Blogging and All that Malarkey Stuff & Nonsense

Malarkey is Andy Clarke, a creative designer with a passion for accessibility and web standards. This is his personal website.

Judge

Forget Superman or the Hulk, the Fantastic Four or Captain America. The coolest comic-book character of all time has to be the mighty Judge Dredd. Trust me, I'm a judge...

Forget Superman or the Hulk, the Fantastic Four or (God forbid) Captain America! When I was a kid there was only one comic book hero, the mighty Judge Dredd.

If all you know about Mega City's most famous chopper-riding, crime-fighting dealer of justice is the 1995 movie with Sylvester Stallone, read on because the original (British) Judge Dredd is way cooler than any paler Hollywood imitation.

Judge (Joe) Dredd has been topping the bill in 2000AD comic since 1977. (Ed: I bought the first edition...) and he is the comic's longest running and most popular character.

Being British, Dredd lacked an American super-hero's predilection to 'do good' after an unfortunate accident. (Home-world exploding - Superman, parents murdered - Batman, radiation experiment gone wrong - Hulk... yada yada.) He was genetically engineered to fight crime in an American 'mega-city' of the future, and although filled with colourful characters, his pages were darker in tone than any comic of the period.

Over the years to come, characters with darker undertones saw a resurgence, (witness the soon-to-be-movie success of Frank Miller's Sin City,) and while Dredd's story context is post-apocalyptic and a dark reflection on the failure of democracy, it is also filled with humour.

Dredd was the proving ground for much of today's comic writing and illustrating talent including Alan Moore (Watchmen, Swampthing), Mike McMahon and Brian Bolland, Cam Kennedy and Ian Gibson. If you have not read Dredd before, go do it now. You won't regret a single minute.

Trust me, I'm a judge... ;)

Replies

  1. #1 On September 6, 2004 10:38 PM Ryan Brill said:

    Congratulations on becoming a WSA judge. That's very cool - mostly because now I've got someone to bribe to get my work featured there. :p

  2. #2 On September 6, 2004 10:46 PM Gordon M said:

    Way to go Andy!

    If I could have picked anyone it would have been you mate. You work damn hard at this stuff and ya got your head screwed on.

    Again, congrats :D

  3. #3 On September 7, 2004 01:37 AM Andrew Krespanis said:

    Aha! I knew there had to be another motive for this post...not that Judge Dredd doesn't rock! (ABC Warriors were cool too, I'm sure you remember them ;)

    Congrats Andy! So it would seem they've moved one Andy (Mr. Budd) to the monthly judges and replaced him with another? Wise choice - you don't want to run out of Andys. (is that the plural?)

  4. #4 On September 7, 2004 02:35 AM Cameron Adams said:

    I think it's a terrible decision. I'd like to call an inquest into the selection process.

  5. #5 On September 7, 2004 10:49 AM Colly said:

    Congratulations on your Jedi-hood. This is good news - I knew it was worth employing that photographer to follow you around a few weeks back. Blackmail is a beautiful thing...

  6. #6 On September 7, 2004 05:09 PM Andy Budd said:

    They only picked you so they wouldn't have to change the name on their site ;-)

    Have fun

  7. #7 On September 7, 2004 05:28 PM Malarkey said:

    Actually... MISTER Budd...

    It was a combination of two things.

    1. My fitting into your gimp suit
    2. Me finally giving in to the Man In Blue's constant advances... ;)

    Seriously, it was a lovely thing to be asked and I hope I can contribute even half as well as you.

    @Colly and Ryan: Bribery and blackmail huh? How could you sink 50 low?

  8. #8 On September 9, 2004 04:14 AM Andrew Krespanis said:

    HAHaahaa... Oh man, you just made me spit my morning coffee all over the computer. Not cool.
    Damn funny, but not cool.

  9. #9 On September 9, 2004 08:18 AM Tim Hill said:

    dude, Johnny Alpha and Chopper ruled as well.
    And I think the strip was called Space Ghost, and had that big guy called GBH and that small guy called Bones, what was the main guy's name in that series?

  10. #10 On September 12, 2004 04:44 AM Patrick H. Lauke said:

    so many pies, not enough fingers...

  11. #11 On September 12, 2004 09:52 AM Malarkey said:

    @ Patrick: mmmmmm, pies...

  12. #12 On September 17, 2004 09:20 AM David Horn said:

    Just checking my feeds after a few days, so I'm late in the congrats.

    However, such great news might have switched emphasis from the 'main' content of the post. The Judge rocks. As do his fellow 2000AD cohorts ... why not a Rogue Trooper movie? or Strontium Dog?

    Animators: stop drawing fish. Nemo II can wait. The Dark Judges, however, are a different kettle altogether.

  13. #13 On September 25, 2004 07:18 AM Jim Amos said:

    Man, I grew up on Dredd and 2000AD. Awesome stuff. The kind of comic you read under blankets with a torch. Was a particular fan of 'Tharg's future shocks', 'ABC Warriors', 'Slaine', and would love to see a movie featuring Rogue Trooper. Wow, how cool would that be?