Whitewashing Mega City One?

Valhallahan

In a rare act of Bad Guy synergy, like Ash, I've recently been renewing my interest in 2000AD characters. Largely the peripheral characters like Button Man and classics like Dredd and Bad Company. Anyway, in my Dredd reading I picked up on something I'd long since forgotten: Chief Judge McGruder used to be black.

Exhibits A and B

In the world of Dredd Judge Hilda Margaret McGruder was head of the SJS (Judge Internal Affairs division) who later became Chief Judge of Mega City One, after making a poor decision she opted to take "The Long Walk" which is the Judges' retirement package. The long walk entails the retiring judge exiling themselves from the city armed with their Law-Giver gun to "bring law to the lawless" in the radioactive wastelands of the Cursed Earth (and our public sector think they're hard done by!). Years later during the Judge Dredd Mega-epic "Necropolis" which Ash kindly loaned me the other day, an exiled Judge Dredd happens upon former Judge McGruder in the radioactive wastelands, whom he teams up with to save Mega City One from Judge Death and his Bitches From Hell. To cut a very long story very short, at the end of Necropolis McGruder is reinstated as Chief Judge and all is well, except for the fact that her time in the Cursed Earth has turned her into a mental with a lady-goatee.

It also turned her white.


McGruder in post



McGruder taking The Long Walk



McGruder post-Necropolis

To my knowledge there's never been an in-story explanation for this, so what happened? Was it a colouring error? Had they always intended her to be white? Had they forgotten she was black? What the shit?

As an aside, in the 1995 "Judge Dredd" movie starring John Spartan, McGruder is portrayed as white. But then again, I wouldn't even know where to begin, listing the problems whith that movie.

So Long Suckers!

Valhallahan
I'm off to Dublin for the weekend.

So long suckers!

Karl Urban is Judge Dredd! Photo Evidence!

What's the verdict folks?

Valhallahan

Mega City's Most Wanted?

Valhallahan

Did these even come out? I can't tell if I think half of these look cool, or just that they look better than the other half. Found in the back of a comic from 1993.

2000AD Prog 1685

Borag Thungg Earthlets!

Valhallahan
An avid 2000AD reader in my early teens, it’s been over 10 years now since I gave it up, I forget the Prog number, but Johnny Alpha was long dead, Volt was Chief Judge, Nikolai Dante was new, Durham Red was hot and Sinister/Dexter were running out of steam. I forget the full reason why I stopped, but stop I did and I’ve hardly looked back. Occasionally I pick up a trade collection of the old stuff; Button Man is still excellent – Strontium Dog hasn’t aged quite as well.

Anyway, whilst visiting a relative in hospital in Squaresville I eloped to the trusty Newsstand to pick up some reading. Not being a fan of music journalism or celebrity gossip and thinking Razzle probably wasn’t appropriate reading for a hospital waiting room, I thought it was high time I picked up an issue of 2000AD.

The first thing that struck me was the how little had changed. This future fiction is firmly rooted in the past. There was trusty old Dredd, Dante: the newcomer (11 years ago), even some Invasion 1999 which is before my time on this planet, let alone my time as a 2000AD reader. The last strip seemed like some kind of supernatural Western, I say seemed because I couldn’t really tell. It was good and creepy though, stark black and white with the occasional panel of vivid colour.

All the stories were of high quality, but pretty much impenetrable, being as they were all mid storyline, and it’s hard to get into something based on 4 pages from the middle; you don’t even necessarily get an interesting bit. I’m sure not many people got into Star Wars just watching the scene where Han and Leia chat to each other in their loft apartment in Empire Strikes Back. Despite that, and despite the fact that Savage seems to have turned into Bruce Campbell in my absence, this was a really enjoyable read, it might even tempt me back to my first love.

Three Hi Ex rounds out of a possible Number Fours Cartridge