The Weekly 2000 AD Prog #2467: Meet Psi-Judge Dee — A Judge With A Big Purple Tentacled Secret

Taking a look inside the UK’s greatest sci-fi comic, the Galaxy’s Greatest, fast approaching 50 years of brilliance — it’s the Weekly 2000 AD.

Okay then, 2026, the 49th year of 2000 AD, which has been Britain’s best sci-fi anthology since 1977. Actually, strike that, over those years, I reckon 2000 AD has set the high bar for sci-fi anthologies.

So, three continuing and two new strips make up this week’s five strips in here. The continuing are John Wagner and Mike Perkins on ‘Death of a Judge’, possibly Wagner’s very last Dredd, followed by more Herne & Shuck, as David Barnett and Lee Milmore delve further into ancient magics and gods brought into the here and now, and The Discarded, where Peter Milligan and Kieran McKeown continue their tale of Britain’s prison camp waste dump. As for the new strip, that’s Psi-Judge Dee, written by the filmmaker Ben Wheatley and drawn by Simon Coleby, a tale of a Psi-Judge and her demon, one that looks like it could be damn good. And then there’s the latest Tharg’s 3Rillers tale, the three-part format strips that often serve as intros to new long-form series. This one’s ‘Money Shot’ by Kek-W and Rob Richardson.

So, five strips, all making up another week of the finest in sci-fi anthologies, all kicking off under a Simon Davis cover…

2000 AD Prog 2467 came out in the UK on 28th January. How is it already the end of January? Bloody hell. As is usual by now, I’m late with this, but not too late — does that count? I can’t use the excuse of the hideous head cold that beset Bruton Mansions, NV, for the last three weeks, as that damn virus has finally passed us by. Let’s just say mysterious (and frankly boring) reasons and leave it at that. Now, for the last several months, since all the issues with Diamond Comics Distributors went out of business, it’s not been possible to get physical copies of 2000 AD outside the fair shores of Britain. It’s still not possible, but the recent deal with Lunar Distribution that was announced should, hopefully, fix that. They’ve already announced they’ll be distributing the monthly Judge Dredd Megazine, surely they’ll be doing the same with the weekly Prog as well? Soon?

okay then, time to head inside the Prog … and it’s a good one…

Judge Dredd: Death of a Judge – Part 4 – By John Wagner, Mike Perkins, Chris Blythe and Annie Parkhouse

Page 1 and 2. Dredd is a bastard. A heartless, nasty, unfeeling bastard who puts the rule of law in this fascist state of Mega-City One above all things. And in this case, that means brutally executing a father and shipping the mother to the cubes to rot, all in front of their son. And what does Dredd say to the poor, innocent kid? Well, ‘Take it as a lesson, kid.’ Yeah, utter bastard.

Oh yes, there are way too many ‘fans’ out there who consider Dredd some sort of hero. But Wagner knows he’s not. Wagner knows he’s a nasty piece of work, propping up a regime where freedom is a dream and democracy died so many years ago. But the way he reminds you of it there, just in those first couple of pages of this one — absolute brilliance.

Anyway, that’s all taking place many years ago. It doesn’t take all that much of a leap to go to that kid being the one behind this latest targeting of Dredd for death. And no, that doesn’t spoil any surprise at all, that’s not the sort of story ‘Death of a Judge’ is. It’s not a whodunnit, it’s a perfectly constructed procedural, the sort of thing that Wagner excels at. And if this is, as Wagner says it may well be, the last Dredd tale the greatest Dredd writer there’s ever been, well, it’s a fine way to go. In fact, it’s the completely correct way to go. Sure, he’s done the massive epics, plenty of them. But he’s the master of the procedural, the sort of tale that gives you so much — not just the foreground things happening to Dredd stuff, but the stuff that brings on everything that Dredd and the Justice Department and Mega-City One are all about. Oh yes, Wagner’s the master of all that. And so it is here, with Death of a Judge.

You’ve got the Mech Judges back on the streets — just a little offhand comment about that here and there — all of it adding to the rich background of Dreddworld, with the thawing of Dredd’s thinking on this new front line of the Justice Department playing out so well. But the main thrust of this one deals with the current threat to Dredd, all of it playing out deliciously well, as any Wagner procedural does.

If it is a swansong, it’s a perfect one. Wagner and Perkins are delivering a great Dredd tale here.

Herne & Shuck: Poer Trip – Part 5 – By David Barnett, Lee Milmore, Gary Caldwell and Annie Parkhouse

Herne & Shuck may have started with the small-scale, just Herne, dodgy magician in the Constantine mould, and his demon dog, Shuck, getting involved in the rescue of young Caris, but it’s now really going large, full of the elder Gods of Britain, of which Herne, as befits his name, is currently on a quest to join. Yes, it’s full of olde English/British myths and legends, but the fun thing is how Barnett’s doing all this working in of mythology with a tongue firmly planted in cheek. That’s what makes Herne & Shuck a load of fun.

Right now, in ‘Power Trip’, Herne’s first gained and then lost his new powers as the ancient forest deity Herne The Hunter. And now he’s on that power trip to convince the ancient Gods and Goddesses of olde Albion that he’s worthy of an ascension to Godhood. If he does, yay, a whole new life as a deity beckons. If he doesn’t, things don’t look too good for the future. Not good at all.

Here, in part five, we’re back with the rest of Herne’s gang, as Jordy and Shuck get back with chicken dippers and ice cream. Except, as we found out at the end of the last Prog, someone or something got there first — that’s the problem with making enemies — they come back to haunt you.

Yes, the Crawly Man’s got Caris, and the St Michael organisation are behind it all. Meanwhile, Herne, unaware of the chaos he’s left behind, is off to meet the King-Without-a-Castle, Brân the Blessed, Welsh Giant and King of Britain. Oh yes, Barnett’s really dipping deep into the myths and legends of Olde Britain here. And there’s a family connection that he’s going to have to deal with as well.

Very good stuff, irreverent, mystical without being po-faced, Herne & Shuck is yet another example of how strips that begin as those little three-part Tharg’s 3Rillers can grow into something much bigger. More on that in a moment.

PSI Judeg Dee – Part 1 – By Ben Wheatley, Simon Colleby, Jack Davis And Simon Bowland

Well, you really do never know where the next 2000 AD writer’s going to come from. Yes, it’s Ben Wheatley, the Ben Wheatley, writer and director of the likes of Kill List, A Field in England, Happy New Year Colin Burstead, and, in a surprise move into big budget fun stuff, Meg 2: The Trench.

Turns out Wheatley’s a 2000 AD fan of old, and when someone like him pitches a tale or two — there’s a Mick McMahon drawn Dredd meant to be appearing in the Megazine this year as well — Tharg takes note.

Judge Dee starts damn strong, with a great little concept — the Psi Judge who’s doing so well on her cases that the SJS have taken note and really don’t trust her.

Except not even the SJS, those Judges that police the Judges themselves, could guess her secret.

Thanks to an exorcism gone wrong, Dee is now host to a large purple demon, and said demon is the one helping her get her clear-up rate so high. And all for the price of feeding said demon the souls of those Dee collars. Now, she’s off on another case, demon alongside.

Oh yes, a cracking start to things, Wheatley’s got a grand idea and spins it out real well in this first episode. Alongside him, Simon Coleby’s art is always welcome in the Prog any time, and he’s on fine form here.

Tharg’s 3rillers:  Money Shot — High Stakes (Part 1) by Ken-W, Rob Richardson, and Rob Steen 

So, here’s what I mean about those three-part Tharg’s 3Rillers. Sometimes, they’re just a three and out little story. Sometimes, they’re, like Herne & Shuck, the beginning of something bigger.

First of all, so good to see Rob Richardson back in the Prog. I’ve come to really love his art, the stark colouring, the great storytelling. So yes, that’s a plus right there.

Here, we’re starting off in the USA in the 1990s, and accountant Carla Dietrich is well used to doing bookkeeping for the good guys and the bad guys. Now, she’s got an anonymous client signing off his note as ‘B’, sending her directions for a rendezvous along with a nice load of cash.

Cut to the journey, and some strange blue-skinned goons in an impossibly fast car run her off the road, talking about her being in possession of ‘Restricted technology.’ And from there on in, it all goes strange. her nav computer starts talking to her in an Eastern European accent, directing her to ‘The City’…

Richardson drops most of the colour, all the better to show us we’re not in Kansas anymore, and we get a mystery just beginning, taking a very supernatural twist by the end.

This is just how you write the first episode — it’s got so much going on in just these five pages, enough to draw you in and grab you by the throat. A great, great opener.

THE DISCARDED – PART 5 – BY PETER MILLIGAN AND KIERAN MCKEOWN, COLOURS BY JIM BOSWELL, LETTERS BY SIMON BOWLAND

Milligan and McKeown’s The Discarded may or may not move beyond where it is at the moment, a closed-world adventure set on the dumping ground, for the literal garbage sent offworld by a Britain gone bad, and for those unwanted counter-government dissidents and criminals Britain wants shot of.

Trouble is, Junkfall’s been the last dumping site of a computer chip that was never meant to get out of the lab, one that’s taken over the brain of one of those dissidents. And it’s said dissident’s daughter, the cop who put him here, who’s now on Junkfall on a mission. Although that mission has gone off the rails a bit, as she’s been captured and forced to fight, gladiator-style, for her life.

Once she’s out of that, we get a little more of the political background to this one that’s always been there, percolating away, as Veera is told of a special toxic brew that’s developed here on Junkfall and shipped back to Britain to keep the poor compliant and the government, this corrupt, far-right government, very rich.

Again, there’s a lot going on in The Discarded, on the surface a closed-world adventure thing, but it’s the bigger picture that makes this one so interesting.