Things that went over your head...

[GordonR]

TIL that in 1970 the US Govt enacted the RICO act: the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
Could this have been an influence in naming a certain clone?

More likely Wagner was influenced by the relationship between Rico and Joe in Little Caesar (1931).

You’re barking up the wrong tree.  These are Pat Mills names.

Death Game 1999 - the Rollerball rip-off from the Mills-edited Action comic. The protagonist was called Joe….and his antagonist (a very proto-2000AD unkillable cyborg) was called Rico.

[A.Cow]

TIL that in 1970 the US Govt enacted the RICO act: the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
Could this have been an influence in naming a certain clone?

More likely Wagner was influenced by the relationship between Rico and Joe in Little Caesar (1931).

You’re barking up the wrong tree.  These are Pat Mills names.

Death Game 1999 - the Rollerball rip-off from the Mills-edited Action comic. The protagonist was called Joe….and his antagonist (a very proto-2000AD unkillable cyborg) was called Rico.

Fair point; well made.

[JayzusB.Christ]

I vaguely remember Pat saying in an interview that he just likes the name Joe, hence Dredd, Pineapples and Marshal Law.  Rico apparently just sounded like a good gangster name.

[Richard]

In Be Pure! Be Vigilant! Behave! 2000AD and Judge Dredd: The Secret History, page 112, Pat says he chose the name Joe based on his old school, St Joseph's College, where he had a scary teacher who he based his own Dredd stories on.

[JayzusB.Christ]

I shouldn't be such a cynic at Christmas, but that sounds like a bit of retconning of the facts to me; given that he never mentioned that reason before the book. 

[Proudhuff]

Just struck me one of my favorite LPs title could be read in a completely different way: All Mod Cons.

taken me forty years...

[GordonR]

I shouldn't be such a cynic at Christmas, but that sounds like a bit of retconning of the facts to me; given that he never mentioned that reason before the book.

It’s total retconning, to bolster his “I really invented Dredd” gaslighting of today.

Pat’s Dredd was the most heroic Dredd we ever got. Knowing what we know about his schooldays, does it sound likely he’d name a hero after his old school?

[JayzusB.Christ]

There's no denying that his contribution to Dredd is huge, but yeah, I'm struggling to think of an early Mills Dredd where Dredd is anything but a good guy. Joe is just a cool name, and British male comics characters back then got tough, no-nonsense hard-man names like Bill Savage and Jack Tallon.

[sheridan]

Also - isn't it (John) Wagner who keeps naming their characters John, Johnny, Joe or some variant?

[rogue69]

I just realized with the Forum's Favourite Thrill that M.A.C.H Zero spells macho

[AlexF]

It's a more entertaining story if you sing the Village People's "Macho Man" in your head while reading it.

[rogue69]

It's a more entertaining story if you sing the Village People's "Macho Man" in your head while reading it.

Or Sinitta's so macho!

[pert]

or "Macho Duck from Mickey Mouse Disco

[Richard]

Also - isn't it (John) Wagner who keeps naming their characters John, Johnny, Joe or some variant?

The name Joe first appeared in Pat's The Return of Rico.

But I think GordonR and JBC have hit the nail on the head here. Pat never wrote Dredd as a bad guy in the 70s.

[pert]

what Harry 20 says at the end of Harry 20 On The High Rock obviously paraphrases a certain 60 cult Tv series