SDCC Coverage sponsored by Mad Cave
Frankly, Judge Dread is not a character that may be associated with going to the beach, but that’s exactly where writers Al Ewing and Dan Cornwell took him with him in his new story, Costa Ferratu.
Perhaps it’s not about dread playing volleyball and getting sunburned (can you imagine it?). In fact, it’s a kind of follow-up to the rather creepy story that appeared in Judge Dread Year – dating back so far back to 1989. So I just have this interview with Ewing and Cornwell speak for itself along with a set of attached preview pages… Enjoy!
Al Ewing and Dan Crowell talk about 2000ad SF SPECIAL 2025
Q: Before you can reach the Costa Ferratu question, you have to ask Alabama… What was it like coming back to write dread after spending a lot of time from the character?
Al Ewing: In a way, it was like going back to old, comfortable shoes and maybe a tight boot. Part of that was pretty short and easy, like the Zombo crossover I went with him. I don’t have to worry too much about how megacity politics have evolved over the years since I last dealt with characters.
Q: And Dan, you’ve been working on dreads for a while. What appeals most about him as a character and as a series?
Dan Cornwell: Well, first of all, that’s an honor. As a lifelong fan, I can’t believe I can draw a dread quietly on a regular basis. I will do my best to continue doing that. It’s a dream gig. What is the appeal? It’s multiple things. Iconic design, good cop/bad cop situations he is in himself, the city, the endless possibilities of the story, the character history. It’s really, so many things. But most of all, he’s a character that’s just bad at portraying. Big gun, big pads, big boots, big chin, big attitude.
Q: Where did the idea based on the ’89 Judge Dread Annual’s Costa del Blood Story come from? Also, when you worked on this new strip, how did each of you get involved in that story?
AE: This idea came from Tharg as a starting point. I knew that Dread fought the annual Dracula, but after reading the story in question I was surprised to see that it was a story about a seaside holiday, like about a vampire. Mega-City always had an “English painted British” element about it. It’s hard to believe that the original seaside boarding house is what they have in the US, a dystopian future or no.
So I tried to bring in a British seaside flavour for the sequel – I travel to Whitby frequently because the Dracula industry is so lively.
DC: To draw it, I had a wealth of references. This is an original story by John Wagner and Carlos Ezkera. This is a joy. When Tharg asked if I was interested in drawing it, I couldn’t say no – it’s Al Ewing dredd, man! And after reading the AL script, I knew it would become a cracker. In other words, I laughed loudly. I was still laughing, even though I drew it and double-checked the script with my art. I knew I had to join my A-game to make it justice.
Q: How did either (if any) change their approach to work, so that Strip plays the dread for laughs as strong as this story?
DC: I think I’m lucky that my style is very universal. So you can go from a serious storyline to a complete comedy and everything in between. This is comedy/horror, so I wanted to make sure the comedy elements were strong. Not as scary as other dread artists, Nick Percival and Dave Kendall, but not just enough to blend in with the powerful comedy elements.
AE: I haven’t changed much about dreads – I have the theory that dreads are not our Batman as ours. Readers remember him as a lack of a sense of humor because his delivery is so incredibly deadpan. But as you go back and read the old strips, he is constantly dry or leaning down into a terrible pun.
Even though the strip was purely future police proceedings, Dread still allows for the occasional one-liner, so in light episodes like this we enjoyed a real moan.
Q: I don’t want to tread a joke, so I generally ask about puns… how did they find their way into the story? Were they on the script from the beginning? Have you worked with them at all?
DC: This is all AL’s job. He is a genius.
AE: I’m all scared. The weekly pace of AD in 2000 means that compcopies do not tend to see art before they pass through the letterbox. This was if all the jokes were there from the start. Like dread, the endline separated by a tough “movement!” might be one of the best puns I’ve written for dread, but I can’t say the same thing about the one just before.
Q: Finally, this starts because the holidays were essentially wrong… Have you ever suffered through a tragic holiday? If so, could you tell us about it?
AE: I once had a bad oyster in Edinburgh – it greeted me on my way home, but I ended up drawing the side of the train (and the person with the window open). Apart from that, most of my holidays are pretty decent, even in the small numbers.
DC: Personally, I wasn’t, but there was my companion who had to shut himself up one of the spires of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona and run the wrong way safely. It’s horror/comedy out there!
2000AD SF SPECIAL 2025 will be released on July 16th!
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SDCC Coverage sponsored by Mad Cave
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