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Long-banned chapters of Judge Dredd battling Ronald McDonald to be published

Banned 2000AD chapters featuring parodies of Ronald McDonald, the Burger King, the Michelin Man and the Jolly Green Giant to see the light of day after three decades

One of the cells from Judge Dredd: The Cursed Earth featuring Ronald McDoonald. Illustration: 2000AD

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Patrick Freyne
Wed Nov 4 2015 - 16:16

Judge Dredd takes on Ronald McDonald and the Jolly Green Giant? Well, yes, for the first time since 1978, Dredd battles corporate icons, because the "banned" chapters of the Judge Dredd epic The Cursed Earth are set to be republished.

Back in 1978, the cult comic 2000AD serialised the epic Judge Dredd post-Apocalyptic road-trip story, The Cursed Earth, which just so happened to feature parodies of Ronald McDonald, the Burger King, the Michelin Man and the Jolly Green Giant.

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The first controversial chapter, Burger Wars, saw the fascistic anti-hero stumble into an over-the-top burger-themed war between factions led by Ronald McDonald and the Burger King (at one point, Ronald McDonald executes a gang member for spilling a milkshake). Another section, Soul Food, had the big-chinned lawman confront monstrous mutants modelled on the Jolly Green Giant and the Michelin Man.

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This was typically subversive territory for the groundbreaking Judge Dredd creator John Wagner who, along with Jack Adrian, wrote the offending chapters, and it was exactly the type of bratty, pop-culturally savvy storytelling that transformed 2000AD from a children's sci-fi comic into a cultural touchstone (this writer loved 2000AD).

Sadly, the trademark owners didn't see the joke. They objected. The publisher, IPC, settled out of court and a retraction was printed in a later edition of the comic. (Cursed Earth writer Pat Mills tells us by email that they even created a "good" Jolly Green Giant apology strip.) All subsequent publications of The Cursed Earth have always omitted these two chapters... until now.

Last year, UK law was changed to allow the use of copyrighted material without permission for the purposes "of parody, caricature or pastiche". So next year, for the first time since 1978 2000AD's current owner, Rebellion Publishing, is publishing the long lost chapters in Judge Dredd: The Cursed Earth Uncensored. And we get to see, once again, what a battle between a corporate clown and a fascistic state might look like (insert joke about contemporary Ireland here).