Review: ‘Essential Judge Anderson: Childhood’s End’ — More Essential Alan Grant Anderson

Previously, we’ve had essential reading about Psi-Judge Cassandra Anderson in Volume 1, Shamballa, and Volume 2, Satan, both collecting the works of Alan Grant and Arthur Ranson, just the best of the best of the Anderson tales, really taking the character further than anything before. You can read more of that in my reviews of volume 1 here, including why there’s so much to be said for the smaller-scale tales in the volume that give it so much depth, and volume 2 here.

Now, we’re onto volume 3. Now, I had intended to just give you a preview of the volume, but, just as with the previous volumes, doing a preview led to re-reading the tales for the first time in quite a while. And oh, it was just the most wonderful experience, reconnecting with the stories, and most importantly, realising, once more, that Alan Grant was one of the finest writers ever to come out of British comics. So, the preview grew and grew, until it turned into this review. Hey, you’ve just got to try and share brilliance when you read it.

These Essential Judge Anderson volumes are all about Anderson’s solo tales. All the major Dredd tales featuring Anderson are covered in the Essential Judge Dredd volumes after all. But it’s in these Anderson solo tales where Grant truly shone as the writer who could get the absolute best out of the character. Truly, no one has ever written Anderson as well as Grant wrote Anderson. He not only gave us action-packed thrillers, but went far, far deeper into her head to give us stories that went far beyond the norm, into the metaphysical, into worlds of wonder, all while having Anderson face her own demons, question her role in this world, the irreverent liberal free-thinker who was part of a fascist Justice Department. And that dichotomy was what made Grant writing Anderson so special, just as you’ll find here in Childhood’s End.

So, here in volume 3, Childhood’s End, we’re again exploring what it means to be a Psi, how the burden of seeing the world in so much more depth than your average Judge weighs heavy.

Here, we’re taken to Mars, Anderson leading a party of explorers from across her world, scholars here on another planet, where they’re soon coming face-to-face with the notion that there was an alien civilisation here once, not only predating any human life on Earth, but a civilisation that walked the Earth as Gods, and may well have kickstarted the evolution of mankind. Yep, Grant rarely shied away from the big themes with Anderson, and this was no exception.

But that civilisation disappeared 10,000 years ago. so why has what they left behind been activated now? Well, that’s just what Anderson and her team are here to attempt to find out. It’s just that her crew are all too soon dead and dying, and a threat from the past is back to stake a claim to the unknown wonders of that alien civilisation.

Childhood’s End is just the perfect example of how good Grant was at mixing that depth with so much more. Yes, it’s an absolute page-turner of a story, a real thriller from the off, Grant on his finest form, but there’s so much behind it all, so many big questions to be posed. A sense of something primal, something huge, far bigger than the petty fights that Anderson has to go through to get to the point where it’s Anderson and one rather surprising comrade-in-arms standing in front of humanity’s possible creators. They’re none too pleased with how their creation has turned out – like parents showing their disappointment in their children.

Sure, the earlier pages by Kev Walker might be a little overdone, the storytelling somewhat fractured, but it soon picks up as Walker gets into his rhythm.

So, yes, part page-turner thriller, part mystical reckoning of the origins of life on Earth, Childhood’s End is a classic Grant Anderson, tales that reach into the heart and soul of Anderson’s character, tales that make her, make us, question our existence, as we watch Anderson attempt to defeat the Gods that made her, made us.

Of course, following that, anything would feel somewhat slight, and so it is. The remainder of the tales in here suffer in reflection of the enormity of what we’ve just read in Childhood’s End. That isn’t to say, of course, that the remainder of these Grant-written tales of Anderson aren’t rather good. Of course they are. It’s just they lack the scale of what we’ve just read.

What you need to do, what I did, was put this volume aside for a couple of days after reading Childhood’s End. And then, coming back to it and reading the remainder gave the rest of the tales that distance that was needed. you do it that way, and you’re free to simply enjoy the other four Grant-written tales in this volume for what they are, a writer with a love for the character, a character that’s never been written better than when Grant is at the helm.

First up, we have Big Robots, with art by Dave Taylor. It’s both fitting and sad to read it again now, in the weeks after Taylor’s death, a tale he pitched to Grant just as he was settling in to working at 2000 AD, the place he’d find new artistic freedom and once more find the joy of doing what he did.

Big Robots is a great Anderson tale, wonderfully ridiculous, as so many of the best Dreddworld tales are. A tale of Mega-City One Blocks that come alive and go on the rampage, leading to a perfectly silly Kaiju battle to end all Kaiju battles. And oh, it looks just gorgeous, Taylor doing these huge cityscapes that are just incredible, not to mention a wonderful-looking Anderson.

After that, we have a trio of Anderson and Judge Death tales, A Dream of Death, with art by David Roach, followed by Death’s Dark Angel and Judge Death: The Movie with art by Jake Lynch. All previously uncollected, all one-and-done things, with Anderson and her old nemesis of 40 years and counting coming face-to-face once more. Three little tales, perhaps, but three tales full of all that was so good about Grant’s writing, a solid construction, a knowing wink of the absurdity of it all, and a damn good read. And with Roach and Lynch, we have two excellent artists, very different in style, of course, but both of them bringing something special to these stories.

So, in summary, just as with the first and second Essential Anderson volumes, this is a volume where we get to enjoy Grant’s character-defining Anderson tales. Damn, it’s so good. Raise a glass to both Alan Grant and Dave Taylor, both lost to comics, but be thankful that we have their works to remind us of the talent we’ve lost.

ESSENTIAL JUDGE ANDERSON: CHILDHOOD’S END – WRITTEN BY ALAN GRANT, ART BY KEV WALKER, DAVE TAYLOR, DAVID ROACH, JAKE LYNCH. COVER BY TULA LOTAY

ORIGINALLY SERIALISED AS…

CHILDHOOD’S END –BY ALAN GRANT, KEV WALKER, LETTERS BY STEVE POTTER – JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE 2.27-2.34

BIG ROBOTS – BY ALAN GRANT, DAVE TAYLOR, LETTERS BY ELLIE DE VILLE – JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE 257-264

A DREAM OF DEATH – BY ALAN GRANT, DAVID ROACH, LETTERS BY SIMON BOWLAND – 2000 AD PROG 2000

DEATH’S DARK ANGELS – BY ALAN GRANT, JAKE LYNCH, LETTERS BY SIMON BOWLAND – 2000 AD PROG 2100

JUDGE DEATH: THE MOVIE – BY ALAN GRANT, JAKE LYNCH, COLOURS BY JIM BOSWELL, LETTERS BY SIMON BOWLAND – 2000 AD PROG 2150