It is with a heavy heart we must say goodbye to a true legend of the law, veteran Judge Dredd art droid, Ron Smith, who passed away on Thursday, aged 94.
Ron was a consummate professional who brought Mega-City One to life with his meticulous eye for detail. Responsible for art duties on such classic Dredd storylines as Father Earth, Otto Sump’s Ugly Clinic, Pirates of the Black Atlantic, Unamerican Graffiti, League of Fatties, Death of a Politician and lots more, including some of the essential mega-epics like The Day the Law Died, The Judge Child, Block Mania and City of the Damned.
Ron’s unerring knack for character design gave us many of our best loved (and hated!) heroes and villains like Marlon “Chopper” Shakespeare, Otto Sump, Nosferatu, Citizen Snork, Mayor Dave the orang-utan and many other unforgettable citizens and perps.
Ron also worked on several one-off short stories, the revamps of Harlem Heroes, Mean Team, Robo-Hunter, & Rogue Trooper (Friday) not to mention co-creating quirky, circus-based, PC adventure, Chronos Carnival!
As well as featuring heavily in 2000AD as regular Judge Dredd artist, the prolific Smith droid also introduced a whole other audience to the future’s greatest lawman when he was working on the strip for the Daily Star newspaper from 1986-1998.
Ron Smith may not get the same artistic plaudits as McMahon or Bolland, but for me his artwork in the 1980s (and 90s) epitomised the look of a vast future metropolis, and its overworked police force forever on the verge of spiralling out of control due to chronic overcrowding, unemployment and crime!
His portrayal of the answer to that conundrum, the pinnacle in law enforcement, the ultimate cop; Judge Dredd, is many people’s quintessential image of the character. And that is as it should be…
“And then, as the villagers sidled toward the pyre, she raised her handsome head in the firelight and said, ‘Gather ye ryte close, goode people. Come close untyl the fire near scorch ye, for I charge ye that alle must see how thee last true wytch in England dies. For wytch I am, for soe I am judgéd, yette I knoe not what my true Cryme may be. And therefore let myne deathe be a messuage to the worlde. Gather ye ryte close, I saye, and marke well the fate of alle who meddle with suche as theye do notte understande.’ And, apparently, she smiled and looked up at the sky over the village and added, ‘That goes for you as welle, yowe daft old foole.’ And after that strange blasphemy she said no more. She let them gag her, and stood imperiously as the torches were put to the dry wood. The crowd grew nearer, one or two of its members a little uncertain as to whether they’d done the right thing, now they came to think about it. Thirty seconds later an explosion took out the village green, scythed the valley clean of every living thing, and was seen as far away as Halifax. There was much subsequent debate as to whether this had been sent by God or by Satan, but a note later found in Agnes Nutter’s cottage indicated that any divine or devilish intervention had been materially helped by the contents of Agnes’s petticoats, wherein she had with some foresight concealed eighty pounds of gunpowder and forty pounds of roofing nails.”
— Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, “Good Omens” (ICONIC.)
just remember that I, a registered nurse with a bachelors degree, accidentally glued a patient’s foreskin shut over his penis and had to call a urology doctor to come help me get it to retract
I had to send a page that said “I glued the patient’s penis shut. send help.”
The urology resident said, “Wow. I’ve never seen anything like this. Let me go ask someone else.”
It’s been like 5 days since this happened and I’m just sitting at the nurses station with some coworkers and the urology resident walks by and says “hey! Glue any penises shut lately??” And keeps on walking
THEN ALL MY COWORKERS WERE LIKE WHAT JUST HAPPENED
and so yeah, that freaking doctor exposed me and went on his way
Y’all can’t say capitalism isn’t evil. The reason why all these food outbreaks are happening is because Trump lowered the FDA restrictions for food safety and all the companies rushed to not do shit to keep food safe. You can’t divorce all these food recalls from the fact that they will cut cornor sand make everyone sick if there wasn’t government laws saying otherwise.
If your business cannot afford to both provide a living wage with benefits, ecologically sound and safe work environments, and products that are safe for your consumers to use…
YOU DO NOT GET TO CALL YOUR COMPANY SUCCESSFUL IN BUSINESS.
You literally have failed at being a business as you are externalizing all the responsibilities for doing business in our civilization.
Your employees are requiring food stamps or your pollution is requiring additional environmental safeguards at our water treatment plants, that’s money someone else is paying so you don’t have to.
