{"id":29257,"date":"2024-01-16T09:00:52","date_gmt":"2024-01-16T09:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=29257"},"modified":"2024-01-15T18:13:25","modified_gmt":"2024-01-15T18:13:25","slug":"judge-dredd-the-complete-case-files-01-10th-anniversary-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2024\/01\/16\/judge-dredd-the-complete-case-files-01-10th-anniversary-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 01 \u2013 10th<\/sup> Anniversary Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Britain\u2019s last great comic icon can be described as a combination of the other two, combining the futuristic milieu and thrills of Dan Dare <\/strong>with the terrifying anarchy and irreverent absurdity of Dennis the Menace<\/strong>. He\u2019s 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<\/strong> – and now that The Dandy\u2019s<\/strong> gone, veterans Korky the Cat<\/strong> and Desperate Dan<\/strong> might one day be overtaken in the comedy stakes too\u2026<\/p>\n

However, with at least 52 2000AD<\/strong> episodes a year, annuals, specials, a newspaper strip (in the Daily Star<\/strong> and The Metro<\/strong>), Judge Dredd Megazine, <\/strong>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.<\/p>\n

Judicial Review<\/strong>: Dredd and dystopian ultra-metropolis Mega-City One – originally posited as 21st<\/sup> 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.<\/p>\n

Joe Dredd<\/em> 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\u2026<\/p>\n

Dredd\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019s by the US Judges\u2019 standards – so just imagine what they\u2019re 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.<\/p>\n

Such was not the case when the super-cop debuted in 2000AD<\/strong> Prog (that\u2019s issue number to you) #2 on March 5th<\/sup> 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<\/em>, whose savage crime spree was ended with ferocious efficiency before the thug was sentenced to Devil\u2019s Island – a high-rise artificial plateau surrounded by the City\u2019s constant stream of lethal, never-ending, high-speed traffic. Prog #3 saw Dredd investigate \u2018The New You<\/em>\u2019<\/em> 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 \u2018The Brotherhood of Darkness\u2019 <\/em>(Malcolm Shaw & McMahon) as ghastly post-nuclear pariahs raid the megalopolis for slaves.<\/p>\n

Early hints of humour began in Prog 5\u2019s \u2018Krong\u2019 <\/em>by Shaw & Ezquerra, introducing Dredd\u2019s little-old-lady cleaner\/landlady Maria<\/em>, wherein deranged horror film fan\/hologram salesman Kevin O\u2019Neill<\/em> – yes it\u2019s an in-joke – unleashes a giant mechanical gorilla on the city. The issue was the first to cover-feature old Stone Face (that\u2019s Dredd, not Kev)\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2018Frankenstein 2\u2019<\/em> 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<\/em>\u2019s gang of muggers flaunting their criminality in the very shadow of \u2018The Statue of Judgement<\/em>\u2019<\/em> until Dredd lowers the boom on them\u2026<\/p>\n

The first indications that the super-cop\u2019s face was somehow hideously disfigured emerge in #8, as Charles Herring & Massimo Belardinelli\u2019s \u2018Antique Car Heist\u2019<\/em> 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 \u2018Robots\u2019<\/em>, 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\u2026 This set the scene for an ambitious mini-saga in #10-17 as those casual injustices paved the way for \u2018Robot Wars\u2019 <\/em>(alternately illustrated over the weeks by Ezquerra, Turner, McMahon & much missed arch wag Ian Gibson) wherein carpentry-robot Call-Me-Kenneth<\/em> succumbs to a mecha mind meltdown to emerge as a human-hating steel Spartacus, spearheading a bloody revolution against fleshy oppressors.<\/p>\n

The slaughter is widespread and terrible before the Judges regain control, helped in no small part by loyal, lisping Vending droid Walter the Wobot<\/em>, who graduated at the conclusion to Dredd\u2019s second live-in comedy foil\u2026<\/p>\n

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 \u2018Brainblooms\u2019<\/em> cultivated by another little old lady\/career criminal, and Gerry Finley-Day & John Cooper described the galvanising effect of a \u2018Muggers Moon\u2019<\/em> on Mega-City 1\u2019s criminal class before Dredd demonstrated the inadvisability of being an uncooperative witness\u2026<\/p>\n

Wagner & McMahon then debuted Dredd\u2019s bizarre paid informant Max Normal<\/em> in #20, whose latest tip ended the profitable career of \u2018The Comic Pusher\u2019<\/em>; Finley-Day & Turner turned in a workmanlike thriller as the laconic lawmaker tackles a seasoned killer with a deadly new weapon in \u2018The Solar Sniper\u2019<\/em> and Wagner & Gibson showed the draconian steps Dredd was prepared to take to bring in mutant assassin \u2018Mr Buzzz\u2019<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Prog 23 comfortably catapulted the series into all-out ironic satire mode with Finley-Day & McMahon\u2019s \u2018Smoker\u2019s Crime\u2019<\/em> 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 \u2018The Wreath Murders\u2019<\/em> in #24. The next issue began the long tradition of spoofing TV and media fashions with Wagner & Gibson concocting lethal illegal game show \u2018You Bet Your Life\u2019<\/em> whilst #26 exposes the sordid illusory joys and dangers of the \u2018Dream Palace\u2019 <\/em>(McMahon) before #27-28 offer some crucial background on the Judges themselves when Dredd visits \u2018The Academy of Law\u2019 <\/em>(Wagner & Gibson) to give Cadet Judge Giant<\/em> his final practical exam. Of course, for Dredd there are no half measures or easy going and the novice barely survives graduation\u2026<\/p>\n

With the concluding part in #28, Dredd moved to second spot in 2000AD<\/strong> (behind brutally jingoistic thriller Invasion<\/strong>) and the next issue saw Pat Mills & Gibson confront robot racism as Ku Kux Klan-analogue \u2018The Neon Knights\u2019<\/em> brutalised the reformed and broken artificial citizenry until the Juggernaut Judge krushes them.<\/p>\n

Mills then offered tantalising hints on Dredd\u2019s origins in \u2018The Return of Rico!\u2019<\/em> (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<\/em> had no time for corrupt lawmen – even if one were his own clone-brother\u2026<\/p>\n

Whitey escapes from \u2018<\/em>Devil\u2019s Island\u2019<\/em> (Finley-Day & Gibson) in Prog 31, thanks to a cobbled-together contraption that turns off weather control, but doesn\u2019t get far before Dredd sends him back, whilst fully automated skyscraper resort \u2018Komputel\u2019<\/em> (Robert Flynn & McMahon) becomes a multi-story murder factory that only Mega-City\u2019s greatest Judge can counter before Wagner (as John Howard) took sole control for a series of savage, whacky escapades beginning with #33\u2019s \u2018Walter\u2019s Secret Job\u2019<\/em> (art by Gibson). Here the besotted droid is discovered moonlighting as a cabbie to buy \u201cpwesents\u201d for his beloved master\u2026<\/p>\n

McMahon & Gibson illustrated 2-parter \u2018Mutie the Pig\u2019<\/em>: a flamboyant criminal and bent Judge, and perform the same tag-team effort on \u2018The Troggies\u2019<\/em>, a debased colony of ancient humans living under the city and preying on the unwary\u2026<\/p>\n

Something of a bogie man for wayward kids and exhausted parents, Dredd does himself no favours in Prog 38 bursting in on \u2018Billy Jones\u2019 <\/em>(Gibson) and exposing a vast espionage plot utilising toys as surveillance tools. On tackling \u2018The Ape Gang\u2019<\/em> in #39 (19th<\/sup> 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 \u201cthe Jungle\u201d\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2018The Mega-City 5000\u2019 <\/em>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.<\/p>\n

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\u2026<\/p>\n

The extended epic began with Wagner & Gibson\u2019s \u2018Luna-1\u2019<\/em>, 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. \u2018Showdown on Luna-1\u2019<\/em> introduces permanent Deputy-Marshal Judge Tex<\/em> from Texas-City, whose jaded, laissez-faire attitudes get a sound shaking up when Dredd demonstrates he\u2019s one lawman who won\u2019t 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 \u2018Mr. Moonie\u2019<\/em> has a problem with the latest law on his lunar turf\u2026<\/p>\n

Whilst dispensing aggravating administrative edicts like a frustrated Solomon, Dredd chafes to hit the streets and do real work in #44\u2019s McMahon-limned \u2018Red Christmas\u2019<\/em>. Opportunity arises when arrogant axe-murderer \u2018Geek Gorgon\u2019 <\/em>abducts Walter and demands a showdown he barely lives to regret, whilst \u201922nd Century Futsie!\u2019<\/em> (Gibson) finds Moonie Fabrications clerk Arthur Goodworthy<\/em> cracking under the strain of overwork: going on a destructive binge, with Dredd compelled to protect a future-shocked father\u2019s family from Moonie\u2019s overzealous security goons. The arc concludes in Prog 46 with \u2018Meet Mr. Moonie\u2019 <\/em>(Gibson) as Dredd & Walter confront the manipulative manufacturer and uncover his horrific secret.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s \u2018Land Race\u2019<\/em> as Dredd officiates over a frantic scramble by colonists to secure newly opened plots of habitable territory. Of course, there\u2019s always someone who doesn\u2019t want to share\u2026<\/p>\n

Ian Gibson illustrated 2-part drama \u2018The Oxygen Desert\u2019 <\/em>(#48-49), wherein veteran moon-rat Wild Butch Carmody<\/em> 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\u2026<\/p>\n

Prog 50 debuted single-page comedy supplement Walter the Wobot: Fwiend of Dwedd<\/strong> – but more of that later – whilst the long-suffering Justice found himself knee-boot deep in an international interplanetary crisis when \u2018The First Lunar Olympics\u2019<\/em> (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 \u2018War Games\u2019<\/em>, yet there\u2019s still a grievously high body-count by the time the moon-dust settles. This vicious swipe at contemporary sport\u2019s politicisation was and still is bloody, brutal and bitingly funny\u2026<\/p>\n

Bolland illustrated a sardonic saga of ruthless bandits up for a lethal laugh in #52\u2019s \u2018The Face-Change Crimes\u2019<\/em>, 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<\/em>\u2019s cybernetic, child-like pride-&-joy blows a fuse and terrorises the domed territory: slaughtering humans and infiltrating Dredd\u2019s own quarters before the Judge finally stops \u2018Elvis, The Killer Car\u2019<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Bolland stunningly limned a savagely mordant saga of killer bandits who hijack the moon\u2019s air before themselves falling foul of \u2018The Oxygen Board\u2019<\/em> in #57, but only managed the first two pages of 58\u2019s \u2018Full Earth Crimes\u2019<\/em>, leaving McMahon to complete the tale of regularly occurring chaos in the streets whenever the Big Blue Marble dominates the black sky above.<\/p>\n

It was a fine and frantic note to end on as, with \u2018Return to Mega-City\u2019<\/em>, 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<\/p>\n

This first Case Files<\/strong> chronicle nominally concludes with Wagner & McMahon\u2019s \u2018Firebug\u2019<\/em> 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\u2026<\/p>\n

There\u2019s 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<\/strong> #1 and vigorously reworked – a fascinating glimpse of what the series might have been. It\u2019s followed by the eawliest Walter the Wobot: Fwiend of Dwedd<\/em> stwips (sowwy \u2013 can\u2019t wesist!) from 2000AD <\/strong>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\u2019s later full-on satirical lampoonery. Illustrated by Gibson, \u2018Tap Dancer\u2019<\/em> dealt with an embarrassing plumbing emergency whilst \u2018Shoot Pool!\u2019<\/em> has the Wobot again taking his Judge\u2019s instructions far too literally\u2026<\/p>\n

Bolland came aboard giving full rein to his own sense of the absurd with 5-parter \u2018Walter\u2019s Brother\u2019<\/em>: 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 \u2018Radio Walter\u2019 <\/em>before the star-struck servant finds his 15 seconds of fame as winner of rigged quiz-show \u2018Masterbrain\u2019<\/em> and this big, big book concludes with a trio of Dredd covers from Progs 10, 44 and 59, courtesy of artists Ezquerra, Kev O\u2019Neill and McMahon.<\/p>\n

Mesmerising and beautifully limned, these punchy stories of Britain\u2019s 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\u2026
\n\u00a9 1977, 1978, 2006 Rebellion A\/S. All rights reserved. Judge Dredd & 2000AD are \u00ae & \u2122 Rebellion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2019s last great comic icon can be described as a combination of the … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 01 \u2013 10th<\/sup> Anniversary Edition”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[191,42,113,125,135,111,107,156],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-best-of-british","category-comedy","category-humour","category-judge-dredd","category-satirepolitics","category-science-fiction","category-world-classics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-7BT","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29257"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29259,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29257\/revisions\/29259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}