The Ballad of Joe DreddIf there’s an enduring figure in British action comics, then it’s Judge Joseph Dredd of the Mega City One Justice Department. Summing up Dredd’s indomitable nature allows a drive-by tour of the character’s obvious features.
Square, unforgiving jaw-line, bucket helmet concealing the rest of his face, body armour and livery over-developed to the point of flamboyance, no sense of humour, encyclopaedic knowledge of the law. These are the main points, but they aren’t a character. It could be argued that Judge Dredd is only a character in the same way that Garfield or Snoopy are characters, maybe that’s part of the secret. 
Certainly, when he was imagined, at first, by John Wagner back in the late 1970s the key word for Dredd was “fascist”. Judge Dredd was, in fact, supposed to be the ultimate comedy fascist. He was a ludicrous extrapolation of Dirty Harry, living in a world where being Judge, Jury and Executioner were the expected duties of law enforcers. Add into this peripheral details, the gun genetically locked to its wielder, the bike that was more of a small personal tank, the “iso-cubes” making it plain that all confinement in the future is solitary confinement, and the joke was set up to pay off. Add in comedy sentencing such as 6 months for “Cheeking a Judge” or “Fare Dodging”, up to 200 days for littering, or 2 years for Jaywalking and the ‘roided up police state was ready to roll. But a one-joke premise like that doesn’t run for over four decades. Dredd had to change, and although he did, in order to survive in the competitive environment of comic books, he didn’t really change, you know, that much. The clever part was that “Justice” was set up as the flip side to the fascist coin. Not that the comic insists that justice is always the flip side to fascism but to pose the question, in the form of Judge Dredd, what if it were? Fascism tends to represent that law and order will be high on the agenda, it’s part of the fascist list of aims and goals. Many are attracted to the fascist mindset precisely because of the promise of law, order and justice. Anyone who believes the world is unfair could see the inherent advantage of a society that guarantees justice. 
Taker of lives, lover of hugs
Judge Dredd says, ok, fine, here’s a guy who is the very epitome of this fascist ideal, brutal but fair, a stickler for the law, incorruptible, a paragon of rough justice. How does that play? Then one scenario after another that seeks to test the limits of the ultimate violent lawman. Given that position it is easy to see how a small, loyal fanbase could absolutely lap up Dredd’s adventures in perpetuity. Exploring the nature of this harsh face of justice is very visceral and attractive. For the fascination to last for all these decades, however, points to something special and, probably, uniquely special in his original home, the comic book 2000AD.
It has been managed of course, famously by the infamous Sylvester Stallone vehicle Judge Dredd, and then underratedly (so underratedly in fact that it should be a crime carrying a mandatory 5 stretch in an iso-cube) in 2012’s Dredd. The two movies presented their own challenges, in 1995 the major one being Sly Stallone’s ego (and an unhlepful side order of Rob Schneider). The 2012 adaptation had the larger problem battling a sudden explosion of 3D everything at the picture house and quite a bit more studio influence that lead to the new movie nose-diving at the box office. Anyone will tell you that making movies is hard but the travails of old Joe at the Box Office are as nothing to the problems he faces in just about every other arena. Perhaps the most stable is the relationship between 2000AD and Big Finish who produce Dredd audio dramas on a fairly consistent basis. There are novels, of course. And video games. Perhaps it is this latter, the video game, that is the most surprising failure of all. You would think that being Judge Dredd in a video game would be a fairly obvious licensing opportunity for cash. Indeed, this has been attempted in 2003 in the FPS “Dredd vs Death”. The solid premise of the game was an FPS with Dredd taking on one of his creepiest adversaries the skeletal Judge Death. The game was solidly underwhelming and, like a lot of spin off product surrounding the surly lawman seemed to be “lacking something”. A failing it had in common with a number of official board games, miniature games and RPGs that have been attempted over time. Add to this the evanescent nature of the Judge Dredd spin off, with old product being destroyed when licensing expired (such as the Judge Dredd digital pinball machine) and you have an unforgiving environment for a comic stalwart who has aged every day on the job since 1977 (when he first appeared at the age of 38) and yet has not, to date “had his day”. 
Pictured: The Law
I’m pretty sure that Judge Dredd would regard fame as an unnecessary distraction from putting away the perps, that’s his nature. But, on the horizon, we can see the incoming streaming television show “Mega City One”. There it is, right there, just on the horizon line, looks like ants… ants that are a long way away, and possibly dead. Yeah, that’s the best we have right now, a theoretical TV Show, not even starring Dredd, that’s possibly vaporware. Oh well, when that crashes and burns we can all say, hand on heart, that we knew there was a good chance that could happen. Outside the pages of the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic, Dredd just doesn’t seem to have the capability of flourishing the way he does when he’s on his home turf. This article dives into the phenomenon of Judge Dredd. The 2012 movie Dredd forms a major part of Revenge of the 80s Kids Episode 134 about the key movies of that year. The cast can be streamed or downloaded at http://theeightieskids.blogspot.com where you can also find an extensive archive of content about movies and popular culture. You can also get news about the podcast and other projects at https://www.facebook.com/RevengeOfThe80sKids 
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