Otto Sump
Encyclopedia
Otto Sump is a fictional character
from the Judge Dredd
comic strip in British comic 2000 AD
.
Sump invested his new-found fortune into starting a beautician practice; when this failed (the incompetent Sump made his clients look even worse), he made a fortune by selling products which made people hideously ugly, which became fashionable. The Judges
tried to curtail this trend by punitively taxing ugly products, which thereupon became the preserve of the extremely wealthy. He also created a popular new food brand called "Gunge," which was made from insects and mould and the like. Gunge was banned following complaints from concerned citizens, but the Judges secretly made and sold it themselves under a new name, labelled with the Justice Department "approved" stamp so that the ingredients did not have to be listed.
Otto Sump went into business selling "Smart Sweets," which his customers believed would increase their intelligence. Although they did no such thing, Sump carefully avoided making any specific claims of their effectiveness in his commercials (even commenting that "You gotta be dumb to buy Smart Sweets) and thus stayed within the letter of the law. The unamused Judge Dredd found an excuse to shut this business down when a group of particularly stupid criminals claimed that Smart Sweets gave them the intelligence to plan a crime.
Eventually, the Ugly Clinics and related products became available at prices that citizens could afford; made increasingly rich, Sump donated a lot of his income to charity and would eventually marry an air-dancer & take his elderly mother into private healthcare. In the year 2124, he was murdered by his mother, who was disgusted and humiliated with his Ugly Clinic empire.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
from the Judge Dredd
Judge Dredd
Judge Joseph Dredd is a comics character whose strip in the British science fiction anthology 2000 AD is the magazine's longest running . Dredd is an American law enforcement officer in a violent city of the future where uniformed Judges combine the powers of police, judge, jury and executioner...
comic strip in British comic 2000 AD
2000 AD (comic)
2000 AD is a weekly British science fiction-oriented comic. As a comics anthology it serialises a number of separate stories each issue and was first published by IPC Magazines in 1977, the first issue dated 26 February. IPC then shifted the title to its Fleetway comics subsidiary which was sold...
.
Fictional character biography
Sump was a notoriously ugly man; so ugly that his parents abandoned him on the steps of a face-changing clinic. In later life, he was too ugly to be hired for any job other than "rat-scarer," and he lost that job when animal rights activists complained. When Judge Dredd learned that the successful contestants of a game show, "Sob Story" in which miserable people beg the audience to send them money, were being murdered and their winnings stolen, he had a computer find him the "worst hard-luck case in Mega-City One" to use as bait--and Sump "won hands down." Sump made a fortune, and Dredd caught his murderers when they tried to murder Sump.Sump invested his new-found fortune into starting a beautician practice; when this failed (the incompetent Sump made his clients look even worse), he made a fortune by selling products which made people hideously ugly, which became fashionable. The Judges
Judge (2000 AD)
Judge is a title held by several significant characters in the Judge Dredd series, which appears in the British comics 2000 AD and Judge Dredd Megazine...
tried to curtail this trend by punitively taxing ugly products, which thereupon became the preserve of the extremely wealthy. He also created a popular new food brand called "Gunge," which was made from insects and mould and the like. Gunge was banned following complaints from concerned citizens, but the Judges secretly made and sold it themselves under a new name, labelled with the Justice Department "approved" stamp so that the ingredients did not have to be listed.
Otto Sump went into business selling "Smart Sweets," which his customers believed would increase their intelligence. Although they did no such thing, Sump carefully avoided making any specific claims of their effectiveness in his commercials (even commenting that "You gotta be dumb to buy Smart Sweets) and thus stayed within the letter of the law. The unamused Judge Dredd found an excuse to shut this business down when a group of particularly stupid criminals claimed that Smart Sweets gave them the intelligence to plan a crime.
Eventually, the Ugly Clinics and related products became available at prices that citizens could afford; made increasingly rich, Sump donated a lot of his income to charity and would eventually marry an air-dancer & take his elderly mother into private healthcare. In the year 2124, he was murdered by his mother, who was disgusted and humiliated with his Ugly Clinic empire.
Appearances
Otto Sump appeared in 2000 AD progs 132, 186-188, 280, and 436. He also appeared in the Judge Dredd Megazine volume 4 issues 12-13.- Judge DreddJudge DreddJudge Joseph Dredd is a comics character whose strip in the British science fiction anthology 2000 AD is the magazine's longest running . Dredd is an American law enforcement officer in a violent city of the future where uniformed Judges combine the powers of police, judge, jury and executioner...
:- "Citizen Sump" (by John WagnerJohn WagnerJohn Wagner is a comics writer who was born in Pennsylvania in 1949 and moved to Scotland as a boy. Alongside Pat Mills, Wagner was responsible for revitalising British boys' comics in the 1970s, and has continued to be a leading light in British comics ever since.He is best known for his work on...
and John HigginsJohn Higgins (comics)John Higgins is an English comic book artist and writer. He did significant work for 2000 AD, and he has frequently worked with writer Alan Moore, most notably as colourist for Watchmen.-Biography:...
, in Judge Dredd MegazineJudge Dredd MegazineJudge Dredd: The Megazine is a monthly British comic magazine, launched in October 1990. It is a sister publication to 2000 AD. Its name is a play on words, formed from "magazine" and Dredd's locale Mega-City One.-Content:...
#4.12-4.12, 2002)
- "Citizen Sump" (by John Wagner