So did Dredd's Uniform actually change?

[JudgeJudi]

So when Dredd first started - the Helmet was slightly different in shape and the shoulder pad was smaller and more like an actual shoulder pad than the later - over time both morph in shape (the shoulder pad gets much bigger) and I always just it down to the art style.

However... a couple of times I've seen issues with flashbacks and the Helmet and Shoulder-pads are the very 70s style.

Now that could be just a homage or do you actually think the in-universe - the uniform actually changed? If you do think it changed can you point to a specific period where you think that happened?

[Dandontdare]

In practical terms, the evolution is all about art style - Gibson draws everyone skinny, Bolland refined things, McMahon took chunkiness to the extreme and then Ezquerra returned with the definitive refined version of his original.

In-story, I guess its constant evolution - police uniforms change over the decades,(especially with constant marketing from Emphatically Yess^TM and their competitors), so flashback judges should have those rounder eyeholes and smaller pads. At the end of the day, if you keep to the basic parameters, it can be anything the artist wants, chunky, sleek, black, blue, and that's fine. I'm particularly fond of McCarthy's flared design.

And when it comes to support judges - techs, meds etc - artists just go wild on those, they're never the same twice, and some of those are awesome

[Dark Jimbo]

I think it's been established as different in so many flashbacks now that the change from that early-style uniform is basically canon.

[JayzusB.Christ]

It wasn't always the case - that Pat Mills where the judges are fighting Booth's troop has modern helmets - but yeah, I think we can consider it canon these days, and I'm pretty sure John Wagner has mentioned it in a Dredd script.  Dredd's weight-gain has also been mentioned in the script - he's a far bulkier character than he was in old strips, particularly the earlier McMahon and Ezquerra ones.

The post-Origins, totally different uniform is another story though.  Total retcon there, like the clean-shaven version of Judge Solomon and Fargo not being in the Fargo tomb.

[Richard]

In The Edgar Case, an ex-judge who'd kept his old uniform uses it to impersonate a serving judge, and he observes that the uniform has changed a bit since he retired but he doesn't think anyone will notice.

[JayzusB.Christ]

There was that

I'm particularly fond of McCarthy's flared design.

And when it comes to support judges - techs, meds etc - artists just go wild on those, they're never the same twice, and some of those are awesome

I remember a McCarthy Dredd (can't remember the name but it was about a masseuse with a pychopathic second personality) where a female tech or possibly med judge is wearing a tiny miniskirt with fishnets.  Dream on, Brendan! I do love his Dredd though; it was a brave move to radically change the uniform so much. 

[GoGilesGo]

In The Edgar Case, an ex-judge who'd kept his old uniform uses it to impersonate a serving judge, and he observes that the uniform has changed a bit since he retired but he doesn't think anyone will notice.

Good call. From the panels it was mostly the shoulder pad that had changed, though none of the other judges seemed to notice; it was his non regulation firearm that unmasked him.

[sheridan]

I remember a McCarthy Dredd (can't remember the name but it was about a masseuse with a pychopathic second personality) where a female tech or possibly med judge is wearing a tiny miniskirt with fishnets.  Dream on, Brendan! I do love his Dredd though; it was a brave move to radically change the uniform so much.

The Witness - the two-parter which started in Prog 500.


My take on the changing uniform (and the early appearances of the police supporting the judges) is that between the half a year which Dredd spent on the moon, however many days he took to go to Mega-City Two and back and the 100+ days of Cal's reign a lot can change.

[JudgeJudi]

II'm particularly fond of McCarthy's flared design.

Re-reading Mega-City Zero from IDW - the single annual sets up the McCarthy Helmet as a discontinued design that was great for deflecting bullets but they hit too many citizens!