Writer Rory McConville and artist Mike Dowling are bringing the exploits of our favourite, fabulous, blood sucking, Brit born, bon viveur occultist investigator back to the Megazine, all starting right now in Judge Dredd Megazine #388.
Educated by nuns, skilled occultist, devotee of the ancient killing techniques of Kem-Kwong, priest and exorcist for Vatican City, and infected with the Daywalker Vampiric trait, Waugh’s fame is only equalled by his skills. And both are dwarfed by his fabulous personality.
Richard Bruton recently sat down for a chat with writer Rory McConville about the man with the big gun and the even bigger personality….
The Edwardian supernatural chiller, The Alienist, is in the middle of its second series in the pages of The Galazy’s Greatest Comic.
Once again, the other-wordly Madelyn Vespertine and her assistant, Professor Sebastian Wetherall (aka unemployed actor Reggie Briggs) are busy investigating the latest extra-dimensional threat to humanity.
This is just the latest in a series of classic 2000 AD series for writers Gordon Rennie and Emma Beeby, whose work together also includes Survival Geeks and Judge Dredd.
Emma is famously the first female writer to pen a Dredd tale and has also written Judge Anderson while Rennie is one of 2000 AD‘s most prolific writers, beginning in earnest in 1993 with the epic 74-episode Missionary Man that ran between the Megazine and 2000 AD. Since then he’s written classic characters such as Mean Machine and Rogue Trooper and created many original series for 2000 AD including Witch World, Rain Dogs, Necronauts, Caballistics Inc., Aquila, and Jaegir.
Richard Bruton sat down with the pair to talk about loving The Alienist…
How did The Alienist come about? I remember reading somewhere in the past that this started life as a pitch elsewhere before finding its natural home at 2000 AD.
Gordon: It was originally going to be for a web comic thing that never ended up happening, my main takeaway from that experience being that people looking to do web comics could probably save themselves a lot of time and effort by simply throwing money out a window instead, and watch it drift gently away in the breeze. I’d always liked the word ‘Alienist’. It was just a matter of waiting for the right idea to come along to match it. Which, in this case, was “let’s do Doctor Who, except it’s the young female companion who’s actually the omniscient alien savant one.”
Emma: Because that would probably never happen, or so we thought at the time. We did a similarly prescient thing in Survival Geeks with in an alternate universe had a Star Wars poster showing a female jedi instead of Luke.
Gordon: There is an MR James/Carnacki the Ghost Finder vibe to The Alienist, but I think we wanted to ground it in science fiction rather than the supernatural. The weird alien being coming to Earth to take on human form and deal with weird eruptions in reality – we’re really looking at Sapphire & Steel rather than MR James and Doctor Who.
With the introduction of the mysterious Professor Edward Praetorius and the “Society”, are we going to be seeing a bigger threat developing as the series continues? Or could that be something for future series following Inhuman Natures?
Gordon: Yeah, we wanted to do some world-building in this story, which included introducing a returning villain. Praetorius – or someone like him – and The Society will definitely be back in the future.
Just as with Gordon’s particularly grumpy old man copper Absalom being absolutely nothing like the author, I’m sure the Madelyn Vespertine, Professor Sebastian Wetherall characters have absolutely nothing in common with you both? You describe them in Hex House as “the learned savant and the spirited ingénue”, but I’m sure that’s absolutely nothing like yourselves, right?
Gordon: Ha. I’d never really thought about it before. (Harry Absalom’s really more based on my dad – first name Harry – who was a miserable old bastard with terminal cancer.) Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off down the pub to guzzle wine, stew on this, and write an annoying journalist called Pritchard Brooton into an episode of Absalom, and then have something horrible happen to him.
Emma: Well, I don’t know about that, but I have found over my years of writing that the best technique as a co-writer is to tap prettily at the keyboard and giggle, wearing a ‘Patriarchy, YAY!’ t-shirt, only pausing to ask questions to the wise, all-knowing, male co-creator.
Finally for The Alienist, time to sing the praises of Mr Coveney…. how’s it been working with him on the series?
Gordon: He’s Irish, does what he’s told and – no matter how much abuse I hurl at him, or ridiculously time-consuming things I demand he draws – still comes back for more. He’s like the new PJ Holden for me, really.
Emma: I’ve worked with Eoin on Dredd as well and I love his work, how expressive he makes it, and on the Alienist the techniques he uses, cross-hatching, etc, are perfect for the story.
Emma, you’re the first woman writer to tackle Judge Dredd. Over the course of the comic’s history, 2000 AD has seen probably more than its fair share of female representation, with Halo Jones, Judge Anderson, and Hershey immediately coming to mind. How have you found the response to your work?
Emma: It’s been positive and welcoming. The fans just want to enjoy the stories with the characters they love, and I’ve only ever felt like that’s the standard I’m held to, like any other script-droid.
I’ve been writing four comics, all with female main characters and all very different, from historical to science fiction, over the past few months. I think if someone had told me that would happen when I was starting out I wouldn’t have believed them. But there’s a wider range of acceptable stories and roles for female characters in comics now. And it’s great that the Prog has long had that kind of range.
The first Survival Geekscollection is out right now. Can you tell us a little behind the genesis of that one?
Gordon: I think we were probably looking at stuff like The IT Crowd and The Big BangTheory, and noticing that geek culture had now gone mainstream enough to do shows like that. It originally began life as something else; a non-science fictiony thing called Code Monkeys, about nerds with slightly crappy jobs at a slightly crappy computer games developer. We cannibalised some of the characters from that and put them into a dimension-travelling semi-detached house.
Emma: It was going to be a kids’ comic initially, but it wasn’t quite right, it limited our jokes for a start. Adulting it up worked much better, and made it more fun to write. It’s probably my favourite thing to work on for 2000 AD.
Where next for the characters after their latest adventure?
Gordon: They are coming back, for Tharg wills it. We’re planning a big epic called Crisis Of Infinite Nerds, along the lines of the big Marvel and DC crossover events like Secret Wars etc. Except this is with nerds instead of superheroes.
Emma: Or possibly nerd superheroes.
And where can we buy the cuddly Cthulhu soft toy?
Gordon: A Howard? In one of the alternative dimensions yet to be visited by the Geeks.
Emma: I’m sure the 2000 AD marketing and merch people can make this happen…
Prog 2045 sees the start of a new three part 3riller, Mechastopheles. Delivering a condensed hit of intense storytelling over just three parts, Mechastopheles takes us to the nightmarish aquatic world and the drowned city of Vonitzia, a year after “the fall”, when demons rose and society fell.
The people of this world are survivors, desperately travelling across the seas looking for sanctuary. It’s a world of as yet unseen demons, creeper-crawlers, scream doctors, flay-tongues, soul gatherers, and giggling pagliaccios. One young girl, Allegra, is learning the hard way just how nightmarish this world can be. And as for the mysterious Mechastopheles, well, we’ll leave that for you to discover.
Mechastopheles is written by the father-son team of Gordon and Lawrence Rennie, alongside the always incredible art of Karl Richardson. It’s Lawrence Rennie’s first appearance in 2000 AD and Richard Bruton caught up with him for a few questions about his first work for the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic.
Mechastopheles began its three-part 3riller run in Prog 2045 and it’s your very first outing in the pages of 2000 AD. Can you give us a little background on how the strip came together ?
Gordon came to me saying he wanted a story with a big demon robot in hell, and the name Mechastopheles. Now, As cool as a comic with just a giant metal demon fighting other giant demons would be, there isn’t much of a story there so that’s when we started planning out this larger world – the survivors, the fall of these cities like Magenti and Vonitzia. It started to come together quite quick.
Can you give us a quick, no spoilers glimpse in what’s to come in Mechastopheles?
We have a mechanical demon ferrying a group of survivors. That’s all well and fine for now, but how long do you think a hellish beast like Mechastopheles can really be trusted?
From just the first five-page episode it’s obvious that you’ve invested a lot of thought into the world of Mechastopheles, with the first instalment very quickly painting a picture in the readers head of just what’s gone on with the world. When coming up with the idea for the strip did you sit down and plan it out in depth?
There’s a general idea for what happened in these cities like Magenti, Vonitzia – the citizens; the religious groups; the powers that controlled them. There’s a background story for the creation of Mechastopheles, the bizarre mechanaman Leonato and his ‘daughter’ Beatrici. Hopefully we’ll be able to tell these stories that form our hellish realm at some point in future editions.
The 3riller structure of three 5 page episodes to tell a story, beginning, middle, end is perfect for us readers to get a quick hit of something new. But are there particular difficulties for you as a writer in creating something new, setting up the world and the scenario and still delivering a satisfying tale in 15 pages?
With just the 15 pages it definitely limited how much of the world we could bring the readers into. It was more important to bring the readers quickly up to speed on where we are, who we’re with, and what in the hell is a Mechastopheles? Initially we wanted to tell the story of Magenti and the creation of Mechastopheles but with so much to tell there, and only 15 pages, we decided it best to have our survivors already out on their quest and getting into the action to jump our readers right into the chaos.
How does the writing process work for you and Gordon? Any particular difficulties working with dad?
I’m sure we’ll both give different answers on who does more work. We both share our ideas for where we think the story should be going, what should be happening in each panel etc and the result is normally a result of those. He’s the one with the experience whereas I’m still learning so I’m happy for him to take the reigns a little more at times but it’s been an equal partnership throughout. I do find I have to keep him on track at times though; he is getting old you know…
Obviously having Karl Richardson on art is a great thing for a strip, especially one with such great visual ideas for the monstrous demons and Mechastopheles itself. What was it like to get a glimpse at those pages, seeing your ideas come to life on the page or screen?
I’m absolutely loving it. The artwork Karl is giving us is excellent and reminds me a little of some of the art in Hellboy. I know I shouldn’t but I can’t help but tease some of those massive splash pages of Mechastopheles to friends because I just think they look so cool.
Is this your first comics work?
Yes and I’ve really enjoyed it. It’s an excellent learning experience and helped push my confidence in my own writing. I’m primarily interested in writing in film and tv but I’m very happy to be working in comics now and getting my work out there.
Just what does it mean to you to be in the pages of the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic?
I’m delighted with the opportunity and the faith shown by 2000 AD to allow me, as a first time writer, to even get just this 3riller series. I’m beyond excited, if a little nervous as well, to finally share it with the 2000 AD readership.
What were your first 2000 AD experiences as a reader?
Finding a stash of my dad’s old comics in the house when I was younger. The bizarre, and often gratuitously violent, worlds in these comics grabbed that young curious child who probably shouldn’t have been seeing these images of Dredd blowing thugs heads off. But hey, look where it’s got me now!
And on a similar note, can you just give us a quick idea of some influences?
I should probably say my dad here, right? No, most of my influences actually come from film. It was important in my house to be brought up with an ’80s action education, meaning from a young age I’d already fallen in love with the best action movies ever made – The Terminator, Aliens, and Die Hard. These are the films that brought me onto the path of writing. I’d also give special mention to Dan Harmon. I’m big into story structure and find his process for structuring fascinating and try to incorporate it into my own.
Finally, what’s coming up for you in the near, or not so near future?
For now I’m studying English and Film at Napier University. I’d love to keep on with Mechastopheles and of course there’s always other ideas kicking around that I’d like develop.
It’s been 35 years since they obliterated East-Meg One and brought The Apocalypse War to an end – but what’s happened to the members of Judge Dredd’s Apocalypse Squad?
John Wagner is set to return to the pages of 2000 AD with a brand new Judge Dredd thriller – War Buds – that hits shelves in 2000 AD Prog 2045 on 23 August.
Dredd is called in over the fate of ex-Med-Judge Charlie Costa, one of the Judges in his squad that took over a Sov missile silo during The Apocalypse War and wiped East-Meg One from the face of the Earth. Over three decades later, Dredd’s actions have continued to haunt Mega-City One, but what has been the effect on those who helped Dredd kill a billion people?
Providing his first ever art for 2000 AD is Dan Cornwell – a relative newcomer to comics but Wagner and Alan Grant’s collaborator on the football-meets-sci-fi comic Rok Of The Reds. Richard Bruton talked to Dan about his first work for the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic and working with the mighty Wagner…
This is your first time working for 2000 AD – as a relatively new artist, how excited are you for this?
It’s incredibly surreal if I’m honest. The nearer it comes the more excited I get as you can imagine. Until I see it in print and in my sweaty palm I still won’t believe it’s for real.
How did this Dredd strip come about? It’s slightly unusual for an artist to be dropped straight onto the flagship character, the more usual route being a Future Shock or similar.
Tell me about it! I’d be stoked if I had been given a Future Shock. To be honest that’s kind of what I expected. John Wagner was emailing me in regards to some of the Rok of the Reds pages I had sent him and he mentioned that he thought I was capable of drawing in the Prog. Obviously I was thrilled but didn’t really think much more about it at the time. A couple of days later he mailed me simply with “you’re on a Dredd!”
Apparently Matt Smith had seen Rok and he and John agreed that I should draw a Dredd for 2000 AD. I couldn’t believe it.
What does getting to draw Dredd mean for you?
Everything. Getting to draw Rok was an unbelievable experience. A huge challenge too. Something many aspiring artists would dream of, working with Wagner and Grant. Including me. But Dredd has always been the dream. He’s the one character I would draw every other day since I was very young. I never thought I would one day draw him for real. For 2000 AD!
Can you give us a quick idea of what to expect from War Buds?
Not entirely sure how much I can divulge without giving spoilers or angering Tharg. It’s a five-part story that unites Dredd with some colleagues from a certain war. Safe to say it’s a rollercoaster as you’d expect from John Wagner.
What are your experiences with 2000 AD?
Well, I’ve been reading 2000 AD since around 1988. I was a paperboy and I had the habit of reading everything I was delivering. One day I read a copy of 2000 AD and I blew my tiny young mind. I think it was Bisley’s Slaine that done it. I couldn’t believe you could get art of that calibre in a comic. How wrong was I? I was hooked from that point.
Some of my favourite stories are Necropolis, America, The Horned God, Khronicles of Khaos, Inferno, Swimming in Blood, Sky Chariots, Total War…. can’t list them all, the list is endless.
It’s not your first comics work though, as you’ve self-published before, had work in the 2000 AD fanzines Dogbreath and Futurequake. Can you tell us a little about your history?
Well I’ve always wanted to draw comics. My first published work I believe was in Futurequake. I’ve had a few in there along with a couple of stories in Dogbreath. Can’t thank those guys enough. Futurequake gives aspiring writers and artists a platform to show their work. I can’t recommend them enough to anyone wanting a chance to showcase their work. Brilliant comics. I’ve also had work published in 100% Biodegradable. Again, these guys are awesome for anyone interested in working in comics. British small press is where loads of professionals get the start they need.
I remember looking at a strip of yours once upon a time in that Dogbreath issue and noting how you seemed influenced by the great Steve Parkhouse. Was I right about that?
I can see where you’re coming from. It’s not intentional I assure you. I have seen loads of his amazing work. I guess we just have/had similar styles. His is much better obviously.
And whilst we’re on the subject, what other influences do you have?
2000 AD. Almost anyone who’s been in it. As I was growing up I was always influenced by different artist at different times. Never quite achieving anything like the quality of whoever I was admiring at the time. Artist such as Kev Walker, Greg Staples, Colin MacNeil, Jim Murray when I wanted to do painted art. Then as I turned to pen and ink it was Brian Bolland, Mick McMahon, Trevor Hairsine, Carlos Ezquerra, Henry Flint, Frank Quitley and many more. Also US artists such as Capullo, McFarlane, Sean Murphy. I can’t leave out European artists like Ladronn, Moebius. I also adore Juanjo Guarnido’s work on Blacksad. Safe to say many artists have influenced me. I’ve not achieved anything like these guys though. I think Frank Quitley has taken it to another level now.
The book that really brought you to the attention of many comic fans was Rok Of The Reds, the football comic with a difference written by Alan Grant and John Wagner and published by Black Hearted Press. What was it like to suddenly be catapulted into working with two genuine comics legends?
Dizzying. I mean come on! I’m a bus driver. To suddenly be working with two of the biggest names in British comics, all comics, is ridiculous. And to help develop a new, stand alone character is an opportunity of a lifetime.
How did Rok Of The Reds come about?
John Facebook messaged me when I was driving a bus. He just asked if I “liked football and could I draw it?” Straight to the point. I thought it was a joke obviously. I said yes. He then emailed me with the details and asked if I’d be interested in drawing it. Well I wasn’t going to say no to him. Whether I could draw football or not. I’d make sure I could.
Were you pleased with the end result of your first major work?
Oh yeah. It was bloody hard work but one hell of a ride – 130ish pages on top of a day job was always going to be a challenge but I’m very proud of the books we created. It’s a wonderful story and I hope my art does it justice. That for the fans to answer I guess. But we are very, very proud.
Any plans for another series of Rok of the Reds?
There are talks ongoing. John wants the second series to be better than the first. He’s got his work cut out that’s for sure. It’ll happen I believe. One day.
Finally, what’s coming up for you in the near, or not so near future?
I’ve got another Dredd story. Not sure when it’ll appear though. I think it all depends on what the reaction the readers of War Buds have. It could be the first and last time I appear the Mighty Prog. I hope that’s not the case. My fate is in their hands. Oh and Tharg’s. Of course. I won’t go away though. I’ve worked to damn hard.
Judge Dredd: War Buds begins its five part tale in 2000 AD Prog 2045, hitting the shelves on 23rd August in the UK.
Hope by Guy Adams and Jimmy Broxton returns in 2000 AD Prog 2044 this week after a six month hiatus.
This magic infused noir horror strip is set in an alternate 1940s Hollywood where WWII was won through occult means and this new world has magic at its heart. But magic comes with a heavy price, and practising the dark arts swallows people whole.
One of those people destroyed by magic is Mallory Hope, former New York cop turned Hollywood PI who came back from a nightmarish war only to discover that the nightmare came back as well. His wife was seduced by magic while he was away, and both her and their young son vanished. Hope still believes he can find them, somewhere, somehow and spends his time between cases pursuing that faint hope.
Hope’s a magician who went down too deep, and now the demon Cade is attached to his soul. Cade’s always there, a masked figure only Hope can see, silent, ominous, always keen to see bloodshed once more.
With the first six parts of Hope, we jumped into the case of a missing child star, Joey Fabrizzi, aka Buster Ritz! Against a backdrop of Hollywood glamour, we follow Hope’s investigation as he slowly peels back the glitz to reveal the darkness beneath.
Richard Bruton talked to Guy and Jimmy about the return of the series and what’s in store…
With the new series of Hope debuting in Prog 2044, we’re finally going to see just what happened to Mallory Hope, private dick in an alternate 1940s Hollywood. Can you give us a little insight as to the original genesis for Hope?
G: Jimmy can correct me if I’m wrong but I seem to remember coming to him with a handful of different ideas I thought he’d like. We wanted to do something together again and so I set to thinking what sort of story, what sort of world, had a Broxton written all over it. We were also thinking specifically of 2000 AD as its home so I was just riffing off the tastes and sensibilities of both and finding what might fit.
I can’t actually remember what the other ideas were but Jimmy and I both love film noir and so Hope was an obvious fit. Originally it was set in the future but Matt at 2000 AD very wisely suggested we make it an alternative history story instead.
J: Indeed, incredibly, Guy came up with the idea for whole thing with me in mind to draw it. I’m very lucky!
Now, how does the collaborative process work for you? Both on Hope and generally….
G: I wash, he dries. (I’m stealing from Tom Waits there, but if you’re going to steal…) I always leave room in my scripts for Jimmy to play. Sometimes artists like to be led a bit, sometimes they prefer plenty of room to manoeuvre. With Jimmy we have a basic agreement: I’ll sketch out thoughts and ideas for staging — I do write a full script — but he is entirely free to ignore my suggestions.
J: Guy’s scripts are a joy to work from, everything is there that I need, but as he says, there is room for me to add my own input, things are not set in stone. He understands that comics are primarily a visual medium, he sets the stage, indicates the mood and the tone, I know exactly what information the page needs to impart, exactly what emotional response he wants from the reader, and, as long as I’m true to that, I can do what I like.
How many parts do we have to look forward to in this latest Hope tale? Will this be the conclusion of the search for little Joey or is there more to come?
G: This second run is another six episodes and sees an end to the first story. The case of little Joey is done. There are more stories to follow though.
Can you tease us a little as to what’s coming up in this current series?
G: Sex and violence. Just an average lazy Sunday for Jimmy and I.
J: Some of the things Guy is asking me to draw are very revealing, in a number of ways, and provide remarkable insight into the gin soaked, sun drenched and utterly debauched life he must be living over there.
With Hope, there’s a definite noir feel to the writing, and especially the dialogue, with Chandler’s Marlowe the obvious voice in my head as I’m reading. Guy, is it something you put into Hope through a love of noir fiction and occult thrillers, or is there more to it than that simplistic summary?
G: Oh it’s all love, certainly, although I’ve never read Chandler. I have The Big Sleep here on the shelf but I just haven’t got round to it. Dashiell Hammett’s another glaring omission. Which surprises me just as much as anyone else really. I will read them, I have a lot of books. Thousands of books. Some of them have to wait.
I do read a lot of crime fiction though. Elmore Leonard is a genius, Ed McBain (or Evan Hunter, rather) too, James M. Cain, all sweat and sin and tragedy, Erle Stanley Gardner, his Perry Mason novels are exceptional examples of sleek, fast storytelling. Patricia Highsmith is another essential of course.
J: I’m ashamed to say I have not read any of the writers Guy mentions, I have heard of them, well some of them, I rarely read fiction, but one of my favourite authors is James Elroy, I love the noir/crime genre, horror not so much.
The combination of old time Hollywood noir and magic is a perfect fit, but the thing I loved about the first Hope series, and something I’m hoping to see more of in the future is the alternate history, a post WWII world where magic is commonplace. Will we be seeing more of just how different the Hope world is? And if so, do you feel it’s something better addressed in asides and visual clues as you’ve done so far or could we see the differences take a bigger part of the tale?
G: You’ll certainly be seeing more. It’s prominence will vary (I’m working on several story plots at the moment, building up a future and a landscape for the strip, and in some it’s hugely relevant, in others it’s just window dressing.) Character and story is the key thing, they have to come first, world building should just quietly bubble away in the background unless there’s a strong plot reason for it becoming prominent.
J: I enjoy adding little details that subtly or even subliminally remind us that this is not the world as we knew it, film posters, newspaper headlines, that sort of thing. An example being the famous Hollywood sign, which we see in the first instalment, Guy requested we show it in its original glory; “HOLLYWOODLAND”, which is how it appeared until 1949, when “LAND” was removed, leaving us with the familiar icon of today. The first Hope episode takes place in 1948, so entirely consistent that the sign be shown in full.
Any chance we’ll have a more in depth look at Hope’s wartime nightmare in future series?
G: That’s one of the story plots I’m working on! A short run set entirely during the war. Our plan at the moment is to sprinkle smaller stories between longer runs. The smaller stories will certainly flesh out other parts of this world — and, indeed, other characters. Jimmy, how did you approach creating the visuals for Hope?
J: I tend to work in the same way for every project, even though the styles may vary. Unless requested, I never do layouts, I just have a vague notion of how the page may hang together. I draw all the panels separately, usually just on cheap typing paper. I then scan them all in, and start composing and editing them down to build the page on the computer.
The combination of gritty noir stylings mixed with the more adventurous overlays of magic work incredibly well. The strip switches from tight, controlled panel work with Hope the PI to more open and expansive pages where magic is involved. Can you talk us through the thinking behind that particular artistic decision?
J: To be honest, I don’t think about it too much, as I said, I do not plan the pages or do layouts, after reading the script I usually know exactly how I’m going to handle each scene, it’s entirely instinctive, to me it just seems obvious how things need to be handled, size, shape, staging etc. Sometimes it feels like the imagery is beaming in from somewhere else, I have no idea where from, the ideas appear fully formed, it’s then just down to me to execute them to the best of my abilities, that’s the hard part, actually drawing and practicing the craft, the thinking is the easy part, I never really do any!
Following the decimation of Mega-City One during Chaos Day, Judges from other friendly Justice Departments have been brought in to strengthen the ranks and help maintain law and order on the streets. Amongst the newcomers is Fintan Joyce son of a former Emerald Isle Judge, who teamed up with Judge Dredd in one of the most fondly remembered Dredd stories.
Exploiting the Big Meg’s weakened state, several groups have risen up against the Judges, including the Goblin King s Undercity army and a mutant group lead by the monstrous Thorn, who have been attacking Cursed Earth outposts. If things couldn’t get any worse, Dredd has fallen foul of Brit-Cit and they want him in prison or on a slab Have the odds finally stacked up enough to spell the end of Mega-City One s greatest lawman?
Every Empire Falls is writer Michael Carroll’s fascinating multi-part epic about Mega-City One’s struggles to survive in the wake of the Day of Chaos, with stellar artwork by Henry Flint, Paul Davidson, Carlos Ezquerra, Colin MacNeil and PJ Holden.
With the collected edition out this week, Carroll spoke to the 2000 AD blog about writing this modern epic and the implications for the future of Dredd and all the characters involved…
Q. The first story in this collection introduces Judge Fintan Joyce, the son of Charlie Joyce from the fondly-remembered Emerald Isle story from 1991 – as a citizen of Murphyville yourself, how influential was that story on you, both as a fan and as a creator?
A. I remember loving the story at the time: Garth Ennis has a deliciously twisted sense of humour, and the art by Steve Dillon and Will Simpson is just magic. But there were certain aspects that I felt were a little too broad – the potato-gun, for example, was a gag too far given that much of the story dealt with the Murphyville residents trying to shake negative stereotypes foisted on them by a more powerful nation. When I was brought on board as a Dredd writer one of the first things I wanted to do was revisit the Emerald Isle and maybe address some of that.
After Day of Chaos, with most of Mega-City One in rubble and the Justice Department severely depleted, I figured that it would make sense to draft in Judges from other cities. I wanted an Emerald Isle Judge, but Charlie Joyce would be too old: someone younger and more impressionable would be better. So I decided that Charlie would have a son who’d been an Emerald Isle Judge for only a few years – not long enough to pick up too many of his old man’s bad habits!
Later, with Blood of Emeralds, I brought Dredd and Joyce back to the Emerald Isle to see how much it had changed in the quarter-century since Garth, Steve and Will had been there… And that allowed me to start widening the scope of my Dredd stories a little. I’ve always felt that a city-state as powerful as Mega-City One would be pretty much like the USA today: it would have a massive impact on the rest of the world without even really being aware of that. Sure, in MC1 they know they’re the best (and won’t stop telling everyone else), but they’re always looking down: they don’t have the ability – or see the need – to put themselves in the shoes of their contemporaries and look up.
And it could be argued that the inhabitants of the Emerald Isle see themselves as superior to the Brits because the Brits spent centuries subjugating them, and in Brit-Cit they see themselves as superior to the Emeralds for precisely the same reason…
Q. In Judge Dredd, possibly more than any other story in 2000 AD– and arguably more than another comic-book strip – actions have consequences…
A. Exactly! Dredd ages in real-time and there are no reset-buttons or reboot, so everything that happens stays happened, if you’ll pardon the awkward phrasing. Some comic-books might set up plotlines up to a year in advance, but the classic Day of Chaos epic was the pay-off to decades of Mega-City One / East-Meg hostilities, and I reckon it’s safe to say that it’s not all over yet.
I’ve been reading 2000 AD from the very beginning, so it’s been a huge part of my life, and Dredd’s been there all the way. I wouldn’t say he’s like an old friend – more like a disapproving scary neighbour on top of whose garage my Space Spinner still resides – but what I love about him is that he’s weathered forty years of ongoing continuity without breaking a sweat. We’ve seen cities rise and fall, despots come and go, we’ve seen fads and trends and plagues and invasions and everything else, and Joe Dredd is still the same old grumpy fecker he’s always been.
I’m sure that by now his hair – if he has any left – is white, and that there are many lines around his eyes (even though we’ll never get to see them), but at the core, Dredd is Dredd. He is the bedrock of Mega-City One: the city is chaotic, Dredd is solid. He’s not utterly immutable, of course, but he evolves at the speed of a glacier stuck in the mud.
That’s why it’s fun to pair Dredd with characters who can be flippant at times: Anderson and Koburn are perfect examples. They’re good at their job and Dredd will admit that even if he doesn’t like the way they get the job done. And at the start Judge Joyce clearly idolises Dredd and can’t stop himself from trying to impress him, and can’t see that’s exactly the sort of thing that won’t impress him.
Q. There’s a lot of political intrigue in the story… How do you avoid that swamping the action and the flow?
A. Well, I’d say that there’s always politics in any Dredd tale, though sometimes the political aspect is very deeply buried! In this case, I had no choice at times but to be blatant, particularly when Texas City’s Chief Judge Oswin comes to Mega-City One.
I’m sure that no one wants to read the Dredd equivalent of a ten-hour House of Lords debate, so the way around that is to illustrate the politics through their impact on ordinary people… The mutie on the street, so to speak. Right from the start of this collection, we see the Judges imposing their will on the denizens of the Undercity: any right-thinking person (ah, now there’s a politically-charged phrase!) would of course understand that the Judges have no moral right to pass judgement on the people they’ve discarded and shunned.
Same goes for the folks out there in the Cursed Earth, barely scraping together a living. Along come the Big City Judges with their guns to start barking orders and throwing their weight around… Acting like they own the place, until it suits them to go home to their pristine cockroach-less apartments and forget about the rest of the world.
Politics can be dull when it’s some otherwise-unemployable wealthy spugwit standing up in Parliament and smugly addressing her fellow wealthy spugwits, but it becomes much more interesting when the rules she passes filter down to the people who have to find a way to live with them!
Q. Without spoiling too much for anyone who’s not yet read it, do you have any favourite moments in Every Empire Falls?
A. The interaction between Rico and Koburn in Dust to Dust was a lot of fun: I’ve never had a chance to write either of them before. In an early draft of the script Koburn kept referring to Dredd as Rico’s father, just to get a rise out of him, but I dropped that because I felt Koburn was being a little disrespectful. Sure, he and Dredd never got on, but there was always mutual – if grudging – respect.
I also enjoyed taking Joyce through Brit-Cit, which I pretty much envisaged as present-day London because it’s such a mad, fun and barely-sane city as it is: why change that? PJ Holden and I threw lots of little gags into the background: the “Dave’s Pork Pies” balloon was one of his, I liked that one a lot. And the bakery called “Staples” was of course a reference to another Dredd artist… Careful scrutiny of that panel will reveal that the bakery is selling “Hover-buns” because this is, after all, the future.
But the best part of the whole process was, for me, finding out that Carlos Ezquerra would be drawing the final part of the saga. The man who co-created Judge Dredd drew a strip based on words that I wrote – I still can’t believe that!
