How old is Dredd currently

[The dude]

Is anyone ever going to properly explain how Dredd can keep on going? How old is the old goat now? 80 years old? Will he be killed off?

[Mardroid]

He had recent regerative treatment, although that was mainly skin and muscle tissue. He refused the bone and internal organ treatment. I believe his lungs are artificial so they might not be an issue*. That would go some way in keeping him young.

There will always be a way of keeping him around as long as Tharg and co. want. Thankfully, being a sci-fi comic it doesn't require so much suspension of disbelief.

* I'm assuming if actually paper it's treated somehow. (Why on earth did they not come up with another substance in a sci-fi comic?)

[TordelBack]

Isn't it Rico Jr that has an artificial lung (and chin?). I may forgetting Dredd getting similar, but as late as Day of Chaos he was have Med Judges scrub his (natural) lungs after he went into Borisenko's burning bunker.

Also, I take 'paper' to be a colloquialism for some sort of funky carbon-fibre arrangement.

[Mardroid]

I... think you're right their Tordelback. I don't think I ever actually read the story, but read about it on here... and got them confused.

[Leigh S]

I love "paper lung" and always imagined it being a retro nomenclature rather than actual paper.  didnt Dredd get that in the explosion he took the brunt of in the post-Oz "Hitman" story?

[Richard]

Could be a typo. What auto-corrects to paper?

[wedgeski]

Could be a typo. What auto-corrects to paper?

Scissors... no wait, that's what beats paper, sorry.

[TordelBack]

I love "paper lung" and always imagined it being a retro nomenclature rather than actual paper.  didnt Dredd get that in the explosion he took the brunt of in the post-Oz "Hitman" story?

That rings a bell! While we've lost so many Dredd historians in recent years that would known such things, luckily this is clearly a question for Greg M.

[JayzusB.Christ]

I love "paper lung" and always imagined it being a retro nomenclature rather than actual paper.  didnt Dredd get that in the explosion he took the brunt of in the post-Oz "Hitman" story?

Yep, that's definitely when he got the paper lung.  [spoiler]A bullet through the 'E' on his badge was the culprit.  [/spoiler]What an amazing story, by the way - and this immediately after the monumental Oz.  The foundations of Button Man were being laid right there.

Mind you, Dredd's done quite well in the getting shot department. [spoiler]Another bullet went through his brain[/i[/spoiler]] in the Cal storyline, and he was up and running again in no time.

[Greg M.]

That rings a bell! While we've lost so many Dredd historians in recent years that would known such things, luckily this is clearly a question for Greg M.

You rang, m'lord? Dredd does lose a lung to the Hitman, but I don't remember it being replaced with the paper lung. All we know about it is that "the replacement's good - better than the original, really. Good, clean, new tissue. Cultured - we grow them from -" And then Dredd interrupts.

I think the paper lung is what Rico gets in 'Sector House', but I'll have to check.

[Greg M.]

I checked. Rico gets a carbon fibre lung in 'Sector House'. It lets him hold his breath for 7 minutes.

[Funt Solo]

I'm only up to prog 1977 [spoiler](but I can guess that the medivac shuttle explosion didn't permanently answer this thread's question)[/spoiler] and I noticed that post-Chaos Day, Dredd tends to lose fights more often. Luck, colleagues, training: these are the things that rescue the old man.

[JayzusB.Christ]

That rings a bell! While we've lost so many Dredd historians in recent years that would known such things, luckily this is clearly a question for Greg M.

You rang, m'lord? Dredd does lose a lung to the Hitman, but I don't remember it being replaced with the paper lung. All we know about it is that "the replacement's good - better than the original, really. Good, clean, new tissue. Cultured - we grow them from -" And then Dredd interrupts.

I think the paper lung is what Rico gets in 'Sector House', but I'll have to check.

Hmmm, I was absolutely sure that the paper lung thing came from The Hitman.  But not any more.

[Jim_Campbell]

Hmmm, I was absolutely sure that the paper lung thing came from The Hitman.  But not any more.

I have this nagging feeling that the paper lung reference is actually from the start of the Ennis/McCrea Chopper series in the Megazine, but I can't be arsed to dig through the boxes in my garage to confirm that...

[TordelBack]

I've just remembered where the 'paper lung' term comes into it - it's the Dredd Annual text story that leads into The Falucci Tapes. One of the character's sisters is fitted with a set after the Apocalypse War - possibly even the Kneepad Kid himself? Anyone have a copy handy?