June’s 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special will feature a story by Emma Beeby and Babs Tarr (Batgirl and Motor Crush), making it the first ever all woman creative team on the character.

Tarr tweeted an image to kick things off.

But they’re just part of a lineup that incldes artists Tula Lotay and Emily Zeinner on covers, with scripts by Alex De Campi, Laura Bailey, Katy Rex, Leah Moore, Olivia Hicks, and Maura McHugh, and art from Xulia Vicente, Sam Beck, Abigail Bulmer, Emma Vieceli and Dani. It will also include a Future Shock by award-winning graphic novelist Tillie Walden and a stunning Judge Anderson poster by artist Marguerite Sauvage.

I think they did bury the lede a bit there: Tillie Walden in the Judge Dredd-iverse?  Oh it’s not really in the Dredd-i-verse. but it’s still cool.

It did take a while: Judge Dredd: The Feels is the first ever comic published by 2000 AD in its 40-year history with female writers and artists to colorists and letterers.

In 2013 Beeby became the first woman to write Judge Dredd with Suicide Watch. 

Emma Beeby said: “Judge Dredd is really fun to write. He walks the line between hero and villain, comedy and horror. There’s something both disturbing and reassuring about getting into his head. I’m so excited to see this special, I can’t wait to see all these fantastic creators’ takes on these characters, not least Babs drawing Dredd – I love her BatgirlSO much. I remember I felt quite intimidated, being a woman writing such a legendary and masculine character, among all these male creators, but I was made welcome. It’s a great community of creators and fans and it feels like home to me now.”

Babs Tarr said: “Visually it’s just so fun I had to jump at the chance to get to draw Judge Dredd. Especially since I feel that people wouldn’t expect me to, which just makes me wanna prove them wrong! I know my collaborators Cameron Stewart and Brenden Fletcher are big fans and Cameron even did a short story a couple years ago, but that’s the extent of it for me. I think it’s a great move by 2000 AD that says all are welcome. As an anthology that has been groundbreaking and diverse in style and story for over 40 years, this seems completely appropriate. It’s going to be an incredible issue. It’s cool that it creates opportunities. I have an established comic career so I don’t need the exposure, so I took this project on ‘cause it sounded fun. BUT, if me being part of it helps shine light on new and existing female creators then I’m happy to be a part of it! My hope for the future is that we don’t need niche things like ‘all-female’ specials to give girls jobs in comics. That goes for every other minority in the industry as well.”

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3 COMMENTS

  2. Don’t know whether Tillie Walden would be good or bad but after reading one of her books (Spinning, in my case), you just need to see it

  3. Virtue signalling? Dredd has been pretty feminist since the get go, as has 2000AD. Female Judges established very early on. McGruder, Anderson and Hershey. All long time characters, and far from the only ones. Halo Jones. Durham Red. Venus Blue Genes. Those are the ones just off the top of my head, and my knowledge is far from encyclopaedic here.

    Of all the many wonderful things about The Galaxy’s Greatest Comic is that it’s never really been a run-of-the-mill sausagefest.

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