Welcome, Earthlets, to Multiver-City One, our monthly look at the “Judge Dredd Megazine!” Let’s get right to it.
Judge Dredd: Krong Island Part 1
Credits: Arthur Wyatt(script) Jake Lynch(art) John Charles(colors) Annie Parkhouse(letters)
Michael Mazzacane: The start of ‘Krong Island’ is the kind of delightful absurd pastiche of sources and styles you’d hope for in a Dredd story. The titular setting, Krong Island, is a mixture of Jurrassic Park, Skull Island, and maybe a bit of The Island of Dr. Moreau. While Arthur Wyatt’s script provides a slightly hardboiled omniscient narration as Judge Dredd goes to investigate an island of apes, their banana supplies, and a murdered Judge.
There’s a retro feel to artist Jake Lynch’s designs, helped in no small part to John Charles restrained color pallet. All of the character designs are cartooned, Dredd is rendered as comically lanky. And yet, Dredd still manages to come off as the Dirty Harry in a helmet that he embodies, partly because Lynch draws him in perpetual furrowed lip mode. Dredd looks like he’s getting up there under Lynch’s pencil and ink, it gives him an old man Clint Eastwood vibe you don’t normally find in other Dredd strips.
The throwback texture also comes from Lynch’s page design, which are largely free form with overlapping panels surrounding one large image. This style creates for dynamic pages of action when Dredd is attacked by some harvester droids as well as create micro moments of that allow him to interrupt his superiors debrief for some pithy one liner. How Wyatt and Lynch work in that one liner allows it to land and articulate Dredd as that joking throwback to 80s action heroes he is. The page design is built from learning the right lessons from mid-90s image and those types of artists. It’s dynamic and heightened but not overwrought.
These elements make for a strange soup. Any one of these elements would be absurd enough to build an entire story around and all together it could be overwhelming. Surprisingly this is mostly balanced. Some of the narration reads a bit tinny, however that oddity fits the fish out of water environment Dredd finds himself in. This is a fascist cop meant to patrol the dystopian megalopolis not island plantations maintained by sentient apes. If this fish adapts to his new environment is yet to be seen.
”Lawless Breaking Badrock: 3”
Credits: Dan Abnett (script), Phil Winslade(art), Ellie de Ville(Letters)
Greg Lincoln: Dan Abentt really laid it on thick with the negatives last installment, with the revelation about Sawbones and the outburst from Deputy Petifer which landed her in an isocell. In the wake of those setbacks in chapter three, the developments this time around could have been pretty positive. Metta Lawson executed a plan that would have used the organ-legging network to supply Badrock with some well played intimidation and plays on greed. Hell, even Ex-Marshall Hetch shows some actual caring for Nerys Petifer with his attempts at psi-psychoanalysis from the next iso-cell over. It could have all gone so well, but readers of last Megazine know Munce Inc forces are already here to take action.It’s all so hopeful, I almost don’t think Hetch’s dire prediction is true.
Phil Winslade’s art is, again, a pretty brilliantly executed example of what pen and brushes can achieve, with the occasional application of zipatone. His use of subtle exaggerations in Hetch’s psychedelic psychological therapy tour for Nerys was a real treat for this chapter. There are especially interesting details mirroring the script about her self harm and her approaches towards compassionate justice vs harsh application of the law. It’s also interesting how her portrays Hetch differently in his mindscape versus how he appears normally.
Devlin Waugh: Blood Debt, Part 5
Credits: Rory McConville (script), Mike Dowling (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
Kent Falkenberg: The throwdown between Devlin and Freddie Waugh is a right, bloody mess in ‘Blood Debt, Part 5.’ After 4 strips of navigating the narrow border between familial loyalty and righteous indignation at his brother’s indignities, Devlin finally has it out with the man he’s forever indebted to by blood. There are battle axes, nasty headbutts to the bridge of one’s nose and a ferociously swung, immaculately polished oxford to chin of the other. Family ties these men together. But that’s about it.
Continued belowIan Edginton and Mike Dowling start again with another flashback – this time to one of a seemingly endless collection of brotherly altercations. Dowling cleverly introduces both men in separate panels to help emphasize that the divide between them is nothing recent. On the other hand, the pacing of their fight is inter-cut with momentary detentes in an everlasting war. A quick shot of play wrestling and another of brotherly advice add a layer of lived-in complexity to their relationship. And these heartfelt moments are juxtaposed wonderfully against the flashes of present day brutality they are woven throughout.
Of course, the brothers Waugh have more to settle than just what’s going on between them. And in an impressive three panel sequence, Dowling pulls back his art from a tight close-up on Devlin clutching Freddie in a chokehold to show how they’re situated in the middle of some giant gladiatorial arena within the nefarious casino. It’s a light switch moment where a the intimacy of the artwork is instantly cutoff, and a once personal conflict becomes merely a tiny piece of a much larger one.
In ‘Blood Debt, Part 5,’ Ian Edginton and Mike Dowling deliver the bloody family reunion that’s been expected from the start. And while it delivers a visceral punch, it’s the rounding out of a lifetime’s petty conflicts that delivers the real knockout.
Cursed Earth Koburn: The Law Of The Cursed Earth, Part One
Credits: Rory McConville (script), Carlos Ezquerra (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
Rowan Grover: The Cursed Earth is one of my favourite things about the Judge Dredd universe, and I was super excited to see up and comer Rory McConville explore the premise in “Cursed Earth Koburn”. However, what we have in this chapter is primarily setup and character introductions. At this, it does pretty well at, offering some good pacing at the start to convey the vast nature of the Cursed Earth and how it might produce a Judge like Boyle. From the introduction of the characters, however, the rest of the chapter is really just more establishing of how much a grumpy old guy Boyle is, but we do get a bit of motivation behind the enigmatic Alonso, who seems to have willingly chosen to hang out with this motley crew. There’s nothing concrete in this story however – nothing really about Boyle’s past, no threat visibly shows up on screen, and it makes for a fairly insubstantial read.
Luckily, “Judge Dredd” Co-Creator Carlos Ezquerra pops in on art to show that he’s still got what it takes to draw a fantastic urban post-apocalyptic landscape and solid characters. Ezquerra’s Koburn is a real worn and seen-it-all cowboy type, with a generally dismissive face and scowl not unlike the great Dredd himself. His work on the vehicles is as great as ever, with the Judges’ cycles having a worn sleekness to them, and Boyle’s old timey hover car looking like a brilliant combination of old and post-modern styles. Ezquerra doesn’t really get a chance to really go beyond, however, drawing the characters in a messy dessert filled with bodies at his biggest moments, and it feels like a missed opportunity that hopefully will be remedied in future installments.
“Cursed Earth Koburn” feels like it has the makings of a great Dredd sidestory, but has yet to show any true promise. This chapter was mostly set up, with the threat only really being alluded to off screen in the last few panels. Maybe wait a few installments down the line with this one.
Dredd – The Dead World Part 1
Credits: Arthur Wyatt and Alex De Campi (script), Henry Flint (art), Chris Blythe (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Hon Lee: The tone of the story evokes Village Of The Damned in the Judge Dredd world, with essences of Dark City mixed in. Dredd is on the lookout for someone who is among society, controlling them at their timely bidding. Dredd struggles to find any leads of the perpetrators, following the bad suicide incidents and then later disappearances of the Teks.
Arthur Wyatt and Alex Campi do a stellar job carving out the prologue and setting, as well as the Justice Department, incorporating a nice two way perspective on the investigation, which throws a mystical air upon it all. They give a great topical backlog on all environmental factors of Mega City One like a scientist giving you a lowdown on pollution. Henry Flint’s linework clinically matches the writing well with very intricate pencil markings to bold inks on the fast action scenes, as well as grid-like shading and hazy perpendicular backdrops for the later scenes.
