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JUDGE DREDD CASE FILES VOLUME 3
Mega-City One 2101-2102
(1979-1980: progs 116-154)
Volume 3 lacks the epic storylines (The Cursed Earth and The Day the Law Died) of Volume 2 but makes up for it with the definitive Dredd and Mega-City One we recognize in subsequent episodes (including a subtler and more satirical humor than the somewhat heavy-handed humor of the epics).
In The Day the Law Died, the population of Mega-City One was stated as 100 million. In the episodes in this volume, the writers obviously felt that didn’t sufficiently capture the crowded overpopulation of the dystopian megalopolis, so they quietly increased it to 800 million.
Equally, these episodes introduced that characteristic feature of Mega-City One we all know and love today – the concentration of its population into skyscraper self-contained residential apartment ‘blocks’, the future equivalent of feudal city states, where tens of thousands of residents live and have amenities, often barely leaving them (if at all).
And in introducing the blocks, these episodes also introduced the block names – typically named for twentieth century celebrities or figures, often adding humor or hidden meaning to the storyline. For example, Judge Dredd himself resides (as ‘block’ judge – an exercise in community policing and public relations) in Rowdy Yates Block – a tribute to the origins of his character in Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry, as Rowdy Yates was the name of Eastwood’s character in Rawhide.
And to add to the desperate dystopian atmosphere of Mega-City One, gone is the suggestion from Robot Wars back in Volume 1 that robots have brought Mega-City One’s citizenry a life of automated ease and leisure. Instead, these episodes see the reference to an unemployment rate of 90% or so, bringing with it for the overwhelming majority of Mega-City One a life of grinding welfare dependency and boredom, the origin of much (if not most) of Mega-City One’s crime.
The episodes in Volume 3 also see the introduction of a number of iconic figures or features for Judge Dredd or Mega-City One – Dredd’s niece Vienna, eccentric entrepreneur Otto Sump, the miracle plastic Boing (and the somewhat less miraculous plasteen), random ‘crime blitz’ searches of citizen’s apartments, the dangerously addictive Umpty candy and the judicial ‘retirement’ of the Long Walk.
They also see the brief reintroduction of the Cursed Earth tyrannosaur Satanus (or at least his blood, almost as dangerous) and also of the Sovs as recurring antagonists of Mega-City One, with more long-term hints towards the Apocalypse War.
And although there are no epics, there are two longer story arcs that both feature incursions into Mega-City One from that other favorite Judge Dredd staple – the Cursed Earth. The first sees Father Earth, the mutant living embodiment of nature (and flower power), and his followers, most dangerously the Doomsday Dogs, descend upon the urban abomination of Mega-City One to return it to nature. The second sees the Black Plague, the super-swarm of millions upon millions of mutant Cursed Earth spiders turn their rudimentary hive mind on a mutant township in the Cursed Earth before turning to bigger prey, the big Meg itself. Needless to say, this particular arachnophobe has a morbid fascination for spider horror stories.
And above all, towards the conclusion of this volume is a story arc that introduces perhaps the most iconic figure other than Dredd himself, and certainly Dredd’s most iconic recurring adversary, supernatural extra-dimensional fiend Judge Death – as well as an almost equally iconic figure, Psi-Judge Anderson (and indeed the Psi Division itself within Justice Department), herself a recurring adversary of Judge Death and ally to Judge Dredd in some of his most crucial missions.
JUDGE DREDD CASE FILES 3:
VIENNA (prog 116)
Aww! The first episode in Volume 3 of the Complete Case Files introduces part of the human side we so rarely see of Judge Dredd – he has family. Given that he was cloned and that Mega-City judges, like Jedi (or the Catholic priesthood), are meant to be celibate, family possibilities are limited – in this case, to his niece Vienna Dredd, the daughter of his clone-brother Rico Dredd.
We first encountered Rico back in Volume 1 (prog 30), which pitted clone-brother against clone-brother – Rico, judge gone bad, against Joe, the titular Judge Dredd. Firstly, Joe apprehended Rico for corruption, resulting in Rico being sentenced to the space penal colony in Titan (reserved for former judges as prisoners), and secondly, Joe killed Rico when the latter returned from Titan seeking revenge.
Of course, the introduction of Rico’s daughter and Joe’s niece Vienna needed some explanation – not because of her conception contrary to judicial celibacy, a lapse which can be attributed to Rico’s corruption, but the timing of it. Given the age she is in this episode, Vienna must have necessarily been conceived on the penal colony of Titan. Apparently, this was subsequently explained by some liaison on Titan itself, although that just raises further questions.
But who cares? It’s worth it just to see “Uncle Joe” pushing Vienna on a swing – adorable!
Anyway, the plot of the episode is driven by Vienna being kidnapped by Harry Carmen, an “electronics genius” arrested by Dredd for a “computer swindle” and now seeking revenge against Dredd. Carmen – and Vienna for that matter – are introduced by somewhat clunky exposition in the first two pages of the episode, but hey – each episode is only six pages or so. Carmen places Vienna in a death-trapped room, with an updated version of Edgar Allen Poe’s swinging pendulum blade. Of course, Dredd fights his way through the traps, just in time to save Vienna from the blade – but not before Carmen blurts out that Dredd killed Rico, something Dredd had kept secret from Vienna, for obvious reasons of the therapy THAT would involve. Yet Vienna forgives him for killing her father, because “Uncle Joe” must have had a good reason. Seriously, I wiped away a tear at that. Even more so as Dredd tells her guardian, Mrs Pasternak, that he will see even less of Vienna – and hopes that Mrs Pasternak will help Vienna forget him. As he thinks to himself as he walks out of Vienna’s life, “I’m a judge. Someday I, too, will be killed. Vienna couldn’t take that again, not a second time. She’s suffered enough because of me. Let it end here”.
And indeed we did see less of her – nothing – until twenty or so years later, when she was to return into Dredd’s life on a more enduring basis. After all, she was too good a character to let lie, as a reflection of Dredd’s humanity, with all the conflict that brings with the Law.
JUDGE DREDD CASE FILES 3:
CITY BLOCK 1-2 (progs 117-118)
This is it. This duo of episodes is where Judge Dredd’s Mega-City One took the definitive shape it has retained ever since, give or take a few hundred million of its citizens killed in the various apocalypses it has faced. Which is why I would recommend a new reader going back to the Case Files start with this volume. (I’d then recommend that they read through to the Apocalypse War in Case Files 5, before jumping back to read Case Files 1-2).
Right from the opening line of narration, the first City Block episode introduces Mega-City One as a human hive of over 800 million people. In The Day the Law Died epic only a year before, the population of Mega-City One was stated as 100 million. The writers obviously felt that didn’t sufficiently capture the crowded overpopulation of the dystopian megalopolis, so they quietly pumped that population all the way up to over 800 million. Which is just as well as that original population of 100 million is not too different from the present population of the Atlantic seaboard area that Mega-City One encompasses.
Equally, these two episodes introduced that titular characteristic feature of Mega-City One we all know and love today – the concentration of its population into skyscraper self-contained residential apartment ‘blocks’, each with tens of thousands of residents, stated here to be 60,000 people. Which by the way would be about 13,333 blocks for the entire city (dividing 800 million by 60,000).
And in introducing the blocks, these episodes also introduced the block names – typically named for twentieth century celebrities or figures, often for humorous effect. For example, the Charlton Heston Block we see here.
Don’t forget that block – it’s one of the few recurring blocks we see in the comic, apart from Rowdy Yates Block of course, Dredd’s ‘home’ block as block Judge. Charlton Heston Block is a well-to-do block for the wealthier citizens of Mega-City One. We see it again in the Block Mania prologue to the Apocalypse War. Don’t get too attached to it either – just saying…
JUDGE DREDD CASE FILES 3
CITY BLOCK (prog 117)
Apart from the introduction of the archetypal city block in this episode, we also see the sheer terror (and idiocy) that the police state of the judges – and Judge Dredd in particular – can inspire in the citizenry.
The judges enforce a zero tolerance law enforcement regime – “in this tightly packed community, tensions could flare into violence in a moment” so “it took an iron legal system to control it: the judges with their power of instant sentence”. And so Dredd singles out a ‘perp’ or perpetrator.
In his panic, the man flees from Dredd (never a good idea), racking up an impressive array of crimes in his attempt to escape Dredd – kidnapping a child as human shield and hostage as well as hijacking an ambulance.
Hence my feature panel as one of my favorite ever Dredd panels, courtesy of Ron Smith’s art (one of the favorite Dredd artists) and the classic comedic line – “You’re adding reckless driving to your long list, citizen”.
And a long list it is indeed when Dredd apprehends him – vehicle theft, kidnap, assault, possible manslaughter (for a hospital patient), eighteen other violations of the penal code and seven traffic offences”.
The original offence for which Dredd called out to him and from which he fled in such criminal panic? Littering!
That panel was so good that Brian Bolland – my favorite Dredd artist of all time, although I think Smith outdid him here, albeit part of that may be the better punchline in the original – did a version of it for his cover art of the Eagle Comics reprint (issue 26).
JUDGE DREDD CASE FILES 3
CITY BLOCK 2 (prog 118)
This episode, aptly named City Block 2 (after City Block in episode 117 although there’s no narrative link between them), sees the introduction of not one but two archetypal features of MC-1 ever since – each in turn reflecting its definitive trait (per Chris Sims) as “a society where every single thing has become monstrously overwhelming”.
The first quietly reverses the image of Mega-City One as presented back in The Robot Wars – which depicted automation and robots leading to a life of luxurious ease for its inhabitants. Instead, it has resulted in massive unemployment, stated here to be 87% – which only worsens (rising above 90%) in subsequent episodes – bringing with it for the overwhelming majority of Mega-City One a life of grinding welfare dependency and boredom, the origin of much (if not most) of Mega-City One’s crime. So at least the Judges are busy.
That also sees the human citizens attacking robots over the lack of employment or work – as here where a gang of three males attack a cleaning droid in Harriet Beecher Stowe Block just so they can do some cleaning work. “Lucky we saved these antique tools. Let’s get busy” one says with positive delight as he comes in with brooms and mops.
The second is the recurring Mega-City One phenomenon of ”futsies’, borrowed from the memorable title of Alvin Toffler’s book Future Shock. To quote Chris Sims again – futsies are “people suffering from “future shock” who just snap under the pressure of living there. Life in the future is just too much for people. Yes technically futsies were introduced back in the Luna storyline in Case Files 1, but not as memorably as here.
In this episode, those two things come together as Dredd is called to a citizen gone ‘futsie’ – in this case, Arnold Short, the former caretaker of Benjamin Spock Block, made redundant by a robotic caretaker, sniping away at inanimate objects. Sure, Dredd puts on the veneer upon apprehending him – “enough snivelling, citizen!” – but underneath Dredd is being a big softie here, sentencing the offender to hard labor for the rest of his life, a prospect that fills the man with delight. Dredd muses as he takes the man away “sometimes even a Judge can be merciful”.
JUDGE DREDD CASE FILES 3:
THE FOREVER CRIMES (prog 120)
Tales from Walter’s Scwapbook (prog 119 & 121)
“Even death is no escape from the Law!”
I have to feature the episode The Forever Crimes for its art by Brian Bolland, although that punchline and the story twist is interesting enough – Justice Department has its own suspended animation chamber for mortally wounded criminal, mortally wounded that is by the Judges apprehending them, to preserve them until they can be healed…and then serve a life sentence.
Sheesh – that sounds hardcore. Also something that seems to have been dropped other than as a twist in this episode because I can’t recall it popping up again, notwithstanding the frequent dire or mortal wounds Judges routinely dispense when dealing with perps. I suppose it might be for those particularly bad perps that Justice Department wants to put on ice to see justice done…but the prospects of that suspended animation chamber still being around are somewhat low given all the physical destruction or hostile occupation that the Grand Hall of Justice has faced.
Ironically, the perp put on ice here worked for the Forever Towers for the Semi-Dead…but used the vulnerable and suggestible state of patients in the pre-suspended animation treatment phase to extract compromising information about them or their relatives then used for extortion.
The standout is that art by my favorite Judge Dredd artist – Brian Bolland! Actual panel art by Brian Bolland was a treat that featured from time to time in the episodes compiled in the first five volumes or so.
Although Ron Smith comes a close second for his panel art in these classic episodes, as in the two episodes in Tales from Walter’s Scwapbook, albeit the stories in those episodes are not distinctive enough for a more in-depth examination. Essentially Walter shows off as Dredd’s domestic droid to the other domestic droids, showing them pictures from the titular scrapbook. Which is literally a scrapbook – somewhat odd even by contemporary standards of digital photographs and storage, let alone the twenty-second century.
In the first scrapbook episode (prog 119), Walter helps Dredd apprehend perps robbing a bank, having brought him his lunch first. Sadly, Walter went a bit above and beyond, throwing a custard pie at one of the perps. That’s what actually helps Dredd apprehend them…but it is against the law for a robot to strike a human. As a free robot – probably still the only such robot in Mega-City One (originating all the way back from the Robot Wars) – Dredd sentences him to one month in prison. Where he promptly drives his human cellmate to desperation with his devotion to Dredd – the cellmate even begs for solitary confinement to get away from that “Dredd-loving robot”. Interestingly, the prison is still presented as a prison – New Sing Sing – as opposed to the more standard iso-cubes.
In the second, Dredd basically does Mr Incredible in The Incredibles – to orphan fanboy Ralphie who dresses up as a (mini-)Judge because of his admiration of Judge Dredd. Incredibly (heh), Dredd’s actually nicer about it than Mr Incredible – even enrolling Ralphie in the Academy of Law. Sadly – and it is told by Walter as a sad story – Ralphie is even worse at being a cadet and ends up expelled, hating Dredd for it, although we never see him again for his version of Syndrome.
Aptly enough, Huck Finn is name-dropped for a block, as we can see in the sign for Huck Finn Block Child Care.
JUDGE DREDD CASE FILES 3:
FATHER EARTH (progs 122-125)
Judge Dredd gets back into high gear with its Father Earth miniseries – the first of two recurring incursions into Mega-City One from the Cursed Earth in Case Files 3 and which gets its own page here.