowds reduced somewhat. I'll come back to this in a bit...
I did have one other book with me for signing - a copy of the recent collection of "Monster" from the pages of "Scream" comic by Moore, Wagner and Spanish artist Jesus Redondo Roman, who had long been a favorite of mine from the first golden age of 2000 AD, His work on "Mind Wars" in Starlord and "Return To Armageddon" and "Nemesis The Warlock Book Two" for 2000 AD (amongst many, many other pieces) was distinctive and very memorable. After the first walk around all the areas in the hall and deciding with Al which panels we most wanted to attend, I made a bee-line for Redondo's table. Now in his 80s he still has a real fire in his eyes and I happily watched as he did sketches for those ahead of me in the queue with just a few quick strokes of his marker pens until it was my turn. "Just a signature" I stammered, slightly in awe of this real legend of European comics (and being the first creator I met that day). With a smile, he asked me my name and...well you can see the result below:
A prized signature from a comics legend (my photograph obviously)
As Al and I circuited the main hall, two things became very clear - a) there was a *lot* of original art on display and most of it was for sale; and b) just about very artist was happy to do a quick sketch or a more detailed piece for a small fee. I'd long harboured an ambition to own some original artwork, but most of it continued to be well outside my meagre budget. (I do have one cherished page by John Ridgeway from his 1980s Epic series "The Bozz Chronicles", but that was a birthday gift). I would never be able to justify the costs of owning a Bellardinelli "Dan Dare" page for example, to either myself or more importantly my wife ! That's not to say that all pages for sale were expensive. Boo Cook for example was selling his rough design pages for £20 a time and others were in the £50 - £200 price band, but although extremely interesting to look at, nothing really grabbed my attention.
However as I walked around, I began to think that maybe an original commission was the way to go, as something to take home as a memory of this exciting day. The fees for these varied greatly from artist to artist, I guess depending on their popularity. Dave Gibbons was sketching for free and just looking for a donation to his chosen charity. Redondo was asking £25, but others were more (I think the most expensive commission price was £60).
Near the right hand end of the artists' tables we came across cartoonist extraordinaire Roger Langridge. Now I'd been a fan of Roger's work since way back in the early 90s, when he published the absurd adventures of "Art D'Ecco" and "Knuckles The Malevolent Nun" via Fantagraphics Books. He is mainly remembered in 2000 AD circles for the love-it-or-hate-it comedy serial "The Straitjacket Fits" from the early issues of volume one of the "Judge Dredd Magazine". In more recent years Roger had won wide acclaim for his work on "The Muppet Show Comic Book" and been the occasional artist (and almost permanent letterer) on the Doctor Who Magazine strip.
Like others Roger was offering to do sketches and drawings for a small fee. Amazingly his black and white sketches were priced at just £5.00 with full colour commissions at a mere £30.00 - an absolute bargain. Al decided that he was going to get a drawing of his favourite Doctor Who, Tom Baker. In just a few brief minutes Roger had drawn a perfect cartoon-like Baker - google eyes, wide toothy grin, the shock of curly hair - it was just brilliant. Al and I were astonished at his skill. For those wondering, I'm not going to reproduce the sketch here as Al has included it on his blog, alongside his own fascinating, cathartic and frankly moving tribute to the weekend's events and a lifetime of comics reading. You can be stunned at the power of his prose here. I know I was.
As we walked away from the table and Al put his precious piece of art in his bag, an idea started to form in my head. If I was going to get something, I didn't want it necessarily to be a drawing of a character that the artist had illustrated a thousand times. I needed it to be something different. Something special. Something no-one else would have. I mulled the idea over as we went to the first panel - "The Originals", featuring Dave Gibbons, Mick McMahon, Alan Grant and Cam Kennedy.
Left to right - Gibbons, Grant, McMahon and Kennedy (a snippet from the video)
At the end of a fun and wide ranging panel we did another circuit of the main hall and once again found ourselves at Roger Langridge's table. Having seen what wonderful things he could do with just five or ten minutes I decided that this was it - Roger was my man. I plonked down my £30 and asked if he could create a full colour commission for me. "Sure" he said "What would you like?".
"Could you do Strontium Dog as a Muppet" I asked. Roger grinned up at me. "No problem. Come back in about an hour or so". We'll see how he got on in a few paragraphs...
Clearly my most cherished moments of the whole day were where I got to meet some of my comics heroes and was able to chat so informally to them. I'm not normally a very gregarious person, and initially I perhaps was a little self conscious just thinking about going up to someone like Cam Kennedy or John Wagner and telling them how much their work meant to me. But as the day wore on, that feeling wore off - predominately because everyone was just *so* approachable and friendly. Every single person just seemed to be happy to be there, enjoying meeting the fans and having the opportunity to talk about their work and the shared love of this classic comics institution.
Highlights? Well Glenn Fabry may look and sound like a bit like John Hurt and appear slightly daunting when you are in the queue but he was actually one of the nicest gents you could ever wish to meet, regaling us with various stories about his long and distinguished career. Matt Brooker - more commonly known as D'israeli - talked to me enthusiastically for a good ten minutes about his digital art process and how my own daughter was starting to get to grips with this technology. "Anderson Psi Division" artist David Roach was also just lovely - proudly displaying his in-progress pages from a new strip he was working on for 2000 AD and pondering with myself and a couple of other fans exactly what the consistency of the "munce" foodstuff from the Judge Dredd stories really is and why is the factory *so* close to Resyk...
I managed to catch up with former editor Steve McManus again (after meeting him just a few months earlier at the launch of his "The Mighty One" autobiography). Luckily at the time he was also joined by another ex-Tharg, Richard Burton, and I spent an extremely pleasant few minutes talking to him about the non-2000 AD reprints from the early specials and annuals (things like "Phantom Patrol" and "Rick Random") and how he personally preferred it when Carlos Ezquerra did not colour his work digitally.
Cosplay has become a large part of comic conventions in recent years and the 2000 AD festival was no exception. Beyond the plethora of Mega-City One judges patrolling the corridors - from the comic and the movies - and the aforementioned Nu-Earth GI, there was some real innovation and amazing hard work that went into the various costumes being worn. A Cal-Hab Judge complete with kilt. Dredd's informer, Max Normal the Pinstripe Freak (although I'd always considered him to have a black pinstripe suit not blue...). Vampire Strontium Dog Durham Red. Zenith. There was even a gent who walked round the entire day with a three foot high Hewligan's Haircut. It was a real treat for the eyes. I'm not quite sure why Rorschach or Deadpool were there though...
My favourites were the more complex costumes. An excellent Judge Death, two ABC Warriors - Hammerstein and Blackblood - and lastly one brave soul who painted himself white, walked around mostly naked and wore huge horns and wings to carry off a performance as Satan from the "Anderson Psi Division" story of the same name, as illustrated by Arthur Ranson. That takes real dedication.
Judge Death poses for his fans (I took this one)
(Hammerstein and Blackblood relax in the bar (I took this too)
After a spot of lunch, Al and I hung around the live drawing area until the main panel room opened to allow attendees to grab a seat for the "The Lawmasters" featuring John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra. This was jam packed as you would imagine and was made more interesting by Mr Ezquerra's penchant for waving the microphone around as he talked, meaning we could only clearly hear half the conversation!
At this point we decided to go in different directions, and I stepped up my mission to get lots of signatures on the opening page in my 1985 Judge Dredd Annual. When D'sraeli looked at the first few names from that original signing back in 1984, he looked slightly worried. "Are you sure you want me to deface something so special?" he said. Needless to say I gave him the go ahead. Dashing around the hall I flitted from table to table and suddenly noticed in the programme that Carlos was due to move from 'artists alley' to a '2000 AD Nerve Centre' signing along with four other creators. Unable to resist I joined the queue with just a few people in front of me and got him to sign right down the middle of the mushroom cloud. "This was a good story" he said as he flipped through the pages.
As time wore on and we approached 6.30pm, some queues started to get longer again as writers and artists began to think about packing up for the day. I craftily slipped Al the annual as he was already in the Pat Mills queue, which saved me a lot of time. It was the last one I really wanted that day, and for now at least, the 'scrawl wall' was complete:
Returning the favour I saved Al a space in the lengthening queue for the final event of the day (at least for us) - an advance screening of "Search / Destroy: A Strontium Dog Fan Film". We knew this was going to be immensely popular, so needed to ensure we got a good seat. Speaking of "Strontium Dog", how had Roger Langridge managed with my special commission piece? Let's wind time back a couple of hours to when I had returned to his table...
Roger was just finishing off the colouring. As I approached he looked up and recognised me. Turning the page around he displayed the completed work and...well see for yourself - it's absolutely bloody superb...
Strontium Frog! How marvellously obvious! I couldn't have been happier. "That was really fun to do" said Roger, as I gingerly took the drawing from him. I shook his hand and thanked him profusely, walking away with a huge smile on my face. This had turned into a really great day...
Back to the queue for the fan film, and excitement was building. We'd all seen the props and stills and promo posters. The young lady dressed as Durham Red. Could it possibly be as good as the creators previous film "Judge Minty"? We duly filed into the room and took our seats. Recruitment posters peppered the stage and a lectern stood waiting for someone to give an introductory speech. But who was that coming from the back of the room?...
Rather than the films director or main stars - who stayed sitting in the front row - we got Harvey, commander of the Galactic Crime Commission headquarters known as "The Doghouse". He was there to give us a bit of a pep talk (of sorts) since the GCC had to meet their "diversity targets" and were considering letting a few norms into the freak-show that was the Search / Destroy Agency (terms and conditions may apply). Stalking off stage Harvey uttered "Roll this rubbish...".
"Search / Destroy" was clearly made by fans who just "get" it - the love for the characters and the world of "Strontium Dog" shone through from every frame. The casting was spot on (I can't imagine anyone else but Kevin Horsham playing Wulf now) and the CGI was frankly amazing considering the minuscule budget they must have been working with. The land craft were right. The guns were right. The look and sound effects and costumes were right. This is how you make something faithful to a comics property.
The Western influences of the original strip were played up as well, with several scenes in dry dusty environments, guns twitching as villains posed in a stand-off against Johnny Alpha and his Viking partner. Alpha was always Clint Eastwood in a Spaghetti Western with added glowing eyes and mutant abilities - a man of few words - his 'Electronux' doing most of the talking. That mystique was continued here.
The story was perhaps a tad slight, but given that the creators only had 20-odd minutes to play with that's to be expected to a certain extent. It's a lengthy showcase for the talent involved and a taste of what could be, given the right financing. I really need to watch it again to appreciate the full effort involved. I'd love to see more. Hell I *demand* to see more!
With the show over, that was the end of our very long day. Yes it's true that there was still a screening of the "Future Shock" documentary to go, but both Al and I had seen it before and the "extended" version will be out on Blu-ray later this year anyway. We were tired and it was time to go home. Like battle-weary troopers, we joined the crowds filing out of the hotel complex and into the darkened streets of Hammersmith. All in all it had been a brilliant, brilliant day. Relaxed, uncrowded, just the right number of panels with everyone in fine form and there to enjoy themselves and celebrate the 40th birthday of the Galaxy's Greatest comic. Could it have been any better?
Well, if I have any issues at all with the whole setup, they were only minuscule ones. The live drawing panels were really interesting but could have done with being in a more dimly lit area so that attendees could see the screen better. For the couple of panels I did attend, I thought the interviewers were quite poor and seemed ill-prepared, mis-informed or brought their own agenda to the table (since when has 2000 AD been "a gateway to satire magazines like "Private Eye" ?!) To be fair I've since seen video of the panels hosted by PR droid Michael Molcher and as you would imagine, those were managed much more professionally.
It's also a shame that I missed out on meeting a few creators because they did not have tables in the main 'artists alley' area and were only doing signings / sketches in the 'Nerve Centre' area. Meeting a talent such as Arthur Ranson would have been incredible, but he was only signing for one brief period across the whole day. As I said though, these are minor gripes - and that second one is probably more to do with my own poor reading of the schedule and shoddy time management.
Oh and one final thing - if you are reading this Rebellion, don't leave it another ten years before the next one !
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