Interview: Making Judge Death ‘a fun, read-in-a-deckchair romp’ – Talking with Kek-W & Steven Austin about the 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special
13th July 2022
Marking 2000 AD‘s 45th birthday, 2022’s summer special has a musical theme as the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic continues to celebrate 45 Revolutions Per Minute with Comic Rock!
Up next in the series of interviews about the 2022 Sci-Fi Special, we go absurdist as Judge Death joins Judge Dredd for the duo you never saw coming in Kek-W and Steven Austin’s Judge Death: Common Enemy.
Out on 13 July, the 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special takes its inspiration from Comics Rock, first brought to the pages of the Prog back in 1980 when Pat Mills and Kevin O’Neill introduced Nemesis the Warlock in Terror Tube, a strip inspired by the Jam’s Going Underground. Now, 22 years later, the Sci-Fi Special rocks out with six music-inspired strips for today, featuring Judge Death, Judge Dredd, Sinister Dexter, Psi-Judge Anderson, Fiends of West Berlin,and Middenface McNulty. It’s Thrill Power with a soundtrack!
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So, now we’ll turn to Kek-W and Steven Austin, the creative team behind Judge Death: Common Enemy, inspired by the classic Stealer’s Wheels tune Stuck In The Middle With You.
Kek, Steven, in the 2022 Sci-Fi Special, you’re going way back in time to the moments after Judge Death was banished (once more) to the empty universe by Judge Anderson in Prog 427.
Common Enemy sees Judge Death and Judge Dredd actually teaming up in a story suggested by the Stealer’s Wheels classic Stuck In The Middle With You.
First things first why did you pick that track, how have you worked it into the tale you’re telling, and can you give us an idea of what the story is all about?
KEK-W: Tharg asked me to write a Judge Death story based on a song, I so I immediately jumped on Stuck in the Middle With You by Stealer’s Wheel (Gerry Rafferty, Joe Egan and friends). It’s a song I grew up with back in the 70s and I kinda wanted to reclaim it back from Tarantino (laughs).
More importantly, though, it’s my wife’s favourite song. She used to play it in the car a lot when the kids were little and they’d sing along to the chorus. So I guess that’s stayed with me.
It’s good to start with something that has a personal resonance – it makes it easier for me to engage and work with – but I also needed a song that the majority of readers might know rather than some obscure Japanese psych track from the back of my record collection (laughs). I’d already been down the Black Metal / RPG route with the recent Dark Judges tale in the Christmas Prog, so I was looking for a take on Judge Death for the Sci-Fi Special that was lighter, more fun, more, er… summery.
Oh, if you don’t know the song… but we’re sure you do, locked in a memory somewhere… Stealer’s Wheels with Stuck in the Middle With You…
KEK-W: The title, Stuck in the Middle With You, immediately gave me the story’s shape. Who would Death be stuck in the middle with? Easy: his old nemesis, Judge Dredd. What would they be stuck in the middle of? Why, a block war, of course (laughs). So it quickly became apparent that this would be a team-up tale, the comic-book equivalent of an Unlikely Buddies movie.
The story seemed ripe with comedic possibility, with the pair bickering and arguing as they fought back-to-back – a sort of twisted version of Lethal Weapon or 48 Hrs. Dredd and Death as Freebie and the Bean (laughs) – a comedy duo with two straight men. The straighter you play it, the more fun you can have with something like this, I think.
I wanted to use the classic 80s version of Judge Death – the early Dreddverse version rather than the darker contemporary Deadverse version from Fall of Deadworld – and channel some of the brilliant daftness of the great Wagner & Grant Mega-City One stories. The idea was to create a fun, read-in-a-deckchair romp that slotted into 2000AD canon and had Easter Eggs for long-term readers, but which also worked as a stand-alone story for casual readers.
That’s what’s great about Judge Dredd: the character is in its 5th decade and is well-established yet ‘elastic’ enough that, like other ‘mature’ characters such as Batman, etc, it can serve as a vehicle for a wide variety of stories ranging from horror to police procedurals to action-adventure to comedy and social satire.
It felt like this tale needed a slightly Old Skool approach and, luckily, The Mighty One agreed with me. Steven completely nailed the vibe I was aiming for and threw himself wholeheartedly into illustrating this, crafting a very fresh and modern take on the Death meets Dredd set-up. It channels the flavour of classic Dillon, Bolland, Robinson, etc while still feeling contemporary and being very recognisably Steven. BTW, that’s a terrific chin-shot on panel two of the last page, Steven!
Okay, Steven, given that the writer’s got the choice of music (maybe Tharg will do it again with artists’ choices some day?), how was it for you?
STEVEN AUSTIN: Well, my first thought on reading that the song title was, Stuck in the Middle was ‘Wow! As, unbelievably, the first time I heard the Stealer’s Wheels track was when I was 11. It came on the radio one Saturday morning whilst I was reading my ‘first’ ever copy of 2000 AD at our kitchen table in Fulham whilst my mum prepared breakfast!! Actually, that isn’t true, but what an incredible story that would have made had it been, aye!?
I don’t actually remember the first time I heard the track, but it’s one I’ve always quite liked, in small doses. That said, its more appealing in the Death story than on the radio. I didn’t actually refer to the tune prior to drawing the strip – I was too gobsmacked at the fact I was actually getting to draw Dredd and Death in a story together, something I never imagined I would have the opportunity to do!
On reading the script I was a bit stumped as to how it tied the song into the story and then ‘BHAM’! The punchline hit me and I laughed out loud, all of a sudden everything fell into place and made sense, and then there was the twist at the end, another little unexpected stroke of genius – it was full of surprises and the most fun I think I’ve ever had on a script.
oh, c’mon!
And just for the record – which track would you have picked as a fave to illustrate?
SA: And with regards to a track I would have picked, hmmmmmm, I guess to have the impact with the reader it would have to be something not too ‘random’ so All Along the Watchtower by Jimi Hendrix. Lyrically its got loads of visuals that I think could be tied into a cool lil’ tale of Dredd.
KEK-W: Yeah, I could definitely get with some classic Hendrix and Dylan too, Steven! Dylan’s Hard Rain is another one laden with incredibly visual lyrics…
Well, that’s two for the future for you both then!
So, we’ve got Dredd, we’ve got Death, we’ve got the song… can you give us an idea of what Common Enemy is all about?
SA: It’s a retro story, as you have mentioned, set just after prog 427. Death is dragged out of limbo by some unseen force and cast back into Magistrate’s Court-1 where he goes on the hunt for Dredd, only to end up fighting back to back with him against a Common Enemy. It’s bizarre, dark, great fun with a bit of gore and violence thrown in for good measure.
KEK-W: Yeah, I mentioned to Tharg that maybe we could set this somewhere in the past, maybe somewhere round The Four Dark Judges, after Death and Dredd had met for the first 2 or 3 times, and he agreed and found the perfect point we could slot it into continuity.
Now, Kek, seriously, I know you’ve explained just what made you pick the song, but are you sure it wasn’t really one of those inspirational moments when something popped into your head one day and you thought, ‘Yes! I’ve got to get that into a Dredd storyline!’? Because that’s what immediately popped into my head as soon as I saw the Bob Pennywise Block and the Jared Leto Block getting into it. So, was it really a wonderfully long setup to get the line in?
KEK-W: No. (laughs) Like I said, the title of the song gave me the rough outline of the story. Then, later on, the chorus lyrics told me who or what would be the protagonists in the block war. It was a no-brainer to slide the chorus lyrics into the story somewhere. When my initial email pitch got a chuckle from Matt Smith I knew I was on the right track (in more ways than one)…
And no, I’m not giving the punch line away!
Seriously, it’s a great story that’s made all the better as soon as you see the gag coming – one of those great bits of absurdist comedy that runs all the way through Dredd over the years.
KEK-W: Funny you should mention ‘absurdist’ (laughs). I mentioned in the script that maybe it might be fun to base Ubu Roy, the leader of the Pennywise Block simp-clowns on this theatre version of Ubu Roi by Alfred Jarry – and Steven gamely ran with it. Seriously, I can’t praise Steve enough for his work on this – he soaked up so many ideas, possible visuals and moods from this script and brought them to life.
Yeah, totally agree with you about Dredd: it’s part of what helps make the character so great, that he’s an unwitting, stone-faced straight man to the endlessly strange, surreal and silly street-theatre that is daily life in Mega-City One. Our very own Buster Keaton.
One things for certain, you’ve actually managed to change the long-standing association of the song with Reservoir Dogs for me. I know I’ll hear it now and only be able to see the payoff to the gag you set up here – congrats on that one!
KEK-W: Good! My work here is done (laughs).
Steven, how about you – when you got the script, how long did it take until you were seeing the gag pay off?
SA: Well on reading the script for the first time (and it had a working title of Stuck in the Middle) I had made the association with the clowns and jokers from the get go, as the script unfolded and Jared Leto Block and Bob Pennywise were introduced I had assumed that was it, a link to the song Stuck in the Middle. But then the punchline popped up unexpectedly but in such an obvious context that it was so deliberately brilliant, that I thought, ‘Kek, you clever sod’, all the while laughing out loud, and then of course there they were, Dredd and Death ‘actually’, stuck in the middle – between the two gangs – brilliant.
Kek, It’s as much of a Dredd strip as a Death strip, so I imagine you were pleased to be involved with both?
KEK-W: Yes! (laughs) I’ve been lucky enough to have written plenty of Judge Death stories in recent years, but this is my first Dredd. Hopefully, not my last!
What do you both think it is about Judge Death that has made him such a fertile character over the years, able to be used for stories of absolute horror all the way through to the sort of comedy you’re setting up here?
KEK-W: Yeah, I touched on this a bit earlier. It’s an interesting topic. I think part of it is that enduring characters like Dredd that have settled in and ‘matured’ – who have become part of the pop-cultural landscape, as it were – start accreting different layers of meaning for different generations of readers. They resonate differently with each new era of readers – soak up the social climates of different decades – have different cultural anxieties and hopes projected on them by each new wave of readers. It means that the characters are able to perpetually renew and refresh themselves.
It helps in Dredd’s case that Wagner, Grant, Mills, etc brought social satire and absurdism to the table quite early on – (we were living in the Thatcher Era, after all!) – and subsequent generations of writers have continued to run with that and written Dredd stories that have reflected or satirised the concerns of the 90s, 00s, etc. So satire and humour were always very much part of Dredd’s DNA, along with horror and gritty action-adventure – traditions it had absorbed from 2000AD’s notorious comic-book predecessor, Action. Action was itself mimicking / borrowing from various contemporary social trends, 1970’s horror and neo-realist cinema, Jaws, etc, etc. Again, it was just reflecting the trends, fashions and social panics of its times.
That process is still going on today in both Dredd and 2000AD– which is what makes them both so vital, vibrant and endlessly (re-)inventive. Superficially, Dredd seems a one-dimensional character, but he’s not: he’s a reflection of the different chaotic times he’s published in. A Hall of Mirrors as much as a Hall of Justice.
People say that Mega City One is the other character in Dredd tales, but I think It’s fun to invert that idea and consider Dredd as being sort of extension of Mega City One itself – a living corner-stone of the city, if you like – “Old Stony Face”: he’s part of the scenery, but one that also has a degree of agency – and this enables him to appear in and sustain a wide range of tales that vary in style and tone – in the same way that any major metropolis has millions of human interest stories that range from the tragic to the hilarious.
(You can see them in their full glory below)
Steven, as always, it’s fascinating to see how you approached this one – can you give us some kind of process run-down to the strip?
SA: Well, I generally read the script four or five times to get a real feel for the story, basically I read it until I’m seeing it play out like a movie in my head, the first read-through is always daunting as they are just words and nothing comes to mind, which always feels a bit scary, but then the second and third reading certain panels start having images come to me and then by the 4th, 5th or sometimes 6th reading everything starts to run concurrently, as in a movie.
I don’t read the script that many times one after the other, I do it over a couple of days which allows it to drip away somewhere back in my subconscious and then revisit it.
SA: After this, I start thumbnailing to make sure what’s happening in my head works on paper and then once I’m happy that it does I’ll draw a pretty tight A5 page and then blow these up to A3 and lightbox from them in pencil prior to inking the piece.
Usually I use a brush pen to ink but for this, as it was a retro story ank Kek had referenced Brian Bolland and Brett Ewins in the script with relation to the feel of the artwork I thought to myself, “I know, I’ll use my series 7 Windsor and Newton No2 brush just like Brian used to (something I usually reserve for covers and commissions).
(Again, see them LARGE below)
SA: Of course, after the first page I started to regret my decision and it took me twice as long. I hadn’t taken into consideration how much harder it would be working so small with the bloody thing. Every time I dipped the brush I’d have to fiddle about getting ink off in order to keep my lines relatively tight and not splodgy. That said I ended up being the happiest I’ve been with a strip thus far.
Well, I reckon it’s well worth the extra blood, sweat, and tears to get the finished product!
Right, after Common Enemy, what have you both got coming out this year, both 2000 AD and elsewhere? And don’t worry, Tharg’s well into cocktail number three by now, something neon yellow with sparklers hanging out the top, plus he’s into the Betelgeusian thrash metal section of his playlist and is just rocking out (although it does sound like thrash metal is a more literal thing for Tharg – it has the unmistakable sounds of Droids being whipped into shape.)
SA: I’m currently working on another Dredd story entitled The Rematch written by Ken Niemand and then will be catching up on an ever growing commission list.
KEK-W: Recently finished writing a series of The Order and am about half-way through scripting a new series of Dark Judges: Fall of Deadworld. But I’m also writing something else for Tharg I can’t talk about right now. Ssssh! [See, when we reassure them that TMO won’t notice them blabbing secrets, the droids live in fear!]
I’ve also written a creator-owned thing called Edward Monarch Police Mysteries with artist Mauro Longhini which I’m hoping will be out later this year. I need to get back on The Screaming Hand! soon with Conor Boyle and finish writing part 7! At some point we’ll be putting out an entire first ‘season’ of that. Para-anatomical quantum-horror set in the late 70s – it’s bonkers!
Again, massive thank yous to both Kek and Steven for jumping into the DJ booth with that one. Classic tune, great strip. And you can see Judge Death: Common Enemy in all its absurd glory in the 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special 2022 – it’s out on 13 July 2022 and available from wherever Thrill Power is sold, including the 2000 AD web shop. And you can listen to the whole Sci-Fi Special playlist here on Spotify.
And now the full glory of Steven Austin’s pencils and inks that he kindly sent along, together with the finished pages…
Now, before we leave you once more, the final couple of pages of the original Comics Rock, Terror Tube by Pat Mills and Kevin O’Neill…
