Judge Death - Judge Dredd, #21

Judge Dredd Chronicles

by John Wagner, Alan Grant, John Howard

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction

64 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1983

About the author

John Wagner is a comics writer who was born in Pennsylvania in 1949 and moved to Scotland as a boy. Alongside Pat Mills, Wagner was responsible for revitalising British boys' comics in the 1970s, and has continued to be a leading light in British comics ever since. He is best known for his work on 2000 AD, for which he created Judge Dredd. He is noted for his taut, violent thrillers and his black humour. Among his pseudonyms are The best known are John Howard, T.B. Grover, Mike Stott, Keef Ripley, Rick Clark and Brian Skuter. (Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reprinting two self-contained arcs from the early days of 2000AD (from August 1981 and August 1979 respectively), these are what I vividly remember from reading the comic back in the day (I was 12 when I read Judge Death and it instilled in me a love for Brian Bolland’s work that has never dulled). The first story - the John Wagner/Brian Bolland team-up as promised on the cover - is “Judge Death Lives” which starts with Judge Anderson encased in Boing, Death a prisoner, trapped in her mind. Freed by a citizen (no reason is given as to why), Death brings along his colleagues Fear (who has the greatest costume ever), Fire and Mortis and they take over the Billy Carter block where Dredd swings into action with Anderson, goes to the dead Judge’s dimension and walks away unharmed. Apart from the fact that I remember a prior story (where Anderson gets infected), this is a quick read and whilst it bowled me over as a pre-teen, re-reading it as an adult it’s easy to see a lot of places that Wagner picked up his references from. That’s not to say it isn’t good - it is - but the artwork does a grand job of papering over some of the more obvious homages.
The second story (nothing to do with Judge Death which seems odd) is “Father Earth”, where a mutant from the Cursed Earth corrals his fellow muties into a raid on Mega-City One. Containing an interesting - and still pertinent - view of environmentalism, this has Dredd doing what he does best and works well for it. The artwork is split, between the always excellent Brian Bolland and the more stylised Ron Smith, whose work I remembered from other strips as soon as I saw it.
Both are good fun, easy reads that are full of great artwork and ideas and I thoroughly enjoyed them (a very nice blast from the past too).
2018 update - Re-reading “Judge Death” and then my review, I’m not sure why I had an issue with the homages, this time around they seemed to work perfectly. The story is self-contained and gripping, the suspense builds, the invention is excellent and the artwork is absolutely sublime. “Father Earth” is good too, though not quite on the same scale. Excellent.

[D.M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like this book in spite of myself. Sterling comic work from Brian Bolland really overcomes the hackneyed, will-this-do, comic-standard writing of John Wagner. It's fun to see the arrival of the Dark Judges and the havoc they bring with them. But the closing chapters of the book's second half, the Father Earth storyline, is illustrated by slop artist Ron Smith (who probably benefits from colour the same way Image artists do) and makes the failings of Wagner's style all too plain. I'm glad I own so little Dredd, and I'm glad Bolland's the reason why I have any at all. Without him, this is just the kind of thing that the general public think of when they think of comics as junk.

[Timo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kannessa lukee komeasti, että Wagner-Bolland. Jos Ron Smith näkisi tämän, tulisikohan hänelle paha mieli, koska hänenkin taidetta tässä kokoelmassa oli. Mutta ei kai tuo niin tarkkaa ole, kanteen oikein nimiä laittaa.
Mutta hyviä tarinat olivat ja Bollandin taide on aina silmille orgasmi.

[Wondra Vanian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good artwork. I wish there was more Judge Death in it, though!

[bluetyson]

isbn,original

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

classic to see in It's original form but liked th original comics more