Comicon Advent Calendar Day 3: Dredd’s Feeling The Christmas Spirit?
by Richard Bruton
Welcome to day 3 of the Comicon Advent Calendar, our festive treat to you – 24 days of comic Christmas goodies…
Today, we’re off to Mega-City One and Judge Dredd with O Little Town Of Bethlehem, written by Al Ewing and with art from Paul Marshall, colours by Gary Caldwell, and letters by Annie Parkhouse.
Appearing in 2000 AD Prog 2010, which is actually the 2009 Christmas Special and not the actual Prog 2010… it was confusing, yes, and thankfully 2000 AD have stopped doing that now, it’s a classic Dredd Christmas, meaning nastiness and a non-festive ending for all.
It all starts in the past, in glorious b&w, as thousands of citizens are protesting because the latest must-have toy, Little Juvie Jovus, complete with realistic blood bleeding through a choice of five stigmata wounds, is being deliberately kept back until Christmas Eve to drive up demand.
Dredd plays Santa of sorts, ordering the release of the dolls now, and at a reasonable price, much to the horror of the toy boss. But later that night, bad men, led by Mr Scentz, put a plan into action to steal the lot…
Now, the plan ends with the destruction of all the dolls (of course), a promise to return and kill Dredd, and a downbeat ending from Dredd… as you’d expect…
Except that’s not the end – flash forward several years and into colour and we have a real Christmas tale unfolding. A man, a woman, a the very last Little Juvie Jovus are headed into the little town of Bethlehem, out in the Cursed Earth… why, it would almost be biblical, if it wasn’t for the fact that the moron has stolen the very last Little Juvie Jovus and they’re looking for a place to lie low…
Yeah, how bad could it be?
Well, let’s see. You could be driving into a town where the only hotel in town has been taken over by the Justice Department as a temporary iso-cube. You could have Dredd and Rico in town as iso-cube guards. You could have a selection of muties in the stable prepping a ‘pantomime’ called ‘Plan For Killing Norms’. And you could have Mr Scentz finally looking to exact his revenge.
Yeah, that bad.
It ends pretty much as you’d expect, chaos, devastation, disaster, death… all of it brilliantly done with genuinely laugh out loud absurb stuff from Ewing and Marshall.
Yep, definitely the spirit of the season done 2000 AD style…
Yep, merry drokking Christmas one and all!
