The appearance of Judge Dredd and specifically the fact that the reader never gets to see his face only adds to the mystery surrounding this character.  In the early days of 2000AD there was even some confusion as to whether Dredd is black or white – Carlos Ezquerra in particular drew a Dredd with black characteristics but in a black and white comic strip no one noticed.  Not long after Dredd became permanently white.

Whether the intention was always to keep Dredd’s ‘story’ something of a mystery or whether the details surrounding his life would be gradually revealed is a little unclear.  The success of the character for the past thirty five years or so has meant that, little by little, more private details have emerged.  Of course there are only so many story lines you can write over that number of years which avoid Dredd’s personal details completely.

So what do we know about him?  We know he has a brother, Rico Dredd, who has featured as an evil character in various story lines.  Rico also featured in the 1995 movie Judge Dredd.  He also has a niece, Vienna (Rico’s daughter) who has appeared in several stories, being saved by Dredd along the way.   He has relatively close and trusting relationships with one or two other characters including Chief Judge Hershey and the female Judge Anderson.  Those who saw the movie will remember with displeasure the ill-advised idea to concoct some sort of romantic relationship between Dredd and Anderson.

Aside from that there’s not really much more.  The world of Judge Dredd came into being after a devastating war, followed by a period of civil war and food shortage.  Our knowledge of his world has expanded over the years and he has visited various Mega-cities around the world – Brit Cit, Hong Tong and Murphyville, to name a few.  Cold war enmities still exist, despite a thawing in real life, and the Block Wars episodes stand out as a symbol of this power struggle.  The world of Judge Dredd has been built into a complex one, with occasional moments of contemporary satire and political references, but it’s still the same entertaining shoot em up is was thirty years ago.