Judge Dredd Megazine is turning 500, and it is bringing a thrash metal band along for the party. Rebellion has teamed up with Anthrax for a headline takeover of Megazine #500, due in January 2027, downthetubes reported.
The band will appear in a new double-length story written by John Reppion and drawn by Kieran McKeown, whose previous work includes Judge Dredd: One-Eyed Jacks. It features Judge Dredd, the Dark Judges and a brand new member of that undead lineup: Judge Anthrax.
In the story, a new Dark Judge arrives with a bang, with Dredd firmly in their sights. Who Judge Anthrax is, and what they want with Mega-City One, is the hook.
The Dark Judges are some of Dredd’s oldest and most feared enemies: Judge Death and his companions Fear, Fire and Mortis, undead lawmen from another dimension who decided that since all crime is committed by the living, life itself is the crime. Adding a new member to that group is a big swing for a celebration issue, and a fitting one for a band that has been singing about Dredd for decades.
The collaboration has deep roots. Anthrax’s 1987 single “I Am the Law” was heavily inspired by Judge Dredd and became a thrash metal classic, so the issue also marks 40 years since that song. The band released its first album in a decade, Cursum Perficio, earlier this year, and it reached the top 10 of the Billboard chart.
The 100-page anniversary issue is built to welcome new and lapsed readers. Alongside the Anthrax story, it brings the vampiric exorcist Devlin Waugh back to the Megazine and gives Psi-Division’s Judge Anderson a new adventure, plus a mystery Rebellion is calling “The Mega-City 500.”
Stewart K. Moore draws the regular cover, while Toby Willsmer provides a variant cover that debuts Judge Anthrax.
The milestone is part of a big stretch for Rebellion’s Dredd line. 2000 AD, the weekly comic where Dredd first appeared, turns 50 next year and is planning a 50th birthday weekend in London in March 2027.
