Futuregraph: Mega-City 1

What's this? It's only the fourth ever post and already I've given up on comic strips? No, not at all.

NAME
Futuregraph: Mega-City 1

FIRST PUBLISHED
2000 A.D. Programme 3

DATELINE
12 Mar 77

PAGE COUNT
1

REPRINTS
Judge Dredd Annual 1981 and Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 01 as part of Bank Raid (see NOTES below)

SYNOPSIS
Judge Dredd patrols Mega-City 1 and reminds its citizens that he is the law.

FIRSTS & LASTS
Last use of recycling from Bank Raid.

INFORMATION
The year is 2099 A.D.

Mega-City 1 spreads across the Eastern Seaboard from what what was once Montreal in the North, to what was once Georgia in the south. It has a population of 100,000,000 people. The city is watched by cameras labelled Police Scan.

The United States of the West (USW) is apparently a nation state which neighbours Mega-City 1.

JUDGE DREDD
Dredd is on a clean up patrol.

OTHER CHARACTERS
None.

ARRESTS
None.

DEATHS
None.

BEST LINES
Dredd: "I am the law and you'd better believe it!" (It's nearly verbatim the slogan from the preview in Prog 1)

WORST LINES
"We really flipped over this city of the future and we know you will too."

CATCHPHRASES
Dredd says "I am the law" for the first time.

CONTINUITY & CROSSOVERS
Strictly speaking this is the first spinoff from the Judge Dredd comic strip.

INFLUENCES & REFERENCES
Unknown.

MISTAKES
None.

RETROSPECT
Where 'Judge Whitey' showed us a New York City that had outgrown the Empire State Building, this is the first real glimpse of the enormous scale of Mega-City 1 and informs the look of the city for years to come.

NOTES
This is a coloured version of the last page of Bank Raid.

CREDITS
There are no credits printed in the strip itself and so the following is taken from Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 01.

Artist: Carlos Ezquerra

Carlos Ezquerra helped design, create and eventually drew loads of Judge Dredd as well as Strontium Dog, Rick Random, ABC Warriors, The Stainless Steel Rat, Fiends Of The Eastern Front, Anderson: Psi Division, Durham Red, Al's Baby, Armageddon, The Scarlet Apocrypha, Cursed Earth Koburn. He also drew 94 covers for 2000 AD and 13 more for the Megazine. Elsewhere he has drawn Rat Pack and Major Eazy for Battle Picture Weekly in addition to the likes of Bob, The Galactic Bum, Hitman, Preacher, Star Wars: Mara Jade - By The Emperor's Hand, Just A Pilgrim, Third World War, Battlefields and the amazingly named "Operation Bollock".


REVIEW

This isn't a comic strip at all yet this picture is more significant than it might initially seem: the relocation of Dredd from New York to Mega-City 1 and the first information about the vastness of the city. The original black and white line art from 'Bank Raid' (left), is however far more impressive than this coloured version.

Take Another Pic-Trip Into Your Future In 2000 A.D. Next Week!

(Next week is still in your future. I'll be back tomorrow.)