First ever Mick McMahon drawn JUDGE DREDD! 2000ad Prog 6 Title page - Mick / Mike McMahon

Holy Drokk! Here is a piece of 2000ad History! 

Mick McMahon was the first published Judge Dredd artist in 2000ad. After Carlos left the strip ( Pre launch of 2000ad in 1976 ), Mick McMahon was selected to draw the first stories. He quickly came to be Judge Dredd's finest and most influential artist.  This strip is also remarkeable as it contains the FIRST evr published image of JUDGE DREDD on his bike, firing the cannons, which was used to advertise 2000ad in other comics prelaunch! This is the first published Judge Dredd image anywhere.

The first JUDGE DREDD strip that Mick was commissioned in 1976 was ' Body Snatchers / Frankenstein2 ', and was eventually scheduled to be published in Prog 6, 2nd April 1977 ( it had to be editted for excessive violence, which you can see on this original art!  These stories were commissioned at the same time as things went wrong for ACTION weekly comic in the UK, and the editorial staff were forced to rein in violent content by IPC Publishers. )

In the uneditted strip Judge Dredd executes the felon on the final page. These have been censored. You can see where there was a round panel on this opening page, under the huge word balloon. Underneath is a panel of the villain brandishing a pistol, in an almost identical pose as to what became Judge Dredd's signature stance, pistol aloft! Mick obviously realised how strong this was, and used it many times on covers, pin ups and splash pages of Judge Dredd.

You will also notice that in this early strip JUDGE DREDD's badge says 'Judge', not 'Dredd', as Carlos's first strip had utilitarian badges, not personalised. Mick followed suit, but editorial decided to make them named badges, so readers would more easily distinguish Judges from each other!   This page is Mick's very first ever Judge Dredd Image.

The editor selected a later drawn strip ( a story called 'Judge Whitey' )  to be published first in Prog 2, as that story better encapsulated what Judge Dredd was about.

Art is 39 x 49cm. on board in fine condition. All original speech balloons and Logos attached.

£ 12,000 pounds  Time payments available.

The whole story is available on request at an inclusive price. DM for details.

£12,000.00