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Tho tomorrow people
‘THE STATE TREATS US LIKE THE ENEMY WHEN THEY SHOULD BE OUR SERVANTS'
Comics writer Alan Grant has tackled everything from Judge Dredd to Dr Jekyll. He chats to Henry Northmore about going back to the future
e'y‘e passed xey‘cral science fiction milestones in the laxt 25 years with (icot‘gc ()rwell'x 1984. Arthur (' (‘larke‘s 2()()/ and the speculatiyc l‘)‘)7 proposed in l’r't’i/ulnr 2. :\lttl. while the exact l‘acts within these fictions may not hate come to pass. there are certainly elements of what was once conxidered sci-li in our daily liycs. .-\lan (irant. for one. has been tackling the future for most of his long and llltl\lt‘iou,\ career in comics writing which includes title such it.\ ‘Strontium l)og', ‘Roho-llunter l.oho‘, ‘l..li.(‘i.l.()..\'.' and ‘Batman' atnong many others. But it's one ol' the most l‘atnotix Britixh comicx characterx ol~ all time. .lttdge Dredd. who hax ‘l‘oretold‘ the ntth ahout our tnodern \ocicly and will feature
heayily in (irant's talk at The Royal (‘ollegc oi
Surgeons with critne noyelist [)enise Mina therxell‘ no stranger to comic writing alter a recent \tint on Hell/diner). l’uhlixhed weekly in Blind-ll). ‘Judge Dredd' \\';t.\ the future of law enforcement long hel'ore
Ito/incur) hit the big screen. patrolling the \lrc‘c‘lx ol'
Mega-(‘in ()ne circa lelll. ‘I started looking through some old ‘Judge Dreddx' for talking points and a surprising amount has become reality.‘ explains the al'lahle (irant. ‘\\'e wrote a ntttnher of stories about obesity and there are now oyer two million people in .-\merica who weigh o\ er 4t) \tone. Though we ney er thought it‘d come true because we thought it was ridiculous. they are also eating inanimate objects.' Perhaps most worryingly. the politics ol‘ ‘Judge Dredd' hear a striking similarity to the post-Wll climate. ‘Judge Dredd was the judge. jury and executioner. so three branchex ol' the judiciary all
26 THE LIST ‘ Ta“ .K‘QB
cotnhined into one perxonf noch (irant. '()l‘ courxc. this is a wry dangerom thing but the \tate'x rcxponxe to the \llppttxcd terrorist threat wax to \ei/e the opportunity to take Dredd-like pow er\. .-\I ()aeda ix a frightening concept. hill the fact that our goyernment ix now treating its like the enemy when they \hould he our \L‘t'letlx is the lltoxl frightening thingf
lt'x not \lil'pl‘l\lllg \ome ol' (irant and writing partner John Wagner'x predictions came true when you realixe they ll\L‘ti the tahloidx for inxpiration for the weekly ‘Dredd' \trip. ‘\\'e ll\cd to buy trashy new \paper\ to look for material to extrapolate into the l'uturef
(irant ha\ been writing comicx \ince the Sllx and ix undeniath a true maxter ol the form. Born in Brixtol. he‘s \pent his life in Scotland and hax taken eyery opportunity he could in getting mainxtream charactery across the Atlantic. ey en giy ing Batman a Scollixlt great grandmother. He alxo conyerted Kidnap/ml to the graphic noycl format l'or laxt year'x hugely \uccexxl‘ul l'NliS('() (‘ity' ol~ Literature project in lidinhurgh and is doing the same with 'I'/1¢' Strange ('uyr' of Dr Jekyll (lilt/ .llr llyt/c thix year.
('reating characterx like .-\narky at l)('. (Brant ha\ always worn hix political c‘tiltitll'x on hix \leeye. ‘.|udgc Dredd’ wax a \earing indictment of" laxcixm dixguixed as an action-packed \ci-l'i story. ‘\\'e made e\treme Violence and right wing thinking lthltioltttl‘lc by writing about it. I feel guilty forgoing them ideaxf
Writing Tomorrow Yesterday: How Fiction Became Reality takes place at The Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh, Tue 29 Jan.
llit
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THE BEST BOOKS, COMICS & EVENTS
>l= Tess Gerritsen The bestselling crime author talks about her latest thriller, The Bone Garden with intense action which flrts between the different worlds of Boston in the 19th and 2 1 st centuries. Waterstone's. Edinburgh, Thu 17 Jan.
>l< Writing Tomorrow Yesterday: l-low Fiction Became Reality How close did comics writers come to predicting the future? ‘Not very' and 'quite a lot' are the answers to that. See preview. left. The Royal College of Surgeons. Edinburgh, Tue 29 Jan.
>2: Andrew O’Hagan A book and an event in which the esteemed Scottish author looks at the legacy of Burns and the profound effect that the Ayrshire bard's work had on O'Hagan himself. See review, page 27. Canongate; Blackwell '3. Edinburgh, Fri 25 Jan.
>i< Damian Thompson The subtitle to Counterknow/edge pretty much gives the game away: ‘How We Surrendered to Conspiracy Theories. Quack Medicine. Bogus Science and Fake History.’ Barely a single punch gets pulled in this blistering analysis. See review. page 27. Atlantic.
=I< Robert Venditti & Brett Weldele Set in a US metropolis in 2052. cybernetic surrogates are living our lives for us. Is it a warning of the future or a commentary about the here and now? See review. page 28. Top Shelf.
>i< Warren Ellis, Cary Nord & Dave Stewart With Ultimate Human No 7 . Iron Man and the Hulk are reconfigured for the
21 st century with fears raised of uber-technology going off the radar. See review. page 28. Marvel.
* Rick Veitch 8. Gary Erskine American Veitch and Scotsman Erksine get stuck into a satirical assault upon the conflict in Afghanistan and Iraq with Army@Love: The Hot Zone Club. See review. page 28. DC/Titan.