Tag Archives: Judge Anderson

Judge Anderson: The Psi Files Volume 3 (2013)

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“You’re willing to kill Grud knows how many of our own children to get at people you don’t even know are our enemies?”

The latest volume of collected Judge Anderson stories from 2000AD, Judge Dredd Megazine and various annuals and specials was written in the main by Alan Grant – two illustrated prose stories are provided by Peter Milligan and Andy Lanning/Dan Abnett. The majority of the art in this volume was by Steve Sampson with another longer story being illustrated by Arthur Ranson and the single issue stories being illustrated by a variety of artists including the great Ian Gibson.

The book contains 4 longish stories, a couple of shorter stories and 7 single issue stories.

Something Wicked carries on from the end of volume 2 and sees Anderson on probation with Judge Dredd after going AWOL. A series of crimes where the perps were possessed, leads Dredd and Anderson to suspect the charismatic leader of a cult who is about to leave Earth with his followers to set up a new life on another planet.

Satan, illustrated by Arthur Ranson, sees the arrival of an omnipotent being to Mega-City One. It believes itself to the Devil incarnate and seeks the destruction of Mega-City One.

Wonderwall is an Alice in Wonderland inspired story that sees Anderson probing the defensive constructs of a young girl’s mind as she tries to understand why she is catatonic and who caused her condition.

Crusade carries on the theme of the life of children within Mega-City society and, in a tale reminiscent of the Pied Piper, Anderson and the senior judges must formulate a plan to save the city’s children when they follow a series of angelic child prophets on the promise of a new life.

Grant again uses Anderson to explore the more social side of Mega- City One. The main stories deal with the lot of children in the sprawling urban decay – abandoned without any parental control to run wild and their eventual slide into crime and abuse. While I love Judge Dredd, it is the more human side of the city revealed by Anderson and her outlook that really appeals to me and this collection is a good example of that. Although the stories carry on from what has gone on before and there are some fleeting references to past events, I think an interested reader could pick this volume up and give the world of Judge Anderson a go without too much of a problem.

Judge Anderson: The PSI Files Volume 2 (2012)

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Quote:
They caught me reading from a banned book. All I can remember from it was one line – “The state calls its own violence law, but that of the individual crime”.

 

This is the second volume of collected stories featuring Judge Anderson taken from 2000AD and the Judge Dredd Megazine. All except one was written by Alan Grant (the exception being a collaboration between Grant and long time writing partner John Wagner) and features three longer stories with a number of short tales interspersed among them. There are a number of artists involved including Arthur Ranson, Steve Sampson, Kevin Walker, Ian Gibson among others.

The first of the longer stories is called Shamballa and sees Anderson and academy colleague, Rickard, travelling to Tibet with two East-Meg 2 psi operatives to investigate the source of a worldwide spate of psychic visions of mythic creatures that are causing death and destruction where they appear. They end up travelling to the region formerly known as Tibet to track down a forgotten race of people with extraordinary psi abilities. The art on this story was by the great Arthur Ranson.

After a number of stories that slowly erode Anderson’s faith in the justice system she eventually cracks and attacks a particularly brutal judge. In the second of the long stories, Childhood’s End, she is sent on a mission to Mars to cool off. On the Cydonian plane, the head monument has opened a portal. Anderson is one of a number of assembled experts who make the expedition into the structure. While inside she must confront a deadly enemy of old and the return of an ancient race determined to wipe out humanity.

The third long story, Postcards from the Edge continues on from the last one and sees Anderson, having resigned as a judge, bumming round the inhabited worlds of the galaxy looking to find herself. This walkabout storyline is the most disjointed, having several different artists contributing to it, and with individual stories of variable quality and interest. Having said that I like the chapters with the distinctive art of Steve Sampson which are good to look at even if they are not necessarily good to read.

The beauty of this volume is that it allows an alternative look at the judges and the justice system of Mega-City. The sometimes brutal tactics of the street judge are questioned here by an increasingly doubtful Anderson as she struggles to get over the suicide of her friend, the empath Judge Corey, and assimilate some the spiritual experiences she goes through in this book and the philosophical questions they raise. Taken all together it is a worthwhile addition to the library even though some of the standalone stories and parts of Postcards from the Edge are not quite as good as the rest.

Young Death: Boyhood of a Superfiend (1992)

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Quote:
Yessss, I too wasss a boy oncce – though of courssse I wasss far from normal, even then …

 

This book collects the twelve part story from the first volume of the Judge Dredd Megazine, the anthology comic from 2000AD set in the Judge Dredd universe. The story was written by Judge Dredd creator John Wagner. The art was the first introduction of Peter Doherty to a wide audience. Doherty has continued to illustrate stories in 2000AD and the Judge Dredd Megazine but does not seem to have done much beyond this.

Set after the Necropolis story line in 2000AD, this story explores the early life of Judge Death as recounted to an unfortunate Mega-City journalist. Young Sidney is a sociopath in the making whose world view is reinforced by his father – a sadistic, psychopathic dentist. On turning his father over to the judges for a series of murders, Sidney joins the judges and refines his world view in which crime is committed by the living and so the living should be punished. Upon graduating he discovers two death cultists who help him complete his vision by removing the paradox of his continued living while sentencing others to death for the same “crime”.

I love Judge Death stories for two reasons. First of all they tend to feature an appearance of psi-Judge Anderson who I adore. Secondly he is, in many ways, the ultimate villain for Judge Dredd in the same way that the Joker is for Batman. I think that there are many similarities between the Joker and Judge Death: the fixed rictus grin; the disregard for human life; the dark humour associated with the characters. The humour in this story ranges from the lightly comical, in the shape of Death’s extremely short-sighted landlady, Mrs Gunderson, to the extremely black exploration of Sidney’s childhood environment. Although this a very good story, I have never been convinced that it was really necessary. I am happy to accept the Dark Judges for what they are and the detailing of an origin does little for my perception of the character – it is hard to imagine ever feeling sympathy for any of the Dark Judges and the choices they made. However, it is still a classic story that is worth reading if you like your humour on the black side and for the art of Peter Doherty.