Lawless 2025: Horror In Comics With Steve Austin, Dave Kendall And Aly Fell

Sunday morning and I had time for just one panel. And that was the one didcussing horror in comics with artists Steve Austin, Dave Kendall and Aly Fell.

Kendall got the ball rolling with discussing his first comic, which was a horror comic (at the age of five!), with an issue of Tales of the Zombie, illustrated by Alfredo Alcala. His dad used to read EC horror comics, which might explain why Kendall was introduced to horror at such an early age.

Fell recounted a horror strip from the ‘70s in which a drowned man gnaws his own legs off to escape the cement shoes he finds himself in. A story that stuck with him. And one also illustrated by Alcala.

Does horror effect kids? An age-old question that was bound to come up at some point. But, this is an argument that should have been put to be years ago. The answer is no. Horror is a safe place to be scared because, “You know you’re not going to get hurt,” commented Kendall. It’s escapism. A momentary thrill. Although he did follow this up with a tale of his youth when he’d read a horror novel wherein a character repels a vampire with hairspray and matches. And he tried it out, nearly setting his family house on fire! 

Whether an artist or writer – or both – all agreed that you should always write, or draw, for yourself. 

And then, the panel took questions from the audience.

At one point the panel all started sharing collective memories of some of the Public Service Adverts shown on UK television in the ‘70s. Real-life horror such as being electrocuted, scarred or otherwise. When it’s real-life horror, it was agreed, that these stay with you. And they certainly did. Being a child of the seventies myself I can concur. Just take a look at the example included in this write-up.

Favourite horror comics: Austin chose Scream!, while Kendall cited Alan Moore’s Saga of the Swamp Thing. Fell followed this up with horror comics of his childhood like the aforementioned Tales of the Zombie and Scream!.

Would you rather draw contemporary horror, or a dystopian future? For Austin, he feels contemporary settings are more fearful to readers as it’s more relatable. Kendall loves the bizarre environments of dystopian horror/sci-fi. Such as his work on Deadworld for 2000 AD. Whatever the setting, just make sure you do your research, for Kendall’s work on Deadworld he found himself looking a a lot of war photography to inspire the dreary landscapes of Deadworld. That and Russian Brutalist architecture. After all, no matter how fantastical, the reader still needs a frame of reference to suspend disbelief.

The panel wound down with a warning about AI now being so prevalent when you do research online, you can’t be too sure what you’re looking at is legitimate. With Kendall commenting that he now uses a lot more books again to look up reference material. A sage bit of advice to end the panel on. And end my visit to this year’s Lawless con. Another great weekend with laid back, friendly panels and great guests.