I Am the Law, Michael Molcher
I Am the Law, Michael Molcher
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

I Am the Law
How Judge Dredd Predicted Our Future

Author: Michael Molcher

Narrator: Keval Shah

Unabridged: 14 hr 33 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Kalorama

Published: 03/19/2024


Synopsis

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.

About Michael Molcher

Michael Molcher has worked for 2000 AD for over ten years as head of PR, and in the process has interviewed many writers and artists who have written and drawn for the comic over its forty-five-year publishing history.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Alan on January 09, 2023

This review is for an ARC copy received from the publisher through NetGalley. I will never look at Judge Dredd the same way again. This book was not so much a novel as it was like taking a grad school course on how one comic critiqued, satirized and predicted the scary state of politics and policing......more

Goodreads review by Zare on June 29, 2023

This was an interesting read. Author manages to provide a lot of information and provides lots of arguments for his statements but eventually ends up with a mess of the book(unfortunately, believe me, no-one is sadder than me because of this). So, first thing first, annoyances..... First thing, book i......more

Goodreads review by Jenn on March 01, 2023

This was a really interesting read. I love 200AD and this book did not disappoint. The table of contents give you a brief summary of what was in each chapter. That was super helpful. I also love this quote, "He's (Dredd) no mere policeman, he is the embodiment of a police state." 4 stars......more

Goodreads review by Peter on February 24, 2023

There is an elephant in the room in Michael Molcher's brilliantly argued and researched book comparing the current state of policing politics with Mega-City One's most famous son (and its not just shouldn't Judge Rico also just be called Judge Dredd). There are two elephants though one is small and......more

Goodreads review by James on June 28, 2023

What a fabulous and well referenced work this is. I went in expecting a bit of comparing some of the Judge Dredd stories with things in the news/reality. What I got was a very readable and very well versed tale of how societal changes and moral panics affected how we tell stories and also how those......more