The Cartoon Museum is currently celebrating the 45th anniversary of the first appearance of Judge Dredd, the futuristic lawman (created by writer John Wagner and artist Carlos Ezquerra) who made his debut in issue two of 2000 AD, ‘the galaxy’s greatest comic’, in February 1977. Our ‘In Focus’ display concentrates on some of the different artistic methods utilised by Dredd illustrators, from simple pen and ink through to the digital techniques employed by many today.
In the mid-22nd century, Dredd is a law enforcement officer on the streets of Mega-City One, a gigantic urban conurbation that takes up most of the eastern coast of the USA. The Judges are at once judge, jury and occasionally executioner, and Dredd is the most implacable of them all; “I am the law”, as he is fond of telling the latest ‘perp’ (perpetrator) he is sending for an extended spell in ‘The Cubes’.
Whilst Dennis the Menace and Minnie the Minx might vie for being Britain’s most iconic humour comic characters, Judge Dredd is undeniably the icon of our sci-fi adventure comics. Some have cited Dan Dare in this regard but whilst certainly a notable character, he lacked the longevity and enduring appeal that Dredd has enjoyed.
When we read our favourite superhero comics from across the pond, we feel we get to know the characters, we are privy to their inner thoughts and emotions. Spider-Man worries about his Aunt May and how he’ll pay next month’s bills; Batman’s war on crime is spurred by the devastating murder of his parents. Dredd is simply Dredd. Thought-balloons never inform the reader what he is thinking or feeling, he is simply a monolithic figure of justice. In Mega-City 1 the law is truly faceless – in forty-five years, Dredd has never been shown without his helmet and he has never softened his hard-line approach to lawbreakers. The appeal for readers – many of whom have stayed with the strip since its inception – lies in Dredd’s stoic reaction to the chaotic characters he defeats every week, such as the psychopathic cyborg Mean Machine, sky-surfing graffiti artist Chopper, martial arts assassin Stan Lee(!), the fearsome Judge Death – an extra-dimensional entity that considers life itself to be a crime, and literally hundreds of others.
Of course, Judge Dredd’s 45th anniversary also represents four and a half decades of 2000 AD, which still appears on newsagents’ shelves every week and still enjoys strong sales at a time when most other fondly-remembered British comics have disappeared. 2000 AD joins Commando and Beano as one of the three longest-lasting comics in the UK, and long may it continue.
Steve Marchant
Learning Officer / Comic Art Curator at The Cartoon Museum
The Cartoon Museum Blog 
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