ENNIS, GARTH & DILLON, and STEVE –JUDGE DREDD – THE MAGIC MELLOW OUT – in the EMERALD ISLE collection, 2001 Titan Books. 2000 AD
Possibly the most
extreme and bizarre surreal Judge Dredd story of all, serving as an
unexpectedly ingenious tribute to the popular children’s animated series, The
Magic Roundabout. The similarities to the TV show are far from coincidental.
There is even an Eric Thompson building in the story (Thompson being the
narrator of the old TV show). Many as a thinly disguised satire on 1960’s drug
culture saw the Magic Roundabout. In the Judge Dredd take, that aspect is given
very literal life and energy. The Mellow Out of the title is a licensed theme
park at which wealthy guests are surrounded by cute puppet like druids that are
very similar to Magic Roundabout characters, i.e., a stoned rabbit called
Lennon (Dylan in the TV show). Florence, Dougal, Zebedee and Ermentrude also
have their counterparts in the theme park. However, the park drugs are leaking
out too fast and people are having such bad trips that they are committing
suicide. The robot puppets are innocent bystanders to all of this looking on in
confusion and surprise as a visitor hangs himself on a tree before their eyes.
Dredd asks the park owner, Flashback Gordon, the ultimate spaced out hippie, to
turn off the hallucegenic gas pipes, but when he gets into the park, the leak
causes even him to have a bad trip, until he activates his respirator breathing
mask. He ends up killing half of the puppet druids quite brutally and then
arrests Flashback Gordon for his gross negligence, leaving the few surviving
puppets wondering about their uncertain future. Deeply silly and exciting at the same time, this is Dredd at the
most imaginative cutting edge of comic bookdom. http://www.2000adonline.com/
© Copyright. Arthur
Chappell
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