Every once in a while, Dredd will remind you, yeah, it's a British comic, even if it might take a minute to get the reference. Like today's book! From 1990, Judge Dredd #49, "Block Rite" Written by John Wagner and Alan Grant, both credited as T. B. Grover; art by Cliff Robinson. Reprinted from 1986's 2000 AD #489.
In Mega-City One, tensions between neighboring Blocks often spilled over into conflict or outright block war; and today the beef between 'Michael' and 'Ridgeley' was coming to a head, with an illegal bareknuckle match. The fighters, Turk for Michael and Crippen for Ridgeley, are evenly matched; and don't seem to have any personal grievance with each other. They fight hard and fair; while the Judges surround the makeshift arena...and at Dredd's order, wait.
When Crippen finally scores a knockout, Dredd orders the Judges in, corralling the spectators and fighters alike. The latter get 18 months, which seems a bit stiff since they may have been pressured into it. Another Judges asks why Dredd let the fight go on, and he explains this would at least relieve some of the pressure between George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley...hey, wait a minute! Ah, Dredd even mentions "Wham Passageway" between the blocks!
Perhaps in a "Careless Whisper" (Boo!) Dredd admits "you're never too old to enjoy a good fight." He wasn't softening by any means, but look, there's not a lot of fun to be had as a Judge, better take what you can get...Hmm, maybe I should've scheduled this post to run, "Last Christmas." (BOO!)
It's one of those 'honor' things- people tend to take a lot of pride in the block they're from, especially if they're in one of the gangs.
ReplyDeletePlus, Cliff Robinson is more of a cover artist than a story artist so it's nice to get an action sequence from him.