Category: Judge Dredd

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The Helltrekkers


By John Wagner, Alan Grant, Horacio Lalia, Jose Ortiz & various (Rebellion)
ISBN: 978-1786187963 (Rebellion 2000 AD)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

This book also includes Discriminatory Content included for comedic and dramatic effect.

Britain’s last great comic icon has been described as a combination of the other two, merging the futuristic milieu and thrills of Dan Dare with the shocking anarchy and irreverent absurdity of Dennis the Menace. He’s also well on the way to becoming the longest-lasting adventure character in our admittedly meagre comics pantheon, having been continually published every week since February 1977 when he first appeared in the second weekly issue of science-fiction anthology 2000AD. As such, he’s also spawned a rich world where other stars have been born and thrived…

Judge Dredd and the ever-expanding, ultra-dystopian environs of Mega-City One were devised by a creative committee including Pat Mills, Kelvin Gosnell, Carlos Ezquerra, Mike McMahon and many others, with the major contribution coming from legendary writer John Wagner, who has written the largest portion of the canon under his own and via several pseudonymous names.

In a 22nd century America, Joe Dredd is a fanatically dedicated sentinel of the super-city, where hundreds of millions of citizens idle away their days stacked like artificial cordwood in a world where robots are cheaper and more efficient than humans and jobs are both beloved pastime and treasured commodity. Boredom has reached epidemic proportions and every citizen is just one askance glance away from meltdown or blow-up. Judges are peacekeepers maintaining – actually enforcing – order and passivity at all costs: investigating, taking action and trying all crimes and disturbances to the hard-won equilibrium of the constantly boiling melting pot.

Justice is always immediate. They are necessary fascists in a world permanently teetering on the edge of catastrophe, and sadly, what far too many readers never realised is that the entire milieu is a gigantic satirical black comedy with oodles of outrageous, vicariously cathartic action. Just keep telling yourself, some situations demand drastic solutions. It’s what all politicians and world leaders do…

As hometowns go, Mega-City One does not generally engender fond feelings or happy memories, but thankfully does lend itself to all manner of stories from supernatural thrillers to cop procedurals to savagely satirical social broadsides. It’s a place where any kind of tale is begging to be told. Thus John Wagner, Alan Grant & Horacio Lalia’s Helltrekkers – a no-nonsense sci fi thriller B-feature masquerading as a future western and the first serial spin-off from the burgeoning Dredd universe (Dreddiverse?) to not focus on Judges and perps but rather the pitiful proles they pacify and push around. This tome collects the strips from 2000 AD progs 387-415. and was popular enough in its day to win a rotating spot in the comic’s coveted colour section, meaning alternating monochrome and technicolour moments of mirth and madness.

The ancillary feature was written by Alan Grant with regular writing partner John Wagner, co-scribing the voyage as enigmatic “F. Martin Candor” and visually kicked off by fantasy stalwart José Ortiz before Horacio Lalia waded in to illustrate the majority of episodes from the second onwards. This collection offers a note of gloriously gory circularity to proceedings, by closing with a brace of full colour Ortiz “Star Scan” recap features as seen in Progs #387-388 as well as a Lalia cover gallery…

José Ortiz Moya’s 60 plus year career began after he won a contest in Spanish magazine Chicos. During the 1950s, he worked on many digest strips for Editorial Maga, including Capitan Don Nadie, Pantera Negra and Jungla. Agency work saw him produce several strips for foreign publishers, particularly Britain where he illustrated Caroline Barker, Barrister at Law for The Daily Express, Smokeman and UFO Agent for Eagle magazine and The Phantom Viking in anthological top seller Lion. During the 1970s & 1980s Ortiz worked on several popular British strips including The Tower King and House of Daemon for the new Eagle, Rogue Trooper and Judge Dredd for 2000 AD and The Thirteenth Floor for Scream! This last was another stunning horror-show Ortiz co-created with Wagner & Grant.

Whilst doing all of this work on UK kid’s comics, in the US Ortiz was also working on – and is arguably best known – for illustrating stories for Warren’s horror titles, especially Eerie and Vampirella.

Born January 28th 1941, Horacio Nestor Lalia made his first professional sale in 1964 to Hora Cero, and began an association with publisher Columba a year later. After assisting Argentinian comics stars Eugenio Zoppi (Mysterix, Zig Zag, Lord Cochrane) and Alberto Breccia (The Eternaut, Ernie Pike, Sherlock Time, Mort Cinder) in 1966 Lalia started agency work for the Solano Lopez studios on strips for the UK market: generally war stories released by Fleetway. He moved on in 1968, but returned to British comics in the late 1970s, mostly Future Shock stories in 2000 AD.

In 1975 Lalia became a main illustrator for publisher Record but continued working in UK comics and elsewhere. This included for Eura in Italy, Spain’s Norma, Bastei in Germany and France’s Albin Michel whilst simultaneously contributing to Argentinian daily La Razón and Spanish publishing house Bruguera.

So as if Judges, mutants and dinosaurs aren’t enough for you, what’s this all about?

Fed up with their appalling lives in Mega-City One, a doughty band of bold pioneering families – each with their own sordid baggage and backstories – opt to escape civilisation’s dubious security and cross the “Cursed Earth” in heavily-armoured mobile homes in search of a better life and (possibly) less lethal promised land…

Led by – and unfolding via the narrated records of – Trekkmaster Lucas Rudd and assorted survivors, the tale opens with Ortiz draughting the dawn departure of 28 Radwagons carrying 111 former citizens from the city’s West Gate 13. Ignoring Judge advice, the doomed hopefuls are ready to voyage 2000 kilometres to the highly speculative – if perhaps fully fictional – “New Territories”.

Reasons for departure range from painful to tragic. The Glemps want somewhere to raise their mutant baby free from shame, whilst hillbilly criminal clan the Nebbs are getting out before the Judges finally get something actionable on them. The mutual goal lies across a nuke-ravaged, devasted radiation desert left after the war that ended civilisation. Somehow this trackless wasteland can still support life – as represented by mutant enclaves and would-be messiahs, bandit camps, fugitives from Judge justice, hermit hideaways, and the detritus of abandoned science projects. They include resurrected and reconditioned dinosaurs and other abandoned megafauna who have carried on evolving, plus all manner of fresh and interesting lifeforms and monsters guaranteed to keep the Helltrekking lively and never dull…

Veteran guide Banjo Quint rides with the Rudds – Lucas, his wife Amber and son Bud – in the lead wagon, seeking to ride roughshod on the most mismatched, unsuitable and unlikely re-settlers he’s ever seen. Unprepared idiots addicted to a dream, the waggoners are uniformly menaces to themselves and others: a perfect snapshot of why humanity is doomed. That’s confirmed on day one on reaching abandoned theme park Sauron Valley to learn that resurrected dinosaurs are magnificent and tasty. A little later their knowledge expands further as they discover T-Rexes bear grudges, hunt in packs and will stalk prey for thousands of klicks just to get more of that choice, yummy human flavour…

Family units like the Turtles, Lovejoys, Diefenakers, Jumbys, Clampeets, Zapoteks, and Koosh merge but seldom mix, and don’t associate with single seekers like utterly unprepared Mo-Pad hobbyist Rollo Peterson or proper weirdoes like circus family the Hubbles or the hippie Guppy Commune… at least outside of the increasingly common sunset mass-buryings. The Nebbs in Wagon 17 are really a menace to others and seemingly regard their fellow pioneers as an expendable emergency resource. Their selfish wayward antics cause as many fatalities as “natural” Cursed Earth threats like dino herds, radiological diseases such as Black Scab, radioactive smog, sucking patches of quick-quag, flesh-melting acid rainstorms, predatory “mutie” tribes and fugitive criminals from the Mega cities…

It’s no wonder Quint doesn’t make it far past St Louis. The halfway point, it’s only seen by 72 trekkers and as the quest stubbornly continues, that death toll inexorably mounts…

Crafted during the bleakest moments of the last third of the Cold War and unswervingly based on classic western prairie wagon train tales, albeit amped to a mordantly dark and satirically trenchant high point, the grimly attritional saga of the Helltrekkers and its frankly unexpectedly upbeat conclusion is a pure piece of politicized polemic as cathartic entertainment: subversively hilarious, frequently deeply moving and rendered with appropriately stark line and whimsical imagination.

The kind of tale that made 2000 AD such a reliably revolutionary read and anarchically rebellious outpost of dissident counter culture, this complete collection comes with a chilling realisation that maybe those days aren’t over yet…
© 1984, 1985, 2022 & 2023 Rebellion 2000 AD Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Judge Anderson PSI Files volume 01


By Alan Grant, John Wagner, Brett Ewins, Cliff Robinson, Robin Smith, Barry Kitson, Jeff Anderson, Will Simpson, Mark Farmer, Mick Austin, David A. Roach, Arthur Ranson, Carlos Ezquerra, Kim Raymond & various (Rebellion)
ISBN: 978-1-90673-522-7 (TPB/Digital Edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

A wellspring of spin-off creativity, Britain’s last great comic icon can be described as a combination of the other two, combining the futuristic milieu and thrills of Dan Dare with the terrifying anarchy and irreverent absurdity of Dennis the Menace. He’s also well on the way to becoming the longest-lasting adventure character in our admittedly meagre comics stable, having been continually published every week since February 1977 when he first appeared in the second issue of science-fiction anthology 2000AD. As such he’s also spawned a rich world where other stars have been born and thrived…

Judge Dredd and the ultra-dystopian environs of Mega-City One were created by a creative committee including Pat Mills, Kelvin Gosnell, Carlos Ezquerra, Mike McMahon and others, with the majority contribution coming from legendary writer John Wagner, who has written the largest portion of the canon under his own and several pseudonymous names.

Joe Dredd is a fanatically dedicated Judge in the super-city, where hundreds of millions of citizens idle away their days in a world where robots are cheaper and usually more efficient than humans. Jobs are both beloved pastime and treasured commodity and boredom has reached epidemic proportions. Almost everybody is just one askance glance away from mental meltdown. Judges are pot-watching peacekeepers who maintain order at all costs in a vast bubbling cauldron: investigating, taking action and trying all crimes and disturbances to the hard-won equilibrium of the constantly boiling melting pot. Justice is always immediate…

They are necessary fascists in a world permanently on the edge of catastrophe, and sadly, what far too many readers never realised is that the entire milieu is a gigantic satirical black comedy with oodles of outrageous, vicarious cathartic action. Just keep telling yourself, some situations demand drastic solutions…

In 1980 and Progs (that’s tomorrow-talk for issue number) #149-151 – January 26th-February 9th – with continuity and scenario firmly established, Wagner, writing as John Howard, introduced Judge Death: an undead lawman from an alternate Earth, whose Judges, faced with the same interminable problems as our world, took their creed to its only logical conclusion. If all crime is perpetrated by the living, then to eradicate crime…

After ending all life in his own dimension, the ghostly ghoul extended his mission to ours, wiping out criminals and law-abiding citizens alike, with the Judges – even Dredd – unable to stop him… until the flamboyant and unconventional psychic recruit Judge Cassandra Anderson of PSI Division sacrificed herself to trap the evil spirit forever…

With Wagner clearly on a creative roll, the fans spoke long and loud. Both the Zombie Peacemaker and Anderson returned within a year. Credited to T.B. Grover (still Wagner in Progs #224-228/August 8th to September 5th 1981), ‘Judge Death Lives’ saw a desperate citizen releasing the horror from his eternal tomb at the behest of three more expired Judges: Mortis, Fire and Fear.

Reunited with their leader the Dark Judges went about their lawful occasions, executing vast numbers of Mega-City citizens. It took a trans-dimensional trip to their origin realm – “Deadworld” – before Dredd & Anderson could stop the slayers; and even then, only temporarily. Those magnificent yarns appear often in other collections, and I’ll surely revisit them again soon, but the most important aspect of all that is how both Anderson and Death went on to their own series… which brings us to here, because this book is not about Joe Dredd but rather what can bloom in his honking, big-booted shadow…

Cassandra Anderson, as part of the Judges’ psychic/weird phenomena division is given far more leeway than her straitlaced, buttoned-down street cops colleagues. That made her own exploits far quirkier, outrageous and experimental, thereby guaranteeing her a solo series…

Spanning 1983-1990 and collecting early cases as originally seen in anthological weekly 2000AD #416-427, 468-478, 520-531, 607-609, 612-613, 614-612, 635-644, 645-647, 657-659, 669-670, 712-717 and 758-763, plus self-contained episodes from 2000AD Annual 1984 and 2000AD Sci-Fi Special 1988, the eerie off-kilter terrors begin with another outing for the ‘Four Dark Judges’ as detailed by new lead scripter Alan Grant and Wagner in Progs #416-427, with illustrators Brett Ewins, Cliff Robinson and Robin Smith tag-teaming the art. As with the majority of these yarns, veteran letterer Tom Frame made sense of it all…

The opening tale details how the essences of Death and his subordinate Judges Fear, Fire and Mortis mentally bombard the psychic peacekeeper until she breaks regs and dimension hops to their deceased dimension – “Deadworld” – to sort them out once and for all. However, they quickly overpower her consciousness and use her to unleash themselves on the puling masses of Mega-City One. With another kill-spree in full flow, suspended Anderson breaks a few more rules and finds a way to despatch one Dark Judge and force the remaining trio to retreat. She’s ready for them when they strike again and end up banished to Limbo thanks to fortitude, determination and new Judge tech. It’s the only thing that saves her from her own commanding officers…

Grant, Wagner, Ewins & Frame catered Anderson’s second solo-starring soirée (#468-478) as ‘The Possessed’ sees Anderson investigating a poltergeist at Ed Poe “hab-block” (big, Big apartment buildings) and inexorably drawn into a war with demons led by child-possessor Gargarax. Even PSI-Division’s exorcists are outgunned when Cassandra’s gifts lead her to block satanists secretly summoning the arcane entities by sacrificing relatively innocent waif Hammy Blish, and the conflict and carnage soon spread far, wide and even deep under the mass-metropolis into its appalling Undercity…

Anderson’s hunt for Gargarax ultimately leads her to its private hell and war against a host of devils, but her escape and the ensured safety of Mega-City One come at a grave cost…

The rich history of the City and Anderson’s precognitive visions fuel the next epic yarn as illustrators Barry Kitson, Jeff Anderson, Will Simpson, John Aldrich, and letterers Frame & Steve Potter join Grant & Wagner for ‘Hour of the Wolf’ (#520-531). As vague, surreal dream portents plague the rule-breaking Judge, seeking to warn her of a deadly plot, Sov-City psychic sleeper agents attempt to wreck her city, kill her and liberate the Judges’ greatest opponent – arch terrorist Orlok the Assassin of East-Meg One…

The campaign almost succeeds and costs many more lives before the mass murderer is (barely) thwarted…

Grant, Mark Farmer & Frame deliver a shorter pace-changing romp in Progs #607-609 as ‘Contact’ sees Anderson sent to the far end of the solar system to scope out a strange alien ship that has ignored all other forms of communication or investigative scanning. Good call too, as what she finds are liars and deeply predatory…

Mick Austin joins Grant & Frame across #612-613 as ‘Beyond the Void’ sees Anderson despatched to handle a transcendental incident at the Mahatma Cote monastery. There she finds a Lama’s spiritual journey has taken him to the gateway of Judge Death’s cosmic cell, and must act accordingly. David A. Roach then assumes control of the vision-making for Grant as ‘Helios’ (#614-622) sees her and occasional partner Judge Corey on the trail of a long-dead, vengeance-crazed killer using mind-control and surgical alteration to carry out his schedule of slaughter.  Grant, Austin & Gordon Robson then sort out a solo saga in 2000AD Sci-Fi Special 1988. ‘Judge Corey: Leviathan’s Farewell’ finds the empath chasing ruthless sugar smugglers to the toxin-blighted coastal shores, only to have a deep encounter with something old, uncanny and irresistibly tragic…

Arthur Ranson illustrates Grant’s next extended storyline as ‘Triad’ (#635-644) reveals the true nature of an ethereal serial killer with a penchant for baroque monsters and Fortean events hunting in Mega-City One. The connection to an abused boy is not clear at first but as more bodies spectacularly drop, Anderson’s visions become clearer and much more insistent and soon the hand of an old enemy can be seen.

An unhealthy obsession with robots grips a unique spree killer in ‘The Prophet’ (#645-647 by Grant, Roach & Potter) whilst #657-659’s ‘The Random Man’ – illustrated by Carlos Ezquerra – sees Anderson in pursuit of a sex-&-gambling-obsessed perp in the throes of transition, before Roach returns to limn #669-670’s ‘The Screaming Skull’: a deviously twisted macabre mystery of ghosts, assassins and the world’s oldest motive for murder…

One last extended epic brings the psionic shenanigans to a close as Grant, Roach and Potter take two bites of the cherry (Progs #712-717 and 758-763) to explore the meaning of ‘Engram’ in a Shakespearean saga of Cursed Earth witches, a child of destiny and Anderson in hot pursuit of pyrokinetic mass murderer Verona Rom. One threat ended, a bigger one emerges and the Judge-out-of-water must contend with a ghostly stalker only she can see, not-so-slowly driving her insane. After mounting bouts of madness Anderson is sectioned to an Iso-Cube, whilst her colleagues and superiors dig deep to find what really happened in the Cursed Earth, leading to staggering revelations of her own childhood, a game changing reunion with the witches in the scarred wastelands and rebirth of intent in Mega-City One…

To Be Continued…

Rounding out this initial monochrome compendium is ‘Bonus Strip: The Haunting’ by Grant, Kim Raymond & Tony Jacob from 2000AD Annual 1984 with the Judge battling demonic usurper Dahak for the mind and soul of impulsive scholar Dr Levin who should have kept his hands off the treasures of the Mega-City One Museum of Antiquities…

Supplemented by Ewins’ cover for 2000 AD Prog #468, and biographies of the ‘Writers’ and ‘Artists’ involved, these groundbreaking tales are amongst the very best action adventures Apocalypse-obsessed, dystopia driven Britain has ever produced, neatly balancing paranoia with gallows humour and innate anarchic disrespect for authority (any authority) with pulse-pounding thrills, spills and chills.

This is sheer addictive nostalgia for my generation, but the stories hold up against anything made for today’s marketplace. Buy it for the kids or keep it for yourself; this cheap-&cheerful tome is glorious, funny challenging and beautifully realised… and steel yourself for even better yet to come…
© 1983, 1985,1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990 & 2012 Rebellion A/S. All rights reserved.

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Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 01 – 10th Anniversary Edition


By John Wagner, Pat Mills, Kelvin Gosnell, Peter Harris, Malcolm Shaw, Charles Herring, Gerry Finlay-Day, Robert Flynn, Joe Collins, Carlos Ezquerra, Mike McMahon, Ian Gibson, Massimo Belardinelli, Ron Turner, John Cooper, Bill Ward, Brian Bolland & various (Rebellion/REBCA)
ISBN: 978-1-78108-332-1 (HB/Digital edition)

Britain’s last great comic icon can be described as a combination of the other two, combining the futuristic milieu and thrills of Dan Dare with the terrifying anarchy and irreverent absurdity of Dennis the Menace. He’s the longest-lasting adventure character in our rather meagre comics stable, having been continually published every week since February 1977 when he kicked off in the second issue of science-fiction anthology 2000AD – and now that The Dandy’s gone, veterans Korky the Cat and Desperate Dan might one day be overtaken in the comedy stakes too…

However, with at least 52 2000AD episodes a year, annuals, specials, a newspaper strip (in the Daily Star and The Metro), Judge Dredd Megazine, numerous reprinted classic comics collections, some rather appalling franchised foreign comic book spin-off titles, that adds up to a phenomenal amount of material, most of which is still happily in print.

Judicial Review: Dredd and dystopian ultra-metropolis Mega-City One – originally posited as 21st century New York – were formulated by a very talented committee including Pat Mills, Kelvin Gosnell, Carlos Ezquerra, Mike McMahon and others, with major contributions from legendary writer John Wagner who has written the largest portion of the canon under his own name and several pseudonyms.

Joe Dredd is a fanatically dedicated law enforcer dubbed a Judge in the super-city, where hundreds of millions of citizens idle away their days in a world where robots are cheaper, more efficient and frequently crazier than humans, where jobs are both beloved pastime and treasured commodity. Boredom is at epidemic proportions and almost everybody is just one askance glance away from mental meltdown. Judges are peacekeepers who maintain order at all costs: investigating, taking action and trying all crimes and disturbances to the hard-won equilibrium of the constantly boiling melting pot. Justice is always immediate…

Dredd’s world is a polluted and precarious Future (In)Tense, with all key analogues for successful sci fi (as ever a social looking-glass for the times it’s created in) situated and sharply attuned to a Cold War Consumer Civilisation. The ravaged planet is split into political camps with post-nuclear holocaust America locked in a slow death-struggle with Sov Judges of the old Eastern Communist blocs. Eastern lawmen are militaristic, oppressive and totalitarian – and that’s by the US Judges’ standards – so just imagine what they’re actually like. Judges are necessary fascists in a world permanently on the edge of catastrophe, and sadly, what far too many readers never realised is the strip is a gigantic satirical black comedy with oodles of outrageous, vicarious cathartic action.

Such was not the case when the super-cop debuted in 2000AD Prog (that’s issue number to you) #2 on March 5th 1977. He was stuck at the back of the new weekly comic in a tale finally scripted – after much intensive re-hashing – by Peter Harris and illustrated by Mike McMahon & Carlos Ezquerra. The blazing, humourless, no-nonsense (there would be plenty of yes nonsense later) action extravaganza introduced a bike-riding Sentinel of Order in the cautionary tale of brutal bandit Whitey, whose savage crime spree was ended with ferocious efficiency before the thug was sentenced to Devil’s Island – a high-rise artificial plateau surrounded by the City’s constant stream of lethal, never-ending, high-speed traffic. Prog #3 saw Dredd investigate ‘The New You’ in a cunning thriller by Gosnell & McMahon wherein a crafty crook tries to escape justice by popping into his local face-changing shop, whilst #4 saw the first appearance of the outcast mutants in ‘The Brotherhood of Darkness’ (Malcolm Shaw & McMahon) as ghastly post-nuclear pariahs raid the megalopolis for slaves.

Early hints of humour began in Prog 5’s ‘Krong’ by Shaw & Ezquerra, introducing Dredd’s little-old-lady cleaner/landlady Maria, wherein deranged horror film fan/hologram salesman Kevin O’Neill – yes it’s an in-joke – unleashes a giant mechanical gorilla on the city. The issue was the first to cover-feature old Stone Face (that’s Dredd, not Kev)…

‘Frankenstein 2’ pits the Lawman against an audacious medical mastermind, hijacking citizens to keep his rich-but-aging clients in fresh, young organs, whilst #7 sees ruthless reprobate Ringo’s gang of muggers flaunting their criminality in the very shadow of ‘The Statue of Judgement’ until Dredd lowers the boom on them…

The first indications that the super-cop’s face was somehow hideously disfigured emerge in #8, as Charles Herring & Massimo Belardinelli’s ‘Antique Car Heist’ finds the Judge tracking down a murdering thief who stole an ancient petrol-burning vehicle, after which co-creator John Wagner returned in Prog 9 to begin a staggering run of tales with ‘Robots’, illustrated by veteran British science fiction artist Ron Turner. The gripping vignette was set at the Robot of the Year Show, exposing callous cruelty citizens inflicted upon their mechanical slaves as a by-product of a violent blackmail threat by a disabled maniac in a mechanical-super chair… This set the scene for an ambitious mini-saga in #10-17 as those casual injustices paved the way for ‘Robot Wars’ (alternately illustrated over the weeks by Ezquerra, Turner, McMahon & much missed arch wag Ian Gibson) wherein carpentry-robot Call-Me-Kenneth succumbs to a mecha mind meltdown to emerge as a human-hating steel Spartacus, spearheading a bloody revolution against fleshy oppressors.

The slaughter is widespread and terrible before the Judges regain control, helped in no small part by loyal, lisping Vending droid Walter the Wobot, who graduated at the conclusion to Dredd’s second live-in comedy foil…

With order restored, self-contained stories firmed up the vision of the crazed city. In Prog 18 Wagner & McMahon introduced the menace of mind-bending ‘Brainblooms’ cultivated by another little old lady/career criminal, and Gerry Finley-Day & John Cooper described the galvanising effect of a ‘Muggers Moon’ on Mega-City 1’s criminal class before Dredd demonstrated the inadvisability of being an uncooperative witness…

Wagner & McMahon then debuted Dredd’s bizarre paid informant Max Normal in #20, whose latest tip ended the profitable career of ‘The Comic Pusher’; Finley-Day & Turner turned in a workmanlike thriller as the laconic lawmaker tackles a seasoned killer with a deadly new weapon in ‘The Solar Sniper’ and Wagner & Gibson showed the draconian steps Dredd was prepared to take to bring in mutant assassin ‘Mr Buzzz’.

Prog 23 comfortably catapulted the series into all-out ironic satire mode with Finley-Day & McMahon’s ‘Smoker’s Crime’ when Dredd stalks a killer with a nicotine habit to a noxious City Smokatorium, after which Malcolm Shaw, McMahon & Ezquerra reveal the uncanny secret of ‘The Wreath Murders’ in #24. The next issue began the long tradition of spoofing TV and media fashions with Wagner & Gibson concocting lethal illegal game show ‘You Bet Your Life’ whilst #26 exposes the sordid illusory joys and dangers of the ‘Dream Palace’ (McMahon) before #27-28 offer some crucial background on the Judges themselves when Dredd visits ‘The Academy of Law’ (Wagner & Gibson) to give Cadet Judge Giant his final practical exam. Of course, for Dredd there are no half measures or easy going and the novice barely survives graduation…

With the concluding part in #28, Dredd moved to second spot in 2000AD (behind brutally jingoistic thriller Invasion) and the next issue saw Pat Mills & Gibson confront robot racism as Ku Kux Klan-analogue ‘The Neon Knights’ brutalised the reformed and broken artificial citizenry until the Juggernaut Judge krushes them.

Mills then offered tantalising hints on Dredd’s origins in ‘The Return of Rico!’ (McMahon) as a bitter criminal resurfaces after twenty years on the penal colony of Titan. The outcast wants vengeance on the Judge who had sentenced him, but from his earliest days as a fresh-faced rookie, Joe Dredd had no time for corrupt lawmen – even if one were his own clone-brother…

Whitey escapes from ‘Devil’s Island’ (Finley-Day & Gibson) in Prog 31, thanks to a cobbled-together contraption that turns off weather control, but doesn’t get far before Dredd sends him back, whilst fully automated skyscraper resort ‘Komputel’ (Robert Flynn & McMahon) becomes a multi-story murder factory that only Mega-City’s greatest Judge can counter before Wagner (as John Howard) took sole control for a series of savage, whacky escapades beginning with #33’s ‘Walter’s Secret Job’ (art by Gibson). Here the besotted droid is discovered moonlighting as a cabbie to buy “pwesents” for his beloved master…

McMahon & Gibson illustrated 2-parter ‘Mutie the Pig’: a flamboyant criminal and bent Judge, and perform the same tag-team effort on ‘The Troggies’, a debased colony of ancient humans living under the city and preying on the unwary…

Something of a bogie man for wayward kids and exhausted parents, Dredd does himself no favours in Prog 38 bursting in on ‘Billy Jones’ (Gibson) and exposing a vast espionage plot utilising toys as surveillance tools. On tackling ‘The Ape Gang’ in #39 (19th November 1977 by McMahon), the Judge graduated to lead spot whilst quashing a turf war between augmented, educated, criminal anthropoids in the unruly district dubbed “the Jungle”…

‘The Mega-City 5000’ was an illegal, murderously bloody street race the Judges were determined to shut down, but the gripping action-illustration of the Bill Ward drawn first chapter is sadly overshadowed by hyper-realist rising star Brian Bolland, who began his legendary association with Dredd by concluding the mini-epic in blistering, captivating style in Prog 41. Bolland, by his own admission, was an uncommercially slow artist and much of his later Dredd work would appear as weekly portions of large epics with others handling intervening episodes, giving him time to complete his own assignments with a minimum of pressure.

From out of nowhere in a bold change of pace, Dredd is seconded to the Moon for a 6-month tour of duty beginning in #42. His brief is to oversee the nigh-lawless colony set up by the unified efforts of three US Mega-Cities there. The outpost was as bonkers as Mega-City One and a good deal less civilised – a true Final Frontier town…

The extended epic began with Wagner & Gibson’s ‘Luna-1’, with Dredd and stowaway Walter almost shot down en route in a mysterious missile attack before being targeted by a suicide-bomb robot before they can even unpack. ‘Showdown on Luna-1’ introduces permanent Deputy-Marshal Judge Tex from Texas-City, whose jaded, laissez-faire attitudes get a sound shaking up when Dredd demonstrates he’s one lawman who won’t coast for the duration of his term in office. Hitting dusty mean streets, Dredd starts cleaning up the wild boys by outdrawing a mechanical Robo-Slinger and uncovering another assassination ploy. It seems reclusive mega-billionaire ‘Mr. Moonie’ has a problem with the latest law on his lunar turf…

Whilst dispensing aggravating administrative edicts like a frustrated Solomon, Dredd chafes to hit the streets and do real work in #44’s McMahon-limned ‘Red Christmas’. Opportunity arises when arrogant axe-murderer ‘Geek Gorgon’ abducts Walter and demands a showdown he barely lives to regret, whilst ’22nd Century Futsie!’ (Gibson) finds Moonie Fabrications clerk Arthur Goodworthy cracking under the strain of overwork: going on a destructive binge, with Dredd compelled to protect a future-shocked father’s family from Moonie’s overzealous security goons. The arc concludes in Prog 46 with ‘Meet Mr. Moonie’ (Gibson) as Dredd & Walter confront the manipulative manufacturer and uncover his horrific secret.

The feature moved to the prestigious middle spot with this episode, allowing artists to really open up and exploit full-colour centre-spreads, none more so than Bolland as seen in #47’s ‘Land Race’ as Dredd officiates over a frantic scramble by colonists to secure newly opened plots of habitable territory. Of course, there’s always someone who doesn’t want to share…

Ian Gibson illustrated 2-part drama ‘The Oxygen Desert’ (#48-49), wherein veteran moon-rat Wild Butch Carmody defeats Dredd using superior knowledge of the airless wastes beyond the airtight domes. Broken, the Judge quits and slides into despondency, but all is not as it seems…

Prog 50 debuted single-page comedy supplement Walter the Wobot: Fwiend of Dwedd – but more of that later – whilst the long-suffering Justice found himself knee-boot deep in an international interplanetary crisis when ‘The First Lunar Olympics’ (Bolland) against a rival lunar colony controlled by the Machiavellian Judges of the Sov-Cities bloc escalates into assassination and a murderous, politically-fuelled land grab. The conflict was settled in ostensibly civilised manner with strictly controlled ‘War Games’, yet there’s still a grievously high body-count by the time the moon-dust settles. This vicious swipe at contemporary sport’s politicisation was and still is bloody, brutal and bitingly funny…

Bolland illustrated a sardonic saga of ruthless bandits up for a lethal laugh in #52’s ‘The Face-Change Crimes’, employing morphing tech to change their appearances and rob at will until Dredd beats them at their own game. Wagner & Gibson crafted a 4-part epic (Progs 53-56) wherein motor fanatic Dave Paton’s cybernetic, child-like pride-&-joy blows a fuse and terrorises the domed territory: slaughtering humans and infiltrating Dredd’s own quarters before the Judge finally stops ‘Elvis, The Killer Car’.

Bolland stunningly limned a savagely mordant saga of killer bandits who hijack the moon’s air before themselves falling foul of ‘The Oxygen Board’ in #57, but only managed the first two pages of 58’s ‘Full Earth Crimes’, leaving McMahon to complete the tale of regularly occurring chaos in the streets whenever the Big Blue Marble dominates the black sky above.

It was a fine and frantic note to end on as, with ‘Return to Mega-City’, Dredd rotates back Earthside and resumes business as unusual. Readers were probably baffled as to why the returned cop utterly ignored countless crime and misdemeanours, but Wagner & McMahon provide a logical answer in a brilliant, action-packed set-up for madcap dramas to come

This first Case Files chronicle nominally concludes with Wagner & McMahon’s ‘Firebug’ from Prog 60, as the ultimate lawgiver deals with a seemingly-crazed arsonist literally setting the city ablaze. The Law soon discovers a purely venal motive to the apparent madness…

There’s still a wealth of superb bonus material to enjoy before we end, however, and kicking off proceedings is the controversial First Dredd strip (illustrated by Ezquerra) which was bounced from 2000AD #1 and vigorously reworked – a fascinating glimpse of what the series might have been. It’s followed by the eawliest Walter the Wobot: Fwiend of Dwedd stwips (sowwy – can’t wesist!) from 2000AD Progs 50-58. Scripted by Joe Collins, these madcap comedy shorts were seen as antidote to the savage, brutal action strips and served to set the scene for Dredd’s later full-on satirical lampoonery. Illustrated by Gibson, ‘Tap Dancer’ dealt with an embarrassing plumbing emergency whilst ‘Shoot Pool!’ has the Wobot again taking his Judge’s instructions far too literally…

Bolland came aboard giving full rein to his own sense of the absurd with 5-parter ‘Walter’s Brother’: a bizarre tale of evil twins, cunning frame-ups and malign muggings inevitably resulting in us learning all we needed to know about the insipidly faithful, annoying rust-bucket. Dredd then had to rescue the plastic poltroon from becoming a pirate of the airwaves in ‘Radio Walter’ before the star-struck servant finds his 15 seconds of fame as winner of rigged quiz-show ‘Masterbrain’ and this big, big book concludes with a trio of Dredd covers from Progs 10, 44 and 59, courtesy of artists Ezquerra, Kev O’Neill and McMahon.

Mesmerising and beautifully limned, these punchy stories of Britain’s most successful and iconic comics character are the narrative bedrock from which all the later successes of the Mirthless Moral Myrmidon derive. More importantly, they are timeless classics no comic fan can ignore – and just for a change something that you can easily get your hungry hands on. Even my local library has copies of this masterpiece of British literature and popular culture…
© 1977, 1978, 2006 Rebellion A/S. All rights reserved. Judge Dredd & 2000AD are ® & ™ Rebellion.

Posted on

Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 01


By John Wagner, Pat Mills, Carlos Ezquerra, Ian Gibson, Mike McMahon, Brian Bolland & various (Rebellion)
ISBN: 978-1-90426-579-5

Britain’s last great comic icon could be described as a combination of the other two, combining the futuristic milieu and thrills of Dan Dare with the terrifying anarchy and irreverent absurdity of Dennis the Menace. He’s the longest-lasting adventure character in our admittedly meagre comics stable, having been continually published every week since February 1977 when he first appeared in the second issue of science-fiction anthology 2000AD – and now that The Dandy’s gone, veterans Korky the Cat and Desperate Dan might one day be overtaken in the comedy stakes too…

However, with at least 52 2000AD strips a year, annuals, specials, a newspaper strip (in the Daily Star and later The Metro), the Judge Dredd Megazine, numerous reprinted classic comics collections, some rather appalling franchised foreign comicbook spin-off titles, that adds up to a phenomenal amount of material, most of which is still happily in print.

Judicial Review: Dredd and his dystopian ultra-metropolis of Mega-City One – originally it was to be a 21st century New York – were created by a very talented committee including Pat Mills, Kelvin Gosnell, Carlos Ezquerra, Mike McMahon and others, but with the major contribution coming from legendary writer John Wagner who has written the largest portion of the canon under his own name and several pseudonyms.

Joe Dredd is a fanatically dedicated Judge in the super-city, where hundreds of millions of citizens idle away their days in a world where robots are cheaper and more efficient than humans, and jobs are both beloved pastime and treasured commodity. Boredom has reached epidemic proportions and almost everybody is just one askance glance away from mental meltdown. Judges are peacekeepers who maintain order at all costs: investigating, taking action and trying all crimes and disturbances to the hard-won equilibrium of the constantly boiling melting pot. Justice is always immediate…

Dredd’s world is a polluted and precarious Future (In)Tense with all the key analogues for successful science fiction (as ever a social looking-glass for the times it’s created in) situated and sharply attuned to a Cold War Consumer Civilisation. The planet is divided into political camps with post-nuclear holocaust America locked in a slow death-struggle with the Sov Judges of the old Eastern Communist blocs. The Eastern lawmen are militaristic, oppressive and totalitarian – and that’s by the US Judges’ standards – so just imagine what they’re actually like…

The Judges are necessary fascists in a world permanently on the edge of catastrophe, and sadly, what far too many readers never realise is that the strip is a gigantic satirical black comedy with oodles of outrageous, vicarious cathartic action.

Such was not the case when the super-cop debuted in 2000AD Prog (that’s issue number to you) #2 on March 5th 1977. He was stuck at the back of the new weekly comic in a tale finally scripted – after much intensive re-hashing – by Peter Harris and illustrated by Mike McMahon & Carlos Ezquerra.

The blazing, humourless, no-nonsense (all that would happily come later) action extravaganza introduced the bike-riding Sentinel of Order in the cautionary tale of brutal bandit Whitey, whose savage crime spree was ended with ferocious efficiency before the thug was sentenced to Devil’s Island – a high-rise artificial plateau surrounded by the City’s constant stream of lethal, never-ending, high-speed traffic…

In Prog 3 Dredd investigated ‘The New You‘ in a cunning thriller by Kelvin Gosnell & McMahon wherein a crafty crook tries to escape justice by popping into his local face-changing shop, whilst #4 saw the first appearance of the outcast mutants in ‘The Brotherhood of Darkness’ (Malcolm Shaw & McMahon) as the ghastly post-nuclear pariahs invade the megalopolis in search of slaves.

The first hints of humour began in Prog 5’s ‘Krong’ by Shaw & Ezquerra, with the introduction of Dredd’s little-old-lady Italian cleaner Maria, wherein deranged horror film fan and hologram salesman Kevin O’Neill – yes it’s an in-joke – unleashes a giant mechanical gorilla on the city. The issue was the first of many to cover-feature old Stone Face (that’s Dredd, not Kev)…

‘Frankenstein 2’ pits the Lawman against an audacious medical mastermind, hijacking citizens to keep his rich aging clients in fresh, young organs, whilst #7 sees ruthless reprobate Ringo‘s gang of muggers flaunting their criminality in the very shadow of ‘The Statue of Judgement‘ until Dredd lowers the boom on them…

The first indications that the super-cop’s face is somehow hideously disfigured emerge in #8, as Charles Herring & Massimo Belardinelli’s ‘Antique Car Heist’ finds the Judge tracking down a murderous thief who stole an ancient petrol-burning vehicle, after which co-creator John Wagner returned in Prog 9 to begin his staggering run of tales with ‘Robots’, illustrated by veteran British science fiction artist Ron Turner.

The gripping vignette was set at the Robot of the Year Show, and revealed the callous cruelty indulged in by citizens upon their mechanical slaves as a by-product of a violent blackmail threat by a disabled maniac in a mechanical-super chair… This set the scene for an ambitious mini-saga comprising #10-17.

Those casual injustices paved the way for ‘Robot Wars’ (alternately illustrated over the weeks by Ezquerra, Turner, McMahon & Ian Gibson) wherein carpenter-robot Call-Me-Kenneth succumbs to a mechanical mind meltdown and emerges as a human-hating steel Spartacus, leading a bloody revolution against the fleshy oppressors.

The slaughter is widespread and terrible before the Judges regain control, helped in no small part by loyal, lisping Vending droid Walter the Wobot, who graduated at the conclusion to Dredd’s second live-in comedy foil…

With order restored, a sequence of self-contained stories firmed up the vision of the crazed city. In Prog 18 Wagner & McMahon introduced the menace of mind-bending ‘Brainblooms’ cultivated by another little old lady (and career criminal), and Gerry Finley-Day & John Cooper described the galvanising effect of the ‘Muggers Moon’ on Mega-City 1’s criminal class before Dredd demonstrated the inadvisability of being an uncooperative witness…

Wagner & McMahon then debuted Dredd’s bizarre paid informant Max Normal in #20, whose latest tip ended the profitable career of ‘The Comic Pusher’; Finley-Day & Turner turned in a workmanlike thriller as the super-cop tackles a seasoned killer with a deadly new weapon in ‘The Solar Sniper’ and Wagner & Gibson showed the draconian steps Dredd was prepared to take to bring in mutant assassin ‘Mr Buzzz’.

Prog 23 comfortably catapulted the series into all-out ironic satire mode with Finley-Day & McMahon’s ‘Smoker’s Crime’ when Dredd stalks a killer with a bad nicotine habit to a noxious City Smokatorium, after which Malcolm Shaw, McMahon & Ezquerra reveal the uncanny secret of ‘The Wreath Murders’ in #24.

The next issue began the feature’s long tradition of spoofing TV and media fashions as Wagner & Gibson concoct a lethal illegal game show in ‘You Bet Your Life’ whilst #26 exposes the sordid illusory joys and dangers of the ‘Dream Palace’ (McMahon) before #27-28 offer some crucial background on the Judges themselves when Dredd visits ‘The Academy of Law’ (Wagner & Gibson) to give Cadet Judge Giant his final practical exam. Of course, for Dredd there are no half measures or easy going and the novice barely survives his graduation…

With the concluding part in #28, Dredd moved to second spot in 2000AD (behind brutally jingoistic thriller Invasion) and the next issue saw Pat Mills & Gibson tackle robot racism as Ku Kux Klan-analogue ‘The Neon Knights’ brutalised the reformed and broken artificial citizenry until the Juggernaut Judge krushes them…

Mills then offered tantalising hints on Dredd’s origins in ‘The Return of Rico!’ (McMahon) as a bitter criminal resurfaces after twenty years on the penal colony of Titan. The outcast is looking for vengeance upon the Judge who had sentenced him., but from his earliest days as a fresh-faced rookie, Joe Dredd had no time for corrupt lawmen – even if one were his own clone-brother…

Whitey escapes from Devil’s Island (Finley-Day & Gibson) in Prog 31, thanks to a cobbled-together contraption that turns off weather control, but doesn’t get far before Dredd sends him back, whilst the fully automated skyscraper resort ‘Komputel’ (Robert Flynn & McMahon) becomes a multi-story murder factory that only the City’s greatest Judge can counter before Wagner (using his frequent pseudonym John Howard) took sole control for a series of savage, whacky escapades beginning with #33’s ‘Walter’s Secret Job’ (Gibson).

Here the besotted droid is discovered moonlighting as a cabbie to buy pwesents for his beloved master….

McMahon & Gibson illustrated the two-part tale of ‘Mutie the Pig’: a flamboyant criminal and bent Judge, and performed the same tag-team effort for ‘The Troggies’, a debased colony of ancient humans living under the city and preying on unwary citizens…

Something of a bogie man for wayward kids and exhausted parents, Dredd does himself no favours in Prog 38 when he bursts in on ‘Billy Jones’ (Gibson) and exposes a vast espionage plot utilising toys as surveillance tools.

On tackling ‘The Ape Gang’ in #39 (19th November 1977 and drawn by McMahon), the Judge seamlessly graduated to the lead spot whilst quashing a turf war between augmented, educated, criminal anthropoids in the unruly district dubbed “the Jungle”…

‘The Mega-City 5000’ was an illegal and murderously bloody street race the assembled Judges were determined to shut down, but the gripping action-illustration of the Bill Ward drawn first chapter is sadly overshadowed by hyper-realist rising star Brian Bolland, who began his legendary association with Dredd by concluding the mini-epic in blistering, captivating style in Prog 41. Bolland, by his own admission, was an uneconomically slow artist and much of his later Dredd work would appear as weekly portions of large epics with other artists handling other episodes, to give him time to complete his own assignments with a minimum of pressure…

From out of nowhere in a bold change of pace, Dredd is then seconded to the Moon for a six-month tour of duty beginning in Prog #42. His brief is to oversee the rambunctious, nigh-lawless colony set up by the unified efforts of three US Mega-Cities there. The colony was as bonkers as Mega-City One and a good deal less civilised – a true Final Frontier town…

The extended epic began with‘Luna-1’ by Wagner & Gibson, with Dredd and stowaway Walter almost shot down en route in a mysterious missile attack before being targeted by a suicide-bomb robot before they can even unpack.

‘Showdown on Luna-1’ introduces permanent Deputy-Marshal Judge Tex from Texas-City, whose jaded, laissez-faire attitudes get a sound shaking up as Dredd demonstrates he’s one lawman who isn’t going to coast by for the duration of his term in office.

Hitting the dusty mean streets, Dredd starts cleaning up the wild boys in his town by outdrawing a mechanical Robo-Slinger and uncovering yet another assassination ploy. It seems that reclusive mega-billionaire ‘Mr. Moonie; has a problem with the latest law on his lunar turf…

Whilst dispensing aggravating administrative edicts like a frustrated Solomon, Dredd chafes to hit the streets and do some real work in #44’s McMahon-limned ‘Red Christmas’. An opportunity arises when arrogant axe-murderer ‘Geek Gorgon’ abducts Walter and demands a showdown he lives to regret, whilst ’22nd Century Futsie!’ (Gibson) finds Moonie Fabrications clerk Arthur Goodworthy cracking under the strain of over-work and going on a destructive binge, with Dredd compelled to protect the future-shocked father’s family from Moonie’s over-zealous security goons…

The plotline concludes in Prog 46 with ‘Meet Mr. Moonie’ (Gibson) as Dredd and Walter confront the manipulative manufacturer and uncover his horrific secret.

The feature moved to the prestigious middle spot with this episode, allowing the artists to really open up and exploit the comic’s full-colour centre-spreads, none more so than Bolland as seen in #47’s ‘Land Race’ as Dredd officiates over a frantic scramble by colonists to secure newly opened plots of habitable territory. Of course, there’s always someone who doesn’t want to share…

Ian Gibson then illustrated 2-part drama ‘The Oxygen Desert’ (#48-49), wherein veteran moon-rat Wild Butch Carmody defeats Dredd using his superior knowledge of the airless wastes beyond the airtight domes. Broken, the Judge quits and slides into despondency, but all is not as it seems…

Prog 50 featured the debut of single-page comedy supplement Walter the Wobot: Fwiend of Dwedd – but more of that later – whilst the long-suffering Justice found himself knee-boot-deep in an international interplanetary crisis when ‘The First Lunar Olympics’ (Bolland) against a rival lunar colony controlled by the Machiavellian Judges of the Sov-Cities bloc escalates into assassination and a murderous, politically-fuelled land grab.

The conflict was settled in ostensibly civilised manner with strictly controlled ‘War Games’, yet there is still a grievously high body-count by the time the moon-dust settles…

This vicious swipe at contemporary sport’s politicisation was and still is bloody, brutal and bitingly funny…

Bolland also illustrated the sardonic saga of ruthless bandits who were up for a lethal laugh in #52’s ‘The Face-Change Crimes’, employing morphing tech to change their appearances and rob at will until Dredd beats them at their own game.

Wagner & Gibson then craft a 4-part mini-epic (Progs 53-56) wherein motor fanatic Dave Paton‘s cybernetic, child-like pride-and-joy blows a fuse and terrorises the domed territory: slaughtering humans and even infiltrating Dredd’s own quarters before the Judge finally stops ‘Elvis, The Killer Car’.

Bolland stunningly limned a savagely mordant saga of a gang of killer bandits who hijack the moon’s air before themselves falling foul of ‘The Oxygen Board’ in #57, but only managed the first two pages of 58’s ‘Full Earth Crimes’, leaving Mike McMahon to complete the tale of regularly occurring chaos in the streets whenever the Big Blue Marble dominates the black sky above…

It was a fine and frantic note to end on as, with ‘Return to Mega-City’, Dredd rotates back Earthside and resumes business as unusual. Readers were probably baffled as to why the returned cop utterly ignored a plethora of crime and misdemeanours, but Wagner & McMahon provide the logical and perfect answer in a brilliant, action-packed set-up for the madcap dramas to come….

This first Case Files chronicle nominally concludes with Wagner & McMahon’s ‘Firebug’ from Prog 60, as the ultimate lawgiver deals with a seemingly-crazed arsonist literally setting the city ablaze. The Law soon discovers a purely venal motive to the apparent madness…

There’s still a wealth of superb bonus material to enjoy before we end this initial outing however, and kicking off proceedings is the controversial First Dredd strip (illustrated by Ezquerra) which was bounced from 2000AD #1 and vigorously reworked – a fascinating glimpse of what the series might have been.

It’s followed by the eawliest Walter the Wobot: Fwiend of Dwedd stwips (sowwy – couldn’t wesist!) from 2000AD Progs 50-58.

Scripted by Joe Collins, these madcap comedy shorts were seen as an antidote to the savage and brutal action strips in the comic and served to set the scene for Dredd’s later full-on satirical lampoonery.

‘Tap Dancer’ was illustrated by Gibson and dealt with an embarrassing plumbing emergency whilst ‘Shoot Pool!’ (Gibson) has the Wobot again taking his Judge’s instructions far too literally…

Bolland came aboard to give full rein to his own outrageous sense of the absurd with the 5-part tale of ‘Walter’s Brother’: a bizarre tale of evil twins, a cunning frame-up and malign muggings that inevitably result in us learning all we ever needed to know about the insipidly faithful and annoying rust-bucket.

Dredd then had to rescue the plastic poltroon from becoming a pirate of the airwaves in ‘Radio Walter’ before the star-struck servant finds his 15 seconds of fame as the winner of rigged quiz-show ‘Masterbrain’ before this big, big book concludes with a trio of Dredd covers from Progs 10, 44 and 59, courtesy of artists Ezquerra, Kev O’Neill and McMahon.

Always mesmerising and beautifully drawn, these short, punchy stories starring Britain’s most successful and iconic modern comics character are the constantly evolving narrative bedrock from which all the later successes of the Mirthless Moral Myrmidon derive.

More importantly, they are timeless classics no real comic fan can ignore – and just for a change something that you can easily get your hungry hands on. Even my local library has copies of this masterpiece of British literature and popular culture…
© 1977, 1978, 2006 Rebellion A/S. All rights reserved. Judge Dredd & 2000AD are ® &™

Posted on

Judge Dredd: the Complete Case Files 01


By John Wagner, Pat Mills, Carlos Ezquerra, Ian Gibson, Mike McMahon, Brian Bolland & various (Rebellion)
ISBN: 978-1-90426-579-0

Britain’s last great comic icon could be described as a combination of the other two, combining the futuristic milieu and thrills of Dan Dare with the terrifying anarchy and irreverent absurdity of Dennis the Menace. He’s also well on the way to becoming the longest-lasting adventure character in our admittedly meagre comics stable, having been continually published every week since February 1977 when he first appeared in the second issue of science-fiction anthology 2000AD – and now that the Dandy’s slated for cancellation, veterans Korky the Cat and Desperate Dan might one day be overtaken in the comedy stakes too…

However with at least 52 2000AD strips a year, annuals, specials, a newspaper strip (in the Daily Star and later The Metro), the Judge Dredd Megazine, numerous reprinted classic comics collections and even two rather appalling DC Comics spin-off titles, that adds up to a phenomenal amount of material, most of which is still happily in print.

Bolland by his own admission was an uneconomically slow artist and much of his Dredd work appeared as weekly portions of large epics with other artists handling other episodes,

Judicial Briefing: Dredd and his dystopian ultra-metropolis of Mega-City One – originally it was to be a 21st century New York – were created by a very talented committee including Pat Mills, Kelvin Gosnell, Carlos Ezquerra, Mike McMahon and others, but with the major contribution coming from legendary writer John Wagner, who has written the largest portion of the canon under his own and several pseudonyms.

Joe Dredd is a fanatically dedicated Judge in the super-city, where hundreds of millions of citizens idle away their days in a world where robots are cheaper and more efficient than humans, and jobs are both beloved pastime and treasured commodity. Boredom has reached epidemic proportions and almost everybody is just one askance glance away mental meltdown. Judges are peacekeepers who maintain order at all costs: investigating, taking action and trying all crimes and disturbances to the hard-won equilibrium of the constantly boiling melting pot. Justice is always immediate…

Dredd’s world is a polluted and precarious Future (In)Tense with all the key analogues for successful science fiction (as ever a social looking-glass for the times it’s created in) situated and sharply attuned to a Cold War Consumer Civilisation. The planet is divided into political camps with post-nuclear holocaust America locked in a slow death-struggle with the Sov Judges of the old Eastern Communist blocs. The Eastern lawmen are militaristic, oppressive and totalitarian – and that’s by the US Judges’ standards – so just imagine what they’re actually like…

They are necessary fascists in a world permanently on the edge of catastrophe, and sadly, what far too many readers never realise is that the strip is a gigantic satirical black comedy with oodles of outrageous, vicarious cathartic action.

Such was not the case when the super-cop debuted in 2000AD Prog (that’s issue number to you) #2 (March 5th 1977), stuck at the back of the new weekly comic in a tale finally scripted after much intensive re-hashing by Peter Harris and illustrated by Mike McMahon & Carlos Ezquerra.

The blazing, humourless, no-nonsense (all that would happily come later) action yarn introduced the bike-riding Sentinel of Order in the tale of brutal bandit Whitey whose savage crime spree was ended with ferocious efficiency before the thug was sentenced to Devil’s Island – a high-rise artificial plateau surrounded by the City’s constant stream of lethal, never-ending, high-speed traffic…

In Prog 3 he investigated The New You in a cunning thriller by Kelvin Gosnell & McMahon wherein a crafty crook tried to escape justice by popping into his local face-changing shop, whilst #4 saw the first appearance of the outcast mutants in The Brotherhood of Darkness (Malcolm Shaw & McMahon) when the ghastly pariahs invaded the megalopolis in search of slaves.

The first hints of humour began in Prog 5’s Krong by Shaw & Ezquerra, with the introduction of Dredd’s Italian cleaner Maria, wherein deranged horror film fan and hologram salesman Kevin O’Neill – yes it’s an in-joke – unleashed a giant mechanical gorilla on the city. The issue was the first of many to cover-feature old Stone Face…

Frankenstein 2 pitted Dredd against an audacious medical mastermind hijacking citizens to keep his rich aging clients in fresh, young organs, after which #7 saw ruthless reprobate Ringo’s gang of muggers flaunting their criminality in the very shadow of The Statue of Judgement until Dredd lowered the boom on them…

Charles Herring & Massimo Belardinelli produced the Antique Car Heist in #8, which first indicated that the super-cop’s face was hideously disfigured, when the Judge tracked down a murderous thief who stole an ancient petrol-burning vehicle, after which co-creator John Wagner returned in Prog 9 to begin his staggering run of tales with Robots, illustrated by veteran British science fiction artist Ron Turner, which set the scene for an ambitious mini-saga in #10-17. The gripping vignette was set at the Robot of the Year Show, and revealed the callous cruelty indulged in by citizens upon their mechanical slaves as a by-product of a violent blackmail threat by a disabled maniac in a mechanical-super chair…

Those casual injustices paved the way for Robot Wars (alternately illustrated over the weeks by Ezquerra, Turner, McMahon & Ian Gibson) wherein carpenter-robot Call-Me-Kenneth experienced a mechanical mind meltdown and became a human-hating steel Spartacus, leading a bloody revolution against the fleshy oppressors. The slaughter was widespread and terrible before the Judges regained control, helped in no small part by loyal, lisping Vending droid Walter the Wobot, who became at the epic’s end Dredd’s second live-in comedy foil…

With order restored a sequence of self-contained stories firmed up the vision of the crazed city. In Prog 18 Wagner & McMahon introduced the menace of mind-bending Brainblooms cultivated by a little old lady career criminal, Gerry Finley-Day & John Cooper described the galvanising effect of the Muggers Moon on Mega-City 1’s criminal class whilst Dredd demonstrated the inadvisability of being an uncooperative witness…

Wagner & McMahon introduced Dredd’s bizarre paid informant Max Normal in #20, whose latest tip ended the profitable career of The Comic Pusher, Finley-Day & Turner turned in a workmanlike thriller as the super-cop tackled a seasoned killer with a deadly new weapon in The Solar Sniper and Wagner & Gibson showed the draconian steps Dredd was prepared to take to bring in mutant assassin Mr Buzzz.

Prog 23 launched into all-out ironic satire mode with Finley-Day & McMahon’s Smoker’s Crime when Dredd trailed a killer with a bad nicotine habit to a noxious City Smokatorium, after which Malcolm Shaw, McMahon & Ezquerra revealed the uncanny secret of The Wreath Murders in #24. The next issue began the feature’s long tradition of spoofing TV and media fashions when Wagner & Gibson concocted a lethal illegal game show in You Bet Your Life whilst #26 exposed the sordid illusory joys and dangers of the Dream Palace (McMahon) and #27-28 offered some crucial background on the Judges themselves when Dredd visited The Academy of Law (Wagner & Gibson) to give Cadet Judge Giant his final practical exam. Of course for Dredd there were no half measures or easy going and the novice barely survived his graduation…

With the concluding part in #28, Dredd moved to second spot in 2000AD (behind brutally jingoistic thriller Invasion) and the next issue saw Pat Mills & Gibson tackle robot racism as Klan-analogue The Neon Knights brutalised the reformed and broken artificial citizenry until the Juggernaut Judge crushed them.

Mills then offered tantalising hints on Dredd’s origins in The Return of Rico! (McMahon) when a bitter criminal resurfaced after twenty years on the penal colony of Titan, looking for vengeance upon the Judge who had sentenced him. From his earliest days as a fresh-faced rookie, Joe Dredd had no time for corrupt lawmen – even if one were his own clone-brother…

Whitey escaped from Devil’s Island (Finley-Day & Gibson) in Prog 31, thanks to a cobbled-together device that turned off weather control, but didn’t get far before Dredd sent him back, whilst the fully automated skyscraper resort Komputel (Robert Flynn & McMahon) became a multi-story murder factory that only the City’s greatest Judge could counter before Wagner (frequently using the pseudonym John Howard) took sole control for a series of  savage whacky escapades beginning with #33’s Walter’s Secret Job (Gibson) as the besotted droid was discovered moonlighting as a cabbie to buy pwesents for his beloved master.

McMahon and Gibson illustrated the two-part tale of Mutie the Pig: a flamboyant criminal who was also a bent Judge, and performed the same tag-team effort for The Troggies, a debased colony of ancient humans living under the city and preying on unwary citizens…

Something of a bogie man for wayward kids and exhausted parents, Dredd did himself no favours in Prog 38 when he burst in on Billy Jones (Gibson) and revealed a massive espionage plot utilising toys as surveillance tools, and tackled The Ape Gang in #39 (19th November 1977 and drawn by McMahon), seamlessly graduating to the lead spot whilst shutting down a turf war between augmented, educated, criminal anthropoids in the unruly district dubbed “the Jungle”…

The Mega-City 5000 was an illegal and murderously bloody street race the Judges were determined to shut down, but the gripping action-illustration of the Bill Ward drawn first chapter was sadly overshadowed by hyper-realist rising star Brian Bolland, who began his legendary association with Dredd by concluding the mini-epic in blistering, captivating style in Prog 41.

From out of nowhere in a bold change of pace, Dredd was then seconded to the Moon for a six-month tour of duty in #42 to oversee the rambunctious, nigh-lawless colony set up by the unified efforts of three US Mega-Cities there. The place was as bonkers as Mega-City One and a good deal less civilised – a true Final Frontier town…

The extended epic began with Luna-1 by Wagner & Gibson, with Dredd and stowaway Walter almost shot down en route in a mysterious missile attack and then targeted by a suicide bomb robot before they could even unpack.

‘Showdown on Luna-1’ introduced permanent Deputy-Marshal Judge Tex from Texas-City whose jaded, laissez-faire attitudes got a good shaking up as Dredd demonstrated he was one lawman who wasn’t gong to coast by for the duration of his term in office. Hitting the dusty mean streets, Dredd began to clean up the wild boys in his town by outdrawing a mechanical Robo-Slinger and uncovering another assassination ploy. It seemed that reclusive mega-billionaire Mr. Moonie had a problem with the latest law on his lunar turf…

Whilst dispensing aggravating administrative edicts like a frustrated Solomon, Dredd chafed to hit the streets and do some real work in #44’s McMahon-limned ‘Red Christmas’. An opportunity arose when arrogant axe-murderer Geek Gorgon abducted Walter and demanded a showdown he lived to regret, whilst ’22nd Century Futsie!’ (Gibson) saw Moonie Fabrications clerk Arthur Goodworthy crack under the strain of over-work and go on a destructive binge with Dredd compelled to protect the Future-shocked father’s family from Moonie’s over-zealous security goons.

The plotline at last concluded in Prog 46 with ‘Meet Mr. Moonie’ (Gibson) as Dredd and Walter confronted the manipulative manufacturer and uncovered his horrific secret. The feature moved to the prestigious middle spot with this episode, allowing the artists to really open up and exploit the colour centre-spread, none more so than Bolland as seen in #47’s Land Race as Dredd officiated over a frantic scramble by colonists to secure newly opened plots of habitable territory. Of course there’s always someone who doesn’t want to share…

Ian Gibson then illustrated 2-part drama ‘The Oxygen Desert’ in #48-49, wherein veteran moon-rat Wild Butch Carmody defeats Dredd using his superior knowledge of the airless wastes beyond the airtight domes. Broken, the Judge quits and slides into despondency but all is not as it seems…

Prog 50 saw the debut of single-page comedy supplement Walter the Wobot: Fwiend of Dwedd – but more of that later – whilst the long-suffering Justice found himself knee-boot-deep in an international interplanetary crisis when ‘The First Lunar Olympics’ (Bolland) against a rival lunar colony controlled by the Machiavellian Judges of the Sov-Cities bloc escalated into assassination and a murderous politically-fuelled land grab. The issue was settled in ostensibly civilised manner with strictly controlled ‘War Games’ yet there was still a grievously high body-count by the time the moon-dust settled… This vicious swipe at contemporary sport’s politicisation was and still is bloody, brutal and bitingly funny…

Bolland also illustrated the sardonic saga of ruthless bandits who were up for a lethal laugh in #52’s The Face-Change Crimes, using morphing tech to change their appearances and rob at will until Dredd beat them at their own game, before Wagner & Gibson crafted a four-part mini-epic (Progs 53-56) wherein motor fanatic Dave Paton’s cybernetic, child-like pride-and-joy blew a fuse and terrorised the domed territory, slaughtering humans and even infiltrating Dredd’s own quarters before the Judge finally stopped Elvis, The Killer Car.

Bolland stunningly limned the savagely mordant saga of a gang of killer bandits who hijacked the moon’s air before themselves falling foul of The Oxygen Board in #57, but only managed the first two pages of 58’s Full Earth Crimes leaving Mike McMahon to complete the tale of regularly occurring chaos in the streets whenever the Big Blue Marble dominated the black sky above…

It was a fine and frantic note to end on as with ‘Return to Mega-City’ Dredd rotated back Earthside and business as unusual. Readers were probably baffled as to why the returned cop utterly ignored a plethora of crime and misdemeanours, but Wagner & McMahon provided the logical and perfect answer in a brilliant, action-packed set-up for the madcap dramas to come.

This first Case Files chronicle nominally concludes with Wagner & McMahon’s Firebug from Prog 60 as the ultimate lawgiver dealt with a crazed arsonist literally setting the city ablaze and discovered a venal motive to the apparent madness, but there’s still a wealth of superb bonus material to enjoy before we end this initial outing.

Kicking off proceedings and illustrated by Ezquerra is the controversial First Dredd strip which was bounced from 2000AD #1 and vigorously reworked – a fascinating glimpse of what the series might have been, followed by the first Walter the Wobot: Fwiend of Dwedd stwips (sowwy – couldn’t wesist!) from 2000AD Progs 50-58.

Scripted by Joe Collins, these madcap comedy shorts were an antidote to the savage and brutal action strips in the comic and served to set the scene for Dredd’s later full-on satirical lampoonery.

Tap Dancer was illustrated by Ian Gibson and dealt with an embarrassing plumbing emergency whilst Shoot Pool! (Gibson) saw the Wobot again taking the Judge’s instructions far too literally…

Brian Bolland came aboard to give full rein to his own outrageous sense of the absurd with the 5-part tale of Walter’s Brother, a bizarre tale of evil twins, a cunning frame-up and mugging that inevitably resulted in us learning all we ever needed to know about the insipidly faithful and annoying rust-bucket. Dredd then had to rescue the plastic poltroon from becoming a prate of the airwaves in Radio Walter before the star-struck servant found his 15 seconds of fame as the winner of rigged quiz-show Masterbrain, and this big, big book concludes with a trio of Dredd covers from Progs 10, 44 and 59, courtesy of artists Ezquerra, Kev O’Neill and McMahon.

Always mesmerising and beautifully drawn, these short punchy stories starring Britain’s most successful and iconic modern comics character are the constantly evolving narrative bedrock from which all the later successes of the Mirthless Moral Myrmidon derive. More importantly, they timeless classics that no real comic fan can ignore – and just for a change something that you can easily get your hungry hands on. Even my local library has copies of this masterpiece of British literature and popular culture…

© 1977, 1978, 2006 Rebellion A/S. All rights reserved. Judge Dredd & 2000AD are ® &™ Rebellion A/S.

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Judge Dredd Featuring Judge Death


By John Wagner & Brian Bolland (Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-84023-386-5

Britain’s last great comic icon could be described as a combination of the other two, combining the futuristic milieu and thrills of Dan Dare with the terrifying anarchy and irreverent absurdity of Dennis the Menace. He’s also well on the way to becoming the longest-lasting adventure character in our admittedly meagre comics stable, having been continually published every week since February 1977 when he first appeared in the second issue of science-fiction anthology 2000AD.

However with at least 52 2000AD strips a year, annuals, specials, a newspaper strip (in the Daily Star and later The Metro), the Judge Dredd Megazine, numerous reprinted classic comics collections and even two rather appalling DC Comics spin-off titles, that adds up to a phenomenal amount of material, most of which is still happily in print.

One of the nicest looking packages and certainly one of the most inviting for new readers is this sharply stylish black and white deluxe hardcover collection featuring some of the formative work of superstar artist Brian Bolland.

Bolland by his own admission was an uneconomically slow artist and much of his Dredd work appeared as weekly portions of large epics with other artists handling other episodes, but all the cases collected here are self-contained or short continued sagas, resulting in a wicked compendium of his best, funniest and most striking material all in one magnificent volume.

FYI: Dredd and his dystopian ultra-metropolis of Mega-City One were created by a committee including Pat Mills, Kelvin Gosnell, Carlos Ezquerra, Mike McMahon and others but with the major contribution coming from legendary writer John Wagner, who has written the largest portion of the canon under his own and several pseudonymous names.

Joe Dredd is a fanatically dedicated Judge in the super-city, where hundreds of millions of citizens idle away their days in a world where robots are cheaper and more efficient than humans and jobs are both beloved pastime and treasured commodity. Boredom has reached epidemic proportions and almost everybody is just one askance glance away mental meltdown. Judges are peacekeepers who maintain order at all costs: investigating, taking action and trying all crimes and disturbances to the hard-won equilibrium of the constantly boiling melting pot. Justice is always immediate…

They are necessary fascists in a world permanently on the edge of catastrophe, and sadly, what far too many readers never realise is that the strip is a gigantic satirical black comedy with oodles of outrageous, vicarious cathartic action.

In Prog (that’s issue number to you) 149-151 (January 26th – February 9th 1980), with the continuity firmly established Wagner, writing as John Howard, introduced ‘Judge Death’, undead lawman from an alternate Earth, where the Judges, when faced with the same problems as our world took their creed to its only logical conclusion: If all crime is perpetrated by the living then to eradicate crime…

With all life ended in his own dimension the ghostly ghoul extended his mission to ours, wiping out criminals and law-abiding citizens alike, with the Judges – even Dredd – unable to stop him until the flamboyant and unconventional psychic hottie Judge Anderson of PSI Division sacrificed herself to trap the evil spirit forever…

As if…

With Wagner clearly on a creative roll the fans spoke long and loud and thus both the Zombie Peacemaker and Anderson were returned within a year in the manic mayhem of ‘Judge Death Lives’ (credited to T.B. Grover but still Wagner really; Progs 224-228, August 8th – September 5th 1981), as a desperate citizen released the horror from his eternal tomb at the behest of three more expired Judges: Mortis, Fire and Fear.

Reunited with their leader the Dark Judges went about their duty executing all of Mega-City One and it took a trip to their home “Deadworld” before Dredd and Anderson could stop the slayers – albeit temporarily. Both Anderson and Death went on to win their own series…

For a while early on in his career, Dredd was seconded to the Moon to oversee the colony there – which was as bonkers as Mega-City One – in conjunction with Cold War enemies the Sov Judges.

From that period came ‘The First Lunar Olympics’ and ‘War Games’ (Progs 50-51, February 5th and 11th 1978) a vicious swipe at contemporary sport’s politicisation which was and still is bloody, brutal and bitingly funny, whilst ‘The Oxygen Board’ and ‘The Face-Change Crimes’ (Progs 57 & 52, March 25th and  February 18th 1978 respectively) are hilariously inventive bank-raid capers with the kind of mordant twists which elevated Dredd so far beyond all other cop and sci-fi strips.

Once rotated back Earthside it was business as unusual in ‘The Fog’ (Prog 127, August 25th 1979) a chillingly atmospheric pastiche of horror film classic House of Wax, whilst in ‘The Forever Crimes’ (Prog 120, July 7th 1979) Dredd showed that being dead was no valid reason for a perp to avoid his sentence and this spectacular chronicle ends with the glorious insane ‘Punks Rule!’ (Prog 110 April 28th 1979), an epilogue to the epic Judge Caligula story-arc, with the Judges slowly resuming control of Mega-City One after a civil war and revolution, with Dredd personally stamping out street gangs that had carved out their own little empires in the aftermath.

Beautifully drawn these are perfect short stories starring modern Britain’s most successful and iconic comic character: timeless classics that no real comic fan can ignore – and just for a change something that you can easily get your hungry hands on…
® & © 2001 Rebellion. All rights reserved.