Interview: Rob Williams & Henry Flint tell us why Buratino Must Die
25th October 2022
The Sov Psi-Division is in Mega-City One and they’re after two of their own! Judge Dredd: Buratino Must Die is the latest thrill-powered series from Rob Williams and Henry Flint and it’s running right now in the pages of the Galaxy’s Greatest!
When Judge Dredd and the Justice Department brought Sov Psi-Judges Buratino and Isaaks to sanctuary in Mega-City One after the events of End Of Days, we all knew there’d be repercussions – and those repercussions are hitting MC-1 right now in Buratino Must Die, a 6-part Dredd written by Rob Williams and drawn by Henry Flint.
Bad things are coming to claim what’s theirs – as Buratino says on the final page of episode one – “and then Zersetzung will come for us.” Yep, Sov Psi-Div is coming to Mega-City One and that’s bad news for everyone.
Judge Dredd: Buratino Must Die runs in 2000 AD Progs 2303-2305 and 2307-2309. You can catch the third episode out on the shelves and in the 2000 AD web shop right now.
We spoke to Rob and Henry about the series and what it means for Dredd – although sadly Henry was knee-deep in pages and pages of work and desperately in need of an oil change down in Tharg’s robo-repair quarters. So, this one’s mostly Rob, with Henry talking a little on his process and style for Buratino Must Die later on…
Okay then, time to chat to Rob and Henry…
Rob you’ve just started a new Judge Dredd series, Buratino Must Die, something that comes out of your recent Dredd together, End Of Days, as we see the ramifications for MC-1 of them harbouring two very high-level Sov Psi-Judges.
Obviously, I could go in-depth on what I might think this one’s all about, but it’s so much better to hear what you think about the series. So, what’s going on here in Buratino Must Die and what can we expect from the series to come?
ROB WILLIAMS: Buratino was the head of Zersetzung (which was a psychological warfare technique used by the Stasi in East Berlin, if you want to know the term’s origin).
This was something of a throwaway line in End of Days about the Sov’s Psi Division. But I started thinking about how, culturally, that might be a different thing to the Sovs. And Buratino was so immediately an exciting character – how he appears to be a child with a freakishly large head but is obviously massively intelligent and a hugely powerful psychic. Henry just drew him to look so freakily odd.
He’s a Sov, but he aided Dredd and Anderson in End of Days. But what are his true motives? And will Mega-City One take him in – for good or ill. And after that it’s sort of a psychic warfare on the streets of the Big Meg in the style of Akira. I knew Henry would draw the living daylights out of that, so it got me excited. Buratino has turned his back on the Sovs and he knows so many secrets, so they send the Zersetzung to come take him out. Hence our title.
Was this always the plan, spinning this out of End of Days, or was it simply one of those things that naturally suggested itself while you were plotting out that one?
RW: So many of my Dredd stories seem to suggest themselves from plot points in prior stories, rather than there being some huge master plan. I forget but I’m pretty sure Buratino wasn’t a major part of the plotting of End of Days. More so when Dredd got to Sov – I needed a character there and he immediately popped off the page. Usually when that happens it’s best to listen and do more with that character. That approach has served me well with characters like Dirty Frank, Sensitive Klegg, Sentientoid. You don’t go in going “Right, let’s plan out a character to drive stories in the future.” They turn up and some seem to raise their hand asking for more story, while others don’t so much.
And seeing as your Dredd work right now seems to be joining the dots in a big way, with the events of everything from Titan, The Small House, Enceladus, the whole Maitland saga, and so much more – all seeming to be building to a grand plan of yours for MC-1 and Dredd – will we be seeing the ramifications of this one playing out in future Dredd storylines for you?
RW: There’s an end planned for the Judge Maitland storyline with Arthur Wyatt and I. There’s some talk of a big plot event in the future of Dredd’s world but the Dreddworld has many parents so we’ll see if that comes to fruition. You can’t come in with autonomy and do something seismic in Dreddworld. In a lot of ways The Small House was the culmination of a decade worth of plot threads for a lot of my Mega-City One stories. But other stories sort of suggest themselves…
Now, Rob, a bone to pick with you about episode 2…
You had the perfect opportunity at the start of episode 2 to make this one the story we all want to see – but sorry, you blew it.
It was all there, the perfect set-up, create a false flag with making us think it’s all about some huge thing with the Sovs coming to get their own and then deliver the storyline we all want to see you do. But no, you decided not to go there. I mean, seriously, how could you not have spun the whole thing off into the ongoing adventures of Dredd and THE HORSE?
Gee, talk about missed opportunities. I mean, I’m sure Henry would be onboard for page after page after page of epic adventures featuring a horse? After all, we know how much artists love drawing horses. Am I right?
RW: Well, I’d happily write Dredd and the Horse sat in a pub chewing the fat for page after page. But I’m not sure it’d have the requisite levels of thrill power. And I’d get booted out for doing the “why the long face?” joke every episode. The vaudeville hook would come in from Tharg pretty fast.
However, by the time we get to episode 2 and that perfect Dredd/Anderson moment that ends with the whole ‘My boyfriend, wadda ya gonna do, huh?’ – well, that’s a little way towards forgiving you for dropping the ball on the whole missing Horse storyline.
RW: Writing Anderson and Dredd interacting is just a hoot. It’s probably me riffing on City of The Damned (which, when I was, what? 13, just was the most exciting story imaginable in Dredd). They’ve been through so much together. There’s a rare trust there. She can take the piss out of him and he’ll allow it.
Okay, so we’ve had all the set-up in the first couple of episodes, the whole idea of the Sovs sending in their Psi-Div, Zersetzung, to MC-1 and the chaos and destruction that Buratino and Isaaks know is coming. And we’ve had the brilliance of that second episode of Dredd getting stymied by Buratino, pulling in Anderson to the investigation, shades of the whole Small House thing and Dredd’s penchant for assembling a trusted team around him.
But in episode 3, we really see things explode. We get the introduction of a talented new Psi-Judge, Huang, and we get to see just how dangerous the Zersetzung are. And, with the combination of the Zersetzung and Huang’s psi-powers, you’ve taken some delight in taking us back to Dredd’s darkest memories and those moments of The Apocalypse War.
How enjoyable was it to be able to revisit those classic Wagner, Grant & Ezquerra scenes?
RW: The Apocalypse War is, for my money, probably Dredd at its peak. And I’m including the Block Mania buildup in that. You get McMahon, Bolland, Ron Smith, Steve Dillon (THAT Orlok episode) and then that slips into… just the greatest long-burn storyline and Carlos drew it all. It’s also got the best Dredd moment of all time “Request Denied.” I love that storyline a bit too much, and probably have nodded back to it too much in my Dredd work. Something of which I’m guilty of again here. But it’s all so good.
Back to Buratino Must Die… the Sov aspect of this is obviously hugely important, and you’ve recently played with this in The Special Relationship.
Have you got some kind of grand plan involving the Sovs here in your Dredds? [Yeah, like you’re going to tell me a load about that one!]
RW: I do have an idea, we’ll see if I can convince Tharg to let me do it.
Before we get to chatting about Henry and to Henry – what sorts of things do we have to look forward to from the pair of you – both for our Lord & Master Tharg and elsewhere? (The Horse, The HORSE, THE HORSE… tell us you’re writing about THE DAMN HORSE!)
RW: I did a Dredd tale called They Shoot Talking Horse Don’t They? That was maybe the best title I could hope to come up with. So I think we’re done with talking horses for a little while at least.
Dammit.
RW: Henry and I are doing something else together after this. I believe, which is pretty exciting. It’s not Dreddworld. But I’m hoping to get him on another Dredd soon, if he’s not sick of me by then.
Now, let’s talk about Henry for a bit Rob… One thing that’s rather different this time is Henry’s artwork. Rob, I don’t think it’s too much praise to describe Henry as THE Dredd artist right now. What do you think of what he’s done here?
RW: I’ll embarrass him here, I’m sure, but Henry’s just an astonishingly good comic artist. His storytelling is pretty immaculate – not just the action beats but the character interactions, the acting performances from the main players. All that stuff that just raises a script up a bunch of levels compared to a less accomplished artist.
And then you have his wild imagination. How psychic effects work on the page, laboratory and building and road designs. It’s all so esoteric and very definitely Henry, while existing in Dredd’s world. He just lifts whatever he’s drawing.
We’ve worked together a bunch and it’s always a huge, well, relief when you see Henry’s pages. Because whatever I’ve written he’s not only delivered it well, but he’s improved it, elevated it. The really good artists make you a better writer just by how they’ve depicted your script.
Okay Henry, I know you’re snowed under right now, so let’s quickly talk art… your art for this one is different – there’s a fineness/finesse to the line here, an effect your putting on things, that look for Anderson, the hair, it’s just different…
There’s even something about it that reminds me, in some little way, of the wonderful lines of the classic comic artists who worked on the girls comics of the 60s and 70s.
Over on your Facebook, you’ve been teasing us with small details over the differences in your process recently, new fast-flowing fountain pen, changes to your scanning process, contrast control, scanned so it’s not totally black, a hint of red in the black, getting the linework and colour merging together, that sort of thing – all of which is fascinating but mystifying to us non-artists out there!
So, what have you done with your process to get this look?
HENRY FLINT: Thanks for getting in contact… Okay, process stuff… it’s ever trying to get back to the printing process… 80’s style… The black line is less black and less of the vivid computer colours… The printing process is TOO good these days and I feel I have to find ways to rough it up a bit.
The writing has a certain mood and I want to match that… I’ve scanned the line in high definition but it still retains a fuzzy edge when you zoom in, this way I’m getting so much more detail than before.
Before, the fine crosshatched lines would merge together to make one black mass… or the opposite would happen and the fine lines would fade into white… it’s either one or the other… very annoying.
I really hope the difference is noticeable and the end result, I’m hoping, is something a bit more eye friendly… I’m loving what Rob’s doing writing wise… some strange things are happening… this is a dark drama Dredd… love these the best. And Anderson is in it.
And with that, he was done – Tharg complaining that he’d had more than his five-minute oil change break and that it was way past time he got back to drawing.
Thanks so much to Rob and Henry for taking the time to chat with us. Always a treat. Judge Dredd: Buratino Must Die runs in 2000 AD Progs 2303-2305 and 2307-2309. You can catch the third episode out on the shelves and in the 2000 AD web shop right now…