Story: Hottie U
Appears: 2000AD Prog 586
Issues: 1
Writers: John Wagner
Art: Brett Ewins
Dated: 6 August 1988
The hazards of a weekly deadline mean that you get stories like this that you have already forgotten.
Story: Bloodline
Appears: 2000AD Progs 583-584
Issues: 2
Writers: John Wagner
Art: Will Simpson
Dated: 11 June 1988 to 09 July 1988
This is a cryptic and narratively ambitious story that is the keystone for some dramatic future events. Through the last few stories we have seen Dredd getting older and questioning his judgement once again. Now we see that the Justice Department has a frightening contingency.
Story: Full Mental Jacket
Appears: 2000AD Progs 578-582
Issues: 5
Writers: John Wagner
Art: Ian Gibson & Steve Parkhouse
Dated: 11 June 1988 to 09 July 1988
This is a powerful tale about youths lost in gang culture. It seems more like a cautionary tale for our own society than one more at home in the mega-city.
Story: The Sage
Appears: 2000AD Prog 577
Issues: 1
Writers: John Wagner and Alan Grant
Art: Glenn Fabry
Dated: 04 June 1988
Is it another disposable story tainted by orientalism? Not nearly as bad as the Stan Lee or Warlord episodes thankfully. And there is a humorous message at the end. Maybe some enlightenment is being reached.
Story: Skeet and the Wrecking Crew
Appears: 2000AD Progs 575-576
Issues: 2
Writers: John Wagner
Art: Liam Sharp
Dated: 21 May 1988 to 28 May 1988
Another returning storyline (the Wreckers) is moulded into a brief tale of one man and his truck.
From this point on we see Grant and Wagner starting to be credited on separate stories rather than writing as a duo.
Story: Simp About the House
Appears: 2000AD Prog 574
Issues: 1
Writers: John Wagner and Alan Grant
Art: Cliff Robinson
Dated: 14 May 1988
Simping returns (from Prog 527) as we were told it would. It’s nice to see characters and storylines return as it makes the world seem more coherent and less as disposable entertainment.
Story: The Hitman
Appears: 2000AD Progs 571-573
Issues: 3
Writers: John Wagner and Alan Grant
Art: Jim Baikie
Dated: 23 April 1988 to 7 May 1988
This is a hitman story. It has a neat little twist and keeps you entertained till the end. It also sees Dredd having some doubts about his actions in the previous story Oz.
Story: Oz
Appears: 2000AD Progs 545-570
Issues: 26
Writers: John Wagner and Alan Grant
Art: Cliff Robinson, Jim Baikie, Gary Leach, Brendan McCarthy, Will Simpson, Steve Dillon, Barry Kitson, John Higgins
Dated: 24 October 1987 to 16 April 1988
There is no doubt that Wagner and Grant do their best work in the longer format and this is a real beauty. It has been a while since we have seen an epic length tale. Not since we last saw Chopper in the Midnight Surfer in fact.
Marlon Shakespeare makes a superb protagonist because he is the closest thing to normal the mega-city has. He isn’t a criminal but is criminalised by the system he lives within. He makes a superb point of view character for the reader and it is so easy to empathise with his struggle. There is no time-travel, alien, supernatural gimmick in his stories and as such we can easily transpose his struggles to our own.
Just like the Midnight Surfer we have a slow build up with plenty of room to let the story breathe and grow. The narration is superbly poetic and there are plenty of human touchstones along the way from his childhood friend to fans on the street.
It is not all rosy however. There are number of racial stereotypes ranging from the lazy to the offensive. At one point there is even a note from the editor to explain that these views do not represent 2000AD. The injection of the second storyline, the Judda, seems unplanned and uncoordinated, possibly as a filler for some delayed script or art, even though it is quite a significant addition to the Dredd canon.
The ending itself is just breath-taking. The actual race is sustained over six nail-biting issues with a spot-on commentary that reads like the greatest Derby ever seen. Best of all Chopper doesn’t have the trite hero’s victory you would expect from a kid’s comic. And the last few pages where he faces death are absolutely electric.
This is probably the most sophisticated and greatest Dredd story to date.
Story: Killcraze
Appears: 2000AD Progs 543-544
Issues: 2
Writers: John Wagner and Alan Grant
Art: Liam Sharp
Dated: 10 October 1987 to 17 October 1987
Is it just the Aggro Dome story from Prog 183? Not quite. This doesn’t have the existential questions of that story. It’s just an excuse for gunfire.