Judge Anderson – Legacy – MK Stangeland Jr.

Judge Anderson – Legacy – MK Stangeland Jr.

(7 Panels)

Panel 1: JUDGE ANDERSON is standing with her younger clone, JUDGE ANDERS. JUDGE ANDERSON looks old, is wearing an instructor’s outfit instead of a JUDGE’s uniform, and is standing with the aid of a cane. JUDGE ANDERS looks like a very young JUDGE ANDERSON. No words are coming out of their mouths, but they are looking at each other as though they’re still having a conversation anyway.

Panel 2: JUDGE DREDD’s head as he looks on.

Panel 3: JUDGE ANDERSON and JUDGE ANDERS are seen from over JUDGE DREDD’s shoulder. JUDGE ANDERSON and JUDGE ANDERS have a hand on each others shoulders.

Panel 4: JUDGE ANDERS approaches JUDGE DREDD. She is in the process of putting her helmet on.

JUDGE DREDD: …

JUDGE ANDERS: (Interrupting Judge Dredd.) It’s because I’m her clone.

Panel 5: JUDGE DREDD looks like he’s attempting to say something else, but is a second time cut off.

JUDGE DREDD: …

JUDGE ANDERS: (Again interrupting.) You were going to say I look just like her.

JUDGE DREDD: …

JUDGE ANDERS: Psychic conversation. That’s also how I’m answering your questions before you ask them.

Panel 6: JUDGE DREDD does not look amused. JUDGE ANDERS looks apologetic.

JUDGE ANDERS (1): Sorry.

JUDGE ANDERS (2): Sir.

JUDGE DREDD: I don’t like people inside my head.

Panel 7: JUDGE DREDD looks at JUDGE ANDERS as they walk side by and points at her.

JUDGE DREDD: You may look like her, but so far you’re not acting like her.

(END PAGE)

Judge Dredd – Judge THIS! – MK Stangeland Jr.

JUDGE DREDD is hunting down a crazed mutant cyborg serial killer that has been targeting Judges. They are currently in an abandoned, ruined section of Megacity-One. The serial killer wears a Judge outfit stolen from his first kill and goes by the name of JUDGE YOURSELF.

(6 Panels)

Panel 1: JUDGE DREDD ducks behind cover as a grenade shoots past where his head was just a moment ago.

Panel 2: JUDGE DREDD pokes his head back out from behind cover, weapon out and aimed.

Panel 3: Close-up panel of the grenade as it impacts and explodes somewhere behind JUDGE DREDD, breaking some kind of mish-mash trigger unit.

SFX: BOOM!

Panel 4: A large tanker truck of some kind is seen suspended above JUDGE DREDD, and has started to fall as the trigger keeping it in place has been broken.

SFX: SkreeEE!

Panel 5: JUDGE DREDD looks up to see the truck falling towards him.

Panel 6: JUDGE DREDD leaps safely out of the way as the truck hits the ground.

SFX: Ker-SMAKSHHhhhh!

(END PAGE)

(And once again, thanks to Grant for offering the switch.)

Judge Dredd - Legion - Matt Duarte

Judge Dredd in Legion by Matt Duarte

Panel 1

Description: Judge Dredd is walking through a particularly nasty area of Mega-City One. He's talking away on his communicator as he walks to a crowd of people.

DREDD: No signs of the graffitiers. Are you sure we have the right block, control?

CONTROL (out of panel): Yes, it's that one. We got several reports of it, but nothing on the cameras.

Panel 2

Description: Judge Dredd has stopped walking. He is standing and looking up at something we can't see. He is clearly not happy right now.The crowd around him look in the same direction, their faces mixed in awe, shock and horror.

DREDD: Let me guess, all the cameras from around the area malfunctioned.

CONTROL: ...yes, how did you know that?

DREDD: They were hacked. I know who we are dealing with.

Panel 3

Description: From behind Judge Dredd's back, he is staring at a huge public service announcement display. In it, there's group of judges looking sternly at the viewer, pointing their fingers in an accusatory way (think of the classic Uncle Sam poster). Underneath it, it says “Follow the law!”. However, the sign has been graffiti on it, it now has a few extra letters so that it reads “Follow the lawls”, and the Judges on it are now sporting troll faces.

DREDD: Send in reinforcements. We are facing a legion.

Next: Judge Dredd vs. Anonymous.

Judge Dredd - Ego-a-go-go - Sime McDonald

PANEL ONE

Inside the Justice Department’s armoury, Judge Dredd stands with the armourer. Dredd’s outfitted in his uniform, weapon holstered by his side, iconic helmet plonked atop his head, his holding another helmet in his outstretched arms, slightly more advanced than his own, a few more bells and whistles, a little more extravagant. Dredd’s mouth is twisted into a sour grimace; he’s not impressed by this piece of new technology. The armourer, beside him, is far more impressed.

ARMOURER

- - all the customary features of course, night-vision, thermal-vision, and something else - -

JUDGE DREDD

Hmph.

ARMOURER:

- - an inbuilt fMRI scanner, that’ll display activity in the brain’s amygdala and anterior insula.

PANEL TWO

If looks could kill, the armourer would be sliced in half by Dredd’s; thusly, his complexion has paled and he’s lost a degree of composure, nervous now.

JUDGE DREDD

Which tells me what?

ARMOURER

Uh – well, er, increased activity in these parts of the brain indicate an anticipation of pain, a belief that a person is under threat - -

PANEL THREE
Dredd casually tosses the helmet into the air. The armourer watches on, fingers arms splayed, wide-eyed.

ARMOURER [1]

- - meaning you could scan a crowd, and anybody displaying heightened activity as a result of your presence could, potentially, be a threat and duly brought in for - -

ARMOURER [2]

What…?

PANEL FOUR
Small panel of the helmet clunking down onto the asphalt floor.

JUDGE DREDD (o/p)

No.

PANEL FIVE
Dredd holds his weapon up in front of the armourer’s face. It's

JUDGE DREDD [1]

People see me coming, I expect them to fear the worst.
If they don't, I'm not doing my job.

JUDGE DREDD [2]

I don’t need to see brain activity to validate my effect on people.

PANEL SIX
On Dredd, walking away.

JUDGE DREDD

My ego doesn’t need a boost.

END

Judge Dredd – Quick Response – Ryan K Lindsay

PAGE 1 - 5 PANELS

1. Angle aimed at about mid-chest and down on a flat level. A young boy sits a little bit away from some London rioters, his nose is dripping blood, his shoulders sloop, a bag hangs from his back. A rioter is helping him up.

NO COPY

2. The young boy is being led away but we can see another rioter behind start riffling through the young boy’s bag, pulling out headphones, etc.

NO COPY

3. The rioter is now walking away from the boy. He is holding headphones in his hand and tossing a plastic container away.

NO COPY

4. The rioters legs are still walking but now blood spatters the sidewalk behind him and mists in the air, we can’t see what’s happened to his head, though. Not yet.

NO COPY

5. The rioter has fallen to the ground, his head is pretty well decimated by a bullet. Judge Dredd’s boots are walking over his body, perhaps stepping on him directly.

NO COPY

Judge Dredd - Reality is - Ben Rosenthal

1. Judge Dredd is sitting, his helmet in his hands. He looks at it, thinking, although shadow covers the upper half of his body so that we cannot see his face.

CAPTION: How many times have I stared death in the face? How many times have I dodged that bullet?

2. Judge Dredd is standing now. We see him from behind as he places his helmet over his head.

CAPTION: Now, death has caught up.

3. Judge Dredd’s arm reaches for his Lawgiver pistol.

CAPTION: Unfortunately for the scum of this city...

4. Half body shot of Judge Dredd in full light. Lawgiver in hand and what we can see of his face showing a grim determination.

CAPTION: I’m taking them with me.

Just a bit of housekeeping - Judge Dredd has been recently diagnosed with a form of brain cancer.

Judge Dredd - Writing For Creeps - Maxy "Drokk" Barnard

What follows is a comic script version of real-life events, and as such must be taken very seriously, else history repeat itself. This is the tragic elimination of one of the original Thought Ballooners. He will never script again. It's a packed record, but with the right representation, we believe the tale can progress neatly, especially if the inset panels were kept as small as possible.

-----------------------------------------

#.1
Inset within panel 2. DREDD's boot kicking through the front door to MAXY BARNARD's flat, splinters flying every which way.


#.2
DREDD stepping through the door, gun in hand, as MAXY is at his desk, mid-way through panickedly falling from his chair.

DREDD: FREEZE, CREEP!

MAXY: Drokk!


#.3
DREDD picking MAXY up off the floor by the collar with ease.

MAXY: I didn't do anything, man, I swear I haven't written a word in weeks!

DREDD: That's just it...


#.4
Having pulled MAXY closer to his face, DREDD is yelling, spittle flying, point blank. MAXY is flinching away best he can.

DREDD: YOU'RE SLACK!


#.5
Inset into panel 6. DREDD throws MAXY to the floor.

DREDD: DEADLINES!


#.6
MAXY scuttling into the corner away from Dredd, reaching out for something.

MAXY: You don't understand, I had STUFF going on...


#.7
Inset into panel 9. MAXY swinging round with a gun.

MAXY: You just do-


#.8
Inset into panel 9. A bullet passes through MAXY's head.


#.9
JUDGE DREDD, gun smoking, pointed at the reader.

DREDD: No excuses for breaking the rules, kid.

CAPTION: FIN?

Why Judge Dredd?

It may be a shocking realisation to people who only partake in the US comics scene, but we brits have the main pillar of our comics in sci-fi, as far removed from cliché superheroics and companies like Marvel and DC as you could possibly get, outside of arty indie books no-one sincerely wants to read. The biggest and... probably only... mainstream sci-fi series over here is 2000AD, the weekly prog where characters like Strontium Dog, Nikolai Dante and, yes, Judge Dredd get their mad-on in distinctly british and mildly insane adventures. I am a fan of this, and moreso the huge monthly injection of amazement that is the Judge Dredd Megazine, the sort of comics mag that puts all others to shame.

Which is the obvious reason to choose Dredd. The OTHER reasons to choose him and why he's a perfect choice for Thought Balloons is a little less personal and a lot more brilliant.

See, the world of Dredd is a brilliant mirror of the world we live in today, and is constantly adaptable to whatever surreal commentary is required. Adolescence, immigration, celebrity, reality tv, Dredd's world can address all of this, usually from the perspective of the unflappable man-chin that is Dredd himself. A man of the law unlike any other, unwavering in his loyalty to it in the face of whatever may come his way, his straight approach to a bent world is both comedic and capable of providing clarity to the messages and situations being bandied about in the stories.

Also there was that one movie no-one liked that is endlessly quotable and quite awful, so the lazier among us may choose to, I don't know, castrate Rob Schneider or something. Something that I'm sure won't be necessary for anyone in the upcoming Karl Urban-fronted film, which looks to be amazing, and enough of a reason for me to go "It's timely! There's a thing and so it works!", even if said thing is still far off on the horizon.

Dredd is one of my favourite comic characters of all time, and hopefully this week you'll get a glimpse into why.

If you want to read up on Dredd, check out this here WIKI page, and if you want to buy any of the superb 2000AD trades, progs or megs, then your local comic shop or the 2000AD website should be your suited ports of call.

So drokkin' get writing creeps. It's the law!