Chopper: Song of the Surfer (Science Fiction) (Graphic Novel)

by John Wagner & Colin MacNeil

Publisher: Time Warner Books UK (1990)

Softcover, 96 pages

From the pages of Judge Dredd comes Chopper. He, like Judge Anderson, Red Razors, Judge Death, and many others, we're semi-successful spin-offs of 2000 AD’s most successful character.

Written by John Wagner right after ending his long-standing collaboration with Alan Grant, the story carries on all the great traditions of the Cursed Earth of Judge Dredd - without the big man himself. It is deeply satirical of modern day society, in this case our obsession with sports, and how a player is so often tossed away and forgotten the moment he no longer is useful. Along with comes the standard ultra-violence standard in Judge Dredd and which attracts most if it's readership. Let's face it, without ridiculous amounts of violence, symbolizing the breakdown of society and the insanity inherent in it, then the Judge Dredd stories would just be a guy on a hoverbike snarling at people while passing out traffic tickets.

Chopper began as a villain in the Judge Dredd series, in the now-classic Unamerican Graffiti storyline, as the most prolific graffiti artist in mega-city one. Of course it ended up with him being tossed into the notorious iso-cubes of the city. He broke out several years later only to become a sky-surfer, which is exactly what it sounds like, which became his defining characteristic for the rest of his stories.

Eventually his exploits and illegal surfing led him to being exiled into the Oz, the remains of Australia, and he has spent several years wandering about the big empty. After his friend dies, he drifts back to surfing and enters Supersurf 11, the biggest event in the sport, only now it has become a violent death race with no guarantee of survivors. Chopper, realizing his life has no purpose without the sport, enters. The race goes on with as close to a near-perfect ending as any of these 2000 AD stories have.

For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst. 

For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst.