The Dead Man
Encyclopedia
The Dead Man was a science fiction strip in the British comic 2000 AD
by writer John Wagner
and artist John Ridgway
, published in black and white in 1989–90. Although it was not billed as a Judge Dredd
story, it was set in Judge Dredd's world in 2112, and featured a new character called the Dead Man. It was part of a series of stories that set the scene for the main Judge Dredd story of 1990, "Necropolis
."
, a young boy living in the Cursed Earth
, a radioactive desert in post-nuclear war America where the whole story takes place. Yassa discovers the body of a man with appalling injuries caused by acid burns, leaving him so badly disfigured that he effectively has no face left. At first believing the man to be dead, Yassa is startled when the man regains consciousness, and he runs home to get help. The townsfolk collect the injured man and take him back with them, fully expecting him to die during the night, but he survives. When he has finally recovered enough to talk, it transpires that the mental trauma caused by his injuries has caused him to lose his memory, and he has no idea of who he is. Therefore Yassa nicknames him "Dead Man," and for want of a better alternative the name sticks.
Once the Dead Man has finished recuperating, he resolves to set out on his own and retrace his steps in an effort to find out who he was. Yassa's father gives him a rifle and some clothes: a brown overcoat and a wide-brimmed hat, giving him the appearance of a character from a Western. The Dead Man sets out alone, but is followed by Yassa and his dog. When the Dead Man discovers Yassa, he forbids him to accompany him any further due to the exceptionally dangerous terrain they will be passing through, but Yassa disobeys and the Dead Man gives up trying to stop him.
The rest of the story tells of their hazardous journey through the Cursed Earth, during which they are attacked by various hostile inhabitants. Throughout the story the Dead Man is plagued by enigmatic nightmares and half-memories of the circumstances of his near-fatal injuries.
During their journey they not only encounter the usual Cursed Earth mutants, but also are occasionally visited by a strange, supernatural presence: a woman dressed in black. At first beautiful, she later transforms into a terrifying monster before disappearing.
Eventually the pair reach a river of acid, where the Dead Man finds traces of the clothing he was wearing when Yassa first found him. His memory slowly begins to return as he recalls running through the river, pursued by an unseen foe, and then losing his footing and falling into the acid. Soon after they reach a small town called Crowley, where they both sense the presence of some great evil and Yassa's dog refuses to go any further. Entering the town, they find the whole place has been burned down, and the streets littered with corpses. There are no survivors.
The Dead Man discovers more artifacts which belonged to him and which help to jog his memory: a wrecked motorbike, an irreparably damaged handgun, and pieces of an old uniform, including a badge. As the memory of his identity finally returns, the Dead Man shows Yassa the name on the badge: Dredd.
The Dead Man recalls that he resigned from the Justice Department and took the Long Walk
into the Cursed Earth, leaving Mega-City One
behind for ever. After one hundred days of bringing law to the lawless outside the city walls, he reached Crowley, where he was attacked by the Sisters of Death
, who incinerated everyone, chased him into the acid river and left him for dead.
At the very moment of this revelation, the two Sisters of Death – Nausea and Phobia – manifest themselves in their hideous true forms, and burn Yassa's eyeballs out of his skull. They try to kill Dredd, but this time Dredd realises what he did not understand before: the Sisters are not physically present, but are only psionic projections
, illusions which can only harm him if he believes they can. By refusing to believe they can hurt him, Dredd survives their assault, but Yassa is too terrified to heed his warning and is therefore blinded.
Once the Sisters have vanished, Dredd takes Yassa back home, where he is denounced by Yassa's mother for allowing her son to be exposed to such peril. Dredd is remorseful, realising too late that he should have done more to stop Yassa from following him in the first place. However he must travel to Mega-City One to investigate what is happening there, since if the evil Dark Judges
have returned then the whole city is at risk.
Left behind, Yassa struggles to cope not only with his blindness, but also with the nightmares about that fateful encounter which wake him screaming every night. Unable to forget that terrible day, he becomes envious of the Dead Man's loss of memory, wishing that he could forget too.
in 1990. So important were the surprise revelations of the Dead Man's identity and of Dredd's resignation from the force in the penultimate episode that writer John Wagner used a pseudonym
, Keef Ripley, to impede readers in guessing the answer, rightly reasoning that readers would assume that a new and unknown writer would not be allowed to make such major changes in the continuity of 2000 ADs star character. (2000 AD had already published several spin-off
s from the Judge Dredd strip before, without Dredd appearing in them, so the fact that the story was set in Dredd's universe was not the give-away it might otherwise have been.)
The Dead Man was immediately followed in the regular Judge Dredd strip by a prequel, "Tale of the Dead Man," told almost entirely in flashback
, which recounted how and why Dredd resigned and took the Long Walk. This was then followed by the five-episode "Countdown to Necropolis" which set the scene for "Necropolis" proper. "Necropolis" and its numerous prologues and epilogues brought together and resolved hitherto separate plot threads that had been running through the Judge Dredd strip for the preceding four years, and collectively had repercussions that were still being felt another four years later, ending at the conclusion of the "Mechanismo
" storyline.
The Dead Man is also notable for containing a rare depiction of Judge Dredd in which he is not wearing his feature-obscuring helmet.
and artists Will Simpson and Jeff Anderson). It was preceded by a one-episode prologue, "A Letter to Judge Dredd" by Wagner and Simpson, a notable story in its own right which also had a significant impact on the events which unfolded in the "Tale of the Dead Man."
Besides its immediate importance in the build-up to "Necropolis,"
the "Tale" is notable for a number of other reasons: it features Dredd's resignation from the force; the death of his mentor, Judge Morphy; and it significantly developed the supporting character Judge Kraken
, who was to have a major role in "Necropolis." Its epilogue, "By Lethal Injection," saw Kraken being ordered to impersonate Dredd to cover up Dredd's resignation, a deception which ultimately was instrumental in bringing about the conquest of Mega-City One
and the deaths of over 60 million people.
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...
by writer John Wagner
John Wagner
John 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 artist John Ridgway
John Ridgway (comic artist)
John Ridgway is a British comics artist.-Career:Ridgway began his career initially as a hobby, drawing D.C.Thompson's Commando War Stories alongside professional work as a design engineer...
, published in black and white in 1989–90. Although it was not billed as a 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...
story, it was set in Judge Dredd's world in 2112, and featured a new character called the Dead Man. It was part of a series of stories that set the scene for the main Judge Dredd story of 1990, "Necropolis
Necropolis (Judge Dredd story)
Necropolis is a 26-part Judge Dredd epic by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra, published in 1990 in 2000 AD progs 674–699. The story was the subject of extensive foreshadowing in the comic, beginning with The Dead Man , followed by "Tale of the Dead Man" , and finally three stories collectively...
."
Plot
The story is told from the point of view of Yassa PoveyYassa Povey
Yassa Povey is a fictional character in British comic 2000 AD. His first and main appearance was in Judge Dredd spin-off The Dead Man . He later briefly appeared in the Judge Dredd series itself ....
, a young boy living in the Cursed Earth
Cursed Earth
The Cursed Earth is a part of the fictional universe from the Judge Dredd series that appears in the UK comic book 2000 AD.-Background:...
, a radioactive desert in post-nuclear war America where the whole story takes place. Yassa discovers the body of a man with appalling injuries caused by acid burns, leaving him so badly disfigured that he effectively has no face left. At first believing the man to be dead, Yassa is startled when the man regains consciousness, and he runs home to get help. The townsfolk collect the injured man and take him back with them, fully expecting him to die during the night, but he survives. When he has finally recovered enough to talk, it transpires that the mental trauma caused by his injuries has caused him to lose his memory, and he has no idea of who he is. Therefore Yassa nicknames him "Dead Man," and for want of a better alternative the name sticks.
Once the Dead Man has finished recuperating, he resolves to set out on his own and retrace his steps in an effort to find out who he was. Yassa's father gives him a rifle and some clothes: a brown overcoat and a wide-brimmed hat, giving him the appearance of a character from a Western. The Dead Man sets out alone, but is followed by Yassa and his dog. When the Dead Man discovers Yassa, he forbids him to accompany him any further due to the exceptionally dangerous terrain they will be passing through, but Yassa disobeys and the Dead Man gives up trying to stop him.
The rest of the story tells of their hazardous journey through the Cursed Earth, during which they are attacked by various hostile inhabitants. Throughout the story the Dead Man is plagued by enigmatic nightmares and half-memories of the circumstances of his near-fatal injuries.
During their journey they not only encounter the usual Cursed Earth mutants, but also are occasionally visited by a strange, supernatural presence: a woman dressed in black. At first beautiful, she later transforms into a terrifying monster before disappearing.
Eventually the pair reach a river of acid, where the Dead Man finds traces of the clothing he was wearing when Yassa first found him. His memory slowly begins to return as he recalls running through the river, pursued by an unseen foe, and then losing his footing and falling into the acid. Soon after they reach a small town called Crowley, where they both sense the presence of some great evil and Yassa's dog refuses to go any further. Entering the town, they find the whole place has been burned down, and the streets littered with corpses. There are no survivors.
The Dead Man discovers more artifacts which belonged to him and which help to jog his memory: a wrecked motorbike, an irreparably damaged handgun, and pieces of an old uniform, including a badge. As the memory of his identity finally returns, the Dead Man shows Yassa the name on the badge: Dredd.
The Dead Man recalls that he resigned from the Justice Department and took the Long Walk
The Long Walk (Judge Dredd)
The Long Walk is an event occasionally depicted in the long-running British comic strip Judge Dredd, which appears in 2000 AD and the Judge Dredd Megazine. It also featured in the 1995 film starring Sylvester Stallone....
into the Cursed Earth, leaving Mega-City One
Mega-City One
Mega-City One is a huge fictional city-state covering much of what is now the Eastern United States in the Judge Dredd comic book series. The exact boundaries of the city depend on which artist has drawn the story...
behind for ever. After one hundred days of bringing law to the lawless outside the city walls, he reached Crowley, where he was attacked by the Sisters of Death
Dark Judges
The Dark Judges are recurring villains in the fictional Judge Dredd universe recounted in the UK comic 2000 AD. They are Judge Death, Judge Fire, Judge Fear and Judge Mortis. Later storylines added the "Sisters of Death" , to their ranks...
, who incinerated everyone, chased him into the acid river and left him for dead.
At the very moment of this revelation, the two Sisters of Death – Nausea and Phobia – manifest themselves in their hideous true forms, and burn Yassa's eyeballs out of his skull. They try to kill Dredd, but this time Dredd realises what he did not understand before: the Sisters are not physically present, but are only psionic projections
Psionics
Psionics refers to the practice, study, or psychic ability of using the mind to induce paranormal phenomena. Examples of this include telepathy, telekinesis, and other workings of the outside world through the psyche.-History and terminology:...
, illusions which can only harm him if he believes they can. By refusing to believe they can hurt him, Dredd survives their assault, but Yassa is too terrified to heed his warning and is therefore blinded.
Once the Sisters have vanished, Dredd takes Yassa back home, where he is denounced by Yassa's mother for allowing her son to be exposed to such peril. Dredd is remorseful, realising too late that he should have done more to stop Yassa from following him in the first place. However he must travel to Mega-City One to investigate what is happening there, since if the evil Dark Judges
Dark Judges
The Dark Judges are recurring villains in the fictional Judge Dredd universe recounted in the UK comic 2000 AD. They are Judge Death, Judge Fire, Judge Fear and Judge Mortis. Later storylines added the "Sisters of Death" , to their ranks...
have returned then the whole city is at risk.
Left behind, Yassa struggles to cope not only with his blindness, but also with the nightmares about that fateful encounter which wake him screaming every night. Unable to forget that terrible day, he becomes envious of the Dead Man's loss of memory, wishing that he could forget too.
Significance
The Dead Man was a major event in the history of the Judge Dredd strip, as it heralded the onset of the 26-episode epic "Necropolis"Necropolis (Judge Dredd story)
Necropolis is a 26-part Judge Dredd epic by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra, published in 1990 in 2000 AD progs 674–699. The story was the subject of extensive foreshadowing in the comic, beginning with The Dead Man , followed by "Tale of the Dead Man" , and finally three stories collectively...
in 1990. So important were the surprise revelations of the Dead Man's identity and of Dredd's resignation from the force in the penultimate episode that writer John Wagner used a pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
, Keef Ripley, to impede readers in guessing the answer, rightly reasoning that readers would assume that a new and unknown writer would not be allowed to make such major changes in the continuity of 2000 ADs star character. (2000 AD had already published several spin-off
Spin-off (media)
In media, a spin-off is a radio program, television program, video game, or any narrative work, derived from one or more already existing works, that focuses, in particular, in more detail on one aspect of that original work...
s from the Judge Dredd strip before, without Dredd appearing in them, so the fact that the story was set in Dredd's universe was not the give-away it might otherwise have been.)
The Dead Man was immediately followed in the regular Judge Dredd strip by a prequel, "Tale of the Dead Man," told almost entirely in flashback
Flashback (narrative)
Flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events or to fill in crucial backstory...
, which recounted how and why Dredd resigned and took the Long Walk. This was then followed by the five-episode "Countdown to Necropolis" which set the scene for "Necropolis" proper. "Necropolis" and its numerous prologues and epilogues brought together and resolved hitherto separate plot threads that had been running through the Judge Dredd strip for the preceding four years, and collectively had repercussions that were still being felt another four years later, ending at the conclusion of the "Mechanismo
Mechanismo
Mechanismo is the title of a Judge Dredd story published in the British comic Judge Dredd Megazine in 1992. It was the first story in a series of stories published over the next two years in both the Megazine and 2000 AD, most notably the epic "Wilderlands." The stories concern the Mechanismo...
" storyline.
The Dead Man is also notable for containing a rare depiction of Judge Dredd in which he is not wearing his feature-obscuring helmet.
Tale of the Dead Man
As soon as The Dead Man finished, "Tale of the Dead Man" began in the same issue (by John WagnerJohn Wagner
John 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 artists Will Simpson and Jeff Anderson). It was preceded by a one-episode prologue, "A Letter to Judge Dredd" by Wagner and Simpson, a notable story in its own right which also had a significant impact on the events which unfolded in the "Tale of the Dead Man."
Besides its immediate importance in the build-up to "Necropolis,"
Necropolis (Judge Dredd story)
Necropolis is a 26-part Judge Dredd epic by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra, published in 1990 in 2000 AD progs 674–699. The story was the subject of extensive foreshadowing in the comic, beginning with The Dead Man , followed by "Tale of the Dead Man" , and finally three stories collectively...
the "Tale" is notable for a number of other reasons: it features Dredd's resignation from the force; the death of his mentor, Judge Morphy; and it significantly developed the supporting character Judge Kraken
Judge Kraken
Judge Kraken is a fictional character in the Judge Dredd comic strip featured in the long-running British comic 2000 AD. Although he only appeared in a few episodes, he was nonetheless a very important character in Tale of the Dead Man, in which he was given almost equal billing with Dredd, and in...
, who was to have a major role in "Necropolis." Its epilogue, "By Lethal Injection," saw Kraken being ordered to impersonate Dredd to cover up Dredd's resignation, a deception which ultimately was instrumental in bringing about the conquest of Mega-City One
Mega-City One
Mega-City One is a huge fictional city-state covering much of what is now the Eastern United States in the Judge Dredd comic book series. The exact boundaries of the city depend on which artist has drawn the story...
and the deaths of over 60 million people.
Publication
- The Dead Man first appeared in 2000 AD #650-662. It has been collected in trade paperbacksTrade paperback (comics)In comics, a trade paperback is a collection of stories originally published in comic books, reprinted in book format, usually capturing one story arc from a single title or a series of stories with a connected story arc or common theme from one or more titles...
twice:- By Titan BooksTitan BooksTitan Publishing Group is an independently owned publishing company, established in 1981. It is based at offices in London, England's Bankside area. The Books Division has two main areas of publishing: film & TV tie-ins/cinema reference books; and graphic novels and comics reference/art titles. The...
, 19911991 in comics-January:* Checkmate is canceled by DC Comics with issue #33.* El Diablo vol. 2 is canceled by DC with issue #16.* Count Duckula is canceled by the Marvel Comics imprint Star Comics with issue #15....
(ISBN 1-85286-381-1) - By RebellionRebellion DevelopmentsRebellion is a British computer games company, based in Oxford, who are most famous for the first Aliens vs. Predator computer game. It has published comic books since 2000 and launched its own book imprint, Abaddon Books, in 2006.-History:...
, 2009 (ISBN 978-1-906735-19-7)
- By Titan Books
- Judge Dredd: "Tale of the Dead Man" first appeared in 2000 AD #662-668. It was collected in Necropolis Book One and Judge Dredd: The Complete Casefiles 14, but it has also had its own release:
- Judge Dredd: Tale of the Dead Man (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...
, Fleetway, July 1991, ISBN 1-85386-245-2):- "A Letter to Judge Dredd" (with Will Simpson, in 2000 AD #661, 1990)
- "Tale of the Dead Man" (with Will Simpson (1-4) and Jeff Anderson (5-7), in 2000 AD #662-668, 1990)
- Judge Dredd: Tale of the Dead Man (by John Wagner