Publisher: 2000AD
Writer: John Smith
Artists: Sean Phillips Colin Macneil John Burns
Release date: 13th May 2015
Price: £9.99
Someone once said that a week is a long time in politics. In comic book terms then, 38 years are clearly several comic book character lifetimes, but nevertheless that’s how long Judge Dredd has been reminding the citizens and punks of Mega City One that this really isn’t their lucky day.
Dredd has survived Sylvester Stallone, a team-up with Batman and weathered the virtual elimination of the traditional British comic book industry. Hell, even the Dandy bit the cow-pie dust! Not that Judge Dredd has achieved the Dandy’s longevity, but it would be a brave man who would suggest the good Judge is not going to be around for a long time to come.
Despite being set in a post- apocalyptic America, there is something quintessentially British – don’t you know – about Judge Dredd that may well account for his continued reign as the premiere British comic book character. In an age where all other comic book characters with a similar, or even shorter, career have been re-imagined and re-booted to death and according to the prevailing social trends in comic books in search of the almighty profit. However, Judge Dredd’s stone-faced law enforcer has ploughed a steady, and often bloody, furrow through the comic book industry, bowing to no trend or fad or fashionable gimmick.
Dredd remains now, as he’s always been, both a rock and a hard place where crime has no business being. In addition to quirky, humorous and highly individual scripts by a bevy of talented writers, the total look of Judge Dredd makes him stand out from a crowd of comic book characters who have been homogenised to within an inch of their lives. The distinctive and distinctly European take on Judge Dredd visuals give the strip an identity harking back to the days of the truly individual creative talent. None of this however would have been possible without an equally impressive supporting cast of characters, which brings me to Judge Dredd The Mega Chronicles, a sort of greatest hits compilation series featuring some of the Dredd team’s most memorable creations.
This volume collects the adventures of Devlin Waugh, kicking off with Waugh’s debut outing Swimming In Blood. Waugh, one of the Vatican’s spiritual envoys, is sent to investigate a precog predicted threat in the underwater prison complex Aquatraz. But Aquatraz turns out to be harbouring an outbreak of vampirism courtesy of a bugman called Landis. And if just reading that last sentence weren’t enough to get your blood pumping and have you clamouring for more then I would get to the hospital straight away because your sense of outrageous adventure has obviously died.
For anyone not familiar with Devlin Waugh it may help to know the man has been described as ‘Noel Coward’s head on Arnold Schwarzenegger’s body’. And how can you not love a character who uses a blowtorch to extract information one minute and then throws a hissy fit because his precious paintings have become water damaged the next? Who takes paintings on a mission to quell a vampire outbreak anyway?
The action is typically ‘buckle your seat belt’ siege story; Waugh tries to lead the prison’s human staff to safety with an effete, disinterested air that makes them weep with terror and the reader cry with laughter. Even when Waugh gets infected with the vampire virus he accepts it with aplomb and bucket loads of savoir-faire making this a pitch-perfect tale of a an Englishman with his dander up dishing out a thorough trouncing to all and sundry; a pure delight from start to finish and an ideal jumping on point for those not familiar with either the character or the Judge Dredd universe in general.
Having whetted your appetite, next up is Brief Encounter – love that title – and Waugh’s first meeting with Dredd. Waugh falls foul of customs procedures when trying to take his cat Grendel to a cat show in Mega City One. If that isn’t a bizarre enough concept Waugh ends up being strip searched and only his diplomatic immunity prevents the contents of his pleasure schooner (no, that’s not a euphemism) landing him in jail.
Meatier fare is Red Tide where we embark on a vampire hunting holiday at Fangland in the Bahamas! A follow-up to Swimming In Blood this tale is set nine years after the vampires broke out of Aquatraz and have been breeding in an undersea colony ever since. Waugh of course is an expert on all things vampire now and is accompanying Professor Helsing to the Helsing Institute where the professor will perform a vivisection on the vampire daywalker Lilith Karnstein in an attempt to cure his daughter, Hannah of the curse of vampirism.
Unfortunately, Landis, the bugman from Aquatraz, is still the head honcho of the underwater vamps and wants Lilith for himself so that he can learn the secret of daywalking. Cue mass slaughter as good vampire Waugh and daywalker Lilith form an unlikely alliance to save both their hides. Needless to say, Waugh escapes his encounter with these ‘Eating machines with bad dress sense’ intact and even picks up a little bonus, but I won’t disclose what that is because you do want to read this for yourself, right?
The final instalment is Bite Fight and we see our suave Waugh in a totally different light, as he becomes a reluctant contestant in an illegal cage-fighting contest. But fear not; guess who’s just about to raid the place? That’s right, the one and only Judge Dredd. Though entertaining, it’s only in the last few panels the Devlin Waugh we’ve come to know and love regains his senses and vocabulary proving that personality is paramount. A character rarely used, Waugh has charisma in spades and the fact that Waugh has not been catapulted into the spotlight more frequently is enough to make you want to weep into a tin of cold asparagus.
This is a series that no serious collector of prime British comicbook material can afford to be without. Get it now and see what you’ve been missing all these years.
Reviewer: Gary Orchard
Review Editor: Steve Hooker