Judge Dredd: 'A Tale From Walter's Scwapbook', Part 1

NAME
Judge Dredd: 'A Tale From Walter's Scwapbook' 1

FIRST PUBLISHED
2000 A.D. and Starlord Prog 119

DATELINE
30 June 79

This prog also featured Dan Dare, the debut of ABC Warriors, Disaster 1990 and Project Overkill alongside cut-out-and-keep Ro-Jaws And Hammerstein's Book Of Robots and James Bond cover by Dan Gouzee.

PAGE COUNT
6

REPRINTS
The Complete Judge Dredd 11, Judge Dredd 26, Judge Dredd (Volume 2) 45, The Best Of 2000AD 49 and Judge Dredd The Complete Case Files 03.

SYNOPSIS
Walter recounts the story of how Dredd put him in prison.

FIRSTS & LASTS
First story told almost entirely in flashback.

INFORMATION
(The flashback scenes are set in 2099, "not long after" the Robot Wars)

An attempt to rob Mega-City One's Credit Bank was made in 2099. New Sing-Sing is a prison.

Synthi-Veg are synthetic vegetables.

Robot laws are very strict. A free robot would face the same penalty as a human. Lawmaster bike cannons can be set to a narrow beam and continuous fire. Named Judges: Judge Mason

JUDGE DREDD
In 2099, not long after the Robot Wars he dealt with a hostage situation. He had his name written on the back of his Lawmaster. Despite his assistance, he sentences Walter to a month in prison for striking a human.

OTHER CHARACTERS
WALTER THE WOBOT
He is something of a celebrity among Robots. He is unpaid. He has sewn Dredd's name into all his clothes. Every Monday, he visits the local hyper-laundry to them. He keeps a scrapbook. Not long after the Robot War of 2099, Walter spent a month in prison after he attended a hostage situation that Dredd was dealing with and delivered the Judge a meal. Walter insists that Dredd eats it. He throws the Judge's dessert into the face of a gunman threatening to kill Dredd. The Judge sentences him to a month in New Sing-Sing prison.

BUCK
Walter's cell-mate. Dredd arrested him.

ARRESTS
Dredd gives the hostage takers long sentences and arrests Walter for striking a human, putting him in prison for a month.

DEATHS
One. A hostage is shot dead from within the bank.

BEST LINES
Walter: "As Walter wemember, there was a wobbewy at the Cwedit Bank that day. Judge Dwedd had twapped the cwooks inside-"

WORST LINES
Dredd: "It's time I got tough with these murderers!"

CATCHPHRASES
Dredd says "Drokk it", while Walter says awwested, bwain, bwing, bwought, contwawy, cweam, cwedit, cwipes, cwime, cwiticise, cwooks, dwoid, Dw-, Dwedd, fwee, fweedom, fwiendly, gweasy, gweat, hewo, Mawia, nutwition, photogwaph, pway, pwepare, pwepared, pwetty, pwintout, pwison, pwoper, pwoud, pwovide, scwapbook, scwapes, stwaight, stwength, thwoo, twapped, twue, vewy, weady, weleased, wemember, wespect, west, wight, woared, wobbewy, woboservants, wobot and wuff.

CONTINUITY & CROSSOVERS
Walter's Scwapbook contains photo of him being awarded his freedom in Robot Wars .

INFLUENCES & REFERENCES
Unknown.

MISTAKES
Walter mis-spells Dessert as Desert on his screen.

RETROSPECT
None.

NOTES
None.

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

REVIEW
It's a nice little story, but more suited to Walter's own strip. The use of flashback is nice, but it's not clear why this story is set in 2099 rather than simply last week and Walter's narration soon gets tiresome. The art is great and Walter saves the day in a way that doesn't seem too contrived. The use of the phrase "hyper-laundry" in the first panel, somewhat undermines the bombastic "Judge Dredd Hyper-Cop!" banner above it.

Next Prog: The Forever Crimes!