Books: Judge Dredd: The Cursed Earth Saga

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Judge Dredd: The Cursed Earth Saga
Written by Pat Mills and John Wagner
Art by Mick McMahon and Brian Bolland
2012




Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/


"I play with a ball... Dick and Jane play with a ball... Judge Dredd will not play with a ball."

At the last meeting of the Comic Forum someone (I forget who and I forget why) mentioned Judge Dredd: to which someone else responded - with a snort (I think it was Wayne but I can't be sure): "Judge Dredd? That's for children isn't it?" [1]

I mean: ok yeah - strictly speaking it's true: Judge Joseph Dredd: born and raised on the pages of 2000AD was created as something to keep young boys entertained and away from the evil grasps of punk rock or whatever back in the late 1970s: since then tho he's ascended through the ranks to the upper tiers of society and there attained the heady status of cultural icon: I mean - even if you've never read a comic (or seen the two film adaptations) you still know who Judge Dredd is and what he stands for - right [2]?

But - man - dismissing it as just being that is like thinking that adults can't enjoy fireworks: it's just - well: it's just silly (sorry Wayne). Because even though - yeah: it's been calibrated for the brains of teenage boys: when it reaches it's proper sweet spot and has all the right elements  in place (namely: concept, plot and the proper artists) then: well (oh boy) - it becomes (pardon me) transcendent.

Which brings us to The Cursed Earth Saga: and - well - basically (not that I want to build it up too much or anything) one of the best comics of it's era (1978 - a whole decade before all your Watchmens and Dark Knight Returns): I mean - yeah yeah - it is fantastic that Judge Dredd has managed to keep going and going and going well past the point that anyone ever thought that he would and that is obviously part of the reason why he's still such a thing and people are still making movie and whatever - but (and seriously I have no problem at all in saying this) even if 2000AD had been cancelled after this story was completed [3] - people would still be talking about it today and referring to it as a high-bench mark of - well - the science-fictional comic genre (I realise that maybe that sounds like faint praise - but it's not supposed to be).

(And - just so no one there gets too confused: I should point out that - this is a story that's been collected in the Judge Dredd: Complete Case Files 02: only Islington currently doesn't have a copy of that - so we'll have to make do with this mini-sized copy instead [4]).

But - whatever - what makes it so good then?

Well - like it says on the back cover ("A road trip through hell") this is an epic that takes Dredd outside from the comforting clutches of Mega City One and subjects him to the berserker craziness outside the walls: I mean - at this point it's pretty much a genre staple to have your heroic figure venture through an unforgiving post-apocalyptic wasteland [5] - but mostly (in film terms at least) that kind of thing is done because it's a hell of a lot cheaper to go and shoot in desert and pretend it's the year 2100 rather than: you know - build a future city with flying cars and whatever - of course - seeing that Judge Dredd doesn't have to worry about anything as niggling as a special effects budget - the writers are free to go as crazy as they want: and - hell yes: having an entire landmass to fill means that they give full rein to all of their sick and fevered imaginings - which means that it's total jackpot time for all the lucky readers out there.

Because - like I said: it's all basically written for the short attention spans of teenage boys (who we all know need constant stimulus or else their heads explode in a big fat sticky mess) the barrage of cool things is non-stop right from the get-go: as you should know - 2000AD is a weekly anthology comic and so all the Judge Dredd stories come out in 5 or 6 page installments [6]: over time the writers have got a lot more self-assured with spreading things out and not making things feel too crammed - but at this early point in time there's this great feeling of having nothing to lose and everything to play for and this amazing frantic energy that means that it feels like you're reading the entire thing on fast-forward with all the best bits jammed next to each other: with anything deemed unnecessary left on the cutting room floor ("Never a dull moment when you're a Twenty-Second Century cop!").

But - as it's all welded to a story that's timeless in it's simplicity (I've never read The Odyssey - but I'm guessing the story structure is exactly the same - get to the place and try not to get killed by all the monsters you meet on the way) it free to luxuriant in it's many splendid diversions: you know that phrase - it's not about the destination - it's about the journey? Well - it's in full effect here: with a feast of freaks and otherworldly sights and smells to enjoy: safe in the knowledge that if there's any of it that starts to drag - well: it won't be long until you're on to the next thing.   

What also makes it such a great trip is the company. I've remarked before (I'm sure) that Dredd isn't much of a character with interesting nuances or hidden depths (but I'd argue he's not really supposed to be) and as much fun as it is to watch him punch people - after a whole epic his one-noteness would (I'd fear) start to get a little bit worn out - thankfully then - he gets a lot of support from elsewhere (in fact - towards the end there's a massive double-page spread of everyone featured in the Cursed Earth that makes you realise just how populated a barren wasteland can be): number one mention has got to go to Spikes Harvey Rotten: a 22nd Century man who cribs all of his moves (and fashion-sense) from 20th Century punks (who were all the rage back in 1978): I mean - yes - on the one hand he's a bit of a stereotype: with dialogue full of "dis" and "dat" and not much in the way of subtlety - but then again: there's a reason why if you play Anarchy in the UK everyone in the vicinity will get up and start to jump around like their neck's on fire: it's loud and it's noisy and that's what makes it fun.

The artwork by Mick McMahon [7] is fantastic. The best way I can describe it - is that it's like Moebius woke up in a bad mood and a shaky hand: it's detailed and feels like you're only ever seeing a small part of a fully realised world - but conveyed in such a way that it's always "BAM!" and on to the next thing: like he was so excited to get this stuff down that he didn't want to get too bogged down in making things look too pretty: and it's absolutely perfect for the story.

And - yeah - the story: full of proclamations like "It was not a nice way to die." and "sometimes the human race makes me sick!" - it's beautifully stark and ugly in the world that it depicts. Unlike the majority of kid's stories nowadays where it seems that most of the muck and danger gets cleared away and put into tidy little boxes - The Cursed Earth is a sprawling, teeming mess of muties, criminals and - ah yes - dinosaurs.

I mean: I really hate giving plot points away - but I feel like I should briefly touch upon the dinosaur aspect of The Cursed Earth - especially seeing how (oh my god) it bears striking similarities to a well known 1993 film directed by Steven Spielberg. I'm not accusing anyone of deliberately ripping anyone off: I mean - we all know the story of how two people invented the light bulb at the same time right? And - (if you don't mind sounding like a hippy) Idea Space and all the rest of it [8]: well - yeah - I guess it just means that Pat Mills was the first person to stumble upon something and then - years later - Michael Crichton came (independently) to exactly the same place [9]: and - hell - if I was Pat Mills I don't think that I would ever ever shut up about this - but what can you do huh? (and if you think that maybe I'm over-selling this or whatever - then pick up a copy of this book and read pages 85 - 88 and we'll talk - ok?).

(And - also: yeah - to be fair - I should point out that there is a strange understanding of cloning happening - namely that clones have the memories of the subject that they were cloned from  ("For a moment, memories of his first life flashed through his tiny brain"): but then - that's a mistake that tends to get repeating in a lot of films [10] - so I can't really blame Pat Mills too much)

But that's really the only niggle. And - hell - there's so much style and wit infused throughout this whole comic (as my literary flatmate put it so succinctly: "Satanus is a great name for a dinosaur.") that it seems churlish to complain about - well - anything really. I mean - it's all just for kids right? So - just strap yourself you: marvel at the construction and the pulsating thrill power and get ready for the ride of your life.

"Oooh! I get so excited just looking at it's multi-level kill power."

"Calm down, McArthur. This is unseemly behaviour for a Judge... and kindly remove your hand from my uniform."

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[1] You know, for kids.

[2] Or is this assuming too much? I don't know: people who don't read comics or watch science-fictiony films are a mystery to me: so maybe don't listen to anything that I have to say. In fact: I rewatched Dredd (Karl Urban version) with my girlfriend and it took her a while (until his "I am the law" speech in fact) to get into the swing of things: for the first hour or so she was screaming out in horror things like "This is horrible!" "These people are being brutalised!" and "The reason there's so much crime is because the system is corrupt." Still: eventually she acclimatised and towards the end was cheering along with the skull-smashing: which I guess goes to show that even if people have heard of Judge Dredd - they don't really know what it's actually about: it's like if people thought that that Doctor Who was a medical drama or something...

[3] And - holy moly - this was just progs 61 to 85 (progs = issues: with one per week) - which - to give you some perspective: last year was prog 1800: so - you know - this is practically (in 2000AD terms) the Jurassic period or something.

[4] For some reason (maybe they're aiming it at kids or something?) - unlike the Complete Case Files - this book is published at half the size of the original comics. As my literary flatmate put it best: "it's annoying small." - but what the hey - the story is so good that by the time it's sucked you in - you won't even notice. Me - I was just happy to get a chance to finally read the whole thing. Back when I was a kid I used to have Book Two but never managed to get my grubby mitts on a copy of Book One (and - shockingly - even tho it's been - what? - 15 years? - I can actually say that it was worth the wait - wooo!).

[5] The example that springs to mind first is Mad Max but - surprisingly for me - that didn't come out until 1979 - the year after The Cursed Earth came out: which I guess is just one of the many things that puts it ahead of the curve (see also: Jurassic Park - which we'll come to in a bit...).

[6] Yes yes - there's also the Judge Dredd Megazine which allows for much longer chunks of stories - but that didn't come out until 1990 - so at this point it doesn't really count.

[7] Ok - yes - and Brian Bolland as well: but (and I think this is due to the fact that Bolland is famously slow when it comes to turning in pages - a side-effect of the fact that his art always looks so squeaky clean and freshly polished) nowhere near (in percentage of pages or whatever) as much as Mike McMahon.

[8] I thought that Idea Space was a common concept - but looking it up - I realise it's something from Alan Moore and so (I dunno) maybe not in common usage? So - here's him talking about it (to help you realise what it is I'm talking about): "A space in which mental events can be said to occur, an idea space which is perhaps universal. Our individual consciousnesses have access to this vast universal space, just as we have individual houses, but the street outside the front door belongs to everybody. It's almost as if ideas are pre-existing forms within this space… The landmasses that might exist in this mind space would be composed entirely of ideas, of concepts, that instead of continents and islands you might have large belief systems, philosophies, Marxism might be one, Judeo-Christian religions might make up another."

[9] There's a good Grantland article that goes into the ins-and-outs (that - I would say - should (if life was fair) include a reference to the Cursed Earth - but what can you do?): "When was Jurassic Park hatched? We could start in 1924, when the American paleontologist Henry Fairfield Osborn wrote about an "alert, swift-moving carnivorous dinosaur" — Velociraptor mongoliensis. We could start in 1970, when Steven, a young movie director, and Michael, a young novelist, had a chance meeting on the lot at Universal Studios. But I'm thinking we should probably start in 1983. Entomologist George O. Poinar and his wife, Roberta, had begun taking DNA from insects trapped in prehistoric amber. They'd published an article about it in Science. One afternoon, a stranger dropped by their office in Berkeley, Calif. "Tall, pleasant guy," Poinar recalls now. "Really lanky." The man quizzed the Poinars about their work. He asked about amber mines in the Dominican Republic. Then, with his notebook filled, the man left. He never mentioned anything about a dinosaur novel. Michael Crichton, in fact, was already trying to bring dinosaurs back to life. But he'd gotten stuck. "It is always a problem for me to believe in the stories that I am writing," Crichton later wrote to Poinar, "and a dinosaur story especially strains my own credence." When Crichton discovered the Poinars and their bugs-in-amber, he stumbled onto the foundation of a billion-dollar enterprise. It was a beautiful premise for a thriller, in that it both contained cutting-edge science and was ridiculously easy to understand."

[10] (from TV Tropes) "While probably impossible, the popularity of this trope can be attributed to the Rule Of Cool, and how in Real Life biology, DNA acts like a form of advanced memory storage (containing massive amounts of data for production and assembly of various complex proteins). However, this won't become a fully Discredited Trope until and unless someone succeeds in creating a viable clone of an adult human being."

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Links: Judge-Tutor Semple Review, Grovel Review.

Further reading: Judge Dredd: The Day The Law Died, Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 03, Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 05, Orc Stain, Prophet, Crossed, Wasteland, Just a Pilgrim.

All comments welcome.

Books: Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 03

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Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 03
Written by John Wagner and Pat Mills
Art by Mike McMahon, Ron Smith, Dave Gibbons, Brian Bolland, Brendan McCarthy, Garry Leach, Ian Gibson, John Cooper and Barry Mitchell
2006

Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/


This has grown into a bit of a Mega-post: so - you ready?

("You don't look ready").

Me? Well: yeah - I guess I've hated Alex Garland for a long, long time. I mean - I know that maybe "hate" is a strong word to use: but then again - I take my pop culture consumption very seriously and I don't like it when something gives me  indigestion - or makes me sick (so what the hey: "hate" it is!)

My first exposure I guess was The Beach (book - not the film). I'm pretty sure that I didn't read it when it first came out (back in 1996) but I remember hearing lots about and the rave reviews that came with it ("[Garland is a] natural-born storyteller" who "combines an unlikely group of influences - Heart of Darkness, Vietnam War movies, Lord of the Flies, the Super Mario Bros. video game - into ... ambitious, propulsive fiction." ... "A Lord of the Flies for Generation X" ... "Generation X's first great novel" ...“A furiously intelligent first novel … a book that moves with the kind of speed and grace many older writers can only day-dream about”): and - damn - this was when I was just a teenager so if this was a book that was appearing on my radar all the way back then: well - then I guess it must have been making lots of waves.

I can't remember what made me pick it up and read the stupid thing a few years after that... (Maybe it was the release of the Danny Boyle film or something? Although so scarred was I by the book that I didn't actually get around to watching that until a few years ago [1]) - but when I did: well - I liked the start, and yeah I thought the concept was kinda groovy (apparently backpacking being a big thing back then - but then I guess there's some clichés that never go out of fashion [2]: so hey - kudos to him for spotting that little gap in the market and writing something so zeitgeisty etc) but - oh boy - that ending. Maybe my sights were set too high - but I was left feeling personally wounded by the way it just sorta fizzled out completely - like a balloon with a hernia slowly bleeding to death: to say it was disappointing is a understatement: it's more accurate to say that it left me feeling really sad: like I'd made a new friend who then turned out to be a thief. Getting to the end of the Beach was like opening my wallet and noticing that Alex Garland had stolen my last tenner.

(But wait - what the hell has all this got to do with Judge Dredd? I can hear the less media-savvy of you say: just hang in there guys - I'm getting to it...)

Since that point I thought that I'd do well to steer clear of Alex Garland so that I wouldn't get hurt again. And - I mean - it's simple right? Just don't pick up any of his books: how hard can it be? Except - it wasn't that easy. Because of 28 Days Later.

I don't wanna spend all my time going through all this movie stuff before we get to Dredd: but this feels sorta necessary (I'm hoping that by the time I get to the end of this I'll feel some-sort of closure or something which - well - seems unlikely - but what the hey right?): 28 Days Later seemed like exactly my sort of film. I wasn't / I'm not the biggest Danny Boyle fan in the word [3] but - oh my god - a zombie film? I freaking love zombie films: and this was all the way back when nobody made zombie films (which of course - has all changed now [4]) and - oh my lord: this was a zombie film set in London which just made it all seem a thousand times better (come on: who doesn't want to see their hometown depicted as a savage post-apocalyptic zombie-filled wasteland?). So - yeah. Come opening day I was sat right at the front - popcorn in one hand - cold drink in the other all ready to be wowed. And - oh my god - that opening [5]: Cillian Murphy walking around Oxford Street, Westminster Bridge, that upturned red bus: not to mention the - is that? is that? is that Godspeed You Black Emperor!? playing on the soundtrack? (I think that might have been the exact moment that my mind split apart in two). I'm not sure if I realised before I entered the cinema that 28 Days was written by Alex Garland but at that point - oh boy - I don't know if I would have cared either way - the rush (and yeah it was a rush) was so intense and pure that I don't think I would have cared if someone told me that the script was written by Adolf freaking Hitler.

I mean I guess you could say that it couldn't last - and that with a start that great it's just the law of gravity that means that things are going to take a dip. But no. It's not that. It's that that as soon as Cillian Murphy starts meeting up with people the whole film falls apart like a cake that's been taken out of the oven too quickly... (I think that's the right metaphor - truth be told: I'm not that hot when it comes to baking) and all that's left is a sticky unappetizing mess - full of half-done George Romero steals and a bunch of people running around a house like they're in a Scooby Doo episode (sigh) [6].

28 Days left me feeling ultra bitter and even more determined never to trust Alex Garland again. As far as I was concerned he now owed me time wasted for his novel and his stupid zombie film. But hey at least I knew enough now to make sure that I wouldn't be fooled again...

...Gruddamnit.

Because - few years after that came Sunshine. A film whose last part is so awful that even Quentin Tarantino (who loves every film ever made) think's it's poo [7]. From the trailer [8], to the concept (bunch of astronauts fly directly into the sun) sounded like the kind of slightly berserk / slightly existential science-fiction concept that tends to form the type of movies that normally end up getting all the way under my skin [9]: and oh my god - wow: those first - what? 40? 50 minutes? The film is just totally, brilliantly sublime. That John Murphy soundtrack [10] that whole "What can you see?" to that ever-constant yellow glow that just bathes the whole film in this gorgeous yellow light so that everyone watching knows exactly why Searle spends all his time immersing himself in the light: it's great, great, great. And then: blam with no warning - the whole film nose-dives and switches from - one of the best science-fiction films ever made ever - into something approaching an embarrassment ("Oh god - yeah - Sunshine? Erm. I'd rather not talk about it - if that's ok?"). And of all the times Alex Garland has let me down (three and counting) that one hurt the most. I guess because his game in the first part was so on (come on Alex - you can do this - you can do this) that when the ball got dropped (I mean - shooting your bad guy with a blurry camera filter (or whatever): I mean - really? Really? I get all the deep reasons you thought you had - but it's like watching a sixth formers idea of doing something smart: and (for me) it just totally sinks the whole film [11]).  

Wow: this is getting pretty long. Ok - no matter - stay with it, stay with it. Because this is when we get to the point that I've trying to get to (struggle struggle struggle - and wham): the Dredd film. (Yeah boy).

I mean - like I think I've said - the inspiration for this whole writing up on the Judge Dredd Complete Case Files comes from the Dredd film. I saw it coming down the tubes and all the pre-publicity and stuff and I thought that I'd use it as an excuse to go through all the stories that I'd already read and haven't read and blah blah blah - I mean - the comics are always good for a laugh right?

But as for the film itself - well yeah. To be frank: I wasn't expecting anything good. All the signs looked like they were pointing to "bad." The director - Pete Travis - was (according to his wikipedia page) a TV director who had directed an episode of The Bill here (The Bill? Yawn) - two episodes of Cold Feet there and was the one responsible for the immensely forgettable Vantage Point (starring Jack from Lost!) [12]. Plus - Dredd doesn't really seem like a concept that would translate well to screen (I mean - like everyone else has already said: when it comes to character he's a bit of a void). And yeah - (the reasons why should be more than evident by now) there were those four words that send a shiver down my spine: "Screenplay by Alex Garland" (brrrr!) [13] and the little synopsis that came out - what? - made it sound like complete rubbish [14]: I mean - "Slo-Mo"? That just sounds like Brass Eye [15]. I mean - I guess it says something that I paid so much attention to it's development. But it seemed more like rubber-necking at a slow motion (or should I say "slo-mo"?) car crash. I mean - all the signs pointed to terrible and I guess I just wanted to know - how terrible. You know?

But - hell: last week me and my friends wanted something to do. My literary flatmate wanted to go to the cinema in order to see something to boast his spirits and what the hell - Dredd was showing. That very day I had read a review from Drew McWeeny (who I mostly tend to side with) who had praised it as: "a grimy hyper-violent faithful take on the comic icon", "Stylish and bloody" "Dredd 3D should give genre fans a thrill." [16]. I agreed to come along but only under duress and whining and complaining the whole way there ("So let me tell you all the reasons that this film is going to be totally awful.") and sharing my favourite Dredd stories that the film should have been based around (and yeah: The Graveyard shift was mentioned I'll admit it). And then we get to the cinema: and - it turns out that it's a little bit cheaper than what I feared. And it turns out that they're showing it on the main screen. And in 3-D. And - why did I not notice this before? - on the big white cinema sign outside above the doors (does that have a special name that I just don't know about?) next to Dredd it says "18." (Wow - I can't even remember the last time I went to see a film that was rated 18: especially not what is essentially a superhero comic-book film - nearly all of which tend to be rated on the baby end of the spectrum: The Dark Knight? The Dark Knight Rises? Iron Man? All rated: PG-13).

But still: when the lights went down - I readied myself for the worst: because this film was gonna stink - right?

Well - no. And this: All of this blah blah blah is to say: I was wrong. And going through all this Alex Garland history is my way of saying: hey Alex - you know what? You've finally managed to make something good. I didn't think you had it in you - but you've finally made something that I could bring myself (hell - want to) watch again. Well done. And seeing how I feel (in a roundabout sorta way) I've been a little bit harsh to the Dredd film (I think in the notes to the Complete Case Files 07 post I made a few snarky comments) I thought I would use this space to champion it because (damn) it's been lot much of a long time since I went to the cinema and had a good time and so I'm very much about championing the good stuff (and - hey - life should be about championing the good stuff - I mean - that's why we're all here: right?)

So yeah: Dredd (let's just ignore that 3-D thing yeah? [17]): let's talk Dredd.

It starts just like the Stallone version (at least I think so: it's been 17 years (oh my god) since that came out and I've never bothered to rewatch it since that first crushing disappointment in the cinema - so this is a pretty old memory yeah?): shot of the Mega City One from the Cursed Earth with a moody voice-over spelling everything out. I mean - I get why they did it: but it's not a good sign... And then. Well: I'm not going to give you a blow-by-blow account of the entire film and as usually like with how I try and write about the books: I'm not going to spoil all the plot points (so don't worry if you haven't seen it yet - this should be safe to read): but then you get your first look of Mega City One proper and - I'll admit - I was (well) stunned.

Because even if you've never read a Judge Dredd comic I'm pretty sure that you probably still know how Mega City One is supposed to look - right? Hundreds and thousands of City Blocks piled on top of each other as far as the eye can see: think Blade Runner or the Fifth Element: only more blocked in and much (much) more crazy. And in fact - if you think back to the Stallone Dredd: that's pretty much the only thing they got right: a never-ending megatropolis fall of flying cars and garish neon advertisements [18]. Yeah - well: the 2012 version of Dredd obviously wasn't paying attention: because their Mega City One is: better. Much better. With less of the "Mega" but much more of the "City." What the film absolutely nails is the basic idea that cities don't every radically change: but rather - are built up - bit by bit by bit over and around the city that's already there. Mega City One in the comics has always been rather cartoony (I mean - it depends who's drawing it true - but even at the most realistic Arther Ranson-end of things (see: Judge Anderson: Satan below if you're interested in that sort of thing) - it's always future future future and grey City Blocks and things. When I first saw the trailer to Dredd [19] and it's aerial-view of the city I just assumed that it was because the movie was going to suck: instead of buildings upon buildings - it was like looking at a graveyard: empty spaces with isolated markers sticking out from the ground here and there - in a very un-cluttered, un-Mega City-like way [20]. But then: why assume that there isn't enough room for the new and the old? In the comics (urg: I hate that phrase: "In the comics" but still) i think (?) the idea is that Mega City One is built upon the ruins of the old cities: there was a big war and so they just decided to lay concrete over it all and start again. And altho this idea has a lot going for it - namely it's appeal to that deep-seated human urge about fresh starts and blank states and stuff (I'm thinking about that bit in Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine: "Blank Is Beautiful: Three Decades of Erasing and Remaking the World" and all that [21]) - it's also massively unrealistic: an unobtainable ideal and yeah I know it's science-fiction and stuff (and so really only one small step away from fantasy): but - hell - things ususally tend to get more interesting when you start to subject it to a little dose of reality. Which is exactly what the Dredd film does: giving us a future city that still has lots and lots of traces and features and buildings of the old - which for me: is just all kinds of brilliant and puts the film into a reality that feels much closer to home than I thought it could get and kinda makes the comic books (which up until this point seemed to be a sort of unquestionable authority that could accept no deviations lest the critic be excommunicated) seem - well - kinda comic booky.Because - yeah: stating the totally obvious: the future is going to look a lot like the present. If someone from 1970 were suddenly transported into now - yeah they'd be amazed by ipods and the youtubes - but walking down the street I don't think that their eyeballs would hemorrhage at the sheer futureness of it all: it all (basically) just looks the same you know?

Apart from that: what else does the film get right? Well - Karl Urban is spot-on as Joe Dredd. I mean - even if in the end it ammounts to nothing more than a Clint Eastwood impression: it's a really good Clint Eastwood impression and he stands there and growls in all the right ways (but I'm a bit of a Karl Urban fan after his spot-on DeForest Kelley impression in that Star Trek film: "Don't pander to me, kid. One tiny crack in the hull and our blood boils in thirteen seconds. Solar flare might crop up, cook us in our seats. And wait'll you're sitting pretty with a case of Andorian shingles, see if you're still so relaxed when your eyeballs are bleeding. Space is disease and danger wrapped in darkness and silence." (man - I could watch that scene all day)). Olivia Thirlby does lots of good doe-eyed stuff as Anderson (and in another case of going better than the comics: there's a big show-stopping physic-power scene that goes strange and deep in a way that none of the Anderson stuff I've ever read ever seems to come close to (normally it's just her touching her head in a James McAvoy Charles Xavier-type way [22]). But in terms of the pretending people: Lena Headey wins for her Heath-Ledger-as-the-Joker levels of insanity and violence crackling around inside her eyes (too bad they didn't give her more to do: so could have won like awards and stuff)

Also good is how it's just so supercrazyultraviolent. I mean - this is the Dredd that my teenager self would wanted to see back in 1995: there's blood spilling out of the screen: over the edge of the black bars of the bottom even and lots of smashing and crushing and perps getting judged (and oh my god - is that - is that white phosphorus? Wow. That's hardcore). Plus (and this is just me I know) there's just something that's innately pleasurable about slow helicopter shots of giant buildings - especially when they're doing big mechanical things and slowly rolling things into place (someone make a relaxation tape of space shuttle doors closing and those big space shuttle carrier things rolling around please): and - more things I like - there's just so many great images of dirty motorways stretching out into the distance and giant starscapers: grids and lines my inner-Kubrick kept letting out little sighs of joy. And balancing all that against the small-scaliness of it all being set in the same location gave it that pleasingly claustrophobic feeling that you normally get from John Carpenter films (hell: maybe The Graveshift wasn't the ideal model after all? I dunno): so best of both worlds!

And the soundtrack - oh boy - I absolutely adore the soundtrack. I mean - I'm sure I'll get sick of it sooner or later - but I've been listening to it none stop since I saw the film. Paul Leonard-Morgan is my new soundtrack crush dude. It's like John Carpenter's moody synths decided to learn how to play guitars and brought in a evil gorilla to play the drums while they all listened to Cliff Martinez's Contagion and Drive Soundtracks I mean yeah: it's perfect [23].

Hell: I even loved the bikes [24]: they looked like refugees from an 80s action film: like Robocop or Escape from New York (in fact that's a good way to describe the whole film: a mutant 80s action film - grim as hell and as mean as Dredd himself).

In terms of source-material faithfulness and getting the comics right and all that baloney: well technically Anderson's badge should have been only half-finished and the respirators should have dropped from the helmet (although there's an obvious reason why that didn't happen) and since when did people in Mega City One say "Motherfucker?" (would a "Drokk" or a "Grud" been too much to ask? We are living in a post Battlestar Galactica world after all you fraks) and was it libel-laws of something that meant that you couldn't give the City Blocks their more familar-sounding names (Peach Trees? [25]): but that sorta stuff was more than made-up for the geeky graffiti shout-outs to Chopper and Kenny Who? (yeah - I think when I saw that second one I may have let out an involuntary "squee!").

Lots of the reviews I read made mention of another film that came out this year called The Raid [26]: and while Dredd's later release means that it's kinda being touted as being the Raid's little sister (summing up the media narrative it's basically: "The Raid is the best thing ever! Dredd isn't as good - but it's still alright") but allow me to blow a big fat raspberry in that direction. Mainly just to say: The Raid ain't all that. I mean - I'm obviously not in the target audience seeing how I've never really been into fighting films (sorry - "martial arts")  but godamnit - just in how it's structured: keeping the audience on it's toes from start to end and never taking it's foot of the tension pedal (that's a thing right?) - I'd take Dredd over The Raid any day of the week (The Raid starts off well - but then just sorta gets really predictable really quickly and by the end you can tell who's going to win which fight - and the climax made it seem - well: like an episode of The Bill (The Bill? Yawn) or something).

It wasn't a 100% perfect film - and there's a few points where it does fall into predictability and outrageous coincidences (with one moment in particular relying on an architectural feature that seems outlandish even by Mega City standards): but I struggle to remember the last time I had such a great time at the cinema: I cheered at the end. I didn't mean to - but it happened. 

I mean I know that I could have just summed all of that up by saying: that new Dredd film? Yeah - I liked it. But hell: I'm kinda falling out of the habit of doing things the easy way. So yeah - when (please when) the sequel comes out: I'll be first in line. (Please can we have a sequel soon please please please? And you know what? You can even get Alex Garland to write it: it seems like he's finally found his niche).

(Pause for breath)

Now. Of course if this was just a blog of random thoughts or whatever I could just leave things there. Happy with the fact that I'd managed to write more than just a single solitary paragraph (didn't anyone ever tell you? Writing about comics and stuff is hard): but this is the Islington Comic Forum blog and so we have to maintain at least an air of respectability and talk about the stuff we're supposed to talk about - that is: comics. And so - rather than just leaving this now as a Dredd review and all my hang-ups about Alex Garland let's try and link this up with an actual Judge Dredd book (how's that sound? That ok?)

So: after seeing the Dredd film I was well up for some Judge Dredd comic action. Because that how it works right? You see the film and then after you get that strange urge to read the book: even tho (no duh) the book is nothing like the film but the only reason you're bothering to read the book is to capture some of the same feeling and excitement you got from the film: it's like you really enjoyed (stupid metaphor alert) an apple sweet (like a fruit pastille or something) and so you decide to eat an apple in order to get the same sort of sensation: it's pretty pointless and is only going to leave you feeling unfulfilled but then - hey - that's like the story of all of our lives - right? (Right?).

The book I came up with was this: Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 03 which - at the time of writing is the earliest example of Dredd currently available in Islington (maybe someone could order Complete Case Files 01 and 02 so that I can finally get to read the first part of The Cursed Earth please?) and - well - yeah: after the hard-bitten dirty futurism of the Dredd movie: it was a bit of a trip encountering such an embryonic-version of the future law man. Towards the start there's the first instance of a concept that I used to love when I was a kid - Future Shock! (or "futsie" as they call it) - but (oh the irony) reading this - I got Past Future Shock (I need a better name - but you get the point right?): reading a version of the future that now (mostly) seems out of date.

You think I'm exaggerating?

Well the first story reveals the hitherto unknown fact (to this reader at least) that Judge Dredd has a niece. For this reader - who was expecting some more of the violent carnage that he got from the Dredd film (hell - who knows I reasoned: maybe the early stories were extra gritty and they had to tone it down as things went on?). But no - instead I got Dredd pushing Vienna (Vienna?) on the swings while she screams: "Swing me again Uncle Joe!" and dialogue that seemed more like it comes from a Mad Magazine parody: "You don't kiss me and hug me very much but I know that's just your way. I love you Uncle Joe! You're my daddy now!" I mean - I thought this was great - but it wasn't really what I was expecting. (I ordered strawberry - and hey this is chocolate! kinda thing) [27].

And there's a lot more of that sort of slightly mawkish slightly childish slightly lame (yeah - I said it) happening again and again: there's Monty the Guinea pig and a talking cat and later - Henry Ford - the smart mouthed talking horse, there's the suggestion that drinking Tyrannosaur blood can turn you into a weredinosaur (what the?) - and (oh yes) Walter - Dredd's lisping roboservant ("As Walter Wemember, there was a wobbey at the cwedit bank that day.") who's - well - a bit mincy (not that there's anything wrong with that obviously). But it's pretty obvious in point that this is the kinda stuff that was written for children back in the 1970s rather than - well - late twenty-sometimes in the 21st Century (that would be me of course): and I was really feeling the disconnect between what was on the page and the Paul Leonard-Morgan Dredd soundtrack playing in my ears.

But then: just as I was getting ready to maybe think about setting it aside and trying out something else I started to get more of what I wanted: Bleak predictions of the future: "By the early 22nd Century only 13% of the population of Mega City One had work... Humans, too long used to working, could  not adjust to the huge increase in leisure time." (And reading that as someone who is just about to start working with self-service machines (it's the future!) - well: it touched a delicate spot). Horrific plagues of mutant spiders. Killer Hippies (Father Earth - who's like the yin to Dredd's punk yang). And that delicious evil sense of humour that the British tend to do so well in the form of Sob Story's [28] greatest hit: Otto Sump "Yeah, I know all about ugly... I've had eight face changes and still I look like this! The Doc says I'm deep-down ugly, the kind they can't get out." Plus lots of hard-bitten action: "First try the special cocktail I've mixed for you Molotov!" (Woop!) not to mention the first appearance of Judge Death and - wouldn't you know it - Judge Cassandra Anderson (who is way more more ditzy than her later incarnations) and a peek inside the Hall of Justice that makes it look like they've been stealing furniture from the set of Dr Strangelove... (and - wow: it turns out that Brian Bolland has always been an amazing artist: damn him).

But yeah: I guess that's it (at least that's all I can bring myself to write). But what? Is there some kind of moral here? Something I can say to wrap this all up in a tidy little bow? 

Nope.

Not that I can think of anyhow [29].

So - instead I've leave you with these wise words from Judge Minty: "When you get old you start getting strange notions... like maybe people aren't so bad, maybe if we treat 'em with kindness, the good in them will come out! I guess that's when it's time to quit."

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[1] I don't remember that much about it - but my abiding thought was that it was much, much better than the book (which hey - couldn't have been that hard - right?).

[2] "And then I chundered everywhere" etc.

[3] Shallow Grave = Yes. Trainspotting = Yes.A Life Less Ordinary = I don't think I ever saw (think the 2000AD adaptation put me off - because boy was that stinky). The Beach = Yeah. Ok. 28 Days Later = Well... Millions = Not bad. But it's like something that would on ITV on a Saturday evening (maybe that's just because James Nesbitt is in it - but whatever). Sunshine = Well... Slumdog Millionaire = I mean - yeah. It' ok. But it's not a film that I've ever gonna really wanna watch again - you know what I mean? 127 Hours = Haven't seen. But I don't know if I could stomach a whole film that was wall-to-wall James Franco (sorry dude: you're just way too annoying).

[4] I could pick on any film at this point to illustrate the fact that maybe the zombie film market is a little bit more - well - saturated this days: but - hell - let's go with Cockneys vs. Zombies: "A bunch of east-enders fight their way out of a zombie-infested London, led by an unlikely gang of amateur bank robbers and foul-mouthed plucky pensioners." No. I'm not making that up: and also (hell) who knows? Maybe it'll actually prove to be pretty good? I mean: who knows?

[5] Which you can enjoy here. Repeat after me: "Hello!?" "HELLO!?" (I mean - it's like someone took my main childhood daydream and just plastered it across a screen).

[6] 28 Weeks Later? Well - that's a whole different story (a story that goes: I frigging love that film).

[7] See: here. ("Space exploration mediation"? Don't try saying that with your mouth full).

[8] Which you can watch here. (That music at the start is Six By Seven's Another Love Song - which is a band that I used to think represented the absolute pinnacle of epic brutalist guitar rock (hell - whatever - still do) and that music at the end? Lux Aeterna obviously).

[9] See also: bunch of scientists go and talk to super-intelligent ants (Phase IV), scientists uses drugs and sensory deprivation tanks in order to themselves regress genetically (Altered States) and a team of scientists fight against a super-bug from outer space (The Andromeda Strain). Obviously I have somesorta deep seated obsession with science-fiction films about scientists - but hey - I guess that's my problem right?

[10] YUM: I want to be buried to this music please. Or - hell - not buried. Fired into the sun. Yes.

[11] And - hell - the know what? Maybe that's not even Alex Garland's fault. Maybe it's Danny Boyle calling all the shots and making all the decisions (he is the director after all). But - still. The problems seem like they stem from the script and (plus he's got previous with The Beach) and so I'm a-gonna blame Garland. Sorry dude.

[12] And I do mean "forgettable" seeing as how I've watched it and all I remember is something about an ambulance flipping over (?) and lots of weak sauce Rashomon-style window dressing that never really seemed to add up to anything more than just a gimmick.

[13] Which leaves out the gossip that Pete Travis was actually replaced by Alex Garland in the post-production process so that when the film came out it was going to credit Garland as the director. (Which just seems sorta crazy to me - but then I guess I don't work in the film business (I work in a library)).

[14] "The future America is an irradiated waste land. On its East Coast, running from Boston to Washington DC, lies Mega City One- a vast, violent metropolis where criminals rule the chaotic streets. The only force of order lies with the urban cops called “Judges” who possess the combined powers of judge, jury and instant executioner. Known and feared throughout the city, Dredd (Karl Urban) is the ultimate Judge, challenged with ridding the city of its latest scourge – a dangerous drug epidemic that has users of “Slo-Mo” experiencing reality at a fraction of its normal speed. During a routine day on the job, Dredd is assigned to train and evaluate Cassandra Anderson (Olivia Thirlby), a rookie with powerful psychic abilities thanks to a genetic mutation. A heinous crime calls them to a neighborhood where fellow Judges rarely dare to venture – a 200 story vertical slum controlled by prostitute-turned-drug lord Ma-Ma (Lena Headey) and her ruthless clan. When they capture one of the clan’s inner circle, Ma-Ma overtakes the compound’s control center and wages a dirty, vicious war against the Judges that proves she will stop at nothing to protect her empire. With the body count climbing and no way out, Dredd and Anderson must confront the odds and engage in the relentless battle for their survival. The endlessly inventive mind of writer Alex Garland and director Pete Travis bring DREDD to life as a futuristic neo-noir action film. Filmed in 3D with stunning slow motion photography sequences, the film returns the celebrated character to the dark, visceral incarnation from John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra’s revered comic strip." Problems: That name "Ma-Ma." (I mean - why?) And having Dredd just go up against one villain and the idea of Slo-Mo. It just made it sound like a big slice of cheese-cake when want I wanted was a raw slice of beef - you know? And then (although I guess this came later) the fact that they decided to name it: Dredd 3-D. Seriously? I mean - unlike some - I don't have a problem with 3-D. But when you decide to stick it into the title - it just makes it seem disposable and cheap. And what are they going to call the sequel: Dredd 3-D 2? (Yuck).

[15] The Horrors of Cake! (Noel Edmonds: "What is Cake? Well, it has an active ingredient which is a dangerous psychoactive compound known as dimesmeric andersonphosphate. It stimulates the part of the brain called Shatner's Bassoon. And that's the bit of the brain that deals with time perception. So, a second feels like a month. Well, it almost sounds like fun...unless you're the Prague schoolboy who walked out into the street straight in front of a tram. He thought he'd got a month to cross the street.") And I mean - yeah - obviously the reason for Slo-Mo is to do lots of bullet-time style action (all of which in the film is absolutely-completely-gorgeous) - but it just seemed kinda obvious and easy or something and a - well - a whole lot of yawn (I dunno).

[16] You can read the full review: here: (sample: "Ultimately, your reaction to "Dredd 3D" will depend on your tolerance for an almost breathtaking level of graphic violence.")

[17] Although: hot damn - this film certainly had some nice 3-D action going on. Totally keeping with it's ever so-slightly exploitation film feeling.

[18] I tried to find a clip of it online and found that someone has actually uploaded the full movie. Watched the first five minutes and - holy cow - is that James Earl Jones doing the opening narration? And did how blatantly Marvel steal that opening let's show all the pages of the comics flicking past really quickly thing? And: wow - now I can see why the film was such a massive let-down: in those first 5 minutes they get everything just right: the use of the proper old school Judge Dredd font, those marching drums give it the right atmosphere, nice slow introduction to the city - that pan up that keeps going up and up and up: and Mega City One looks just like it's supposed to (nice use of the Lady Liberty there - (no Statue of Judgement tho - sad face)): and oh boy - so many actors with so many great names: Armand Assante! Jürgen Prochnow! Balthazar Getty! (That doesn't actually add to the quality of the film - I know: but I just wanted to point it out). I mean - if you just saw that - you could easily imagine that this was going to be the most faithful film adaptation of all time... (hysterical fanboy voice: "and then Stallone had to ruin it all by taking his helmet off!" And - oops - oh yeah: and the rest of the film sucked to). Credit where it's due tho: it does have a totally awesome trailer. (That music? It's Jerry Goldsmith: sadly not used in the film: something about him having scheduling conflicts or something and not having enough time to score the film: oh well).

[19] This is turning into a proper trailer fest huh? (But - hey - I love trailers - and in some respects they're the only pure art-form left and let's face it: one of the most exciting (if you've never said that you wish you could watch a whole film that felt like a trailer then I don't believe you)). But - yeah - if you haven't seen the Dredd trailer yet - here you go. And - well - ok: since you asked. I think it's one of the worst trailers I've seen since forever: it's one the few (if only?) examples of the film being better than the trailer - normally (and depressingly) it's almost always the other way round... It just makes it look really cheap (that POV shot from the Justice Camera or whatever looks like someone looking through a cheap binocular toy that they got from a happy meal) and all of the images and supposedly "cool" lines just feel really flat (which is mainly due to the fact that - in the film - context is key: and taken out from that - it just seems half-inflated: like someone who's really bad at telling stories trying to sum up the film they saw last night: "And then he said "You look ready" and it was so awesome."). Plus - with that Ma-Ma line: "We could take the whole city" etc. It makes it seem like maybe the film is going to be way more epic that it actually is: Dredd versus someone who's some kind of crazy super-villain - while actually: it's all much more pleasingly low-key, reined in and enclosed than that. Plus (like my literary flatmate pointed out) there's way too much "judging" dialogue: "I am the law" / "Judgement time!" / "the Sentence is Death" etc (I mean - what's next? "Order in the court?" "Has the jury reached a verdict?" "Please rise!" - hell - actually those are pretty good!). But yeah - so - basically - yeah: fails all round. (Oh - and seeing how we've also been doing all the music for stuff - that La Roux song is a Skream remix remix: and that second song? No. That's not Daft Punk's Tron Soundtrack - it's some guy called Danny Cocke doing a very good impression of Daft Punk's Tron Soundtrack)

[20] This is a good picture of it.

[21] I'm not that this is actually relevant but here you go: “Fervent believers in the redemptive powers of shock, the architects of the American-British invasion imagined that their use of force would be so stunning, so overwhelming, that Iraqis would go into a kind of suspended animation…In that window of opportunity, Iraq’s invaders would slip in another set of shocks—these one economic—which would create a model free-market democracy on the blank slate that was post invasion Iraq. But there was no blank slate, only rubble and shattered angry people—who, when they resisted, were blasted with more shocks…Like Cameron, Iraq’s shock doctors can destroy, but they can’t seem to rebuild.” (But - hey - it's a good book: if you get a chance - you should read it: available in your local Islington library!).

[22] Oh my god: have you seen X-Men: First Class? He's like touching his head in that all the damn time. (Next time I watch it - I'm turning it into a drinking game). 

[23] Few notes on the soundtrack: someone's been listening to Justin Bieber 800% Slower (not that that's a bad thing - just saying). And Lockdown and Tick of the Clock (from the Drive Soundtrack) = separated at birth? And - of course - there's the Drokk: Music Inspired by Mega-City One album by Portishead's Geoff Barrow and some guy called Ben Salisbury which was supposed to be the soundtrack before I don't know what happened and it was left "on the cutting room floor" - if you like your science-fiction soundtracks a little bit more sedate and calmed down (and really yeah: they're both good in different ways).

[24] YEAH BABY. (For some reason I can't quite put my finger on - they reminded me of those creepy Star Trek Wheelchairs. Maybe it's the black slopingness of it or something? I dunno).

[25] Apparently it was named after a restaurant when Alex Garland and John Wagner met up. (To me something like "Charlton Heston Block" would have sounded much better - but heigh ho).

[26] Most notably this Empire Review  which went so far as to declare that there were two shadows that fell over the Dredd film: the Dredd film and The Raid: "This wouldn’t be to Dredd’s detriment if The Raid hadn’t a) got there first and b) been the best action film in years. And so, as Dredd and Anderson tiptoe down dark corridors, where danger lurks around every corner, or bullet-bludgeon their way through Ma-Ma’s seemingly endless waves of expendable henchmen, it’s hard not to compare and contrast with Evans’ movie, where similar situations led to action that was vital, insanely violent and full of variety. Dredd retains the extraordinary violence (flesh pierces rippling bare flesh in loving slo-mo, a machine gun reduces a head to a pulp, and bodies spiral through 200 storeys before splatting), but the action is rather more circumspect and workmanlike – there are no dizzying camera moves, no sense of building momentum or mounting danger."

[27] Wow. Twenty-seven footnotes? (Wow). That seems a bit much: but oh well: here's another: what's with the "Dokk?" at the start - I mean - they correct it to "Drokk" two stories later: but it kinda added to the feeling that what I was reading wasn't actually real Dredd...

[28] Sob Story is a television programme which is supposed to be satire (people who go and tv: tell everyone how awful their lives are and then beg for money) - but oh: wouldn't you know it - is now yesterday's news (see: Charlie Brooker's Wanking For Coins article: here. "I liked the phrase "wanking for coins" so much I went on to use it again and again. The more I thought about it, the more it seemed to sum up an entire world of low-level employment. Stuck in a dead-end job? Wanking for coins. Obliged to smile at customers? Wanking for coins. Working extra shifts to pay the rent? Wanking for coins.")

[29] Actually - now that I think about it a little bit more - and having read a few more Dredd reviews - a lot of which have said that the film - as good as it is - doesn't quite capture the flavor of the comics: I guess the moral would be: having read such a big fat slice of the comics- there's no possible way that any film could ever hope to contain all the different multitudes of what makes Judge Dredd - Judge Dredd.

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Links: Dredd Reckoning Review, Bookgasm Review, Grovel Review.

Further reading: Judge Dredd: The Cursed Earth Saga, Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 05, Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 06, Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 07, Judge Anderson: Satan, Sláine: The Horned God, Nikolai Dante: The Romanov Dynasty, Skizz.

All comments welcome. 

Books: Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 05

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Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 05
Written by John Wagner and Alan Grant
Art by Brian Bolland, John Cooper, Steve Dillon, Carlos Ezquerra, Ian Gibson, Mike McMahon, Barry Mitchell, Ron Smith and Colin Wilson
2006



Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/


"Day 1. Today my new life began. At 9.45 this A.M. I broke into my block Citi-Def armoury and equipped myself with a variety of useful weapons. From this day on I have resolved to kill anyone who gets on my nerves."

That's a nice way to start and - well - just in case you didn't know it's an excellent summation of what the world of Judge Dredd is like: it's violent, mean and (if you've got the right sort of evil-infused funny bone) it's pretty damn funny too. And I guess the thing that's always struck me about Judge Dredd (and the thing that I'll do my best to try and explain here) is that he's just not like all the other varieties of tough guy future cop lawmen blah blah blah: opening up to the first page of this collection ("The Problem With Sonny Bono" [1]) and greeted by the sight of Dredd sitting on his lawmaster - gun already in hand was that there's something here that's special and unique and I don't know quite what: and that something is that Judge Dredd: all the way down to his very mean-ass core: is a total punk (which I guess is somewhat ironic seeing how he was partially based on Clint Eastwood/Dirty Harry whose first response to finding out that someone was a punk would be to get them to make this day and then - well: blow them away). I not just Dredd - but the whole of Mega City One and the rest of the future world he inhabits: it's a punk's idea of what the world has in store for us: It's the craziness that seeps from every pore and the non-stop "Block Wars" and that the anyone with a kind heart gets squashed beneath the wheels of progress without a second thought: One of the best examples of this happens in a story at the start of this collection that features Uncle Ump - a kindly old man who's like a cross between Colonel Sanders and Uncle Sam only with a much sweeter nature than both combined - who makes the mistake of inventing the world's most delicious candy that is so yummy that it becomes instantaneously addictive to anyone who tries it. Normally this would make him someone rich beyond their wildest dreams - but the danger to civil order is so great that  the Judges put him on a rocket and send him out into space where - well - his final fate isn't pretty: but he's barely mourned before the story is moving forward and there's new all sorts of new stuff to deal with. Because - well - you want me quote some Sex Pistol lyrics? Fine: "We're the flowers in the dustbin. We're the poison in your human machine. We're the future, your future. There is no future in England's dreaming. No future for you, no future for me. No future, no future for you." So - yeah: it's not exactly utopian.

Whenever people talk about 2000AD [2] (which I should really try and stop spelling as one word - but - huh - "2000 AD" just doesn't look right for some reason) and how it came into being it's always Star Wars that gets mentioned. I think it's something the publishers saw that science-fiction was having a bit of a resurgence and they decided to hop on to the bandwagon with some futuristic comic fun: a bit of Dan Dare and some dinosaurs and maybe we can make some money - that sort of thing (and of course the obligatory mention of: hey - let's call it "2000AD" because what the hell: it'll never last that long - right?): and then Star Wars comes along and sales sky-rocketed and it became a British institution. Yay. But - for me at least - the year of 1977 (when 2000AD was launched) is famous for two different reasons: yes one of those reasons is to do with a young Aryan-looking lad with a magic glowing stick fighting space Nazis but the other reason was punk rock [3]. 

And that's the reason why Judge Dredd (like I've already said) is not like other future cops and Mega City One is not like other future cities: it's not all Blade Runner style flying cars and throngs of people (although to be far - it does have lots of those) and he's not a world-weary hero trying desperately to hold on to whatever small scrap of humanity he has left: Judge Dredd has no humanity (at least there's no sign of it in this collection) and you know what? That's just the way he likes it. Because like the cliché of a supehero being born when one small batch of chemicals gets contaminated by somesort of radioactive isotope (or whatever): Dredd is the mean tough lawgiver archetype infected with the radiation of the period he was created in: and that radiation was Johnny Rotten and people with safety pins pinned through their noses. And just look at him: I mean it's not as if other boys-action comic book characters are particularly elegant in the costumes they wear: I mean like I've already said several times on here how Batman just looks kinda silly with that cape and those sticky out pointy ears and we've all heard the snide remarks that have been made about the whole "pants over the trousers" look that superheroes like to rock: but Dredd kinda takes things to a whole new level. I mean back when I was a kid I used to like drawing pictures of stuff and characters from books that I had lying around and let me tell you - Dredd has all this tricksy stuff that can be a real pain in the bum to try and get right: there's the helmet sure - but there's also the badge, the big pad on one shoulder, the eagle on the other, the belt, the kneepads and the big boots. I remember reading somewhere once that the reason that superheroes always wear their distinctive skin-tight costumes is because when the comics used to come out in black and white they looked like their were naked and something about Freud and dreams of flying standing for other stuff and blah blah blah - point being (there's a point?): you'd never confuse Dredd with a naked person: he's all about the clothes and the hardware: the gun and the bike and all the rest of that sort of ornamental stuff. And come on: chains and shoulder pads and tight fitting leather as an official uniform? The only way that could make things more obvious is if he wore a T-Shirt that said "I Hate Pink Floyd." [5]

I get it that if you've never read Judge Dredd then it just seems like he's a cookie-cutter hard man who likes to shoot things and book perps: but the reason he's stuck around is because he's not a hero: he's more a conglomeration of all your worst excesses of law enforcement wrapped up into one tidy package. I mean: it's great fun to watch him go around and bash in people's heads: but every reader knows that things would be very different if you were the one living in the Mega City - because if you saw Dredd coming for you - you wouldn't want to greet him with open arms like he was your saviour - nah - the first and only thing you'd want to do would be to run.

But: of course all this yakking doesn't really tell you much about what's in this particular collection so let's quit the preamble and get down to it: the first bunch of stories in this are these self-contained little bite-sized things called "Mega Rackets" that are just "I wonder what ____ would be like in the future?" I mean - maybe if you've never read again Dredd before they'd be more entertaining: but for those of us who are already well used to all the future stuff it's a little bit by-the-numbers.

Then comes "Judge Death Lives!" which - shockingly - is only 5 parts long [6]: and yet manages to fit so much in - it feels a little bit like astronaut food: all your nutritional story and entertainments values compressed into one easy-to-swallow tablet. For those looking for a taster of why Judge Death is such a well-loved Judge Dredd character then there are much worse places to start - not only do you get a healthy dose of the alien super-fiend and his quotable-catchphrases ("The crime is life, the sentence is death!" etc) but you also get the first appearance of his "Three Killin' Cousins" who are each masterworks of iconic design (love the double-page spread of the four of them standing in a row like shop window dummies that almost just seems like showing off it's like the page is saying: check out how totally amazing these guys look!) and (perhaps most importantly) that most famous of all Judge Dredd panels: "Gaze into the fist of Dredd!" (just typing it gives me shivers).

But - and this is a testament to just how weighty things get - while anywhere else Judge Death Lives would be the main attraction - in this collection it's just a small appetizer before the ten course meal that is the bombastic epic: The Apocalypse War.

Now: I've read a lot of Judge Dredd back when I was kid and so most of the stuff (including the Judge Death stuff) I didn't even need to read. I just had to look at the first page and the whole story would come flooding back like a form of muscle-memory: I mean - this stuff is imprinted in a deep level of my brain that probably won't shift until the day I die. But The Apocalypse War - well - I'd never managed to get my hands on a collected version so to me it just had this mythical status as "best Dredd epic" ever and the one mega-story that all the ones that came after didn't come close to matching (sorry Necropolis, Judgement Day and (ha!) The Doomsday Scenario [7]). So finally getting to the point where I could actually read it. Well - let's just say that expectations were high.

Thankfully I wasn't let down.

I mean... I'm not sure how exactly to write down how The Apocalypse War affected me but I will say that by the end I was a little shell-shocked just kinda sitting there feeling a little dazed and gazing up into nothing going: "wow." (Is this hyping things up a little bit too much? Sorry). I mean on one hand it does seem like a little bit of a grind to have to slowly make your way through the stories at the first half of the book that are all just business-as-usual type typical day kinda stuff: but it really pays off in the long run because the grounding in the mundane nature of Mega City life makes the impact of nuclear war hit all the harder. I mean - it's not as if nuclear war needs help in making a spectacle: but you know it's like if you were watching Eastenders and it's all about hanging around the Queen Vic and who slept with who and all that and then - one day - they're all carrying kalashnikovs and eating the bodies of the dead because there's no more food left: it's more hardcore because you have such a good sense of what life was like before the war.

Also: I just love the way it builds. The beginnings of it are all just so comparatively humble and small-scale and even tho I knew what happened (thanks to The A to Z to Judge Dredd) I was still shocked when things started falling into place and the way that kept ramping things up until - well - they're blowing apart whole planets with nuclear missiles [8]. On the wikipedia page for The Apocalypse War (I wanted to see if I could find the exact reference but didn't have any luck - oh well) it says that one of the main impetuses for the storyline was that John Wagner and Alan Grant both felt that Mega City One had gotten too big and so they wanted to do something to bring it down to a more manageable size - the upshot of this for the reader (well - for me anyhow) is a sense of destruction and carnage that I don't think I've ever seen anywhere else in a comic (or - well - anywhere really [9]): in fact the best way I can think to describe it is - it's like you're a kid and you've just spent ages and ages and ages building up a big little city-thing out of lego (or whatever) - well The Apocalypse War is like your little brother or sister marching into the room and wantonly smashing their way through the whole thing with a manic grin on their face: that's the level of horror we're talking about here (I know I know - you might want to have a nice calming cup of tea standing by ready for when you're done).

But yeah: you wanna know what Judge Dredd is about - why he's awesome, why people keep trying to making films with him, why he's a British institution: you couldn't go much wrong with this collection.

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[1] As drawn by Ian Gibson (even tho for some reason the credits on the page says it's by "Emberton"(?): I dunno maybe that was his pen-name or something?)

[2] And just in case there's some newbies who've only just joined us at the back: 2000AD is the weekly science-fiction anthology series that Judge Dredd appears in (well - at least until the 1990 when the Judge Dredd: The Megazine first appeared). But that's why ever part of of a Judge Dredd story comes in little 5 or 6 page chunks. (and seeing how Britain's other favourite science-fictional mainstay Doctor Who also (used to) come out in distinct "to be continued" parts - maybe there's some part of the national psyche that gets off on our entertainment being withholding? Or - I dunno - maybe it's just a hungover from rationing and that if people get everything that they wanted right away then they would just explode or something...

[3] Like it says on the wikipedia page for 1997 in music: "Perhaps most important is the beginning of what has become known as the punk rock explosion. 1977 was the year of formation of The Avengers, Bad Brains, Black Flag, Crass, Discharge, Fear, The Flesh Eaters, The Germs, The Misfits, 999, The Pagans, Plasmatics, VOM, The Weirdos, and X.1977 also saw the release of several pivotal albums in the development of punk music. Widely-acknowledged as masterpieces and among the earliest first full-length purely punk albums, The Clash by The Clash, The Damned's Damned, Damned, Damned, the Dead Boys' Young, Loud and Snotty, Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers' L.A.M.F., The Jam's In the City, the Ramones' Rocket to Russia, Richard Hell & the Voidoids' Blank Generation, the Sex Pistols' Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols, Television's Marquee Moon, and Wire's Pink Flag are usually considered their respective masterpieces, and kick-started punk music as the musical genre it eventually became". [4] 

[4] Pretty sure that I've already linked to Baaaddad's Cliched Memories of Punk somewhere on here before - but what the hey: here you go again.

[5] And if you're looking to trash some of your illusions that check out this Guardian Interview: "John Lydon: I don't hate Pink Floyd: Contrary to his infamous T-shirt slogan, the punk-rock patriarch is such a fan of the prog-rock royals that he came close to accepting an invitation to perform live with them." (sigh).

[6] Which apparently is down to the fact that Brian Bolland (who's way more known now for drawing the covers to things like Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol and (urg) Fables) takes such a long time to finish his (frankly gorgeous-looking) artwork.

[7] The Doomsday Scenario is a story that came out back when I was reading 2000AD and The Judge Dredd Megazine and the build-up was so big and the let-down so huge and left me so disappointed that it's pretty much the reason why I decided to give up reading 2000AD and The Judge Dredd Megazine (and also: because - you know - comics are for kids and who wants to still be reading them when they're an adult and stuff? Ha).

[8] It's like the end of the criminally under-rated Terminator 3: only more so.

[9] Yeah there's Terminator 3 mentioned above - but goes the poetic route and shows you the destruction from space so it's hard to get a real sense of the horror. I guess that scene in T2 is more what I'm talking about - Sarah Conner rattling the fence at the playground (you all know the bit I mean - right?).

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 Links: Dredd Reckoning Review, Geek Syndicate Review.

Further reading: Judge Dredd: The Cursed Earth Saga, Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 06, Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 07, Judge Anderson: Satan, The Batman/Judge Dredd Files.

All comments welcome.