Looking back

[JayzusB.Christ]

Lovely write-up as always, JWare.  I hesitate to bring it up, but the rest of the Angels were indeed brought back, in a way that made Mean's potion-based resurrection look positively Shakespearian.

Last time I saw another hat like Link's in the prog was on the head of one of Big Dave's drinking mates. Ducky from one of Mark Millar's Robohunters wore one too though - I don't think the look had gay connotations when Link rocked it, but could be wrong.

[JohnW]

Glad you liked it, JayzusB. I stalled on the other stuff I should have been writing so I wrote this. Then I stalled on this. My dull-wittedness will be the death of me yet.

The resurrection of the other Angels happened during my wilderness years so I'm happy to say that it doesn't count.
(If you shut your eyes tight, stick your fingers in your ears, and go, "Nah-nah-nah-nah," then you can manipulate reality itself.)

[AlexF]

I totally take your point that Kryselr himself does not have a huge amount going on as a character...

and yet, it's his reveal as evil that makes the Judge Child one of my favourite epics, and in fact his basic character design is still an all-timer for me, both as the baldie kid with the Justice birthmark, and as the many-armed, no-eyed Mutant.

I can't imagine there's a good way to do it, and too much time has passed, but I'd be curious to see a story about how Owen Krysler, no matter how wicked he may be, might actually have saved MC1 from some future disaster (Chaos Day? Maybe he'd've known to attack that Sov virus lab before it really got going with its research??). So Dredd was right that his own judgement has to count for something, but also perhaps he can be wrong, too?

[JohnW]

I can't imagine there's a good way to do it, and too much time has passed ...

Interesting, but not something I'd go for.
I knew the ending long before I read the story and so I never considered any other way of doing it.
I still think it's one of the best endings. Owen Krysler goes from being the creepy psychic killer with a weird birthmark to being just a child. There he is, lost and alone and clinging to the bars of his new cage.

The message? Dredd is a tough bastard, and if you fail to meet his standards, then good luck to you. A perfect encapsulation of the character.
No way a man like that was going to hesitate when it came to pushing the button on East Meg One.

City of the Damned you can keep, with the exception of some other magnificent tough-bastard bits such as:
For you are a Judge. And it is your Duty.

and:
"But you can't change the future! It's impossible!"
"Yeah? Show me the rulebook."

Any other possibilities for Owen Krysler/the Mutant never occurred to me. I wouldn't have it any other way than how it played out.
(Poor old Feyy. 88.8% accurate just wasn't enough.)

[The Legendary Shark]

...I'd be curious to see a story about how Owen Krysler, no matter how wicked he may be, might actually have saved MC1 from some future disaster...

Ooh, juicy idea. A divergent timeline where everything goes Justice Department's way... Dredd Planet!

[The Legendary Shark]

Pointless Pitch #30759 - Dredd Planet Alpha

Imagine...

Owen Krysler is taken in by the Justice Department as an infant and rises to become the most beloved Chief Judge in history, spreading the jurisdiction of the Mega City One Justice Department across the entire planet and significant portions of the wider Solar System. An Empire of Justice built on conquest. Judges control everything - the most legendary of them - the Dredd Brothers.

But can even they bring Justice Department jurisdiction to the first alien world encountered by humans? They have the firepower, they have the judges, they have the Law on their side, but do they have the grit? This would be their Prog 1* story. (*Perfect world, remember? Judge Dredds is in that Prog from the start.)

And what if one or both of them fell through a wormhole doing something selfless and heroic (relatively speaking) only to end up in our Mega City One? Nah. Standard catch & detain fare. Fisticuffs and cube time, at best. Bringing them here feels like the most pedestrian route...

So what if our Judge Dredd fell into their perfect Mega City One - seat of an intersolar jurisdiction of largely peaceful, largely pacified citizenry? Hunted, captured, and deputised by the Dredd Brothers through the course of their adventures over a year?


"Dredd Planet" because it sounds cool and is what the story is about - Joe and Rico Dredd's first major achievement of their careers, leading the first invasion of an alien planet, and their continued dominance as major forces loyal to the Department. "Alpha" because this is the Alpha Timeline, the core timeline around which all the other local Justice Department timelines coil and twist, the Ideal that pulls all the others away from the edge of the rope and eventual chaotic fraying into nothing. The closer a timeline can get to the Alpha, the stronger it becomes. Further away they become weaker and more chaotic. Our Dreddverse is in there somewhere - but which way is it going? What would the Justice Department do if it learned of this situation? How could it be exploited? Mitigated? Appropriated?

So all the Alpha timeline invasion stuff is in the past - amongst other things, maybe the equivalent of a Robot Rebellion or Apocalypse War - and we get to contemporary times in the Alpha timeline, where just about everything goes Justice Department's way, and rarely at high cost. Joe and Rico are still top judges, involved in normal policing, detective work, conquering new jurisdictions across the local galaxy, tracking down dissidents and terrorists, protecting the borders of the Justice Department's jurisdiction - all the fun stuff. Our Judge Dredd arrives by accident - triggering a year-long mystery arc in the Prog and Meg (challenging!) in which Dredd is missing, presumed dead (which should run first, with Dredd Planet Alpha coming next as a kind of explanation). Dredd is stranded in the Alpha timeline for a year, where he learns many things, including the importance of the Alpha timeline itself (which is very strong and therefore very hard to get into or out of). This story should concentrate on the Dredd Brothers and their world, leaving Our Dredd very much a minor character; utterly outclassed - at least to begin with. He has to earn his way into the Dredd Brothers' story - which is hard, because they're kinda' awesome. Even to Our Joe. In this timeline, Justice Department does things perfectly. Joe is, slowly, impressed and inspired.

When he finally gets back - what if Dredd became a prophet? Still Dredd, still on the front lines, but with a new zeal - a new vision for how things must be. Gandhi with a Lawgiver, Moses with a daystick...

So, shape-wise, you'd have the resumption of normal Dredd stories after his disappearance is explained starting at the same time as Dredd Planet Alpha, leading to the possibility of the one supporting or informing on the other, intertwined like the timelines. Say, Dredd being lenient in a brutal way after seeing and understanding how and why the Alphan judges do it; leading by examples set in the Alpha and inspiring the judges and citizens around him but indifferent to their growing respect and, soon, loyalty. What will he do with that loyalty, that willing following sharing his vision of How Things Must Be Done?

*dhum-dhum--dubba-dubba-dum*

Yeah, I'd read that...

What...? Oh, bugger.

[JohnW]

Sit down.
Deep breaths.
Damp cloth on forehead.
Feel better?

[The Legendary Shark]

Heh. Sorry. I haven't had a toke in a while and it's kinda' hit me right in the creatives.

I'm sure I'll regret it all in the morning...




where's Chip...?

[JohnW]

That's OK.
Just remember that this is 2000ad: not Marvel in the seventies.

[JohnW]

An Impossible Journey

The Cursed Earth was like the first Star Wars film. None of us had seen it but we all knew about it. The difference was that a novelisation of Star Wars was floating around, whereas The Cursed Earth was known only by fragmentary hearsay. I knew and cared nothing for the Robot War or Luna 1, but I was aware that The Cursed Earth (pronounced 'curséd' by the elders) was the seminal foundational epic.
As I settled into reading 2000AD, the early Titan reprints started being advertised in the prog. As far as I was concerned these things were unobtainable, and the grainy black and white ads only enhanced the legendary status of the original epics. And then a few years later, when I was able to afford them, a local bookshop started selling the Titan books. I joyfully acquired (among many others) the two volumes of The Cursed Earth (somewhat abridged). I still have them.
This was during my born-again-squaxx phase, so it was perfect.
I saw that the elders weren't wrong. This was the primordial heroic Dredd from the age of legends.
Reading this story was like a believer stumbling across the Old Testament for the first time. The stories strike a different tone, the message isn't quite the same, but this is where everything we hold sacred took shape.

The Cursed Earth is McMahon's show. If you're not a fan of McMahon, then tough.
I was a fan – very, very much a fan.
I won't talk about Mills's wonderful histrionic script or Bolland taking another step along the road to perfection. The Cursed Earth is McMahon on overdrive, turning out episode after gaudy episode of egregious nonsense and stone-cold thrills.
And for the second of those delicious Titan books he provided new art, and for me that art – the cover and flyleaf – was what Dredd was all about.
The cover shows our guy calmly reloading, undaunted by an onrushing pack of tyrannosaurs. Go, Joe!
But this was the image that summed it up for me.



That's my Dredd: the unstoppable force in the Mojave Desert.
The actual episode, with Dredd stumbling and hallucinating, is all well and good, but that to me is early Dredd, and Mills's Dredd. The Dredd who stepped aboard the land raider and headed west had worn a cape on Luna 1. He had a landlady called Maria and a robo-servant called Walter. All of that had largely gone by the board by the time I'd got into 2000AD.
My Dredd is the stripped-down Dredd in that picture, walking the last miles of his ordeal. No drama. None of your, 'This Cursed Earth will not break me!'
Nope. This is McMahon without Mills. This Dredd merely wipes away the sweat as he keeps on going, head down under that huge sun – the hardest son-of-a-bitch as ever wore a badge.

If this is the Old Testament, then here, in the crossing of the wilderness, the Law was handed down.

[Le Fink]

An Impossible Journey

The Cursed Earth was like the first Star Wars film...

I've not seen that artwork before. It's awesome. Thanks for sharing JW!

[JayzusB.Christ]

An Impossible Journey


The Cursed Earth was like the first Star Wars film...

I've not seen that artwork before. It's awesome. Thanks for sharing JW!

It really is.  McMahpn at his very best.  And lovely write-up as always, John.  That was absolutely my experience of the Cursed Earth too - knowing it through legend rather than actually reading it (I got round to that eventually too, of course).

[Trooper McFad]

Another great look back. Thoroughly enjoyable recap

[The Legendary Shark]

Good show, JW.

I think The Cursed Earth was probably the story that made me a proper Dredd fan, before that he was just another character to me.

[lincnash]

Satanus has a distant and lesser known Radback relative.
His name is Mister Grumpy (as per the Mr. Men children's books naming convention).
While he disapproves of the treatment of his Meg-side cousin by Dredd and the denizens of the Cursed Earth in the saga, he does approve of this review.
The bloke that provides his shelter, food and water appreciates JW's 'timely' reviews in general.
With a similar story of regular Prog purchases around the 200's, so it was Titan Books and Eagle re-prints for the then unobtainable early Prog's, containing the best of Dredd's earliest.