Story: Midnight Surfer
Appears: 2000AD Progs 424-429
Issues: 6
Writers: John Wagner and Alan Grant
Art: Cam Kennedy
Dated: 29 June 1985 to 3 August 1985
This is a fan favourite and one of the many coming of age milestones for Judge Dredd. It is a wonderfully decompressed story with the gentle introduction taking up the whole of the first Prog. The language used for the narration is delightfully poetic and not something you normally see.
Bravely, Dredd is barely in it and we focus on returning character Marlon Shakespeare who has gone from scrawler to sky surfer. Possibly inspired by the illegal rave scene at the time it typifies the struggle for young adults to form their own culture and independence. Skysurfing is a noble pursuit where those on the inside or the outside share a common bond. And as always the law does not matter when achieving your own personal freedom.