Monday 26 August 2013

Judge Dredd: Outlaw

NAME
Judge Dredd: Outlaw

FIRST PUBLISHED
2000 A.D. and Starlord Prog 87

DATELINE
21 Oct 78

PAGE COUNT
6

REPRINTS
Judge Dredd Epics: Judge Caligula 1, Judge Dredd Epics: The Complete Judge Caligula, The Complete Judge Dredd 8, Judge Dredd Epics: The Day The Law Died, Judge Dredd 9 and Judge Dredd The Complete Case Files 02. The story also formed part of the Judge Dredd radio adaptation of The Day The Law Died.

SYNOPSIS
Dredd escapes and Cal orders the Judges after him.

FIRSTS & LASTS
First strip credited to two artists.

INFORMATION
Mega-City One's Kennedy Spaceport has a restaurant.

Named Judges: Judge Ochs

JUDGE DREDD
Dredd breaks free of his chains aboard the penal shuttle and orders the pilot to land at gunpoint. The resulting crash leaves the shuttle's bow inside Kennedy Spaceport's restaurant. He acquires a taxi the same way and flees the scene.

OTHER CHARACTERS
DEPUTY CHIEF JUDGE CAL
He orders all Judges to find Dredd and relieves them of all other duties. His office contains several images, busts and figurines of himself and one of Adolf Hitler. He appears to have written a book called Cal's Book. He also has a facsimile of Dredd locked in a drawer.

CHIEF JUDGE GOODMAN
He agrees to Cal's orders.

JUDGE GIANT
He fears for the Chief Judge's mental stability.

WALTER THE WOBOT AND MARIA
They comply with the Judges searching Dredd's home.


ARRESTS
None.

DEATHS
None.

BEST LINES
Pilot (after witnessing shuttle crash): "Get the name of that pilot!"

WORST LINES
Security Guard (in the path of a crashing space shuttle): "Dive!"

CATCHPHRASES
Dredd gives us another "Drokk it!", while Walter says Dwedd and wats.

CONTINUITY & CROSSOVERS
We pick up where we left off at the end of Crime And Punishment . Dredd mention Rico's imprisonment on Titan, seen in The Return Of Rico.

INFLUENCES & REFERENCES
Dredd's line "Don't worry I got nothing to declare -- -- except my innocence" recalls "I have nothing to declare except my genius", a quote famously attributed to Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) at Customs in New York in 1882, but there is no contemporary evidence for the remark and it first appeared in print in Arthur Ransome's book Oscar Wilde: A Critical Study (1912), thirty years later.

MISTAKES
Dredd appears to take his guard's lawgiver, which would be useless and potentially explosive.

RETROSPECT
None.

NOTES
None.

CREDITS
Script: John Wagner
Artist: Bolland/Gibbons
Letters: Dave Gibbons

REVIEW
The artwork is fantastic throughout and the set pieces are brilliant. These are exciting developments and both Goodman's fragility and the onset of Cal's madness are well conveyed.

Next Prog: The Showdown!

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