Published by Rebellion.

John Wagner and Alant Grant, writers.

Dougie Braithwaite, John Higgins, Barry Kitson, Will Simpson, Jim Baikie, Colin MacNeil, Barry Kitson, Cliff Robinson, Liam McCormack-Sharp, Mick Austin, Mike Collins, Peter Vetner, Carlos Ezquerra, Chris Weston, Cam Kennedy, Vanyo, Paul Marshall, Jeff Anderson, Steve Yeowell.

This 13th collection features many many Judge Dredd stories and it is rough at times. Not the art, not the writing. Both are amazing in each and every story. The entire world of Judge Dredd is difficult. This 13th volume is the only one available in my local library system, and I have a couple of cross overs in my own collection (like with Batman) but my Dredd and 2000AD collections sit at zero.

I’ve enjoyed the movies. Anthrax is one of my all time favorite bands. Yet there is something about Dredd that has never came across the pond to the same level it is in the motherland. Maybe because this is a post apocalypse satirical look at the United States and over time is becoming less satire and more of a mirror.

The law is the law. Don’t question it, debate it, protest against it, none of that. Or the Law will lock you up too. Give up some freedom and guarantee your safety, except, no one feels any safer.

Through it all I start to wonder, is Dredd good or bad? Well, he’s whatever the story needs him to be. It all depends on the perspective of who is on the other side of him. Arsonists, murderers, torturers – all deserve to be brought to justice. But journalists asking questions, a guy trying to save books? Thrown into jail, or a “cube” just the same.

For every story about a police officer getting a kid a new bike there’s another story of a kid getting shot in the back. Teach your kids to trust authority figures and then it comes out today that the USPS, the freaking post office, is spying on us. The only black and white here are the pages within this collection that aren’t in color.

I think all of these stories deserve to be told. The secret to Judge Dredd, and maybe the reason he hasn’t become as big in the States as expected, is that it’s not about a sole character. Judge Dredd symbolizes an entire type of story. The good, the bad, the victories, and the problems with trying to keep too many people together without incident. A person is smart, people are stupid. All that Dredd can do is follow the law he has sworn to uphold. Some laws are made by persons, some are made by people. But he enforces them just the same.