Interview: Michael Molcher on I Am The Law: How Judge Dredd Predicted Our Future

'I Am The Law: How Judge Dredd Predicted Our Future' with Michael Molcher...

When it comes to the inner workings of 2000 AD, Brand Manager Michael Molcher is a well-known name. From being the go-to droid for PR inquiries to being a chap you'd happily have a pint with down the pub, Michael Molcher is as much the face of 2000 AD as Tharg himself. So when the opportunity arose to chat with him about his debut novel, we'll it was a no-brainer.

Hi Michael, thank you for agreeing to answer a few questions about ‘I Am The Law: How Judge Dredd Predicted Our Future'. For those who don’t know you, could you tell us a bit about what you do?

MM - It’s a pleasure! By day, I’m the Brand Manager for 2000 AD and Rebellion’s Treasury of British Comics – which covers everything from running our social media channels to drumming up press coverage to licensing to merchandising. In other words, I am permanently busy!

Those who follow you on social media will have seen that you’ve been traveling the UK promoting the imminent release of ‘I Am The Law’. What’s been your highlight so far? 

MM - We’re two dates in and it’s been fantastic so far – the launch signing at Gosh has been manic but as we worked through the queue it was so heartening to watch the big pile of books is whittled down and, by the end of the hour,  disappear completely. The signing at OK Comics in Leeds was really special – it’s holy ground for me, my favorite comic book store in my home city, and the place that welcomed me back with so much love and support. The highlight, of course, has been the response to the book – you never know how a book will be received, so it’s very gratifying seeing people respond so enthusiastically to something I spent two years of my life creating.

Speaking of ‘I Am The Law’, what can you tell us about the book? And your inspiration behind it? 

MM - I’ve been reading – and thinking about – Judge Dredd since I started reading it in 1988, but I suspect the seed was originally planted by the Future Shock documentary in 2014. Like an awful lot of narratives about the British comics revolution of the 1970s it connected the rise of Action and 2000 AD to that of punk; and I’ve always found this curious. It’s true that 2000 AD first appeared just as punk went mainstream, and shared some of its anger and anti-establishmentism, but I felt that Pat Mills and John Wagner’s work on comics like Battle Picture Weekly, Action, and 2000 AD had much deeper routes than this. In 2015, Hachette Partworks launched the Judge Dredd: The Mega Collection partworks and I had the opportunity to write the back matter for most of the volumes and some of these evolved into essays on the deeper themes and ideas within the strip. After the series finished it was suggested that I could turn them into a book, but just as I handed my pitch in two things happened: covid-19 and the murder of George Floyd. So the book I originally intended to write was very different from the one that’s been published – all the reading I did drew me, seemingly inexorably, towards an examination of the ‘law and order politics that has always Dredd parodied and yet has become such a feature of our world.

So I Am The Law examines Judge Dredd and draws explicit lines between many of the ideas and themes in the strip to changes in law enforcement, to the ‘securitization’ of the globe, the ubiquity of policing and surveillance in our lives, and the stripping away of our rights in the name of ‘order’. Each chapter takes a single Dredd story and explores how it now chimes with far too much of our world.

How close do you think we truly are to a justice system like that seen in Judge Dredd’s world? 

MM - Disturbingly close. I’m sure I’d be accused of hyperbole or alarmism, but when our government is literally taking away the right to strike and protest – all under the guise of stopping ‘disruption’ – while undermining democratic participation, attacking judges, lawyers, and juries, promoting culture wars to divide and isolate people, and defunding the criminal legal system, while increasing the ability of the police to intercede in everyday life the conclusions are inescapable. As I explore in the book, the writing has been on the wall for at least fifty years.

From experiencing your writing first hand it’s clear that you’ve done a vast amount of research into facts and figures from both our world and that of Mega-City One. How challenging was it to find examples of Judge Dredd’s experiences that depicted the state of our own justice system? 

MM - The only real challenge was deciding what to leave out because even the most flippant, seemingly innocuous one-part Dredd story has something to say about ‘law and order’, power, oppression, the and brutality of states’ attitude towards their citizens. That’s a testament to just how remarkably perceptive John Wagner and Alan Grant are about what I refer to as the ‘sinews of law and order’ that truly began growing in the 1970s.

Veteran 2000 AD artist Pye Parr has designed the very striking cover art for the book. Did you have much input as to what you wanted on the cover? 

MM - Actually, the idea for the cover came out of a late-night conversation on Facebook Messenger between me and Pye. We’ve known each other for the best part of two decades and worked together when he was the lead designer for 2000 AD. We’d been discussing The Book and he disappeared for twenty minutes, only to pop back with the concept for this cover – it was so perfect. I’ve said it to him – and I stand by this – that I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a cover that so succinctly and perfectly sums up the contents of the books. You look at it and you instinctually and immediately know what the book is about. It’s remarkable, and a major reason for the fantastic response to the book. I only hope the contents are worthy of such a cover.

As the resident go-to-guy for all things 2000 AD – and being the brand's manager – did you have any difficulties in managing the “day job” and writing ‘I Am The Law’? 

MM - It wasn’t easy, I’ll tell you that. Working a full day and then having a brief break for my tea before heading back up to my desk to begin work on The Book was a grueling schedule, and I’m incredibly fortunate to have had the support of my partner to make it through.

Also, how supportive has Rebellion been across the creative process? 

MM - It’s been a pleasure to work with my colleague Oliver Pickles, who edited and put together The Book. I hesitate to use the phrase ‘long-suffering editor, because I was the source of the suffering, whether it was me busting through deadline after deadline or accidentally losing an entire chapter (Oliver, being a great editor, had already downloaded it and so saved my bacon once again)

Considering the wealth of positivity surrounding the book launch, could we see you tackle the subject again? For example, comparing our military reliance on drones to ABC Warriors, or immigration to that seen in Grey Area.

MM - In all likelihood, this will be my only book, but there’s no reason the same approach couldn’t be applied to other series in 2000 AD. However, I think the reason it works so well with Dredd is that the satire was there from the very start and only grew over time. Satire in comic books is a criminally under-examined area, and there are a lot of assumptions and shibboleths about comics, and their history and meaning, that should be looked at with fresh eyes.

And finally, what can we expect from you and 2000 AD in the coming months? 

MM - That would be telling, haha! We’re currently putting together some rather nice surprises for the future; we’ve just announced the Battle Action mini-series, which is very exciting, plus there’s new series Dan Abnett, Tazio Bettin, and Matt Soffe’s new series ‘Azimuth’ and the return of John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra’s ‘Spector’, with Dan Cornwell and Dylan Teague standing in for the much-missed master.

I Am The Law: How Judge Dredd Predicted Our Future is out now and can be purchased via the 2000 AD website and other bookstores. 

Thank you to Michael Molcher for agreeing to this interview.

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