Arthur Ranson

A bumper collection featuring twelve stories about the pretty young Psi Judge from 2000AD. The stories vary in length and come in the episodic style of British comics. This is a good thing as having to fill twenty pages, say, can lead to padding. Here each story is only as long as it needs to be.

The British origins also mean a blessed lack of soap opera themes. Instead there is black humour as in ‘Four Dark Judges’ when Judge Death is slaughtering the residents of the Ronald Reagan show more Block for the aged and infirm. ‘Dodder for it!’ cries an alarmed oldster. Alan Grant scripted most of these stories but John Wagner co-wrote the first three. Whoever’s responsible it’s a great line. The Dark Judges are from an alternate dimension and decided long ago that since only living people committed crime eradicating all life was the best policy. Logically they should have committed suicide once that was done. Instead they came to our dimension. They were defeated and this is their return. The second tale ‘The Possessed’ features demonic possession, which I find odd in a science-fiction setting but it was well done.

There are thirteen stories and to go through them all one by one would involve a tedious repetition of superlatives. Suffice to say they are all good and several are excellent. A short tale about Judge Corey and a whale entitled ‘Leviathan’s Farewell’ is probably the best in the book and also the best story of any kind I’ve read for a while. It should have won awards. ‘Engram’ is a longer story which gives us and Anderson revelations about her childhood. Very moving stuff for a ‘comic’.

Alan Grant does have fun too. ‘Triad’ features a murderous skeleton and the Block Ness monster so Anderson has to consult the Department of Fortean Events. ‘The Random Man’ has a chap who throws dice to decide what he will do next. Unfortunately the dice keep telling him to kill people. Anderson catches up with him in Luke Reinhart alley, for where Grant riffs and spoofs on other writers work he does acknowledge it.

‘Prepare to die, fleshy one!’ shouts killer ‘robot’ Bill as he attacks the Judge. This is unkind and untrue for she is slim and lovely. Bill, a.k.a. ‘The Prophet’ believes he is the chosen one, preparing the way for those who will come after by killing all the fleshy ones. Bill is bonkers but the story is fun.

The art is at least 80% of the graphic novel form, I think, and a great story won’t get transmitted without pleasing pictures. Happily Wagner and Grant are well served by the numerous talents gathered here. Brett Ewins deserves honourable mention for the first two tales and David Roach does a bang up job on several others. The honourable exception to my enjoyment was Carlos Ezquerra, though he only drew ’The Random Man’ so there wasn’t much of him. He’s honoured because he co-created Judge Dredd and the whole look of Mega-City one but I personally don’t much like his style.

2000AD has made a huge contribution to the genre over the last few decades and these bumper collections offer an excellent chance to grab the best of it at bargain rates. They are an Essential Showcase (geddit?) for the best of British and this one in particular is a really good read.

Eamonn Murphy
This review first appeared at https://www.sfcrowsnest.info/ show less

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2970525.html

Thirty years ago, in 1987, Knockabout Comics produced this adaptation of fourteen Old Testament stories by leading comics artists; I got it as part of the Neil Gaiman Humble Bundle a few years back, he being the author of six of the fourteen stories (including Jael and Sisera as illustrated by Julie “Jewelz” Hollings, the only woman artist in the mix, who also illustrates an adaptation of Ecclesiasticus 42:9-11 by Knockabout publisher Carol show more Bennett).

There are some truly grim and nasty stories in the Old Testament, and while it would be very easy to just point and laugh, the art and stories here are from creators at the top of their game, taking the Bible at its word and confronting us with what is actually in scripture. It was still a bit subversive in 1987 - Knockabout were being regularly harassed by UK authorities for importing subversive comics from the USA, and Outrageous Tales from the Old Testament narrowly avoided legal action in Sweden. We are being challenged to think about why some forms of expression should be allowed if they are labelled as Scripture, and not otherwise. It’s a debate that has of course moved on to non-Christian religions too since 1987. show less

The Bible (and especially the Old Testament) is full of weird and wacky tales, yet few of these are common knowledge in comparison to the small handful of stories we’re all familiar with. Gaiman and company ply readers with the expected story of Sodom and Gommorah (if only because it’s one of the more “righteous” yet cruel and unusual stories), before delving into far more explicit and shady stories. Honestly, most of them aren’t worth remembering (or repeating), which is probably show more why they aren’t common fodder for Sunday School attendees, but they’re still an interesting read. It’s no wonder, though, that this little book wasn’t exactly a riotous success. show less

One of the few 2000AD judges that are not Dredd to get their own strip, Anderson is from the Psi department, using her psychic abilities to track down the more difficult crimes.

This is actually a collection of strips from 2000AD, starting with Shamballa. Anderson is still reeling from the suicide of her closest friend when she gets to go to Tibet (via Russia) to find the source of the outbreak of psychic crimes. Once again she loses someone close to her in the process.

There are additional show more stories, some of which focus on the religions that have been lost to the Megacities. She fights Satan, and delves into the mind of a man preaching the second coming of Jesus

Whilst Dredd does have a certain level of humour and violence, Anderson has a different take, being feminine and cerebral and also a little cocky against her superiors. The artwork is not always clear and crisp, (some would call it naive?) but is often detailed show less