I Am the Law cover art

I Am the Law

How Judge Dredd Predicted Our Future

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About this listen

He is the law—and you better believe it!

Judge, jury, and executioner, Judge Dredd is the brutal comic book cop policing the chaotic future urban jungle of Mega-City One, created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra and launching in the pages of 2000 AD in 1977.

But what began as a sci-fi action comic quickly evolved into a searing satire on hardline, militarized policing and "law and order" politics, its endless inventiveness and ironic humor acting as a prophetic warning about our world today—and with important lessons for our future.

Blending comic book history with contemporary radical theories on policing, I Am The Law takes key Dredd stories from the last forty-five years and demonstrates how they provide a unique wake up call about our gradual, and not so gradual, slide towards authoritarian policing.

From the politicization of policing to "zero tolerance," from violent suppression of protest to the rise of the surveillance state, I Am The Law examines how a comic book warned us about the chilling endgame of today's "law and order" politics.

©2023 Rebellion Publishing Ltd. (P)2024 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books Freedom & Security Political Science Politics & Government Law Witty Socialism
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Perfect for a fan of 2000AD who was confused by the political stance of the comic as a kid and learning to understand the satire and how it relates to police abolition and the view of society as consumers. Narrator is clear and methodical but literally mispronounced half people’s names, places and political ideas incorrectly, no idea where the quality control on this is

Fantastic insights into our slide into a police state

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Whatever transatlantic accent this guy is doing is really distracting. Good content but the mispronunciation of quite obvious names is infuriating.

Bad narrator

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not sure if they are errors in the print version but there were errors in the audiobook, only minor but noticeable

very interesting examination

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This is an excellent book. Molcher understands Dredd and it's nuances. From allegory, to satire, from comedy to horror, he successfully captures what "Dredd" is and how it's creators, John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra, and others such as Alan Grant, Mike McMahon, Ron Smith, Brian Bolland and Colin McNeil, used "Dredd" as a mirror to current society and as a prediction. A prediction of a future, if people treat their satire of a fascist police state as a template, rather than a warning.

The downside is that I learnt this from the physical book I bought, as the audio version is, bluntly, unlistenable. I stuck it, ignored the mispronunciations, the diction, the hesitations and the rest. But the thing which broke the proverbial camel's back and the seemingly minor thing which caused me to give up enduring it any further, was the narrator gender changing "Judge Dredd" logo creator Jan Shepheard from female to male.

The narration is off, it sounds like an unedited first pass, which hasn't been reviewed or revised before it was released. It's really poor, and in light of the book's well deserved Eisner award, is something that needs to be urgently addressed, because it significantly detracts from an otherwise important and insightful book about the UK's premier comic book creators and character.

So, while I'd unreservedly recommend this book in physical form, I'd advise avoiding this audiobook version.

Deserving of the Eisner, but ruined by the narration.

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