Judge Dredd: Superfiend

It's been 10 years since the release of the 'Dredd' movie and with no sequel and no news on the purported Mega City One TV series we're left with just the two official screen adventures of everyone's favourite fascist, future cop, the Stallone movie which looked right but did everything else wrong and the aforementioned Karl Urban movie which got most everything right except sharing a name with that previous pile of crap and releasing in the wake of The Raid, but we do have a couple of unofficial releases that we're going to explore beginning with the the Adi Shankar cartoon series, "Judge Dredd: Superfiend'.

JD:S is a six episode series made in the hyper-frenetic 90s MTV style of animation.  I wasn't really watching cartoons then so the only visual reference I have for you would be 'Ren and Stimpy'.  The story loosely follows the established Judge Death backstory of Sydney De'Ath, the son of a homicidal dentist who grows up to become a Judge before deciding that as all crime is committed by the living then life itself must be a crime, gets himself all corpsey looking and goes on a rampage but that's pretty much the end of the similarities. Here Deadworld and Dredd's world are one and the same, Rico has only just escaped from Titan and is trying to bond with his daughter, Vienna, and the Angel Gang are selling Stookie in a Cursed Earth disco crater.  

The story just about holds up and has some fun moments and dialogue - "Dredd to control. I'm up to my ankles in entrails here, what do you want?" - but the frenetic nature and lack of any sort of depth soon wear away at you but you can entertain yourself by easter egg hunting - my favourite was the brief appearance of Fergee.

If you'd prefer to watch the six episodes separately you can do so here or you can watch them edited into a handy continuous story, without all those pesky credit sequences, in the player below.

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Here Comes...Dredd

Bod was (most famously) a 13 episode animated series created in 1975.  It was based on a quartet of books by Joanne and Michael Cole (who also created 'Fingerbobs'), featured narration by John Le Mesurier and music by Derek Griffiths (including that instantly recognisable theme tune).  It's fabulous stuff and has deservedly earned it's place in the annals of children's television and in the hearts of successive generations.

Particularly it would seem in the heart of the animator behind HappyToast where it shares space with 2000ADs most iconic character Judge Dredd because he has created this most wonderful mash-up of the two which also features the Angel Gang, the four Dark Judges and a perfect Le Mesurier impersonation.

This has been around for a while now and deserves lots more love because it's a gloriously daft work of twisted genius and I absolutely adore it.



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Judge Anderson: Year One

Alec Worley
Abaddon Books

The untold story behind Mega-City One's most famous telepath and Judge Dredd partner, Judge Anderson, in her first year on the job!
Mega-City One, 2100.  Cassandra Anderson is destined to become Psi-Division’s most famous Judge, foiling supernatural threats and policing Mega-City One’s hearts and souls. For now, she’s fresh out of Academy and Psi-Div themselves are still finding their feet. 
Heartbreaker: After a string of apparently random, deadly assaults by customers at a dating agency, Anderson is convinced a telepathic killer is to blame. Putting her career on the line, the newly-trained Psi-Judge goes undercover to bring the romance-hating murderer to justice, with the big Valentine’s Day parade coming up.
The Abyss: Sent to interrogate Moriah Blake, leader of the notorious terror group ‘Bedlam,’ Anderson gets just one snippet of information – Bedlam’s planning on detonating a huge bomb – before Blake’s followers take over the Block. It’s a race against time, and Anderson’s on her own amongst the inmates.
A Dream of the Nevertime: Anderson – a rookie no more, with a year on the streets under her belt – contracts what appears to be a deadly psychic virus, and must explore the weirdest reaches of the Cursed Earth in search of a cure. She must face mutants, mystics and all the strangeness the land can throw at her as she wrestles weird forces.

I thoroughly enjoyed the couple of early Dredd books that have appeared over the last few years (see here & here) and so when I noticed this one I couldn't resist and jumped right in.

Leaving aside the very inaccurate cover art that has left Anderson's uniform bereft of shoulder eagle and chain this is a fairly accurate rendition of the Anderson that we all fell for in The Dark Judges storyline.  She's irreverent and fearless but here is wracked with doubts over the judge system and beset by worries that she's not up to the job.  It's not something I really buy into.  the years at the academy would have weeded that out of her but it does add a dimension to her interior monologue that Dredd obviously lacks.

The 3 and a smidge stories collected here are solid action pieces with the psi judge taking down various rogue psychics, mutants and terrorists across Mega City One and the Cursed Earth.  Worley has a fairly solid hand on the craziness of Dredd universe but has kept a fairly tight rein so the Valentine Parade feels suitable OTT rather than just silly and Marion the cow-bot is a sympathetic character behind the John Wayne-isms.

As I said I found the soul searching to be a little forced and given too central a place in the stories but other than that this proved to be another successful and very readable collection of stories allowing us a glimpse at the unreported years of some of 2000ADs finest.

Buy it here - Judge Anderson: Year One

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Judge Dredd: Year Two

Michael Carroll, Matt Smith, Cavan Scott
Abaddon Books

Rookie Year's Over
Mega-City One, 2081. Judge Joe Dredd’s been on the beat for a year. He’s made tough calls, tackled hard bitten perps, and seen the consequences of his choices come back to bite him. 
But he’s not done learning yet. Dredd’s second year on the sked will see him back out in the Cursed Earth, where right and wrong are questions that go beyond the easy answers of the Law; he’ll tackle an apparent serial killer—or more than one?—targeting journalists; and he’ll take his first real beat down, leaving him bent and broken with only his badge and his conviction to protect him.

I read the first of these Dredd prose collections a couple of years back and quite enjoyed it - my review is here.  I had some problems with the rapidity of Rico's descent into corruption - to go that far under in a year seemed very unlikely - and in the first story here he's been arrested and is on trial and he's not the only one.

Tarred by their shared genetic heritage Dredd also finds himself under intense SJS scrutiny as he's packed off to the worst possible sector and then out into the Cursed Earth and all of this is just in the first of the three stories.  Indeed, Michael Carroll's 'Righteous Man' proved to be my favourite of the trio and that's no slight to the others as I pretty much enjoyed the hell out of this book.

2000ADs editor Matt Smith takes over for the second story - 'Down and Out' - as echoes of the Dredd movie (the good one) abound with him injured and making his way up (and then down again...and then up another) block full of gangers before the book closes with Cavan Scott's 'Alternative Facts' which, with it's thinly veiled Trump presidency plot, offers up a murder mystery, serial killer, fake news plot and a cathartic ending.

There's nothing here to shake the Dredd world to it's core but then that isn't really the point.  It's just a fun romp into the mysterious early years of our favourite fascist lawman.

Buy it here - Judge Dredd Year Two

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If you enjoy what we do here on Wyrd Britain and would like to help us continue then we would very much welcome a donation towards keeping the blog going - paypal.me/wyrdbritain

Tales of the Dead Man

John Wagner & John Ridgway
Rebellion

I was completely taken in by this when I first read it many years ago. This time all the clues are there, the 'Have you seen his eyes?' part in particular. It's beautifully written and paced to perfection. More happens in one two page Wagner spread than in most writers entire issues. He is the master of the 5 page 2000ad format. There's just no-one to touch him, Pat Mills included.

John Wagner

It's also good to be able to say that after all these years since it was published Wagner is still nailing it. I've picked up a few Dredds lately and they've all been good. The only slightly duff one was vol 14 (I think) of the Complete Dredd books. It had the first Ennis stories in it and it was pretty poor in places.

Ridgway I have a strange relationship with. At first glance I find his style quite a turn-off but once I'm into the story his artwork is the perfect place to be.

I'm so glad I picked this up. I remembered it as being proper good and 20 odd years later it's still a real  ride.

Judge Dredd: Year One

Michael Carroll, Al Ewing, Matt Smith
Abaddon Books

Three celebrated Judge Dredd writers take you back to Dredd’s first year on the streets of Mega- City One as a full-eagle Judge, in three thrilling novellas.
Bred to dispense Justice, the young Dredd is not the wizened veteran we know, but a Judge with built-in determination and little experience. In City Fathers, the brutal murder of a Justice Department-sanctioned spy uncovers something new and dangerous in the sector’s murky black market. Unless Dredd can stop it, chaos will be unleashed. 
In Cold Light of Day, a savage killing spree results in the deaths of two highlyregarded Judges, and many consider Dredd to be responsible: a decision he made five years earlier – while he was still a cadet – has come back to haunt him. The third story in the collection will debut in this collection and is guaranteed to thrill.

 3 prose novellas featuring the early street years of Judge Joseph Dredd two of which - Smith's and Carroll's - have appeared previously as ebooks but I can't get into the whole reading from a screen thing so happily this dead tree edition is most appreciated. I've read a few 2000ad novels in the past and with a couple of exceptions they were a fairly turgid bunch so curiosity but no great expectations sent me into this but I really enjoyed it.

Al Ewing

All three stories are pretty much typical Dredd shorts with the exception that he is still a little inexperienced and the other judges have yet to learn to be in awe / fear of him and neither have the residents of Mega City One.

Matt Smith

The three novellas touch on several key areas of the Dredd universe - control of the population (City Fathers), the brutality of the justice system, the city and the Cursed Earth (Cold Light of Day) and the corruption of Rico (Wear Iron).  They are all good, solid, fun reads with only Rico's complete corruption ringing false.  The level of contempt for the badge he displays would have had the SJS down on him in seconds.

There's nothing here to upset the applecart and as a prequel you know how everything is going to pan out but these are three entertaining Dredd backup stories that serve (and serve well) to put some detail into an aspect of Dredd's life that the comic has never covered.

Buy it here - Judge Dredd Year One: Omnibus