Talking Judge Dredd And ‘Tunnels’ With Rob Williams And RM Guera

You wouldn’t think there’d be much for a judge to police in the jungle but somehow Judge Dredd has wound up in one in writer Rob Williams and artist RM Guera‘s new strip, Tunnels. With colors by Giulia Brusco and letters by Annie Parkhouse, here’s what Williams and Guera had to share about Judge Dredd’s travels below:

Rachel Bellwoar: The opening panels for this strip feel straight out of a Werner Herzog movie. What appealed to you about dropping Judge Dredd in the jungle?

Rob Williams: We’ll definitely take the Herzog comparison. On our last Judge Dredd story together, RM Guera and I took Dredd to the Northern Radlands — basically Canada — for a snow-set storyline that stripped away all the tech from Dredd’s world and pitted him against something that doesn’t give a shit about human laws — nature. It felt a fun thematic booked to start Dredd on this new story in the jungle. Then our story goes off in some other directions … straight into the concrete jungle city of Ciudad Barranquilla (Dredd’s version of Rio) for a start.

RM Guera: Quite nice being compared to Herzog, thanks! Well, we just wanted to make our version different, I suppose. Besides both of us being in accordance that Dredd offers this kind of adventure that somehow was never explored. Good premise to jump in.

Bellwoar: Before he winds up in the jungle, he’s in 2000 AD‘s version of a city in South America. Is it fun getting to have Dredd be the odd man out in a team of judges that don’t kowtow to him or speak English like he thinks they should?

Guera: Well he’s such a character, in all aspects of the theme. Over the phone Rob gave me a really fantastic 20-minute cut into Joe’s mind. Pity it wasn’t recorded, really. So I was hooked, inspired over anything that could happen. It’s a claustrophobic scene, as is the eventual exotic part of his path. I’m somehow inclined to drawing ambiance.

Williams: I wanted to open with an action sequence and the claustrophobia of having Dredd be in an armoured car, stuck in traffic, when an attack on the armoured car happens — so there’s nowhere to run, they are trapped. Oh, and the confusion of being in that armoured car with a few Brazillian Judges who aren’t speaking English. The action then speaks for itself. It turns into a firefight and trying to get out of a very bad situation.

Bellwoar: You certainly haven’t scrimped on the claustrophobia of these city streets. What’s it like having to pull off action sequences in such cramped spaces?

Williams: Well, it helps when you have an artist who’s an absolute master at the comics form. I feel enormously lucky to get to work with Guera. He’s just superb at creating visceral action, detail, movement on the page but never losing the sense of character. When I wrote Petrol Head for Image Comics it really struck me that if you’re doing a cinematic action sequence on the page, you burn through comic panels fast. And in 2000AD we tell stories in 6-page chapters. So, there is zero meat on the bone. Everything has to be lean and mean. Some artists would struggle with that. Guera makes it sing.

Guera: Well, Rob is as gallant as always. To me, it’s easy to try to give justice to a good script. I’m definitely not just returning kindness here; Rob’s scripts have storytelling rhythm that makes sense to me. He cares about it. Also, I’ve been working for decades on comics, one instantly can spot if the script writer minds who he writes to. Rob’s work with me has this side in spades, really.

Bellwoar: One thing that doesn’t appear in part one is any tunnels. Can you speak at all on what the title of this strip means?

Williams: To paraphrase David Lynch when asked to elaborate on the sense of spirituality in Eraserhead: “No.” It’s a title that has a couple of meanings, and there will be tunnels by the end of our story, as you’ll see. This is Dredd on a manhunt to track down someone who did a terrible crime. It takes him, and us, to some unexpected places.

Guera: By the end it is covered, but it is for a reader to accept it in their own way.

Bellwoar: Tunnels is a reunion of the same creative team that worked on Rend & Tear With Tooth & Claw. What have you enjoyed the most about collaborating again?

Guera: Everything. To me, Rob’s approach makes so much sense. I understand it instantly. And he willingly gives you space, lets you develop; we’d sometimes even change or rearrange the action. Rob adapts and joins you in a way which doesn’t happen that often. I just enjoy it, and I really hope it eventually shows how much.

Williams: Oh, it’s a complete fucking joy, getting Guera pages in your inbox. It’s one of the things I enjoy most about writing comics – seeing what an artist has done with my script and marvelling at how good they’ve made it. Guera and I have some similar influences, especially on a story like this. 

We’re going to things like Peckinpah movies, Larry McMurty’s Lonesome Dove, to name just a few. When we were talking this story through he told me I had to watch a western called Ulzana’s Raid written by Alan Sharp, and he was right. This is a western, really. Just a futuristic one. Guera’s very influenced by cinema and I think the older I get my comic scripts are the same. So when he hits a particular bit of lighting, a shadow falling on a character, a beam of light breaking the jungle like it’s god’s pure justice. It’s all adding a visual language to my script that just gives it all layers.

And in Giulia Brusco we have an amazing colourist who has worked with Guera for years and knows exactly what’s best to get the most from his pages. This really is an extraordinary-looking comic.

Bellwoar: Thanks for agreeing to this interview, Rob and RM!

Tunnels starts as of Wednesday, July 2nd, in 2000 AD Prog 2439.