Depressing reality of social trends exaggerated for comic book fame

Alan Grant, the writer behind the infamous lawman Judge Dredd and the post-apocalyptic Mega-City One, has admitted he now finds it hard to write the comic because real life has strayed too close to his science fiction dystopia.

While doing research for his talk, Writing Tomorrow Yesterday: How Fiction Became Reality this Tuesday in Edinburgh, Grant skimmed through copies of Judge Dredd from the early 1980s and admitted he was amazed at how much has come true. The obesity epidemic, overcrowding and smoking bans all appeared in his comic strips.

"I do actually get depressed," said Grant. "Part of that is because when we did them originally we had such a laugh. John Wagner his co-author and I used to laugh ourselves stupid. The artists would send us the artwork and when we saw the world's first two-ton man - Two Ton Tony Tubbs - we were in hysterics.

"It's sad now that so many Scottish children are going to be obese. It's not funny anymore. I find it hard to write Judge Dredd now, I really do."

Judge Dredd first appeared in the pages of science fiction comic 2000AD in 1977 with his catchphrase "I am the law". The character combined the power of the judge, jury and executioner, brutally fighting crime in the bleak, violent city of the future Mega-City One. Grant began writing for Britain's most popular comic book character in the early 1980s.

Grant and Wagner would read tabloid newspapers to find social trends such as youth gangs, unemployment, overcrowding and neighbour rage that they exaggerated and placed into the future.

"It's pretty horrific when you realise that what you've written, admittedly an extrapolation of a trend, has got stronger and stronger," said Grant. Going to Glasgow airport and seeing police officers armed Judge Dredd-style confirmed to Grant the state of society. "We are living in a dystopia, and pessimistically I can only see it getting worse. I think the world that we, and I include myself, are bequeathing to our grandchildren, is a horrible, horrible place."

The smoking ban is another worrying example of science fiction becoming reality, according to Grant. A 1979 Judge Dredd storyline featured the Smokatorium, the only place in the city where people could smoke. "But instead of having a Smokatorium, they've made us go outside to do it," said Grant. "This blanket ban is, well, it's Judge Dredd. We deliberately set out to portray Judge Dredd as a fascist. And while our government is nominally a left-wing government, it has all the signs of a fascist government."

The self-confessed Luddite also revealed his disdain for actual scientists, ironic for a science fiction writer, calling their work on climate change "tragic".

"I have a very low opinion of scientists as well. I think they've done us one of the biggest disservices since Isaac Newton. By blaming so-called climate change on the man-made pollution they've given every government in the world an excuse to screw extra taxes out of the ordinary people.

"It's one of the biggest tragedies of our time that a man like Al Gore, who is in the public eye and has untold millions, instead of trying to get to the truth of the thing comes out with all this junk science calculated to make the ordinary person afraid."

Grant's talk is part of the Edinburgh Lecture series. Now in its 16th year, previous speakers have included Stephen Hawking, Seamus Heaney, Princess Anne and Mikhail Gorbachev. It will be chaired by crime novelist and fellow comic book writer Denise Mina, and is in conjunction with the Scottish Arts Council.