Judge Dredd: The Mega-Rackets, Crime File: 2 - The Perp Runners, Part 1

NAME
Judge Dredd: The Mega-Rackets, Crime File: 2 - The Perp Runners, Part 1

FIRST PUBLISHED
2000 AD Featuring Judge Dredd Prog 211

DATELINE
9 May 81

This prog also featured Tharg's Future Shocks, Meltdown Man, Return To Armageddon and Strontium Dog, a pin up of Meltdown Man and a Judge Dredd cover by Ron Smith.

PAGE COUNT
6

REPRINTS
The Best of 2000AD 31, The Complete Judge Dredd 20, Judge Dredd's Crime Files 3, Judge Dredd Mega City Vice Book 2 and Judge Dredd The Complete Case Files 05.

SYNOPSIS
Dredd goes undercover in an attempt to find evidence of perp running and finds himself trafficked to another planet.

FIRSTS & LASTS
First time we see Dredd's face. Sort of.

INFORMATION
Mega-City One is home to at least 54 Meg-Pens for the incarceration of criminals. Perp Running is the illegal transportation of wanted criminals to a place of safety off planet.

A Flash '99 Selfcon Roadster is a car. Genuine velvet is very rare and velvet kneepads are quite the fashion statement. Raw Munce is notorious for its odour. Munce Gum is a foodstuff.

Driadus K is a planet some 36 hours away from Earth

JUDGE DREDD
He catches Slick Ike Kolorado littering and lets him off with a caution. Dredd has his face changed to assume the identity of John Julius Brown and claims to have escaped from Mega-Pen 54. He approaches Brown's known associate, Lanny, who puts him in touch with Kolorado's perp runners who smuggle him, alongside a group of perps, out of Mega-City One is a Raw Munce Tanker and aboard a spaceship waiting in the Cursed Earth. Dredd uses the ship communications to contact the Judges, but the perp runners' ship is much faster and the perps are trafficked to Driadus K, where they have been sold to alien slavers.

OTHER CHARACTERS
SLIK IKE KOLORADO
A Perp Runner. He is travels in a chauffeur-driven Flash '99 Selfcon Roadster. Judge Dredd catches him littering, but lets him off with a caution. He sells the perps he runs to alien slavers on Driadus K.

JOHN JULIUS BROWN
He is also known as Icepick Brown. He is currently serving thirty years in Mega-Pen 54 for multiple homicide. Known associate of Lanny. Dredd assumes his identity.

LANNY
A known associate of John Julius Brown.

ARRESTS
Dredd gives Kolorado a caution for littering.

DEATHS
None.

BEST LINES
Dredd: "You! Littering the streets is an offence - Pick it up!...Not your driver - you!"

WORST LINES
None.

CATCHPHRASES
None.

CONTINUITY & CROSSOVERS
None.

INFLUENCES & REFERENCES
None.

MISTAKES
None.

RETROSPECT
None.

NOTES
None.

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

REVIEW
It's good to see Dredd taking Kolorado to task over his littering, but the ensuing undercover-as-escaped-prisoner story comes a little out of nowhere. Kolorado was as guilty before the littering as after, but Dredd only takes an interest after it.

CHUMP DUMPING