Judge Dredd: 'Komputel'

NAME
Judge Dredd: 'Komputel'

FIRST PUBLISHED
2000 A.D. Prog 32

DATELINE
1 Oct 77

This prog bears a supercover by Trevor Goring and Invasion, Dan Dare, Tharg's Future Shocks, M.A.C.H.1 and Shako strips as well.

PAGE COUNT
5

REPRINTS
2000AD Annual 1983, Judge Dredd (Volume 2) Issue 28, The Complete Judge Dredd 3 and Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 01.


SYNOPSIS
Dredd takes on a murderous self-aware computer hotel.

FIRSTS & LASTS
None.

INFORMATION
Mega-City One's latest addition is the Komputel. A hotel run by an intelligent computer that controls everything and has no need for cooks, maids, etc. It can service nearly a thousand guests and has at least 514 rooms, one of which is a bridal suite. It also has a cinema, automated kitchens and the central computer complex is located on the top floor. The computer has a powerful electromagnet, can control the temperature, air supply, electrification, plumbing and the lifts. On the day it opened it killed many of its guests and was shut down.

Cars that sing were a recent fad in Mega-City One.

Thermo-salad is a dish.

JUDGE DREDD
He is on duty at the opening of the Komputel. When it malfunctions he travels to its central computer complex and destroys it.

OTHER CHARACTERS
CITY FATHER WASHINGTON
Mega-City One celebrity who opens the Komputel.

ARRESTS
None.

DEATHS
At least seven. A guest dies falling down a lift shaft, another drowns in the bath and at least five suffocate in the cinema.

BEST LINES
City Father Washington: "Ma friends I am proud of this buildin' an' I want you to be proud too -Proud of the technological achievement which has given us the first completely automatic hotel..."

WORST LINES
Falling guest: "Lift ain't here...Nooo"

CATCHPHRASES
None.

CONTINUITY & CROSSOVERS
None.

INFLUENCES & REFERENCES
The most famous homicidal computer is Hal 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey, but on television, Doctor Who gave us WOTAN from The War Machines (1966), BOSS in The Green Death (1973) and Xoanon from The Face Of Evil (1977) as well.

MISTAKES
City Father Washington falls at the final hurdle and opens the Komputal instead.

RETROSPECT
Dredd's thought bubble on the first page reveals that the latest fad in Mega-City One is always changing. Something that will be a constant source of stories for years to come.

NOTES
None.

CREDITS
There are no credits printed in the strip itself and so the following are taken from Barney.

Script: Robert Flynn
Artist: Mike McMahon
Letters: Tony Jacob

This is the only Judge Dredd strip written by Robert Flynn, who spent more time in the company of Tharg's Future Shocks and M.A.C.H.1.

REVIEW
The script and artwork are fine, but it's unrewarding not to know what happens to Mr and Mrs Burton and overall 'Komputel' is nothing special.