40Th Anniversary Primer

200040TH ANNIVERSARY AD PRIMER 40TH INSERT.indd 1 07/02/2017 15:28 JUDGE DREDD FACT-FILE First appearance: 2000 AD Prog 2 (1977) Created by: John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Judge Dredd is a totalitarian cop in Mega- Blue in a sprawling ensemble-led police an awful lot of blood in his time. City One, the vast, crime-ridden American procedural about Dredd cleaning up crime East Coast megalopolis of over 72 million and corruption in the deadly Sector 301. With stories such as A History of Violence people set 122 years in the future. Judges and Button Man, plus your hard-boiled possess draconian powers that make them Mega-City Undercover Vols. 1-3 action heroes like Dredd and One-Eyed judge, jury, and executioner – allowing them Get to know the dark underbelly of policing Jack, your love of crime fiction is obvious. to summarily execute criminals or arrest Mega-City One with Justice Department’s Has this grown over the years? What citizens for the smallest of crimes. undercover division. Includes Andy Diggle writers have influenced you? and Jock’s smooth operator Lenny Zero, and Created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra Rob Williams, Henry Flint, Rufus Dayglo and JW: I go through phases. Over the past few in 1977, Dredd is 2000 AD’s longest- D’Israeli’s gritty Low Life. years I have read a lot of crime fiction, running character. Part dystopian science enjoyed some, disliked much. I wouldn’t like fiction, part satirical black comedy, part DREDD: Urban Warfare to pick any prose writer out as an influence. police procedural, Dredd serves a brutal One for fans of the 2012 movie DREDD. Set in As far as strip goes I have a very high and repressive system but his incorruptible the movie universe and following directly on regard for Frank Miller’s Batman Year One. principles make him an unlikely anti-hero. from the events at Peach Trees block. Stylistically I learned a lot from it. WHERE TO START READING READ MORE Your Dredd stories have ranged from single Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files Read interviews with many of Dredd’s episodes to wide-ranging epics, from Start at the beginning with Volume #1 to see greatest creators – from Mick McMahon to police procedurals to supernatural capers; how Judge Dredd and his world evolved – Jock – in these ebook collections, available on what, for you, makes a good Dredd story? from his corrupt brother to combating a robot Amazon and from Rebellion Publishing: JW: Good character interaction. It seems rebellion, and even a spell in charge of the www.2000adonline.com/creatorinterviews moon. Skip ahead to #5 for groundbreaking kind of counter-intuitive but I get a bit bored art by Brian Bolland, Mick McMahon, and sometimes writing action, I just want to get Carlos Ezquerra in stories such as The Dark LISTEN past it to the next juicy verbal encounter. Judges and the epic The Apocalypse War, or Listen to the 2000 AD Thrill-Cast’s epic three- Volumes #9 and #10 for some of his most part podcast interview with John Wagner at: What are your thoughts looking back over forty years of 2000 AD and your work for it? famous cases. www.2000ADonline.com/johnwagner JW: I’m surprised I’m still here to look back. Origins / Tour of Duty: The Backlash / Tour INTERVIEW: JOHN WAGNER of Duty: Mega-City Justice I suppose it’s like everything: there are some John Wagner’s revelations about the origin The Judge Dredd story you’ve written for aspects that give me satisfaction, others story of the Judges of Mega-City One. the fortieth anniversary issue has a very where I know I could have done better. Glad Dredd’s subsequent demands for equal sombre tone, but Dredd is often known for to see old Joe still in there fighting, though. rights for mutants went on to have profound its black humour – which do you prefer consequences. Stellar art from Carlos writing, and why? If Judge Dredd did not exist, in the current Ezquerra, Colin MacNeil, John Higgins and political climate would it be necessary to more. JW: I generally prefer the ones with an edge invent him? In other words, is the satirical of humour. They’re a lot easier on the nerves. nature of the character as relevant today America as it was in 1977 and has that grown more Mature storytelling from Wagner about What were your thoughts behind this subtle or become more overt? justice, freedom and obsession, where Dredd particular story – it felt like it was takes a back seat and we see events from the reflecting on the Dredd strip’s own long, JW: Don’t know if you’d need to invent him, citizens’ point of view. Features incredible blood-soaked history. but I’m absolutely certain Donald Trump is painted artwork by Colin MacNeil. going to provide a lot of ammunition for me JW: Yes, when Cyber-Matt said the theme and others in the coming years. Anything The Pit for the issue was ruby/red, Blood was what Dredd can do – however little – to undermine Judge Dredd meets The Wire and NYPD came immediately to mind. Dredd has seen that sick sucker is a job worth doing. 40TH INSERT.indd 2 07/02/2017 15:29 ZOMBO FACT-FILE First appearance: 2000 AD Prog 1632 (2009) Created by: Henry Flint and Al Ewing ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// An absurdist horror comedy created by artist ZOMBO QUOTES Can you explain about the genesis of Henry Flint and writer Al Ewing, Zombo is a Zombo for readers who are new to him? ‘Can I eat you?’ half-human, half-zombie biological weapon created to withstand the terrain on hostile *** HF: Half-human, half-zombie, created by alien death planets, his desire to eat people ‘I like your thinking! You’re hired!’ a questionable government to help fight a controlled by a codpiece that shocks him to ‘...I am?’ zombie apocalypse. ensure obedience. After crash-landing on the death planet Chronos, Zombo tries to guide ‘Never question me. You’re fired.’ AE: Henry came up with the character the survivors to safety as the environment *** originally – I was brought on to script and picks them off one by one, before he ‘Zombo? I don’t know if you noticed, but your generally tinker with his plot for the first confronts the planet’s sentient intelligence. evil twin just flambéed the leader of the free series. After that, we just went with whatever Later, the unhinged President of Earth universe!’ was funny. unleashes Zombo’s dark twin, Obmoz, in a *** futile attempt to distract the masses, only for It’s been a while since Zombo’s been in his plan to go wrong when Obmoz becoming ‘Mr Rabinowicz did fill out all the necessary 2000 AD – why are you bringing him back a giant death monster. In the process forms...’ now? Zombo’s brain is destroyed and it is revealed ‘No, I didn’t! I signed your bottom with a his emergency ‘back-up’ personality, stored magic marker!’ HF: I assure you it’s not my idea. in his buttocks, is that of male stripper Eric ‘Well, I had the release form tattooed on my Rabinowicz. Later still, theme-park magnate AE: It’s my fault. Zombo got harder and back. It was all quite legal.’ Lord Hank Epsilon leads Chronos’s armies on harder to write as the years went on, a steerable planet in an attack upon Earth. *** and sticking him in an un-get-outable ‘So where’s Zombo on the creepiness index cliffhanger at the end of his fourth series Originally inspired by Flint’s love of zombie now?’ didn’t help. But when Tharg suggested a movies, the series turned into a bizarre ‘Nine point three. Equivalent to the local fortieth anniversary story, I had an idea for mix of comedy, science fiction and horror, butcher looking pale and sweaty and how to play it that hopefully opens the door incorporating farce and vicious pop-culture inviting you into the back room to sample the to more stories to come, if Henry’s amenable, satire, parodying everything from The “special ham”.’ of course. Beatles to The X Factor to pulp sci-fi to geek mass media and, rather disturbingly, How important is the dark humour in predicting President Donald J Trump. TOP CAMEOS IN ZOMBO – SPOT * Zombo? Is this a classic 2000 AD element THEM ALL AND WIN A PRIZE! that you wanted to include? READ ZOMBO IN (DIS)ORDER: Russell Brand Zombo: Can I Eat You, Please? Simon Cowell AE: People expect some humour in Zombo, Collects: Donald Trump and some unpleasantness too. Lately I’ve Zombo The Beatles been more feeling the unpleasantness side Merry Christmas, Mr Zombo Susan Boyle than the humour side, but there are some Zombo’s Eleven *no prizes, punk! good gags in the anniversary strip, so people Obmoz Battles the Twinklie Winkler should have a good old chuckle. INTERVIEW: AL EWING AND HENRY Zombo: You Smell of Crime and I’m the FLINT HF: Al’s in charge of the dark humour. I’m in Deodorant! Zombo’s kind of hard to sum up in a charge of mopping up the mess afterward. Collects: sentence – how do you feel about giving The Day Zombo Died it go? You managed to ‘predict’ a Trump Planet Zombo presidency – how do you feel about that? Planetronix: Mohawk of Menace! AE: The Hulk, but with sexy pants instead of Secrets of Zombo’s Power! rage.

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