Sector 102: The Kleggs!
Welcome to the satirical universe of Judge Dredd, few alien races are as grotesquely memorable or as unexpectedly layered as the Kleggs. What began as a brutal punchline in one of Dredd’s most iconic storylines has evolved into a sprawling tapestry of imperial politics, interstellar war, dark comedy, and even poetry.
Let’s sink our teeth into the lore of the Kleggs and their most infamous leader, Grampus.
The Kleggs: Mercenaries, Monsters… and an Empire
The Kleggs are a race of carnivorous alien reptiles whose name still sparks fear in Mega-City One. To most citizens, they’re remembered as slobbering, meat-obsessed enforcers who propped up a tyrant. Their savage battle-cry “Klegg-Hai! Klegg-Hai!” still echoes through the city’s darker histories. But that’s only part of the story.
Beyond Earth, the Klegg Empire is no ragtag band of hired muscle. It’s a formidable interstellar power, one that rivals humanity’s own reach into space. Their society is rigidly hierarchical. Formal education is restricted to the high-born, and leadership is earned through what they consider time-honored tradition: backstabbing and treachery. In other words, politics as usual, just with more claws.
They also deploy terrifying beasts known as Klegg-Hounds: alien war-dogs with crocodilian heads that track prey by tasting the ground. Yes, tasting.
Grampus: The Alien Who Became Deputy Chief Judge
The Kleggs’ most notorious moment in Mega-City One came during the legendary “Day the Law Died” arc in 2000 AD. In 2101, as Judge Dredd’s rebellion pushed the deranged Chief Judge Cal toward collapse, Cal made a desperate move: he hired the Kleggs as mercenaries. At their head was Grampus a towering reptilian commander who would become Deputy Chief Judge of Mega-City One. Yes. An alien cannibal was second-in-command of the city.
Grampus and his Kleggs enforced Cal’s rule with theatrical brutality. Paid in meat (with serious debate over whether that meat might include citizens), they terrorized the population into submission. Their war-song was grotesquely playful: “Slicey slicey, oncey twicey, Claw and fang’ll kill Dredd nicely…” Dark satire at its most savage.
When Dredd finally overthrew Cal, the Judges showed no mercy. The Kleggs were slaughtered on sight. Grampus himself is presumed to have died in the chaos, though his exact fate was never explicitly shown, adding a touch of myth to his legacy. In later stories like Helter Skelter, a younger version of Grampus appears, reinforcing that he was not unique, just one product of a warlike species.
After Cal: From Outlaws to Interstellar War
Following Cal’s fall, Kleggs were outlawed in Mega-City One. Citizens were ordered to kill them on sight or report them immediately. Yet the Klegg story didn’t end there.
The Spiral Arm War
In the mid-2110s, tensions between Mega-City One and the Klegg Empire erupted into a brutal war of attrition in the Spiral Arm. Tens of thousands died in a grinding conflict that accomplished little beyond mutual devastation. A failed false-flag operation by the Space Corps nearly widened the conflict further, showing that humanity could be just as duplicitous as any Klegg high-caste schemer.
The Strangest Klegg of All: Sensitive Klegg
If Grampus represents the Kleggs at their most brutal, Sensitive Klegg represents them at their most absurd, and surprisingly tragic. A reconstructed Klegg who didn’t eat people (and was deeply offended by the assumption), he became entangled in Mega-City politics as a mercenary, poet, and reluctant diplomat. In one of the most bizarre diplomatic missions in Dredd history, he was asked to impersonate a deceased Klegg ambassador to secure peace negotiations. When the deception failed, Sensitive Klegg instead delivered freestyle anti-war poetry so awkward and traumatising that the Klegg monarchy capitulated out of sheer embarrassment. Over time, he became a beloved figure in Sino-City, even serving as mayor. Yet despite saving Mega-City One multiple times, he endured constant prejudice and harassment; highlighting the lingering scars of the Kleggs’ original invasion.
The Kleggs: Satire with Teeth
The Kleggs began as exaggerated villains: “lard-butt mercs,” as later retcons would suggest, banished from their own empire and reduced to hired muscle. But over time, the lore expanded. The imperial Kleggs are leaner, more disciplined, and far more dangerous than the gluttonous mercenaries Earth first encountered. Their empire commands fleets, royal flagships, and diplomatic missions. They are not merely monsters, they are a civilization. Like much of Judge Dredd, the Kleggs operate on multiple levels:
Political satire (mercenaries propping up tyrants)
Xenophobia commentary (aliens permanently stigmatized by past violence)
Absurdist comedy (war-songs and accidental spouse-eating incidents)
Tragedy (Sensitive Klegg’s struggle for acceptance)
They are grotesque, hilarious, horrifying and unexpectedly human in their flaws.
Why Grampus and the Kleggs Still Matter
Grampus’ appointment as Deputy Chief Judge remains one of the most outrageous power moves in Mega-City One history. It perfectly captures the anarchic tone that defines Judge Dredd: when the system breaks, it doesn’t just bend, it hands authority to a carnivorous alien warlord. Yet the enduring power of Klegg lore lies in its evolution. What began as a one-note invasion force has grown into one of the richest alien mythologies in the 2000 AD universe.
From mercenary shock troops to imperial diplomats…
From war criminals to mayors…
From “Klegg-Hai!” to freestyle anti-war poetry…
The Kleggs prove that in Mega-City One, even monsters can become legends.
