Today marks the thirty fifth anniversary of the first appearance of Judge Dredd in the stalwart British comic book 2000AD. Dredd missed out on being in the first issue, but the character appeared in Prog 2 and has been in ever issue since bar a handful, not bad going for a comic that nobody thought would last a year.
The toughest lawman on the planet soon took over the top billing in the fledgling comic book , usurping the revamped Dan Dare within a few short weeks. Dredd was the ultimate law enforcer and acted as judge, jury and when needed executioner to those who would break the law in the vast metropolis of Mega-City One.
Mega-City One is huge, spanning the entire eastern seaboard side of North America and home to a staggering 400 million citizens all of whom were potential perps ( short for perpetrator ) who could break the myriad of laws of the city.
And there are many laws to break. Comic books are illegal as they are deemed to retard the brain. Sugar possession is treated the same as we treat those who deal heavy drugs now. The future is a bleak world with almost 100% unemployment and those humans who can find work often end up doing tasks far too menial for robots such as being store mannequins.
The streets and public are protected by the judges, a small number if dedicated and highly trained law enforcement officers who are trained from infancy to police the most dangerous city on earth!
Over the years many of the best known names in comics have cut their collective teeth on 2000AD and some of the most famous writers and artists in the industry have written or drawn Dredd and then gone on to bigger things.
Joe was the subject of the much talked about (often for the wrong reasons) Judge Dredd movie in 1995 starring Sylvester Stallone and a whole new movie is due out this year featuring Karl Urban as 'Ol Stoney Face'.
So 35 years of Dredd and I have loved it all. Here is to the next 35!
Marc
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