Prog 10 - Cover

Nice cover by Carlos Ezquerra. Dredd facing off against Call-Me-Kenneth.

This would be Ezquerras last Dredd for almost five years. Ezquerra would go back to drawing for Battle and would then go on to create 'Strontium Dog' with John Wagner for Starlord before coming back to 2000ad.

Prog 9 - Judge Dredd

Our story opens up at the 'Robot of the Year' show. An onlooker comments that the robot looks like it's crying tears. The salesman confirms it. Yep! It's crying tears...it's a new model of robot that's almost human! It can think, it can feel, but most of it all...it obeys!

Dredd and another Judge observe this hideous act.
Suddenly, the perp they were looking for makes his play and starts gunning down guards at the robot show. Dredd and fellow Judge, Diablo, respond.

Their perp is a cripple in a robo-chair! The judges bullets can't penetrate the chairs shield. The perp is angry because the ransom wasn't paid and releases a poison gas into the air. Dredd manages to pull down his respirator but for Diablo, it's too late. To save the rest of the people at the show, Dredd blasts a hole in the showdome and the gas is let out. Mega-City's air purification system should take care of it.

But it's too late...
The perp had dropped a blanket in the confusion and now Dredd has a 'Police Bloodhound Robot' to take up the scent.
The bloodhound follows Dredds orders and informs Dredd that they'll intercept the perp in a matter of seconds but, disturblingly, asks Dredd in a proud way 'Am I not clever?' Dredd tells the machine to get on with it's job.

Dredd catches up to the perp and realising that he can't shoot through the robo-chairs shield...he can still shoot the robo-chair!
The robo-chair swerves off the road and crashes, killing the perp, and Dredd makes an astute observation.
A nice precursor to the first Dredd 'mini' Epic 'The Robot Wars'.

The Robot Wars signals the return of John Wagner to writing Dredd although this wasn't his first Dredd script. His first was 'Brainblooms' from Prog 18.

Typical early Wagner Dredd is Dredds comment to Diablo after they see the show robot melt...'I prefer old fashioned robots! Stupid things with no feelings. They cause no problems!'. Which probably goes a long way to explain Dredds 'relationship' with Walter.

The artwork on this strip is by Ron Turner. Turner is totally unsuitable for a Dredd strip and tries his best but it's not good...it's awful. He even manages to make Kevin O'Neills designs for the Heavy Metal Kids look dull and lifeless and that 'Bloodhound Robot' looks all kinds of out of place.
Turner is probably best known for his Rick Random:Space Detective strip, which is quiet good...but his Dredd...the less said the better.

Prog 8 - Judge Dredd

Dredd gets the call from HQ just as the car drives past him. Dredd turns off his lawmaster lights, switches on his infra-red night sight on his helmet and follows at a distance behind the stolen car..er..piece of art. It's not the first car 'Art theft' in that sector and he wants to get to the Mr. Big and his cronies behind the crimes.

The car pulls into Krilz Kars Auto Market...as Krilz appears he notices Judge Dredd walking towards the building. He shouts for the doors to be shut...but Dredd uses a high explosive and blasts the doors apart. He enters and tells Krilz that he's under arrest. Krilz orders one of his men to shoot Dredd with his 'plastic skin spray-gun' Dredd is blinded and Krilz men move in for the kill, but before they do, they want Dredd to remove his helmet...Dredd obliges, to the shock and horror of Krilz and his gang.
With the gang in shock...Dredd guns them down. He removes the plastic from his helmet, puts it back on and pursues an escaping Krilz!

Outside Krilz is on a high speed 'walk-eezee' (A moving sidewalk)trying to escape Dredd. He shouts at Dredd that he'll never catch him. Dredd has other ideas and orders the walk-eezee to go in reverse. Dredd gets his man.

This is the worst Dredd story to date. Dredds quip at the end about the law should never be put in reverse just made me groan out loud. This was Charles Herring's only Dredd story and thank Grud for that. This was simply horrifying. Herring only wrote one more script for 2000ad and it's a MACH 1 script in Prog 12....my money is on it being really bad too.

The problem with the script is...everything! Since when is grand theft auto a 'art' crime? Doesn't make sense, and then we have Dredd take off his helmet to reveal his face. I think at this time they were toying around with the idea that Dredd is a cyborg or an alien or something that makes his face so shocking for people to look at. Really stupid idea. It's not the first time Dredd would remove his helmet but the other times make more sense than this idiotic one.

It seems that Mills was scraping the bottom of the barrel to run this story. He must have sighed a huge sigh of relief when Wagner returned with 'Robots' in the next prog.

Art wise, it's horrible too. Not Belardinellis best work and it looks totally unsuitable for Dredd. It's so lifeless and stale. You can tell that Belardinelli was trying his hardest to imitate McMahon in some of his Dredd poses. It just didn't work for him.

Prog 7 - Judge Dredd

A gang of muggers are working over a victim near the Statue of Judgement until Dredd arrives.
Dredd kills one, another surrenders and the last member makes a run for it. The gang member that surrenders asks Dredd to let him go because he was forced into going along with the gang. But Dredd isn't buying it "and they forced you to take your share of the loot, too? Don't make me sick!"

Dredd has the regular cops take the criminal way. Meanwhile, the escaped gang member, Ringo, has hijacked an 'air' taxi, basically a flying cab, and starts shooting up the city. Ringo hates the Judges and "all they stand for".

Dredd takes his lawrifle from his lawmaster. Ringo is raining down bullets on Dredd...but Dredd is calm.
He goes to the top of the Statue of Judgment, takes aim, and blasts Ringo out of the sky. Ringo falls...impaling himself on the Statue of Liberty.
And we end with typical Dredd humor.
Very straightforward Dredd story.

It features the first appearance of The Statue of Judgement and it's appropriate that it towers over the Statue of Liberty.

This must have been drawn before Ezquerras cityscape was done because it looks like the buildings were added in later into the background on the splash page. We have police officers show up to take away the lawbreaker. The police weren't phased out that this stage.

Also of note is the criminals comments that "He ain't a robot - he's human! I think!" The reason is that the further Dredd develops...he seems more machine than man.

Prog 6 - Judge Dredd

Seriously!

Who calls themselves Frankenstein 2? What is he, a sequel? Then again this is Mega City One, so it's probably not all that unusual to have citizens with whacked out names.

Anyways, Dredd follows in hot pursuit. The control cameras have been keeping tabs on Frankesteins goons. The control center tells Dredd that the stolen ambulance went into a subway but never appeared on the other side. Dredd blows out one of the subway walls knowing that there has to be a secret entrance to Frankensteins hideout and that's why the ambulance disappeared.

Frankensteins cronies are waiting for him.

But they are no match for Dredds awesome firepower.
Dredd dismounts his lawmaster and enters the hideout. The hideout is like a huge cold human storage room. Bodies are lined up in rows no doubt awaiting Frankensteinto touch. Dredd interrupts Frankenstein 2 as he is finishing with a millionaire client.
Frankenstein tries to bribe Dredd by offering him any spare parts he wants when his own fail him. Dredd refuses 'You can't bribe a Judge!'. Frankenstein was just playing for time, he throws a light switch in an attempt to blind and confuse Dredd.
But Dredd's anti-dazzle visor protects him and he takes down Frankenstein. Typical final last words from Dredd. Nice dark humor.

This strip was McMahons first ever drawn Dredd. Not first published, but first drawn. You can tell that he was probably told to ape Ezquerras' style. Eventually McMahon would branch out into his own style and it would make him a legend to 2000ad and Dredd fans everywhere.

This is also the first time we learn that Dredds helmet visor is anti-glare.

The crime of 'bodysnatching' or 'Organ Legging' would be revisited again and again in Dredds world.

Another interesting note here is that the strip was probably censored. Because it was McMahons first Dredd...it predates all the other stories published so far. Dredd would have just blown Frankenstein away instead of arresting him. You can see from his pose in the above page that Dredd, in all likelihood, shot and killed him in the original pages.

Prog 5 - Judge Dredd

Dredd is relaxing, reading a law book, in his apartment when he is rudely interrupted by a 'Sensor-Round' display. Maria, Dredd's cleaning lady enters the room with one Kevin O'Neill, the Senor-Round salesman. Dredd wants the 'ferret faced parasite' thrown out of his apartment. Maria nags Dredd, all he ever thinks of is the law and never has fun.

A group of citizens enter Dredds apartment. Dredd isn't too pleased until one of them tells Dredd why. There has been a murder on the 200th floor - the President of Sensor-Round is dead!

Dredd investigates. It seems the President has been killed by some 'monster!'.

Over the next few days other top Sensor-Round executives meet strange deaths.
Dredd is on patrol when he gets a call from HQ saying that they have identified a voice print from the scene of the last murder. The voice belongs to the curator of the Movie Special Effects Museum. Dredd decides to pay the curator a visit.

At the museum Dredd sees bloodspots on the robot 'monsters'. Everything makes sense to him now. The curator has been using these movie monsters to kill the Sensor-Round executives. The curator and killer turn out to be the Sensor-Round salesman - Kevin O'Neill!

O'Neill confesses to Dredd. He killed those executives because they ruined the movie monsters of old. Nobody wants to see those monsters anymore because Sensor-Round offer dream-worlds in their stead. O' Neill flees. Dredd follows in pursuit...but O'Neill has activated the greatest movie monster of them all - Krong!
The mechanical monster breaks out of the museum and smashes his way across the city to destroy the Sensor-Round building. Dredd follows in his lawmaster desperately trying to stop the giant robot ape.

Krong reaches the building and begins to climb it - ripping it apart at the same time.

The only way Dredd can stop it is by ramming his lawmaster down it's throat! It works and the creature falls landing on a hapless Kevin O'Neill.
Even though he left 2000ad, Carlos Ezquerrah came back to do this strip. This is his first published Dredd.

The 'Robot Ape' story was inspired by the 1976 remake of King Kong and the 'Kevin O'Neill' character in the strip was named after 2000ad's Kevin O'Neill. O'Neill was heavily into movie special effect back then and had even done a King Kong fanzine.

This story also contains the first appearance of Maria, Dredd's landlady. Although here she's referred to as a cleaning lady. Maria was introduced to give Dredd a mother figure and some sort of balance. Dredd was so robotic that Mills felt that Maria would humanise him more.

Prog 5 - Cover

Judge Dredd's first cover!

Dredd is so tiny, he might as well not appear on it at all. It's hard to get a sense of danger for him because the reader is so distant from the action. The cover must have been drawn before the first published Dredd story because the city doesn't resemble Mega-City One at all. It looks too static and not 'organic' enough. Heck! Some of the building look like martini glasses!

It does get bonus points for featuring a giant robotic ape though.

Below is Brian Bolland's cover for a US Dredd reprint title. The title reprints the 'Krong' Dredd story inside and while Prog 5's cover tells the story better, the cover would have stood out more if the artist (Barry Mitchell) or management had approached it the Bolland way. Artwise, it's unfair to compare both (not many people can compete with a Bolland cover) but just from a layout perspective, not necessarily the humor angle, it's definitely more up close and personal.

Love that Bolland cover. Krong does make a re-appearance 30 years later in a Judge Anderson story: Big Robots (Judge Dredd Megazine 257 - 264).

Prog 4 - Judge Dredd

Mutants break into Mega-City One and Dredd is there to stop them. He looks like he's having a lot of fun killing them too judging by his dialogue in the page above.

Dredd quips as he blows them away that fighting the mutants is 'just the sort of soft job a judge like him needs!'

The mutants are getting massacred by Dredd and retreat back into their territory outside the city.

Dredd is informed by Justice HQ that the mutants, The Brotherhood of Darkness, have kidnapped the Mayors son and he must follow the mutants and rescue him.

Dredd adopts a disguise. He puts on a robe, probably from one of the fallen mutants, and decides to fool his way into the Brotherhood as they trek their way outside the city.
We get our first glimpse of what lies outside Mega City One. It's an atomic wilderness. A radioactive nightmare as a result of the Atomic War.
Dredd gets his insects screwed up. In the first panel, it's a Praying Mantis and in the panel where the Brotherhood are barbqueing...it's a grasshopper, not the mantis he saw. I guess they don't teach that sort of thing at the Academy.

Dredd sees that the Mayors son isn't the only Mega City citizen the mutants have kidnapped and while the Brotherhood are feasting, he makes his move...
After getting rid of the guards he frees the Mayors son.
He's in the process of freeing the other captives when the Brotherhood spot him. He puts the lawmasters lights on full beam, temporarily blinding the mutants and throws a few flares for good measure.

Dredd makes his escape with the rescued slaves back to Mega City One.
This story is important for two reasons. One, it introduces Mutants into Dredd's world and two, the Atomic wasteland, which would later be named the Cursed Earth.

The script was written by Malcolm Shaw. Of the first fifteen Dredd stories commissioned by Mills, Shaw wrote seven of them. Of course Mills probably, heavily rewrote them...like he did with all the early scripts.

Prog 3 - Judge Dredd

The problem Pat Mills faced with Dredd initially was creating crimes for this Lawman of the Future to deal with. That's why he rejected 'The Bank Raid' script. It was too ordinary a crime for Dredd to deal with.

This chapter, 'The New You' was written by Mills and was McMahons second drawn strip. McMahons first Dredd strip was 'Frankenstein 2' from Prog 6.

From the splash page we learn that New York is now part of Mega City 1. There's a dangerous criminal Scarface Levine...and he's on the run. He reckons that by getting his face changed he'll be able to escape detection from the law. The face change clinics are really a great concept. Wagner would later have some fun with this idea when Dredd has one of his 'moon' adventures. The criminals in that story have their faces changed to resemble classic comedians.

Levine forces 'A New You' face change clinic staff member to change his appearance and minutes later he's back on the streets. But Levine is arrogant. He realises the 'law cameras' can't identify him and decides to pull one over on Dredd. (The law camera have the words 'Police Control' on it, obviously Judges haven't taken total control of the law yet.)Big mistake...Dredd recognizes him. Levine panics and races away. Dredd pursues him.
Another point of interest is that Dredd's bike is now referred to as a 'Lawmaster'.
Dredd manages to jump on top of the speeding vechicle. Levine tries to shoot him off...but he is no match for Dredd and the judge administers justice. Dredd hops back onto his lawmaster before Levines vehicle crashes. Notice Levines face in that last panel above. Initially he was drawn with the bullet going through his head but because of the recent fallout over 'Action' it was censored and the ending of the strip was changed. Dialogue was altered so that Levine was slowly dying from the shot and he would be put into a timestretcher jail instead of just being blown away by Dredd. Dredd explains to Levine how he knew it was him, even though his face had been changed.
and we end with a classic Dredd line.
I say 'end' even though there is one more page. The last page was drawn by Carlos Ezquerra for the rejected pilot 'Bank Raid'. Mills thought that the artwork was so good that it would have been a shame to waste it and it was also on the back page of the comic which would have been in color. So, it would make for a great poster of what Mega City 1 looked like. He wasn't wrong. It's a great piece of art...and it has another classic Dredd line.
You'll notice the kid eating the ice-cream with his mom. From the 'Bank raid' script the kid tells his mom that he wants to be a Judge when he 'grows up' and she says 'Hush Tommy! and for goodness sake don't drop any litter or you may never grow up!'

Another reason why Mills tacked this page on was to give the impression that Dredd's pursuit of Levine was no big deal and he carries on his patrol as if it was nothing new. It's all just part of everyday law enforcement when you're a Judge.

Prog 2 - Judge Dredd

The first appearance of Judge Dredd occurred in Prog 2 because it was in development hell for a year and wasn't prepared for the first issue...which worked out fine for Pat Mills because it gave the readers another reason to pick up Prog 2.

A few things to notice here...It's New York and not Mega-City One yet. The text also says that the Judges were elected by the people to enforce the law. I always understood that the Judges took over to fill the power vacuum left by President 'Bad Bob' Booths Atomic World War fiasco. I don't think they were voted in at all.

The image of the Judge on the bike is a lifted piece of artwork from the original unpublished Dredd pilot 'Bank Raid' by artist and co-creator Carlos Ezquerra. The badge on the judge, if you look closely, just reads 'Judge'. It was decided later that the badges would have the Judges individual names on them so you could tell them apart. It wasn't caught in time for this splash page.

From the 'splash' we are infromed that there are a bunch of criminals holed up in the direlict Empire State Building. A judge is approaching to take them in...one of the criminals is afraid. 'Whitey' quiets him down with a great piece of dialogue 'Judges can bleed too!'. It is a perfect summation of how tough and near indestructable these 'new' law enforcers are. They're a special breed.

On page two Whitey is planning on killing the judge. One of the gang is hoping that the Judge approaching is Dredd, that Dredd is the 'toughest of the Judges!'. It's clear from the second page that Dredd is a name to be feared in the criminal world. His name is mentioned three times on this page before we actually see him.

Whitey kills the judge but is disappointed to find out that it's not Dredd but a Judge Alvin that he has murdered.
The scene changes to Justice HQ where we see Dredd in conversation with the Chief Judge.
The Chief Judge at this time is Chief Judge Goodman although here he is just called 'Grand Judge'. From the 'Grand' Judges dialogue we find out that Dredd is a damn good Judge. Crime is down because of him.

As they are talking a report comes in that Judge Alvin's bike has returned with Alvins dead body tied to it. There's a note attached to the body. It reads 'Who you gonna send against me now, punks. Judge Whitey.'

The 'Grand' Judge is mad as hell, he wants to bomb the building,that Whitey and gang are in, off the face of the earth!

Dredd steps in. He wants to go it alone.
Later, Whitey and gang hear the siren of the bike of another Judge come towards the building. Whitey is going to bag himself another Judge. But the bike is riderless. It's on automatic. It's just been a decoy.

Dredd appears behind them and takes out the gang.
Whitey, he leaves to last. Dredd punches Whitey knocking the judge helmet off his head. 'You committed the most odious crime of all, Whitey - killing a judge!'

Dredd has sentenced Whitey to life. Whitey is unrepentant. He tells Dredd that no prison can hold him and he'll bust out. He hates the Judges and all that they stand for. But Dredd isn't going to send him to just any old prison...no, Dredd is sending him to Devils Island for life!
On the last page we see Devils Island in all it's glory! The 'Grand' Judge thinks that Life on Devils Island is a stern sentence but in all reality the Dredd of later strips would just have executed Whitey for killing a judge.

What's interesting about the last page is that Dredd is hanging badges of the fallen on a wall..and there aren't many of them. The Judges weren't the dominant force here as they were in alter issues. In fact in later strips from this early Dredd period...it's seems as if there are just a handful of Judges and the Police weren't totally phased out yet.

It's interesting to note the 'Grand' Judges comment to Dredd about going out like Alvin because Goodmans days would be numbered. He is assassinated in 'The Day The Law Died!'.

All in all, a quiet opening for a character that would go on to be 2000ads most popular strip. Wagner and Ezquerra, co-creators of Dredd, didn't write or draw this strip. Wagner and Ezquerra had some issues with management at the time and walked away. Wagner would later return with his first Dredd strip 'BrainBlooms' and the magnificent 'Robot Wars' to take back over his creation. Ezquerra did have a Dredd story in the can before his falling out with management...but wouldn't come back to drawing Dredd until years later with 'The Apocalypse War!'

Prog 1 - Meet Tharg!

Tharg is the alien editor of 2000ad or rather, the smart-ass persona that the Editors hid behind when readers pointed out mistakes etc.

Pretty fun concept to have a 'fictional' character as Editor. Tharg wasn't the only one either...Starlord had...well...Starlord and Tornado had Big E or rather Dave Gibbons dressed up in a Superhero costume (I kid you not!)

Tharg even appeared in a good few strips in 2000ad written by various writers including Alan Moore. Tharg is so much part of 2000ad culture that to get rid of the 'Green Bonce' 2000ad would never be the same.

Tharg had his own language too. For example - Splundig Vur Thrigg! meant Farewell!
Here's the list of 'Editors' that have been 'Tharg' over the years -

Pat Mills (1977)
Kelvin Gosnell (1977–1978)
Steve MacManus (1978–1987)
Richard Burton (1987–1993)
Alan McKenzie (1993–1994)
John Tomlinson (1994–1996)
David Bishop (1996–2000)
Andy Diggle (2000–2002)
Matt Smith (2002–present)

You also got money for each letter printed in the comic...waaaay better than Stan Lees 'No-Prize'.

The best thing on this page though is the promise of a great new strip in issue two - Judge Dredd!!!

Next up - Prog 2!

Songs from the key of Dredd!

More 'music' from Dredd. Love that Bisley artwork.