More for the 40th birthday of the UK's greatest comic, 2000AD and the droids came out into the opening for a mini-con event in Hammersmith West London. An opportunity to be awestruck by artists who provided a big part of my growing up.
I got there a little after opening to avoid the queue so getting in was a breeze and every attendee got a little goodie bag as a welcome. Nice!
The official signing desk where the artists would take it in turns to sign memorabilia. This area always had a sizeable queue. I did buy the Chopper stories as a souvenir. He was one of my favourite Dredd characters and the Supersurf stories were great when I was growing up.
The main hall was full of artists doing more signings but also selling art and in some cases drawing sketches for those willing to queue up. I didn't queue for any but instead would just watch these guys work, which was incredible. I should apologise to Carlos Ezquerra who I watched for ever as he drew someone else an amazing Middenface McNulty (a character in the Strontium Dog story). He did look up and I apologised like some teen.
Sorry Sir!
One corner of the floor held some props from the rather excellent recent Judge Dredd movie (we don't really talk about the Stallone one)
Elsewhere there were a number of panels where the artists and people behind the comic would discuss their stories and the success of the publication.
Some fans have gotten together to make their own not-for-profit Strontium Dog short. This was great and even better they were going to show it at the end of the day. It would mean I'd have to spend longer at the event but it would have been special to see it.
A 3D printed dark judge.
Some more models. These rather excellently painted.
Some of the artists at work. It's incredible seeing the muscle memory that allows them to knock up a Dredd in no time. I can do that with Smurfs, perhaps I should try to learn something a bit cooler such as this.
The main hall was popular all day with the artists at their tables for most of the day. I hope they found meeting the fans as enjoyable as we did meeting them.
The presentation of the Strontium Dog film. It's clearly a fan film so you can't expect Hollywood effects but they've done an admirable job.
On one wall there was a selection of some of the artwork that has featured in the comic. I thought there would be a lot more but what they had was cool. I'd already seen one gallery exhibition of the art a while back and I've another planned to see some more.
There was some cos-play with Judge Death being pretty cool. Here, he's chatting to one of the guys behind the Strontium Dog film.
Two of the artists who made Slaine an incredible comic story; Glenn Fabry and Simon Bisley. Both are incredible artists and Bisley gets the nod from most fans but I grew up with Glenn's and prefer that.
One of the writers of Judge Dredd, Alan Grant.
and that was the day, an incredible event that everyone who had made the effort to go had enjoyed. Here's to another 10 years.
Oh, and I also bought a couple of special event prints which are rolled up ready to be framed.
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