Judge Dredd: 'Sob Story', Part 2

NAME
Judge Dredd: 'Sob Story', Part 2

FIRST PUBLISHED
2000 A.D. and Tornado Prog 132

DATELINE
29 Sep 79

This prog also featured ABC Warriors, Disaster 1990, Blackhawk and The Mind Of Wolfie Smith strips and a ABC Warriors cover by Mike McMahon.

PAGE COUNT
6

REPRINTS
The Best Of 2000AD 5, Judge Dredd Classics 68, The Complete Judge Dredd 12, Judge Dredd Chronicles Book 3, Judge Dredd 17, Judge Dredd Paperbacks vs Otto Sump and Judge Dredd The Complete Case Files 03.

SYNOPSIS
Dredd uses Otto Sump to set a trap for the perps robbing Sob Story contestants.

FIRSTS & LASTS
First appearance of Otto Sump.

INFORMATION
(This strip takes place over the course of the week that follows Part 1)

In Mega-City One, there are mail collection points for Mo-Pads. The sewage department employs rat-scarers.

Forty-One successful Sob Story contestants have been murdered.

Prisons are staffed by droids.

JUDGE DREDD
He uses Otto Sump to set a trap for the perps robbing and murdering the Sob Story contestants. He hides in Sump's mo-pad and reveals himself when the perps attack. He kills all three.

OTHER CHARACTERS
OTTO SUMP
Dredd identifies him as the worst hard-luck case on record and enters him as a contestant for Sob Story. On the show, Sump claims to have been abandoned by his mother on the steps of a face-change clinic, to have had eight face changes and to have worked as a rat-scarer for the sewage department. He lives in a mo-pad which after his appearance of Sob Story, he labels 'As Seen On TV'. He is targeted by someone purporting to be a face-change specialist.

JOHHNY TEARJERKER
He is liable for the pending lawsuits of the 41 Sob Story contestants' families pleads to the viewers for financial assistance.

CHIEF JUDGE GRIFFIN
Otto Sump's story nearly moves him to tears.

ARRESTS
None.

DEATHS
Three. Dredd kills the three perps preying on Sob Story contestants and we discover that they have killed forty-one.

BEST LINES
'Dr. Benson': "I've done over forty of these little operations, Otto . When I'm finished with you you'll be just like Rudolph Valentino..."
Otto Sump: "Just like Rudolph Valentino! You mean - tall, dark and handsome?"
'Dr. Benson': "No - I mean dead!"

Otto Sump: "Heck, Judge, wish you'd waited till they'd changed my face before you conked 'em!"

WORST LINES
Dredd: "You call tell your sob stories to the prison droids!"
Perp: "That's what you think!"
Dredd: "That's what I know, Creep!"

CATCHPHRASES
None.

CONTINUITY & CROSSOVERS
None.

INFLUENCES & REFERENCES
Rudolph Valentino (1895-1926), was an Italian actor who starred in silent films including The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse (1921), The Sheik (1921), Blood And Sand (1922), The Eagle (1925) & The Son Of The Sheik (1926).

MISTAKES
None.

RETROSPECT
None.

NOTES
None.

CREDITS
Script: John Howard
Artist: Ron Smith
Letters: Tom Frame

REVIEW
Fantastic. Reality TV and the rocky road of fleeting fame are dealt with masterfully and Otto Sump is a magnificent character design. Although, it does beg the question: how long does Dredd hide in Sump's closet for?