Welcome, Earthlets, to Multiver-City One, our monthly look at the “Judge Dredd Megazine!” Let’s get right to it.
Judge Dredd: Dollman’s Yuletide Blood Mansion Massacre
Credits: Ken Niemand (script) Paul Marshall (art) Quinton Winter (colors) Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Matthew Blair: L’il Tommy Kinder is a pint sized psychopath who made an appearance in last year’s Christmas prog and now he’s back! This time he’s out for revenge against all the people who wronged him and anyone who thought it would be a good idea to try and exploit his crimes for personal gain.
The sad thing is, while his revenge is bloody and creepy, there’s more going on behind the scenes that speaks to Kinder’s deteriorating mental state and the desire to maintain fame and popularity no matter what.
“Judge Dredd: Dollman’s Yuletide Bood Mansion Massacre” is written by Ken Niemand, the writer who created Kinder and wrote his first appearance. Niemand hits hit out of the park again, only while the previous story was definitely creepy, this one dials down the creep factor a little bit and replaces it with a tragic reveal. It’s still a great Judge Dredd story with all the violence, commentary, and weird humor that Mega City One is famous for, only this time Dredd is better prepared for the onslaught of creepy dolls and isn’t having any of Kinder’s shenanigans. Niemand goes as far as to make Kinder a sympathetic and tragic villain and the story ends with the potential for even more terror next year.
The artwork of “Judge Dredd: Dollman’s Yuletide Blood Mansion Massacre” is provided by Paul Marshall with colors by Quinton Winder. It’s solid artwork that delivers a good story and makes it easy to follow. It’s artwork that favors function over style and while Marshall does a good job playing around with some interesting panel layouts and does a great job with the action, it’s a minimalist style that does put a damper on some of the creepiness. It’s not that this is a bad looking story, it’s just that there’s a sense that it could look scarier if there was more time and attention given to some of the environments and backgrounds.
“Judge Dredd: Dollman’s Yuletide Blood Mansion Massacre” is a great return story for a character that promises to be an intriguing and fascinating ongoing villain for Judge Dredd in the future. It combines great action with some creepy visuals and a tragic reveal that all come together nicely in a classic Mega City One story.
Spector: Incorruptible Part 9
Credits: John Wagner (script), Dan Cornwell (art), Dylan Teague (colors), Jim Campbell (letters)
Greg Lincoln: Spector is running for the DA’s office and he’s got a great platform. Unlike his fellow cops, or humans in general, he’s hard, if not impossible, to tempt, blackmail, bribe, or otherwise buy. By his own account, he’s a style leader and an “all around swell Joe,” in addition to being a pretty charismatic character as shown over the course the last eight chapters. John Wagner has a lot of fun with this chapter taking pot shots at politics and the fact the people have run their pets in election and the pets nearly having won. The corrupt establishment, the mayor and the police chief, have their own plan to thwart the former robot cop by getting at his support crew. As the story unfolds, it’s a predictable plot that gets humorously used against them.
Dan Cornell draws a wide range of characters in this chapter. He’s got a real skill for creating interesting people and clothing styles for his crowd scenes. He makers it worth the time to slowdown and really look at the page too see all that’s really there. Though there isn’t much action in this chapter, the one shocking panel of action he drew was pretty choice and deserved. Across a few panels with sparse narration, we learn he’s cheating on his wife and gets his comeuppance at the hands of a former employee and a taser, though even better was the expression that Cornell gives him when he sees his robot double.
Continued below
DeMarco, PI: A Picture Paints, Part Two
Laura Bailey (script), Rob Richardson (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
Christopher Egan: Galen, still on the trail of the ammo seller, is becoming increasingly frustrated as she can’t pinpoint who this person is, and just as the trail begins to get cold, as is common in Mega-City One, she tries to turn to friends and some mildly illegal tracking practices. When this chapter begins, there’s very little dialogue as Galen is on the hunt. This allows Rob Richardson to show off his talents by going all in on the cyberpunk style in the illustrations, and especially the color scheme, feeling more Ghost in the Shell than “Judge Dredd.”
Bailey clearly has some tricks up her sleeves when it comes to this story because we get some big twists and reveals already in just the second chapter. And while some of it feels like it could be a red herring, there’s plenty of intrigue to have us chomping at the bit for what’s next, no matter the outcome. The cliffhanger we are left with this month is really great and one that is fairly shocking.
This strip continues to be an excellent noir sidestep from all things “Judge Dredd” and nails down exactly the sci-fi detective vibe it is going for from start to finish. Twists and turns are bountiful and there is no shortage of dangerous fun all the way.
Lawless: Most Wanted 08
Credits: Dan Abnett (script), Phil Winslade (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
Brian Salvatore: The soap opera nature of “Lawless” was on display, as always, in the final chapter of ‘Most Wanted,’ but the script by Dan Abnett put an interesting amount of distance between the actions and the reader. Whenever a character would say something, like “Jeebus Grud! Cover!,” it is instantly followed by a “Says Marshall Metta Lawson” narration box. This makes it very much sound like the story is being told to us by an omniscient narrator, but it isn’t totally clear why this device is being deployed. There is a little bit at the end that I suppose reads better through the voice of a narrator, but even that didn’t seem totally necessary.
However, it did add some dramatic flourishes to what is already a very dramatic chapter. Characters die violent, terrible deaths, true colors are revealed, friends are forced to sacrifice and make tough choices, again, this is very soap-y. But Abnett’s script which, at times, seemed like it was throwing entirely too much at the wall, really delivers here, allowing all of the pieces to come together nicely. There’s nothing about this that feels rushed or unfinished. Everything was tied in a knot.
Visually, Phil Winslade’s art is allowed a little more room to breathe than we typically see from his work on “Lawless.” Sure, there are still pages that are kaleidoscopic and overwhelming, but there are more moments of starkness and letting an action or scene breathe without too much around it. It’s a really satisfying way to tie up this story.
While “Lawless” is very much a soap opera, it is also very much a Western, making it almost a tribute to two classic elements of television that have gone away. Both still exist, but neither holds the position it once did in media. “Lawless” is a futuristic throwback to two wonderfully unique styles of storytelling, and ‘Most Wanted’ stuck the ending on both counts.
