Judge Dredd

The “romance” of history often overshadows the more accurate, though pedestrian, picture of the past. Even though a relatively few years have passed since the era of Judge Dredd, legend and myth have already begun to blur actual events.

Was there a Herman Ferguson? Many sources mention this name as associated with Judge Dredd. He plays a major role in J. Ward’s famous holo opera, The Tragedy of Rico, and is mentioned in numerous fictional treatments of the time. M. Karen, in her Judge Dredd: a Definitive Study (Kasey & Keith, 2146), mentions a “Ferguson” or “Fergie” as if he had some official connection with both the criminal element and the Judges as well. As R. Breazeale mentions in The Dredd Mystique (Lubbock & Wink, 2160), “It scarcely seems likely that an ordinary lawbreaker would be tolerated in the company of one such as Joseph Dredd, who exemplifies the spirit of the Law as no other in the history of the Judges.”

The most likely answer to this historical anomaly is the obvious one: Herman Ferguson was probably a character composed of a number of colorful individuals of the time. Many such characters, such as the Reverend Billy Joe Angel, Mean Machine, Link-Link, and Junior Head-Dead—who represent the “evil forces” of the time—are clearly fictional representations.

Though history is rich with real heroic figures, such as Judge Fargo, Judge Hershey, and the courageous Judge Carl Esposito, writers will likely continue to create the “Fergies,” “Ilsas,” and the like.[2]

—History of the Mega-Cities

James Olmeyer, III

Chapter XXXI: “Truth and Fiction”

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