Judge Dredd: Pirates Of The Black Atlantic, Part One

NAME
Judge Dredd: Pirates Of The Black Atlantic, Part One

FIRST PUBLISHED
2000 AD Featuring Judge Dredd Prog 197

DATELINE
31 Jan 81

This prog also featured Dash Decent, The Mean Arena, Meltdown Man, Return To Armageddon, Strontium Dog, a Judge Dredd cover by Brian Bolland and a T.H.A.R.G. pin-up and a feature on the Dan Dare TV Series.

PAGE COUNT
6

REPRINTS
2000AD Monthly 5, The Best Of 2000AD 14, Judge Dredd Classics 72, The Complete Judge Dredd 19, Judge Dredd Chronicles Book 26 and Judge Dredd The Complete Case Files 04.

SYNOPSIS
Captain Skank kidnaps a nuclear scientist.

FIRSTS & LASTS
First appearance of Captain Skank.

INFORMATION
The Black Atlantic is poisonous and unprotected exposure is always fatal.

The underwater sea fortress, Carib, is in the Black Atlantic, 12 units north of the Cuban Wastes. It was equipped with 500 nuclear missiles, but abandoned after the war and is now used as a base of operations by Captain Skank's pirates.

The Hans Hass is a research vessel powered by solar sails.

The Justice Department has an Atlantic Division. Named Judges: Judge Lowely.

JUDGE DREDD
The Chief Judge transfers him to the Atlantic Division to find Captain Skank and/or Jenno Matryx.

OTHER CHARACTERS
CAPTAIN SKANK
Mutie pirate captain. His ship attacks the Hans Hass, he orders that the scientists are kept alive, but the sailors are thrown overboard. The scientists are taken to Carib. He believes that his mother is a sea monster. He kills two scientists to convince Matryx to build new warheads for him.

TUSKAROSA THE VICIOUS
Captain Skank's second in command. He has large tusk-like incisors.

JENNO MATRYX
A nuclear scientist. She is abducted by Captain Skank. He wants her to builds new nuclear warheads for him. She refuses until he feeds two scientists to his mother.

ARRESTS
None.

DEATHS
Maybe hundreds. Skank's men kill the crew of the Hans Hass in hand-to-hand combat and by throwing them into the poisonous waters of the Black Atlantic. Skank feeds Professor Dunston and Phil Einstein, the biologist, to this mother.

BEST LINES
Pirate (whilst throwing a crewman overboard): "Yo ho ho! Over they go!"

WORST LINES
Pirate: "Die, Lubbo!"

Although the Chief Judge's description of Matryx as a "Nuke Boffin" could be worse.

CATCHPHRASES
Skank says "Zzzz!" eleven times and both "Zzzzz!" and "Zzzzzzz!" once each. A Hans Hass seaman appeals to Grud. Deputy Chief Judge Pepper exclaims a "Drokk!"

CONTINUITY & CROSSOVERS
None.

INFLUENCES & REFERENCES
Hans Hass (1919–2013) is an Austrian biologist, diver, environmentalist, filmmaker of underwater documentaries and developer of the aqualung and a rebreather. "sixteen muties on a dead norm's chest..." obviously recalls 'Fifteen Men On The Dead Man's Chest', a sea shanty originally from Robert Louis Stevenson's 1883 novel Treasure Island.

MISTAKES
Skank is named as Skrank in one caption.

RETROSPECT
None.

NOTES
None.

CREDITS
Script: T.B. Grover
Artist: Ron Smith
Letters: Tom Frame

REVIEW
Dredd takes a backseat to the villain of the piece and Captain Skank is a fantastic character design.

Next Prog: Nuclear Skankin'!