Judge Anderson: The PSI Files: Volume 05 (2016)

Judge Anderson: The PSI Files: Volume 05 (2016)

Author: Alan Grant  |  Illustrators: Arthur Ranson / Dave Taylor / Boo Cook / Robin Smith / Darren Douglas  |  Page Count: 320

"Best thing you can do is shoot me full of synthi-caf an' point me at the streets!"

The bulk of the content in Volume 5 first appeared in the Judge Dredd Megazine; the two bonus entries at the end of the book are the only exception.

The opening story is excellent. A single dialogue bubble adorns the page because it's all that's needed. It's as if Alan Grant was setting a renewed precedent for himself that everything afterwards attempts to equal, with varying degrees of success.

That same story is also the only one in the collection to be drawn by series regular Arthur Ranson. Most of the artwork thereafter is handled by Boo Cook.

I wasn't familiar with Boo's art prior to reading, but have since discovered that, like many 2000 AD artists, he started out by illustrating Future Shocks. They must have impressed Tharg, because Boo quickly moved onto ABC Warriors! Not long after he was drawing for Dredd and now Anderson.

Even though the characters and locations change, there's a recurring theme that I'm sure was no accident: each of the main stories have either an upfront or underlying element of the city fighting back against the citizens that call it home. It's an interesting device and one that I'm guessing was at least in part inspired by Japanese media. I'm even willing to bet that Grant was being influenced either by Masamune Shirow or the films/TV shows that are based on Shirow's works. Grant throws in a few kaijū references, too, because- well, why the hell not?

In fact, there's a shed-load of references to other stuff, including an early issue of 2000 AD (Prog 05) and a nod to the master of stop motion, Ray Harryhausen.

I was surprised at how brutal the violence was. Violence is a way of life in the Big Meg, but the severity we get in Vol 5 is of the kind that's usually reserved for Dredd's daily patrols, not Anderson's. It plays an active role, however, in the continued development (or erosion?) of the PSI Judge's psyche. She's once more pushed to an extreme, forced to either accept an impasse or to dive head first into an action that'll have lasting consequences on more than just one level.

Includes the stories:

Lucid (Judge Dredd Megazine 238-241)

Big Robots (Judge Dredd Megazine 257-264)

Wiierd (Judge Dredd Megazine 272-276)

Biophyle (Judge Dredd Megazine 277-278)

The House of Vyle (Judge Dredd Megazine 300-304)

The Trip (Judge Dredd Megazine 309-313)

Stone Voices (Judge Dredd Megazine 327-331)

What if...? (2000 AD Prog 1773)

Horror Comes to Velma Dinkley (2000 AD Winter Special 2014)