Judge Dredd: 'Full Earth Crimes'

NAME
Judge Dredd: 'Full Earth Crimes'

FIRST PUBLISHED
2000 A.D. Prog 58

DATELINE
1 Apr 78

PAGE COUNT
6

REPRINTS
Judge Dredd (Volume 2) Issue 53, The Complete Judge Dredd 5, Judge Dredd Chronicles Book 2 and Judge Dredd The Complete Case Files 01.

SYNOPSIS
Luna-1 experiences a Full Earth and a resulting rise in crime.

FIRSTS & LASTS
Last strip set entirely on Luna-1, last appearance of Judge Che.

INFORMATION
(this strip takes place during the night of a full Earth, which corresponds to the same day that a new moon is seen from Earth. For the record, full Earths in 2100 would be either 10th Jan, 9th Feb, 10th Mar, 9th Apr, 9th May, 8th June, 7th July, 6th Aug, 4th Sept, 3rd Oct, 2nd Nov or either 1st or 30th Dec).

Some Luna-1 roads have minimum speed limits of 100 mph, people who drive below this are nicknamed Slowsters.

On Luna-1, littering the streets is an offence. The sentence for public nuisance is ninety days penal servitude. The penalty for attempting to obstruct justice is a fine of 2,000 credits (which can be doubled at the Judge's discretion). Driving under the speed limit is a crime and can result in a driving ban of 12 years.

The Justice Department have holding posts to handcuff offenders to for later retrieval. The Judge Marshal can cancel all leave at his discretion. Named Judges: Judge Mex.

Synthi-Broth is a foodstuff.

JUDGE MARSHAL DREDD
He is much busier during a Full Earth as crime levels rise.

OTHER CHARACTERS
RICHARD LUPIN
Dredd catches him driving at 95 mph in a 100 zone and bans him from driving until 2112.

JUDGE CHE
Uses a whip while on duty.

ARRESTS
At least fifteen. Dredd arrests one citizen for public nuisance and fines another for attempting to obstruct justice, but handcuffs them both to a holding post. He disarms a masked mugger and presumably arrests them. He breaks up an argument of at least eight people. He stops a graffiti artist at work (writing 'Dredd is a bow...', with the ending of the sentence obsured, what could he be accusing Dredd of?). Che and Dredd arrest a juve each for looting, while Mex arrests a third for assault and robbery. He also bans someone from driving for twelve years.

DEATHS
None.

BEST LINES
Citizen 1: "Boy! Judge Dredd must've got up on the wrong side of bed this morning."
Citizen 2: "No. he's always like that."

WORST LINES
Perp (after Dredd offers him a deal): "Gosh, okay! That's real square of you, Judge Dredd...I'm coming down."

CATCHPHRASES
Dredd calls one suicidal citizen a "Drokking leaper!" and exclaims a "Drokk it!". Judge Che calls one perp a muchacho. Judge Mex's accent is betrayed by his use of words like steenker and expec'. Walter says bwoth, cwipes, Dwedd, gwacious, gwim, pwoper, weady, west, stweets and stwict.

CONTINUITY & CROSSOVERS
A full moon was a plot point of the Judge Dredd strip Mugger's Moon.

INFLUENCES & REFERENCES
This strip asserts that crimes rises of Earth during a full moon, but this has been largely disproven.

MISTAKES
None.

RETROSPECT
None.

NOTES
None.

CREDITS
Script: John Howard
Artist: Brian Bolland (and Mike McMahon, uncredited)
Letters: Steve Potter

REVIEW
The change of artist after the first two pages is initially jarring, but adds to the phrenetic pace of this strip. Uncharacteristically for a Luna-1 strip, Dredd is in almost every panel which has a cumulative effect and makes his exhaustion all the more believable. A good end to Dredd's time as Judge Marshal.

Next Prog: Return To Mega-City!