Judge Dredd: The Cursed Earth, Chapter 15 – Picnic At Black Rock!

NAME
Judge Dredd: The Cursed Earth, Chapter 15 – Picnic At Black Rock!

FIRST PUBLISHED
2000 A.D. Prog 75

DATELINE
29 July 78

PAGE COUNT
6

REPRINTS
Judge Dredd 7, The Complete Judge Dredd 7, Judge Dredd Epics: The Cursed Earth, Judge Dredd Epics: The Cursed Earth 2, Judge Dredd Epics: The Collected Cursed Earth and Judge Dredd The Complete Case Files 02.

SYNOPSIS
Dredd and Spikes escape being eaten by Satanus.

FIRSTS & LASTS
First time that a story has reached fifteen parts.

INFORMATION
Repentance has a jailhouse and stages dinosaur claw fights.

War Robots programme number 3 is riot and heavy duty assault work and can be armed with flamethrowers.

JUDGE DREDD
He escapes being sacrificed to Satanus, cutting himself and Spikes free with a dinosaur tooth. He threatens to raze Repentance to the ground.

OTHER CHARACTERS
SPIKES 'HARVEY' ROTTEN
Dredd frees him from his bonds and Spikes throws his grenade earring at another Tyrannosaur. The explosion blows its head off and the rest of Tyrannosaur pack devour its body as Dredd and Spikes escape.

TWEAK
He is appalled by the people of Repentance enjoying dinosaur blood sports. He uses the Land-Raider to run them over.

JUDGE JACK
He is locked in the jailhouse and nearly eaten by Satanus.

SATANUS
He is known by the people of Repentance as his Satanic Majesty. He breaks into the jailhouse and eats several individuals incarcerated as future sacrifices.

ARRESTS
None.

DEATHS
At least nine. Red Zombie is killed by Little Hades in a claw fight. Spikes kills a Tyrannosaurus Rex with his grenade. Tweak runs down two at least two Repentance residents in the Land-Raider. Satanus eats at least five sacrifices.

BEST LINES
Spikes: "I hate to waste good jewellery-but...choke on this pineapple, Dino!"

WORST LINES
Repentance Resident: "Sieve 'em"

CATCHPHRASES
Tweak says Twark and Twurrrk, while Dredd says "By Stomm!" again.

CONTINUITY & CROSSOVERS
Spikes found his grenade in Chapter 4.

INFLUENCES & REFERENCES
The title is a combination of the novel Picnic At Hanging Rock (1967) and film Bad Day At Black Rock (1955).

MISTAKES
Spikes says "Whaddayknow...", but he probably means "Whaddyaknow...".

RETROSPECT
None.

NOTES
None.

CREDITS
Script: Pat Mills
Artist: Mike McMahon
Letters: T. Frame

REVIEW
After the last two chapters, the lack of flashback here is odd. This is brilliantly gory and it's nice to see Tweak being incorporated into the narrative.

Next Prog: Black Sabbath!