I AM THE LAW: HOW JUDGE DREDD PREDICTED OUR FUTURE — out now!
It’s finally here! After almost three years of blood, sweat, tears and newsprint, my book on the ways that a British comic book predicted how ‘law and order’ politics would remake our world is out now from all good book stores, comic book stores, and online retailers — and there’s a whole host of order links at the ‘buy now’ button on this page — and thank you to everyone who’s bought a copy so far.
It’s quite something when your book has to go to reprint before it’s even come out, but thanks to my colleagues at Rebellion for pushing that through so that it won’t be out-of-stock for too long!
The response has been phenomenal and I’m really over the moon. As well as some pretty dope endorsements — including from John Wagner and The End of Policing author Alex S. Vitale — I was awed to receive an actual five-star review from SFX magazine (which feels so weird, as I remember SFX launching in the ’90s and having an almost complete collection from then until around ’96, I think).
The past couple of weeks have been something of a whirlwind and the launch at Gosh Comics on 11 February was a surreal but excellent day. Me and cover artist Pye Parr signed our way through a whole pile of books (to the point that Gosh ran out of stock!) over the course of an hour. It was a wonderful privilege to be able to celebrate this thing with everyone who turned up and I love the colours of these photos by Mauricio Molizane De Souza!
Then it was up to the place of my birth — Leeds — for a signing at the brilliant OK Comics. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, this is holy ground for me and so it was such a pleasure and an honour to return for the ‘northern launch’ of I Am The Law. Jared and the team have been such huge supporters and have sold over 100 copies so far, and there are still a few signed copies left on their site.
Then it was straight back down the M1 to the excellent Cartoon Museum, where I was interviewed by my friend, political commentator and author Ian Dunt, in front of a sold-out audience. This went by in a blur, but I’m told it went well!
The next events are coming in quick succession: Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh and Glasgow in a single week, then Newcastle the week after and Oxford at the end of April!
Considering my day job it would be weird if I wasn’t plunging into promotion duties and you can hear me holding forth on the Jack of All Graves podcast (with an … interesting diversion into Russian necro-maniacs), Multiversity Comics’ Robots From Tomorrow podcast, on the excellent The Bunker podcast to talk about politics and comics, and even — crazy as it sounds — the New Scientist podcast! I also talked to Indie Comix about how I got into the comics game in the first place. I also chatted with the legendary Andrew Sumner from Titan on Forbidden Planet TV about 12 years at Rebellion, the challenges of writing, and the importance of 2000 AD to comics…
One real highlight has been being asked to write a blogpost for Verso Books. Their books are currently making my study shelves bow — they’re a fanatstic radical publisher and I Am The Law draws heavily on books from writers such as Alex Vitale, Mark Neocleous, Stuart Hall and Dardot & Laval. So it was a privilege and an honour to have some of my words featured on their site.
So that’s the story of I Am The Law so far — plenty more to come and I’m looking forward to hopefully seeing some of you at one of the events over the coming weeks.
Thanks so much again for all the support and love, it’s meant the world to me!
