Judge Dredd the Megazine, ranked part 6: Good comic, wrong magazine?

Got quite a few comics here that perhaps don't quite fit into the remit of the Judge Dredd Megazine. Or maybe I'm the problem, and need to be more open-minded!

Man from the Ministry by Gordon Rennie and Kev Hopgood
(Megs 348-353)

What was this? A VERY Gordon Rennie story that riffs on mid-20^th century British horror/SF ideas. Specifically, in this case, the first Quatermass story, about an astronaut who gets infected with alien whatnot, and the last Quatermass story, about eldritch horrors coming back to take over the world. Specifically, though, it’s a bout the last remaining Civil Servant in the present day version of the ‘anti-aliens’ office, who has to cope with the sudden re-appearance of a spaceship and astronaut who went missing in the 50s.

It's all stiff-upper-lip, cups of tea, and tally-ho attitude, which is the sort of thing I find rather fun. Meanwhile there are bad guys running around who turn out to have demon tentacles heads, which is also rather fun.

Ah yes, all taxmen are secretly evil aliens. Pat Mills would be proud.
Words by Rennie; Art by Hopgood

But honestly, it’s kind of Caballistics/Absalom-lite, not helped by Kev Hopgood’s art, who is technically as good as he ever was, but has somehow lost the layer of scratch and grime that made e.g. Night Zero such an inviting series to read. That said, it’s inherently a fine comic and I would read more. With a little push to the visuals it could arguably be something great.

Dreddworld relevance? None at all.

Writing: 7.5/10
Art: 6/10
Impact: 2/10 Of all the ‘creator-owned’ slots that ran in the Meg, I’ve a feeling this one is (unfairly) the most forgotten.

Overall score: 15.5 / 30

Has it been reprinted? Not that I am aware of. Nor has the story continued, although the set-up is in place for further adventures of a cynical old man Civil Servant, a 1940s square-jawed War/Space hero-man (with aliens in his brain, perhaps), and a plucky lady Professor.

  

Tank Girl by Alan Martin and Rufus Dayglo
(Megs 275-297)

What was this? All new stories for Tank Girl, written by the original co-creator Alan Martin; drawn by 2000AD regular Rufus Dayglo. But what is really was, was an effort – a noble one, I think – to drum up new readers for the Megazine by publishing new exploits for a super-popular British comics character in an actual British comic.

I fear it did not really work out that way. Why not? Well, much as Tank Girl surely IS a UK comics phenomenon – one of the few creations that I suspect random people have a) heard of and b) might even know is both British and from comics (even if there was that one American movie that many people hate but also has a decent cult following) – Tank Girl just isn’t very 2000ADish. Or indeed Megazineish.

On paper, it seems like a good fit. Tank Girl first saw print in Deadline, a late 80s/early 90s comic/magazine hybrid mostly run by 2000AD stalwarts Steve Dillon and Brett Ewins. Tank Girl is surely also a classic non-nonsense working class angry punk type hero who pokes fun at and rails against the establishment. Co-creator Jamie Hewlett did a couple of more or less well-regarded runs on 2000AD stories. There really is plenty of room in the Megazine for comedy capers about humans and mutant kangaroos with big guns charging across a hellish landscape (the thrust of the first multi-part story).

But in fact, Tank Girl feels much more like Beano or Viz than 2000AD. It is tangentially science fiction, but not at all interested in exploring the science-related part. It is not especially interested in long-form narrative and plotting, preferring to trade on silliness and character study. The art is super cartoony, and all about comic asides and background gags. But those exact gags are, more or less overtly, the actual point of the strip. And these are all good things! But very much not the same as the sorts of things 2000AD trades on.

Classical comics comedy stylings
Words by Martin; Art by Dayglo

When e.g. Massimo Belardinelli or Kev O’Neill were filling up their 2000AD strips with fun backgrounds details, these were Easter Eggs to find and enjoy while focussing on a bigger plotline and carefully mapped out action beats. With Tank Girl, these details are THE thing to enjoy, they just have to be hung upon whatever actual jokes/shenanigans the main story is telling.

So anyway, the long Tank Girl run in the Megazine ended up pissing off regular readers, and seems not to have brought in any significant number of casual readers who came for Tank Girl and stuck around for, I dunno, Anderson Psi Division or Insurrection. I do think it was a decent thing to have a bit of Tank Girl in the Meg, if only it had meshed better. But the, I suppose, it wouldn’t be Tank Girl.

Or maybe, the problem is just that I’m a snob who found Martin’s scripts just a bit too childish and scatological, and for all that I love Dayglo’s general cartoon style, and adore his obvious energy and enthusiasm, his efforts on Tank Girl were merely very good, (and by the end of the run, quite excellent) but not, as Hewlett’s had been, zeitgeist-capturingly good. I mean, I’m no big fan of the original Tank Girl stories, but I can respect and admire its place in the British comics canon.

Dreddworld relevance? None

Writing: 5/10 I don’t much care for Martin’s humour, but he is good with character.
Art: 7/10 No complaints here, but also nothing that makes me want to read it all again.
Impact: 4/10 Not only did it run for more than a year, it inspired rather too many negative reader letters. One rather doubts a surprise run of new stories for Bazooka Jules…

Overall score 16/30

Has it been reprinted? It has. Not by Rebellion, but as part of the general world of Tank Girl graphic novels. I’m pretty sure it has found a much friendlier home with Tank Girl fans than it did with Dreddworld fans!

  

The Inspectre by Kevin Walker and Jim Campbell, with various artists
(Volume 3 issues 23-33)

What was this? The one about the East Meg Psi Judge dealing with the ghosts of those killed either in the Apocalypse War or most especially the ghost of Kazan’s ex-lover. Oh, and there’s a subplot about building some new city on the ruins of East Meg 1. And another subplot about a Mega City Judge cooperating with this project, but also spying / sabotaging it. If this strip committed any great sins, it was packing too much into its basic structure all at once.

The second story, and probably the best one, sees the titular Inspectre helping to sort out some pesky vengeful ghosts at the site of the build for the new city. This feels like a solid set-up for a series. But otherwise there’s a bit of a tangle between all the various subplots and characters that does make sense, but is quite hard work to parse. The central character has this awesome design with a brain implant that dampens his natural psychic ability to see dead people. I think I wanted more of that sort of thing.

Moody and angsty. 
Words by Walker/Campbell, art by Charles Gillespie 

Dreddworld relevance? It’s an Apocalypse War fallout story, pretty much the first of its kind. SO yes, totally relevant!

Writing: 6.5/10 The ideas, character and setting are all super interesting. The actual plotting and dialogue of each story is more middling.
Art: averages out to 6.5/10 Walker brings the best atmosphere, Gillespie has fun with the character designs; Currie I think provides the best storytelling.
Impact: 3/10 For a story that is pretty decent, this had a rather ignominious legacy. Walker has not written again (I think?). Gillespie didn’t get much more work. Co-scripter Jim Campbell is now famously comics top working letterer (who may or may not write occasional scripts). At least Andrew Currie got a bit of break!

Meanwhile, the character and setting itself have been entirely ignored, despite really quite a lot of writers tackling the idea of East Meg / Mega City relations, psychic devastation from the Apocalypse War and so on. Show some respect!

Overall score: 16/30

Has it been reprinted? It has! In Hachette 17 Weird Science

 

Strange Brigade by Gordon Rennie and Tiernan Trevallion
(Issues 398-399)

What was this? It’s a video game tie in! But, you know, it had the decency to only run for two episodes, and was scripted by the same bloke wot wrote the game. It is inarguably the greatest video game tie-in comic to appear in any Tharg-related publication. This is not high praise.

What it is as a story is kind of a variation of Rennie’s beloved Forteana-type adventures, wherein a group of cynical but competent weirdoes/adventurers/academics explore weird places, meet weird people, and battle vicious eldritch beings. See also Necronauts, Caballistics, Inc and the Dept. of Monsterology (not to mention man from the ministry...). This particular story is designed to be more of a teaser to encourage you to buy the game, I think, so not really fair to compare to those other longer-running stories. The Rennie Forteana formula is one that works, but in this case it does rather feel like a formula on display.

It has a running gag of a narrator using ‘what-ho, smashing spot for a cup of tea’ type language which both adds to the fun and detracts from any sense you’re supposed to take this seriously, which is all to the good. And I suppose it helps give a flavour of the period setting, because of course all the actual main characters are a bit too gruff and/or refined to talk in that way, so their dialogue doesn't do that part of the job. 

Competent people in dangerous situations.
Words by Rennie; Art by Trevallion

I stress again, it’s only 2 episodes long (so only just qualifies for this ranking exercise!), serves to encourage readers to buy and play a game, and as such has no plot, but it does convey, setting, mood and character. Not a one of them especially memorable or original but then that’s kind of the point. I guess Tiernan Trevallion on art duties IS bringing something novel to the table, namely his angular and baroque style. There’s a Mignola influence, for sure, but he’s always struck me as someone who likes that world but has the ghost of Kevin O’Neill spitting in his ear telling him to make it more weird.

Dreddworld relevance? Not a bit

Writing: 7 / 10
Art: 7.5 / 10
Impact: 2 – giving it an extra point for being an actually decent video-game derived comic.

Overall score: 16.5 / 30

Has it been reprinted? It has not! (Maybe it comes as a digital copy with the game, though? Never played it)

American Reaper by Pat Mills and Clint Langley and Fay Dalton
(22 episodes between Megs 316-360)

What was this? Sexy Ostriches!

No but seriously, this was, I think, an idea for a film turned into a comic. Perhaps literally using high-end storyboards? At any rate, it is THE most heavily photo-inspired comic to see print in the Megazine, and was in its look and feel really quite experimental. It’s very Pat Mills in theme and character, but quite different from his usual comics work in that it uses up lots of space to flesh out its setting, mood and ideas, rather than making them hyper-dense. This is very clearly because the whole thing is a film pitch first, and a comic second. At least, I think that’s the reason?

Anyway, the story is about a future tech that allows people to copy across their personality/identity from one body into another. Typically, this means old rich people attempting to re-live life by overwriting the brain patterns of teenagers. The ‘American Reaper’ of the title is a cop who uses magic scanning glasses to identify and terminate people who have installed themselves in a host body. Until of course, the magic scanning tech stops working and it becomes more of a cat-and-mouse guessing game detective comic. With lots of car chases and people wearing kewl future clothes.

So weird - you can't fault any of the craft here, including the storytelling -
but it just feels flatter than trad. drawn comics.
Words by Mills; Art by Langley.

Honestly, there is good in here in both the story and the art, but there’s also rather a lot of bad. Reader reaction was very positive after the first couple of episodes, then rapidly descended into a chorus of ‘this is terrible please make it stop’.

I get that this makes more sense for a film than a comic, but I am judging the comic here. Mills really is not stretching very far to paint us a picture of ‘sad Dad worried about rebellious daughter’ and ‘vaguely goth-ish kids’ and ‘uniformly corrupt rich old people’. Perhaps worse, although he touches upon debate points about the whole concept of living on through the bodies of the young, he never gives himself enough space to pursue those debates in anything but the most crude terms. Oh, and for good measure there’s a major subplot of a doting Dad desperate to protect his 20-something daughter from the perils of, gasp, boys and drugs. While I can imagine Pat Mills, actual Dad having those feelings, I can’t quite bear the idea of Pat Mills, Pagan-sex-cult-defender, either acting on those feelings or even seeming to promote them via an old-fashioned story trope.

Somehow, despite these flaws, this strip not as bad as you remember. Certainly those bothered buy the page count it took up are dead wrong – giving it space to breathe is a wonderful taste of another style of comics making and reading.

Towards the end of the series, Mills delivered a few stories from the world of American Reaper, alongside the main narrative. These are better (not least because Fay Dalton is drawing them as comics), but they still only really point at ideas rather than actually thinking them through.

Dreddworld relevance? None. Although, frankly, the premise would’ve made for a pretty decent Dredd story – maybe a 2 or 3 parter even. Not a 22 episode mega-epic though.

Writing: 5/10 One can never fault Mills’s ideas or character archetypes. One can, however, fault his plotting and dialogue, which in this case are both blunt and basic. Maybe, just maybe, the real problem is that Mills has broken his own 'rule', by having his hero be a successful middle-class guy who is friends with, rather than suspicious of, society's top politicos and scientists.

Art: 7.5/10 (averaged) Langley’s art is perhaps even more divisive than Mills’s scripts. Honestly, it’s hard to imagine anyone doing fumetti-style comics better than this, and that seems to really entrance many readers. But for me, it’s just not a style I engage with. Langley can nail the acting for a panel beat really well – but as soon as the text in one or two speech bubbles require more than one expression, it stops working. I don’t know why, but when hand-drawn, that problem is typically smoothed out.

The minute Langley is obliged to start rendering his own linework on top of the base photos, it comes to life, and that to me is telling. His scene-setting is great, the car chases are fun, and the look of the zombies-inside-your-head is a triumph.

But he has rather miscast too many of his characters. It’s SO key to this story to have characters of different ages, and different levels of visible ageing tropes, so you can understand people’s different personal reactions to everything. (See Substance for a recent example of a film tackling similar issues much better). And yet he really only achieves late-teen, main character who is a very good-looking vaguely 30-something type (Langley himself I imagine), and super-old gremlins. Again, as storyboard work for a film pitch this all makes sense – you want to have good-looking people, but here it distracts from some of the subtlety of the story.

Fay Dalton, meanwhile, is free to paint, and it’s she who designs all the in-story adverts and the future fashions (and the ostriches). She’s great, and her work here is a delicious ‘what if 2060s style was all 1960s retro’. As well as delivering a couple of longer stories where her rather John Burns-like art shines plenty, but also suffers a bit from that stilted sense of movement that plagues many a painted-comics artist.

Worth noting, in this 2070s-set comic, US 1950s fashions are all the rage.
Which is a fun style choice!
Words by Mills; Art by Dalton

Impact: 4/10 Not fondly remembered, but it ran for quite a while and it for definite IS remembered…

Overall score: 16.5 / 30

Has it been reprinted? It has not. Nor has the film been made… But you never know. It was optioned by Amblin in 2020!

Judge Dredd the Megazine, ranked part 5: when do these comics start getting good?

20+ stories into the ranking, and we're still dealing with comics that are, at best, forgettable. We're on the cusp of a change! But I can't honestly recommend anyone rushes to buy...

Wardog by Dan Abnett and Patrick Goddard
(Volume 4 issues 1-10)

What was this? An action-adventure video-game tie-in to a video game that was never actually made. It has a premise that struggles to make any sense in a story, although you can see how it’d work in a game. The hero – along with many similar unfortunates – has a bomb in his head linked to a countdown clock. If he fails to complete a mission before the timer runs out, he ‘splodes. The missions tend to involve assassination. The bit that doesn’t make sense is that the people setting these missions generally want the person to succeed. Sure, the countdown gives a heck of a motivation – but it doesn’t make it any easier to actually track people down and kill them and stuff.

Look, I will grant that there's a strong visual appeal of a dude with a weird
countdown stuck into his forehead.
Words by Abnett, Art by Goddard

Anyway, Abnett is the kind of writer who seems to love working within restrictions, and does a decent job. Goddard, in one of his first ever jobs (I think?), is a great fit for action-adventure with grimacing tough-guy heroes. But apart from the bomb-in-head-timer thing, there’s nothing memorable about any of it.

Dreddworld relevance? Zilch

Writing: 6/10 I’m marking it up for making an actually coherent narrative out of the original video game conceit
Art: 6/10 Goddard (both with and without Dylan Teague) would do a lot better in time.
Impact: 3/10 Not because of the strip itself, but because it heralded Goddard’s later career, arguably helped Abnett hone his own pulp skills, and perhaps above all it reminded editorial to STOP trying to make video-game comics happen… (for a couple of decades, at least)

Overall score: 15/30

Has it been reprinted? It has! It got its own hardback collection, because of course. Although these days Rebellion are giving it away for free, as a digital trade.

 

Judge Hershey by various writers and artists
(Volume 2 18 episodes between issues 9 and 40; Vol 3 7 episodes between issues 9 and 28)
(Not counting the 2 episodes from Specials/Annuals that predate the Megazine, and also not counting the decades-later 2000AD series Hershey.)

What was this? Basically it’s a short window of stories from when Hershey was a senior Judge, but before she became Chief Judge. Across 4 different writers (5 if you count Alan Grant, who wrote two solo Hershey stories for a Special and Annual pre-Megazine), it becomes abundantly clear that no one came up with a convincing way to tell stories about a standalone Judge who was not Dredd, not undercover, and was not a Psi. Possibly making things worse, the all-male teams of writers and artists who tried often zoomed in on Hershey’s experience as a woman, which is a tough challenge to pull off in the world of boy’s adventure comics, and in a setting where Judges are rather treated as genderless. ‘Being a woman’ seems to be taken to mean ‘more prone to philosophizing and/or crying’. Oh, and ‘more at risk from assault’.

'Hershey' might also have been the first time someone brings up Keesh,
a Mega-City street drug that got a certain amount of play in the 90s.

I’m making it all sound far worse than it was. They’re actually kind of interesting, these standalone Hershey stories, precisely because people are trying to find ways to tell a Judge story that is pointedly NOT one that could’ve been a Dredd story. in my view, the only real success was in the art. In particular Kevin Cullen, and then Marc Wigmore, utilise styles that are not at all like anything that had gone before in Judge Dredd, and add to an otherworldy feeling for the strip. For Cullen (and writer Igor Goldkind) that means being kinda pretentious and arty; for Wigmore (and writer/co-writer Paul Neal) that means being pretentious and emotional. Dave Stone, Peter Cornwall and Robbie Morrison, playing it more classic action-comedy, arguably produced better comics, but less memorable ones.

Dreddworld relevance? Pretty obvious

Writing: 5.5/10
Art: 5.5/10
Impact: 4 OK, so nothing that happens to Hershey herself in these stories ever gets referenced again (presumably any lingering trauma from e.g. ‘that time all those kids got kidnapped by a phantom and it’s because Judges are EVIL’ is rather overshadowed by the whole ‘Being Chief Judge twice and things going wrong all the time’ thing). But the creative teams got a bit of a boost and went on to do more and better work. It’s some of the first Robbie Morrison, for example!

Overall score: 15/30

Has it been reprinted? Not really. The first Goldkind/Cullen story (not the good one with the harlequin!) turned up in a Dreddworld-themed issue of the Extreme Edition. The team-up tale with Armitage’s pal Treasure Steel turned up in an Armitage-themed floppy in Meg 289 (but not in either Armitage-themed Hachettes). The rest have not. It’d be a tonally bonkers collection, but I dare someone to try a Judge Hershey: Case Files…

 

Harrower Squad by David Baillie and Steve Yeowell
(Issues 450)

What was this? Putting it crudely, it’s a mash-up between Calhab Justice and Holocaust 12. Why you would want to mash those two mostly-forgotten strips together I cannot say.

I’m being unfair, it is better than that sounds, although not by all that much. It’s about a ‘Harrower Squad’, which is basically a heavily armed team of cops who have to police the ultra-dangerous places. And of course they are all misfits with various dispensations to allow for their moodiness and propensity to violence.

Once again, we have a strip with quite a large cast of characters thrown into stories that run at break-neck pace, so it’s a lot to keep track of who they all are, what they are like, and what the hell is going on with the plots. Which, of course, involve betrayal and corruption, because it seems that outside of Judge Dredd, (and even then plenty often) no one is willing to tell a story about future police that doesn’t revolve around corruption. I get it, the actual police, in the UK as well as elsewhere, have long been home to corrupt bullies. But, you know, sometimes I want a future cop story that is just about good cops catching bad guys who are committing weird future crimes. Is that too much to ask?

Anyway, this strip has a pleasing sense of fun, and works well to bring on high-octane action and danger in an 80s movie kind of way, which is welcome. But it's also Steve Yeowell kind of on auto-pilot, and rather too many scenes of 'normal' humans wearing bulky armour and bantering with each other. I kinda want a bit more weird, please…

Yeowell had the chance to remind us of one of his old strips... he went with Maniac 5...

Dreddworld relevance? It’s Justice dept, Scotland edition.

Writing: 6/10 Perfectly fine.
Art: 7/10 Also perfectly fine. Yeowell knows what he’s doing, but he’s not bringing any extra magic, to my mind.
Impact: 2/10 Bit too early to say, but it’s had a couple of series and may yet have more?

Overall score: 15/30

Has it been reprinted? It has not! It’s only just been in the Meg.

  

Juliet November by Alan Grant and Graham Manley
(Megs 202-204)

What was this? The (one) adventure of Juliet November, a Justice Dept auxiliary-type person who is a pyrokine. As in, she can make things catch on fire. But, in keeping with most Psi Judges, doesn’t really have full control over this power. She had been introduced in a Judge Dredd story earlier, and seemed like an interesting enough character to maybe get her own series. Turns out, the idea of a non-Judge having adventures in MC1 is hard to pull off. Especially when her whole deal is to start fires, which is going to attract the attention of Judges, which is going to make her life difficult. Honestly, it IS an interesting set up, and Alan Grant has fun with the character and the sorts of situations she might get into, played for laughs. But you can see why this didn’t stretch to a longer series, or anything other than the occasional appearance in future.

OK, so this page maybe doesn't show it, but this IS a comedy story, mostly!
Words by Grant, Art by Manley

Dreddworld relevance? She’s a citizen of Mega City 1

Writing: 7/10 This is Alan Grant doing the funny kind of comedy, as opposed to the unfunny kind he seemed to tap for his later-period Judge Dredd work in 2000AD. But it’s not his best by a long shot.
Art: 6.5/10 Graham Manley didn’t get much play, but his art is cartoony and fun and exactly suits this kind of story. Although, it’s a bit mean to set up any artist to follow on from Arthur Ranson, who had drawn the original Judge Dredd story.
Impact: 2/10 November has appeared in one or two Anderson stories after this, I think?

Overall score: 15.5/30

Has it been reprinted? It has! It’s in Mega Collection Vol 13: Stars of Psi Division, alongside her original appearance in a Judge Dredd story.

  

Holocaust 12 by Chris Standley & John Smith, with Clint Langley and Jim Murray
(Volume 3 issues 20-23; 29-33)

What was this? A mad action-fest about a team of so-called Holocaust Judges. (Given the name in a time when that word somehow mostly meant ‘scary death by fire’ rather than ‘horrific historical genocide of Jews and others’.) Anyway, these are the Justice Dept individuals they send in for the super-dangerous jobs, who are expected to die with perhaps ever mission. This series focusses partly on the missions themselves, but moreso on the personalities of people who’d have to live like this, and the allowances even ultra-rigid Justice Dept makes for them. It’s definitely exaggerated for laughs, in the art style as much as the dialogue and stories. Charming, but inconsequential.

Big muscles and bigger spliffs! Must be the 90s.
Words by Smith/Standley; Art by Murray

Dreddworld relevance? It’s set in Mega City 1.

Writing: 6.5/10 It’s a comedy strip that has the decency to be more funny than not! But it’s not like super hilarious.
Art: 6/10 The art works for the series, but much as I enjoy Murray’s mugging and Langley’s grotesqueries, it’s far from the best work either artist delivered.
Impact: 3/10 The characters, and indeed the whole ‘Holocaust Squad’ idea rather disappeared. Standley, too, wrote very little after this. On the other hand, I guess you could argue it was a stepping stone for Langley, who soon went on to revitalize Sláine…

Overall score: 15.5/30

Has it been reprinted? It has! In Mega Collection 55: The Heavy Mob. 

 

Middenface by Alan Grant and John McCrea
(Issues 15-20, but squeezing in 7 episodes; Vol 3 issue 76)
(And not to be confused with Young Middenface, a separate series that will be discussed later)

What was this? These two stories are about the adult Middenface – and his Granny - in theory continuing his adventures post ‘Final Solution’, but in practice just being a bit of a lark and with no bearing on anything wider Strontium Dog related – which is why I’m including them in the rundown here. The first long-ish story is a time-travel lark involving both dinosaurs and, crucially, a stint in Mega City 1, where Middenface mixes it up with some classic evil mutants and a host of Judges. I can’t stress enough how much this is playing for comic larks, and not exploring the idea of mutants being outlawed.

McCrea makes this story feel like something he was doodling in the back of the class
during a Politics lesson or something.

The second one is a quick one-off more focussed on the Granny part than the Middenface adventures part. There is probably, across both series, some reference to Middenface's granny being like a dark-future version of someone from the Broons or some other Scottish reference I am totally oblivious to. She looks a bit like the granny figure from Giles cartoons? Was he Scottish?

Dreddworld relevance? Middenface in Mega-City 1! What more do you need?

Writing: 5.5/10 Alan Grant in broad comedy more, without the influence of Wagner, is a bit hit and miss. But there are plenty of hits!
Art: 7/10 This is VERY scratchy breathless cartooning from McCrea, but a) I like that sort of thing and b) it was refreshingly opposite to all the painted stuff that was in vogue at the time. But it’s a far cry from McCrea’s best work.
Impact: 3/10 Somehow, the idea of Middenface as a recurring Megazine character seems to work, although it would find its ideal form later on.

Overall score: 15.5/30

Has it been reprinted? It has! Not in the Mega Collection, but in Vol 117 of Hachette's 2000AD Ultiamte Collection: Middenface McNulty.

Judge Dredd the Megazine, ranked part 4: these are still not very good comics

 I guess all of these stories had the pontential to be pretty decent?

The Bogie Man: Return to Casablanca by John Wagner, Alan Grant and Robin Smith
(Megs 227-233)

What was this? The final outing of Scotland’s favourite lunatic, the man who thinks he’s Humphry Bogart, this time in Edinburgh getting mixed up with Russian gangsters. It’s an original story, but basically in the Megazine as more of a spiritual home than anything else, after being first a totally independent publication, then with sequels that ran in Toxic! comic. The premise is, there’s a guy who looks a bit like Humphry Bogart. He blunders through his days thinking he is in one or other Bogart movie, and that the people he meets and the situations he gets into are too. I think you can guess which Bogart movie this serial is mostly riffing on.

Of course, it’s not really about referencing movies as such. It’s more about mining comedy from a blunderer who totally does not get what is going on around him. I find that sort of thing fitfully amusing at best. I’m given to understand that the original Bogie Man series (the only one I have not actually read) was genuinely very funny, especially if you are Scottish. Sure. This final outing might perhaps be the worst?

For a comedy strip, there's quite a lot of straight-up action and drama.
Words by Wagner/Grant; Art by Robin Smith

Dreddworld relevance? None

Writing: 7/10 It’s better than Bob the Bum, and it's still Wagner and Grant so not a waste of time - but it’s not for me.
Art: 6/10 Robin Smith suits the material, and he knows how to land a gag. But his style is somehow kind of comics-competent, rather than comics-exciting.
Impact: 1/10

Overall score: 14/30

Has it been reprinted? Yes, within the ‘incomplete’ Bogie Man Case Files. 

 

Darren Dead by Rob Williams and John Higgins
(Megs 240 and 287-289)

What was this? This was a character and set-up in search of any kind of plot. I guess it was kind of ‘what if Russell Brand died, but came back to life as an undead ghoul who could see and talk to dead people, and milked this ability to become a minor celeb in Mega City 1’. Yeah, you can kind of tell from that description that it was always going to be a struggle. The original one-off intro was intriguing but not exactly demanding a follow-up…

...but it got a very short series anyway. There’s some fun to be had exploring a side of Mega City 1 that isn’t all about Judges. And there’s no reason why a venal ghoul (with a sarcastic assistant) couldn’t be a compelling character. But sadly he isn’t – he’s annoying as hell. John Higgins matches the tone exactly with his art – there’s a lot of mugging.

Dreddworld relevance? Doesn’t break any toys, but doesn’t add much neither.

Writing: 6/10 Williams is too competent to make this terrible, but it’s never quite as funny as it wants to be, angry badgers and all.
Art: 7/10 The colours, as always on a Higgins/Hurst joint, are impeccably beautiful. The character designs work, but they are VERY broad as comedy goes.
Impact: 1

Overall score: 14/30

Has it been reprinted? Yep, in Hachette 72: The Art of Taxidermy

 

The Straightjacket Fits by David Bishop and Roger Langridge
(Issues 9-20 and the Judge Dredd Yearbook 1993)

What was this? After the first episode, this was a one-page comedy strip about the misadventures of a psychiatrist in a Mega-City 1 mental institution. The jokes were a mix of terrible puns, weird disorders, and references to TV and film. Honestly, the clever double-meaning of the strip’s title (the whole story is a series of ‘fits’ endured by a man in a straightjacket, you see, as well as a reference to the phrase ‘if the jacket fits, wear it’. Clever!) was never bettered by the contents of the strip, which was more often groan-worthy than laugh-inducing. But, you know, it really was trying to actually tell jokes, as opposed to some strips which just lazily point at supposedly comedic things. And some of the surreal jokes are still funny. But only some. It helps that Langridge was the perfect match artistically for the material.

This strip is trying REALLY hard.
Words by Bishop; Art by Langridge

Dreddworld relevance? Basically none. For all the weird problems on show (the best being the man who thinks he’s a tree), they didn’t really delve into anything Dredd or even Sci-Fi/future related.

Writing: 4.5/10 There’s sort of an over-arching plot, but it comes to nothing, leaving only the jokes, which are more miss than hit.
Art: 7.5/10 I do love the design of the central robot doctor.
Impact: 2/10 Another strip I suspect is mostly forgotten, despite its relatively long run.

Overall score: 14/30

Has it been reprinted? It has not. Probably should be!

 

Calhab Justice by Jim Alexander, John Ridgway and Lol
(24 episodes spread across Volume 2, between issues 10 and 72)

What was this? Well, it started out seeming like it was a new series telling tales from Justice Dept Scotland, which might involve such things as mutant whiskey-based clans fighting each other in the highlands, and petty bureaucratic battles with those bastards from Brit-Cit. But all too quickly it becomes a long story about a mutant Psi Judge and the long-term consequences of the decision to build various nuclear-powered things in Scotland in the 20^th century. I think?

It certainly shifts from being ‘the fun action adventures of maverick Judge McBrayne’ and into ‘the confusing and horrific unravelling of Psi Judge Schiehallion’. Was the series a victim of its own success, with writer Jim Alexander feeling he had to plot out some sort of epic narrative? Or was this always his intent? In any event, the ‘fun action adventures’ were only quite fun, and often with plots that were kinda confusingly laid out (in the Jim Alexander no-hands-held style), and by the time the psychic stuff starts happening it was all just a bit boring and hard to parse out. Not helped by the radical tonal shift in art from classical comics penciller John Ridgway to thick-pen punk artist Lol.

There is one excellent episode in which a Brit-Cit Judge is posted to Cal-Hab for a short stint and is treated wit the respect he deserves...

 

So from this panel, you can tell that there's a moody overtone to the whole thing,
a desire for pithy one-liners, and a young artist who really likes Colin McNeil.
Words by Alexander; Art by Lol

Dreddworld relevance? Set in the future UK, and it certainly works hard to set up what Scotland might be like, both in terms of Justice Dept, the relation with Brit-Cit down south, and what life is like for people living in Cal-Hab both urban and rural. I get the general impression that other writers have rather ignored any of it, inasmuch as Cal-Hab comes up from time to time in other series.

Writing: 5.5/10 Some big swings and fun moments, but also plenty of evidence of a new writer working out his craft…
Art: 2.5-7.5/10 John Ridgway knew what he was doing, and puts some real effort in at first. Newcomer Lol surely did not know what he was doing at first, although he surely put the effort in. Colin MacNeil and Kevin Cullen somehow did not make any impression on the series overall.
Impact: 4/10 Not a fondly-remembered strip, but it was a big part of Volume 2.

Overall score: it averages out to 14.5/30

Has it been reprinted? It has! Read it and weep at what might have been, in Hachette 57, or a big chunk of it in the floppy bagged with Meg 352.

 

Karyn by John Freeman and Adrian Salmon (mostly)
(Volume 2 issues 56-61 and 67-72; Volume 3 issue 8; and a couple of outings in Specials.)

What was this? The solo adventures of the latest Psi Judge on the block. She first appeared in the Dredd story Raptaur – when Anderson was in an institution during ‘Engram’ – and then got a shot at a solo series. Partly one wonders, because Anderson had at that time quit Justice Dept and was travelling through space, so there was a gap for Psi Judge adventures in Mega City One, rather than because there was anything specific about Karyn as a character that demanded she get a series? She sure does have big hair, and Adrian Salmon knows how to draw that in a stylish way, so that's one thing?

Such luscious hair!
Words by Freeman; Art by Salmon

ANYWAY, the stories are about Psi Judge Karyn having run-ins with psychic/occult enemies. And winning, but suffering on the way. If the story is illustrated by Adrian Salmon in gorgeous blocky black and white, it is quite hard to tell what is going on. If the story is written by John Smith it’s quite weird. (the John Smith story was a prelude to Fetish, for anyone who missed it. It was not collected in the relevant Judge Dredd Case Files, which is I think a bit of an oversight) At no point does anyone really give Karyn a defining characteristic, except that she finds her job a lot harder then e.g. Anderson or Dredd. 

Gordon Rennie later co-opted the character for a handful of Judge Dredd stories, giving her a noble sacrifice and more obvious character traits. She has even resurfaced within Anderson's own series quite recently! but none of that is relevant to this exercise. 

Dreddworld relevance? Lots! I mean, we don’t really get new insights into Psi Division or anything like that, but this is set in Mega City 1, and involves characters who appear in both Judge Dredd and Judge Anderson. And Karyn’s ‘final’ fate is very much referenced in years to come.

Writing: gonna average it out to 5/10 - these are OK comics, not great comics.
Art: 5.5/10 Salmon’s style from panel to panel can be quite breathtaking, and it oozes atmosphere (see also Ashley Wood). But is it compelling comics if you don’t always know who’s who, what’s what and where they all are?
Impact 4/10 Sadly Freeman and Salmon didn’t get too much more work from the Megazine after this, but Karyn as a character has lingered in both Dredd and Anderson tales.

Overall score: 14.5/30

Has it been reprinted? Most of it! The Freeman/Salmon tales are in Hachette 13: Stars of Psi Division (along with the rather better Judge Janus series), and also in the floppy with Meg 349. The John Smith/Ashley Wood story has not, I think, been reprinted anywhere?

 

Samizdat Squad by Arthur Wyatt, Paul Marshall and PJ Holden
(11 episodes across three series between Megs 305-326)

What was this? It’s the one set in/near the post-Apocalypse War ruins of East Meg 1 that is a bit less about psychic ghost horror and a bit more of an action-adventure-comedy type strip. It only ran for three shortish series and didn’t quite build up enough of a head of steam to have a simple description. Basically a couple of Sov soldiers who are notionally ‘good’ are set up to work for/alongside others who are notionally ‘evil’ and they stumble across zombies and such while tussling with each other in places that are affected by a mix of radioactivated monsters and government cover ups. They end up having further adventures and adding new recruits / uncovering new internal enemies.

Words by Wyatt; Art by Marshall

There’s one delightful throwaway gag about a scientist delighted to find a world that embodies the original Soviet ideal, only to be stifled by power-hungry military types. I wonder if this strip was perhaps hoping to be more about the idea of a future Communist society? But nothing comes of that.

Dreddworld relevance? It’s a perfectly respectful follow-up to the Apocalypse War idea.

Writing: 6/10 Early series-length work from Arthur Wyatt, who has plenty of ideas and a commendable desire to avoid cliché, but also not quite enough skill to stop his ideas and character beats from getting in the way of actually telling a clean story.
Art: 6.5/10 I’ve come to terms with the fact that I very much admire Paul Marshall’s skill as a setter of scenes, but am basically not a fan of his character designs. I mean, he knows how to make his people emote, but somehow, outside of Firekind, his people rarely fire my imagination. The background details, though, LUSH. PJ Holden, who tackles the final story, is more my bag and I think delivers a bit better on the character front but none of it is spectacular. And dammit, from the Megazine we want spectacular!
Impact: 2/10 Yet another exploration of East Meg that fails to tie into any of the other explorations of East Meg that people have tried either as standalone series or as part of the core Judge Dredd strip.

Overall score: 14.5/30

Has it been reprinted? It has! You'll want Hachette 59 Behind the Iron Curtain.

Judge Dredd the Megazine, ranked: part 3 Why? Just why?

Sometimes you can sort of see why a story was commissioned, but after the fact it’s a bit of an ‘oh well, that one didn’t work out like we’d hoped’ sort of thing…

 

Deathwatch by Paul Cornell and Adrian Salmon
(Vol 3 issues 8-13)

What was this? This one’s a comedy, not a horror, despite the name. It’s the one with a Brit-Cit Judge gone back in time (by mistake) to Shakespearean England. The first episode sets this one up as a sitcom, and why not? They’re tough to do in comics form but that shouldn’t stop people from trying. The comedy is necessarily broad; possibly it doesn’t quite work because you’ve got a lead character who is not just a Judge, he’s also a Psi Judge, and also a bit of a preening gloryhound. 

He might have cut an interesting figure in contemporary Brit-Cit alongside the gruff likes of Armitage, or no-nonsense Treasure Steel – but by the time he’s landed in Tudor Times he’s barely a Judge any more. Would it have made more sense to try ‘what would it be like to throw a super-inflexible future police-person into a lawless city of fops, dandies and ne’erdowells’? Perhaps? Anyway, aside from the central character, we get a whole team of characters assembled around him, following the Blackadder/Upstart Crow/Ben Elton tradition. Sometimes the clichés work, and on the whole that's true here, but even trying ot be generous, the whole thing ends up falling a bit flat, and hanging around a plot that isn't as fun as the setting. Overall, it’s not terrible, but I don’t lament its loss.

Shakespeare quotes Shakespeare! Comics hero quotes Batman!
These two jokes give you the EXACT flavour of the whole thing.
Words by Cornell; Art by Salmon

Dreddworld relevance? Pretty minimal. I mean, the lead character is a Judge but that’s about it.

Writing: 5.5/10 Cornell knows how to tell a story, and how to tell jokes. Just wish this specific story was more intriguing, and the jokes funnier. (He would go on to score much higher on both fronts later!)
Art: 6/10 Salmon is colouring himself here, and overall its miles and miles his most intelligible work – but perhaps because of that it lacks some of the eerie charm his black and white work had. Poor bastard, he can’t win with the critics! He does at least pull off some solid character designs, and seems to have a natural feel for the Blackadder II Elizabethan setting.
Impact: 2/10 I guess it’s a shame that nothing quite this outrageously odd was tried again?

Overall score: 13.5/30

Has it been reprinted? Yes, in Hachette Vol 58 The World At Law

  

Pandora by Jim Alexander and John Hicklenton
(Vol 2 issues 77-81 and the Mega Special ‘94)

What was this? Your guess is as good as mine. I mean, on the surface it’s about an undercover Judge in MC1 having vaguely drug-induced and vaguely psychic encounters with crime. But it much more seems to be about John Hicklenton pouring twisted flesh into tight leather outfits and gurning as their stare intomirrors, and occasionally slicing people’s faces off. It’s the most beautifully ugly comic to look at, and perhaps the single most difficult story to read, either week to week or all in one go. 

If British kids in the 70s wanted dinosaurs fighting cowboys,
teens in the 90s wanted leather fetish and self-harm, please and thank you.
Words by Alexander; Art by Hicklenton

The story didn’t help itself by having Pandora be not just Wally Squad, but super-ultra-trying-too-hard Wally Squad, whom no other Judge could know about, and who was all about getting inside ordinary citizens’ heads. And who encounters an antagonist who is in fact ALSO a super-duper undercover Wally Squad Judge, only an evil one. Honestly, this one really is best enjoyed for the visuals (which of course you get a bit more out of if/when you can follow the story).

For me personally, it's the epitome of 'The Judge Dredd Megazine is full of stories that I can't understand and make me feel a bit queasy. Maybe those two things will recede when I read them again as a grown-up. That's a firm 'No' on both counts!

Dreddworld relevance? Maybe? It’s got judges in it, and explores the need to wear tight leather perhaps more than any Judge Dredd comic ever tries. Rather than following the usual rule of ‘Mega Citizens are a bunch of idiots’ it aims for ‘Mega Citizens are living a life of psychic horror whether they know it or not’. Which is actually an interesting angle on what life in the future might be like. Points for that!

Writing: 4/10 This comic definitely had some writing behind it, and deserves to exist, but I don’t think I can judge it fairly beyond noting that I don’t hate it, and it isn’t trying to be funny (and failing). I think it IS trying to be mentally disturbing, and succeeding?
Art: 7.5/10 John Hicklenton is sorely missed as a bringer of the weird and horrible. Arguably this is some of his most unrestrained work, which seemingly had very little in the way of writer or editor managing to get him to, you know, tell the story, and that's potentially a good thing for the purity of vision. But I do like Hicklenton better when I know what's going on.
Impact: 2/10 Partly because people DO remember this one, and partly because it ‘won’ that contest to see which new story from the Judge Dredd Mega Special ’94 would get a chance at being a whole series.

Overall score: 13.5/30

Has it been reprinted? Nope. 

 

Sleeze N Ryder by Garth Ennis and Nick Percival
(Vol 2 issues 19-26)

What was this? Like, an ‘Easy Rider’ pastiche set in the Cursed Earth. It is the colour of snot, and features much visual humour based on mucus. Also there are lots of Arnold Schwarzenegger jokes. I’d say the humour lands, for me, about 30-40% of the time, which is actually decent for a Megazine comedy strip. The art, which is very early in Nick Percival’s career, is also very much to my taste – although you can tell he’s learning on the page.

There’s not much to say about this series, except that it’s a rare example of a Garth Ennis story for 2000AD that, outside of the Cursed earth setting, is basically an all-new idea with all-new characters, something he’d be rather careful not to do as a rule! He’s canny that way.

Nick Percival, nowadays known very much for moody horror stories, is actually a good fit for this, bringing just a touch of horror edge to the zany tone that helps it go down more smoothly. He doesn’t save this from being a bad story, though.

Dreddworld relevance? It’s set in the Cursed Earth and I guess references some ideas from the Cursed Earth epic (mutants and dead presidents and robots).

Writing: 5.5/10 Adding .5 for the Arnie jokes that I enjoyed 😊
Art: 6/10 The colour scheme really is a wonder to behold, and it’s quite unlike anything before or since, so points for that.
Impact: 2/10 It’s another story that has sort of become a whipping boy for ‘bad comics from Volume 2 of the Megazine’, but actually I think I’m not the only one to have a soft spot for it.

Overall score 13.5/10

Has it been reprinted? Yes, and more than once. It exists as a digital trade offering. And it’s in Hachette collection 68 Cursed Earth Carnage. I have a vague memory that it got a collection soon after it originally ran, but can find no hard evidence...

 

Pan-African Judges by Paul Cornell and Siku
(Vol 2 issues; Vol 3 issues 8-13)

What was this? A worthy attempt to explore a very different part of Judge Dredd’s world. But, you know, right off the bat it decided to tackle ‘Africa’ as if it is somehow a self-contained entity. I have some idea that there IS, and long has been, a political movement to create some sort of African Congress that might work somewhere between the EU and the USA in terms of membership and organisation. And in a post-apocalyptic future, why not imagine this has happened? On the other hand, why not be much bolder, and imagine that, for instance, the whole continent of Africa was the one place in the world that was NOT devastated by nuclear apocalypse, and is now the worlds wealthiest continent? (I am genuinely curious if any global superpower has their nukes pointed at any African country. Maybe Israel targets Egypt - maybe.)

Anyway, this comic feels like a well-meaning attempt to acknowledge that Africa is very big and holds together many different cultures. Not a well-thought-through attempt, but well-meaning. The series ends up being the adventures of: the Lion King in human form (seriously, he hails from Simba City, although of course this comic predates that film), alongside a Black woman from Brit-Cit, sort of exploring her ancestral past, an African-born white racist, a non-specific desert-y Muslim, and some bad guys who like to hunt animals. Can anyone see how this is maybe not the most future-forward story to be telling? (and yet still markedly less racist than any Judge Dredd stories being told in the 90s).

Words and Pictures by Siku 'n Siku

Beyond that, the story is fine, the art is super experimental and weird and occasionally good. And then book 2 rolled along a while later, which is where things get totally weird and actually rather better in terms of character / place study – it’s about the interaction of Gods (I think mostly from Nigerian mythology, and presumably even more specific than that word implies). On the down side, it’s more or less incomprehensible as far as plot and action goes.

Dreddworld relevance? In theory, we learn about future Africa. In practice, the plot demands that most of the time is spent out in the wilderness, and we learn very little except that Africa is BIG and its people are disparate.

Writing: 5/10? I dunno, two very different novice writers on each book, both committing different sins but at least never being boring.
Art: 5.5/10 Another impossible rating, there are real high highs and low lows. I like Siku, but this is early work from him, and young Siku really ought to have acknowledged that sometimes readers like to be able to follow the story... Also, the bits where he ‘pulls a Bisley’ – by which I mean, doesn’t bother properly finishing drawings of certain panels – are often quite poor. Still, the character designs are pretty cool, and every now and then he pulls out something remarkable. When it comes together on the odd page and panel, he draws the most breathtaking human bodies.
Impact: 3/10 I rather suspect this has become a classic example of ‘here’s what NOT to do’ when your brief is ‘tell a story about a random part of Dredd’s world’. So in that sense it is remembered. Although Dredd (and Devlin Waugh) do visit Africa in the near future, neither acknowledges any of the goings-on of this series. And I don’t think any Dreddworld story has been anywhere near Africa since? I guess There was that one Psi Judge from Morocco who went to the Moon?

Overall score: 13.5/10

Has it been reprinted? Yes, in Hachette 58 The World At Law

 

Bob the Galactic Bum: the Piker by John Wagner/Alan Grant and Carlos Ezquerra
(Megs 266-273)

What was this? Like, a totally weird experiment where they took an existing DC comics mini-series and reprinted it in 2000AD, but a) in black and white, and b) with Carlos Ezquerra drawing over the faces of three characters so they were no longer owned under DC’s copyright.

Original DC comics version, feat. Lobo
(words by Wagner and Grant; Art by Ezquerra)

Megazine version, with a new-look Lobo
Words still by Wagner and Grant; Art still by Ezquerra)

On the one hand, you can’t argue with a (relatively obscure) comic seeing print in the Megazine, given that it was written and drawn by the creators of Judge Dredd. On the other hand, it’s one of the less funny comedy strips by said creative team. One suspects the biggest joke is in the very way they’ve re-rendered the character of Lobo? Honestly, it barely qualifies as a ‘new’ magazine story, but I feel obliged to list it, and to note that I did not like it very much. If you want Ezquerra-drawn regime-change hijinks (which is ultimately the plot of this tale), I recommend The Stainless Steel Rat for President.

Dreddworld relevance? None

Writing 6.5/10 it’s still Wagner/Grant, so plenty of jokes do land, even if the overall story feels like something out of later/lesser Ace Trucking Co or, at a push, Strontium Dog.
Art: 6.5/10 it’s still Ezquerra, even if the rush job on the re-drawings shows rather.
Impact: 1/10 Please don’t try this sort of thing again. I mean, do we want Ennis/Dillon Punisher in the Meg, but with Frank Castle re-drawn as Bill Savage? Do we?

Overall score: 14/30

Has it been reprinted? Not as such, although I guess the same story had been pre-printed in 1995. Not that the original version ever got collected, as far as I know? I'm not a big Lobo guy.

Judge Dredd the Megazine, ranked part 2: The Horror! The Horror!

If there’s one thing that can struggle to reach an audience as much as comedy, it’s horror. When it works it’s delightful. When it doesn’t, it’s often just a bit icky or confusing…

Plagues of Necropolis by Si Spencer and a rotating team of artists
(Vol 2, issues 78-83)

What was this? A good idea, executed… medium-badly. Necropolis was very much a fondly-remembered Dredd epic. The dark Judges continue to be cool, but increasingly had become comedy characters. So I guess this was an attempt to bring them back to their horror roots? Si Spencer is definitely into a combination of weird/pretentious/funny, and as such makes sense for this kind of anthology. There are some neat moments, I guess? But none of the six stories is especially memorable. It perhaps didn’t help that the series was given to a selection of new / try-out artist. One such was a young Simon Davis, who was still finding his footing. The rest never made it beyond a handful of Dredds. So, you know, a worthy use of space in the Megazine, but it’s not exactly great comics.

An early work from Simon Davis

Dreddworld relevance? It’s set in MC1 during Necropolis, and has fun with the citizens and Dark Judges.

Writing: 4/10 Spencer has some fun ideas and I like that he tries to be clever and witty. But in these stories, he rarely succeeds.
Art: 5/10 None of it is totally terrible; none of it is actually good, either.
Impact: 1/10

Overall score: 10/30

Has it been reprinted? Inevitably. It was in a bagged mini-trade with Megazine 355.

 

Soul Sisters by Dave Stone, David Bishop and Shaky Kane
(Volume 2 issues 1-9)

What was this? A genuinely bizarre concoction from the mind of Dave Stone, as filtered through the pen of David Bishop. (I gather he had to basically rewrite Stone’s original super-dense scripts so they’d fit better into Shaky Kane’s big-comics-panels style.) It’s about a pair of crime-fighting nuns in Brit Cit. Because it’s drawn by Shaky Kane, it comes across as very super-hero-y. It’s definitely a comedy, and not entirely un-funny, but it’s aiming for the surreal end of humour (which is totally in Shaky Kane’s wheelhouse). The character designs are neat, but that only gets you so far. The plot and jokes are, simply, not very good.

The character designs and the cartooning are pretty great. Don't let that fool you...
Words by Stone/Bishop; Art by Shaky Kane

In an interview Stone later explained he had envisaged this all as a Leo Baxendale-esque series, with many smaller panels all brimming with textures and details and ‘shame’ lines and such. I can see that would fit the vibe. Not sure it would help the overall story be any good, mind. I do keep wanting to like this strip but I didn’t at the time, nor when I last re-read it. Maybe it would help to take nuns on their own terms, rather than just assuming that nuns make a story inherently silly/funny? (This is the reason why, for example, Sister Act is a good film but Nuns on the Run is not…)

Dreddworld relevance? It’s set in Brit Cit… and I guess it has Judges in it? But it adds nothing to the concepts of Judge Dredd, really. Although I rather wish somebody WOULD have a go at exploring religion in MC1, beyond a) just poking obvious fun and b) that one excellent story where Anderson meets (sort of) Jesus.

Writing: 3/10 – points for effort, but not very many points.
Art: 7/10 – I do love a bit of Shaky Kane. Possibly more in small bursts than in long-form narratives such as this.
Impact: 2/10 – although it only ran for one series, I’m giving it bonus points for notoriety! Almost immediately, Soul Sisters became the poster child for ‘worst mistake made by the Megazine’. It’s not. Although it really isn’t a very good comic.

Overall score: 12/30

Has it been reprinted? Sadly no! You’ll have to buy the original Megs to read this one… if you dare.

 

Zombie Army by Chris Roberson and Andrea Mutti
(Megs 416-420)

What was this? A video game tie-in, about a ragtag group of soldiers/mercs/whoever in a village somewhere in Europe in 1944(ish) who are set upon by zombies. Mostly Nazi zombies. They must work together (or not) to fight/tactic their way (or not) out of a mess of zombies. It’s an action-horror story.

Honestly, it’s not bad as such, but it certainly wasn’t engaging enough for me -or as far as I know anybody else – to write in asking for further comics exploits of the heroes. When you’re part of a wider comics scene that includes e.g. Garth Ennis writing WW2 stories that are frankly grittier and funnier and don’t need Zombies to liven them up, what’s the point?
I’ve not played the game, although I rather suspect that involves fewer characters and tactics and instead has more running and shooting.

It's a video game, so one character HAS to have goggles perched on their head. It's the law.
Art by Andrea Mutti

Dreddworld relevance? None that I recall…

Writing: 5.5/10 Like I say, for what it is it’s decent – it’s just that the ‘what it is’ is not my thing.
Art: 6.5/10 Mutti is a good artist. Give him something meatier to work with!
Impact: 1/10

Overall score: 13/30

Has it been reprinted? Nope, don’t think so. Maybe you can get it as a digital download if you buy the game??

 

Judge Edwina’s Strange Cases by various writers and artists
(Five episodes across issues 8-20, and in a few contemporaneous Yearbooks/Specials)

What was this? Well, it was the Meg’s first attempt at an equivalent to ‘Future Shocks’. Which is to say, one-off tales with a twist, set in Mega City 1, often with a bit more gore ‘n boobs than you’d see in 2000AD. Really it was an excuse to give new writers and artists a go – the explicit aim stated on its first episode, in fact! It was only in the 4^th outing that the identity/backstory of ‘Judge Edwina’ (spoiler, not actually a Judge) was fleshed out a bit, to no major effect. As a rule they were more horror-flavoured than just twist-based. As another rule they were a bit confusing and not brimming with instant brilliance.

'Judge' Edwina Strange first appeared a few episodes into the series that takes their name.
Words by John Smith; Art by John Hicklenton

Dreddworld relevance? Set in Mega City 1, and with Judges often making an appearance.

Writing: 4/10 These are on a par with mid-tier Future Shocks/Terror Tales. Not the worst, but no outstanding episodes neither.
Art: 5/10 It’s fun to see new artists honing their skills, but it’s rarely very GOOD. Even Sean Phillips, who drew the bulk, was flailing (or perhaps rushing it). There’s an incredible leap between these shorts and e.g. Armitage and Devlin Waugh, which he clearly put more time and effort into.
Impact: 4/10 Can’t argue with the long-term success of newbies such as Ian Edginton, Dean Ormston and Nick Percival. Or, I guess, Warren Ellis, with his one and only 2000AD-related commission.

Overall score: 13/30

Has it been reprinted? I feel like some of the 8 stories have been reprinted somewhere, but certainly not as a collected bundle. This is no great loss.

Brit Cit Babes by John Wagner and Steve Sampson
(Vol1 issues 16-20)

What was this? A neo-(and neon)-noir tale of two undercover (female) Brit-Cit Judges, one of whom has pyrokinetic powers, taking on a drug lord. It was very pointedly set in a night club, thus forcing the heroes to dress super slutty. Which in turn encouraged Brain Bolland to provide this enticingly boob-forward cover image.

Would the whole thing have been better if Bolland drew all of it? My answer is no.

As far as I can tell, Brit-Cit Babes is what happens when John Wagner realises that he’s given himself permission to write a MUCH more grown-up feeling story than he has been allowed to do in the pages of 2000AD (and other comics) for 20+ years. He is even free from the restraints of Judge Dredd, playing in pretty much an all-new setting, even if the concept of Judges still exists. So we get this, I guess maybe Elmore Leonard / James M Cain wannabe story, with a nasty rapey druggy villain and two sleazy-but-not-really heroines?

Also paired with a brand-new artist who has a striking colourful style, to be sure, but maybe not the skills to sell what is a quite complicated plot. The story is a bit confusing, very sleazy, and not quite interesting enough by the time all the threads are tied together to demand a second outing. The whole thing did not go down well with readers. 

Words by Wagner; Art by Sampson; Clichés by choice...

Dreddworld relevance? It’s set in Brit-Cit, but does not explore any particular differences about Brit-Cit vs Mega City 1, which I feel is rather a let down coming from John Wagner. It’s as if he chose the location based on the name for the strip…

Writing: 6/10 Wagner is too seasoned to deliver a poor script and bad characters – but it's not a winner. Ultimately, it doesn’t really seem to be ABOUT anything, which doesn’t help.
Art: 4/10 Steve Sampson’s first professional strip work is, like many people’s, not great. He did get quite a bit better! He’s alright at some of the big panels, but his storytelling is sloppy and he can’t always be bothered with backgrounds. I am perhaps more forgiving than many of his basic style – super thick blocks of colour, and images traced from magazines. I certainly admire its bold visual differences from pretty much any other strip artist going then or now.
Impact 3/10 As a story, this is rightly forgotten. But, that first cover is just SO strong it keeps luring the unwary reader back in for another go. Also worth noting that although Sampson’s art on the strip was not much-praised, he did go on to get a ton of work in the Megazine, getting better each time in my opinion. Can’t ask more than that!

Overall score: 13/30

Has it been reprinted? More often than you’d think… The Mega Collection has it in Vol 18 "Undercover Brothers", and it's in Megazine 299 as well.

 

The Creep by Si Spencer and Kevin Cullen
(Vol 2 issues 41-44 + 50-54. And a guest appearance in a Dredd story)

What was this? It’s the one with the weird-looking mutant child who lives in the Undercity, has insanely strong psi powers, and seems to be motivated by a rather mean and nasty version of chaos. Or, he’s just a dick of character who likes toying with people in a torture-y way. I suppose if you’re being really generous, you could say Si Spencer was way ahead of the curve on internet pranksters? And on the torture porn cycle of horror? But he seemed to be wide of the mark in trying to conjure a new antagonist for Dredd who a) always wins and b) is very nasty. Like, PJ Maybe is right there, and he’s much more fun to read about.

Anyway, Kevin Cullen’s art and design really IS creepy, and Spencer is at least trying to push buttons to see just how horrible his protagonist can be before readers turn away from him. I’d say it was about two stories. Or maybe it’s that the Creep isn’t quite fun enough to be a Mr Mxyptlk kind of character, and just too powerful to be an actual Dredd villain. One of those where I want to like the story far more than I actually do – I think I’m not alone in remembering that it left a bad taste in the mouth (which is probably what Spencer intended).

I can stare at lovingly rendered brickwork all day. Watching all-powerful torturers playing, less so.
Words by Spencer; Art by Cullen

Dreddworld relevance? It’s set in MC1, playing with the toys more or less respectfully, except for the fact that a super-powerful mutant kid only works because he has no major endgame that would have to seriously impact the main Judge Dredd strip. (Although he does meet the big man once)

Writing: 4/10 Spencer, I think, gets what he’s aiming for – it’s just the target was not one many people wanted to see. Apparently Russell T Davies was a fan, though?
Art: 7/10 Cullen is great, and gives good spookiness, but is maybe too nice to match the character? Maybe the whole thing would’ve landed harder if the visuals were as nasty as the stories?
Impact: 2/10

Overall score: 13/30

Has it been reprinted? Yes - in the Mega Collection Vol 79 "Into the Undercity".