Meg 455: Fear the Future

[broodblik]

I've noticed something weird about the digital Meg.

I'm not sure if it's permanent now, but I have noticed that occasionally with the digital Meg it doesn't quite line up with the published version.

The following digital Megs are missing one or more pages: M415-S, 427, 427-S, 428-S.

-S indicates the floppy.

It does happen and if I notice it I report it

[The Sherman Kid]

Dredd Enjoyable. Good clever story writing. But hold on a minute... -Eartha Fargo is Eustace Fargo's grandmother ??? What? How does that work? She's black. I personally couldn't care less what ethnicity any character is, so long as it works and makes sense. Now we are saying Dredd is mixed race? After 47 years?

Dredd has been established as a white character, as have his parents. Dolman, the clone, his face was shown as white, tons of other examples. Yes, we can all now tie ourselves in pretzel knots to try to explain everything away here-by why go down this path?         

If James Bond's grandmother was introduced as Japanese or Black next week, we'd all be scratching our heads. There would be at least some physical indication. Or is any modicum of reality or common sense, just not, a thing, anymore....



Spector Loved it, very funny (reminded me of the dodgy lawyer droid, from Dredd). Great to see new Ezquerra work in print. Actually quite affecting to see it -he is sorely missed.

Dreddnoughts Long may this continue, great art, very well written -'Social Chemotherapy' -what a fantastic line. Kudos.

[GoGilesGo]

But hold on a minute... -Eartha Fargo is Eustace Fargo's grandmother ??? What? How does that work? She's black.

The first thing that came to mind when this was mentioned was an anecdote from the early days of the strip, as Dredd was being established.

Of course his face was always partially obscured by his helmet. But within those confines, McMahon admitted to drawing him as black character, while Bolland drew him as white.

A Niemand meta-callback?

[Jim_Campbell]

Dredd Enjoyable. Good clever story writing. But hold on a minute... -Eartha Fargo is Eustace Fargo's grandmother ??? What? How does that work? She's black. I personally couldn't care less what ethnicity any character is, so long as it works and makes sense. Now we are saying Dredd is mixed race? After 47 years?

Dredd has been established as a white character, as have his parents. Dolman, the clone, his face was shown as white, tons of other examples. Yes, we can all now tie ourselves in pretzel knots to try to explain everything away here-by why go down this path?

Calm down, there, son. Rather famously, Mick McMahon thought Dredd was supposed to black and drew him as if he was for about the first year of his time on the strip.

You can have people of color in your family tree and still look pretty damned white (Peter Davison's dad was of mixed heritage, for example) so what, exactly, bothers you about this...?

[The Sherman Kid]

Mick McMahon is pretzel No. 1# -Dredd has long been established as a white character to the readership, regardless of what individual artists thought.

Pete Davidson pretzel No #2 (don't want to bring up individuals, but to respond to you - Quote {Pete Davidson Ethnicity
Pete Davidson's father, Scott Matthew Davidson was a-firefighter, athlete, teacher, coach, and bartender. He had Jewish ancestry, with some distant German, Irish, and Italian roots while his mother, Amy Waters Davidson is of mostly Irish ancestry, with some distant German roots.}

Throwing out logic and basic common sense bothers me (but I'll answer your less than subtle undertone -all racists are the **** of the earth -happy now?)

Am I still allowed to be annoyed by this? Do I have your permission?

[Hawkmumbler]

Oh no, not touching that one, not on your life.

Any idea why the artwork on the back-page Zenith ad is different to the artwork for the same product on this week's prog?  The Meg art looks unfamiliar; is it from a reprint cover?

I do believe it's from the cover to Titan Books reprint run of Zenith; volume 2 specifically.

[Jim_Campbell]

Pete Davidson pretzel No #2 (don't want to bring up individuals, but to respond to you)

No... I said Peter Davison, the former Dr Who, whose father, Claude, was of mixed heritage and was born in Guyana.

Throwing out logic and basic common sense bothers me (but I'll answer your less than subtle undertone -all racists are the **** of the earth -happy now?)

Am I still allowed to be annoyed by this? Do I have your permission?

I don't understand why you're annoyed — that was my "undertone"... and, indeed, my overtone.

This story contradicts literally zero elements of the canon — Dredd's racial heritage has never been asserted, beyond him appearing generally white (early McMahon notwithstanding), but that doesn't preclude people of colour in his family tree... hence the Peter Davison example.

Dredd's ancestry has never been explored (to my recollection) beyond Fargo being his clone father, so Fargo's own grandmother being black doesn't contradict any existing continuity, and there's no reason why Fargo couldn't also look pretty damn white.

Lots of pretty damn white people have people of colour in their family tree. It's a thing that happens. Dredd is no less "white" as a result of this revelation than he was last year, and would it really matter if he was?

[nxylas]

Of course his face was always partially obscured by his helmet. But within those confines, McMahon admitted to drawing him as black character, while Bolland drew him as white.

A Niemand meta-callback?

Niemand would definitely know this. I believe Ezquerra also said that he designed Dredd as black or mixed-race, giving him thick lips in order to emphasise his heritage.

[IndigoPrime]

^ This bloke is pretty white. His dad was African-American. About the only way you'd possibly tell is from Martin Gore's hair.

So, yeah, this contradicts bugger all. I have an ongoing chip on my shoulder about the lack of diversity in Dredd in general (honestly, it sometimes comes across like something VERY bad happened in the city regarding race); but Fargo's grandmother being black? Whatever. Actually no: more like good. Plus it all might be a feint anyway, remember.

[M.I.K.]

Niemand would definitely know this. I believe Ezquerra also said that he designed Dredd as black or mixed-race, giving him thick lips in order to emphasise his heritage.

Yep. Definitely remember him saying that in an interview ages ago. The possibility of Dredd being mixed race is definitely something that's been brought up in interviews with artists for decades.

[nxylas]

Niemand would definitely know this. I believe Ezquerra also said that he designed Dredd as black or mixed-race, giving him thick lips in order to emphasise his heritage.

Yep. Definitely remember him saying that in an interview ages ago. The possibility of Dredd being mixed race is definitely something that's been brought up in interviews with artists for decades.

You'd think the "you can't change a character's race!" squad would be all over this 

[M.I.K.]

Actually, there's what appears to be a direct quote from Ezquerra on the Judge Dredd Wikipedia page...

In Carlos Ezquerra's original design, Dredd had large lips, "to put a mystery as to his racial background". Not all of the artists who worked on the strip were told of this. Mike McMahon drew Dredd as a black man, while Brian Bolland and Ron Smith drew him as white. The strip was not yet printed in colour, and this went unnoticed. The idea was dropped.

[Funt Solo]

Here's a grandmother and granddaughter (yes, same bloodline):




She could grow up to be a future cop. A later story could reveal the grandmother. An angry reader could get on their rickety soapbox and start ranting.

[The Sherman Kid]

All for more diversity in Dredd, agree with Indigo -Omar as head of psi-division at the time I thought was a great move. But the fact this stands out, and for example Judge Giant, after well, decades, really says a lot. When did we last have a Asian character in Dredd that wasn't a baddie?

This move however, comes a cross purely as virtue-signalling for the sake of it.

[M.I.K.]

Dredd was originally designed by the original artist to be racially ambiguous. If anything, this is further referencing the quite literal origin and roots of the character in exactly the same way that involving the character of One-Eyed Jack does.

If anyone's jumping on a bandwagon, it's not Mr. Niemand.