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Judge Dredd

Judge Joseph "Joe" Dredd is the main character of the longest running strip in the British comic 2000 A.D., having been featured there since its second issue in 1977. Judge Dredd was created by writer John Wagner[?] and artist Carlos Ezquerra[?], although the name was thought up by Pat Mills who was originally going to use it for a different character. In the first published story Dredd was drawn by Mike McMahon rather than Ezquerra, and Ezquerra was reputedly so upset that he didn't draw Dredd until five years later. His appearance was inspired by Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry[?], and the film poster for Death Race 2000[?].

The strip is set about 120 years into the future in Mega-City One[?], a gigantic conurbation occupying the east coast of the United States; Dredd, actually a clone of Chief Judge Fargo[?], is the most famous of the elite corps of judges who run the city with the power not only to enforce the law, but also to instantly pass judgements on criminals and execute them. All traditional governments had collapsed after a small nuclear war had rendered the American midwest into a wasteland (The 'Cursed Earth'), and they had been unable to maintain order and essential services in cities filled with refugees. Dredd has a large, computer-driven "Lawmaster" motorbike, a gun (called a 'Lawgiver') with a wide range of specialist bullets which can only be used by its owner, a daystick, bootknife, and a uniform with a helmet that obscures all of his face except his mouth and jaw. His entire face is never shown in the strip (however, see The Dead Man below).

The Judges are police, judge (and executioner if necessary), and their word is absolute. The only thing preventing them from being a totally oppressive police state is the psychological conditioning they receive - this has been subverted on several occasions, including by the insane Judge Cal who, once he had absolute power, then proceeded to behave much like his namesake Caligula, even appointing his pet goldfish as his Deputy Chief Judge. Dredd, having missed the conditioning due to being out of Mega City One at the time, was the leader of the rebel Judges who overthrew Cal; after Cal's death at the hands of Fergee[?], a dweller of the Mega City's undercity, he was offered the job of Chief Judge but refused it, as he believed he was needed far more out on the streets. On another occasion, the Judges were again subverted from their role of protectors of the citizens of Mega City One by the Sisters of Death[?], who, through the body of psi judge[?] Kit Agee[?], used supernatural powers to create the Dark Judges[?] dystopian state of Necropolis[?]. Once more, Dredd, who had again avoided mental conditioning by being away from the city (this time due to having resigned from the Judges and taken The Long Walk[?] (see Tale Of the Dead Man[?]), and a small force of rebel Cadet Judges as well as Judge Anderson, were able to win the day.

Megacity One's population lives in gigantic tower blocks, each holding some fifty thousand or so people, and each named after some historical person. (There is usually some ironic joke in the name of the the block in which a particular story takes place.) A number of stories feature rivalries between different blocks, on one occasion (recounted in the story Block Mania[?]) breaking into shooting wars between them; the Judges' arbitrary and total powers reflect the difficulty of maintaining any order at all in the Megacity environment.

The strip was filmed starring Sylvester Stallone as Dredd, though this is widely regarded as a failure. In deference to the expensive star, Dredd's face was shown; and in spite of the large budget and accurate recreation of the sets and characters appearances, the scriptwriters largely omitted the ironic humour of the original strip.

Other illustrators of the strip have included Brian Bolland[?], Ron Smith[?], Steve Dillon[?] and Cam Kennedy[?].

Major Judge Dredd storylines

Warning: Wikipedia contains spoilers

There have been a number of Judge Dredd storylines that have either significantly developed the "Dredd mythos" or have been "epic" in scale (ie, been multi-part stories). Some of these include;

External links:

Bibliography:

Judge Dread[?] was a reggae/ska performer known for the somewhat 'risque' sexual content of his songs.

wikipedia.org dumped 2003-03-17 with terodump