Drokktober 2019. Day 22

Today's theme: The Judda! Renegade Judges bred from stolen clone stocks and secreted away in Uluru in the future Oz because reasons! I can't replicate Brendan McCarthy's fantastic lines for this guy (who can?) but given the Judda are wildly varying in their looks, colours and accoutrements, that's okay. 

Pan-African Judge

What, another Judge so soon? You ain't seen nothin' yet. Last week was the tenth anniversary of the founding of the Pan-African Parliament (the 18th of March), so...

Here's the Pan-African Judge, anyway, based on the highly stylised work of artist Ajibayo 'Siku' Akinsiku. The story of the Pan-African Judges is a little more complicated than things seem. It's late on a Sunday night - let's go to Wikipedia:

The concept of a Pan-African Judge first turned up in a poster for the 1988 Judge Dredd Mega-Special drawn by Brendan McCarthy: the text said they had the hardest job of any Judge, "policing a society that mixes centuries' old tribal law and customs with high 22nd century technology. Applicants chosen for linguistic and diplomatic skills." The design would make a brief cameo at an international summit in the Judgement Day storyline but after that it would be replaced by a Siku design, starting with 1993's first Pan African Judges. In an article in Judge Dredd Megazine #238, Siku said he got the job after criticising the McCarthy design as too stereotyped: "I asked, why do people think all Africans run around in animal prints? [Editor] Dave Bishop challenged me to come up with something better."
In the same article, Siku referred to Paul Cornell's first Pan African script as being well researched but flawed in its approach - "imperialism, jungle safaris, that's the way Westerners see Africa". (The second Pan African strip was written by Siku alone and had Yoruba gods attacking the continent.) He did enjoy having a "token white guy" Judge. Cornell himself referred to his work as "a trudge", feeling it had too many competing ideas in one story and that his dialogue was "overblown"; he was happy, however, with his decision to deliberately show Islam and a Muslim Judge, as he felt the Judge Dredd universe was "a little too disconnected from the real world" by turning all the world's religions into the worship of Grud

[Your blogger would like to mention that the issue of Grud being a near universal deity is also addressed in another African-based judge system, of which more at a later date]

That's pretty much the basics of what you need to know. Two main PAJ stories, plus some supporting cast in John Smith's Devlin Waugh/Dredd team-up story Fetish, also illustrated by Siku and typically ker-razy high concept stream-of-consciousness stuff from Smith. But I fear that in having such iconic characters as Dredd and the musclebound Terry Thomas/Noel Coward/Freddie Mercury occupying centre stage we're treated once again to future Africa in a pretty colonial viewpoint, so it's hardly progressive. As far as I can see this is something still to be addressed satisfactorily, although Siku's involvement was promising, though it seems to have been a one-off. For myself I only have single episodes of all three stories - so I sort of get the gist of it, but none make a great amount of sense, even though Cornell's is the most straight-forward narratively speaking.

Hey look, I'm waffling on and did I mention it's late on a Sunday? Here's the illustration. 

And what does a Pan-African Judge look like? Well, green, gold and white, which is a nice, neutral scheme, and Siku's design is assuredly better than McCarthy's very Eighties neon Africa go. I'm not sure on the rhino horns on the shoulder pad, or the warthog tusks on the belt - hopefully they're bendy or something otherwise ouch every time you fall over, frankly. It's is worth noting that the suggestion remains that in different surviving African states, including some Islamic-based territories, the uniform changes, with turban-styled headdress, for example. 

If you've read down this far then thanks, but I also owe everyone including Siku an apology. Like a lot of my judge drawings this illustration was done years ago in short form - maybe ten years for this effort. It was only in Googling the chaps for colour references that I discovered that my composition here is based almost directly off a portrait by Siku.: oh, it's superior in every way, and I am officially embarrassed.  Mea culpa. 

Oz Justice

It's Australia Day today. Happy Birthday, modern Australia.

Like New Zealand, Australia's day of celebration is a complicated thing indeed - there's the celebration of a young nation's good fortune and existence, and then there's the question of nationhood itself, and the need to acknowledge that national identity carries a hell of a lot of baggage with it, as any ex-colony might with an intact indigenous population, not to mention generations of recent immigrants creating greater diversity, more questions.

I did two illustrations of Judge Zemiro for this post, but have left the alternative one (where she's soundly thrashing a Cronulla-style flag-draped, KFC-helmeted yobbo) off. It wouldn't be right. And I got her feet wrong again, anyway.

Judge Zemiro's my creation, although Australian ("Oz") Judges exist in the Judge Dredd world, wearing the uniform depicted here. I'm not sure we've seen a female Oz Judge yet, much less one who isn't obviously Anglo-Saxon. Wait. I do remember one - I think he was supposed to be Aborigine, and like all Oz Judges he was depicted with a beer can in his hand. Classy, guys.

I have a love/hate attitude towards Oz Judges and their depiction, really. On the one hand they're portrayed as being carefree, less hung-up than Dredd and his Mega City compatriots, and in general their justice system seems heavily weighed along the lines of 'fair go to all', which is as good as you'll get in Dredd's world (or as bad, if you're Dredd of course). On the other hand, the Oz Judges are viewed through the lens as the other world judges, that of the strip's British creators. This means that the Judges of Oz nod heavily towards exported Australian culture - particularly that of the 80s, when thanks to Neighbours, Kylie Minogue and Crocodle Dundee, Australia was, for a time, huge. And it's all so bloody twee!

It could be worse, of course. Oz could have got the "so-sollee" treatment Japan/Hondo City got in its introduction to the series, or the Pan Andes Conurbs with its lazy, corrupt judges, or Murphyville with its happy-go-lucky, loikes-a-drink Ju- oh, I see. So, yes, Australia gets off lightly, but then the touch is light as well. As I mentioned above, its Judges tend to be a little bit unimaginative (a clue: the first Oz Judge co star in a Dredd strip is "Judge Bruce")for such a fascinating country, and three outings its Judges haven't strayed far at all from the Paul Hogan boiler plate they all seem to be based on, which to my mind says a lot more about the strip's writers than the future Australia. File under: Mostly Harmless, and not that interesting.

Interesting, though, is how I'd describe the very angular Oz Judge uniform. Board shorts aside, it's a lot more practical than the shoulder-heavy northern hemisphere Judge uniforms, and one assumes it's in a fabric which is both durable and breathes really really well, because there's a lot of black there, missus. Brendan McCarthy seems to have designed it again and there are some notable touches - a badge which appears to reference the Sydney Opera House (turn it the other way around and flatten its base and you almost get the shape of Australia!), and there's not a lot of green on it, despite it being one of Australia's noted national colours. This actually works in its favour because not only should yellow and green never be seen, but it removes the costume from the usual accusation critics lay at the Dredd world international judges of them being based too much on national costumes, flags (Ireland, Scotland, Japan) or just novelty hats. McCarthy did well, really, and debuted the design some months before the Dredd epic Oz actually brought in the Judges themselves. I'm not sure if he was living in Australia at the time (as he did for a while, working design on one of George Miller's aborted Mad Max sequels), but I'd mark it a success. It also has a great profile

Like Australia itself, really. Great place. Interesting country, nice people, beautiful landscape, and not bad neighbours to have at all. Happy Australia Day!

Doodle a Day: 17/10/2013

Wow. Ten minutes to draw, ninety minutes to do a cursory block fill on Photoshop. I am so tired...

 

A Brit-Cit Judge, today. Based mostly on the original design by Brendan McCarthy for the Judge Dredd story 'Atlantis', and I really think it's McCarthy's looser design aesthetic that saves the uniform. To me, McCarthy is a second-generation heir to Mike McMahon in his subtle but iconic reinvention of the Judge costume. There's something endearing about the taller busby-like helmet, the grim lion face and the colour play (later versions of the judges from future Great Britain have them in a colour scheme closer to the green, yellow and black of Mega City One. Boo) that McCarthy brings in, that just doesn't carry through to later versions by other artists. Of course for this to be a true McCarthy rip-off there should be a quirky (and still unexplained) star on Judge Lord's chin. Just because, it seems. But ehh, nah. Plus, by going for a poster art, thick edge style here I can fudge it and claim I'm also referencing the work of Jack Kirby devotee Shaky Kane. Yes, that's it, I'm referencing Shaky Kane. And now I'm off to bed.