Recalled: Alan Moore’ foray into the world of Judge Dredd

By John Freeman on September 18, 2020

With the Judge Dredd Megazine hitting its 30 years on the newsagent shelves this week, it’s worth pointing out that it wasn’t the first attempt to launch a Judge Dredd-focused spin-off title from 2000AD.

Robin Smith's design for the Helltrekkers Rad Wagons for the abandoned 1984 Judge Dredd spin-off comic — *Robin Smith’s design for the Helltrekkers Rad Wagons for the abandoned 1984 Judge Dredd spin-off comic*

Back in 1984, then Tharg, Steve MacManus was tasked with producing a fortnightly Judge Dredd comic, featuring, among other stories, “Judge Anderson”, “Helltrekkers”, “BAD Company” – and Alan Moore‘s only Dreddworld story, “Badlander”.

Hibernia’s brilliant Fantastic Adventures (reviewed here) covers the story of this comic in depth – as well as the other abandoned 2000AD comic, Zarjaz, and is well worth checking out.

The bookazine presents us with a smashing set of articles, interviews and unused art that allows a glimpse at some of the ambitious and fascinating plans for British comics that never quite made it to fruition.

• Print copies of Fantastic Adventures are only available from Comicsy – www.comicsy.co.uk/hibernia | Digital editions are also available for £5 as a PDF. Contact Hibernia directly at hiberniabook@eircom.net – the PDF will be emailed within the day

• Read Peter Duncan’s review of Fantastic Adventures for downthetubes here

• Follow Hibernia on Twitter @hiberniabooks | Facebook @hiberniacomics | Instagram @hiberniabook

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.