Preview: ‘Essential Judge Dredd: Tour Of Duty Book One’ — Dredd Takes On The MC-1 Anti-Mutie Laws

by Richard Bruton

Coming out in January, the first part of a modern classic Dredd, Tour Of Duty, with the lawman taking on his city over Mutant rights.

The first of the Essential Dredd volumes to be split over two volumes, Tour Of Duty really is one of John Wagner’s finest pieces of storytelling. Hard-hitting, politically relevant, it’s definitely justified in getting this Essential treatment.

In Origins, Dredd uncovered a mutant branch of his clone family – leading him to think a little deeper about just how the Justice Department has treated the innocents whose fates across the generations were shaped by the legacy of the Atomic Wars.

But, in a Mega-City One where Mutants are forbidden entry to Mega-City One and shipped off to facilities and townships in the Cursed Earth, it’s not going to be an easy course to even begin to address the issue. This is Dredd though and, once his mind is made up, he’s all in for change. But this sort of political and societal change doesn’t come without struggle.

First coming out in 2007, the stories that make up this first Tour of Duty collection are a fine example of how Wagner’s writing has changed and evolved over the years. Always political and socially relevant, by the time of these tales, his writing on the character had changed, he was no longer the sole writer (or sole co-writer with Alan Grant). And this led to breaks in his work, breaks that he’d utilise to inform what the next tale was, breaks that would allow him to really build the stories into huge things.

And so it is here, Wagner so effectively using the multiple storylines to create something far bigger, far more influential and important than done as one 10 or 12-parter.

Indeed, the actual Tour of Duty storyline, a mere six parts, doesn’t come until book two of this one. But it’s the build up here that makes this so great. It’s all part of the sort of social commentary that Wagner’s Dredds are all about, part of what makes them , so… well, essential.

And of course, there’s a fine number of artists here, but the one doing the really heavy lifting is Colin MacNeil, really coming into the style that make him one of the truly great Dredd artists in the history of 2000 AD.

ESSENTIAL JUDGE DREDD: TOUR OF DUTY BOOK ONE

Written by John Wagner

Art by Colin MacNeil, Rufus Dayglo, Patrick Goddard, Nick Dyer, Lee Townsend, and Kev Walker

Colours by Chris Blythe

Letters by Annie Parkhouse.

Published by 2000 AD on 2 January 2024.

Contains the stories…

The Streets of Dan Francisco, art by Rufus Dayglo (Prog 1520)
Fifty-Year Man, art by Patrick Goddard (Prog 1536)
Mutants in Mega-City One, art by Colin MacNeil (Progs 1542-1545)
The Facility, art by Colin MacNeil (Prog 1546)
The Secret of Mutant Camp 5, art by Colin MacNeil (Progs 1547-1548)
The Spirit of Christmas, art by Colin MacNeil (Prog 2008 Christmas Mega-Special)
Emphatically Evil: The Life And Crimes Of PJ Maybe, art by Colin MacNeil (Progs 1569-1575)
…Regrets, art by Nick Dyer (Progs 1577-1581)
The Edgar Case, art by Patrick Goddard (Progs 1589-1595)
Mutie Block, art by Kev Walker (Progs 1600-1603)