Lawless 2025: Kiss My Axe Panel With Simon Bisley And Glenn Fabry

With both Simon Bisley and Glenn Fabry recognised by many as two quinessential artists on Sláine (alongside Mick McMahon, of course) the two friends and collegaues did not take long to warm up and while there was a good amount of discussion on Sláine, there were many fun stories to share with the audience too.

Starting off the panel, Bisley discussed how Fabry’s Sláine was “unbelievably good, astonishing.” So, Bisley decided to compete he would paint his Sláine to differentiate from Fabry.

One of the reasons it was so was popular, they both decided, was because it was one of the few colour strips in the comic. Bisley feels, looking back at his Sláine, it would be a good strip to look at to learn how to paint. He experimented a lot on it and threw in varied artist influnecs at times too. Once Bisley used car paint by accident while painting his bike and spilt some on his art. And worked it into his style. He tended to use a lot of spray paint to set out base colours as well as highlights. 

While many artists back in teh ’80s had to post their pages in, Fabry lived nearby, and close to the famous Sheperton Studios, so he was able to simply pass his pages on to the 2000 AD offices. The upside to living by such famous film studios meant he has given both Mel Gibson and Keith Moon (the latter with two girls in “just fur coats and nothing else” ) directions to Sheperton Studios. “Two weeks later, Keith Moon was dead, ” Fabry added.

We also learnt that The Simpsons‘ creator Matt Groening based Comic Book Guy on the owner of Dark They Were and Golden Eye –  a famous UK comic shop from way back –  because he used to live in London.

Long hours didn’t always mean you could always hit deadlines. Once Bisley lied to buy himself time, and then couldn’t find the script. So, he had to come clean to Tharg.

One time Fabry was about to deliver pages to the 2000 AD offices but had had a few drinks. Enough that he fell out of the train and ended up in hospital. When his wife phoned up the editor – Tharg, obviously – he said it was “The worse bloody excuse I’ve ever heard.” 

Halfway through the panel and Steve Bull (from The’77) surprises Glenn and Simon with their Lawless Hall of Fame awards. One of three to be handed out over the weekend, with the third going to artist Alan Davis (Captain Britain).

Now… back to the panel.

Fabry continued with the time Bryan Talbot sent a copy of a character to Fabry to illustrate. Fabry was 16 at the time and was trying to ape Moebius. And as Mill was looking for “the British Moebius” Talbot passed him Fabry’s work and the rest is history. Sláine was his first 2000 AD gig. Mick McMahon was off the book because Mills, apparently, wanted a more handsome character. Jack Nicholson was an early influence, which you can certainly see. Him, and Adam Ant.

Pat Mills, as a writer, was “so available” to Simon, and would rip up books to send pages and pages of references to him for Sláine; “tons on Celtic tribe and designs.” Which he was thankful of. Both spoke of him very fondly. Not always the case with as divisive a figure as Mills is seen by some. 

And with these stories of drunken debauchery and revelations this enjoyable panel came to an end. A good strategy to the day.