Epics 22-20 Have you forgotten about..?

Sometimes, the connective tissue is apparent... The three tales here all come, at least in part, from the mighty Megazine! They also all count, arguably, as crossovers between Dredd and other characters who've had their own strips...

Epic 22: Fetish Megs 3.25-3.29
Written by John Smith; Art by Siku
(5 episodes, 85 pages; epic 21 in sequence)

The basics: An evil wizard in Africa enacts long-distance revenge on a crew based in Mega City 1. Dredd is sent in to stop it, but he'll need help from an occult specialist...

Yes, it's Devlin Waugh!
Art by Siku

Analysis: John Smith's second epic (after Darkside) followed immediately, in publication terms – but was perhaps written first, having undergone a certain amount of development hell, going through at least one artist. Anyway, it was worth the pain as this epic works far better than Darkside as a showcase for what John Smith can do, and I think a lot of that is to do with increasing the emphasis on hallucinatory visuals, courtesy of Siku, and putting Dredd out of his element even more than the Moon. This time, he's in the actual countryside.

 

Technically that's a city, but Dredd doesn't stay there.
Art by Siku

The first episode evokes the spirit of 'the Fink', a classic tale from yesteryear, in which a collection of people in Mega City 1 are murdered by someone looking for revenge. In this story, it's an evil sorcerer based somewhere in Africa, who is partly angry because the people stole a fetish – a sacred object – from him, and is partly angry (I think?) because a bunch of westerners were being dickish tourists to his home. That part's not entirely clear, but I think there's meant to be a hint of 'these dudes had it coming'. But there's also more than a hint of 'this sorcerer really, really likes murder, and is a bad dude’.

With the help of psi Judge Karyn, the fetish is located and determined to be the source of the problem. Except that a demon that resides within it manages to invade Karyn's mind, sending Dredd off to Africa to return the sinister object to its owner and save the day. Even with the help of a local guide, Dredd's so out of his depth he doesn't know what to do. Enter occult specialist Devlin Waugh! Hardships are endured, African travelogues lovingly painted, villains punched in the face, and the day is indeed saved.

 

Some gorgeous colours on display in this comic.
Art by Siku

Frankly it's in the details. For me, Siku's art is as good as it's ever been, making bold composition choices with super widescreen panels everywhere, an awesome car design, and those weird distorted figures posing dramatically that Siku is so fond of. And of course the interplay between Dredd and Waugh is consistently funny.

 

And, let's not forget, there's plenty of signature Smith-ian horror.
Art by Siku

Story: 7/10 (Smith) There are a couple of weaknesses – for one, the supernatural / magic / demon elements kind of get a bit mixed up, and it's hard to parse exactly what's going on, why, and how to stop it. For another, there's a little bit of 'Africa is all one place, right?' in the road trip part of the story, which sees Dredd continent-crossing in ways that don't entirely match up with actual geography, and certainly make the use of bikes and cars pretty silly. But it does look cool, and future Africa remains a setting ripe for mining in the world of Dredd.
Art: 9/10 (Siku) I'll concede this is one where personal taste comes into it, I believe Siku is something of a marmite artist! Yes, some of the storytelling is a little strained, but the emotional impact is stunning.
Legacy: it's a strong team-up story, but in Dredd continuity terms, the impact is essentially nil. Even Karyn, bless her, treats this as another in a long line of horrific possessions. But it's not this one that sticks – that'll happen to her in her own series down the line. Hot tip – don't be a second-string Psi Judge in a Dredd story! It won't end well for you.

Overall Score: 16.6 out of 20
Want to read it? There's an old paperback, but it's also in Case Files 26.

Time for an indulgence on my part, an 'epic' that only scrapes in if you include two prologues...

Epic 21: Krong Island Megs 376-377, 386, 392-395
Written by Arthur Wyatt; Art by Jake Lynch
(7 episodes, 70 pages; Epic number 50 in sequence)

Is this a true epic? Possibly not, but by gosh it’s too much fun to ignore, and taken as a whole with prologues Monkey Business and Ape Escape it forms a coherent narrative, and has just enough of a page count.

The Basics: Dredd investigates a suspected vigilante, who turns out to be an intelligent ape. Said ape, Harry Heston by name, helps Dredd foil first some petty crime, then a prison break, and finally expose a Euro-Cit conspiracy.

 

Apes escape...
Art by Jake Lynch

Analysis: Harry Heston is a superb character, just bags of fun through and through. He originally appeared in Dredd fanzine Class of ’79 (sadly I haven’t read any of it), but is introduced by his co-creators in the Megazine without readers needing to know any of that. His origin story is a sort of twisted mash-up of Superman and Batman: as a baby, two loving parents find and adopt an orphaned ape. This being Mega City 1, he’s part of a subculture of highly intelligent, speaking apes. The legacy of his kindly parents combined with a chance encounter with Dredd’s comportment of law set him on the path to becoming a vigilante in the Batman mould – sheer determination has given him the patience to teach himself the physical and mental skills he needs.

 

Heston meets Dredd; grudging respect will be earned.
Art by Jake Lynch

Also like those two heroes, Heston is utterly good in nature, devoted only to upholding the law (in line with Dredd’s principles, which for the sake of it can be understood as ‘morally decent within the confines of a morally indecent set-up’.) Where does this leave the wider story? Well it’s essentially about what it’s like meeting your heroes – from Harry’s point of view – and about how to deal with someone who is definitely a law-breaker but is also an honest one, and one in a position to do some good that Dredd himself can’t, by virtue of belonging to a marginalized subculture – from Dredd’s point of view.

It’s also about Jake Lynch getting to draw apes in Judge outfits kicking all sorts of ass, which turns out to be a special skill of Lynch’s.

 

Some of the apes are REALLY big.
Art by Jake Lynch

Story: 8/10
Art: 8/10
Legacy: So far, this is Arthur Wyatt and Jake Lynch’s private corner of the Dreddverse. The Red Queen and Red Prince, originally introduced in the short-lived Orlok: Assassin of East Meg 1, have come back twice so far, and there’s a final showdown to come at some point. Harry Heston, I hope, will continue to be a regular player. Although it’s becoming a more crowded field with the likes of Sensitive Klegg and Neam Chimpsky providing similarly fun tales of ‘talking beasts in MC1’. 

Overall score: 16.7 out of 20
Want to read it? There's a neat collection, which also includes various earlier Ape-themed stories, including one of my all-time faves, Monkey Business at the Charles Darwin Block.

Time now for Dredd to go on a bit of a journey, taking in the Cursed Earth, Texas City and good ol' Brit Cit...

Epic 20: Every Empire Falls Progs 1973-1990 and Megs 371-373
Written by Michael Carroll; Art by Colin McNeil, Henry Flint and PJ Holden
(If you bung in the prologue tale, it's a total of 27 episodes and 168 pages; it's epic 46 in sequence)

Prologue (Blood of Emeralds, Progs 1934-1939): a neat little tale that sets up the fact that Brit Cit and the Emerald Isle have overcome centuries of enmity and brokered a sort of genuine friendship - that turns out to be built on a pack of lies. In order to keep that lie hidden, Brit Cit’s solution seems to be to blame Mega City 1, and Judge Dredd specifically.

The Basics: Following Chaos Day, Justice Dept is so woefully under-staffed and under-resourced, Hershey makes a deal to allow Texas City Judges to help out. When they do more than simply ‘help out’, it’s up to Dredd and a select team to lead the fight back. Except… Dredd is DEAD.

That's Rico, not Dredd, taking the lead in one part of this story.
Art by Colin McNeil

 
Analysis: There’s an argument to be made that this is the most ambitious and indeed intelligently constructed Dredd Mega Epic of all time. Carroll knows where all the pieces on the board are, understands their desires and motivations, and chooses to make the board bigger than usual. That’s your ambition there. The intelligent part is piecing together a complicated plot which is both about Dredd’s world but also about Dredd himself, what he represents and what he is capable of.

There’s also an argument to be made that Carroll bit off a little more than he could chew. Or at least, he had to hold the meat in his mouth for a long time to chew up pieces small enough to swallow. This mangled metaphor is my way of saying that it’s kinda hard to follow what is going on, who is where, and what order everything is happening in. (Although the existing trade paperback collection is a good place to go to for reading order). To be fair, Carroll starts and ends alongside Colin MacNeil, who knows his way around an action sequence, but he doesn’t have much to work with, visually, as it’s all Judges and large warehouses. He does deliver a heck of a villain design with Pamelina Oswin, at least.

 

Evil personified, in eyeliner and highlights
Art by Colin McNeil

So anyway, we start in the middle of an investigation, cutting back and forth from Dredd investigating out in the Cursed Earth and Hershey in MC1 explaining what he is doing there. All very exciting, but it means we don’t get introduced properly to Dredd’s squad, which is Rico and two (or is it three?) cadets. It’s not that we don’t know who is who and where they are and why, it’s more that we don’t get time to care, and time to meet the cadets enough to know who they are based on what they’re doing or saying. There’s also a slightly ham-fisted casting of a random Council of Five Judge not as a villain, but as a person to disagree with Hershey. I mean, sure, but again there’s not enough space given to the character to make me care.

Cursed Earth Koburn gives it a go.
Art by Henry Flint

Mind, this doesn’t diminish from the action and intrigue, and things step up a huge gear when Dredd dies. I mean, he dies! Of course in a re-read it can’t have quite the same impact but at the time, they play it out for juuuust long enough to make you think – well, I guess it’s not impossible Dredd could just die in a story like this. And for all that Dredd is not really dead, he is out of action for long enough that we get to watch other sure hands take over the ‘case’: Rico and Koburn in the Cursed Earth; Joyce and Armitage in Brit Cit; Hershey, Giant and Beeny in MC1. That’s a strong cast, and although I don’t think Carroll quite gives us enough time with each of them (except Joyce) to ever feel we know exactly what’s going on, he definitely does get their voices down superbly.

 

A quiet moment for Armitage and Joyce.
Art by PJ Holden

With such an epic cast, you need an epic story. Plotwise, we absolutely have that. But executionwise, the prologue drags on rather too long, the middle part is a bit muddled, and the end part is over all too quickly. The Brit-Cit intrigue comes off best, helped along by Dredd himself, who gets to play the hardman we know and love so well. It’s also helped by PJ Holden on art, who fills Brit Cit with bags of character and just looks like he’s having fun. The Mega-City vs Texas City stuff, not so much. Once you realise what’s happening, that wicked Judge Oswin is taking over, it’s kind of breath-taking. But by the time you’ve exhaled, there’s not enough time to see what the implications of that are. I think we’ve been spoiled by the likes of Tour of Duty, where we get to see Dredd operating under a rather serious and long-term change of the status quo.

Overall, a truly noble and notable effort, and it may yet sew crucial seeds for a super exciting epic that combines all of America!

 

Will we see more of Daniel Crow one day? Time will tell I guess
Art by Henry Flint

Story: 8/10
Art: 8-9/10 Hard to fault MacNeil, but he’s not operating on America levels here. PJ Holden on the other hand is giving it his all, and Henry Flint, for a sustained action-fest in the Cursed Earth, is nothing less than stellar. But a couple of shots of explosions and Dredd reveals aside, there aren’t the stand-out panels and visual moments to lift this epic up to the highest heights.

Legacy: there’s an epilogue to this story which is pretty darned radical, drawn by Carlos Ezquerra himself giving it a bit of extra continuity heft. Hershey manages to send a Mega City Psi Judge in to infiltrate Texas City, posing as its new chief Judge. What will happen as a result of this??

Well, Dredd has visited TC since at least twice, in Deep in the Heart and The Rubicon, but although both mention the new situation neither of those were really about the Mega City vs Texas City politics. It’s a plot thread that has been dangling for quite a while. We’ve also yet to hear any more from Brit Cit, Emerald Isle and even young Judge Fintan Joyce.

There's also another rather notorious epilogue, Carousel, in which Dredd undergoes the latest and most dramatic in a line of re-juve jobs as part of his recovery from being proper blown up!

Overall score: 16.8 out of 20
Want to read it? It's all in one handy collection, including that vital prologue and even a pre-prologue, in the form of New Tricks, where we meet the new Judge Joyce. But no epilogues, sadly.

Next time: three hidden gems