"Krong"
Mega City One Year: 2099
Published 26th March 1977, 2000ad Prog: 5 (Reprinted Judge Dredd Annual 1982, Judge Dredd: Monkey Business, The Complete Judge Dredd 1, The Best Of Judge Dredd and Judge Dredd The Complete Case Files 01)
Parts: 1
Written by Malcolm Shaw
Illustrated by Carlos Ezquerra
Letters by S. Richardson
Synopsis
Whilst in his apartment on downtime, Dredd is interrupted by his cleaner, Maria, as she lets in salesman Kevin O’Neill, of Sensor-Round, who attempts to sell visual special dream effects to spruce up Dredd’s apartment experience. O’Neill is immediately ejected by Dredd along with Maria, who laments Dredd’s obsession with the law and little else.
Moments later Dredd is interrupted again, this time due to a dead body found in the same apartment block, that of the President of Sensor-Round, who appears to have been ripped apart by a monster. In the days following, other high-ranking members are murdered by giant monsters also, culminating in Dredd being fed a voice print taken from the murder scenes, via Justice Department control, belonging to the curator of the movie special effects museum, and is instructed to bring them to justice.
Upon arrival at the museum, with Dredd realising it must be the movie models used to commit the murders, the curator is revealed as Sensor-Round salesman O’Neill, who is out to destroy the company as their product has resulted in special effect movie monsters becoming forgotten. O’Neill then proceeds to activate Krong, a giant movie monster gorilla, who begins to destroy sections of the city and climbs the Sensor-Round building. Dredd rides the high-rise highways on his Lawmaster, driving it through the monsters mouth, diving to safety at the last moment. The bike explodes, killing the monster, and it plummets to the street level below, flattening O’Neill and ending any further threat for good.
Krong is a blueprint for many cases to come for Dredd, murders driven by petty jealousy with the ways and means usually over the top. Given it’s a radically futuristic city those ways and means will often be over the top also, but there’s nothing wrong with that. Krong is also a nice ode to King Kong, of which the remake of 1976 was likely still in cinemas when this story was conceived.
This is also the first published strip from Dredd’s artist creator Carlos Ezquerra, and immediately his intricate facial details strike out, as does his ability to define age by his cheek lines. The plant monster looks great also, maybe a nod to Little Shop of Horrors? Overall, Krong is another great Mega-City One introductory tale, complete with science fiction futuristic elements yet revealing historical hints of a then-present 1970s that keeps it grounded for readers then and now. Plus, it looks great too.
Line of the strip: “Maria - throw this ferret-faced parasite out before I drown you in your minestrone!"
Be back next time citizens for “Frankenstein II”!
