By Wagner, MacNeil, Walker, Critchlow, Higgins, Ezquerra et al

Published Rebellion

Approaching a Judge Dredd graphic novel is not as easy as it seems; Dredd is for me personally an iconic character going back to my childhood, so when you read the story that is somehow connected to a nostalgic time, you expect one of two things seems to happen. Either the flavours and smells spring to mind the comfort and warmth that many associate with a more blissful carefree time, of reading comics and annuals washes over one like a blanket.

Or you remove the rose tinted glasses, realise that you suddenly have found a level of objectivity where you can compare the calibre of it with contemporaries, and consider if expectations were unfortunately based on the time when your age, experiences and lack of reading of other comics stories were different, part of what you were then, and now it’s not quite enjoyable

I soon found myself drawn into it, and it was clear I had been away from the character for some time, but that the character had changed, much like I have myself, over the years, and although the language, setting, history and place are all familiar, it was a new story that I found myself reading, not tied inexplicably to my youth, but not at all disappointing.

This is an epic Judge Dredd Story and I enjoyed it.

Dredd is the ultimate right wing hero: Judge, Jury and Executioner, Policeman and Soldier, in his case born for just one thing, to ensure people obey the law of Mega-City One, or get punished for breaking it, embodying a level of nationalistic fervour that is quite scary.

The character was in many ways a metaphor in the seventies of how extreme things could become, a time when ‘Special Patrol Groups’ seemed ominous, although we as a society have gone much further down the law and order road. For me I thought it was obvious from my reading of this comic, that perhaps people follow the character of Dredd and instead of satirising extremism, the character is turning towards a liberal and fair approach to things, presenting a less opaque message.

The continuity of decades runs through it, and although I was pleased to see Judge Beeny, now a full Judge, a legacy of the America stories from many years ago, yet the story has been set up to enable the new reader to gently grasp what’s going on.

A lot of thought has been put into these two collections. The first one collects some forty episodes, which make up twelve stories that appeared over a two year period in the run-up to the main event. That some serious editorial control and decision has been applied here is pleasing. It allowed me as a reader to get into a clear understanding of some of the complexities of the world that is today’s Judge Dredd, and understand the problem that is facing the law man.

The story is mostly about power, its corruption, and the subjugation of a type of person.

We get to learn that the ‘Mutant Problem’ is one that is at Dredd’s conscience. Essentially in the world of Mega City One, mutants are seen as a sub-optimal form of life and are not allowed in the city, banished to the Cursed Earth, the radiation desert leftover from the Great Atom War decades before that destroyed most of what used to be America beyond the protected walls of the Mega Cities. This apartheid, which has been going on since 2000 AD’s beginning in 1977, now troubles Dredd. He has tried to get the laws changed.

Dredd succeeds in getting chief Judge Hersey to vote on the laws, which are changed, which in turn leads to senior Judges voting her out of office, and voting a TV Judge, Dan Francisco, into the most senior office in the city. He turns out to be quite a good chief, although he acquiesces to Dredd being in charge of a number of new Mutant Camps. The mutants, who were allowed into the City under Hershey, will now be voluntarily re-located to these mutant townships.

Senior Judge Sinfield, who put Dan Francisco up to the job and was then placed onto the Council of Five, is unhappy with Dredd and subsequently Dan Francisco. He has a very severe and draconian attitude towards mutants, and grabs the opportunity to drug Dan Francisco when he is injured, and he replaces him, leaving a democratic deficit, and also proving to be dishonourable and really not a Judge of good character or decision.

Dredd is of course stoic about his posting, and story follows him and his adventures in the Cursed Earth, how he manages the Judges under his command and the Townships, his own devotion to duty and his tenacity in dealing with Sinfield.

The character of PJ Maybe, a serial killer (although one with that perverse, dark sense of humour through his misdeeds that is often characterstic of Dredd tales) of some notoriety in the City has assumed the identity of the mayor, Byron Ambrose. Maybe’s previous persona is being aped, following the publication of a book on his history. Following an issue over revenue with the new chief Judge, Sinfield, Maybe sets out to murder him. Sinfield brings Dredd back in from the Cursed Earth to investigate what he feels is a targeted attack upon him. PJ Maybe. Such a brilliant character, in many ways, possessing a mind that is so amoral and blasé about murder, while drawing pictures in a childish way.

(one of PJ’s Swedish love bots meets an explosive end)

Dredd does his duty and so the story starts to come around, as Maybe gets caught and gives Dredd a lead on Sinfield. Yet it’s far from over at that stage.

I think that overall this is a very well written and thought out story, I think that it could have been a little better if there was some more intrigue and less clarity about what was going on, I often felt I was just watching on, and not left guessing or wondering what was to occur, and that would have enhanced my reading experience. There was a nice twist near the end, but it could have been replicated throughout a bit more.

Yet, minor gripes aside, it is indeed an epic story. The treatment of mutants is reminiscent of Jews in Nazi Germany, while the Townships, Camps and treatment of mutants could be drawn as reflecting South African apartheid, Guantanamo Bay prisoner of war camps, or any number of death camps from around the world. It’s portrayed as a wrong doing and it is, although in fairness under Dredd the townships seem to do well, which is interesting pointing out perhaps that the mutants are in no way weak, and can and will survive and make life better.

The artwork is stunning. It’s such a selection of old school style, which appeals no end. I really thought that Colin MacNeil stole the show. I adore his artwork, always have going back to the times he drew Dredd in Nip-Cit and The Mechanismo and America Stories (reviewed back here) are favourites. Interestingly, Dredd has developed a much larger chin when drawn by Colin MacNeil, which I found a little bit noticeable. Not really a very valid criticism, given the difference between say MacNeil, Higgins, Holden and Ezquerra are very marked and each artist is very distinctive in their style and rendition of Dredd, but perhaps I just found this change a little more conspicuous.

Overall I found myself enjoying this story, it’s pretty brilliant to be able to enjoy a story that spans over three years

(cover to issue 3 of The Bogie Man by and (c) Wagner, Grant and Smith, published Fat Man Press)

And of course I am required by Scots Law to post an Oor Wullie image on this day:

(Oor Wullie, (c) DC Thompson)

(John Wagner at the Dundee Comic Day, image by Jonathan Mayo, pic borrowed from CBR)

“The most important lesson I’ve learned is [to] work with good artists,” Wagner said, pointing to a Dredd image illustrated by Brian Bolland. Wagner claimed to be somewhat of a lazy writer, but he sounded more like a great collaborator: “I like to leave a lot of room for the artist to use his own imagination, his own vision, because I don’t actually think very visually myself. I think in terms of plot developments, dialogue. I have little conversations in my head, but if you ask me, even now, how many links Dredd has on his badge chain or what’s on his left shoulder, I couldn’t tell you.”

(thanks to Matt B for the link)

(cover of The Last American #1 by and (c) Wagner, Grant and McMahon, scanned from my original issues, hence price sticker still doggedly stuck on there, won’t come off without damaging the book after all this time!)

But it did get me to thinking – the Com.x collected edition was years ago, since when, as far as I know, The Last American has remained out of print, which is such a shame that most readers today can’t get a hold of it. I managed to dig out my original issues of the comic from my four-colour stash and thought I’d post a few up here. The story centres on Captain Ulysses S Pilgrim (US Pilgrim, an apt name choice), the last man on Earth to be invested with the power and authority of the government and president of the United States of America.

(this sequence: Pilgrim’s robotic assistants prepare to awaken him from his atomic Rip Van Winkle slumber in The Last American, by and (c) Wagner, Grant and McMahon)

Except it doesn’t look like there is an America left. Pilgrim, a disgraced army officer (the reason for his disgrace is never made clear) is selected by the president for a special mission. There is war coming – nuclear war. Pilgrim will be subject to a new cryogenic process, frozen into hibernation for two decades, to be awoken on a mission to set out and re-establish civilisation, to assist survivors and a whole lot of other noble sounding reasons that rather pale in the face of nuclea armageddon because, frankly, they are all but pointless considering the level of destruction promised; it’s a plan born of desperation to do something, anything in the face of inevitable annihilation. Pilgrim, married with a young family, is reluctant – to be honest, if it comes down to it he’d rather die with his family than live as the last survivor of a destroyed land, but the choice isn’t his. Awoken, he sets out into a devastated landscape, his only companions three robots.

The story is very much of its time, one of the last of the Cold War era penned tales, perhaps just a post-apocalyptic slice of science fiction now to younger readers, but to those of us who grew up during the years when a strategy called MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) was considered sensible by those in power, it reminds us of a pre-Glasnost time when living with the knowledge that all life on Earth could be pretty much extinguished after a four minute warning siren was part of everyday life, insane as it sounds (although when the Berlin Wall came down it seemed like we had past that dangerous phase of human history and entered an unparalled new era of peace, little did we know the even more complicated War On Terror years were right around the corner, sigh…). And government planning to ‘protect and survive’ was a part and parcel of that because those in power can’t really accept a loss of their authority and all the institutions that go with it, so crazy plans for underground bunkers to sit out the worst of the blasts and radiation then emerge to rebuild were pretty common, so, cryonics and talking robots aside, Last American isn’t that far-fetched for that period.

Understandably Pilgrim soon begins to face pyschological problems. As he starts to explore the wrecked landscape, devoid of life save for a few ants, surveying the irradiated remains of all he once knew and loved, his mood darkens, his morale, never exactly high considering he was forced into this mission to start with, plummets. He has no wish to be the last American and soon Wagner, Grant and McMahon are grimly delighting in executing their own take on one of the great staples of science fiction – the last man in the world. It leads to scenes of Pilgrim trying to drown it out in drink, or, in one memorable scene, venting his fury and bitterness by yelling at God in the ruins of a church for not stopping it, for letting it happen (well before Ennis had Jesse Custer aiming to ask God why He let bad things happen), shooting at the remains of the cross:

“This is all your fault! That’s right! You coulda stopped it – why didn’t you, eh? You’re so all-damn powerful, why didn’t you do something? Have You seen what it’s like out there? Have you? Well, I’ll tell you, pal! If there is a God then you gotta be one twisted, evil son of a bitch!”

It isn’t all misery and gloom though, as you’d expect from this creative team there is a rich seam of gallows humour laced throughout. As his mindset continues to deteriorate Pilgrim begins to lose it, even the eternally optimistic, cheery Charlie (a robot driven a little eccentric through decades of watching junk TV while taking care of Pilgrim’s stasis booth) can’t keep him going and he begins to hallucinate. His main hallucination takes the form of Bert the turtle, a riff on the incredibly ridiculous (althoug meant seriously at the time) 50s ‘duck and cover’ public information movies that showed cheerful, blonde, all-American children ducking and covering the minute they saw the flash of any pesky atomic blast. Nuclear bomb? No problem, kids, dive down behind a wall, duck and cover, and you’re sorted! Yep, he’s crazy, but he’s got a good reason to be going insane, unlike the people who actually made the old duck and cover films and books to instruct civilians on how to survive an atomic exchange.

Or as he examines a pile of human skulls in the remains of what was once Poughkeepsie he finds a message left by a man who was forced into cannibalism to survive, but he ate only those already dead “I killed no-one, I am innocent, God forgive me…” Looking around the lunar landscape that was once a bustling town Pilgrim yells ‘fresh meat, come and get it’, happy to see any human face, even that of a cannibalistic survivor. No-one can be seen though, our cannibal is long gone as he yells to the ruins “Will the man who ate Poughkeepsie please stand up?”, one of those lines that’s stuck in my head over the years since I first read it (was it really 20 years ago? Really?)

In another darkly humorous sequence Pilgrim imagines that it was only he who was nuked; he dies but everyone else in the world lives as he finds himself ascending out of the grave right through the clouds to Heaven. Which turns out to be American! As he moves among the former great and good of American history he talks about great men, noble men – but in the end they were just men, perhaps they put too much trust, too much responsibility on them. It also allows for some more dark humour as Einstein and Fermi argue at the party over how nuclear knowledge has forever changed humanity. As Einstein complains bitterly that nuclear weapons have changed “everything except the way people think”, Fermi tells him to forget his liberal scruples. After all, he adds, dropping a mini A-bomb into a Martini cocktail glass, “after all, the thing’s superb physics.”

Yes, as I said, it is very much of its time now, but that’s not a bad thing – so is Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy and that didn’t stop that remarkable Cold War spy novel being reborn to contemporary audiences as a brilliant thriller, F Scott Fitzgerald and Jane Austen too are very much of their time and yet also deal with issues that remain pertinent to any human society in any era, in addition to their historical elements, which is why they continue to interest readers. That and Wagner, Grant and McMahon’s mixture of commenting on the billion-dollar, decades long insanity of nuclear confrontation, pitch-black humour and often jaundiced look at the darker side of human nature (although leavened by some humour and a little glimmer of possible hope), and Mick’s superb art, say to me that this should be back in print and available to readers again. Meantime I’ll leave you with the artwork Mick posted on his blog and is turning into a print (and Thought Bubble folks, do say hi to Mick!):

(Judge Dredd: Fat Fathers, written by John Wagner, art by Jon Haward, colours by Chris Blythe, Dredd (c) Rebellion)

Judge Dredd: the Complete America

by John Wagner and Colin MacNeil, published by Rebellion

Judge Dredd: the iron man of future law and for the last thirty years pretty much the biggest British comics character around. We love him, even though writer Alan Grant has noted that basically he’s ‘a fascist bastard’. John Wagner; one of 2000 AD’s original crew and still esteemed by most of us as a giant of British comics writing; no-one does Dredd like Wagner and in America he gets to spin a tale where Dredd and the Judges are the villains, not the heroes but the violent, repressive regime crushing hopes of freedom and liberty in the Big Meg, maintaining order through fear.

(it all starts so promisingly, a new child born to immigrants in the Land of the Free, America enters the world, Bennett is already there alongside her)

The story is told in flashback by Bennett Beeny, now a rich and famous entertainer but still deeply, utterly in love with the beautiful, passionate America. Bennet was there right at her birth. A joyous occassion as immigrant parents feel themselves blessed by the birth of a beautiful daughter and their good fortune in coming to the Land of the Free, naming her in honour of the liberties and opportunities of the New World. Wagner subtly foreshadows the coming storm, however, when America’s father gets his line wrong, “America, America, God shed hee’s grief on thee”. A neighbour corrects him “that’s ‘grace’, Mr Jara”; a happy occassion but clouds on the horizon, because this is no longer the Land of the Free, it’s Mega City One and democracy is a crime.

As young school student named America asks her history teacher about the old American motto of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. where’s liberty gone, she demands, who around here looks happy? America is fiery, most of her classmates merely sigh, content to go with the party line and not care, her teacher offers no explanation or sense of hope either: “At least we’re still alive, America, one out of three’s not bad.” It’s not enough for America. A fire burns inside her, a yearning for freedom and democracy. As she grows older and goes off to college she seems to the ever-yearning Bennett to be moving further and further from him; he’s so in love with her but knows she will never love him the same way, although he is her closest friend. He loves her passion but fears where it may take her.

He is right to fear – this is a world where the believers in personal freedom and democracy are prepared to commit dreadful acts of violent terrorism against an overwhelmingly powerful authority. Bennett grows to be a famous celebrity, wealthy and adored across the city but still single – no other woman can fill the void for him, only America. When he goes to pick up a slabwalker for impersonal sexual relief he’s shocked to find the prostitute he approaches is a heavily made up America. Thinking she’s fallen on hard times he asks why she didn’t come to him for help before doing this. But its not what it looks like – its a setup and when Judges come to arrest the alleged slabwalker her democracy activist comrades spring an ambush, gunning down the law officers in cold blood. One of them rounds on the dumbstruck Bennett – he’s a witness and before America can stop him he shoots Benny and they leave him for dead.

Bennett survives although his throat is ruined by the bullet and it ends his career. Realising without being able to talk the Judges can’t use their Birdie lie detector on him he slowly types out his replies to their questions when he comes to in a hospital. Despite being shot by her friends he love America so much he can’t sell her out to the Judges and lies, saying he never got a clear look at faces; he covers for her, despite all she’s done. When she approaches him later she knows he didn’t do it to protect her cause but because he loves her. For a brief moment long unrequited love blossoms into romance; Bennett has the only thing he’s ever wanted, America. America, tired of living on the run, looking over her shoulder, falls into the arms of the one person she knows loves her for being her, not for her cause.

For a fragment of time both are happy and Bennett tells her to stay, that even in the totalitarian regime of the Judges its still possible to make your own happiness. He knows she won’t stay even as he asks her, she won’t take the easy option. He knows it will end in blood. America simply can’t ignore the wrongness in her world like so many do.  It brings us to an inevitable conclusion, of violent death before an ancient symbol of the liberty she loves and her land has lost. But there’s a further twist at the end and if you haven’t read it then I won’t spoil it here.

(going up against the Judges there could only be one, inevitable outcome, as America is gunned down in front of the Statue of Liberty; yes, the clutching the flag may be almost a cliché but by god its so powerful after the preceding events; script by Wagner, art by MacNeil, (c) Rebellion)

Wagner eschews easy black and white, them and us morality to mix it up; the Judges are indeed violent dictators, as content to scare small children as beat up hardened criminals, but they’re also all that keeps Mega City together, while America and her comrades may have right on their side but they’re willing to commit bloody murder to achieve their aims. Add in glorious, painted comics artwork – some of Colin MacNeil’s finest, in my opinion – the doomed, heartfelt romance, the fierce determination to fight for a cause, the moral quagmire that can lead you into, and you have a powerful incendiary work. It blew me away the first time I read it – can that really be almost 20 years ago now? Re-reading its modern collection, The Complete America (which includes the much later sequels, which are interesting, especially when read directly after the original, but never approach its raw ferocity) its more powerful than ever.

One of the hallmarks of good storytelling is that the writer’s work retains relevance to the changing ages. Wagner’s moving, disturbing script is, if anything, even more relevant to our post 9-11 world than it was when it first appeared. In a world where Western, democratic governments have spied on citizens without judicial approval, restricted rights and freedoms, where policemen routinely use anti-terrorist powers to harass photographers in public places, people are held for periods without charge or trial and legitimate protestors on the street are struck by police batons – all ‘for our protection’ – its a very different experience re-reading America now. What was, like 1984 before it, a warning, now seems sadly prophetic. Its a story of personal responsibility for the state of the world around us and how easily the rights that were earned for us in blood can be removed if too many are content to simply sit back and do nothing, but also of the morality of using violent, evil acts to aid a just cause – can violence ever really be justified? Can good ever come out of bad? And over and under it all a doomed romance. Its simply one of the best Dredd stories ever penned and MacNeil’s glorious painted artwork elevates it to a whole new realm of perfection. A British classic that should be on your shelf.

(Dredd and Rico on the cover of 2000 AD Prog 1664, by the one and only Carlos Ezquerra, (c) Rebellion)

“2000AD Review: The readership believes that he’s a surprisingly difficult character to pitch correctly. What would your advice be to a writer taking on a Dredd story with regards to getting his character right?

Wagner: Avoid the more absurd elements of Dredd’s world, they’re too easy to get wrong. Don’t simply retell my stories, write your own. I’ve been pounding the streets of Mega-City One for 30 years but there are still crimes I haven’t thought of, angles I’ve missed – new perspectives to be explored. But I’m perhaps too close to the character to be the best advisor. You should address the question to Al Ewing and Gordon Rennie, both of whom seem to understand what makes Dredd work yet still manage to give us their own take on it. Ask them how they approached it.” John Wagner advises on new writers and artists thinking on trying to pitch a Dredd story to Tharg.

Strip!: Doctor Who comics then…, tonight on Resonance FM at 5pm

Alex Fitch talks to two of the creators of Marvel UK’s seminal Who comic strip printed in Doctor Who Weekly. Pat Mills co-wrote the first 43 instalments of the weekly Doctor Who strip with fellow 2000AD cohort John Wagner, bring to the page such outlandish tales as The Iron Legion and The Star Beast about a Robot Roman army and a psychotic cute alien who befriends children. Dave Gibbons drew 56 of the first 60 instalments of the Marvel comic, making him the most iconic artist to be associated with Tom Baker’s Doctor in comic strip format and drew the first episode of Peter Davison’s run, as his swan song. Alex talks to Pat and Dave about their work on the comic and also about Pat’s forays into Who on the radio, writing scripts for Colin Baker and Paul McGann.

(cover to the Doctor Who: the Iron Legion collection by Mills, Wagner and Gibbons, published Panini)

Goblin at the Supersonic festival

The name Goblin first appeared on the map in 1975, when the band recorded the soundtrack for Dario Argento’s “Profondo Rosso”. This was the starting point for a decade long, highly creative and widely influential collaboration between the eccentric film maker and Goblin, that made the group become the aural signifier of the Italian horror film movement of the seventies and the eighties, creating sound tracks to such cult classics as “Suspiria” (1977) and “Dawn of the Dead” (“Zombi”, 1978).  (I seem to recall Argento thought their music so important to his influential horrors he would play the music on set for the actors to inspire them – Joe)

Alex Fitch talks to the band (Agostino Marangalo, Massimo Morante, Fabio Pignatelli, and Maurizio Guarini) on stage in the Theatre space, Custard Factory, Gibb Street, Digbeth, Birmingham B9 4AA, 6.15pm, Sunday 26th July, Supersonic Festival, Birmingham

Previous podcasts:

Reality Check: Torchwood in print, online now at Sci-Fi London

In a panel discussion recorded live at a meeting of the British Fantasy Society, late 1980s Doctor Who script editor Andrew Cartmel talks to a quartet of Torchwood novelists – Mark Morris, Sarah Pinborough,Guy Adams and Joe Lidster – about bringing the show to the printed page and expanding the adventures of Jack, Ianto and Gwen to the length of a hardback novel.

Panel Borders: Doctor Who comics now…

Alex Fitch talks to the creators of a couple of recent innovative Doctor Who comics about bringing a new angle to the popular franchise. Leah Moore and John Reppion wrote the recent one off comic “The Whispering Gallery” which sees the Doctor and Martha exploring a terrifying museum on an alien planet. Also, Alex talks to Richard Morris, creator of the popular and unauthorised web comic, “The Ten Doctors” – an epic serialised graphic novel which celebrates almost every aspect you can think of from 46 years of the Timelord’s adventures.

Coming soon:

Strip!: The art of Kevin O’Neill, due on Resonance FM on Thursday 30th at 5pm

Concluding Sci-Fi comics month on Strip!, Alex Fitch talks to artist Kevin O’Neill about his work with writer Pat Mills from his early days working on Nemesis the Warlock and ABC Warriors in 2000AD to the hero hunting cop Marshal Law. Alex and Kevin also talk about the film adaptations of his work from Hardware (based on the short story Shok!) to The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, loosely based on the comic he co-created with Alan Moore. Recorded live in front of an audience at Sci-Fi London. (Kev’s fabulous artwork is currently the subject of an exhibition at the Illustration Cupboard)