Comic Review // The Simping Detective

One of my favourite 2000 AD characters is the focus of this collection, so I went into The Simping Detective with pretty high expectations.

Jack Point is one of those characters who immediately grabbed me when I first encountered him. A Judge operating undercover as a private detective, hiding in one of the nastiest parts of Mega-City One by pretending to be a complete bloody idiot? What's not to love?

So, the big question is...Did I still love Jack Point by the end? Oh yes.

The Details

Title: The Simping Detective
Writer: Simon Spurrier
Artist: Frazer Irving

Stories include:

• Gumshoe

• Crystal Blue

• Innocence: A Broad

• Playing Futsie

• Fifteen

• Petty Crimes

• No Body, No How

The Blurb

Mega-City One, 2129 AD. Simped-up private eye Jack Point is actually an undercover Wally Squad Judge. Because apparently the only person stupid enough to walk the streets of Angeltown is a clown. Operating in one of the scuzziest areas of City Bottom, Point has enemies on both sides of the Law and spends most of his time trying to stay alive while investigating whatever latest mess he's found himself involved in.

Written by Simon Spurrier with artwork from Frazer Irving, The Simping Detective takes classic future-noir and drops it straight into the filthy, ridiculous and wonderfully broken world of Mega-City One.

The Review

Let's get one thing out of the way immediately. I bloody loved this! The noir influence is all over The Simping Detective. Private eyes. Dodgy bars. Corrupt officials. Murders. Double-crosses. Hard-boiled dialogue. A protagonist who spends most of his time wondering which bastard is about to stab him in the back. Then you throw all of that into Mega-City One, and suddenly your private detective is actually a Judge. A Judge who is pretending to be a complete simp. Perfect.

For anyone unfamiliar with Jack Point, he's part of the wonderfully strange world of the Wally Squad. These are undercover Judges who operate outside the normal boundaries of the Justice Department. Think Dirty Frank, Lenny Zero and the other wonderfully weird characters who can disappear into the criminal underworld and investigate from the inside. Jack Point's disguise is particularly brilliant. He's a Simp.

In Mega-City One, simping has become something resembling a religion, with its followers dressing in ridiculous, clown-like outfits. So Point can wander around looking like an absolute bloody clown while investigating crime. Nobody suspects the idiot might actually be a Judge.

Well...Mostly nobody.

Angeltown

Most of the stories take place around Angeltown, one of those wonderfully horrible parts of Mega-City One where everything feels like it's about to go horribly wrong, and Point fits perfectly into it. Over the course of this collection, we see him investigate crimes, get tangled up with corrupt Judges, become involved with the SJS, get framed for murder, deal with an alien pet and even fall in love with Gallen Demarco.

There's a lot going on, and I mean a lot. But that's part of what makes it so much fun. Jack Point's life seems to consist of one terrible decision followed immediately by another terrible decision.

One of the things I love about Wally Squad stories is that they allow 2000 AD to explore the Judge system from a completely different angle. These aren't your standard street Judges. They have to lie. They have to break rules. They have to become criminals, and sometimes they spend so long pretending to be something else that you start wondering where the Judge actually ends and the undercover persona begins.

Jack Point is particularly interesting because his disguise involves him embracing things that Judges aren't exactly known for: smoking, drinking, and relationships. Basically, where the bloody hell is the SJS when you need them? Watching Point become increasingly tangled in the world he's supposed to be investigating makes for some brilliant stories. And Then There's the Art

Frazer Irving's artwork is bloody fantastic. The majority of the artwork is black and white, which works beautifully with the noir tone. Then you've got splashes of red. It immediately made me think of Sin City. Personally, I'm not sure the red was necessary. I don't think it adds much to the stories, but it doesn't really take anything away either. The black-and-white artwork alone is strong enough.

There are some fantastic grimy Mega-City One environments throughout the book, and Irving does a brilliant job making Angeltown feel like somewhere you really wouldn't want to visit. Which, naturally, makes it exactly the sort of place I want to explore.

The Raptaur Returns

One of my favourite surprises was seeing the return of the Raptaur alien from an earlier 1990s Dredd story. I bloody love it when 2000 AD does this. You take a weird creature from an older story and suddenly its life continues years later. It also reminded me just how much the Raptaur looks like something that wouldn't be completely out of place in an Alien story. There's something very Xenomorph-like about the creature, and seeing its story continue here was a genuine highlight for me.

Framed for Murder

We also get the classic “I didn't do it!” storyline. Except this is Mega-City One, so naturally, things get considerably weirder. Jack is framed for murder and has to try and work out exactly who is responsible while dealing with the Justice Department breathing down his neck.

It's a classic noir setup, but the Mega-City One twist makes it feel fresh, and that's really what this whole collection does so well. It takes familiar detective and noir ideas and filters them through the completely bloody ridiculous world of Judge Dredd.

Final Thoughts

The Simping Detective was exactly what I wanted it to be. Great noir stories. Fantastic Mega-City One world-building. A brilliantly weird central character, and loads of Jack Point.

Simon Spurrier absolutely nails the tone, while Frazer Irving's artwork pulls you straight into the grimy streets of Angeltown. There's so much packed into this collection. Jack gets investigated by the SJS, gets tangled up with corrupt Judges, deals with criminals, gets framed for murder, raises an alien pet and even finds himself falling in love, and somehow it all works. Most importantly...I still bloody love Jack Point.

If you're a fan of Judge Dredd, Wally Squad or good old-fashioned noir detective stories with a very large helping of Mega-City One insanity, I'd absolutely recommend giving this one a read.