By Simon Spurrier & Frazer Irving 

What to expect: Film Noir at its most ridiculous, with Mega-City One seen through the eyes of a failing Judge with way too many agendas to deal with.

Review by Paul Stewart 

In recent years the Simping Detective has stood out as one of the most innovative new strips in the Judge Dredd Megazine. There are plenty of Dreddworld spin-offs which cast a dramatic new action hero into the lead and provide a kind of Dredd-lite pastiche of life catching the scum. The Simping Detective gives us the new hero who subtly breaks many of these conventions.
 
The Simping Detective follows the exploits of Jack Point, a Wally Squad undercover Judge who positions himself to be a hard bitten Private Investigator in Angeltown, one of the fiercest districts in Mega-City One. However the tough, street-smart persona is undermined by being a Simp, a veritable clown with baggy trousers, novelty red-nose, spinning bow tie and a Sam Spade style fedora hat. An ironic touch which fits in better to the manic world of Mega-City better than expected. When Max Normal was first introduced to us, he was the bizarre dresser because a pin-stripe suit and bowler hat hit a tone of pure conservative weirdness when everyone else was dressed in kneepads and sporting puggly fashions. So what better way for a P.I. to go undercover than to be dressed as conspicuously as possible and thus blend into the crowd.  
 
Yet defining Jack Point as just this (just this!) only starts to scratch the surface of this character. Wally Squad Judges are often allowed a certain amount of latitude in their behaviour in order to fit into their undercover roles. Monitoring helps them to stay on the straight and narrow, and sometimes they may slip over the edge. Judge Jack Point balances on a knife edge (or it that a knife point?) between stepping too far from the Judicial Code and staying a loyal Judge. Indeed his loyalties may sometimes be tested, yet he remains steadfast in his duties as a Judge, while having discovered far too many vices for his own good. In defining what a Judge is, this has left him in a no-man’s land where one false step can land him in deep trouble. His identity has become so blurred, and there are so many agendas flying about him that it is hard to tell whether he is a Judge, a Wally Squadder, a Simp, a detective, a criminal, or something else entirely. And each of these facets of his identity carry their own baggage.
 
Jack is introduced to us, subtly at first, in a story called ‘Gumshoe’ which was originally written as part of a series called Mega-City Noir. In this the scene is quickly set of a hard-nosed, seen-it-all detective dressed as a Simp. Predictably his world starts to be turned upside down with the entrance of a dame. What follows is a Chandleresque romp around the English language, Mega-City style, ably executed by the masterful pen of Simon Spurrier. Spurrier delivers a tour-de-force of detective noir storytelling, and gives an exclusive running narration from Jack Point’s point-of-view (which comes right after the Jack!). 
 
Some criticism has been levelled at Spurrier for being too wordy. Indeed the Simping Detective breaks with convention by dedicating whole panels on the page to a black background filled with white text. Rather than detracting from any conventions of the comic medium, this adds to it in abundance, and allows new possibilities with the storytelling craft. Spurrier’s words add an additional level of poignancy to Jack’s adventures, and like it or not we start caring about what he does and how he does it. When Jack is in trouble, we know it, we feel it, and it matters.
 
Spurrier is aided and abetted by Frazer Irving. Irving has developed a style evocative of the macabre, and in these tales he depicts Point in his world in a true bleak, noirish style. Much of this art though focuses on the characters, and the settings often tend to drift into the background as if too unpleasant to really pay much attention to. When the setting is included we know that it is important. The strip is in black-and-white all except for the occasional splash of colour which draws the eye magnificently. Of particular note is the red veins on the Raptaur as it mutates which gives the image a depth which hurls itself off the page.
 
Speaking of Raptaurs, this is one of the other charming elements of the Simping Detective in that, like the setting, scrabbles through the refuse of Mega-City One to find the lost and discarded elements of the city and breathes new, and often sordid life, into them. Jack’s supporting cast has included such characters as Galen DeMarco and her stupid gorilla, the alien predator Raptaurs, the Ape Gang, Elmort Devries and the Hunters Club, and even cameos from Lenny Zero, the Inspectre and Mechanismo. And of course Old Stony Face makes a few appearances as well to the mocking commentary and skilful manipulation of our protagonist. This concept of recycling old material and characters works so well in the Simping Detective, and serves to act as a kind of linking mechanism to the stories as well as running commentary on their worth within the comic. 
 
Perhaps best of all with the Simping Detective is the quality of the stories. They are deceptively complex and clever. Throw in a text story, some covers and some sketches and this is well worth the price of admission. Various threads are left hanging at the end of the volume which will make Jacks’ future directions compelling, particularly regarding the ladies in his life.
 
There have been times when I have read this in the monthly that I have not been terribly taken by the story or the character. This is because there is a density to the storylines that is reflected with the density of the verbiage. As a collection Judge Point’s exploits are an engaging and sometimes intense experience, and the proper showcase for this character and his take on the city.
 
If Jack Point was originally a throw-away character, then it is fitting that he was kept, as he tries to make sense of the world of discarded people and dreams. And this is surely the point. And if you disagree, then you don’t know Jack. 
 
The quotable Jack Point
 
“The High Dive. You ever want to pick up on a platinum beauty with dangerous curves and the kind of scent’d drive a schmuck like me crazy with lust, this is the place. They also have girls.”
 
“Me. I dress dumb. I figure it’s like an inoculation: little dose of sickness so you don’t catch it for real.”
 
“Her name’s DeMarco. She’s also a P.I., which is to say: a rival. And no, before you ask. I don’t know where she kept the gun, either.” Jack, talking of Galen DeMarco wearing… um… several strips of dental floss.
 
“She’s squeezed in that jumpsuit like a vac-packed peach, and every time she moves the air files for molestation.” Jack meeting Miss Anne Thrope.
 
“H-has anyone ever told you how talented you are?” Jack, staring at SJS Judge Kovacs ample chest.

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