Preview: Dredd & One-Eyed Jack Bring The Action Across Time In ‘One-Eyed Jacks’

by Richard Bruton

Gritty ’70s New York cop Jack McBane, One-Eyed Jack, meets (sort of) the lawman of the future in Judge Dredd. It’s a cross-time caper for the ages….

Cover by Laurence Campbell and Quinton Winter

Two tales in here, both written by Ken Niemand, who’s rather making a thing lately of doing these special crossover things, not to mention a line of very good Dredds in themselves.

Here, it’s the return of the John Wagner and John Cooper creation, One-Eyed Jack/Jack McBane, who had a short-lived run in the Brit comic Valiant from 1975-1976. He’s the epitome of Dirty Harry-style tough, uncompromising New York street detective.

Lead-off tale, ‘One-Eyed Jacks‘, starts off with Dredd and Rico investigating a strange link between Mega-City One and 1970s NewYork City, when antique items from centuries past appear in the Big Meg…

Meanwhile, back in 1970s New York, Jack McBane is breaking down doors, leading to a couple of vics in the latest in a weird set of killings where they’ve got ID from some place called Mega-City One…

And then there’s the mystery of the undercover cop with the very familiar name – Eartha Fargo.

Yes, Fargo. Same name as Chief Judge Fargo, ‘clone father’ of Dredd and the other Fargo clones. Why, you don’t think… well, I couldn’t possibly say.

If you’ve already read this one and rather enjoyed it for the great mix of action and intrigue that Niemand puts into it, you’ll know just how Eartha fits in. If not, well, I’m not one to spoiler it for you.

And finally, as a link to the ’70s New York of One-Eyed Jack and Dredd and Rico’s investigations in MC-1, we’ve got Anton Molok, psi-terrorist. He hasn’t let a little thing like being dead in Dredd’s time stop him plotting and planning to get back to the ’70s.

Two timeframes, a groovy cross-time caper thing going on, two linked tales, plenty of mystery, and a delve into the past of the legend of Mega-City One. That’s what you get in One-Eyed Jacks. And bloody good it is too. Both Richardson and McKeown got the art just right, delivering on both future MC-1 and gritty ’70s NYC.

The second tale, ‘New York’s Finest’, takes place purely in the ’70s, Niemand knowing he had two great characters in McBane and Fargo. Thing is, given the events of One-Eyed Jacks, Fargo’s back home, Jaxville, 1977, two years after One-Eyed Jacks. She’s been policing the backwaters down here, dealing with the racists and the crooks, bringing up her babies, home with her ma and pa.

But New York and Jack McBane just won’t leave her alone. McBane’s got himself in a heap of trouble that’s landed him in Rikers, but he’s broken out, claiming the murder he’s accused of is a high-level frame job. And wouldn’t you know it, there’s only one cop out there he trusts.

So, we get McBane and Fargo back together, this time up against the big boys with the real power, good old-fashioned corruption running all the way up the chain to the monied families who treat politics as their playground, doing what they want to whom they want. But McBane’s got history with them, and Fargo, well, let’s just say she’s more than capable of being the bad-ass.

Again, a great tale, laced with a little weirdness along the way, just enough to keep us guessing, not to mention setting up, I’d hope, future Fargo & McBane tales. As for Anna Readman’s art, well, you couldn’t get further from the polish and sheen of Richardson and McKeown in that first tale in this one, but it works just perfectly, Readman does the grimy and nasty streets of 70s NYC with perfect style, and her very different art suits the very different setting of this second tlae down to the ground.

One-Eyed Jacks the collection gives you plenty of Dreddworld action, but more than that it gives you history and violence with McBane and Fargo. Like I say, hugely enjoyable stuff.

ONE EYED JACKS – WRITTEN BY KEN NIEMAND, ART BY IAN RICHARDSON, KIERAN McKEOWN, ANNA READMAN. COLOURS BY QUINTON WINTER, LETTERS BY ANNIE PARKHOUSE. COVER BY LAURENCE CAMPBELL AND QUINTON WINTER

JUDGE DREDD CREATED BY JOHN WAGNER AND CARLOS EZQUERRA. JACK McBANE CREATED BY JOHN WAGNER AND JOHN COOPER

PUBLISHED BY 2000 AD ON 10 SEPTEMBER 2025

ORIGINALLY SERIALISED IN JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE 452-457 & 473-478

Now, a preview for you…

First, something from One Eyed Jacks episode 1 – art by Ian Richardson….