Squealers, stool pigeons and rats; that’s the only way to describe people who fess up about criminal activities that are being committed by hard working criminals and Presidents alike. Still, when you have one as lovable and funny as Lips Lazarus, you can let it slide. Unless you are Judge Dredd of course, and your story is being phoned in by a writer who cannot be arsed that week.
DATELINE:
September 2101 (Prog 130).
WHO’S RESPONSIBLE?:
John Wagner pens a bland one and even the great Dave Gibbons cannot save it.
WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT (IN ONE SENTENCE)?:
Dredd must protect Mob squealer Lips Lazarus from hitmen.
WHO’S THAT IN THE HELMET?:
Judge Cage helps escort Lips.
Judge Hutch is gassed and presumably killed by mob hitmen.
CANON FODDER?:
Judges at the hospital are seen employing fiddly nose filters instead of using the quick pull respirators which exist on their helmets. Fucking mooks.
Dredd is seen using a wrist communicator instead of a helmet radio.
WHAT THE DROKK?:
How can Lazarus talk without lungs?
Why are virtually all gangsters in the Big Meg dressed in 30s gangster chic?
Judges Cage and Hutch are someone’s idea of a (pet) joke.
WHAT’S THE ART LIKE?:
This is some good art from Gibbons in his first strip but something about it doesn’t quite gel, which is a shame.
HOW MANY LINKS?:
Very much a meh, sadly. The script is bland but the art gives it more oomph than it deserves. Two links is a generous score.
