I never thought I'd still be writing for 2000AD 25 years on - I think I would have jumped off a bridge.

John Wagner: Dredd a reaction to Thatcherite age

It's very unusual for a comic to last more than three or four years, so the fact that 2000AD has lasted so long must be a testament to the quality of the material and to the loyalty of the readership.

Pat Mills and I came up with the idea for Judge Dredd in 1977. The character stemmed from stories I'd done when I'd edited Valiant and introduced a new hard cop into what had become a pretty stagnant mix of stories. We used to get readers' votes in and this story - One Eyed Jack - topped the poll week after week.

This was back in the days of Dirty Harry, and with [Margaret] Thatcher on the rise there was a right-wing current in British politics which helped inspire Judge Dredd. He seemed to capture the mood of the age - he was a hero and a villain.

Games company Rebellion has bought the cult comic

That villainous aspect to Dredd's character - and the Draconian laws of Mega-City One [the post-apocalyptic metropolis Dredd polices] - really caught the readers' imagination.

Occasionally we'd get letters from children who seemed to be agreeing with his hard-right stance, so we made the strip more political to bring out the fact that we didn't agree with Dredd. We introduced a democratic movement in Mega-City One as a counterpoint. So in a way the readers helped the character develop.

Futuristic inquisitor

When I did the first story, the film Death Race 2000 had recently come out. I cut out a photo of David Carradine's character - a stark figure on a motor bike, his head covered with a helmet - and sent it to the artist Carlos Ezquerra with a note: 'Something like this, Carlos.'

Carlos Ezquerra's concept drawing of Judge Dredd

I thought what Carlos came up with was way over the top, but obviously I was wrong. And the fact that we never get to see his face stands for the impartiality of justice.

As well as Carlos, [artist] Brian Bolland always did great work. Brian said to me about a year ago that he'd like to draw Dredd again if I wrote a story featuring the Fatties.

Although I promised it within a month, the note is still on my notice board. Writing for Brian, I want to come up with the absolute right story because he's such a good artist I don't want to waste him. I haven't yet come up with it but hopefully he'll be back on the pages of 2000AD soon.

Post-apocalyptic world

I never thought of setting it anywhere but the US - Britain somehow seemed too small-scale for the things we wanted to happen. America with a vast nuclear desolation outside the city provided ample scope for everything we want to do.

We're going into a different future from the one I envisaged in 1977

The first Judge Dredd story I wrote I set in New York. But when a layout artist saw the way Carlos had drawn it, he said: 'That's not New York, that's a mega-city.'

Now 2000AD the year has past, we're going into a different future from the one I envisaged in 1977. Then I saw the future as a total apocalypse; I no longer think we'll see a nuclear hell although we're going in our merry way about destroying the world with pollution and global warming.

Perhaps it will end up the same; but I try not to be too gloomy these days.

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