INTERVIEW: Rory McConville on Cursed Earth Koburn
20th January 2018
He’s a sarcastic maverick who enjoys his booze, cigars, and when he’s not out dispensing justice, Cursed Earth-style, you can usually find him in some house of ill-repute or other. Yep, it’s a welcome return to the pages of the Judge Dredd Megazine for Judge Dredd’s least favourite lawman, Judge-Marshall Koburn.
Relative newcomer to the world of Dredd, Rory McConville joins Koburn’s co-creator, the legendary Carlos Ezquerra in a new 5-part series, The Law Of The Cursed Earth, starting in the latest Judge Dredd Megazine.
Time to carry on Koburn, as Richard Bruton sits down with Rory and Carlos to find out whether everyone’s favourite Cursed Earth Judge-Marshall and Judge Dredd have kissed and made up yet.
With this new Koburn series, we’re back in the Cursed Earth with Judge-Marshall Koburn having troubles with one of his fellow Judge-Marshalls. Can you give us all an idea of what we have to look forward to in the story?
Rory McConville: Not wanting to give too much away but our story opens with Koburn and Alonso, Koburn’s new partner, arriving outside the residence of Judge-Marshall Boyle, to help him investigate a local village massacre. Nothing’s ever simple in the Cursed Earth though and pretty soon Koburn finds himself embroiled in an anti-mutant conspiracy.
Longer time readers will remember Koburn’s previous partner Bonaventura returned to the Meg after one of the previous series. Rico guest-starred in the most recent story, but I thought it would be good to pair him with someone new. Readers will learn more about Alonso’s background as the story progresses but we’re not treating this as an origin story. We hit the ground running with them on their way to investigate Boyle’s request for aid.
Our other major new character is Judge-Marshall Boyle, a gravely former Judge who lives out in the middle of nowhere. He’s a cantankerous old grouch. Physically, he’s nothing like Dredd but I like to think the friction between him and Koburn makes Dredd and Koburn almost seem like best friends.
Since his creation by Gordon Rennie and Carlos Ezquerra, the exploits of Judge-Marshall Koburn have been firm favourites with readers. What is it that makes him such a fan-favourite?
RM: He’s a great foil for the more uptight Mega-City One Judges, but he’s still able to get the job done. He just has his own way of doing things. I think that flexibility with the Law and willingness to enjoy life a bit more also enables readers to connect with him a bit more than the average Judge.
How much fun is Koburn to write? Whenever he appears it seems writers love having a Judge with a sarcastic, maverick tone.
RM: Coburn’s great to write for. The one-liners are a lot of fun — it’s all about finding the right characters and situations to pair him with.
Since winning the Thought Bubble 2000 AD Writing Pitch competition in 2015, you’ve had several Future Shocks, Time Twisters, Tales From The Black Museum, the 3riller Mindmine and a couple of Dredd strips published. More recently you were the first writer apart from creator John Smith to tackle the vampire dandy Devlin Waugh. Now you’re back in the Megazine with Cursed Earth Koburn, with art from the legendary Carlos Ezquerra. So, have you stopped pinching yourself yet?
RM: Not even a little bit. I’ve been incredibly fortunate to get to work on so many of major 2000 AD characters (and work with some of the industry’s best artists) in such a short time. I actually wrote Law of the Cursed Earth before any of the Devlin or Dredd storylines so to have one of my first Dreddverse stories be a series with an artist of Carlos’ calibre is incredible.