I joined the party on Judge Dredd: Grud is Dead relatively late in the day, after having completed work on my script for Judge Dredd: Jihad, the opening story in the ‘second season’ of Big Finish’s 2000AD Presents audio drama series. Featuring a team-up between Dredd and the popular character of the “camp vamp” occult adventurer Devlin Waugh, Grud is Dead came from a plot idea created by producer John Ainsworth and Judge Dredd Megazine editor Alan Barnes. Ainsworth and Barnes brought writer Simon Jowett on board to develop the storyline, but after completing an initial draft of the script, Jowett left the project and I was invited to take over.
Following the story through a number of rewrites, I brought the hard-edged, macho lawman character of Dredd into verbal conflict with the foppish and erudite (but no less tough) Waugh, as the two of them become embroiled in an attempt by a renegade cadre of Vatican priests to create their own God…uh, I mean Grud. Originally created by writer John Smith, Devlin’s debut story “Swimming in Blood” was a big hit with 2000AD readers and despite a history fraught with production problems (ex-editor David Bishop once spoke of “the curse of Devlin Waugh”) his appearances over the years have garnered great interest. The Vatican’s top spook-hunter and investigator of the unexplained, with his rapier wit, debonaire attitude, and distinctive ‘voice’, Devlin is an ideal candidate for audio – he joins the ranks for 2000AD heroes that have crossed over into the audio world along with Dredd himself, Judge Death, Walter the Wobot and Johnny Alpha.
Devlin Waugh is often described as “Noel Coward with the body of Arnold Schwarzenegger“, so in the spirit of that I dropped a couple of genuine Coward quotes into his dialogue… He also sings “I’m Just Wild About Harry“, Eubie Blake’s 1921 song made popular by Judy Garland.
The group known as Sanctus Dominus were originally based on an actual religious group called Opus Dei, as suggested by Devlin’s creator John Smith; Smith had toyed with the idea of using them in a story with Waugh but had never got around to it. The real Opus Dei have caused much controversy with their fundamentalist views on religion (although it’s unclear if they’re trying to create their own god or not).
Character names; the luckless librarian Tydaeus remains from the original version of Simon Jowett’s script, and he shares his name and position with a figure from a Warhammer 40,000 short story Simon wrote. Judge Logan is named after the titular hero of Logan’s Run; in the novel, Logan 5, like Dredd, used a pistol with multi-function bullets. Vatican Inquisitor-Judge Hirundo gets his name from hirundo rustica, the latin name for the swallow, while Venti should be familiar to anyone who orders a large coffee in Starbucks.
Tips of the hat to other media include nods to Aliens, Blade Runner, Vivian Stanshall’s Sir Henry at Rawlinson End, Tomorrow Never Dies, Big Trouble in Little China, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Romeo & Juliet, Alice in Wonderland and This is Spinal Tap.
Other Judge Dredd continuity includes references to – the Necromagus Sabbat from “Judgement Day“; Devlin Waugh’s appearances in “Swimming in Blood“, the sequel “Red Tide“, “Brief Encounter” and “Fetish“; Psi-Judges Judy Janus and Karyn; Otto Sump’s Ugly Clinic and the starship Justice One.
