roleplay-geek: Judge Dredd: Miniature Posters for a Miniature Mega City One

Saturday 27 May 2023

Judge Dredd: Miniature Posters for a Miniature Mega City One

One of the things that makes Mega City One come alive is the signage. Consider this my attempt to gather some in-universe posters to adorn my Mega City One Storage Block.

In the metropolis of the future 96% of citizens are unemployed (some even unemployable) and so the only thing left to them is either crime or consumerism. There is always a new craze sweeping the streets and these things don't just sell themselves, they require the efforts of countless marketing droids to dream up the latest zarjazz ad campaign.

One of the things I loved about the Dredd (2012) movie was the attention to detail that the production designers went to in populating the walls and foyer of Peach Trees to make it look like it was really lived in and dystopian.

I think there should be a juxtaposition between the official Justice department signage which features slogans like "The Law is Watching You" or "Obey the Law" and the rampant consumerism posters of the mega corps. It should feel like a living nightmare between the movies "1984" and "Idiocracy".

Posters on the Web

I've created posters for my games a number of times and even did one for Fratellis Pizza Truck Sign when I needed signage for the side of a Pizza Truck.

I did some research and found only a handful of ready to go posters such as this Psi Division recruitment poster by Miguel Mercado. The Judge Dredd pages of Wargaming Girl's Blog is a treasure trove some beutiful 28 mm minis and scenery builds including this Get Ugly Billboard which is definitely what I am leaning towards.

Judge Dredd (In Universe) Posters

Cal is Watching You! - Who could forget Judge Caligula, the mad tyrant whose reign of terror brought Mega City One to its knees and sentenced an entire city to death. Part of this story would form the basis for the Judge Dredd (1995) movie plot in which Dredd is framed for murder and sentenced to life imprisonment on Titan The locations may have changed but the sentiment is there and produces the memorable showdown with Mean Machine Angel.

Cal introduced one of the greatest Alien species to have graced the pages of 2000AD, in the form of Kleggs. They have to be one of my favourites, the crocodile headed, 8 foot tall monsters whose only thought was killing and eating raw meat. I of course modelled these as one of my Mega City Gangs.

Get Ugly! - This mock advert graced the cover of Eagle Comics Presents Judge Dredd #25 (Nov 1985) and a bit of manipulation removes the Title leaving the gorgeous Brian Bolland artwork. Whilst Otto Sump's Ugly Clinics are long past their heyday, the Ugly craze still has its devotees who wouldn't dream of changing.

Otto Sump is one of the most prolific entrepreneurs of early Dredd stories and the creator of the tasty and nutritious food substitute made from industrial waste known as Gunge.

Gunge was an instant hit, being twice as nutritious as the current food alternative Munce.

I came across this Gunge image which was easily converted into a poster with a little bit of slimy text.

Otto Sump is such a goldmine of great imagery that it would literally be a crime to not include his tasty sewage in a can for my citizens to salivate over.

Sadly the Justice Department quickly put the kybosh on Otto Sump's culinary empire and outlawed the product and repurposed it for their own unflavoured Justice Department Rations. Sump was unconcerned as there is nothing better for a businessman than having a steady stream of income from a Government contract.

Uncle Umps Umpty Candy was another classic Dredd storyline and a pastiche on Willy Wonka. Ump was just a kindly old man whose crime was to make candy which was deemed dangerously delicious by the Justice Department. Uncle Ump ultimately wound up in a maximum security penal colony in space, far away from Mega City One and the many millions of potential addicts

Homebrewed Advertisements

Ladies Night at Aggro Dome - The Aggro Dome is a popular venue for the upstanding law abiding citizen to vent their rage on a regular basis. Why not have a good old fashioned bar brawl without the beer (because that's an illegal stimulant).

Settle those neighbourly disputes in a safe and legal way by bashing each other over the head with a cricket bat. All protective equipment available at a small rental fee. Juveniles ages 5+ welcome.

Bring your wife, mother, girl-friend or grandmother all are welcome and all ladies get in for free on Friday Night.

Landrover the Mega City Car You Can Rely On - The Land Rover City Car was one of the iconic vehicles created for the Judge Dredd (1985) movie.

It came in a couple of different versions, 31 were made for the movie including 2 fully road legal ones. Based on a Land Rover Forward Control 101 chassis. I remember seeing one of these as a teen at the Model Engineers Exhibition where they had a Judge Dredd movie display featuring the ABC Robot which demonstrated pneumatic animatronics. It was pretty freaking awesome.

I am still looking for a good model that I can add to my collection of 15mm Judge Dredd Vehicles so if you know where one is please drop a comment in the box below. - https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/game/cursed-earth-taxi

Boing! - An old favourite and guaranteed to keep even a Dark Judge at bay, The all new Strawberry flavoured Boing! is the latest craze to hit the shelves. But don't get carried away kids as you can only legally and safely use Boing! in your local Palais de Boing!

Boingers featured as a random encounter in my last Judge Dredd game and I custom crafted a couple of the sproingy fellons out of christmas decorations. They worked out really well and I definitely should make some more now I have access to a resin 3D printer. Check out my 15mm Boingers

No Illegal Aliens - Brian Bolland artwork to the rescue. This cool mashup of Judge Dredd and a Mars Attacks alien was for a crossover comic by IDW. This is a great cover and lends itself really well to a quick bit of photoshop to remove all the text. This will look really great stuck to the side of my Block Storage Case.

Mantic Games published a 28mm wargame in the Mars Attacks universe and I would love to print off some 15mm aliens to be one of my Mega City Gangs.

All I could find for free was a mars attacks alien head and I think there are some 15mm Horde of The Things minis out there which would do a better job.

Marty McFly's Mopads - If you can't trust a used mopad salesman then who can you trust am I right?. This was an experiment in AI generated content using the Text to Image art generator Marty McFly's Used Mopads Poster.

Ignoring all the controversy, I thought this was an excellent starting point although it took quite a few prompts to get something I was truly happy with as a starting point for this image.

I'm looking at utilising AI more during game prep in the future and its use in games at my regular friday night sessions at Dragons Keep Roleplay Club is on the rise. I for one welcome my new robot overlords.

Emphatically Yes trousers are one of the many Mega City corporations who hare handpicken to suppy only the best services and products to the Justice Department itself. Avid readers of 2000AD will of course recognise the name or more likely recocnise the name of it's owner Phillip Janet Maybe.

PJ has to be one of the greatest criminal minds of his era and one of Judge Dredd's erstwhile protagonists having murdered his way to being a millionaire and managed to outwit Dredd on many occassions. However, just like the RCMP Dredd always gets his man and PJ Maybe finally met his end falling from a zoom car and exploding at the same time.

Killdozer / Landcruiser One of the greatest toy merchandising deals of my childhood was the 2000AD & Matchbox "Adventure 2000" range of diecast vehicles which came out in 1977. This was the vehicle of choice for Judge Dredd's famous excursion into the Cursed Earth in a bid to deliver the antidote to the 2T(fru)T virus to the inhabitants of Mega City Two.

This cross country road trip was inspired by the Roger Zelazny Novel "Damnation Alley". It was a rip snorting adventure which saw Dredd's team face challenge after challenge and steadily get whittled down to just one man. Along the way we saw the Jolly Green Giant defeated, Mt Rushmore destroyed and were introduced to greats such as the Doomsday Dogs, the Angel Gang and Satanus. The Killdozer of course was destroyed fairly early on in this mammoth trek, but it went out with a bang and was immortalised forecer in thousands of diecast toys around the country.

Not Dredd but the Sentiment is Right

Better Dead Than Red - Sums up all that post Apocalypse War, Sov Bloc hatred that followed the almost annihilation of Mega City One back in 2103. There will be few alive today that remember those times but surviving Pre-Atomic blocks still carry the signs and scars of battle.

These will most likely adorn the walls of the Black Museum or perhaps some long forgotten bomb shelter or underground evacuation center.

With its roots in the Communist Red Scare of 1950s America, this is a classic example of Cold War Propagandism which 2000AD emulated so well during the 80s when the news papers and TV were all consumed by the threat of a Russian disctator with access to a nuclear arsenal. Nothing changes much then...

Offworld - The off world colonies are out of reach for most of the inhabitants of earth as they don't meet the strict genetic requirements. For others it is a chance to start afresh and make a mess of a new planet. At least you will be able to live side by side in peace with those pesky replicants we all hear about.

I love that the corporate creations of Ridley Scott's Bladerunner and Alien universes have taken on a life of their own beyond the movie franchises. You can see it all across geek culture in the huge number of T-Shirt designs that you can buy featuring the Weiland-Yutani or Tyrell Corp logos. Other great sci-fi movies have followed suit with a plethora of tourism posters and fake corporate adverts for holidays on Tattooine or cab rides from Corbyn Dallas.

Be Pure, Be Vigilant, Behave - The catchphrase of Torquemada the Grand Inquisitor and the villain of the 2000AD sister strip Nemesis the Warlock.

When I was a regular reader there was a huge crossover with the ABC Warriors and Nemesis which was one of the first sightings of artwork by Simon Bisley. The most famous of these robots being Ro-Jaws and Hammerstein who made their debut in the Pat Mills penned Ro-Busters strip. I have a particular penchant for this pair who I swear must be inspired by R2-D2 and C3-P0.

Be Pure, Be Vigilant, Behave is one of those great lines which blends the sinister authoritarianism of Orwell's 1984, the quirky establishmentarianism of Empire and the British Ministry of War posters of WW2. It's also a fitting title for 2000AD creator Pat Mill's book about the comics industry he helped to form.

12 Monkeys - If you haven't seen this fantastically trippy Terry Gilliam movie starring Bruce Willis then you should. A central theme to the story being the proliferation of the mysterious 12 monkeys posters and grafitti in a pre-apocalypse New York. Who is posting them up? What are the 12 monkeys? 00 What does it all mean? The story unravels piece by piece as you are convinced that the main character is losing his mind as his reality and his future crumble.

Terry has always been a visionary when it comes to dreaming up dystopian futures. My favourite has to be the amazing Brazil. I should really get around to creating a storyline around guerilla plumber extraordinaire and bane of Central Services Harry Tuttle.

Download These Judge Dredd Mini Posters and More

If you need some quirky Judge Dredd Posters for your game and don't want to spend days scouring the internet like I did... I've put all these and more together for in one Judge Dredd Miniposters JPG below which you can download below.