John Wagner is back! Co-creator of Judge Dredd and top scribe at Galaxy’s Greatest Comics, he spent the summer working with Colin McNeil on the seven-part epic Machine Rules in 2000 A.D. Returning to the page, he tied up the threads left behind by the prequel to his most famous work. This is especially true of the Machinery Act of 2019. After the Mechanismo robot judges were introduced to fill the Justice Department’s staffing shortage, we watched what happens when the machines decide to take over.
However, Wagner hasn’t completely disappeared from the Rebellion/2000 AD stable. Last year, Spector made a surprise return. The series was famously left unfinished by the sudden death of close collaborator (and Dredd co-creator) Carlos Ezquerra in 2019. With the help of John Wagner and Alan Grant’s creator-owned Rock of, it finally saw completion. Reds series artist Dan Cornwell. “Spectre: Incorruptible” is a story about a robot detective fighting corruption, and will be published in the monthly Judge Dredd Megazine from April 2023 to January 2024, with the recorded version scheduled for release in April 2025. .
And that’s not all there is to come from Wagner and Cornwell. Their sci-fi soccer book, Rock of the Reds, will soon be reprinted in Megazine, with more to come. The pair are also planning a new version of Wagner’s classic war comic, HMS Nightshade, in next week’s magazine. Battle action part 2.
With so much going on, The Beat’s Dean Simmons sat down with the great John Wagner to talk robots, retirement, Dredd, and more…
2000 AD Prog 2392 — Mike Perkins cover
Dean Simmons: Welcome to Dredd, John! You said in 2019 that the storyline that started with Machine Law will end with Machine Rule…
John Wagner: Did I say that?
DS: …Five years later, here we are. Why now, and has the idea of how the story will end changed so much in the intervening years?
JW: To be honest, I don’t think I thought much of it at the time. I was probably at the point where I had tried so many times to retire and imagined I would never retire again. Well, here I am, and it would be unwise to think that the story is over. In fact, we are currently working hard on a sequel.
DS: The reaction of some of the judges when they are rendered obsolete by the Mechanismo unit at the beginning of the story seems quite extreme (i.e. the spike in suicides). Do you think that particular reaction is unique to judges? Why?
JW: Judges dedicate their entire lives to their work. For most people, being suddenly demoted to a supporting role can be soul-destroying. It’s the same for many of us. Our role in life has become such a part of who we are that when we suddenly lose it, it leaves a gaping hole. Obviously I’m no different. I may be trying to be John Wagner, the reclusive fart hanging out in the garden growing beans and onions, but something about me makes me what I used to be and always will be. I keep pulling myself back to what I think. I never imagined it when I started my career many years ago, but now the word “manga artist” has stuck with me like a word on a stone stick.
DS: Often your stories tend to end in ways that bring about big changes in Joe Dredd’s world. Do you enjoy throwing curveballs at creative groups? How do you think the ending of Machine Rules will resonate?
JW: Yes, I like surprising people. That’s half the trick to storytelling. It’s no fun even if the reader knows what’s going to happen. Like the fact that there will be a sequel.
DS: Mechanismo has been around since the 1990s and has been revisited several times since then, but the first major storyline for Dredd in 1977 was also Robot Wars (not mentioning the Spectre series). What draws you back to this topic? Are contemporary events (such as the increased prominence of AI in recent discourse) taken into account?
JW: I’m interested in the future, especially robots, and it seems like a moot point how things will turn out. Because I firmly believe that we are currently messing up the planet and its people. Those of us who control us cannot take evasive action in time for the majority of humanity to survive, even if there was still time.
But impending doom aside, one of my great regrets is that we will never see the results of all human ingenuity: driverless cars, robot servants, sex mechs, and cancer cures. . Will robots ever actually be sentient? Sure, they can fake it, but will they ever be able to feel? I think so.
But talk about humans leaving to live on another planet (probably Mars) is complete nonsense and I wish people would shut up about it. Consider the energy required to launch one Mars rover. How many of them will we launch? The Earth is in bad enough shape as it is. That might be fine for a few self-centered assholes like Musk, and I’d be happy to see them gone, but for the rest of us, we have a world. , It’s a wonderful world, let’s try to cherish it.
AI, it’s very interesting and dangerous and at the same time incredibly beneficial. But we have to control it and not let it control us.
BATTLE ACTION (Vol 3) #2 cover
DS: Elsewhere, you and Dan Cornwell will be releasing the second installment of HMS Nightshade next week (October 2nd), appearing in Battle Action #2. What can we expect from this new story?
JW: Incandescent battle action. nice art. One very shocking development. I won’t say anything else other than to say that I’m very happy to have battle back. Garth Ennis and the other contributors and editors are doing a great job. Battle is the comic that drew me back in after I tried to leave the comic book world in 1974, and it will always be special to me.
DS: Was it difficult returning to the series after almost 30 years? How do I get back into the writing mindset?
JW: I grew up next to the ocean, so I’ve had a long-term attachment to it. And corvettes played a very interesting role in the war. They seemed to encapsulate much of what I think of as British character. That is, brave midgets ready to be scrapped. A few years ago, we finally took the plunge and became naturalized, so we can say that we are ‘our’ British (note: John was born in the US). We also received a welcome letter from Priti Patel (former UK Home Secretary, 2019-2022). Better than what I got when she was trying to deport me.
Anyway, it was pretty easy to jump right back into the story. But I realized that I had covered most aspects of the war in the Atlantic. Therefore, it was difficult to find new and fresh material. It was artist Dan who came up with the idea for the latest story, and it was a pretty surprising development.
HMS Nightshade Preview — Screenplay: John Wagner, Art: Dan Cornwell
DS: You and Dan Cornwell seem to have worked very closely together on Rock of the Reds, Spectre, and HMS Nightshade. How did you first meet Dan and know he was the right fit artistically?
JW: I was looking for an artist to draw Reds rock. He wasn’t a professional and was planning to pay for the materials himself, so he didn’t need a huge page fee. I found Dan at Zarjaz or Dogbreath, but I can’t remember which one. At the time, they were two fanzines run by the late Dave Evans. I contacted him because I liked his style. Dan was driving a bus in Brighton at the time. He saw my email, almost jumped out of his skin and crashed his bus into a convoy, causing over £300,000 in damage. Ha, no, I get it, he thought someone was fooling him. He tells that story often so I won’t repeat it, but I’m very good friends with him and we continue to collaborate on other projects and will definitely do more in the future. Sho.
“SPECTOR: INCORRUPTIBLE” cover, scheduled to be released in April 2025
DS: You recently revisited and completed Spectre, which you started with Carlos Ezquerra. How did you decide to come back and bring in Dan as a strong replacement for Carlos?
JW: Spectre was a character that Carlos created for the Alan Grant story, but I just couldn’t get it off the ground. He had been lying unused for years, but he always looked too great to be forgotten, so when Carlos and I decided to work on a new story, I pulled him out of the drawer and gave him a new role. I racked my brain until I came up with this. Long after Carlos died, I couldn’t bear to go back to the story after only drawing two episodes of him, but it kept haunting me – truly one of his best works. Will he be able to keep one of them asleep?
I knew that Dan would do a great job with this song, staying true to Carlos’ intentions and respecting his intentions, rather than copying his style. So we considered other artists, but Dan was an easy choice.
DS: When will we see you again? We know there will be a third series of Rock of the Reds in the Judge Dredd megazine, but will there be more Spectre?
JW: I don’t know about Spectre. There are no plans at the moment, but I’m not saying never. As I mentioned earlier, I’m currently working on a sequel to Machine Rule. What happens next? I have a few ideas rolling around in my head, but nothing concrete so far, so please suggest them with a postcard…
HMS Nightshade comes ashore in Battle Action #2, on sale October 2nd (UK) / October 30th (US) — Preview: JUL241988
The entire Judge Dredd: Machine Rules series (serialized in shows 2392-2398) is now available for purchase in print and digital directly from the 2000 AD webshop. PREVIEWS For comic shop order requests, see Prog Pack MAY241895 (Progs 2390-2393, available now) and JUN241946 (Progs 2394-2397, shipping October 2nd), and JUL241987 (Progs #2398-2401, October 30th) day shipping)
Rock of the Reds will soon be appearing in the Judge Dredd Megazine. The entire Spectre: Incorruptible series will be released on April 23, 2025.
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