Comic Review 244 // Judge Dredd: Small House by Rob Williams & Henry Flint

Nice to be back among the streets of MC-1. I originally read this back in 2019, but I never reviewed it for some reason. Why did that happen? But it gave me what little excuse was needed to re-read it. Found at my local library, so let us dive in.

Title: Judge Dredd: The Small House

Author: Rob Williams

Artist: Henry Flint

Blurb: The critically-acclaimed and fan-lauded latest Judge Dredd tale which sent shockwaves through the universe and Mark Millar called “one of the best runs ever!”

Everything is at stake and no-one is safe – in the critically-acclaimed storyline from Rob Williams and Henry Flint, Judge Dredd and his team of hand-picked allies finally takes on the nefarious Judge Smiley, Mega-City One’s behind-the-scenes manipulator – but who will be left standing at the end? And with tensions with Chief Judge Hershey at breaking point, has Dredd finally met his match?

Format: 96 pages, Paperback (buy via Amazon: Affiliate Shop - thanks for the support)

Review

As a long-time reader, you can't read a Rob Williams' Dredd story without having this feeling of building dread. He is being sneaky in his stories and hinting at something in the shadows working against Dredd and possibly MC-1, but what is it or better yet, who? This story is bringing this all to a head and seems to be finally closing this arc (maybe).

The tale begins on Titan with a survivor of an early Rob William story - Judge Sam. If you haven't read Titan, I highly recommend it, and you could say this is the beginning adventure of the arc. Judge Sam hails from Brit-Cit and is a brilliant Architect. With too much free time on Titan, Judge Sam has noticed a more like a web pattern. This web of actions across the globe all lead to MC-1 and, more importantly, to the Grand Hall of Justice. Wanting to unravel this mystery, Judge Sam requests a transfer to MC-1 and becomes a street judge hoping to discover more.

Now I don't want to ruin it with spoilers, so I must stop there with the plot. But inside this story, we get Judge Dredd, Judge Giant, SJS Judge Gerhart, Judge Sam and Wally Squad Dirty Franks working together. It's like a dream team! We also finally discover the origin story of Dirty Frank and boy it does not disappoint!

Ultimately this is a classic conspiracy tale that can be enjoyed as a stand-alone piece, but also very enjoyable to see all the loose strings tied up. The artwork, unsurprisingly, is fantastic. Henry Flint is my favourite Dredd artist of the modern line-up. He just knows what works! Backgrounds are detailed but not distracting, his characters show their age, and I wonder how he does it, but he can portray the persona of a character purely through art. The story this writer/artist combo has produced over the years has been some of my favourites in the series, and I can't wait to get more of their work soon!

There is one line you see a lot about this tale, but it sums up the conspiracy perfectly:

“There is a house, you know. A small house. And it has no doors. There is no way in and no way out. Yet someone lives there.”

Thanks for reading, and if you want to support my blogging more, please use these links:

Amazon Affiliate Shop 

Adventures with Peps Social Media

2000 AD/Warlord Games Judge Dredd - Wally Squad Dirty Frank

New Youtube video. Dirty Frank is a fictional character created by Rob Williams for Low Life's 2000 AD comic strip. This figure was created by Warlord Games and is the first time Dirty Frank has had a miniature made of himself.

Biography

He is a character in the Judge Dredd universe, set in a city of the future where uniformed Judges are empowered to arrest, sentence, and execute criminals at the crime scene. To crackdown on crime in the city's worst areas, undercover agents are the only option and must blend in perfectly. He speaks of himself in the third person and often disregards grammatical errors. Due to his "caveman" like appearance, Dirty Frank is often described as "crude," and his sadistic tendencies and racist jokes only serve to bolster that opinion. "Henry Flint is a superb cartoonist, with such a wonderful idiosyncratic style that he is a tough act to follow. Apart from looking at his character designs, I deliberately tried not to study his take on the Lowlife too deeply, as I felt that I would become intimidated by the prospect of following what he had established."

History

Creator Rob Williams talks about the inspiration behind the character:

"Dirty Frank was visually drawn to be a dead ringer of Alan Moore, which was down to Henry – a genius' choice, that. Frank's tendency to speak in the third person self-aggrandizing manner came from watching Premiership footballers, particularly Tony Adams, being interviewed. It always seemed slightly mad to me."

The character first appeared in 2000 AD #1389 (May 12, 2004), and then in issue #1392, drawn by Henry Flint. Dirty Frank was first featured in "Rock and a Hard Place," illustrated by Simon Coleby. Coleby fleshed out the character and discussed his creative choices:

"We share a love of ludicrously overwrought, heavy metal too, which indeed surfaced in one of the stories we created. If I recall correctly, it was a chat about Rammstein that led to the decision that Dirty Frank, at his most frenzied moment of metal mayhem, would probably start screaming in German…

Frank is outwardly insane, but I always feel that there is a sternly controlled side of him, the analytical core of the character. ... During my work on Lowlife, I particularly enjoyed working with Frank as it's impossible to push the character too far. I found that I became comfortable drawing him very quickly. I think that his mannerisms and expressions developed and grew as I continued to draw him. I have no idea why it seemed right to add those "I am 2" children's birthday badges to his coat, for example, but that kind of thing just fell into place as his personality developed on the page."

Subsequently, Dirty Frank became the lead character in the Low Life series. After Simon Coleby left to work on The Authority, D'Israeli became the character's prominent artist. D'Israeli discussed the character:

"There's the question of Dirty Frank, of course in some ways he's a more complex character to interpret (he has more than one facial expression for a start), but after some playing around I decided to stick pretty closely to Simon Coleby's version. There were two good reasons for this; first, Simon really made the character his own, and I wanted the readership to be drawn straight into his Low Life creation without spending the first couple of episodes adjusting to a new version of the character. Second, all my attempts to change the look of Frank ended up looking like degenerate versions of Ian Culbard."

As always for reading and joining in my hobby!

Miniature Monday // Warlord Games Wally Squad

Oh man, was I excited for this kit. Warlord Games have so far done a great job at supporting the Judge Dredd miniature game. Of course, with COVID and production issues, delays happened. But we finally got wave 2 or maybe wave three of miniatures. We are treated to three unique new kits; Wally Squad, Klegg-Hai and Mega-City Robots. This week we will be showcasing the Wally Squad. Have a watch, enjoy and be sure to follow me over on Youtube.

Inside this pack, you will find 3 Famous Wally Squad Judges:

• Jack Point
• Dirty Frank
• Aimee Nixon

1 Unit Card (Wally Squad Judges), 3 Character Cards (Jack, Frank and Aimee) and then 2 Big Meg Cards: Face Change & Wally Squad.

I plan to do some painting videos soon and then do a complete character profile on each of them over here on the blog. If this interests you, please do sign up for notifications or follow me on social media.

If you are still reading, you are amazing! Use this Solo Link to find me everywhere: https://solo.to/adventureswithpeps.

Filmed on the Sony zve-10: https://amzn.to/3BftaAY

Comic Review 147 // Judge Dredd: Trifecta by 2000 AD

Sticking to a few collected 2000 AD stories at the moment. I am not quite ready to dive back into the complete case files just yet. So what is today's comic? Why I am jumping forward in the timeline to enjoy Trifecta, an amazing storyline at the time that three separate stories running that then to the surprise of the reader actually combines.

Here are the official details.

Fluff: Mega-City One, 2134 AD. Fresh from the devastating events caused by the Chaos virus, Dredd becomes aware of a potential power grab from within the Justice Department. Wally Squad gumshoe Jack Point is given a mysterious doll to safeguard. Dirty Frank wakes up on Luna-1 as a board member of Overdrive, Inc. All three Judges soon find themselves embroiled in the same case in which allegiances and grudges form in equal measure!

Page Count: 176

Writers: Al Ewing, Simon Spurrier, Rob Williams.

Artists: Simon Coleby, Henry Flint, D'Israeli, Carl Critchlow.

Review

This brings back happy memories as I remember being obvious to the story arc as it came out in 2000 AD. And as the stories combined my mind was blown. A true highlight was the fact that it combines three of my favourite characters, Dredd (of course), Dirty Frank and the comically depressed Jack Point.

This story at the time was a piece that played on thirty-five years of Dredd history and had references going all the way back to the days of Chief Judge Cal. Though it definitely helps to know your MC-1 history, it isn't needed the knowledge to enjoy the ride.

The story itself is split into three parts, each following one of the main characters in his own viewpoint of the larger story. Now of course we all know Dredd - the main lawman of MC-1. Then we Jack Point the simping detective, a member of Wally Squad, a screw-up and a clown located in Angeltown. Finally, we have Dirty Frank, also a Wally Squad Judge. One of absolute renown in the Justice Department and normally found in the low-life sector, acting like a crazy, homeless person.

In each of the stories the leads face off against their own villains - Dredd faces off against the new head of the Undercover Division. A Judge that he already has some history with, the possibly corruptable Judge Bachmann. Whilst Jack Point has to deal with Archmime Turner of Simpology and how they too have been manipulated. Whilst Dirty Frank is off on Luna facing down Enormo Overdrive, a Shark/humiod businessman. The three stories are all unquie in their own ways and as the stories start to merge the the insanity gets dialled up to extreme levels. Between the three stories we are treated to aliens, clowns, ninjas, floating cities, and man who we last say at the end of Chief Judge Cal's reign, who has been chilling out in the walls of the Hall of Justice! And these are the standout points, I'm pretty sure I missed other references throughout the story.

As with each stories writing the artwork is also unquie. And I love how it was used to keep the stories feeling separate until they needed to join up. Overall a really impressive read, that I would recommend to some you has a working knowledge of the Dreddverse. Once again for me Dirty Frank was the standout character, but I truly became enthralled by Jack Point in this series and I can't wait to read more on him soon.

Have you read this adventurous series? Let me know in the comments. If you have a moment please give me a follow over on youtube and use any link below to support my hobbying.

Amazon Link: Trifecta

Instagram: Adventures with Peps.

Tik Tok: Adventures with Peps.

Youtube: Adventures with Peps.

Ko-fi: Adventures with Peps.

Comic Review 51 // Mega-City One Volume 03

The time has come to finish up the Mega-City Undercover collection. The third installment cover showcases the one and only Dirty Frank looking out on a MC-1 looking cityscape, but lingering above him is a vicious looking giant surgeon. I wonder what this will have to do with his tale.

On the next few pages it is implied that this issue only contains two tales. Up first is a continuation of the Low-Life tale and the second sees the return of Lenny Zero (one of my favourites).

Tale - Low-Life The Deal: Dirty Frank faces his biggest challenge to date and discover if he is fit for duty. It is soon and quite quickly decided that Frank is unfit for active and is forced to take the long walk into the Cursed Earth. But before this sentence can be carried out Frank offers the panel another option. One last undercover gig. In exchange Frank will attempt to infiltrate the Hondo-cit Yakuza and discover Aimee Nixon's fate.

This is sad tale and a great conclusion to the Low-Life saga. Frank is such an unique character and having read these so close together it is hard not to feel his pain, as he watches his life go down the drain. I also loved seeing Hondo-cit and the over top cultural icons and imagery. This was a great tale and we'll worth the price of the volume alone.

Tale - Low-Life The really big Christmas Sleep: This tale jumps far ahead in the timeline and is actually set after I have personally got in the Dreddverse, so I'm not entirely sure I get all the talking points. From what I can piece together Frank believes there is still a shadowy organisation operating within the Justice system. After getting a colleague to assist him Frank suffers guilty hallucinations about Nixon and realises this case is too dangerous to involve his friend but sadly it is already to late.

What on earth is going on with this tale?

Tale - Lenny Zero Zero's 7: Oh hell yes! Lenny Zero is back, this is one of my favourite characters in the Dreddverse. Lenny is in need of a big score and you can't get bigger than Justice Central criminal funds reprocessing transport. This giant mobile fortress collects all the sector houses illegal money collected in raids and transport it the central bank. It is almost impossible to get near so Lenny has to form a team like no other. In this rag tag group is:

Shuggy Bear - An enhanced Polar Bear who now runs a shuggy hall.
Johnny Cash - A disgruntled Central Bank cash machine looking to escape the back alley of MC-1.
Satellat - A rogue Sov block droid who is now a gun for hire.
Mink - A creepy Psi who discovers Lenny's plan and blackmails him to be apart of the heist.
Afro Dizzy - Chemical specialised who runs a local nightclub.
Max Normal - The pinstripe freak is back!

Soon they raiding the vault, escaping the law and looking like they are in the clear but it can't be that easy for Lenny?

Great tale, was fun, action packed and not what I expected at all. Good to see some old characters come back and some dirty jokes sneak their way in. Real highlight - Loggerhead - The Southside Droid Mafia boss, an ex timber droid from the Canadia Wastes. Mean looking and something I really want to attempt to build.

With that I am up to date with Low-Life, where do I go now? I've really enjoyed these and it is always fun to experience a different side of the Dreddverse. I feel I will need to get the dumping detective next. Thoughts?

Comic Review 50 // Mega-City Undercover Volume 02

Fifty comics in and wanted to read something fun. Then I remembered how much fun volume one of Mega-City Undercover was, so I decided it was time to crack into volume two.

The cover showcases the stars of Wally Squad: Aimee Nixon, Dirty Frank and Thora. It reminds me a lot of Tank Girl with the way it drawn and the subtle blues and yellows make it quite the striking cover.

I'm intrigued to find out why Dirty Frank has a baby strapped to his chest. I'm more intrigued as to why the baby has a gun! I can only assume it will be a high tale of comedy and adventure. So with the cover "covered" let's dive in to the stories.

Amy Nixon. War without bloodshed: First tale is deep and emotional for Nixon. After sleeping with an informant, Nixon hears a pro-democracy group has taken over a local low life docking yard. In an attempt to infiltrate the group Nixon is sent on a suicide bombing mission to become the group's fall guy. During this attack Nixon realizes the group is in fact a front for Soviet forces to infiltrate MC-1. For reasons unknown, Nixon fails to inform Dredd of this and heads back to the pro-democracy group believing her cover to be intact. Upon her return she finds that the docks are empty and her lover/informant dead.

We then get a classic showdown at sea and discover Nixon has trapped herself within an a web of lies and has to keep the Soviet smuggling ring a secret, otherwise she would admit to knowing this fact earlier and be setting herself up for a one way trip to Titan.

Loved seeing the docklands and the grim dark artwork, I see this as being a real turning point for Nixon and I fear she is heading down a dark path.

Dirty Frank. Creation: After a long run of being a Wally Squad Judge in Low-life, Dirty Frank has received the call he has always feared. Retirement! Now tasked with training his replacement Dirty Frank has to accept his time is over and discover the truth behind the Creation drug sweeping through Low Life.

This tale is a weird one as more and more biblical themed trails pop up in low life. This tale kept me guessing what was happening right up to end. Safe to say Dirty Frank rescues everyone and gets to keep his job and continue to give us more entertaining tales. Once again stunning artwork on this tale, this volume has been killing it with the black and white artwork.

Jive Turkey: Looks like we have hit Xmas time in MC-1. A bit of a filler piece involving all the Low-life characters. It's Xmas day and the assembled crew are each spending the day with their uncover friends/criminals, but when Frank's doesn't show up on boxing Day it is up to the crew to discover why and rescue him.

Not much else to say very filler and easy to skip past.

Dirty Frank. Hostile Takeover: It's been a Frank heavy volume (which is great).

This tale was big with far reaching repercussions on Low-Life. It would seem Hondo City Yakuza have taken an interest in Low-Life. Their goal is to take down the Big man (why? This I am not sure about). Soon Yakuza hitmen are tearing the heart out of the criminal organisation and the wally squad Judges are caught flat footed. But soon it all changes following the suspicious kidnapping of Judge Nixon, why did they take her alive? Why did they keep Frank alive? As the story unravels we get more and more questions. Why is the Yakuza interested in Low-Life? How many Judges are corrupt? Who's going survive? Is Nixon the big man? As I said this was a pretty epic tale to finish with and I am excited for volume 3.

I'm actually a little stunned by the final tale. The sheer scope of corruption in Low-Life is shocking. All the main characters have been affected by this and seemingly half are dead now. Dirty Frank is an amazing character and I'm interested to see how long he stays in uniform for. As for Nixon, I knew something was coming but I can't honestly believe she could be the Big Man! It seems like to Big of a leap, is Aimee truly going rogue/corrupt? As I finish this I am downloading volume 3 so hopefully can have another review up by the weekend.

As always thanks for reading.

Comic Review 44 // Mega-City Undercover Volume 01

It's comic reading time and of course it is 2000 AD! Stepping back into the world of Mega city life, I have decided to delve into a different aspect. Gone are the Judges like Dredd and Heresy, instead we enter the life of the undercover Judge. This comic is all about the special type of Judges that go deep undercover and what can happen to them if they stay under too long.

Title: Mega-City Undercover Volume 01
Writers: Andy Diggle, Rob Williams.
Artists: Henry Flint, Jock, Simon Coleby.
Letterers: Annie Parkhouse, Elie De Ville, Tom Frame.

The cover of this is comic is a classic city landscape with what I believe are the two main characters Lenny Zero and Nixon. It looks like the sun is setting the skyline is portrayed in beautiful orange. It is a beautiful piece by Jock and different from a lot of the classic 2000 AD covers.

Stories

Lenny Zero

Title: Lenny Zero // A classic introduction tale to get us to know the main character. We discover Lenny Zero has been a street Judge for fifteen years (not sure how long undercover). It is also brought to our attention that whilst undercover he has fallen in love with Mona and wants out of the force. In this issue we watch Lenny Zero pull off one of the biggest crimes a Judge could pull. This is a shocking way to introduce a character. I love it!
Highlight: Caesar Piccante's Mob - Run by Little Caesar, a creepy old guy who has been transferred into his third cloned child body (he is in fact 200 years old)! Marv, the muscle named after Multiple Armed Robbery with Violence.

Title: Dead Zero // Lenny is on the run and is hiding out in a fat suit claiming to be Porx of Robo Junk. That is until Trapper Khan arrives on scene. Now Lenny has to pull a stunt that if successful will free him for life.
Highlight: Trapper Khan an off world bounty hunter who is a Man tiger! He has some badass tricks like Spider Bombs.

Title: Wipeout // Lenny's death cover is blown and Little Caesar is after him. All Lenny can do now is wage all out war on the Piccante Mob. Perfect way to end the series.
Highlight: Lenny teleporting Little Caesar off the toilet mid crap.

Low Life

Nixon

Title: Paranoia // Amiee Nixon is an eleven year Wally Squad vet and has been out in the field for over two years working the Low Life streets. Just as her work was about to pay off, Street Judges burst in and kill her informant. Following some rough treatment of a perp Nixon is forced to defend her actions to her Boss Judge Farnsworth.
After a rebuking Nixon is soon back on the streets contacting the Wally Judges for more information on Ragnarok - Turns out Ragnarok is a hardcore punk bar with blood sports acted out for the crowd to bet on. Here Nixon gets into serious trouble and is soon framed for the murder of a local crime boss, worst let someone has deposited money into her account who is setting her up?
Now the story really starts ramping up. Mob bosses across low-life are rapidly turning up dead and to make matters more painful Nixon's Wally Squad members are also seemingly being hunted down. We then reach the dramatic final but I don't want to spoil the surprise so go read the tale yourself.
Highlight: Dirty Frank- 20 plus years in the Wally Division has taken it's toll. Refers to himself in the third person and is viewed as having gone to far into his undercover role. Eye patched and deadlocks this is definitely a character I need to build at some point.

Title: Heavy Duty // Nixon is back and once more Wally Squad members are being targeted and killed. Nixon has to under go body changing technology to become a Fattie and infiltrate Low-Cal Towers Fitness Regimes.
Highlight: There is no crime just a sad state of affairs and what happens when people treat others like crap.

Dirty Frank

Title: Rock and a Hard Place // Rectal Prolapse a Nouveau Punk band has somehow managed to blow up an entire night club and most of a sector block. It falls on Dirty Frank to solve what is going on. But first he has to become the Manager of Kill Kill Kill a dead beat punk band in Low Life.
Highlight: Dirty Frank! After being forced to front the band during a concert, Dirty Frank proceeds to urinate for 21 minutes!! Hahaha so weird.

Title: He's Making a List // The Robert Helpmann Block home to Low Life Orphans is home to possibly 5000 orphans and every year kids go missing around Christmas time. The kids believe it is due to Mr. Claws. Now it is up to Dirty Frank and Nixon to go in undercover and see if it true (dressed as Santa and an Elf).

Highlight: Nixon's past comes to light once more as she bonds with the Orphans. It's these pages that I really enjoy in Dredd themed comics as it remind us the Judges are still human. Only issue is this is normally a fault that leads to a Judge going rogue.

Nixon

Title: Con Artist // Aimee Nixon is going undercover at Hitcon. A yearly meet up of the elite Button men from around the world. Once again Nixon's character is brought into question as she continues to question her life within the Justice System.
Highlight: The Hit-Con, imagine comic-con for highly dangerous criminals. Booths and talks on the art of murder.

Dirty Frank/Eric Coil (Mortal)

Title: Baby Talk // A new medical clinic is offering parents the ability to increase their childs mental abilities. But after a group of babies go rogue and rob an art gallery it is up to Dirty Franks and Mortal to find out what is going on.
Highlight: Ninja babies....yes you read to correct Ninja Babies!

With the end of Baby Talk we reach the end of the graphic novel. I have to say this has been one of the best Dredd verses I have in a while. I love the characters (especially Dirty Frank) and I can't wait to start on volume two.

As always thanks for reading.